During the final timer they were much more prepared to shoot bombers and during the timer Shines DMed me and said that the BR showed they had already killed 800 of our bombers and I responded “Shines, I have 8000 bombers” and I believe his reply was the Ace Ventura allllrightythen.gif.

-Asher Elias, Victory in Geminate post

The word came down on Thursday evening that we were done for now in Geminate, that move ops would commence over the weekend, and that people should start packing their capitals to haul their stuff home.

As noted, we completed the task at hand.  As it turned out, as recounted by Asher in his Victory in Geminate post, while the 4-HWWF Keepstar was on our list, the fact that The Initiative decided to ref it while we were involved with another fight was completely unplanned and forced the Imperium to push up their plans by a couple of weeks and scramble to pull together the ships needed to take down the Keepstar.

So last week victory was declared in the campaign, our objectives had been completed, and some propaganda was shared to celebrate our achievement.

Asher says V for Victory…

Of course, not everybody is a fan of the “Young Asher” era, so there was an alternate “Fat Asher” version posted to Reddit as well.

It was a fine campaign and one cannot fault WinterCo.  They fought and made us pay a significant price for our victory.  They did make some choices as to what was worth defending and what they were willing to sacrifice.  There are some alliances in WinterCo who are not thrilled that Fraternity wasn’t there to defend them.  But, again, some alliances chose to put themselves right in out path and… how did you image that would turn out.

TEST locations, November to January

Overall, a good time with lots of fights and enough ship losses to keep the New Eden economy humming as we set fire to trillions in assets.  But all parties end and knowing when the fun is over is part of the experience.

It was time to head home.

With an eye to getting people moved before they started to fly off for Fanfest, move ops started on Friday in EUTZ.

As is my tradition, I got in on the first move op I could find.  The coalition is very good these days about running many such move ops to make sure people make it home safely, but I came up during the Winter War and the Fountain War when there was maybe one move op each for US and EU and if you missed it you were on your own.  Being left behind a few times has made me keen to get going as early as possible.

The coalition is also good about setting up long running ops… on Saturday move ops ran beyond the 8 hour mark… that are mostly DIY affairs.  You join a fleet appropriate to your ship type, jump drive or no jump drive, and either have a cyno chain available to get you home or a series of titans that open up bridges up and down the chain at regular intervals.

Caps landing on a Keepstar in the move chain

The only sticking point was the need to take the regional gate between Atioth and K-IYNW, which covers a distance too far to jump or bridge across.  That meant regular gate crossing events, where a cover fleet would be spun up and deployed, the gate declared green, followed by ships going back and forth between the systems.

Capital ships landing on the K-IYNW side of the gate

The crossing aside, there was little friction aside from jump timers to my getting my main and my alt home.

All of which leaves us with the status of Geminate after the war.  The Imperium has decided to keep the three constellations in Geminate closest to us.

Geminate – May 4, 2026 – Now with lines

That meant letting go of BWF-ZZ, a system that connects to high sec, and Fraternity was quick to snatch it back when we started moving home.

BWF-ZZ was let go

There was an over-earnest thread over on Reddit about why the Imperium would let go of a system with such obvious value, being close to Jita.  I say “over-earnest” because the thread author was absolutely not having any excuses for not holding that system… as opposed to exploring the actual reason.  Anyway, we let it go and that was that.

We are leaving behind forces in Atioth to help hold that chunk of Geminate, but otherwise it is back to Insmother for the coalition.

There was also some talk on the fireside this past weekend about maybe slimming down GSF.  We bulked up as an alliance and coalition in part because Fraternity and Pandemic Horde significantly out sized us in the not too distant past.

The top five alliances by members – Oct 25, 2024

And then Pandemic Horde collapsed and we were left in a weight class of our own, being close in size to WinterCo and The Initiative combined.

We shall see if anything comes of that.  It is one thing to say it, it is another thing to act on it.  The latest participation report… we get those monthly… showed a number of corporations that completely missed the war.  So there are targets.

