Crowfall and DF have a lot of similarities. The 2 big differences that I know of, are:

1) Crowfall has limited campaigns which have different rule sets. So where SB you could lose your city/nation and it was permanently wiped off the map-in CF after a few months(for example) the campaign ends, and then a new one begins. So I believe the permanency of the loss in SB can be overcome when a new campaign begins. There is supposed to be multiple campaigns running at the same time, each with different rule sets for winning. It tries to keep the game fresh and keep the player base from quitting the game when they lose their city, etc.

2) You or your guild can create your own Eternal Kingdom. So again this tries to address the loss of player base when a guild/city/nation was wiped off the map in SB. The EK can be open for PVP or closed-it can be a big merchant city-it allows you flexibility in what you want to create. Both of these aspects really intrigued me. I think most of us have been searching for a legitimate replacement for SB and I think this is the closest to it.

I tried DF very early on but only for a couple months, so I don't have much experience with that game.