Seems like we haven’t had an original 4x strategy space game arrive in some time, but Icelandic developers Solid Cloud are attempting to take elements from the 4x genre and combine them with an MMO layer in a game called Starbone. They recently announced that the title will be entering into open beta starting April 2nd, 2020.

After spending half a decade working on the game and rigorous alpha-testing, Starborne will soon be embroiled in a fête from RTS fans looking for a large-scale, tactical based MMO that combines elements from Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Empires, while dumping lots of players into a single instance.

You can check out the open beta trailer below to get an idea of how the hex-grid MMORTS plays out and what your basic goals will be for achieving some measure of success through the galaxy.

They’ve made some significant changes over the course of development, including higher resource yields from ore deposits, safe zones in the starter segments for newbies, and three different ways to achieve dominance in Starborne. You can either catapult your success through military might, dominating any and everyone that gets in your way, building up an industrial empire through trade and controlling shipping routes, or utilizing diplomacy to take control of zones throughout the grid and building up your dominance through political guile.

The full open beta will feature a completely overhauled and brand new map, improved performance and gameplay stability, improved gameplay pace, and an all new in-game tutorial to help get new players situated and hitting the asteroid belts running. I imagine after they fix and tweak the game to their liking they’ll mosey it on over to other platforms such as Steam or GOG.com to broaden the horizon of their playerbase.

You can learn more about this new MMORTS from the indie team out of Iceland or sign-up for the open beta by visiting the official Starborne Website.