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Q+A Madness - January 2018

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  • edited January 2018
    Will items from cooking/tailoring/jewelry be strictly cosmetic (and sate hunger in the case of the first) or will there be any other kind of bonus that comes from any of them?

    Edit: second question! In other IRE games, staff usually takes the role of divine beings. What will they be in Starmourn? Or is it a surprise? 
  • Squeakums said:
    Will items from cooking/tailoring/jewelry be strictly cosmetic (and sate hunger in the case of the first) or will there be any other kind of bonus that comes from any of them? 
    Purely cosmetic, yep. Unless you could blinding someone with out fabulously blinged out you are.
  • Squeakums said:

    Edit: second question! In other IRE games, staff usually takes the role of divine beings. What will they be in Starmourn? Or is it a surprise? 
    They won't be gods :P 
  • Jerom said:
    I can already guess the answer to that question but... can you tell us more about combat and how it will work?  o:)
    Haha, that subject is far too deep of a rabbit hole to go down. Probably going to be something you'll have to wait and see in-person.
  • Will ground vehicles be a thing at launch? A possibility for later? Or not something that would make sense in this world? 
  • Squeakums said:
    Will ground vehicles be a thing at launch? A possibility for later? Or not something that would make sense in this world? 
    Pilotable ground vehicles won't be a thing at launch, maybe an avenue we'll pursue in the future. Some areas have ground transport, but that's a purely automated system.
  • Will hunger and sleep be persistent things you have to deal with? (Like how Hunger in Aetolia still affects things, despite it not killing you anymore.) Or will it go away after a certain level?

    Any thoughts on how you're thinking endgame (lv. 100+) will go? I know Achaea has dragons, Aetolia has Azudim/Idrethi/Yeleni), Imperian has those.. Moon aspect thingies.. and Lusternia has the ascended semi-godhood, kinda thingy.

    Will Psionics be unlockable at 100? O.O
  • Satomi said:
    Will hunger and sleep be persistent things you have to deal with? (Like how Hunger in Aetolia still affects things, despite it not killing you anymore.) Or will it go away after a certain level?

    Any thoughts on how you're thinking endgame (lv. 100+) will go? I know Achaea has dragons, Aetolia has Azudim/Idrethi/Yeleni), Imperian has those.. Moon aspect thingies.. and Lusternia has the ascended semi-godhood, kinda thingy.

    Will Psionics be unlockable at 100? O.O
    Hunger and sleep are not active systems at this time. We're doing some different things with food though, so it'll still have a place!

    Re: top-level perks - You'll have to play the game to find out!
  • Will credits be available at open?
  • zacc said:
    Will credits be available at open?
    Yep!
  • Tecton said:
    zacc said:
    Will credits be available at open?
    Yep!
    On that note, what will credits be used for at launch? Just for lessons or will there be artifacts available for purchase? If the latter, might I push my luck and ask what kind of artifacts?
  • Jerom said:
    Tecton said:
    zacc said:
    Will credits be available at open?
    Yep!
    On that note, what will credits be used for at launch? Just for lessons or will there be artifacts available for purchase? If the latter, might I push my luck and ask what kind of artifacts?
    We'll have artifacts available. Likely we'll start with more general utility ones until we get all of the classes to a point where we're happy with how they play, and then look into augmenting those with class-specific ones at that point.
  • I know it's late but I might try my chances. Will cursing be acceptable in RP manner and what your take in different alien languages? 
  • I know it's late but I might try my chances. Will cursing be acceptable in RP manner and what your take in different alien languages? 
    Cursing is fine with us! We'd only ask that you keep it do a moderate level of decency on public channels!
  • It's still January in the US. We know there will be guides. Will we be able to sign up as guides fairly early if we can learn the basics quick enough?
    Vote for Starmourn! Don't hurt Poffy.
  • Will there be server-side queuing in some shape or form?
    Aussie latency :(
  • Tecton said:
    Traveler said:
    How many worlds (planets) will we be able to visit, at launch?
    We're aiming for 80 - 90 at the minimum, more if time permits. Naturally, building will continue post-launch!
    To be honest, this sounds like far too many for a launch. For two main reasons:

