Wut. I know you have 0 control over the promotions each month, so there will be promotion-less months when we don't get any "Mayan Crown" equivalent!? Awwwww man! (Mostly said tongue in cheek... :-P)
But I am curious about promotions and 1) if there will be any right away and 2) what kinds of zany space things you can come up with. I'm excited to find out, either way!
I know I had also wondered about retirement credits. I understand from a financial perspective to not allow them for the first X months or whatever because you're in the mood to sell credits. Would be a pleasant surprise if I could port them over though and start out as a peasant instead of an urchin!
I'm the CEO of Iron Realms. I have complete control over promotions.
Starmourn is unlikely to do the kind of promotions the other games do at start. They are huge investments of manpower, and there's going to be a lot of other things we need to build. Remember that our other games have been under development for between 13 and 22 years. Starmourn's been under dev for less than 2 years. There's a LOT of stuff we're going to be in a hurry to try to get in post-release.
If they're templates, could just have the ability to pay for a remodeling maybe? Similar to how the Chancellors in Lusternia can re-describe and retitle a shop room.
Of course, being able to be exploded might put a damper on extensive customisations.
This could be worked around. Instead of just editing the ship, you'd have an item that has all of the descriptions for the class and size of ship you had paid for saved as variables. Then when you get blown up, the item is still with you (arty reset). You replace the ship and activate the item and it OEDIT's the entire thing back to your paid descriptions and layouts.
If they're templates, could just have the ability to pay for a remodeling maybe? Similar to how the Chancellors in Lusternia can re-describe and retitle a shop room.
Of course, being able to be exploded might put a damper on extensive customisations.
This could be worked around. Instead of just editing the ship, you'd have an item that has all of the descriptions for the class and size of ship you had paid for saved as variables. Then when you get blown up, the item is still with you (arty reset). You replace the ship and activate the item and it OEDIT's the entire thing back to your paid descriptions and layouts.
Wouldn't be too hard thematically (or I'd think in the code) to have a stored 'blueprint' for the design of your favorite styles of ships that you could provide to the shipbuilders when ordering a new build.
Some ships might be throwaways, but I'd expect larger, more complicated/powerful ships to not be something you want to get blown up too often.
will there be a tutorial for using a ship and navigating it? can i have some explanation on the whole ship system or it will all be clear once i start the game
I don't quite understand the question, since you're not forced to take a side in our other games - there's plenty of rogues without cities.
True. But in the other games, when you do this(and I haven't, I've usually just taken a side which is why I'd like to try it on Starmourn), you usually have huge disadvantages and a lack of inclusion in certain conflict systems. I suppose my question is will this trend continue in Starmourn, or will you all be trying something different? Will 'rogues' be able to be swayed to one side or the other and take part in any potential conflict/pvp systems?
I'm curious about language. I can't remember having read anywhere and I just noticed that the Shen have High Shen (ritual) and Low Shen (common). MkO had specific language barriers (that were very easily overcome near the end of its course). Will there be language barriers or different spoken languages or will everyone have a common language?
As T'rath has pierced the veil, so will I, and so will my life become complete in a good death. Jin VOTE FOR STARMOURN
Tecton-Today at 6:17 PM
teehee b.u.t.t. pirates
GrootToday at 2:16 PM if there's no kittens in space I'm going on a rampage TectonToday at 2:17 PM They're called w'hoorn, Groot sets out a saucer of milk
Will the economy function the same as in the other games (endless sources of currency via bashing/questing)? If commodities exist, will they be player-collected/made or bought from NPC/org sources? If a crafting system is added, unless it's entirely unique to Starmourn, which of the IRE games' crafting systems will it most resemble?
So, can we expect to see some support classes? Something along the lines of a futuristic combat medic with a long-range or short-range offensive weapon of sorts for personal defense, but mostly abilities to heal, buff, and debuff?
Also, on that note, how will combat with guns work? Eager to see what you smart, lovely, beautiful ladies and gents come up with for the pew-pews.
No, we don't really do support classes in our games. All classes have to be able to stand on their own as our game populations are too small to build games that require people operate in groups.
Re: guns, your class determines what weapons you can productively use, so unless you're a class that uses guns, you won't be very useful with guns.
Be a hulking death machine you say? I can do that.
Zhill says, "Drats."
You say to Zhill, "Thanks anyways! I'm gonna go break more things!"
Zhill tells you, "You show'em!"
You joyfully tell Zhill, "I sure will!"
