Best Of
Re: Dynasties! HUH! What are they good for?!
What I like:
-Commodity storage. Really good idea that allows a group of players to cooperate and create commodities together. Right now it's only practical on a faction level, but giving dynasties similar functionality will really enliven the game's economy, I think.
-Quality of life/RP fluff things: titles, alliances, logos, etc.
Like but with stipulation:
-Ships and stations. The former is easier to implement than the latter (especially if it works by lending the ship to a specific person for a time), but both should be introduced no earlier than shared ships and stations for factions.
Don't like:
-Dynasty credits. Too much of an incentive to recruit people en masse and then benefit from their credit purchases, and also a pressure to make folks join a dynasty because otherwise their credit purchases will be "wasted".
Cubey
2
Re: Recommended Playing Time 10/3 at 6pm EST
As mostly an outsider in this series of events I think it is amongst the better run events.
As a player base we need to realize that jobbing is part of the RP scenarios. It is virtually impossible to code and support more than a couple different outcomes.
Further, RP needs of different people will almost always be left wanting by the very nature of events.
What this does however tell us is that more such events are welcome to cater to a varied audience in different capacities.
As a player base we need to realize that jobbing is part of the RP scenarios. It is virtually impossible to code and support more than a couple different outcomes.
Further, RP needs of different people will almost always be left wanting by the very nature of events.
What this does however tell us is that more such events are welcome to cater to a varied audience in different capacities.
Kirin
2
Dynasties! HUH! What are they good for?!
Absolutely everything, if we give them the chance!
Dynasties are both promising, and in their current state, depressing. Here are some suggestions, requests, thoughts, hopes, and dreams relating to the good old fashioned future of the Dynasty.
-Currently, Dynasties have very little in the way of proper channels to spend marks. In fact, the Dynasty account holds very little purpose, the Dynasty leader could take donations and dole them out just as easily. Easier in fact, as they'd have no daily limit to withdraws. How can we address this? Tons of ways! Yay!
--Dynasty Ships. Let us build and maintain group ships. This can be done by allowing a Dynasty to 'lease' a ship to a member. Thus allowing us to reclaim the ship should said member disappear into cyro. This lets you maintain the 'one ship, one pilot' setup you have. Or, we could start moving beyond that really stupid setup, and allow members of a rank imbued with a certain power, the right to pilot Dynasty ships. Maybe limit it to Destroyer or lower, although I don't see why that's necessary.
--Dynasty STATIONS. OMG PLS. Let us build stations. Have it be a right tied to larger groups. Limit one station per sector, with an active upkeep or else the station collapses and someone else can build there. Don't allow PVP to ruin these, this is the non-pvp side of building a community. (Think guildhalls. You can invade 'em, but not destroy/capture 'em). Let us spend vast swaths of Marks to improve our stations. Let us add shops, chop shops, manufacturing stations, and so on and so on. Have it cost marks AND materials to expand and build. Could even copy the ship build system, and just have station rooms to use.
-Let the Dynasty have Storage for commodities. Let them put up work orders that pay from the coffers. Let them sell materials from storage.
-Dynasty ranking! Install Dynasty ranks separate from positions. Let us promote/demote people to and from these ranks. This gives a better incentive to set up and keep people engaged with that sort of RP
-Dynasty Credits! Let us unlock getting a cut of membership sales similar to factions. It can be less, that doesn't matter. Just put it into a Dynasty coffer, giving us an even better incentive tool.
-Titling! Let us give and remove prefixes and suffixes at whatever milestone.
-Alliances! Let us set allegiance to factions. Let us build alliances between Dynasties. This doesn't have to be more than a line added into the INFO display.
-Logos! It could be a part of the Station chop shop actually, but if not, let us submit a log that any member can use at any chop shop for ships.
-Ship prefix options! Let us set a ship prefix that can be turned on/off by the shipowner. Possibly force apply it to any Dynasty owned ship (out on lease).
Yes, I do realize right now that you can wing it and manage several of these things. No, I don't see that as an excuse we shouldn't make it easier and better supported to do them. Right now, it seems like we have a real serious issue retaining new players. I, personally, feel like a big part of that is that we only have three real 'groups' and no supported sub-groups within that. Yes, you can join a Dynasty currently, but what does that MEAN? You can RP as much as you like, but it doesn't give people achievable goals with tangible returns. There's a reason guilds/houses in other IRE games are so important. They're smaller hubs of fairly intense RP when done correctly, and they have the tools to create and support that RP. I'd like to see that expanded to Starmourn, with a more player-driven and flexible approach to the mechanics behind it.