In the past we have tended to scale down by losing.  The Casino War was excellent for shedding the deadwood.  However, something like that is a bit difficult to engineer.  The best we have managed recently is moving our home twice in a year, and people still caught up.

The other path has been to have groups break off and go it on their own.  The Initiative did that, though every time they appear on the same side of a battle report with us somebody runs to Reddit to declare that we’re still allied.

So I am not sure how any slimming down will be accomplished.  We will see how things look in a year I suppose.

My Vexor War posts so far:

• May 12, 2026 – Home From Geminate and the End of the Vexor War Campaign
• May 5, 2026 –  All Quiet on the Geminate Front
• Apr 29, 2026 – WinterCo Staging Keepstar in 4-HWWF Destroyed
• Apr 22, 2026 – CCP Reviews Atioth and Bungles B-R5RB
• Apr 20, 2026 – Notes from the War in the Geminate Flood Plain
• Apr 15, 2026 – Notes from the War in Geminate
• Apr 10, 2026 – The Imperium Picks Itself Up, Dusts Itself Off, and Drops Two More Keepstars
• Apr 7, 2026 – The Imperium Loses 33 Titans Battling WinterCo and the Server in Atioth
• Apr 4, 2026 – The Imperium Marches on Geminate
• Mar 14, 2026 – Ongoing Fighting in Southern Geminate (pre-war)

11 May is the last day to begin logging in and still claim the big Skill Point haul before the end of the event.

That would be today, so if you haven’t started collecting the daily login rewards, today is the day to start.

Capsuleer Day XXIII In progress

Meanwhile, I have been doing some of the event and… it is always interesting to see how a company changes things up when they do something similar.  The Warpath event is a bit of a re-run of the Gallente Presidential Election event, but CCP clearly had some lessons learned they chose to apply.

I think, in short, they probably felt that the election event was a bit too easy.

So, while they kept much of the structure of the previous event, they upped the ante on the tasks required.

For example, you can still get through all five tiers of the mission running portion of the event and end up with 500 of the 1,000 event points, but Colonel Cathcart got in there and now the number of missions required for that has been raise from 25 to 57.

Kind of a lot.  They are not difficult, the whole thing is just 128% more grindy.  But the missions still remain the easiest thing to do on your own schedule.  Nobody else is going to swipe your mission agent from you.

On the plus side CCP also tossed in an extra 10 PLEX when you finish the fifth tier.

A little something for the effort

That isn’t a lot of PLEX, but it is still 40-50 million ISK in value.  I won’t turn my nose up at that.

Likewise, for the data sites, you will need to hack 52 cans… though they now come two to a site so that actually isn’t so bad.  Those site remaining competitive still and even if you get in first there is some likelihood that somebody in an Astero will show up and grab that second can if you’re not fast.

Fortunately the actual hacking is pretty easy, so I have at least twice finished hacking the first can and started on the second, beating a new comer.

Mostly I try to do the hacking at off hours, later in the evening my time when the Euros have long gone to bed and even the US east coast is starting to nod off.

I also decided to poke my nose into the combat challenge sites during the quiet hours.  Those are all pretty heavily farmed during peak hours, but in the late evening US west coast time when things are pretty quiet you can cruise around and find some sites.

The sites come in three flavors:

• Warpath: Defense Complex – Frigates
• Warpath: Defense Grid – Cruisers
• Warpath: War Grid – Battleships

I already have my mission running Ishkur to hand, so I warped one to test it out and… it took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

The Amarr version of the site

This was not helped by the fact that new new Warpath NPCs for the event did not show up on my overview by default, always a problem with the game.

But I turned on bracket, spotted the hostiles, added them to the overview, and went to work.

The goal is to secure the site by defeating waves of attackers, which come as 3 normal and then 1 elite.  Killing the elite is what advances the task, so when people warp into your site they will hang around and try to steal that kill for you.