    1) How diverse and memorable are 80-90 different worlds going to be? Look at No Man's Sky, they had quadrillions of planets, but they were all so.. similar that it didn't matter that they literally had that many, they were -all- boring (except if you happened to get lucky and run across one of the handmade planets, or the random procedure made some crazy stuff)

    2) That's... a lot of play space for a game that will probably have a fairly limited player size.

    Personally, I think you should cut that number down to 20-40 at most, but make sure you make each planet unique and memorable, and save the other 40 or so planets for expansions later in the game's life cycle. I want to feel like when I land on a planet, I am landing on a -whole- world that is open at my finger tips. I don't want one planet to be the size of say Shallam, and then another Minia, I want all of Achaea on one planet get my digs?
  • magee101 said:
     I want all of Achaea on one planet get my digs?
    Totally impossible. Achaea's had 20 years of development. All the planets together won't have the amount of content at launch that Achaea does now!
  • Aurelius said:
    magee101 said:
     I want all of Achaea on one planet get my digs?
    Totally impossible. Achaea's had 20 years of development. All the planets together won't have the amount of content at launch that Achaea does now!
    Literally might be impossible, but don't tear apart my feedback to the final last few words without realizing the intent is, I want the worlds to feel like a -world- not an area that could be attached to another area except I have to spend ten minutes flying to the next planet to get there. I don't know if you intended sass with this reply, but please don't get sassy kay thanks. 
  • Yes, it's literally impossible on our resources. You'll be able to use networks of personal teleporters to get between planets though, rather than having to get into a ship every time you want to jump between planets, most of which are one or two areas. 

    Some planets won't be connected to that though, and you'll need to be in a ship to get there, and the only way to transport many goods around is via a ship (mostly that's goods used to make other goods, or things necessary for ships though).
  • Aurelius said:
    Yes, it's literally impossible on our resources. You'll be able to use networks of personal teleporters to get between planets though, rather than having to get into a ship every time you want to jump between planets, most of which are one or two areas. 

    Some planets won't be connected to that though, and you'll need to be in a ship to get there, and the only way to transport many goods around is via a ship (mostly that's goods used to make other goods, or things necessary for ships though).
    None of these things address the heart of my feedback. Good answers to other questions and concerns, but literally does not approach the subject matter of my original post. 
  • I'm sorry you're having a difficult time understanding, but I'm not sure how much clearer I can be that most planets will be one or two areas.
  • Aurelius said:
    I'm sorry you're having a difficult time understanding, but I'm not sure how much clearer I can be that most planets will be one or two areas.
    So I will be playing the MUD version of No Man's Sky. Might have to give this game a pass up then as I should have done with that game. Oh well. 
  • magee101 said:
    Tecton said:
    Traveler said:
    How many worlds (planets) will we be able to visit, at launch?
    We're aiming for 80 - 90 at the minimum, more if time permits. Naturally, building will continue post-launch!
    To be honest, this sounds like far too many for a launch. For two main reasons:

    1) How diverse and memorable are 80-90 different worlds going to be? Look at No Man's Sky, they had quadrillions of planets, but they were all so.. similar that it didn't matter that they literally had that many, they were -all- boring (except if you happened to get lucky and run across one of the handmade planets, or the random procedure made some crazy stuff)

    2) That's... a lot of play space for a game that will probably have a fairly limited player size.

