Make My MMO: City of Titans’ enemy mob design, Oath’s Kickstarter, and Star Citizen 3.5

This week in MMO crowdfunding, it’s been superhero insanity, and I don’t even mean City of Heroes. We got updates from Ship of Heroes and Heroes and Villains, but also City of Titans. In fact, the Titans crew dropped some exclusive screenshots our way, showing off an enemy costume mid-way through design just ahead of the game’s appearance at Norwescon in Seattle this weekend.

“It’s for an NPC mob, so it’s not as nice as player costumes, and it’s got a generic face, no hair because we’re working on the costume,” Missing Worlds Media’s Chris “Warcabbit” Hare told me. “But we are going to try to have male and female for most minions that aren’t robots or whatever.”

Over in Star Citizen, the 3.5 alpha finally rolled from the PTU to the “live” servers, meaning you can roll a lady and mess around with the new AI at will, though it looks as if CIG is still open to feedback on things like shopping and quantum travel time. The PC spec telemetry page got a refresh too, though DK tells us it’s still missing the resolution metric. Data porn below! (Thanks, DK, Cotic, and Quavers!)

Finally, Oath‘s Kickstarter is actually looking good: It crossed its crowdfunding ask this week and seems on track to pull in a bit more in the next 11 days.

Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week, plus our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following!

Star Citizen

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Ship of Heroes says it’s gonna have the ‘best UI in the galaxy’ - While the superhero MMO community is buzzing about City of Heroes, serious work on its legal and modern spiritual successors continues, including Ship of Heroes, which has just pushed out…

Fractured’s second Alpha 1 test brings more housing, a new biome, and spiders this June - By all accounts, the first Alpha 1 test for Fractured was a solid success, barring minor annoyances and login issues. So now it's full steam ahead for Alpha 1 test…

Elite Dangerous announces plans for monthly in-game events and changes to the new user experience - Personally speaking, my own delve in to Elite: Dangerous for Choose My Adventure showed a game that definitely has more going on just beneath the surface I got to scratch,…

Crowfall outlines revisions to its death system ahead of update 5.90 - Dying is inevitable. Not just in the greater universal sense, but specifically in Crowfall, a game that features PvP battles where factions of players are trying to hold territory. The…

The Stream Team: Another journey into Albion Online - It has been quite a long time since Massively OP's MJ has adventured in Albion Online. In fact, it's been so long that even character creation has changed! With the…

Heroes and Villains works on crafting story, villain content, and sewers - It has been some time since we last checked in with Heroes and Villains, perhaps the most overlooked of all of the City of Heroes spiritual successor projects. But superhero…

Albion Online announces Outland map expansion coming next month - Last month, Albion Online dev Sandbox Interactive announced that it is working on a massive overhaul of the game's Outlands map, which will substantially increase the size of the world,…

Star Citizen patch 3.5 is now playable for all, including playing as a lady - At long last - seriously, it's been weeks of delay - everyone can play a female character in Star Citizen. Everyone who can play the game at all, that is,…

Ashes of Creation examines the lore – and swanky outfits – of the Iron Lion order - The latest development update from Ashes of Creation delves into the lore of the organization known as the Iron Lion, a "fairly new order formed out of a desire to…

Albion Online makes Silver shrine buffs more powerful and kicks off the Rites of Spring event - Albion Online is getting in to the spring spirit with the usual Easter-themed shenanigans, but that's not the only thing that's happening in the latest patch. Players are also getting…

Crowfall details adjustments incoming for a more player-shaped siege window system - The whole point of having a PvP system with captured land and territories is to spark interesting PvP battles between players. If you can just waltz in and capture an…

Pantheon’s newsletter teases Project Faerthale development progress and previews the North Tusk Orcs - The folks at Visionary Realms are still chugging along on Pantheon's Project Faerthale, which aims to provide testers with their first glimpse at the cohesive Pantheon experience with all of…

Shroud of the Avatar opens up a player decoration contest with a player-owned town as the top prize - Who likes playing interior decorator in Shroud of the Avatar? A new contest for the game's community is asking you to do just that, with players getting the keys to a…

City of Heroes spiritual successor Ship of Heroes confirms beta by the end of 2019 - One of City of Heroes' multiple spiritual successors, Ship of Heroes, has come out with a statement of its own following yesterday's confirmation that a secret player-run City of Heroes…

