Hopefully this comes through right, mobile forums are not the best.
What does “beta” actually mean, in this case? Other games I’ve tested had a clear end date, a wipe at the end for release, something they wanted us to test. Some just abuse it as another round of advertising. I’m a bit confused as to what this means when you and others keep using the term “beta”, yet it seems like the game is in a fully released and revenue-generating state.
Could you go into more detail, or point out a place you already talked about this if so, about why you made level and (random) equipment so much more important compared to other IRE games? I couldn't find anything when I searched for it earlier.
Are there plans to expand the planets and other things into fully realised worlds, or are we mostly going to have smaller areas with a city or two and a representative zone and done?
Are there any plans to have more interactive events, or are they all going to be as what the Blaze thing seemed to be, where it seemed there was nothing to interact with so much as something to watch happen?
Thanks for all the hard work so far in making this a reality. I look forward to what it turns into in the future.
1) Beta is a "soft open", where most things are in a "mostly final" , and we're generally in a state where we're tweaking things and making improvements.
2) We definitely wanted to try different things here on Starmourn, and one of the changes was making loot drop so that there's some real diversity in what weapons and armor people could have (as opposed to the other games where is a longsword is a longsword, and a suit of chainmail is a suit of chainmail). This promotes more inter-player trading, gives people more goals, and more attainable upgrades for playing the game.
3) See Aurelius' post above.
4) Definitely! As the development frenzy eases back a bit, and we get some more team members to help, there will be a lot more events that are both fixed-ending (area launches etc. that have a fixed endgame), as well as more open events (that have a lot more player interaction and influence)
I love events, will there be anything like the UPCOMING command in Achaea to see when an event is coming up? Or will most of these be something more spontaneous?
Yeah, we'll be adding stuff like that when time and opportunity present!
Is the Comms network for faction/dynasty/etc a voice network or a text network, as I was always under the assumption that since there wasnt any tone, or dialect used in it that it was just a network that you sent text messages through and recieved them on some sort of HUD or in your head via the mindsim but not hearing the exact person's voice.
It's a direct neural interface, so it's beamed directly into your brain. How your brain interprets depends if you're a visual thinker or not!
What is the Decheeran motivation to be affiliated with the Song Dominion? Obviously I understand that not every single Decheeran ever is loyal to Song, but a significant portion of their own unique technology and architectural sensibility was involved on the planet Song before the catastrophe and in Song City itself.
But they're not just client races, or subjects, or victims of circumstance/proximity. They actively engage and celebrate the culture - at least, that's what I gathered from there being at least one confirmed Decheeran Lord Commander (and all the intrigue and power that involves that position).
I just can't find any clues from the racial homepage, Martias and the Angel, and the Song Dominion page that would show a particular affinity to Song Dominion culture, and I can't figure any significant information from the NPCs on Atria either. So I've come hear to get an admin take on it!
Could we ever see an alternate toolkit called a multitool? I like the thought of carrying a small device more than the large rectangular box of odds and ends I dig things out of at work.
If not, can scoundrels have a joke "grenade": a paristeel wrench.
Could we ever see an alternate toolkit called a multitool? I like the thought of carrying a small device more than the large rectangular box of odds and ends I dig things out of at work.
If not, can scoundrels have a joke "grenade": a paristeel wrench.
Originally the Song formed for protection. By now, it's just part of their culture (the races that formed the Song), same as how the various Italian cities and provinces on Earth generally accept "Italian" as part of their identity, even if they may often look at themselves as "Roman" or "Sicilian" first.
Any word on how customization options might be expanded? If I want to go full cyberpunk and dye my hair orange or blue, it's not one of the listed options. It feels a bit off to select Black but then in the description go "but his hair is actually dyed green."
This is super minor and mostly inconsequential, I know.
Just reposting this since it seems to have fallen through the cracks. As little as this matters in the grand scheme of things, I'd still like to know!
Any word on how customization options might be expanded? If I want to go full cyberpunk and dye my hair orange or blue, it's not one of the listed options. It feels a bit off to select Black but then in the description go "but his hair is actually dyed green."
This is super minor and mostly inconsequential, I know.
Just reposting this since it seems to have fallen through the cracks. As little as this matters in the grand scheme of things, I'd still like to know!
Oops - sorry about that, some times they get lost in a sea of posts. These will be coming down the line a bit!
Do you have a deadline to end open beta? Like, do you think open beta will be over within the next two months or something? Can you even answer that kind of question?
Have you considered polling the player base and possible crossposting in other realms to find out why people are logging in less? Over the last month, I have seen a decline in players down to a off-peak low of 13. In my opinion, ignoring it will not be advantageous and it might as well be addressed and corrected, whatever it is specifically.
