Hi everyone,
On Tuesday we asked if the Alpha players wanted us to launch a second galaxy. The response was a definite YES from most players so we’re busy getting it ready.
We didn’t want to keep players waiting long so set a launch date less than a week away – Thursday April 4th at 15:00 UTC (we’re planning to release the next patch on Monday, if there are any significant issues around this we may have to delay the launch).
The galaxy will be called the ‘Alpha 3 Skirmish’ galaxy (A3 Skirmish) and all current Alpha players will be able to join. A3 Skirmish will run until one player wins!
The Alpha 3 main galaxy: remains the mainstay galaxy, will run alongside the experimental A3 Skirmish galaxy, and will continue after the A3 Skirmish galaxy has ended. So don’t neglect your existing games in the main galaxy!
A3 Skirmish ends when one player wins
The winner will be the first player to reach 100,000 points on the Grand Emperor leaderboard for the A3 Skirmish galaxy.
We haven’t launched a galaxy like this before so it’s difficult to predict how quickly/slowly one player will be able to reach 100k points (only 11 players on the A3 main galaxy leaderboard have reached 100k points so far but A3 Skirmish should be a much faster game). If no player has won by Monday July 1st at 11:00 UTC, the winner will be the player in first position of the Grand Emperor leaderboard at that time.
The other 5 leaderboards will also be running and once the game has ended we’ll announce the final standings of each of those Top 10s as well (this contest is just for fun, awards for player profiles aren’t ready).
We’ll continue to make significant changes to the game while this galaxy is running. There is always a chance a patch could introduce a mechanic that a player could utilize to win – which we’ll do our best to avoid. If that happening would be too unpalatable for you, it might be better to sit this one out. Please also bear in mind that the game is an Alpha still and we need to continue moving forwards and experimenting with game features, but will do our best to make the game as enjoyable as we can at the same time. Your help and patience while testing the game with us is always greatly appreciated 🙂
The ‘Alpha 3 Skirmish’ galaxy
Players had a number of interesting suggestions for a second galaxy and we’ve incorporated what we could into the design (thanks for all of your comments). The changes in this galaxy are what we can do quickly to speed up the game without disrupting stability or diverting the devs from the roadmap (we’ve heard loud and clear from players that we need to stay as close to the roadmap as we can):
- 2,500 star systems (130,000~ in A3 main galaxy)
- 15,000 planets or more
- 6-10 LY minimum distance between players (24 LY in A3 main galaxy)
- Players start with:
- 10x credits and 10x home planet surface and unmined resources (compared to A3 main galaxy)
- 3 colonizers (1 in A3 main galaxy)
- Power of laboratories doubled (research tech in half the time of A3 main galaxy)
- Corruption has no effect until a player has colonized 12 planets (5 planets in A3 main galaxy)
- New bio-farms permit second populations to grow (even minor factions – this will also be added to the A3 main galaxy in the next patch expected Monday)
These changes should have two major effects on gameplay:
1. A faster early game
The large boost to credits and home planet resources will ensure players have more things to do and spend less time waiting in the early game (helped further with 3 colonizers ready to go). While more powerful laboratories will enable players to unlock advanced tech much sooner.
2. More competition between players
Less star systems and players starting close to each other will mean players having to compete more to continue their empire’s expansion. And any planets held will need to be defended…
Take off the gloves
The conditions of this second ‘Skirmish’ galaxy have been designed to encourage players to compete against each other and we hope players will roll with that.
We want players to put any allegiances to one side and battle it out with each other. More battles between players will help us debug the game quicker. If doing so isn’t usually your style, make an exception for this galaxy – in the name of testing 🙂
Spread the word
It would be great if you could share this post with other Alpha 3 players you know – especially those that left the A3 main galaxy early on (hopefully they’d enjoy the sped up early game of the A3 Skirmish galaxy).
– The Outscape dev team
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