If you're having trouble finding the gear you need in your late 20s, hold off for a bit. The L30 story quest sends you to a zone you will never be able to access again upon completion, but its shops stock a lot of very good L30 gear for very reasonable prices (300 marks a piece). Take advantage of this. You're unlikely to find a deal this good again.
It was a lifesaver for me, but I'd also like to point out make sure you know about weapon durability before this. The weapon was fragile which means it wore down quickly. I had a fairly good weapon so I dunno if I'd have upgraded. YMMV but I like it when people can make an informed choice.
If you're having trouble finding the gear you need in your late 20s, hold off for a bit. The L30 story quest sends you to a zone you will never be able to access again upon completion, but its shops stock a lot of very good L30 gear for very reasonable prices (300 marks a piece). Take advantage of this. You're unlikely to find a deal this good again.
It was a lifesaver for me, but I'd also like to point out make sure you know about weapon durability before this. The weapon was fragile which means it wore down quickly. I had a fairly good weapon so I dunno if I'd have upgraded. YMMV but I like it when people can make an informed choice.
The PIECE I got there had average durability and was like a 1000 power upgrade. At L33 I still haven't found anything as good as this one.
-- A Sandblaster 30.S piece (#57286) ------------------------------------------
Owner: Unknown Usable life: 199 mo.
Mass: Small Resetting: No
Type: Piece Power: 5539
Manufacturer: Vendal Armaments Model: 30.S
Health: in good shape (90%) Min.level: 30
Durability: Average Genelock: Locked to Zah
Description: With a grip made for the hand of a gunslinger and a long barrel, this P.I.E.C.E. has clear history of use judging by the scuff marks across the weapon. Nonetheless, the trigger mechanism and ammo chambers work flawlessly, and there is little doubt that it could still mow down a host of enemies, given half a chance and a scoundrel with good aim.
Of course there are probably other weapons for sale there for other classes, I didn't check everything on offer.
I'm also glad I learned about durability. I was cycling through one weapon per hour before I was made aware of the difference that can make.
Also dunno about other Scoundrels out there but PIECEs and toolkits seem to be really rare drops for me. I always seem to get armour and on the rare chance knuckles, which I never use (not yet ready for PvP). So I was very glad to find this.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
Don't fall into old RP habits. We're not warring kingdoms, divided by our use of eldritch magic or being undead. We don't have to be so black and white.
Our factions may be ideologically opposed but so are modern day real life countries. We have a glorious galactic community and economy. Go RP with your rivals. It doesn't mean we're all sleeping together. War is still war; buying Pollivar a drink doesn't mean I won't try to burn him to a crisp later at a Cosmpiercer.
Don't shit this game up like the others.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
I feel like we have some degree of enmity within factions without forcing conflict through deities etc. Thus far.
Scatterhome has lost a lot of the newbslayer vibe to it, still, grudges forever.
Song has issues other than the ones I’ve bitched about already, like making some hideously player unfriendly decisions.
The Ascendancy is a place to troll for SH and a place to try and bully with cheap conflict RP for Song.
I agree with the rest of your post and yeah, reposting @Quell was targeted and intentional. I'm disappointed in Song's behaviour.
Speaking as an Ascendancy player though, I don't actually agree with the bolded part. With one notable exception (Clover) that seemed to happen for other reasons that were player-specific, I've had only positive interactions with Scatterhome so far. CA regularly makes fun and looks down on Scatterhome, and I assume this is mutual. If that's trolling I'm OK with it, it's been in good humour. None of them have been openly hostile or exclusionary towards me.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
The PK apes aren't going to listen to your advice because the PK apes wouldn't have anything to do if they did.
The 'PK apes' are people too and, if I could wave a magic wand, I would see everyone both RP and PK. Anyway, no need to demean people.
Yeah, this. Dunno which alternate universe is Thessia posting out of (probably "my own ass" universe) but the PvP community was so far super chill in this game and no org is trying to limit its members' social contact with others either. We had like 2, maybe 3 asshole PvPers and none of them are around that much anymore.
In my experience it's the PvErs/"bashers" who get super salty. Stick around any level 40+ area and if someone dies and can't retrieve junk they'll be out for your blood, because "there was no one else around" so "you obviously must've swiped it".
I've had fantastic interactions with the PK folks. They really seem to want to increase the number of people that participate in PvP and have all been encouraging when I talk to them, regardless of faction.
I've also had amazing times just RPing with people from all three factions. This doesn't have to be "us vs. them".
To bring this back on track to ideas and tips, ask people for help! In any area of the game, almost everybody will be glad to offer advice and help you out. Starmourn is very newb friendly and I encourage everybody to give all the aspects of the game a shot, even if you've eschewed that particular side of MUDs before.
The PK apes aren't going to listen to your advice because the PK apes wouldn't have anything to do if they did.
The 'PK apes' are people too and, if I could wave a magic wand, I would see everyone both RP and PK. Anyway, no need to demean people.
Yeah, this. Dunno which alternate universe is Thessia posting out of (probably "my own ass" universe) but the PvP community was so far super chill in this game and no org is trying to limit its members' social contact with others either. We had like 2, maybe 3 asshole PvPers and none of them are around that much anymore.
In my experience it's the PvErs/"bashers" who get super salty. Stick around any level 40+ area and if someone dies and can't retrieve junk they'll be out for your blood, because "there was no one else around" so "you obviously must've swiped it".
Have you considered the possibility that you're probably one of the people Thessia is talking about?
The PK apes aren't going to listen to your advice because the PK apes wouldn't have anything to do if they did.
The 'PK apes' are people too and, if I could wave a magic wand, I would see everyone both RP and PK. Anyway, no need to demean people.