Do you have a deadline to end open beta? Like, do you think open beta will be over within the next two months or something? Can you even answer that kind of question?
I think we're pretty close to the end of Beta! Still some big things I want to get in a bit better state (as covered in this thread already), but I imagine in the next few months we'll be ready to remove the tag.
Have you considered polling the player base and possible crossposting in other realms to find out why people are logging in less? Over the last month, I have seen a decline in players down to a off-peak low of 13. In my opinion, ignoring it will not be advantageous and it might as well be addressed and corrected, whatever it is specifically.
Yeah, something we're monitoring very closely. We've got some big announcements this week that should relieve one of the issues people have been waiting on!
Are there plans to expand the planets and other things into fully realised worlds, or are we mostly going to have smaller areas with a city or two and a representative zone and done?
Look at Mass Effect series - lots of planets but each one is only a zone or two and you visit them only when it's relevant to whatever Shep's doing right now, or if it's a trade/quest hub.
Starmourn's the same. You only visit what's interesting for you as a player and the rest is offscreen.
Are there any plans to increase the number of items a person can display in their shop terminal?
Are there any plans to adjust the format of shop terminals, potentially adding subsections, allowing the stacking of multiple items in stock, or some kind of auto-crafting feature that generates items on purchase from the shop owner's design?
Are there any plans to introduce physical shops? Will we ever be able to open player-run bars, restaurants, boutiques etc., are will player shops always be limited to trade terminals only?
Are there any plans to introduce the ability to craft beverages? a. If so, will you be adding beverages to Cuisine? Or as its own separate skillset?
Are there any plans to reduce the current fees for design submission?
How soon can we expect an adjustment to the number of tradeskills a person can have? And to what cap?
Can you give us any insights into what tradeskills you might be releasing in future, other than drugs?
At present, crafting is not a profitable pursuit. The cost of submitting designs is high compared to the amount of marks we might reasonably be expected to make from sales, not to mention the credit cost of purchasing a tradeskill to begin with. Are there plans to change this? Specifically, is it your vision that crafting should, at some point, be a profitable pursuit and a valid way for a player to earn a steady influx of marks?
In line with question #8, other economy questions:
Refineries, autofactories etc. are not profitable pursuits. The marks a player can earn from participating in this system, either as a gatherer or a manufacturer, are negligible. Do staff see this as a problem that needs to be addressed? Is it intended that owning refiners etc. should be profitable, and that players should be able to earn a steady influx of marks from gathering?
Nothing in the game currently competes with the marks a person can earn from bashing. Is this intended? Does staff intend for bashing to be the primary marks faucet in the game, or will you be looking to ensure there are other viable means to do this through engaging with other systems, such as crafting, captaincy, hacking etc.?
Class questions:
A while ago you said scoundrels aren't really meant to be an assassin/serpent type class and I was a little heartbroken. Are there any plans to create an assassin/serpent type class at all, further down the line? Will I ever fulfill my dream of fully realised sci-spy-fi?
Class resets are ending soon! Panic! Will you be reintroducing class resets at a later date when/if new classes are out?
Multiclassing: y/n?
Can you give us any insights on future classes that might be in the pipeline?
Space questions:
SPACE. IT HARD TO NAVIGATE. Is autopilot meant to be vastly inferior to manual navigation, or will you be looking to make improvements to the satnav?
Are there any plans to introduce (collaborative) multiplayer functionality to captaincy? Something like being able to have a player-run crew on your ship fulfilling different roles?
Politics:
Are there any plans to let players build up their own faction territories through the equivalent of an architectural ministry that would exist in other IRE games? IMO, CA lacks a lot of stuff that its theme indicates it should have. The Dregs/Subnet are very extensively built to showcase the sense of malaise among the working classes, but the other side of that, depicting the excesses, greed and luxury of high society, isn't. It feels very unfinished, building-wise, compared to the other two faction zones (like Song, which is just beautiful and Scatterhome, which is huge.) I'd love to fix this, but I codedly can't.
Is CA your favourite faction? (Correct answer: yes.)
"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
In the wiki the history ends with: 883 A.E. - The Litharge War, third of the Empire Wars between the Song and the Celestines, begins.
Is the said war suppose to be ongoing in the present day? And are RPers of Song and Celestine meant to roleplay as if they hate each other?
That was 40 IC years ago so probably not. But if characters are meant to hate each other then you can bet it's one bit of lore I'll ignore. The cold war scenario we got right now is much more interesting than "grrr me good you bad, me kill" style total war. Better for community too.
In the wiki the history ends with: 883 A.E. - The Litharge War, third of the Empire Wars between the Song and the Celestines, begins.