But it's possible that's just my singular opinion!
Dynasties are both promising, and in their current state, depressing. Here are some suggestions, requests, thoughts, hopes, and dreams relating to the good old fashioned future of the Dynasty.
-Currently, Dynasties have very little in the way of proper channels to spend marks. In fact, the Dynasty account holds very little purpose, the Dynasty leader could take donations and dole them out just as easily. Easier in fact, as they'd have no daily limit to withdraws. How can we address this? Tons of ways! Yay!
--Dynasty Ships. Let us build and maintain group ships. This can be done by allowing a Dynasty to 'lease' a ship to a member. Thus allowing us to reclaim the ship should said member disappear into cyro. This lets you maintain the 'one ship, one pilot' setup you have. Or, we could start moving beyond that really stupid setup, and allow members of a rank imbued with a certain power, the right to pilot Dynasty ships. Maybe limit it to Destroyer or lower, although I don't see why that's necessary.
--Dynasty STATIONS. OMG PLS. Let us build stations. Have it be a right tied to larger groups. Limit one station per sector, with an active upkeep or else the station collapses and someone else can build there. Don't allow PVP to ruin these, this is the non-pvp side of building a community. (Think guildhalls. You can invade 'em, but not destroy/capture 'em). Let us spend vast swaths of Marks to improve our stations. Let us add shops, chop shops, manufacturing stations, and so on and so on. Have it cost marks AND materials to expand and build. Could even copy the ship build system, and just have station rooms to use.
-Let the Dynasty have Storage for commodities. Let them put up work orders that pay from the coffers. Let them sell materials from storage.
-Dynasty ranking! Install Dynasty ranks separate from positions. Let us promote/demote people to and from these ranks. This gives a better incentive to set up and keep people engaged with that sort of RP
-Dynasty Credits! Let us unlock getting a cut of membership sales similar to factions. It can be less, that doesn't matter. Just put it into a Dynasty coffer, giving us an even better incentive tool.
-Titling! Let us give and remove prefixes and suffixes at whatever milestone.
-Alliances! Let us set allegiance to factions. Let us build alliances between Dynasties. This doesn't have to be more than a line added into the INFO display.
-Logos! It could be a part of the Station chop shop actually, but if not, let us submit a log that any member can use at any chop shop for ships.
-Ship prefix options! Let us set a ship prefix that can be turned on/off by the shipowner. Possibly force apply it to any Dynasty owned ship (out on lease).
Yes, I do realize right now that you can wing it and manage several of these things. No, I don't see that as an excuse we shouldn't make it easier and better supported to do them. Right now, it seems like we have a real serious issue retaining new players. I, personally, feel like a big part of that is that we only have three real 'groups' and no supported sub-groups within that. Yes, you can join a Dynasty currently, but what does that MEAN? You can RP as much as you like, but it doesn't give people achievable goals with tangible returns. There's a reason guilds/houses in other IRE games are so important. They're smaller hubs of fairly intense RP when done correctly, and they have the tools to create and support that RP. I'd like to see that expanded to Starmourn, with a more player-driven and flexible approach to the mechanics behind it.
But it's possible that's just my singular opinion!
Rylek
8
Re: The Ideas Thread
I am just throwing space ideas out here, and I made these up while listening to the space discussion on Discord today and these are copied directly from my notepad file
(board like stations but different "model" in space)
Brings to the table:
- group PVE/group "instance"?
possible ST one shot D&D style dungeon area to work with, doesn't need to have storyteller intervention/input to run normal bash parties. Just way more fun potentially to have one off plots somewhere off faction turf.
marks, junk plus whatever (if anything) the storytellers offer up as cool themed loot if there's a plot dungeon running.
(level scaleable?)
Random space encounters
Captaincy increases via this
- NPC spacers stranded to rescue -> marks, captaincy (requires rescue skill)
- random wrecks to breakdown via gunfire, salvage for parts. Possible explanation for captaincy XP is that it takes some skill to blow up the ship without damaging anything useful.
