Best Of
Announcements post #80: Starmourn Goes Back To School.
<pre>From: Starmaker Eukelade
Subject: Starmourn Goes Back To School.
Hi, star friends. Welcome to this announcement post. Since Ilyos is gone this weekend, it's me, your cool space aunt Eukelade, inviting you to check out what we've got for you for the month of September.
Sharpen your pencils and put your thinking caps on, because there's a whole bunch of new things for you to cram into your brains, starting with...
NEW TRADESKILLS
==================
Mixology
---------------
Want to make a pumpkin spice latte? Now you can! Actually, you can't, because there are no pumpkins in space, but you could probably invent the Starmourn equivalent with the MIXOLOGY tradeskill, which is all about crafting drinks. Tea, karaffee, seltzer, and slushies are all waiting for you, along with more complex beverages like wine and spirits.
To utilize the MIXOLOGY tradeskill effectively, you'll need a workbench, lab table, or still. Head to the new distilleries, breweries, and moonshine shacks that can be found in the main faction cities to purchase one of these items. Newly available as well are empty vessels in which you can store and serve your fancy brews.
See HELP MIXOLOGY for more.
Furnishing
---------------
Interior decorators rejoice. The FURNISHING tradeskill will allow you to craft furniture to your heart's content, from beds and tables to more exotic things like glow globes and carpets that really tie the room together.
Most of the items you make will have proplike functionality, too! Flip tables, take cover behind your own fancy captain's chair, and cuddle up on your feather-stuffed mattress.
See HELP FURNISHING for more.
Oh, and by the way, you can all learn up to two tradeskills now - so if you want to learn both Furnishing AND Mixology, you don't have to choose!
MULTICLASSING
==================
Cue the montage music. You can train in more than one class, now! Though you can't be multiple classes at the same time, you can switch between the ones you know freely in the class switching room on the appropriate Battlemaster's homeworld.
Everyone will receive an extra class slot when they hit level 50, but you can purchase more slots at any time with the CLASS PURCHASE SLOT command.
Learn more about the ins and outs of multiclassing at HELP MULTICLASSING.
LESSON SALE AND CREDIT CHESTS
===============================
To make it a little easier for our players to take advantage of all these new things to learn, we're offering lesson packages for sale on our website this month. In addition to that, we'll include a chest of toys and prizes for every hundred credits that you purchase.
Prizes available include dice, credits, performance artifacts, a RoamTek expedition tent, a holo camera, fishies, experience augmentation chips, a high chance to snag a premium card packet - and more!
STAY IN SCHOOL
===================
Keep playing! We've got more things for you to learn that will be revealed later in the month, and we're really excited about them!
</pre>
Subject: Starmourn Goes Back To School.
Hi, star friends. Welcome to this announcement post. Since Ilyos is gone this weekend, it's me, your cool space aunt Eukelade, inviting you to check out what we've got for you for the month of September.
Sharpen your pencils and put your thinking caps on, because there's a whole bunch of new things for you to cram into your brains, starting with...
NEW TRADESKILLS
==================
Mixology
---------------
Want to make a pumpkin spice latte? Now you can! Actually, you can't, because there are no pumpkins in space, but you could probably invent the Starmourn equivalent with the MIXOLOGY tradeskill, which is all about crafting drinks. Tea, karaffee, seltzer, and slushies are all waiting for you, along with more complex beverages like wine and spirits.
To utilize the MIXOLOGY tradeskill effectively, you'll need a workbench, lab table, or still. Head to the new distilleries, breweries, and moonshine shacks that can be found in the main faction cities to purchase one of these items. Newly available as well are empty vessels in which you can store and serve your fancy brews.
See HELP MIXOLOGY for more.
Furnishing
---------------
Interior decorators rejoice. The FURNISHING tradeskill will allow you to craft furniture to your heart's content, from beds and tables to more exotic things like glow globes and carpets that really tie the room together.
Most of the items you make will have proplike functionality, too! Flip tables, take cover behind your own fancy captain's chair, and cuddle up on your feather-stuffed mattress.
See HELP FURNISHING for more.
Oh, and by the way, you can all learn up to two tradeskills now - so if you want to learn both Furnishing AND Mixology, you don't have to choose!
