The Commsphere — Starmourn's Forums

Starchart map spreadsheet

bugbo — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 21:00:46 +0000

Here's a starchart map in spreadsheet form. Please let me know if you find any errors. Feedback welcome.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5h0I-LdGV0tlxBLbzIlPC1mdOvwV9lkQt6C0Lz8_68

A Test Post

Neritus — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:40:29 +0000

Test post please ignore

General idea for an expansion to ships

Squeakums — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:32:11 +0000

A proposal for a new ship concept:

Strike Craft (or Fighter, or something similar since Interceptor is taken).

Right now, all of our ships function conceptually the same. There are numbers adjustments on each, where an interceptor has low health, high turn speed, low capacity for weapons, etc. Likewise, a Battleship is slower/stronger in every way.

Lorewise, it has been mentioned that even the smallest interceptor is “building scale” in terms of its size--these aren’t tiny spacecraft with a one-person cockpit and wings. My proposal is for exactly that concept: let’s add a way for Anakin-in-a-starfighter to be a niche that is possible.

Obviously the defensive capabilities of these ships would be quite small. I imagine it should have a much higher chance to evade compared to all the other ships, and speed and maneuverability would be how it stays alive. But once it gets hit, pretty much one hit will blow through shields and one hit will blow through the hull. Something like 200dam / 100dam or such.

So how is it any different than an interceptor? All of our ships currently look like NPC ships (@--). Direction, turn speed, etc. What if strike craft looked like organics? A (&) on the map, no directionality. 360 degree firing arc, and no turn speed. Pick a direction and start moving in that direction. Pick a speed and accelerate to it immediately. Extremely maneuverable, extremely fast, extremely fragile.

I don’t have the actual hard numbers planned out very well, it was primarily the concept I wanted to explore. I envisioned it as a ship component that can be created through autofactories (economy!) that can be blown up, and that requires a ship to carry it. So just as some random thoughts:

Module: Strike Craft Hangar / Fighter Bay

5 hardpoints. Has space for one strike craft aboard the ship. Can have multiple hangars on a ship.

Strike craft:

Initially for simplicity, not very customizable? Ideally there’d be more things to play with and fine tune down the line, but some ideas for how this could look.

Initial option A: thermal/gravitic/kinetic/EM strike craft constructed from autofactory.
Initial option B: generic strike craft constructed from autofactory. Pilot can switch weapon type.

Damage: some type of fast-hitting, average-damage, spammable attack. Around 1.5-2.0 second fire speed, with damage in the 450-600 range respectively (to average out around 300ish DPS, comparable to Cannon3 or Turret3. A better use of hardpoints, but it requires an extra pilot.

Can be deployed with SHIP RELEASE STRIKERS or SHIP RELEASE . Strike craft can return to the ship (or even another ship) that has an open hangar bay with SHIP HANGAR ENTER or such.

I'm sharing these ideas in Discord too, but I figured there's a few people that might prefer sharing their thoughts on the far-less-spammy forums so I'd post here too just in case.

Manufacturing Recipe Spreadsheets

eel — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 21:42:26 +0000

Because it was pretty hard for me to parse what raw materials make what, and ultimately how much of any given material is needed in what volumes, I gathered that info from WHATMAKES and put it into a table.

And then because I hate myself was bored, I did a bunch of other stuff.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10YpNAP7YLlGRVr5yItpcAZRtvrv0PjvUxGeUjHdE05M/copy?usp=sharing

Probably won't stay current for long, but I think it's correct right now? And if the formulas are all correct, it should be easy to update with any changes to manufacturing recipes. Could use another set of eyes to look over it all.

Obviously, the actual refinery and factory prices currently listed aren't correct. I didn't look too deeply at prices in general. That's something you should fill in yourself. I don't really know how costing works with specializations.

Mostly I'm using it as a guideline for figuring out if X commodity is useful in large quantities, and what I can make with the stuff I do have. Let me know if you find anything that needs correcting in the recipe formulas.

Returning Player - State of Factions?