Yeah, this. Dunno which alternate universe is Thessia posting out of (probably "my own ass" universe) but the PvP community was so far super chill in this game and no org is trying to limit its members' social contact with others either. We had like 2, maybe 3 asshole PvPers and none of them are around that much anymore.
In my experience it's the PvErs/"bashers" who get super salty. Stick around any level 40+ area and if someone dies and can't retrieve junk they'll be out for your blood, because "there was no one else around" so "you obviously must've swiped it".
Have you considered the possibility that you're probably one of the people Thessia is talking about?
I have 0 pvp kills in this game and all my pk interaction was limited to friendly arena spars.
This is less a Starmourn tip than it is a general MUD/MUSH tip. Do not reuse passwords!
This is true pretty much everywhere, but with MUDS/MUSHs it's especially important.
While I'm certain IRE takes its security very seriously, some of you may play more than one MUD, and smaller MUDs don't always have the resources to take it as seriously.
For some MUDs login info may be stored server-side or transmitted from your client in clear text.
I want to be clear that nothing has triggered this post, it was just something I remembered on my drive home from work, and I thought it was worth saying.
P.S. I haven't slept in two days so sorry if this makes no sense.
"They are elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty." — Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before." — Margaret Atwood
At higher Hacking levels, the passwords get longer and trading blows with antiviruses quickly becomes a way to lose a ton of Ops. Especially since they don't have a chance to restore some Ops, whereas non-viruses can restore ~30 at higher levels vs the 4-5 Ops restore in low level hacks.
If you're poor at guessing words, you can try a crossword solver, such as this one: https://www.crosswordsolver.org/ Put in the word length + known letters. Longer words = fewer possibilities, so it's less useful on the four or five letter passwords you start out dealing with.
--- Polymorphic antiviruses lose most of their health after they transform (unsure if intentional). If it's by itself then you can just tank it with a decoy and then pop a quick hack for a chance at a letter. 60 health turns into 9 and then gets one-shot.
Ping barely costs anything. Not walking into a firewalled/honeypotted, scanner, antivirus nest becomes very worthwhile. Walking into a corner room that you know you'll have to backtrack out of is less scary when you know it's just a firewall/glitch/scanner, rather than risk walking into a self-replicating, glitched, honeypotted room just because you're trying to track down a few more letters.
If you notice two+ antiviruses (via ping, or due to backtracking), consider using a two room slice to bypass. Fairly cheap when they can hit in the midteens during the load delay before you can move out of their room. Just be wary of blind slicing into something worse (aka, rooms that you ping to avoid).
Scanners pull stuff that's up to two rooms away, in my experience.
The Lure ability seems ineffective, at the moment (also doesn't take Sync). Jam is about as useless - or at least quite confusing as to how it is intended to be used.
I'm not sure the point of directional Jam is, but I think jamming a room will block a scanner call that happens before it unjams. The cooldown keeps you from permanently jamming, though, and one call can be enough to really bollocks things, so it's definitely iffy.
Comments
Of course there are probably other weapons for sale there for other classes, I didn't check everything on offer.
I'm also glad I learned about durability. I was cycling through one weapon per hour before I was made aware of the difference that can make.
Also dunno about other Scoundrels out there but PIECEs and toolkits seem to be really rare drops for me. I always seem to get armour and on the rare chance knuckles, which I never use (not yet ready for PvP). So I was very glad to find this.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
Scatterhome has lost a lot of the newbslayer vibe to it, still, grudges forever.
Song has issues other than the ones I’ve bitched about already, like making some hideously player unfriendly decisions.
The Ascendancy is a place to troll for SH and a place to try and bully with cheap conflict RP for Song.
Speaking as an Ascendancy player though, I don't actually agree with the bolded part. With one notable exception (Clover) that seemed to happen for other reasons that were player-specific, I've had only positive interactions with Scatterhome so far. CA regularly makes fun and looks down on Scatterhome, and I assume this is mutual. If that's trolling I'm OK with it, it's been in good humour. None of them have been openly hostile or exclusionary towards me.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
I've also had amazing times just RPing with people from all three factions. This doesn't have to be "us vs. them".
To bring this back on track to ideas and tips, ask people for help! In any area of the game, almost everybody will be glad to offer advice and help you out. Starmourn is very newb friendly and I encourage everybody to give all the aspects of the game a shot, even if you've eschewed that particular side of MUDs before.
Sell your junk before it decays. Oof.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
If you're poor at guessing words, you can try a crossword solver, such as this one: https://www.crosswordsolver.org/
Put in the word length + known letters. Longer words = fewer possibilities, so it's less useful on the four or five letter passwords you start out dealing with.
---
Polymorphic antiviruses lose most of their health after they transform (unsure if intentional). If it's by itself then you can just tank it with a decoy and then pop a quick hack for a chance at a letter. 60 health turns into 9 and then gets one-shot.
Ping barely costs anything. Not walking into a firewalled/honeypotted, scanner, antivirus nest becomes very worthwhile. Walking into a corner room that you know you'll have to backtrack out of is less scary when you know it's just a firewall/glitch/scanner, rather than risk walking into a self-replicating, glitched, honeypotted room just because you're trying to track down a few more letters.
If you notice two+ antiviruses (via ping, or due to backtracking), consider using a two room slice to bypass. Fairly cheap when they can hit in the midteens during the load delay before you can move out of their room. Just be wary of blind slicing into something worse (aka, rooms that you ping to avoid).
Scanners pull stuff that's up to two rooms away, in my experience.
The Lure ability seems ineffective, at the moment (also doesn't take Sync). Jam is about as useless - or at least quite confusing as to how it is intended to be used.