My Ishkur turned out to be pretty… well, probably overkill for the frigate sites.  This is the fit if you are interested.

[Ishkur, Inevitable]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Assault Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II

Small Cap Battery II
Phased Scoped Target Painter
Cap Recharger II
1MN Afterburner II

Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II

Small Explosive Armor Reinforcer I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump II


Caldari Navy Hornet x5
Hobgoblin II x5

Void S x3500
Null S x5500

I take no credit for creating that fit.  I grabbed someone’s T1 abyssal fit and swapped out the web for a target painter to help direct drones.

When I land in a site and it is empty… if somebody is there I just warp off because I am just that kind of person… I set the Ishkur to orbit the beacon at 500m, prop off and launch my drones.  This is a tight enough orbit that the Ishkur won’t be going full speed and will be sitting on its side in orbit.

Ishkur in a tight bank in the site

The incoming hostiles all land within the optimal range of my Light Neuron Blasters and the drones just follow along with whoever I am shooting.

The nice thing about this fit is that so far I have been able to out damage anybody who has showed up to try and grab an elite.  It hasn’t happened much… again, I am in there during the quiet time… but I have had a couple of people show up, try, then warp off for greener pastures.

Anyway, my evening forays allowed me to complete the event path on one of my alts already.

Completed… so far

So that first character is set until the reward track is extended, which is targeted to happen on May 26th.

First character?  Well, once you finish with one you might as well start a second.  I don’t think I’ll do four characters this time… but two should be doable.

I also haven’t gone to the quartermaster yet to turn in any of the event tokens.  Unlike the past even, there are multiple places to redeem your tokens so you can avoid any place being camped by hostiles.

Your Warpath event reward locations

I haven’t seen the rewards myself yet… I am saving token turn ins until after the next leg of the event is added as redeeming them is a reward track as well… but CCP posted the officer modules you can get with the event.

Officer modules for the event

There are also special bastion modules available for the marauders of each of the empires.

Bastion module choices

I have, in all these years, never flow a marauder battleship.  They attract hostile fire and I prefer to keep a lower profile than that.

Still, something to invest in maybe?  I’ll make that decision when we get into the last stretch of the event.

Meanwhile, I have been turning in the NPC redeemable drops from hacking and combat sites.  Those have added to the ISK the event has generated, though I certainly haven’t been silly enough to haul 1.5 trillion ISK of it through a suicide gank zone.  The loot fairy said yes, yes, yes on that one.

Related:

• CCP – Capsuleer Day XXIII: Warpath is Here
• CCP – Claim Capsuleer Day’s Biggest Rewards
• CCP – Warpath Protocol Failure Brings War To High-Sec (the lore)
• CCP – Patch Notes (the details)
• EVE Uni – Capsuleer Day XXIII Wiki Page
• TNG – Flying Solo In EVE: Capsuleer Day Event
• TAGN – The EVE Online Capsuleer Day XXIII – Warpath Event Kicks Off Today

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

But messing with Google might just be my kink.  Anyway, we had a week with some new releases and some updates from last week’s titles.  But first, the scores from last week.

Week 18 Scores

That sets the starting point, and pretty quickly out of the gate we had the expected update for inKONBINI as Open Critic finally setup an entry for the title.

• inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Now has a score of 85

Any score of 85 and up is very desirable, and that boosted Shawn up the board as soon as it hit.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
    • Score has gone UP from 17.3 to 32.2
    • Moved from 8th place to 6th place
  • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
    • Moved from 6th place to 7th place
  • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
    • Moved from 7th place to 8th place
  • Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais)
    • Moved from 11th place to 10th place
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
    • Moved from 10th place to 11th place

And then, after all the good vibes, Cubed came in with a 7/10 score and down we went.

• inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 85.0 to 82.5

Not too far down, and that was only review number six, but it was just enough to get Corr back in to sixth place.