MULTICLASSING
==================
Cue the montage music. You can train in more than one class, now! Though you can't be multiple classes at the same time, you can switch between the ones you know freely in the class switching room on the appropriate Battlemaster's homeworld.
Everyone will receive an extra class slot when they hit level 50, but you can purchase more slots at any time with the CLASS PURCHASE SLOT command.
Learn more about the ins and outs of multiclassing at HELP MULTICLASSING.
LESSON SALE AND CREDIT CHESTS
===============================
To make it a little easier for our players to take advantage of all these new things to learn, we're offering lesson packages for sale on our website this month. In addition to that, we'll include a chest of toys and prizes for every hundred credits that you purchase.
Prizes available include dice, credits, performance artifacts, a RoamTek expedition tent, a holo camera, fishies, experience augmentation chips, a high chance to snag a premium card packet - and more!
STAY IN SCHOOL
===================
Keep playing! We've got more things for you to learn that will be revealed later in the month, and we're really excited about them!
</pre>
Re: Quality of Life Wishlist
For the message: 'You have sold x commodity for a total of y marks. You have z left for sale.', also include which Station the market offer was purchased from, otherwise it's difficult to track sales by Station.
Re: Quality of Life Wishlist
And I'll say this one again (it's been said elsewhere): more options for searching for cargo. CARGO CONTENTS ASTRIUM, for example, should show me where all my astrium is. CARGO CONTENTS OMNI should show me what I've got at Omni.[IMPLEMENTED]
Steve
9
Re: Mining spec
You keep saying that you 'need to support miners at the start' which is conceptually a great idea. Except, there is no 'turning point' in your scenario. You will be continually using marks, I assume from donations from bashers, or credit sales, to make mining WORK. You can say all you want, that is not a HEALTHY economy.
A working one? Sure. It works. That doesn't mean shit really, you can bandage and duct tape and baling wire all kinda shit to make it "work". Doesn't mean you should leave it at that and never get around to fixing it. A HEALTHY mining economy has a very easy to follow set of requirements.
1) People do the leg work, the back-breaking time in the tunnels(space).
2) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling raw resources)
3) People take the mined resources, and they go refine it
4) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling to manufacturers)
5) People take refined resources and make finished goods.
6) PROFIT.
If at any stage during this you have to subsidize to prop up a stage of this chain, it is not healthy. Maybe it works, sure. But the gameplay loop is unhealthy. To suggest otherwise is just being weirdly loyal to a draft of a system. It's stubbornly saying, "we managed to make this work, so you're just stupid" when someone is trying to say, hey in the game this system isn't fun, nor profitable. Which means it is unhealthy.
A working one? Sure. It works. That doesn't mean shit really, you can bandage and duct tape and baling wire all kinda shit to make it "work". Doesn't mean you should leave it at that and never get around to fixing it. A HEALTHY mining economy has a very easy to follow set of requirements.
1) People do the leg work, the back-breaking time in the tunnels(space).
2) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling raw resources)
3) People take the mined resources, and they go refine it
4) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling to manufacturers)
5) People take refined resources and make finished goods.
6) PROFIT.
If at any stage during this you have to subsidize to prop up a stage of this chain, it is not healthy. Maybe it works, sure. But the gameplay loop is unhealthy. To suggest otherwise is just being weirdly loyal to a draft of a system. It's stubbornly saying, "we managed to make this work, so you're just stupid" when someone is trying to say, hey in the game this system isn't fun, nor profitable. Which means it is unhealthy.
Rylek
5
Re: Quality of Life Wishlist
I feel this needs more said about it.Cervantes said:tt search [filter1] [filter2]...I would love to be able to do tt search armor medium 75 for instance.
Earlier in the game, we were at least able to search by the name of something. So while:
TT SEARCH TOOLKIT
would give us every toolkit from level 1-75, if we knew that level 40-50 toolkits were 'Equipforce' then we could at least do:
TT SEARCH EQUIPFORCE
and get a subset of relevant results. That required knowing what specific search term to search for, but at least it was something.
Now though, we not only have differently named weapon/armour types for each bracket, but types which were previously confined to a specific bracket, are now in fact appearing in a range of level brackets. I assume this has something to do with scaling areas but I could be wrong.
An example, here are the toolkits I've picked up or bought during the levels 49-61:
That's 7 different names, two of which (the bento names) used to be confined to 70+
It's too difficult to find stuff for our level brackets now. It was clunky and annoying before, and now it's approaching impossible.