(both random ship related junk and actual ship parts - alternative way to build ships?)
- stations to salvage parts from (random assortment of station repair parts)
Captaincy XP gained from finding station, random parts gained from dismantling (similar to ship salvage, need some degree of captaincy to know what part is useful and what isn't)
Self destructs after all parts are harvested, so gtfo. No space hoboing in derelict stations.
Pirate raids
-Faction territory gets raided by pirates periodically, im not sure what kind of damage that can cause.
- Cosmipiercers when vulnerable have a chance to be assaulted by pirates and taken over. Get notified when this happens.
-Faction territory gets raided by pirates periodically, im not sure what kind of damage that can cause.
- Cosmipiercers when vulnerable have a chance to be assaulted by pirates and taken over. Get notified when this happens.
Ikchor
1
Re: Quotes
So Xiru played with the claw machines, not anticipating how creepy he'd find the toys... discovered PUSH TOY would push them off on someone else and literally just distributed them to everyone his mindsim detected. Reactions were mixed, but this one cracked me up:
You tell Astraeus, "They creeped me out."
You tell Astraeus, "Perfect."
Astraeus tells you, "Excuse me, but may I ask why I have received this toy scorptail?"
You tell Astraeus, "They creeped me out."
You tell Astraeus, "So I gave them all away."
Astraeus tells you, "Ah. Then I will cherish this small nightmare as if it were my own child."
You tell Astraeus, "Perfect."
Xiru
3
Re: Character Concepts
Decheeran Fury.
Product of a previous adventuring group made up of a male Krona B.E.A.S.T merc called Urgan Von, a female Jin Nanoseer bounty hunter called Cercis Rotha, a male and female W'hoorn Fury couple seeking revenge against a human scoundrel whose betrayal almost wrecked their lives called Loric Brindex (m) and Thia Lexo (f), a lonely female Neth-el Engineer who was cast out of her community for being a catastrophic cluts (jar jar binks but less annoying and stupid) called Ellie and a male Elgan scoundrel who needed people he could trust to have his back called Sabtranax Al'xaxar.
This adventuring party stumbled upon a Nabian conspiracy to kidnap young Deechrans and experiment on their physiology to create mindless slaves who would be trusted to kidnap and capture more slaves and rescued the prototype Decheeran from this fate while killing the team of scientists working on the project early in their adventuring years. Knowing that the Nabians would stop at nothing to retrieve their prototype they hid it at their base of operations, a large asteroid this adventuring party pooled their money to make habitable that they jokingly dubbed Homeless.
Unfortunately the experiments took their toll on the Decheeran leaving it with only a couple years left to live. The group invited the Decheeran to live out it's remaining time at the asteroid unaccosted by the Nabians that seek it. A section of Homeless was retrofitted with a requested mix of soils and plant life so the Decheeran could live comfortably and over its short time there got to know the group it was so grateful for. When it realized that Urgan and Cercis were deeply in love but could not have children it used the last of its strength to produce a bud, rather than sacrificing an arm or leg in this process it used its whole body as the foundation and left a note for the odd couple that this was it's gift to them.
30 years later the adventuring party had drifted apart leaving Homeless in the care of Urgan and Cercis who had been through their fair share of ups and downs in their relationship while looking after the budding Decheeran but found a renewed and refreshed spark when the bud took its first steps, they dubbed the new member of their family Harbinger. They knew enough about Decheerans to understand that it was unusual for one of its species to development in the midst of the kind of emotional turbulence their fractures and arguing had produced and could see the effects of this on what they considered to be their child. While each had instilled a bit of their culture and a bit of themselves into it over the 30 years it was growing and gaining awareness and intelligence, neither knew how to address the aparent angst, anger and rage that seemed to plague it. They reached out to their old friends Loric and Thia to see if they could help and to their relief the couple returned to Homeless to teach Harbinger the ways of the Fury.