• Publisher Score Updates
• Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
  • Moved from 7th place to 6th place
• Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
  • Score has gone DOWN from 32.2 to 29.9
  • Moved from 6th place to 7th place

But the margin was narrow enough that they swapped back again a while later.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
    • Moved from 7th place to 6th place
  • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
    • Moved from 6th place to 7th place

Then we had a score update for both Saros ad Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, both of which went down a bit.

• Saros
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 87.6 to 86.6
• Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred
  • Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm),
  • Counter Picked by Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais)
  • Score has gone DOWN from 83.3 to 81.7

Neither change was enough to update the scoreboard.

Then as Thursday loomed, it became time for Bhagpuss as his first pick to ship, Mixtape.

Mixtape

It landed before enough reviews had hit.

• Mixtape has released!
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]

We had to wait for scores to come in, but by the next morning there were 19 reviews over on Open Critic and it was looking good for Bhagpuss.

• Mixtape
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
  • Now has a score of 94.3

That was the best score of the season so far, and with that many reviews it feels like it might stay above 90.  On the strength of that Bhagpuss, last year’s winner, rose up from the cellar to land in 8th position.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)
    • Score has gone UP from 0 to 28.6
    • Moved from 13th place to 8th place
  • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
    • Moved from 8th place to 9th place
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)
    • Moved from 9th place to 10th place
  • Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais)
    • Moved from 10th place to 11th place
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
    • Moved from 11th place to 12th place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 12th place to 13th place

That was a pretty amazing score… too amazing really, as it took a couple hits as more reviews came in.

• Mixtape
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 93.5 to 92.5

But that still leaves it as the top scoring title in the league so fare in 2026.

Meanwhile, I had a title coming up to, and it got a score.

• Everything is Crab
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Now has a score of 78.3

Not bad.  I could have asked for more for a quirky indie game… but at least it wasn’t Kiln.

Everything is Crab

Then the crab went into the pot.

• Everything is Crab
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 78.3 to 76.2

Everything is not crab it seems, though more reviews boosted back up to 79 as the week moved along, which is a solid score.

Then we had a score update in anticipation of next weeks releases as Outbound started to get some early reviews.

• Outbound
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
  • Now has a score of 70

There were no scathing reviews, no 3/10 hit pieces… but neither were there any five full star reviews either.  It was all pretty modest, suggesting that the cozy crafting sim, while delivering on its promise, might have promised a bit more.

All of that left the scoreboard looking like this at the end of the week.

Week 19 scores

Ula remains firmly in first place, though with five releases on the board, while Shintar and I are less than half a point apart in second and third place.

There were two bids this week, both uncontested.

• Bids in TAGN League
  • Unannounced Mainline Half-Life Game
    • Won by Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais) with a bid of $1
  • Beastro
    • Won by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss) with a bid of $5
    • Dropped game ‘Always In Mind’ conditionally

An unannounced mainlined Half-Life game is worth a buck this early in the season I guess, while Bhagpuss dropped Always in Mind, my counter pick for the season, taking Beastro on board in its place.

There were also some updates on ship dates.

• Mina the Hollower
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
    • Release date changed from ‘Spring 2026’
    • to ‘Friday, May 29, 2026’.
• PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
    • Estimated release date changed from ‘Summer 2026’
    • to ‘2027’.

Mina the Hollower is now nailed down to the 29th, while PVKK is now out into 2027.

In addition to bids, there were some direct drops.

• Drops in TAGN League
  • TAGN HQ (Wilhelm): Zero Parades – For Dead Spies (Drop Successful)
  • TAGN HQ (Wilhelm): Mariachi Legends (Drop Successful)
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey): PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant (Drop Successful)

Since PVKK was pushed out, that was a logical drop.  Meanwhile, though I picked up Zero Parades last week, further research prompted by Bhagpuss made me turn around and let go of it.  I also sent Mariachi Legends away with it.

That leaves us with the following as the next ten titles.

