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By Elric

Rend: Hybrid PvX Epic Survival Game

Starting tomorrow, July 31st, a new survival-genre game will be hitting Early Access.  We have some people who have already been testing it out in Alpha, and thus far I've heard it has some serious potential.  I'm guessing we could fill out a 20-person team to really give this game a shot.  In fact, Creaky from Illegitimus (an ally of COTP) has challenged us to put together a team to face off against Illegitimus on a private server!
So what is the game exactly?  So far it looks like a mix between survival games like Ark, Conan Exiles, 7 Days to Die, etc. and a similar model to what we hope Crowfall will be like when it comes out next year (in theory).  In Rend, your character progresses through PvE gathering, quests, fighting, etc., while you build a faction base alongside your guildmates.  That base will eventually come under attack from PvE mobs or PvP players depending on the type of gameplay on your server.  There are official PvP servers run by the developers, and they will be allowing private servers as well.  The goal of the game is to get your faction to beat out the other faction(s) on your map.  Each round results in one faction emerging victorious, and then the map resets.  Each faction then starts over for the next round, but everyone's character still advances through a meta-progression that grants you additional skills to use on the next round. 
Discuss it further on our forrums:
 
Otherwise, here is some more info in the form of two decent videos on it:
 
Or for those of you who prefer text over videos, here is some info from the official Rend website:
 