Is the said war suppose to be ongoing in the present day? And are RPers of Song and Celestine meant to roleplay as if they hate each other?
That was 40 IC years ago so probably not. But if characters are meant to hate each other then you can bet it's one bit of lore I'll ignore. The cold war scenario we got right now is much more interesting than "grrr me good you bad, me kill" style total war. Better for community too.
I can't say that 40 IC Space Years seems like a long time, considering that while the first lasted only 5 years, that's because Big Bad Maddox was around to stop them. The next time they went to war, it was literally called the 40-Year Empire War (from what I can tell that is the second time). If they continue that trend, this one will last at least 200!
In the wiki the history ends with: 883 A.E. - The Litharge War, third of the Empire Wars between the Song and the Celestines, begins.
Is the said war suppose to be ongoing in the present day? And are RPers of Song and Celestine meant to roleplay as if they hate each other?
I'll take a stab at this question.
According to the history in Martias and the Angel, the Empire Wars era ended just as the revolution of the Angel began in the Celestine Ascendancy. At the same time, Martias was rising in position in the Song Dominion.
That ended with the use of Song troops by the then-ruling government of the Ascendancy, in no small part because Martias wanted to oppose his ex-lover (now the revolutionary) Angel of Scrapston. The Song troops were beaten back and the old Celestine government was overthrown. The Angel was killed during that 'war', and Martias died later on in 908 AE.
Technically, I don't think an official declaration of war was ever declared between the Dominion and the Ascendancy throughout all of that. But of course, the whole affair presumably intensified the already-not-great feelings between the peoples.
Mereas Eyrlock "They're excited, but poor." - Ilyos (August 2019)
Are there any plans to increase the number of items a person can display in their shop terminal?
Are there any plans to adjust the format of shop terminals, potentially adding subsections, allowing the stacking of multiple items in stock, or some kind of auto-crafting feature that generates items on purchase from the shop owner's design?
Are there any plans to introduce physical shops? Will we ever be able to open player-run bars, restaurants, boutiques etc., are will player shops always be limited to trade terminals only?
Are there any plans to introduce the ability to craft beverages? a. If so, will you be adding beverages to Cuisine? Or as its own separate skillset?
Are there any plans to reduce the current fees for design submission?
How soon can we expect an adjustment to the number of tradeskills a person can have? And to what cap?
Can you give us any insights into what tradeskills you might be releasing in future, other than drugs?
At present, crafting is not a profitable pursuit. The cost of submitting designs is high compared to the amount of marks we might reasonably be expected to make from sales, not to mention the credit cost of purchasing a tradeskill to begin with. Are there plans to change this? Specifically, is it your vision that crafting should, at some point, be a profitable pursuit and a valid way for a player to earn a steady influx of marks?
In line with question #8, other economy questions:
Refineries, autofactories etc. are not profitable pursuits. The marks a player can earn from participating in this system, either as a gatherer or a manufacturer, are negligible. Do staff see this as a problem that needs to be addressed? Is it intended that owning refiners etc. should be profitable, and that players should be able to earn a steady influx of marks from gathering?
Nothing in the game currently competes with the marks a person can earn from bashing. Is this intended? Does staff intend for bashing to be the primary marks faucet in the game, or will you be looking to ensure there are other viable means to do this through engaging with other systems, such as crafting, captaincy, hacking etc.?
Class questions:
A while ago you said scoundrels aren't really meant to be an assassin/serpent type class and I was a little heartbroken. Are there any plans to create an assassin/serpent type class at all, further down the line? Will I ever fulfill my dream of fully realised sci-spy-fi?
Class resets are ending soon! Panic! Will you be reintroducing class resets at a later date when/if new classes are out?
Multiclassing: y/n?
Can you give us any insights on future classes that might be in the pipeline?
Space questions:
SPACE. IT HARD TO NAVIGATE. Is autopilot meant to be vastly inferior to manual navigation, or will you be looking to make improvements to the satnav?
Are there any plans to introduce (collaborative) multiplayer functionality to captaincy? Something like being able to have a player-run crew on your ship fulfilling different roles?
Politics:
Are there any plans to let players build up their own faction territories through the equivalent of an architectural ministry that would exist in other IRE games? IMO, CA lacks a lot of stuff that its theme indicates it should have. The Dregs/Subnet are very extensively built to showcase the sense of malaise among the working classes, but the other side of that, depicting the excesses, greed and luxury of high society, isn't. It feels very unfinished, building-wise, compared to the other two faction zones (like Song, which is just beautiful and Scatterhome, which is huge.) I'd love to fix this, but I codedly can't.
Is CA your favourite faction? (Correct answer: yes.)
*Stockpiles coffee*
Crafting:
1) Shopfront Item Limits: Yeah, I think the current item limit is a bit too low.