Week 20 coming up

We have Outbound and Directive 8020 landing this week.  The opening score for Outbound was not so hot, and it has since crept down to a 68.  That is based on ten reviews, so it could still move up or down.  We shall see.

Next weekend I will be at a college graduation for the daughter of a friend of ours, so the week twenty round up might be delayed or dispensed with altogether.

Week twenty-one though… I will be all in on that as my best hope, Forza Horizon 6, launches.

Related:

• TAGN Fantasy Critic League
• TAGN Discord Server
• Fantasy Critic Site
• Fantasy Critic How to Play
• Fantasy Critic FAQ
• Open Critic Review Site

Not because there is anything wrong with Portland.  It is an interesting city that reminds me a bit of pre-gentrification San Francisco back when I was a young adult.  It is more a matter of not having a reason to go there any more.

This last drive marked the end of our daughter’s time living in Portland.  She went up there for university in the autumn of 2020, in the midst of Covid, graduated in the spring of 2024, and spent a further two years living and working up there.

However, now she has been accepted to grad school down in San Diego.  So it was time for her to return to California.  That meant hauling stuff, which meant driving rather than flying.

The plan was simple.

Drive up in my wife’s SUV, spend a couple days seeing a few last sights, then I would drive my daughter’s car home to California, packed with as much stuff as would fit, followed in a few days by my wife and daughter.

The drive is the main thing.  The distance by highway between San Jose and Portland is close to 700 miles.  That makes for a 10-13 hour drive, depending on traffic.  That is too long to be a comfortable single day drive, but not long enough to make an overnight layover feel necessary.  This is not helped by the fact that the mid-point of the run, which is the city of Weed, lacks for amenities.

Not that I am disparaging Weed.  It is a fine little town and we stop there every time to use the Pilot/Flying J gas station, which among other things has one of the best maintained gas station bathrooms you’re likely to find along Interstate 5.  The town also offers a stunning view of Mount Shasta.

Mount Shasta Rising majestically over the Wendy’s and the Taco Bell

(That picture, taken from the McDonald’s parking lot, has the Valero gas station sign displaying gas for $5.89 a gallon, a number we’ll be nostalgic for soon enough.)

For one trip north we stayed in Medford.  But we were headed to Lincoln City, which involved some smaller state routes that we were not keen to navigate in the dark.  If you’re going to Portland you’re only a few hours away by the time you get to Medford, so why not just push through?

From Weed it is not too far to the Oregon border.

Oregon Welcomes You

And then you’re in for another four or five hours of driving on Interstate 5 until you reach Portland.

We made it up in about 12 hours, managing to hit rush hour traffic at both ends.  That is the way it goes sometimes.

In Portland on our free day we bummed around and did a few last things that we had never quite gotten to, like riding the Oregon Health and Science University sky tram, which connects their two campuses.  From the top of the tram you can see both Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood.

We also went by Nordic Northwest, the Nordic cultural center in Portland, to see a troll… specifically Ole Bolle, one of the Thomas Dambo trolls.

Ole Bolle at the Ole Bolle Hus

Along the way, pretty much by accident, we also went past the ICE detention facility in Portland.

Symbols of tyranny

This is where all those “battleground Portland” stories on Fox News originated and where the person in the frog suit became so well known.  It is basically a normal place and all the stuff you saw on the news happened in front of the driveway and most days it is just a building, boarded up by DHS to keep people from seeing in and not due to any violence, that you might not even notice while driving past.

As with the protests at the Federal Court House previously, it is not something that would disturb your daily life unless you happened to drive into a specific one block area.  At one point I had my father, who is irredeemably red pilled, call concerned about our daughter after being convinced by Fox that Portland was some kind of war zone.  I had to explain to him that what he was being fed was a gross exaggeration.  I am not sure he believed me, but he stopped asking about it.

Anyway, we spent a day tooling around, because I was set to drive back the next morning.

