r/PBBG

It you are playing one of the many PBBG with an energy/action system how often do you prefer to get more of them.

For this I assume it is balanced so that people that use most the actions get same almost of stuff done. So compared 100 actions a day versus 1 every 15 minutes. They also have have similar energy/action storage.

I think I prefer daily resets as then you can definitively say that I'm done for today. With shorter resets it get in the way of life as you always have the optimization goblin on you shoulder saying "you can do something in that game right now".

I figured we could relax things a bit here, and talk about non-PBBG happenings.

Only rule: no self-promo! We have enough of that elsewhere.

So what else is going on? Playing other games? Work, food, life, whatever! 😄

🌌 STARVEIL is a persistent sci-fi browser strategy game currently in Closed Alpha.

It's my first game, and I'm building it solo as a passion project.

I grew up with classic browser strategy games like OGame and always loved the slow, long-term feeling of building something over weeks and months. With STARVEIL, I wanted to keep that kind of progression while adding my own ideas and systems on top.

Build planets, research new technologies and command fleets across a shared universe.

The biggest difference is the Veil.

Rifts appear across the galaxy and allow you to send fleets on PvE expeditions where decisions and risk matter. Events, invasions and activity within the Veil can change what is happening around you, so the galaxy is not just the same routine every day.

The Closed Alpha is still evolving, so expect bugs, balance changes and the occasional larger reset — all pretty normal for an Alpha 😄

The game is free-to-play and has no pay-to-win mechanics.

https://preview.redd.it/wlh5gzvh3ekh1.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=54bd4fdeda57875d6ee10d90f1dd1db9b124b5d9

What you do

You begin with a single planet and gradually turn it into the foundation of an empire.

Build mines, energy infrastructure, research facilities and shipyards. Research new technologies to improve your economy, unlock better engines, expand your exploration capabilities and gain access to more powerful ships.

Then build fleets and send them across the galaxy:

• Attack
• Espionage
• Transport
• Colonization
• Recycling
• Exploration
• Veil expeditions

Everything happens in real time inside a shared persistent galaxy.

Travel takes time. Other commanders are expanding around you. You can form alliances, compete with other players, trade or focus on developing your own territory.

https://preview.redd.it/0j3i6hij3ekh1.png?width=945&format=png&auto=webp&s=8009abdb24bac4cdf24a1a80c06d9d6b354db132

The Veil

Veil Rifts appear throughout the galaxy and temporarily open paths beyond normal space. Inside the Veil you can encounter hostile fleets, wrecks, strange events and rare resources. Expeditions involve choices. You decide how far you want to push and how much risk you are willing to take.

Going deeper can mean greater rewards — but it can also mean losing ships you worked hard to build. Sometimes continuing is worth the risk. Sometimes getting your fleet home is the better decision.

The Veil also contains stronger PvE encounters and powerful bosses alongside the normal player-versus-player galaxy.

https://preview.redd.it/jmxevu8l3ekh1.png?width=917&format=png&auto=webp&s=637193544ff02b9338671c252ea9b542187b16f2

Events

The galaxy is meant to change.

Temporary events, Veil activity and other situations can create new opportunities or force commanders to react instead of simply repeating the same routine every day.

Closed Alpha

🚀 The Closed Alpha is playable now and registration is open directly through the Starveil website.

You don't need any testing experience. Just play normally, build your empire, send some fleets, try a Veil expedition and see what you think.

I'm genuinely happy about every bit of honest feedback — whether something feels great, confusing, unbalanced, frustrating or simply not fun. Especially as a solo developer, hearing what real players think helps me a lot and directly influences what I improve next.

So if you feel like giving STARVEIL a try, I'd really appreciate it. And thank you to everyone who takes the time to play, report bugs, share ideas or just tell me what they honestly think. ❤️

Join Starveil

🌐 Website: https://www.starveil.eu

See you beyond the Veil, Commander!

For those who have recently launched or are currently running a PBBG:

• Is your game generating revenue?
• Roughly how much are you making per month?
• How long did it take before you got your first paying players?
• What monetization are you using?
• How many active players do you have?
• Are you building it as a serious business or mainly as a hobby?

I’m considering starting a new PBBG myself and would love to get a realistic idea of the current market and earning potential.

Even rough/anonymous numbers would be really helpful.

Hello guys,

I was thinking of starting to create my own textual MMO but I don't want to manage player accounts and chat messages and all the legal things that come with it.

Is there any service that offers that at a cheap price ?

My goal is to create a player oriented MMO with community unlocked floors (inspired by Sword Art Online anime).

Thanks !

I was curious where most game devs are hosting their games. Are you using your own website or listing on something like Newgrounds or Itch?

I realize the purpose of daily quests in PBBGs is to get me logging in, and they can be useful to get early resources (though I prefer one-shot tutorial quests!).

Over time, though, dailies can become chores, and that tends to push me away from a game. Also, quests can dictate how you play, and the delta between how I want to play, and how the quests want me to play, may be where I really start to dislike dailies.

Bottom line: if a game has to use dailies to manipulate me to log in, that tells me it's not worth playing.

I'd like to play something that wouldn't do regular resets, if its in development and need to reset after testing phase then its okay, but if its a regular one I would rather not.