Harbinger proved to be a quick study as bold as it's Krona (as Harbinger was prone to refering to Urgan as) and as capable as it's Jin. The W'hoon couple departed to spend the last of their days among their people tending to their own children and as Cercis was approaching her 120th year alive she could feel the end approaching. Cercis asked her child to end her life so she could die as a respectable Jin, though she did this in private as she was well aware with Urgan's disagreements with this aspect of her culture. Harbinger agreed and cut down Cercis providing her a quick death much to the dismay of Urgan who had not even been given a chance to protest. Full of sorrow for his loss and rage at Harbinger for not consulting him before murdering the woman he loved he challenged Harbinger to a duel to the death and Harbinger in it's own rage and shame accepted. In a public arena on Urgan's home world they fought a long viscous battle that pleased the crowd and though Urgan fought well Harbinger ended his life, giving his Krona a quick but celebrated death.
Upon returning to Homeless he was greeted by Ellie who had extended her life with cybernetics and had been keeping tabs on Urgan and Cercis over the years, she assured Harbinger that both it's Krona and Jin had died the way they wanted to and talked with Harbinger about how best to keep their memory alive. Harbinger decided to have Ellie craft him a pair of silvery metal tusks made from Urgan's B.E.A.S.T armor that it embedded into either side of it's head as horns, a look it knew it's Krona would appreciate and a purple symbol of T'rath made from the metal pieces of Cercis' swarmglove, which it embedded into it's forehead. It vowed to always carry their memory with it and to never return to Homeless, determined to forge it's own path.
Product of a previous adventuring group made up of a male Krona B.E.A.S.T merc called Urgan Von, a female Jin Nanoseer bounty hunter called Cercis Rotha, a male and female W'hoorn Fury couple seeking revenge against a human scoundrel whose betrayal almost wrecked their lives called Loric Brindex (m) and Thia Lexo (f), a lonely female Neth-el Engineer who was cast out of her community for being a catastrophic cluts (jar jar binks but less annoying and stupid) called Ellie and a male Elgan scoundrel who needed people he could trust to have his back called Sabtranax Al'xaxar.
This adventuring party stumbled upon a Nabian conspiracy to kidnap young Deechrans and experiment on their physiology to create mindless slaves who would be trusted to kidnap and capture more slaves and rescued the prototype Decheeran from this fate while killing the team of scientists working on the project early in their adventuring years. Knowing that the Nabians would stop at nothing to retrieve their prototype they hid it at their base of operations, a large asteroid this adventuring party pooled their money to make habitable that they jokingly dubbed Homeless.
Unfortunately the experiments took their toll on the Decheeran leaving it with only a couple years left to live. The group invited the Decheeran to live out it's remaining time at the asteroid unaccosted by the Nabians that seek it. A section of Homeless was retrofitted with a requested mix of soils and plant life so the Decheeran could live comfortably and over its short time there got to know the group it was so grateful for. When it realized that Urgan and Cercis were deeply in love but could not have children it used the last of its strength to produce a bud, rather than sacrificing an arm or leg in this process it used its whole body as the foundation and left a note for the odd couple that this was it's gift to them.
30 years later the adventuring party had drifted apart leaving Homeless in the care of Urgan and Cercis who had been through their fair share of ups and downs in their relationship while looking after the budding Decheeran but found a renewed and refreshed spark when the bud took its first steps, they dubbed the new member of their family Harbinger. They knew enough about Decheerans to understand that it was unusual for one of its species to development in the midst of the kind of emotional turbulence their fractures and arguing had produced and could see the effects of this on what they considered to be their child. While each had instilled a bit of their culture and a bit of themselves into it over the 30 years it was growing and gaining awareness and intelligence, neither knew how to address the aparent angst, anger and rage that seemed to plague it. They reached out to their old friends Loric and Thia to see if they could help and to their relief the couple returned to Homeless to teach Harbinger the ways of the Fury.
Harbinger proved to be a quick study as bold as it's Krona (as Harbinger was prone to refering to Urgan as) and as capable as it's Jin. The W'hoon couple departed to spend the last of their days among their people tending to their own children and as Cercis was approaching her 120th year alive she could feel the end approaching. Cercis asked her child to end her life so she could die as a respectable Jin, though she did this in private as she was well aware with Urgan's disagreements with this aspect of her culture. Harbinger agreed and cut down Cercis providing her a quick death much to the dismay of Urgan who had not even been given a chance to protest. Full of sorrow for his loss and rage at Harbinger for not consulting him before murdering the woman he loved he challenged Harbinger to a duel to the death and Harbinger in it's own rage and shame accepted. In a public arena on Urgan's home world they fought a long viscous battle that pleased the crowd and though Urgan fought well Harbinger ended his life, giving his Krona a quick but celebrated death.
