I recently got a chance to sit down with one of the developers from Playtechtonics, an Austin TX based company that runs a free to play MMO called Starport. You are the captain of a starship and the goal is to rack up experience and cash. To do this you can explore, complete missions, kill NPCs and PCs, colonize planets, capture other players' planets, and trade. The colonizing of planets allows you some control and modification of the game environment. You can "build" an empire that spans the galaxy and use it to generate wealth and experience while defending it from other players.
Don’t think of “experience” as you would normally. It doesn’t get you levels because the game is 100% skill based. Think of experience as your score. Starport’s major appeal to me personally is that it has shards that restart every 15 days. They call it a "rebang" – like the redo of the big bang, get it? – it looks at the top ten players before rebanging and awards them medals based on their experience. Then a completely new galaxy is created randomly and all characters start on equal footing again.
Starport has many different universes to play in or "shards". It has the rerequisite PvP shards and non-PvP shards (they call them Pax servers). They also run servers that never rebang. They are referred to as "permas". On the permas there are typcially large corporations battling over swaths of the galaxy, constantly invading each others colonies. These are the option for players who like their worlds to persist, but because the corporations on these servers are so strong, it is hard for a new player to get a start.
The game has quaint 2d artwork but occasionally you'll see something unexpected and impressive like the light from the sun reflecting off your ship's hull. The combat and flight in the game is done from a top-down perspective, like the classic arcade game Asteroids. There are many types of ships to pick from and each is uniquely suited for different ways to play. This allows the game to have both strategic elements and some decent nail-biting combat action.
To keep the game fair to players who don’t have all day every day, there is a limiting factor to the amount you can play: warp fuel. Most everything of use in the game costs warp fuel. Players start with some fuel and it regenerates slowly over time. The speed of regeneration differs depending on which server you choose, so it’s easy to decide whether you want more time to play, or would prefer a server where everyone is held to a modest amount of time per day. Warp fuel consumption forces you to think about what you do before you do it. Once you run out of fuel you’re basically out of operation until you have some fuel regenerated.
Starport has been up and running for 2 years and has a very active community, the forums for the game are receiving 73 posts per day on average. There are lots of strategies and guides available to help you get your empire up and running and there is also a section for bugs to be addressed and ideas to be posted and voted on. The developers like to express their sensitivity to the players’ needs and their dedication to maintaining a bug-free game. The Playtechtonics team is currently very active and are updating frequently. Most recently they added an entirely new soundtrack (which sounds pretty good) and a new HUD. All in all it seems like a game for people who like competition. The PvP is fairly hardcore and the shard style can take you back to the days of Ultima Online; I choose to mention UO because one of the lead developers of Starport was also a lead on UO.
So how does the company support themselves without charging to play? Most shards support Real Money Transaction (RMTs) item sales. This system allows players to support the development of the game, and also gain some cool items or additional playing time in the process (yes you can buy warp fuel.) Most importantly, from a gameplay perspective, the RMTs are not required for a player to find success in the game. It’s a very good addition to the game, providing revenue for the company, and just a bit of a leg up for the player, but not an “I win” button.
The fact that Starport has been running for 2 years and is still growing in popularity probably says the most about this game. In my opinion, it deserves every bit of the success it is currently experiencing and more. The game can be downloaded free from www.starportgame.com -- I suggest you give it a shot and support independent development.
Starport is a fun game to play. However, if you have kids that play at your house,( family and neighborhood kids), you are told that you are a multi-player and everyone on your IP address is banned. It doesnt matter that you have spent real money on this game. How can you spend time with your kids playing a good, wholesome game if you are not allowed to play.
Starport is a game where you and only you can play at your house. If any other kids want to play at your house, look out. You will be banned for being a multiplayer. This is a lousy way to play a game if you cant get more than one person online at the same time. If you spend real life money, the get banned, you lose your money.
so that completely marks the game as stupid and pointless?
the IP banning system was put into place to prevent players from having an unfair advantage over other players.
to put in my own fair judgement, the game is extremely enjoyable, with player to player politics being one of the best and most convoluted systems around.
this game is so stupid i lost 200$ worth of overchages that toonces made by some accident or something and he wouldnt reverse the charges if i dont get either back on the game or he reverses the charges im taking legal action any one know how i can find his address or anything (THIS GAME IS A WAIST OF TIME PLAY WOW OR SWG WORLD F WARCRAFT OR STARWARS GALAXIES) I REPEAT DONT PLAY THIS GAME
This game is not free, it is all about how much they can charge you in add ons. There are how-to cheat videos on you tube, so obviuously fair game play and game quality are not high priotities for this company. The problems actually help the company because they lead to more credits being purchased with cash and make them more money. All in all, this game is not free and you should not play it if you do not have a million dollars to spend.