What is Rend?
Rend is a team-based survival game set in the fabled universe of Nordic myth. This epic fantasy world is a harsh domain where the strong ascend as gods. You must choose from three rival factions, combine forces to build your team’s stronghold, and battle foes and brutal creatures. Together, you will endure the dangers of Rend’s treacherous landscapes to discover valuable resources and powerful artifacts. With the game’s deep talent trees and skill systems, you’ll have the freedom to choose how you want to fight for your team’s victory. When a cycle ends, one faction will be declared the winner… but the end is only the beginning. Victorious players will receive rewards they can use in subsequent cycles as they ascend to legendary heights as heroes.
Where does Rend take place?
Rend’s setting is a fragment of land that once was Midgard before Ragnarok, the doom of the gods, shattered the world. Valhalla, the great hall of heroes, home of the dead who achieve glory in battle, can be seen decimated in the skies above. The majority of the original Norse deities died in the cataclysm and those who survived have retreated into seclusion. Rumor has it they’re amassing new armies to restore their former might and glory in the next great battle.
What remains of this world is a collection of disparate environments held together by the massive roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Gentle hills give way to dense forests, fungal colonies, noxious swamps, and wintry peaks, each home to predatory beasts and environmental challenges. The flora and fauna of Rend have been affected by Yggdrasil’s presence: once docile creatures are now territorial and violent while plants and minerals have developed unique properties that may be used to help or hinder by those brave enough to discover them. Warriors who find themselves on Rend must be alert and observant to survive this realm.
Who am I in Rend?
You begin your adventure in Rend hungry, unarmed, and defenseless. The good news is you’re not alone: in every cycle of Rend, you’ll be in one of three factions, the Order, the Revenant, or the Conclave, each equal in power and numbers. Starting with an empty faction base surrounded by a magical shield, you’ll work together as a group to discover and harvest nearby raw resources, craft rudimentary tools and weapons, and fight to stay alive. As you research new technologies and explore distant biomes, fresh challenges will present themselves from opposing factions and the brutal environment alike.
Your victories both in combat and in crafting will bring glory to you and your faction. All of your activities in Rend will grant experience and with experience your path will become more clear. You may choose your warrior’s specialization by selecting two skill trees from four archetypes: the stealthy Assassin, powerful Soldier, arcane Mystic, and cunning Survivalist, each with its own abilities and weaknesses. Through your custom selection of active and passive talent, you’ll be able to contribute to your faction’s success precisely the way you want to play.
How do I win in Rend?
Rend serves as the proving ground for those seeking to join the remaining gods’ army in Valhalla. To stand among the gods, each faction seeks to present the gods with warrior spirits harvested from fallen foes. These spirits act as victory points and are key to your faction winning the game.
Spirits are collected much like other raw resources in Rend but must be deposited at the Divinity Stone in the middle of your faction base. These structures are connected to Yggdrasil which stands in the center of the map and reflects the current score of each faction with three vertical runic sigils: the more spirits banked by a team, the higher its glowing sigil climbs the World Tree. When one team’s sigil reaches the top of Yggdrasil, they win the cycle and ascend victorious.
However, achieving victory is no easy task! Rend will pit the three factions in direct competition through resource node distribution, buff-granting control points, and scheduled world events called the Reckoning. Every few days, the magic shields protecting the three faction bases diminishes, briefly rendering them vulnerable to attack. Sensing the spirits within each Divinity Stone, monstrosities called the Lost will appear. In waves, these husks of dishonored warriors will lay siege to anything in their way. During these events, rival factions have the opportunity to raid an opposing faction’s Divinity Stone, stealing their collected spirits. The time and date of the Reckoning is chosen during server selection, allowing players and each faction to prepare for the event by hardening their base’s defenses and deciding on their strategy.
Additionally, the remaining gods will be observing the trials on Rend and may occasionally send down magical items to assist warriors in their trials (or perhaps to instigate battles over their loot). In rare cases, artifacts of legend once wielded by the old gods may fall from the heavens such as the Hammer of Thor, the Horns of Loki, the Steed of Odin, and other mythic items. These will imbue the wielding with godlike powers yet also make them a prime target for enemy factions seeking to claim the artifact as their own. Ultimately, every cycle of Rend, anticipated to last one or two months each, will culminate in a massive war between the three factions, ending with an absolute victor.
What does winning Rend get me?
Aside from the right to ascend to Valhalla and join the army of the gods as an honored hero? Well, once the gods have named a faction victorious and those chosen have ascended, all players shall be rewarded with glory per their actions in the cycle, collecting ascendancy points that allow for meta-progression between matches. The amount of points earned will largely depend on being on the winning faction but merit will be given for your personal contributions to your team.
It should be noted that failing to win is largely unpleasant for your character: those warriors who do not ascend will have their spirits ripped from their bodies and sent back into the trial to prove themselves once more. Their bodies, now soulless husks, will become the Lost and wander the world of Rend driven purely by rage, instinct and a primal hunger to be one with a spirit again. Blissfully, as a player, you will only experience this as a server wipe and reset. Still, you may never look at the Lost the same way afterwards...
And so: survive the untamed wilds as a team, conquer your rival factions, and ascend victorious by earning the gods’ favor through presenting them with their toll of spirits. May your faction earn its rightful place in Valhalla!
Onwards, for Valhalla!
Excited for Rend? So are we! Now is the perfect time to join the community, read up on our latest news, and follow our social media channels linked below. We look forward to seeing you on the field of trials soon!
Read more at https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-introduction#OLUhRzw5i2MuefHh.99
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By Damis

Empyrion - Galactic Survival is a diamond in the rough.