    Personally, I think you should cut that number down to 20-40 at most, but make sure you make each planet unique and memorable, and save the other 40 or so planets for expansions later in the game's life cycle. I want to feel like when I land on a planet, I am landing on a -whole- world that is open at my finger tips. I don't want one planet to be the size of say Shallam, and then another Minia, I want all of Achaea on one planet get my digs?
    Depends on the planets, some have multiple accessible areas, some have one. We definitely want the worlds to feel alive, but we wouldn't overpopulate the planets to the extent of your example, where one planet might have 50 areas on it.

    Revisiting the original question, I did actually count some areas that are on multi-area planets as distinct ones (most of them, to be 100% honest, in my haste to get an answer posted up), we are probably looking about 40ish handcrafted planets at launch (encompassing many more areas). We'll have a wide variety of procedurally generated celestial bodies for various other systems to interact with too.
  • Indi said:
    Will there be server-side queuing in some shape or form?
    Aussie latency :(
    Very likely! Not coded yet, but relatively easy to do, so if it doen't make day 1, it won't be far off!
  • Syaja said:
    It's still January in the US. We know there will be guides. Will we be able to sign up as guides fairly early if we can learn the basics quick enough?
    Very likely!
  • Will their be downloadable map data?

    Ignoring space, I'm assuming the format of rooms and exits is similar to the rest of IRE?

    Any chance of character data being available as a download as it is with Achaea?
  • Qitorien said:
    magee101, that's what happens with a brand-spanking new game, especially a F2P game from a small-ish company. It's not going to have immense detail right at the beginning. I think we can expect a ton of content to be added rapidly, but day 1? Yes, certain things might feel lacking. It might be better if you came in after a month or so if that's what you're hoping to find when you start playing. 

    However
    , do take some other things into account too: EVERYthing in this game will be brand-spanking new too. There will be a ton to explore and I truly believe that most people will not have a chance to experience everything before they even start adding a lot. This is a chance to be in on the random fun of the start of an epic game. I missed other the start of other games and have always wanted to join one when it started.

    Also, you have to look at this game differently than Achaea. This is across an entire galactic sector. The scope is enormous, and you need to consider how the scaling will be different. You suggest that you want Achaea's content on one planet, but the game isn't about ONE planet. I expect it to be exciting on a interstellar level, rather than a country, continent, or global, or even planar level. This is about relationships between entire worlds and alien species rather than city-states. That does raise a concern about how relatable it will be, but the dev team did say that they are going to work hard to shoot for making relationships relevant for players.

    I'm super excited about this game and can't wait to get in and explore it personally. Given IRE's track record in the past (and a lot of their best people who have worked on IRE games in the past are building this one from scratch), I find it very difficult to believe that this game will be anything other than awesome.
    The problem I am having is that my comparison to Achaea was not literal, it was used in metaphor to try and describe what I am hoping for. I don't want to see a thousand planets with so little character that I forget each one the moment I leave it. It is of course obvious that a game just coming out of development is not going to have the same amount of content as a game that is 20 years post launch. As a player, I would much rather have 5 planets that all feel unique and truly individual worlds of themselves, than 50 planets that each have one 10-20 room area to explore. The reason I was so hype for No Man's Sky is that it was going to be the first multi-planet scifi game that fully allowed you to explore a world rather than be in a few playable areas. However, No Man's Sky did not deliver very well on having unique and interesting planets in favor of having quadrillions of them.

    The main reason I play text-based games is the high level of immersion I get out of them, and I am very much looking forward to getting into a scifi world that I can get immersed into, but if the game is going to be built like Mass Effect (a few playable areas per world) that immersion is going to get broken for me personally.

    Now of course I am not being entirely fair as I am making comparisons without having the game itself to compare to properly. For all I know despite my now initial skepticism of how well I will enjoy the game I might get completely blown away by the dev team and they do an amazing job of nailing what I'm looking for, but mostly what got me so ruffled in the skirts is the way a member of Staff so clearly picked apart my feedback to a singular piece of said feedback and latched onto something that was not supposed to be taken literally but instead metaphorically, and then get snarky in the mean time. 
This discussion has been closed.