Preferably, a game with hours of farming/travel that doesn't require me to spend half my day grinding at it. I'm currenty having a blast with torn, nationstates, feudera, tidefall, and zed city.

I seek your knowledge in seeking a non-idle or mostly-non-idle MMO type of game that is PvE.

Something akin to Grail Lords or Galactic Tycoons but more active.

I really like the idea of games where going idle is useful, but actually sitting down and playing still feels meaningfully better.

I'm curious where everyone here draws the line.

Would you rather have a game where most progression can happen passively and active play mainly optimizes it, or something where idle systems handle the repetitive stuff while quests, combat, dungeons, progression decisions etc. still require you to actively play?

I feel like going too far in either direction can hurt the game. Too active and it stops fitting the reason a lot of people play browser games in the first place, but too idle and sometimes it feels like you're just checking a spreadsheet once a day.

What game do you think has handled this balance particularly well?

You start with a single planet in your own solar system on an infinite procedurally generated map, and your goal is to expand your territory by conquering other planets.

Every planet produces probes over time, and you attack by dragging from one of your planets to a target to launch a swarm. You capture a planet by sending more probes than it has defenders. You can also upgrade your planets and project power across longer distances. You can form alliances with other players or go at it alone.

The whole thing runs in the browser with no sign-up required. If you want to save your progress across devices, you can optionally link an email.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on a browser-based game for a while now and I'm trying to figure out the best ways to get it in front of the right audience.

A couple questions for people who've been around this space longer than me:

1. Are voting/reward sites (the kind where players vote daily for in-game rewards) still worth listing on? Feels like a lot of the ones I remember from years ago are dead or barely active now. Any still worth using in 2026?

2. Where do you all recommend advertising a game that's built specifically for desktop, even though it technically works on mobile too? Most of the advice I find online assumes mobile-first, but this genre really shines on a bigger screen.

Not trying to self promote here, genuinely just trying to learn from people who know this space better than I do. Appreciate any advice.

Bottom-feeding is when players, instead of fighting equal rivals, hunt weaker targets for easy grabs. This is standard practice in many 4X (mmorts) games. Common ways to handle this include a protection window for newcomers, and bracketed attack limitations.

I personally do not like mechanics that hard-gate against behaviors like this, but prefer systems that organically disincentivize them.

My take, in the mmorts I'm building, is to make it legal, but simply not worth doing. Hitting a weaker planet is allowed, it's just a poor use of a fleet:

• the number of attacks is limited by available commanders: attacking a weaker target ties up a commander that could be used elsewhere
• attack gains scale with relative size, you get less by punching down
• consecutive attacks on the same target yield diminishing returns
• reputation from a smaller target is negligible

Granted that size scaling is itself a bit arbitrary, which is the thing I was trying to avoid in the first place, so not super happy with that.

What is your take on this? Have you played any game that handles this gracefully, or do you have any design recommendations? Full write-up with numbers in the linked post.

EDIT: this sparked a lot of discussion real quick, thanks for that 😄 A lot of users feel that this does not belong in the 4Xgaming subreddit, if that continue to be the case, I will remove it. Enjoy the discussion meanwhile.

Found a cool browser game, basically an MMORPG tap tap game but you have a crap load of classes and each class is deadly to another class and theres no max level cap so you can keep building your character endlessly. Pretty fun game if you your a stat building nerd like me.

https://war-lore-battle-arena.replit.app/

I’ve been developing my own Citizen Simulator-style game for about a year, inspired by games like WarEra, eRepublik, and similar titles. I’ve been playing different variations of this genre for years myself, so I tried to learn from them and fix the things I always felt were missing.

I’m now deep into the beta stage. I thought the core gameplay loop for an average player was simple enough: collect & fight. More involvement comes only if you want to be part of the government, become a commander, and so on.

However, I keep getting feedback that the game might still be too complicated.

Are we really at a point where games need to be reduced to basically one button to appeal to players?

It seems like, with the new rules in place, I don’t see as many new games popping up. I thought I’d ask what games everyone is playing to see if I’m missing out on anything good.

I am actively playing Torn, Cartel Empire, and War Era.

EDIT: I did not expect so many suggestions. Now I'm all.. how do I choose?? hahaha

Just launched Chronicle III of Arcanhold, a persistent browser-based medieval strategy game.

The basics: 500 players share one procedurally generated map for 50 days. Build your city, train armies, form clans, fight for territory. When the chronicle ends, prestige converts to permanent legacy and a new world begins.

What makes it different from other PBBGs:

- Happiness system — your population reacts to your governance. Tax too high? Riots, -60% production, building damage

- Watchtower territory — no automatic expansion. Place towers, garrison troops, expand radius. Clan towers near each other fuse together

- Formal war declarations — 2h mobilization, 48h minimum war, peace treaties with real terms (tribute, tower demolition, NAPs)

- Permanent heroes — lock your favorite hero with visible badges on every march

- Horse breeding — crossbreed warhorses, discover new breeds

- Five Seals — server-wide collective goal. All players contribute to breaking 5 seals. Fail and the whole server loses

- A pathfinding* — marches follow terrain, avoid mountains and water

No pay-to-win. Premium is cosmetic + second build queue. Free to play.

We're on day 2 with ~50 players — early enough to grab good land.

→ https://arcanhold.com