Upon returning to Homeless he was greeted by Ellie who had extended her life with cybernetics and had been keeping tabs on Urgan and Cercis over the years, she assured Harbinger that both it's Krona and Jin had died the way they wanted to and talked with Harbinger about how best to keep their memory alive. Harbinger decided to have Ellie craft him a pair of silvery metal tusks made from Urgan's B.E.A.S.T armor that it embedded into either side of it's head as horns, a look it knew it's Krona would appreciate and a purple symbol of T'rath made from the metal pieces of Cercis' swarmglove, which it embedded into it's forehead. It vowed to always carry their memory with it and to never return to Homeless, determined to forge it's own path.
Re: Possible return
1) All classes are more-or-less even on bashing. Some do better in certain situations, but generally everything's fine. For PvP, sample size is low among active PvPers. Balance considerations in 1v1 PvP is more matchup-based than general. Gun to my head, in order of overall power, I would say: 1) Engi, 2) Fury, 3) Nano, 4) Scoundrel, 5) BEAST. But that answer fails to address how easily a Nano can dismantle an Engi, or how tough a careful Scoundrel can be to kill. This answer also breaks down when you consider group pvp, where every class has something to bring to the table.
2) Shulamit's cooking. But seriously, I don't know. What do you mean? FoTM in what respect?
3) If you're a new PvPer on the scene every active PvPer is going to love fighting you as much as you want, because we're hungry to grow the scene.
4) Firing ship weapons consumes capacitor, thrust is no longer tied to leftover halons, and... I can't remember what else?
Announcements post #85: Death...and other things!
<pre>From: A Human wearing a full-face black hood
Subject: Death...and other things!
Greetings Starmourners,
A ghastly chill descends over Starmourn this month as this is the month of Death... and Disguises and Dogs, since we teased a theme starting with D.
This is going to be a rather event heavy month and things will start to unfold over the next few days in a manner that is very fitting to the aforementioned subject(s).
To honor the theme, we have skull-shaped metal urns available for purchase on the website, filled to the brim with Death themed goodies. Inside you can find the following:
Artifact Powers:
- H.E.T.E Wormhole Transport Services - After you re-clone from a death, you have a 2 minute window in which you can HETE TELEPORT to return to the room you died in (courtesy of H.E.T.E). This has a 30 minute cooldown and cannot be used to teleport you back to cosmpiercer or inside faction territory (except your own faction)
- Hunter's Vibroblade - Allows you to PRESERVE <corpse of a dead player> in order to...extract a token reminder of their demise (Yes, this beheads the corpse and gives you the head)
- HETE Clone Discount level 2
- H.E.T.E. Scanners Backdoor Access
- Workflow Automator - Allows you to operate your factories and refineries remotely
Items:
- A void-fog armband - Allows you to VOIDCALL FOG and fill your location with a chilly, ghastly fog. Players inside the room can no longer access their MAP, nor see any exits.
- A corrupted HETE augmentation casket - Contains dozens of new death-themed customization options
- A sturdy mask box - Contains a random mask (read below to find out what this is all about)
- An orange nanoplastic baggie - Contains a random, death-themed fish
- A stinkbomb case - Contains 5 stinkbombs. You can THROW these bombs either at a person to drench them in a horribly smelly liquid, or at the ground in order to affect everyone in the room. If you're the target of one of these, you might want to find a body of water and SCRUB it all off
- Armor and weapon mods
Credits:
- Prizes ranging from 20 to 50 credits
For the dogs part of the theme we have Goredogs...you might remember them from the Shakedown Cantina back when you started your adventuring life. These days, on the Almasi Asteroid in the Diamond Belt, you will find a Goredog Fighting Pit that hosts regular tournaments. If you make your way there and have Goredog Fight tickets in your possession, you may bet on the outcome of the fights.
Some of you might have already obtained tickets from the No-Brainer Credit Package and didn't have the option of using them until now. Further tickets are awarded with every 10 credits purchased and there is a chance that you will get a ticket every time you complete a xenozoo bounty.
The DOGFIGHTS syntax will tell you all about the system and you can look at HELP DOGFIGHTS to learn more.
