Announcements post #59: June Artifacts, Bushraki and the Wheel.

Autoposter

<pre>From: Ilyos, the Arbiter
Subject: June Artifacts, Bushraki and the Wheel.

Hey there, Starmourners. June is big, and we've got a lot of new exciting things in the works. The month has just started, and while we don't want to spoil all the surprises in one day, we do have a bunch of awesome items to share with you right out of the gate! Let's take a look at the brand new shiny.

First up, a new batch of artifacts has been released. You can find them in ARTIFACT LIST. Here is a quick rundown:

- KineDyn Holdings: Tactical Support Software v1.0 : +5% Weapon damage (this requires and takes up a mod slot on the weapon)
- KineDyn Holdings: Tactical Support Software v2.0 : +10% Weapon damage (this requires and takes up a mod slot on the weapon)
- KineDyn Holdings: Tactical Support Software v3.0 : +15% Weapon damage (this requires and takes up a mod slot on the weapon)
- 'Stargazer' H.E.T.E. Contract : Reduces cloning costs by 10%
- 'Nomad' H.E.T.E. Contract : Reduces cloning costs by 20%
- 'Soldier' H.E.T.E. Contract : Reduces cloning costs by 30%
- 'Gladiator' H.E.T.E. Contract : Reduces cloning costs by 40%
- 'Admiral' H.E.T.E. Contract : Reduces cloning costs by 50%
- H.E.T.E. Scanners Backdoor Access : If you have CONFIG DEATHALERT ON, whenever a player dies you will learn the exact location of the death (provided it is not in space)
- Crafting Bureau Permit : Removes design submission costs (Urgent design costs are halved)
- Commsphere registration pass - Gender : Allows you to change your gender preference every hour
- A consumable, one time gender switching is also available via CUSTOMIZE GENDER <gender> for 100cr
- Equipment Augmentation Kit : Allows you to repair your gear up to 100% durability
- Ship Beacon Jammer : You may activate it via SHIP JAMMER to block all other SHIP BEACONs from detecting your ship's name and captain for 10 minutes. You may still be attacked and attack, but your identity is not revealed. 1 hour cooldown
- Cargo Retrieval Astrobots : These tiny astrobots will automatically scoop up all cargo around your ship whenever your ship moves
- Personal Proxy Server : Reduces grid lockout duration on failed hacks by 75%
- Static Web Launcher : Shoots a web of static electricity in the room that increases crashing time by 100% and also makes moving out of the room difficult. Lasts for 1 minute. 15 minute cooldown
- Nanoboosted Adrenaline Generation - Boosts the duration of Victory Rush by 5 seconds and its effect from 10% to 15%. (You must have Victory Rush learned)

This is just the first batch of artifacts we have ready, but we have plenty more in the works. In addition to this, a number of existing artifacts are under review and will receive updates soon. Stay tuned for more information about that!
Alongside these goodies, we once again have the Worldbreaker's Wheel! You'll be able to find the wheel located in faction cities throughout the galaxy (see HELP WHEEL in game for more). Try your luck with a spin!

You have two ways of spinning - you'll be able to spin it once for free every in-game month (RL Day), after you've been online for 60 minutes. Additionally, you can obtain bigger, brighter winnings through the use of star-stamped tokens, which entitle the owner to spin for a greater prize pool! Star-stamped tokens are available in one of three ways:

- Direct purchase on the website (https://www.starmourn.com/credits - under "Artifact packages)
- As a bonus for every 100 credits purchased off the website (buy 100cr, get 1 token, buy 500cr, get 5).
- Very rarely, from the free wheel spins.

As for what the mysterious wheel has to offer, we're proud to announce that this month, we are offering items with a distinctly BUSHRAKI flavor. Have you always wanted to be a cyborg? Now you can, with our completely redone prize pool to include Bushraki-flavored augmentation artifacts and personal customisation options, along with plenty of Bushraki-themed ship decals, paint colors, and more!

Why Bushraki, you ask? We're sure you'll find out soon, but you've probably all heard rumors of various Bushraki gangs acting up in Scatterhome...

Let's take a look at the Wheel's prizes!


Artifacts:
- Optical Enhancements : Allows you to GLANCE through closed doors
- Muscular Augments : Your crash ability can no longer be interrupted. NOTE: This will not let you crash if you couldn't in the first place due to afflictions or room conditions.
- Emergency Life Support : Whenever you take fatal damage, you will become immune for 5 seconds and then heal up to 25% of your maximum health. 1 hour cooldown
- Gravitic Leg Augments : You have a 50% chance to resist any forced movement attempts
- Digestion Regulator : Triple your caloric intake!
- ADH Enzyme Boosters : You become immune to the effects of alcohol

Items:
- 99 new Bushraki themed customization options for your character! Get that heavily modified look on you today!
- Bushraki themed ship customization options
- a heavily modified Bushraki hoverbike
- a boxy control unit for INR retrieval
- an Amor Valentine bobblehead doll
- a vacc-needle stimpack : this is a ONE TIME use item that will heal you to full health
- a small painkiller pill : this is a ONE TIME use item that will restore 30% of your maximum health over time
- a star-stamped gaming token

Lessons:
- up to 350 lessons in various batches

Credits:
- up to 200 credits in various batches

The free spins can grant you:
- Experience enhancing chips
- Stat enhancing chips (New! They will add +25 to the specified stat for 3 hours)
- Item Mods
- Level appropriate gear (New!)
- Credits
- Lessons
- Marks
- Star-stamped gaming tokens</pre>

Revelin

Another loot crate promotion? This is the fourth in a row, and I'm just about RNG'd out. A credit sale would have been nice to get faction credit pools started. 