So please let us filter stuff as cervantes said. Not just specific values, but ranges as well, for level and maybe also power.
Indi
5
Announcements post #78: Gambling, plushies, collectibles!
<pre>From: Ilyos, the Arbiter
Subject: Gambling, plushies, collectibles!
Greetings Starmourners,
Aren't those marks burning a hole in your po--erm, accounts? They sure are! Time to go have some fun in Starmourn's casinos and treat yourselves to a night of dazzling sounds, dice, luck and cocktails! We've finally made our casinos the lively places they always deserved to be. No more wondering where that elusive roulette table is in Haxley's Casino! (Though you will still wonder how one plays Krellstones...we're still learning from the Elgan elders how that one goes).
So, starting right now, you can play:
- Roulette (find a roulette table and simply BET to start testing your luck)
- Poker (anywhere marked as such, you may start playing POKER with your friends. Texas Hold'Em for now)
- Slots (find a slot machine and PULL SLOTS)
However, we like to believe that the star of our casinos are the brand new claw machines sponsored by Adorabuddiez[R]!
You know the type: you kindly donate a few marks to it and you get to go home with a plushie that you manage to scoop up from the machine. Yes, plushies, dolls, stuffies, there's literal millions of them (no, really, there's some 130 million combinations of plushies you can find) and they'll be your new best friends. If you get a plushie, be sure to TOUCH it to learn more about it. They all have personalities and names!
To interact with a clawmachine, simply USE CLAWMACHINE.
Gambling venues may be found at:
- In a boisterous room crowded with gambling tables. (Scatterhome - Haven City)
- A gambling hall orbiting the Verge's tower. (Song - Song City)
- The churning, neon-lit interior of Malice. (Celestine - Litharge)
- The Golden Nova Casino (Scatterhome - Ishbi Canyon)
- Main floor of Haxley's Casino. (Krell - Biloxan)
-------------------------------------
Alongside this, we have some new promo additions!
First up, there are 2 new collectible sets:
- Shentones
* Completing the normal set will grant you a personal slot machine you can put on your ship
* Completing the foiled set will grant you an IMPROVED claw machine you can put on your ship. All the plushies you'll ever need!
- The Vurboks
* Completing the normal set will increase performance experience gains by 25%
* Completing the foiled set will increase the popularity your band gains when completing a gig
Secondly, we have a few new artifacts available:
- The Ship Hyperscanner is now available to all and comes in 3 tiers. The Hyperscanner allows you to SHIP HYPERSCAN <mineral/gas> and locate a distant commodity. 60/30/15 minutes cooldown.
- The Artist's Heritage allows you to perform more often and reduces your personal performance cooldown by 33%
- The PR Agent nullifies the popularity penalty if you miss a gig. NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU ARE THE BAND OWNER/CREATOR
Remember, every 100 credits you purchase you will gain a premium card pack that gives you a collectible card and some extra goodies (You may also purchase premium packs for 40 credits by using COLLECTIBLES PURCHASE PREMIUM).
For the extra goodies, we have a few new treats and some old treats:
- a novelty insta-holo camera : Allows you to PHOTOGRAPH [subject1] [subject2]...[subjectX] and take a selfie or a group photo with your favorite people at your favorite event. Remember to pose before taking a photo!
- a pair of six-sided dice : Just DROP these dice and see where your fates lie.
- a fireworks launcher : SHOOT FIREWORKS to launch some fireworks into the sky. 5 charges and they're gone for good
- a mildly interesting thing : Allows you to submit in a custom junk request. Add that item of your dreams to the global junk list
- a small messaging drone : Allows you to PUSH DRONE <person> <message> and send an anonymous message to anyone in the realms
- an aerosol can of smartpaint : You're all already used to this
- a silver microphone : TOUCH MICROPHONE to amplify your voice in the immediate surroundings
- a clear nanoplastic baggie : Fishees!
- a self-regulating autofeeder : No more hungry Fishees!
- a collectible card packet : an extra collectible card for you
</pre>
Subject: Gambling, plushies, collectibles!