The problem is that a bunch of players that at one time were considered to be top notch veteran players, were in fact cheaters and it took a long time for the game developers to track their cheating down. Now that they have been caught and officially banned, they are making it their goal to discredit this game to the best of their ability. As a player of this game for many years, I have recently quit the game. Not because of anything but real life getting in the way. This is by far one of the most addictive and fun games out there, and although this game is advertised as 100% free, that is not entirely true. Yes, you can play this game for free, most do. But if you want increased fuel for your ship, instant cash, edit a current server profile, or upgrade to a special ship, then you may purchase Admiral Tokens in the game with RL money. However, there are those in the game that are so good at what they do in the game that they use ingame credits to purchase tokens from other players. This game may not have as many followers as WoW or several other games out there, and it is not in 3D either. This means that there is a close community, and the graphics have a 3D feel to them to keep connection speeds high. The game creatos keep active in the forums and even give the community a chance to help improve the game. An example of this is when a contest was put out there for us, the community, to design new planet layouts. Those planet layouts that made it to the game, the designers were awarded with Admiral Tokens, of which I myself was awarded 15,000 tokens, the equivalent of $15 real money. I was pleased as were others that contributed. Too many people break the rules and when they are caught, and eventually banned, they feel it is their duty to discredit the game that they themselves have spent alot of time playing. Go figure. So, give the game a shot for yourself. And then make your own opinion. Play the newbie galaxies, even if you aren't new to gaming, trust me, It'll help. And talked to those vets such as nightmare or Luna for assistance, if you can find them. In my opinion, they are some of the most helpful out there, and Luna just happens to be a moderator on the forums as well. Good luck, have fun, and don't let some of the previous reviews of this game deter you!
Yeah. This is a good game. Enough said
hello i have been playing this game for nearly a year buying tokens had a few arguments nothing serious. but to day i got banned without warning and without hacking as i dont know how for one and for two it is unfair advantage. i try to talk to the admins of the game where just recently payed $20 of my own cash buying tokens they jusy ban me from forums and dont reply to my emails, they are cheating people out of money. i want a new review or something to show how the admins dont like to hear or see us talking to people why i am banned. this is unnacceptable behaviour let alone just damn childish not to give a reason just you know what you do reply which sucks because i know what i done i played the game fairly and rightly.
Played my first day, had some fun, liked the idea that they make their money off people's choice to buy more "fuel" but that really can inbalance the game, even if everyone in the game is paying for credits, the one with the most money will have the advantage, it would be nice to also have a section where you pay $5/mo or something of the sort and allow the servers in that section regen fuel at a faster rate and not allow players to purchace anything with real cash in that section (making a fair game for those who are already contributing to the website) ....but this is just my thought, fuel regens to slow so if you were to pay a monthly fee, would be nice to have a reasonable amount of fuel every day to work with...... Similar to the old school setup of TradeWars....everyone has the same amount of turns every day.....
just my 2cents.....otherwise ive had alot of fun, addicted allready and i still donno what im doing, perfect for blowing time while im waiting for my turns to regen on TradeWars Rising (Highly suggest anyone who enjoys this game to atleast try out TradeWars Rising, atm its a well working beta thats FREE to play, will only be $2-3/mo even when it goes live, equally as fun as this game in a different way....the more players the more fun, so come play!! and ill continue to add the the playerbase here as well!! HAVE FUN, DONT FRET, Head Warning - buy your credits in this game at the minimum each time, if you have to buy again, then do it again, but dont put down $200 and get banned and lose it all....play smart....$10 at a time is plenty, 500 fuel is decent start...
If you consider "work" fun, play this.
Don't wast your time. Good game in concept, but elite players/cheaters ruin it for EVERYONE. New servers are started all the time, but these players kill it off within a few weeks. The admins have no answer for this. Any comments about the game not being fair are absolutely true. I played this for about a year and did very well with it, but got tired of the idiots who killed vets like myself and newbies alike. The game became more like work than a game!
HAHA, This game is a JOKE. Played this game for 4 and a half years, spent money on it because i thought it was a good game and i wanted to suppor it. Couple days i got banned. I spammed the admins until i got an answer and they called me a "multi and a hacker" Anyone that knew me on the game stuck up for me saying i was neither of these. The admins didnt listen and im still banned, i tried to talk to them politely on the forums, they kept banning me. Now im banned entirely from the forums, (this is when i spammed the admins for an answer). This game is a huge waste of time and it IS addiciting. This game soon consumed my life and i found myself skipping school and not doing anything of value in my life, all i did was play this game. DONT PLAY IT!
MAY i please have the password to my account
My account name is Kuehl
Let me start out by saying that certain parts of every review below are correct. This game has a great concept, it IS technically "free", it can be fun, and it's very addicting.
That said, I have the feeling that anyone who has written a positive review here has not played the game very long. Once you get over the initial "this game is awesome!" phase, the problems with this game become increasingly evident.
I won't make many comments on the graphics and sound, as some others here have, as I am a firm believer that neither is absolutely necessary to make a good, enjoyable game.
Here are the problems, and they are many. Like I said above, good game in concept, but elite players/cheaters ruin it for EVERYONE. New servers are started all the time, but these same players kill it off within a few weeks. The admins have no answer for this, and frankly don't seem to care, despite repeated pleas from the community to fix it. Any comments about the game not being fair/balanced are absolutely true. I played this for about a year and did very well with it, but got tired of the idiots who killed vets like myself and newbies alike. Literally weeks of work would be destroyed in a few short hours in most cases.
Herein lies the biggest problem with the game, the elite players are so bent on dominating the game that it makes it impossible for anyone, even other elite players who don't happen to be in the "clic", to even gain a semblance of a foothold. We're literally talking about 10-15 players (I'm not exaggerating) ruining the game for hundreds. Multiple posts made in the Starport forums by many, MANY users often get responses of: "If you don't like getting owned, play something else." Not a sign of a healthy, well balanced game.
The best thing that could happen to this game to make it better? Ban the players who ruin it for everyone else. It's not hard to figure out, and it would only be a handful of players anyway. Games are supposed to be fun, work is not fun. This game IS work. Don't waste your time, play something else.
This is not sour grapes, by the way. I left the game on good terms. I simply got tired of the utter lack of balance and the total absence of community. A community that was quashed by the elite players.
this is a bad game if u have ferinds or siblings that also play at your house then they band you it is so stupid