Now you might have noticed that we mentioned MASKS in the urns we have for purchase. While these particular masks are certainly rare and gorgeous, anyone can purchase masks from Handsome Hal's on Almasi. These masks are quite special because once you WEAR them, they will conceal your identity from anyone in your room. Speaking, emoting, entering and leaving will no longer display your character's name but will instead show you as a member of your race that is wearing a mask. This will also conceal your identity on WHO and QW, but will not do so in other communication channels (tells, FT, CLT, etc.). You can still be interacted by name though, should people know it's you.
NOTE AND NOTE WELL: Engaging or being engaged in combat automatically breaks the effect of the mask. This does not mean it is okay to attack people just to break their mask concealment. This is a RP tool and should be treated accordingly. Attacking others without proper IC cause is a punishable offense.
Have a positively terrifying month!</pre>
Subject: Death...and other things!
Greetings Starmourners,
A ghastly chill descends over Starmourn this month as this is the month of Death... and Disguises and Dogs, since we teased a theme starting with D.
This is going to be a rather event heavy month and things will start to unfold over the next few days in a manner that is very fitting to the aforementioned subject(s).
To honor the theme, we have skull-shaped metal urns available for purchase on the website, filled to the brim with Death themed goodies. Inside you can find the following:
Artifact Powers:
- H.E.T.E Wormhole Transport Services - After you re-clone from a death, you have a 2 minute window in which you can HETE TELEPORT to return to the room you died in (courtesy of H.E.T.E). This has a 30 minute cooldown and cannot be used to teleport you back to cosmpiercer or inside faction territory (except your own faction)
- Hunter's Vibroblade - Allows you to PRESERVE <corpse of a dead player> in order to...extract a token reminder of their demise (Yes, this beheads the corpse and gives you the head)
- HETE Clone Discount level 2
- H.E.T.E. Scanners Backdoor Access
- Workflow Automator - Allows you to operate your factories and refineries remotely
Items:
- A void-fog armband - Allows you to VOIDCALL FOG and fill your location with a chilly, ghastly fog. Players inside the room can no longer access their MAP, nor see any exits.
- A corrupted HETE augmentation casket - Contains dozens of new death-themed customization options
- A sturdy mask box - Contains a random mask (read below to find out what this is all about)
- An orange nanoplastic baggie - Contains a random, death-themed fish
- A stinkbomb case - Contains 5 stinkbombs. You can THROW these bombs either at a person to drench them in a horribly smelly liquid, or at the ground in order to affect everyone in the room. If you're the target of one of these, you might want to find a body of water and SCRUB it all off
- Armor and weapon mods
Credits:
- Prizes ranging from 20 to 50 credits
For the dogs part of the theme we have Goredogs...you might remember them from the Shakedown Cantina back when you started your adventuring life. These days, on the Almasi Asteroid in the Diamond Belt, you will find a Goredog Fighting Pit that hosts regular tournaments. If you make your way there and have Goredog Fight tickets in your possession, you may bet on the outcome of the fights.
Some of you might have already obtained tickets from the No-Brainer Credit Package and didn't have the option of using them until now. Further tickets are awarded with every 10 credits purchased and there is a chance that you will get a ticket every time you complete a xenozoo bounty.
The DOGFIGHTS syntax will tell you all about the system and you can look at HELP DOGFIGHTS to learn more.
Now you might have noticed that we mentioned MASKS in the urns we have for purchase. While these particular masks are certainly rare and gorgeous, anyone can purchase masks from Handsome Hal's on Almasi. These masks are quite special because once you WEAR them, they will conceal your identity from anyone in your room. Speaking, emoting, entering and leaving will no longer display your character's name but will instead show you as a member of your race that is wearing a mask. This will also conceal your identity on WHO and QW, but will not do so in other communication channels (tells, FT, CLT, etc.). You can still be interacted by name though, should people know it's you.
NOTE AND NOTE WELL: Engaging or being engaged in combat automatically breaks the effect of the mask. This does not mean it is okay to attack people just to break their mask concealment. This is a RP tool and should be treated accordingly. Attacking others without proper IC cause is a punishable offense.
Have a positively terrifying month!</pre>
Re: Good Vibrations!
Song is full of cool people, and the number of times I've been able to walk into a room and put out long-form emotes and receive them back has more than quintupled since the last time I played. I'm having fun, so...good vibes to everyone!
Sun
5