Later in the afternoon we loaded up the car, packing it as full as possible.  I woke up early the next day with a goal of getting on the road by 7am.

It was Saturday and it turned out to be the ideal time to get on the road.  There was very little traffic and those on the road with me were serious about getting places fast.  I had set the map on my for with Weed as the destination and headed southward.  I didn’t really need the phone to guide me, but it helps keep track of progress.

I made it to Weed in under five hours, then set the map for home and continued onward.

One thing about driving alone is that I am good with one stop and could just queue up and audio book to keep me mildly entertained.  I ended up at home a little before 5pm.

Then, a couple of days later, it was my wife and daughter’s turn.  I had left early so I did not have to deal with the inevitable problem of all the stuff left over that needs to be disposed of.  They had to have a friend haul some last minute stuff off for donation.

They did not get on the road until after 10am and had a much slower time of it.  They also had some extra precious cargo along for the ride; our daughter’s cat.

Taking the trip to CA

They hit traffic, had to make a few rest stops, and ended up rolling in at home close to midnight after about 13 hours on the road.

Now we have everything unpacked and are sorting things out to find what is going on to San Diego and grad school and what stays behind.

On the stay behind list is the cat, because there are no pets allowed in grad housing.

• Conan Exiles… Now Enhanced!
  • Funcom – Conan Exiles Enters a New Era as Massive FREE Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade Goes Live!
  • Massively OP – Conan Exiles Enhanced is officially live for Steam gamers today
  • Massively OP – Funcom won’t rule out Conan Exiles Enhanced for console

We played Conan Exiles a while back and found it to be a pretty good game, with decent mechanics.  If you and your friends wanted to explore the world created by Robert E. Howard on a private server, or brave the public PvP servers, this was a pretty good option.  There are some awkward bits that come with the territory, but by the time we came the game in 2024, six years after it launched it was a solid title and still getting updates.

Still, Funcom went off to conquer the Dune universe, so one might expect Conan Exiles to linger.

But no, this week the game got a huge graphical update as it was migrated to Unreal Engine 5!

Conan Exiles Enhanced

Now, this might be to simplify support at Funcom, where Dune Awakening was shipped on UE5, but it is still a pretty big commitment to what is now an eight year old title.  It also feels likely to keep Conan Exiles viable and in the spotlight for a while longer.

• Palia Gets Mounts
  • Palia – The Royal Highlands Expansion Launches May 12

On Tuesday Singularity 6 will be launching their next big update for Palia, The Royal Highlands expansion.  This will include:

• Explore the Royal Highlands
• Uncover the secrets of the mysterious Amber Echo
• Gather new minerals, fish, insects, creatures, and more
• Meet (handsome) new Villager Eshelon
• Saddle up! Horses have arrived
• Rear and raise your dream Horse on your Ranch
• Level-up your Home Plot (literally) with the Ancient Human Home Line
• Bring home the delightful Aristocrat’s Decor with rococo flair
• Join the club when you take the reins on the new Lunar Path: Path of the Pony
• Get creative with Clothing Dye and Tint upgrades

Mounts are always a big deal, and being being able to breed and raise horses… feels like a winner.

• Path of Exile 2 – Return of the Ancients
  • GGG – Return of the Ancients Update
  • Tales of the Aggronaut – Ancients League Is Gonna Be Wild
  • Massively OP – Path of Exile 2’s May 29 Return of the Ancients update emphasizes endgame enhancements

Honestly, I have no insight into Path of Exile 2, it is still in paid early access and all, but Belghast seemed so up on the update that I included this just to link to his post.  So go read that.

• Monsters & Memories Early Access Coming October 1st
  • NWC – Monsters & Memories Site
  • NWC – Early Access Update
  • NWC – Monsters & Memories Early Access FAQ
  • NWC – Class Design Update
  • Massively OP – Monsters & Memories promises to make classes with ‘distinct identity’ that are ‘genuinely fun to play’

I did a “vibe check” on M&M a bit back when they had an open test weekend and I can confirm that if you want something that feels like old school EQ and you’re not up for the take that Project: Gorgon has, this might be the place for you.