You laughingly tell Zhill, "Or I'll die horribly! Ahahaha!"
I actually have an important question. I am aware it probably wont happen at the start if at any point, but will we be able to create our own clothing and things like in Achaea? Or will we be stuck in with denizen-made clothes?
I actually have an important question. I am aware it probably wont happen at the start if at any point, but will we be able to create our own clothing and things like in Achaea? Or will we be stuck in with denizen-made clothes?
Very likely, yes. Won't be at the game's launch though!
will there be a tutorial for using a ship and navigating it? can i have some explanation on the whole ship system or it will all be clear once i start the game
You'll be taught to fly a ship in the intro (at this stage)
2. Will the admins be taking any IC roles in this game beyond possessing NPCs? Important characters, like Gods in other games? Perhaps you're intending them to be members of Elder Races?
For #2, there's no plan for us to be playing chararacters, nope.
This is surprising to read. I know in other IRE games the divine roles seem to be extremely popular. Could you elaborate on how admin/volunteer-player interactions will be handled in a blog post or the like?
So, first off, some build up to my question...we've seen 'sides' in every other IRE game. Some have two sides. Some have three. Will we be forced into sides in this game as well? Or, given that its a completely different genre, will I be able to be a neutral person who can form a Mercenary group like I want? I have some ideas for it that I've really been fleshing out the last few months, and I don't want to get my hopes up too much.
I don't quite understand the question, since you're not forced to take a side in our other games - there's plenty of rogues without cities.
I agree that "forced" was the wrong word to use.
In the three IRE games I have invested significant time into there are very obvious sides that have built in mechanical support and are explicitly designed and supported by the admins/volunteers. This has at times included the power to revoke player's class abilities or access to major game play functionality. So while rogues are always allowed they often trade off some aspect of the game in order to have their "freedom".
I would be interested to see more details on any built in organizational conflict. Personally I am a huge fan of such structure and believe it drives significant RP and conflict. If all such things are left purely in the hands of the players I am skeptical on how it will work out.
Personally housing seems like a really cool area for this game. You could have like Asteroids or tiny little mini-planets people claim as their own and mould into their own little paradise. For example somewhere in Scatterhome you could have like an asteroid belt that serves as a residential area.
Personally, I would hope that our ships are our homes. Like the Falcon, Moya, Eagle 5, and, of course, Serenity. Wouldn't be bad to have a space on a rock somewhere, but I'd prefer my ship to be my home.
Personally housing seems like a really cool area for this game. You could have like Asteroids or tiny little mini-planets people claim as their own and mould into their own little paradise. For example somewhere in Scatterhome you could have like an asteroid belt that serves as a residential area.
Personally, I would hope that our ships are our homes. Like the Falcon, Moya, Eagle 5, and, of course, Serenity. Wouldn't be bad to have a space on a rock somewhere, but I'd prefer my ship to be my home.
I agree. I think a lot of the charm of the genre is how it takes rugged, industrial ships (like the ones listed above) and convert them into characters in their own right through customization and personal touches.
Male W’hoorn have a distinctly lion-like facial structure and muscular physique, while the females tend to have facial features like human females.
Does this allow the females to have more lion-like facial features if that's a preference? @Eukelade, @Aurelius?
I removed that. We had a couple volunteers working on the wiki initially a year ago before I took it over to get it launched recently, and though they did their best, they didn't have access to what's in my head. I'm guessing one of them looked at the art and decided that was the case.
I'm curious about language. I can't remember having read anywhere and I just noticed that the Shen have High Shen (ritual) and Low Shen (common). MkO had specific language barriers (that were very easily overcome near the end of its course). Will there be language barriers or different spoken languages or will everyone have a common language?
Common language. It'd be a pretty irritating game without one I think!
Will the economy function the same as in the other games (endless sources of currency via bashing/questing)? If commodities exist, will they be player-collected/made or bought from NPC/org sources? If a crafting system is added, unless it's entirely unique to Starmourn, which of the IRE games' crafting systems will it most resemble?
It's a faucet and drain economy like virtually all MMOs/MUDs, but like we did on Achaea, you can't just bash 24 hours a day and continue to earn currency (that's a relatively recent change on Achaea though).
Commodities exist, but we're not ready to release info on them yet! Same with crafting.
2. Will the admins be taking any IC roles in this game beyond possessing NPCs? Important characters, like Gods in other games? Perhaps you're intending them to be members of Elder Races?
For #2, there's no plan for us to be playing chararacters, nope.