2) Bins/Shelves: Yep, not near the top of the list, but adding bins/shelves equivalents is something on the list for when time allows.
3) Physical shops: I'm sure we'll offer something like that eventually, yes. Likely be very limited supply.
4) Beverages: Yes, we'll see whether if it is compelling enough to make its own tradeskill (complete mixology sort of system), or just flavored like the current cuisine (in which case we'd like just add them as cuisine options)
5) Cheaper designs: Nothing currently planned, but that's not to say it can't/won't change.
6) More tradeskills: When we have enough options to warrant people having multiple - would likely go up to 2 per person, so that there's reliance on other people's tradeskills.
7) New tradeskills: Architecture, drugcrafting, perhaps mixology if there's enough depth there to make it fun/interesting.
8) Tradeskill profits: Yep, profitable long-term if you're putting in the effort.
Economy:
1) Refineries and Autofactories: Definitely, still lots of tweaks and balancing to the system to be done, we're working on a big batch of said changes alongside the current project (Ship stuff). As to whether gathering on its own is profitable, yeah, we definitely want it to be!
2) Rewards for non-bashing pursuits: Questing rewards were bumped up to be significant sources of income, and there's more system changes on the cards to provide other means of mark generation. One downfall of these rewarding pursuits is that they're not as readily available as bashing, which you can do with reduced attention. But yes, there are plans for more options here in the near future.
Class:
1) Assassins: No immediate plans, no.
2) More resets: No plans to open this up again, no.
3) Multiclass: Eventually, I'm sure.
4) New classes: Have to wait and see on this one!
Space:
1) Autopilot: Yes, we're planning on optimising the autopilot a little more. It's generally pretty computationally expensive to find paths (especially when 100+ people are doing it at once), so need to be done in a way that doesn't lag out the rest of the game.
2) Collaborative: Yes and no, I could see it being added for the larger vessels, but we don't want to create a reliance in you needing 6 people to do basic things on a ship, balanced against you don't want a ship with 6 people to have a massive advantage over one with less.
Politics:
1) Building out factions: As a player-built thing, we would probably have something like that as a mortal builder project, as opposed to say, an in-character role.
Could we get some more interesting artifacts or uses for credits added before the initial retirement window closes? I brought it up in the Artifact Ideas thread and believe it's important in general. Part of the hook of IRE games is being able to sell credits for in-game currency or earning in-game currency to buy credits, then wanting to come back to something you've invested in whether it's time or money. I believe that a lack of uses for credits could be detrimental to the game.
I realize you have a lot of other projects in the making and polish to add to the game, but I don't feel entirely incentivized to bring my retirement credits over. I will, because I have a positive outlook on the future of Starmourn (and there's literally a one-time window per character). While I understand that you don't want to add anything that might effect the balance of the game, especially this early in its development, I honestly think you've been a tad too conservative.
One avenue in particular is to make multi-class purchasable. It's very regressive to not allow it. Being able to explore different options with the same character is very appealing in that, for some, making alts or quitting a class is very unappealing. There's a great variety in gameplay that people are missing out on. So they grow bored and log in less. All hypothetical, but I think there's truth to it. And yes, I know you said eventually, but c'mon!
Comments
- Ilyos (August 2019)
- Ilyos (August 2019)
883 A.E. - The Litharge War, third of the Empire Wars between the Song and the Celestines, begins.
Is the said war suppose to be ongoing in the present day? And are RPers of Song and Celestine meant to roleplay as if they hate each other?
a. If so, will you be adding beverages to Cuisine? Or as its own separate skillset?
- SPACE. IT HARD TO NAVIGATE. Is autopilot meant to be vastly inferior to manual navigation, or will you be looking to make improvements to the satnav?
- Are there any plans to introduce (collaborative) multiplayer functionality to captaincy? Something like being able to have a player-run crew on your ship fulfilling different roles?
Politics:— 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
According to the history in Martias and the Angel, the Empire Wars era ended just as the revolution of the Angel began in the Celestine Ascendancy. At the same time, Martias was rising in position in the Song Dominion.
That ended with the use of Song troops by the then-ruling government of the Ascendancy, in no small part because Martias wanted to oppose his ex-lover (now the revolutionary) Angel of Scrapston. The Song troops were beaten back and the old Celestine government was overthrown. The Angel was killed during that 'war', and Martias died later on in 908 AE.
Technically, I don't think an official declaration of war was ever declared between the Dominion and the Ascendancy throughout all of that. But of course, the whole affair presumably intensified the already-not-great feelings between the peoples.
- Ilyos (August 2019)
So my question is: When can we expect artifacts currently available to get an overhaul so people feel like spending that 1600 credit price?