Game Info:
Empyrion - Galactic Survival is a 3D open world space sandbox survival adventure. Build mighty ships, menacing space stations and vast planetary settlements to explore, conquer or exploit a variety of different planets and the allegedly empty space! Fight human, alien and biological hazards and survive in a hostile galaxy full of hidden dangers - on your own or with your friends. The game uniquely combines elements from space simulations, construction games, survival games and ego-shooters. Empyrion is currently under development by Eleon Game Studios.
Review:
I played this game last year and didn't do too much with it.  I thought the game had potential, but at the time, it didn't have enough content to keep me interested in playing it, so I shelved it for a later time.  Well, the time to dust the game off and give it another try happened this last weekend.  I was on Discord chatting with Trusin about space games and the lack of any really good ones when he started talking about Empyrion.  He had read that the game had made good progressed, so we both decided to give it another shot.  I wasn't expecting much, but ended up having a really fun time playing the game with Trusin.
We played on the SBS server which has a Star Wars theme with three factions, the Imperials, Rebels or the Mercenary faction. We ended up joining the Merc faction.  On this particular server, all new characters have one week to leave the starting world and system.  On Sunday, any character in those zones are deleted.  Well, as luck would have it, Trusin and I only had a few hours before the deadline, so we had to work fast to learn enough about the game to build a ship with a warp engine.
We managed to warp to another system less than an hour before the newbie zones were wiped.  Talk about cutting it close.  We had a leaky ship which took a good amount of time to make air tight, and at one point we tried to hitch hike on any outbound ship we could find.  Eventually, we fixed the leak and made it into orbit,  at which point we realized neither one of us knew how to engage the warp drive. After fumbling around the navigation controls and mostly due to dumb luck we activated the warp engine and got the hell of out there.
We warped into a new system and had to pause to admire the game.  There were two planets in the system as well as a space station.  There were also a good assortment of player ships which I was awestruck with.  I  loved Star Wars Galaxies JTL,  but Empyrion was what we wished SWG could have been.  To have the ability to blast off from a planet and fly directly into orbit is amazing.  
We flew about and inspected a bunch of ships.  The scale and detail of those ships was unbelievable.  Our ship looked like it was made of legos and duct tape.  We docked at the space station and just walked around with our mouths open looking like a bunch of yokuls who had left the planet of Tatooine for the first time, which really wasn't far from the truth.  It was like a huge floating mall in outer space.  
Eventually, we left the station and explored a few other systems until we found a decent world to settle on.  We are in the process of building a base and a better ship.  The game isn't perfect and at first glance, it may seem ordinary,  but there are parts of the game which are truly magical.  Empyrion has the potential to be a true beauty.  It just needs some refinement and polish.
Comments:
The ability to build multi player ships in which crew members can access the control panel to manage various systems is fantastic.  Exploration, base and ship building is also good.  With that said, I do think that the game needs more alien creatures so that different planets are more unique.  I have been told that the developers are in the process of creating different biomes from which to spawn creatures.  In the meantime, you will probably see the same alien life forms if you visit different planets with the same biomes.
There are a few multi player servers which have 100+  players on them. It would nice if we could get a bunch of members together and try to carve out a section of space for ourselves.   Anyone interested in being a pirate and wrecking havoc?  
 
 
 
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By Damis

Star Wars Galaxies Emulator Server.

Star Wars Galaxies is a sandbox MMO set in the Star Wars universe shortly after the destruction of the first Deathstar above Yavin IV.  Star Wars Galaxies officially closed on 15th December 2011.  SWGEmu aims to emulate Star Wars Galaxies in it's Pre-CU era, version 14.1. The current game is stable, and all the classes are working, such as the creature handler, droid engineer and Jedi. 
We have members playing on the Basilisk server which has a large and active community base.  We have established a city on Dantooine and have entertainers and doctors available to buff members.
Some of the CotP members have started doing the Jedi Village quests on their way to becoming a Jedi.  Note, this the pre-nge Jedi, which requires players to put in time and effort to actually earn something great.  I was one of a handful of Jedi in our old CotP guild on Bloodfin in the original game and I can personally attest that becoming a Jedi was the proudest moment in my gaming history.  It took Months of hard work, but when I finally crafted and activated my light saber, it sent chills down my back.  No other game has ever given me that sort of satisfaction.  
The emu server does not have Jump to Lightspeed (JTL) working yet, but they do have shipwrights in place.  When JTL finally gets rolled out, I expect there will be a surge of veterans players returning to the game. 
Members interested in trying out the game or would like more information should contact Aveno in discord.
Basilisk 
https://www.swgemu.com/forums/content.php
Rules and policies
https://www.swgemu.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=120
 
 
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