Camelot Unchained explains how environmental light and color affects biome creation - Camelot Unchained's newsletter this week is like a lot of the game's newsletters: It shows iterative but forward progress on both the siege battles and other parts of the game.…

Oath

Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching

3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful, dev halted in 2018.
AdventureQuest 3D (Artix Entertainment) – Raised 368k; beta began Oct 2016.
Albion Online (Sandbox) – Launched July 2017, hit Steam May 2018.
Antraxx (Team Antraxx) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ascent: The Space Game (Fluffy Kitten Studios) – Successful KS. Fully launched 2016.
Ashes of Creation (Intrepid Studios) – Successful KS. Alpha zero.
Broke Protocol (Cylinder) – Unsuccessful KS. In free early access.
Camelot Unchained (City State) – Kickstarter successful; open donations/packages.
Caribbean Conquest (Invenio) – First KS canceled, second ended unsuccessfully.
Codename Reality (Orode) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Kickstarter win, open packages, Indiegogo crowdfunding ongoing.
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful, open packages.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.) – Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; Issue 0 delayed into 2019.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama) – Three campaigns; now in KS early access.
Dogma: Eternal Night (Prelude Games Factory): Kickstarter. Probably dead.
Dragon of Legends (Thrive Games) – Successful Kickstarter.
Dual Universe (Novaquark) – Kickstarter funded, donor platform. Backer alpha.
Eco (Strange Loop Games) – Funded, now in alpha.
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded; in early access.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and fully launched.
Empyrion Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Endless Trials (Fire Hurts) – Kickstarter canceled.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
EverFeud (PSB) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Fractured (Dynamight) – Kickstarter successful. Pre-alpha.
Global Adventures (SubaGames) – Kickstarter funded.
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games) – Open donations, no end date; in early access.
Greed Monger (Greed Monger) – Abandoned, now allegedly in refund process.
Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Guardians of Ember (Runewaker) – Funded and launched.
Guns of Icarus (Muse) – Funded and launched.
Hero’s Song (Pixelmage) – KS canceled; Indiegogo. Canceled w/ refunds.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Legends of Aria (Citadel Studios) – Kickstarted as Shards Online. Early access.
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended. Currently in beta.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maestros of the Anthymn (String Theory) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maguss (Maguss) – Indiegogo successful; open beta.
Mekria (Infinity Online Studios) – Kickstarter canceled.
Midair (Archetype Studios) – Kickstarter successful.
Nebula Online (Mizar Games) Kickstarter canceled; launched in November.
Neo’s Land (NeoJac Entertainment) – Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
Oath (Ready-Up) – Kickstarter ends May 2
OrbusVR (Ad Alternum) – KS funded March 2017. In early access.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) – Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) – Open donations. Pre-alpha.
Pantropy (Brain Stone GmbH): First Kickstarter canceled, second funded.
Pathfinder Online (GoblinWorks) – Doom, mostly.
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Kickstarted, early access launched sans multiplayer.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game) – Kickstarted in three tries + Indiegogo. Early access.
Project Oasis World (POW) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
Temtem (Crema) – Kickstarter fully funded; now in alpha.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; KS unsuccessful. Early access.
The Flower of Knighthood – Kickstarter canceled.
The Realm: Reawakened (Stephen Nichols) – Ongoing GoFundMe.
The Repopulation (Idea Fabrik) – Kickstarted twice by A&B. Back in alpha.
ROKH (Darewise) – Kickstarter canceled; in  early access but not active dev.
RUiN (Tarhead Studio) – Kickstarter successful.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Saga of Lucimia (Stormhaven) – Indiegogo. Intermittent pre-alphas.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon, Kickstarter funded.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Soft launch July 2016. Launch March 2018.
Spycursion (Defun) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Squadron 42 (Cloud Imperium) – Beta delayed until at least 2020.
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium) – Ongoing donations/packages. Backer alpha.
TUG (Nerd Kingdom) – Totally abandoned without a word. Now considered a scam.
Vigor Roads (NeuronHaze) – Kickstarter unsuccessful; early access planned for 2017.
War of Rights (Campfire Games) – Successful Kickstarter; in early access.

Elite Dangerous preview

Yes, some crowdfunded MMOs most definitely do succeed. But others crash and burn, and you need to hear about the whole spectrum of games that sought your money early in exchange for the promise of input and transparency. And that’s exactly what Make My MMO does every Saturday. Help us keep ’em accountable, would ya?