Greetings Starmourners,
Aren't those marks burning a hole in your po--erm, accounts? They sure are! Time to go have some fun in Starmourn's casinos and treat yourselves to a night of dazzling sounds, dice, luck and cocktails! We've finally made our casinos the lively places they always deserved to be. No more wondering where that elusive roulette table is in Haxley's Casino! (Though you will still wonder how one plays Krellstones...we're still learning from the Elgan elders how that one goes).
So, starting right now, you can play:
- Roulette (find a roulette table and simply BET to start testing your luck)
- Poker (anywhere marked as such, you may start playing POKER with your friends. Texas Hold'Em for now)
- Slots (find a slot machine and PULL SLOTS)
However, we like to believe that the star of our casinos are the brand new claw machines sponsored by Adorabuddiez[R]!
You know the type: you kindly donate a few marks to it and you get to go home with a plushie that you manage to scoop up from the machine. Yes, plushies, dolls, stuffies, there's literal millions of them (no, really, there's some 130 million combinations of plushies you can find) and they'll be your new best friends. If you get a plushie, be sure to TOUCH it to learn more about it. They all have personalities and names!
To interact with a clawmachine, simply USE CLAWMACHINE.
Gambling venues may be found at:
- In a boisterous room crowded with gambling tables. (Scatterhome - Haven City)
- A gambling hall orbiting the Verge's tower. (Song - Song City)
- The churning, neon-lit interior of Malice. (Celestine - Litharge)
- The Golden Nova Casino (Scatterhome - Ishbi Canyon)
- Main floor of Haxley's Casino. (Krell - Biloxan)
-------------------------------------
Alongside this, we have some new promo additions!
First up, there are 2 new collectible sets:
- Shentones
* Completing the normal set will grant you a personal slot machine you can put on your ship
* Completing the foiled set will grant you an IMPROVED claw machine you can put on your ship. All the plushies you'll ever need!
- The Vurboks
* Completing the normal set will increase performance experience gains by 25%
* Completing the foiled set will increase the popularity your band gains when completing a gig
Secondly, we have a few new artifacts available:
- The Ship Hyperscanner is now available to all and comes in 3 tiers. The Hyperscanner allows you to SHIP HYPERSCAN <mineral/gas> and locate a distant commodity. 60/30/15 minutes cooldown.
- The Artist's Heritage allows you to perform more often and reduces your personal performance cooldown by 33%
- The PR Agent nullifies the popularity penalty if you miss a gig. NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU ARE THE BAND OWNER/CREATOR
Remember, every 100 credits you purchase you will gain a premium card pack that gives you a collectible card and some extra goodies (You may also purchase premium packs for 40 credits by using COLLECTIBLES PURCHASE PREMIUM).
For the extra goodies, we have a few new treats and some old treats:
- a novelty insta-holo camera : Allows you to PHOTOGRAPH [subject1] [subject2]...[subjectX] and take a selfie or a group photo with your favorite people at your favorite event. Remember to pose before taking a photo!
- a pair of six-sided dice : Just DROP these dice and see where your fates lie.
- a fireworks launcher : SHOOT FIREWORKS to launch some fireworks into the sky. 5 charges and they're gone for good
- a mildly interesting thing : Allows you to submit in a custom junk request. Add that item of your dreams to the global junk list
- a small messaging drone : Allows you to PUSH DRONE <person> <message> and send an anonymous message to anyone in the realms
- an aerosol can of smartpaint : You're all already used to this
- a silver microphone : TOUCH MICROPHONE to amplify your voice in the immediate surroundings
- a clear nanoplastic baggie : Fishees!
- a self-regulating autofeeder : No more hungry Fishees!
- a collectible card packet : an extra collectible card for you
</pre>
IC Announcement: Song on the Verge
Song on the Verge!
Tonight, August 16th, log in at 8pm EST for Starmourn's first ever player-run music festival!
Listen to the biggest bands in the sector and get exposed to new sounds from fresh new faces.
Purchase unique, festival-only merchandise from our vendors.
Socialize, celebrate, and party till you can't party no more!
-------------
This event has been organized entirely by players with help from our storytellers Soren and Ferenzi. We can't wait to see you there!
- WHAT is it? Song on the Verge is a big concert bash featuring as many names, big and small, as we can find. Bands, specifically - but solo acts too!
- Who'll be there? Bands and fans from all parts of the Sector.
- When's this thing happening? 1st of Centi around the Sync.* (OOC: Tonight, August 16th, at 8pm EST!)