It isn’t for me, but I’ve already been there and done that back in the day.

M&M had previously had June as a target for early access, but that got pushed out to allow more time to work on the game.  This week they sent me an update indicating that October 1, 2026 is the new early access target.

In addition, they put out a whole class design update post, for those keen to see the vision for the game.

• Project: Gorgon and NO Server Merges
  • Massively OP- Project Gorgon teases housing and apartments, says it’s not considering servers merge

On the PG Discord there was a somewhat long post about what people are working on, hiring a few new people, and the next tasks to hand, which includes apartments in Statehelm.

While I like Discord when it comes to alerting me when there is game news, I am not a fan of it as the sole repository of said news.  The Internet Archive can’t back that stuff up.  So, to further the efforts of archiving I am going to quote the whole update about server merged.

I also wanted to answer the question “why don’t we combine servers?” It’s true that server populations dropped a little bit more than we expected post-launch… but just a little bit. All populations are at a playable level. (The beta server was at a lower level for a decade.)

One of the things we learned immediately after launch is that an active population of more than about 500 feels TOO busy, with constant competition and frustration. (That’s something I want to work on over time — I’d like to make a pop of 500-600 feel more comfortable. But we’re not there yet.) So if we merged servers and then had even a modest population uptick, we’d end up having to open new servers again. It’s just way too premature to do that.

Also, we don’t actually have the technology to combine servers. (I may have buried the lede there.) My estimate is that it would take me about two months to implement the intricate database merging system, which would postpone Statehelm stuff.

So we aren’t even considering merging servers right now. Instead, we’ve allocated money for advertising, and we’re figuring out how to spend it. (We already had some things planned, but have some new ideas too.)

We also need to understand better why the populations dropped off more than predicted. We have some ideas but we’ll be gathering your feedback on this also.

It feels like you shouldn’t do something you cannot undo, like adding servers without a plan to merge them, but that might just be me feeling the many times in my career when we went down paths of no return.

Anyway, it isn’t pressing as the servers were over full before, so now they might be okay.

• Hollowed Oath – Give me $100K
  • God Mode Games – Hollowed Oath Site
  • God Mode Games – Hollowed Oath AI Use Statement
  • Kickstarter – Hollowed Oath
  • Massively OP – Former EverQuest emu devs have begun a Kickstarter for their new MMORPG, Hollowed Oath
  • Massively OP –

Technically nobody is playing this yet, but that still means I am not currently playing it!

Also, shouldn’t that be “Hallowed Oath?”  Wouldn’t a “hollowed” be an oath that is like one of those chocolate Easter bunnies, a thin shell with nothing but air inside?  Am I the only one around here with access to a dictionary?  Or is the suggestion that their oath is literally empty, a shell lacking any real substance?  Could be.

Anyway, coming off their all too predictable loss in court, the team that brought you The Heroes Journey has reformed as God Mode Games to try and recreate their success without… you know… stealing somebody’s IP and art assets and launcher and code, all while riding on the success and reputation of the victim.  So a new game will be forged!

It turns out this all costs money.  Who knew?

So now there is a Kickstarter up for Hollowed Oath to help fund the effort.  And we all know that MMO are famously successful and totally worth investing in and nobody ever regrets throwing money at them.

The campaign is moving along, and looks to have made enough in the first 24 hours to not put them into the danger zone for Wilhelm’s Rules of Kickstarters, which is if you don’t get to the 25% mark in that first day, you probably aren’t going to make it.

That said, $100K isn’t that much money.  They do have stretch goals, and if you want PvP you’re going to have to help get them to $3.5 million.  Somehow I don’t think they’re going to out raise Lord British or Mark Jacobs.  I mean, even Brad McQuaid couldn’t get to $500K based on his name.