Playable Alpha For Founders

You need to be on the discord channel to get access to the Alpha. I'd post a link in here, but I'd like to get confirmation that I have permission to do that first.

I believe the Discord link is in the July Update in the Founders Vault.

Once in Discord you'll be in the pre-camper room link your profile in there to be verified and you'll become a founder allowing you more access followed by a camper once you've gotten a key which gets you a bit more access.

Thank you both for your responses and kindness.  I'll attend to the matter as soon as I get home from work! 

I checked the July Update. How do I get the link?

Im a founder.

People pay zero attention and don't engage, then bitch about not being involved. 

^ Tell me more about it.

'Bitching' might be a stretch.  I paid $99 with the understanding that I would have early access, and I'm simply asking for it.  I paid for a similar thing with Starbound, and it was quite seamless.  If it isn't ready, then that is fine.  I understand the timeline has been pushed back, and I'm happy to support Stardock in the meantime.

I could understand self-righteousness if I signed up for free, but I think it can be safely eliminated once payment is involved.  And my payment was in terms of dollars, not engagement.

edit- not worth it

The link is starting to get around so here. Once you join send me a PM to verify your Discord username with your forum profile on here.

Edit: Although I just realised that I can't see a founder badge on your profile, though you are posting in the founders starbase...

Awesome!  As we all learned quite well from SC2, acting like the Yehat isn't going to get the job done.  If we want the game to be successful (and anybody that paid $99 for a game a year before it's release clearly does), I think it helps to be as inclusive as possible, and help each other out.  Especially the new people. 

Special thanks to Vol and Pyro for keeping the Alliance of Free Stars mindset alive!

Just read the dam updates in the vault and all will be clear.

I was having the same issue, I've read the vault contents from the last two months, and there was certainly no discord link in the body of text. 

Edit: Really I have been following them closely for months. Since I was only curious and checked the forum on a whim there should probably be a clearer message to get out to founders who are less attentive or only check the vault / etc. Even the vault itself, at least in the past, was a bit difficult to find. 

The current build went to only a handful of more active members, probably because it's just not ready... There's only SM and doesn't work very well.

I think if you don't want to be active then just wait to get the official alpha/beta or what they'd call it. It's not about the $$... It's just not really quite there yet.

I think the reason why current SM build was not easily visible to all Founders was because there was limited pool of Steam keys at the time (please correct me, if wrong).

Thus, Discord link for Founders was "hidden" in one of the Founder Vault updates (not really hidden, but you would need to read whole update to actually see it). Then on Discord, there was a channel to verify user as Founder with option to apply for Camper (to get access to alpha builds). Then periodically, someone from Stardock would give keys to campers that do not have them.

If you actively engage in what was available for Founders, you would be able to get to alpha SM build without anyone's help.

But I guess it was obfuscated for a reason, due to number of keys limitation.

The link to discord is no longer in the vault updates... What gives?

Looking forward to the stage where I don't need to have discord in order to participate!

It is really the simplest thing.

There's nothing to "have", it's just a webpage, there isn't even a client to install.

Actually there is a client as well as mobile apps. The web client is just a basic version of Discord. The client has features such as detecting what games you are playing and an overlay.

You don't.  Start posting. 

You don't need it, but information moves so quickly on Discord that anyone NOT on Discord is going to be left in the dust.

Yeah, but who gives a fuck about those? I know what game I'm playing, and I couldn't give a toss if anyone else knows what game I'm playing (nor could I imagine anyone cares about what game I'm playing). I mean, talk about adding features nobody asked for for no good reason at all.

Why would you install an actual client on your PC which at the very best is taking up system resources and is very likely monitoring stuff and reporting back to Discord and at the very worst is installing backdoors, all to get features nobody wants or needs. Just use the web client and be done.

This has strayed off topic, but chiming in here..

The discord client uses minuscule amounts of system overhead, and a tiny amount of memory. I sense some bias from dealing with sykpe or something similar, which discord.. is not. The very appeal of discord itself is how much it is not Skype. All of the features mentioned can be turned off, and discord uses minuscule amounts of systems resources to load, idle, and operate normally.. to the point that I can still utilize it while stress testing various aspects of my PC. In short, it's largely good software.

If you don't like it, that's nothing to take issue with, but It does no good to ward people off with uninformed guesses about how it operates. Someone might decide to try it and find it makes all the difference. 

For me personally, I'm MUCH happier and engaged now that I can access the discord server because It's very hard for me to engage on the forums, I'm just not adept at it, and have a (relatively) hard time navigating the medium. So having multiple avenues of approach to the community seems at worst a bit frustrating, and at best quite diversifying.  ^-^

No, you're missing my point. I'm not saying not to use discord, I'm saying not to use the discord app on your PC - you can use Discord without installing a client. You just browse to discordapp.com and log in and use it, no need to install a client which takes up space on your HHD, system resources, possibly opens up your PC to discovery processes by the company that makes discord, etc. Just use the web to access it.

No one is being forced to use anything. If someone does not wish to use Discord they are free to not do so. However, I would recommend people use Discord and ideally install the client/app if you want to stay up to date with Star Control info. Having two factor authentication is also recommended. Making multiple accounts and asking for access each time is not fun for anyone.

Discord is not just for Star Control though, it is the largest growing text and voice chat platform specifically designed for gamers. Chances are there is a server for every game you play, whether that is just a community or an official server.