This is surprising to read. I know in other IRE games the divine roles seem to be extremely popular.
They're popular with players as players. They aren't so popular with volunteers any more. It's become very difficult for our games to get and retain volunteer roleplayers as the years have gone on, leading to few gods ever being played, and most just being dormant.
This has been an ongoing conversation on our end though, and we're kind of wavering back and forth, so we'll see.
Volunteers have tasks placed on them that they may not particularly enjoy, and at least in the game I come from, they are expected to churn out building new areas when generally they may prefer to be roleplaying with players or the like, and RP with the playerbase is seen as a 'reward' for their work. If it was different, we'd probably have a lot more volunteers. If it was seen that some deities would just benefit the game by *having* that divine RP contact with the playerbase, interacting with people, their orders, making them want to log in to advance in favor with the gods, etc, I think that we'd have much less dormant than we do because a lot of players are passionate about the lore and would love to bring back some of the dormant gods.
I know that if I would be allowed to just fix bugs I knew how to fix or do mob prog things, I'd not hesitate at all to volunteer to make the experience richer for players, but having a quota of 'stuff to build' to keep expanding the game would stress me out.
Male W’hoorn have a distinctly lion-like facial structure and muscular physique, while the females tend to have facial features like human females.
Does this allow the females to have more lion-like facial features if that's a preference? @Eukelade, @Aurelius?
I removed that. We had a couple volunteers working on the wiki initially a year ago before I took it over to get it launched recently, and though they did their best, they didn't have access to what's in my head. I'm guessing one of them looked at the art and decided that was the case.
You are my hero and while I may still change my mind a hundred times between now and launch, I think I have a basic character concept ready.
I'm curious about language. I can't remember having read anywhere and I just noticed that the Shen have High Shen (ritual) and Low Shen (common). MkO had specific language barriers (that were very easily overcome near the end of its course). Will there be language barriers or different spoken languages or will everyone have a common language?
Common language. It'd be a pretty irritating game without one I think!
Fair enough. It made for some interesting situations and diverse complications, including such things getting interpreters and variety in spying. That was rather fun, but it DID get very annoying sometimes. So there'll just be common language or will different races have secondary/tertiary languages too?
As T'rath has pierced the veil, so will I, and so will my life become complete in a good death. Jin VOTE FOR STARMOURN
Tecton-Today at 6:17 PM
teehee b.u.t.t. pirates
GrootToday at 2:16 PM if there's no kittens in space I'm going on a rampage TectonToday at 2:17 PM They're called w'hoorn, Groot sets out a saucer of milk
Comments
Starmourn is unlikely to do the kind of promotions the other games do at start. They are huge investments of manpower, and there's going to be a lot of other things we need to build. Remember that our other games have been under development for between 13 and 22 years. Starmourn's been under dev for less than 2 years. There's a LOT of stuff we're going to be in a hurry to try to get in post-release.
Some ships might be throwaways, but I'd expect larger, more complicated/powerful ships to not be something you want to get blown up too often.
Jin
VOTE FOR STARMOURN
if there's no kittens in space
I'm going on a rampage
TectonToday at 2:17 PM
They're called w'hoorn, Groot
sets out a saucer of milk
If commodities exist, will they be player-collected/made or bought from NPC/org sources?
If a crafting system is added, unless it's entirely unique to Starmourn, which of the IRE games' crafting systems will it most resemble?
In the three IRE games I have invested significant time into there are very obvious sides that have built in mechanical support and are explicitly designed and supported by the admins/volunteers. This has at times included the power to revoke player's class abilities or access to major game play functionality. So while rogues are always allowed they often trade off some aspect of the game in order to have their "freedom".
I would be interested to see more details on any built in organizational conflict. Personally I am a huge fan of such structure and believe it drives significant RP and conflict. If all such things are left purely in the hands of the players I am skeptical on how it will work out.
Does this allow the females to have more lion-like facial features if that's a preference? @Eukelade, @Aurelius?
Commodities exist, but we're not ready to release info on them yet! Same with crafting.
This has been an ongoing conversation on our end though, and we're kind of wavering back and forth, so we'll see.
I know that if I would be allowed to just fix bugs I knew how to fix or do mob prog things, I'd not hesitate at all to volunteer to make the experience richer for players, but having a quota of 'stuff to build' to keep expanding the game would stress me out.
Jin
VOTE FOR STARMOURN
if there's no kittens in space
I'm going on a rampage
TectonToday at 2:17 PM
They're called w'hoorn, Groot
sets out a saucer of milk