- Where do I go? The Verge, Song City's hottest lounge! From Danica station, take a transport down to the city, then use the LANDMARKS command to find the Verge.
Eukelade
8
Looking for a Celestine Ascendancy Storyteller!
Do you like corporations? Poverty? Tall buildings? Slushies?
Then we may have a role for you!
The Starmourn team currently has an opening for a new Celestine Ascendancy Storyteller, and we are looking for someone with enthusiasm and passion to inject some energy into the leadership of this faction. Storytellers are meant, first and foremost, to drive player stories in an individual faction, and take the lead on its creative direction. They have a great deal of freedom, and how they do such a thing is up to them and the players under their jurisdiction - with guidance from Senior Staff!
If you have good communication skills, the ability to finish what you start, and think you're up for being an active member of our volunteers, please consider sending in an application to eukelade@starmourn.com with answers to the following questions.
-----------------------
-----------------------
1. Why do you want to be a Storyteller?
2. How much time do you think you will be able to contribute to the game in a normal week?
3. What do you think you will bring to the game?
4. What are your expectations for being a Storyteller?
5. What three things would you change about Starmourn?
6. How would you describe yourself in online interactions?
7. What's your mud experience like?
8. What do you think your most valuable contribution to Starmourn has been, thus far?
9. What's your favorite feature of Starmourn, and why?
-----------------------
-----------------------
Looking forward to hearing from you!
You have until 11:59pm on Wednesday, August 21st to apply.
You have until 11:59pm on Wednesday, August 21st to apply.
Eukelade
Eukelade
7
Kinetic battery buffs to batch size and damage vs. organics would alleviate new pilot problems
Lately, some people have voiced concerns that batteries are too expensive, or that incursions ought to pay more, or both. Having done quite a bit of incursioning myself, I don't think incursion payout ought to be increased. But I do recognize that the new player experience in space hinges on being able to afford ship supplies. There truly aren't enough player-made (read: affordable) kinetic batteries out there to help new players embark on financially-viable, self-sustaining ship combat. To fix this, we should incentivize the production and use of kinetic batteries.
TL;DR: increasing kinetic battery batch size or increasing kinetic battery damage against organics or both would help new players engage with SM's space combat. For best results, increase both. To put a number on it, +20% to both batch size and damage against organics should do the trick.
As designed, kinetic batteries will not be as effective as em and thermal.
That's OK. But they have a place, and that's for starter ships that have
only 1 cannon and against organics, which die just as easily to kinetic as em/thermal (there's a note on CP generators later in the post). Let's help out our new pilots by
incentivizing the production and sale of more kinetic batteries. SM's
ship system is fun, attractive; my experience with the game was
revolutionized when I learned how to fly. That's the game feature that
helped me to stick with the game through the pains of learning how MUDs
work.
---
Increasing batch size reduces the cost to produce each kinetic battery, thereby increasing the manufacturer's ability to make a profit. It also can mean an increase the number of batteries out there in the wild, assuming producers decide to make and sell kinetics instead of other batteries. I suggest increasing the batch size from 10 to 12, or a 20% increase. Enough said, I think.
However, the space economy is not all about marks; marks aren't that hard to come by for seasoned players. So, increasing profitability of kinetic batteries alone probably won't incentivize manufacturers to a sufficient extent to help new pilots. To double down on incentive to produce kinetic batteries, increase their damage against organics (the way this helps new pilots should be self-explanatory). Such a change should increase kinetic battery appeal to all pilots, including seasoned pilots. Seasoned pilots sometimes go after hard organic incursions, but this isn't really where the benefit lies for seasoned pilots: CP generators are organics, too. Right now, CP action is, well, inactive, but that won't always be the case. (Side note: Reducing the costs to take down generators would probably help CP activity.) Taking batteries just for the generators increases the amount of supplies you're taking into battle, assuming there are enemy ships to contest. The power increase is offset by the risk of having to take more supplies to tackle generators and player ships most effectively. But, by making kinetic batteries appeal to more of the playerbase, that's additional incentive to produce them, hopefully increasing availability. I think it would be sufficient.
So, that's what I've got. This post is the product of talking with Rhindara and Azlyn. (I really hope this wasn't addressed in the monthly discussion. I was at a wedding.)
Steve
5