Matlkael

Autoposter said:

- Digestion Regulator : Triple your caloric intake!

>:(

Cubey

I hope it's just observation bias but it looks like every new batch of artifacts is more powerful than the previous one. These +damage weapon mods look really useful, but nowhere near the level of the lootbox artifacts: they're BIG. We're not talking only utility here anymore, stuff like muscular augments are total gamechangers and feel almost obligatory if you want to be an endgame pvper.

I can only hope the devs will manage to strike a balance between making an income and making sure the game doesn't turn into a pay-to-win fest.

Albion

They're fully p2w artis, not gonna lie. Emergency life support is mandatory for certain. Damage mods don't hurt either. 

Kirin

Damage mod artifacts kinda kill the whole weapon modding space because anyone who can afford to pay for mods likely will simply buy these and likely not need to worry about mods. Almost feel it just killed the weaponmodding skill set. Not happy

Indi

Albion said:

They're fully p2w artis, not gonna lie. Emergency life support is mandatory for certain. Damage mods don't hurt either. 

The crash one definitely. Life support - maybe. If it only triggers from damage kills and doesn't heal subsys or affs, then it's basically just vitality rather than starburst. Would need more details to be sure.

HOWEVER, either way,
It is a worrying precedent,  both the frequency of loot box promos and the trend of including such powerful pvp artifacts.

Zhulkarn

PvP artifacts lead to arms race and cause problems in the long run. It will be extremely boring to fight against someone who keeps crashing around uninterrupted when things do not become bright. When all classes do not possess a guaranteed way to keep people in place. Emergency life support, gravitic augment kind of things as I stated always could be an affordable armor mod on related armor piece instead of artifacts. Utility mods. But seems like alluring things will be kept for arties.

Now modding skillsets are already expensive, mark/time consuming and seeing weapon mod arties I imagine there could be arties to provide damage reduction as well in future (because this is an IRE game and all IRE games more or less has them) killing armormodding too. This is alarming to a degree. Because those who can afford big marks will not buy products of weapon modders or armor modders at the existence of a more permanent arti solution. Nobody going to buy weapon mods providing a meager amount of damage or armor mods providing meager amount of protection. 

Garryn

Re arties - we'll be introducing some changes / clarifications soon.

Re modding - arti damage mods do not stack, you can only add one of these to a weapon, leaving other weapon slots open for regular weapon mods.

Indi

I mentioned this on discord but...

With the weapon mod damage artifact, would it be better for the weapon mod tradeskill if instead, it gave an additional mod slot and/or the ability to slot two mods of the same type, rather than being a universal mod in its own right?

That way people still get to buy an increase to their damage, but at the same time it actually increases demand for mods.

Ilyos

The primary intention for those two artifacts (Life Support, Muscular Augments) was for PvE...in my head. That did not translate well into what I put into the game and that is a problem. As per Updates 210, this will be rectified and those two artifacts will get to be more in line with what I had envisioned:

- Muscular Augments : Your crash is no longer uninterruptible by denizens (this does not apply to faction guards)
- Emergency Life Support : Whenever you take fatal damage, you will heal for 25% of your maximum health ( 1 hour cooldown). 

I appreciate everyone's feedback on this matter and I apologize for this incident!

RocketCat

Hmm, even after the change Emergency Life Support still would be a must-have for pvp. It effectively gives you a 125% Lifeforce pool which is gonna help you in all your matchups (except Fury who'll just Throw you and maybe Nano who most of the time isn't dealing damage anyway). The 1600cr stat artes or class heal artes don't even hold a candle to that. If this artifact is meant for PvE, it'll need another restriction on it (such as 'whenever you take fatal damage by a denizen'), otherwise this is arte power creep for the pvp scene.

Kirin

Rather than being a complement to the weaponmodding tradeskill, the weapon damage artifact is a replacement. 

1) Modding is EXTREMELY expensive. Between research cost, parts and mastery, it is quite frankly prohibitive for anyone to invest in. As a result they cost quite a lot to make and provide. You cannot possibly research them without having artifacts
2) The damage output increase is minor for what they do
3) Any PvP'er will likely just get the weapon damage artifact (considering how much damage they add in comparison) and not bother with mods since they are better, non-decaying and easier to obtain (since modders may or may not have requisite mods at the time)


Considering we are in a village economy with MAYBE 10-15 players who care about PvP and bother with higher damage output at all. If 30% of buy the artifacts, you have effectively killed the weapon mod market.

I am grossly disappointed with the fact that modding adds tiny amounts of damage compared to these artifacts and will amount to nothing after how much we have invested in it.