Ostrich — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 03:02:49 +0000

Hello Starmourn! Been a while. I've been thinking about coming back to the game but had a question regarding the factions in game. The game was set up to give the factions reason to have conflict with each other. The general attitude of the player base at the time I left was lol nah. We just wanna fly our space ships and sing in rock bands. Good things! But give me conflict!

Second was the factions were still forming identities. Have those taken shape? Is there still slavery in Song? Does Celestine still rely on lifts where everywhere else has faster travel? Inquiring minds want to know! Everything else I've missed I can learn IC, but I'm curious as to the state of conflict and of the three factions. Are there still 3? lol. I have no idea.

Thanks in advance!

Character Generator and You!

Devina — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 19:10:34 +0000

So, a while back, I went through the long process of compiling all options for every race (and gender, in most cases, with non-binary not receiving the same amount of love due to a general sameness of all the races save Amaians and Shen). It's time I open it up to you people who might be looking to create a character, but don't know what options are offered to you physically at the very start! They're listed below in quotes for easy reading, in the same order as they're offered to you on the CG screen. Be aware, there are a lot; if you already have a race in mind, feel free to CTRL+F to find it specifically.

AMAIAN (18-90 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 140-191 (female), 147-211 (male)

Eye Colors: purple, blue, green, black, gray, azure, teal, aqua
Skin Color: turquoise, cobalt, lapis, navy, light blue, dark blue, lavender, pewter, gray, dark gray
Fin Types: short, spiky, flowing, fan-shaped, elegant, stubby, sweeping
Fin Colors:

Male Fins: pewter, gunmetal, navy, gray, dark gray, smoke, black
Female Fins: turquoise, cobalt, lapis, navy, dark blue, light blue, lavender

DECHEERAN (50-1100 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 244-366

Eye Colors: green, yellow, orange, brown, hazel, black
Bark Color: birch white, oak brown, ash gray, cedar red
Foliage:

Colors: green, brown, yellow, red, orange, purple, blue
Types: bushy, sleek, short, trimmed, rustling, voluminous

ELGAN (15-65 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 104-163

Eye Colors: blue, green, hazel, brown, black, red, amber
Ear Types: pointy, round, protruding, small, dainty, large, oversized, ragged
Skin Color: pink, rosy, tan, dun, gray, dark, brown, black

HUMAN (18-90 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 140-191 (female), 147-211 (male)

Eye Colors: blue, green, hazel, brown, black
Hair Color: platinum, ash blond, light brown, dark brown, copper, auburn, black, gray
Skin Color: porcelain, pale, rosy, beige, honey, olive, tan, caramel, dusky, dark, brown, black

KRONA (30-420 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 160-224 (female), 155-218 (male)

Eye Colors: red, light brown, dark brown, hazel, amber, black, orange
Hair Color: platinum, ash blond, light brown, dark brown, copper, auburn, black, gray
Skin Color: tan, copper, gray, orange, red, reddish brown, dark brown, black
Tusks: large, small, dainty, sharpened, etched, protruding, wide, jutting

NATH-EL (16-75 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 140-191 (female), 147-211 (male)

Eye Colors: opal, crystal, sapphire, onyx, clear
Chitin Color: ivory, amber, dun, tan, tigereye, black, pale blue, dark blue
Wings:

Colors: clear, white, smoky, tan, tawny, amber, periwinkle, azure
Types: translucent, delicate, frail, broad, tough, chitinous, ephemeral

NUSRIZA (22-145 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 142-201

Eye Colors: red, yellow, orange, blue, green, amber, black
Scale Color: white, green, brown, orange, red, gray, black, tan
Feather Color: scarlet, indigo, violet, saffron, gold, emerald, cobalt
Tails: ringed, kinky, tasseled, smooth, curly, long, short

RY'NARI (17-88 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 155-218 (female), 160-224 (male)

Eye Colors: amber, onyx, jet, ruby, topaz, mica
Scale Color: mossy, crocodile, green, orange, red, tan, brown, gray, black
Frill Type: sweeping, fluffy, thin, feathery, short, clipped, spreading, backswept, spiky
Tail Type: long, heavy, spiked, armored, elegant, slim, thick, short, stumpy, blunt

SHEN (20-100 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 155-218

Eye Colors: red, yellow, orange, blue, green, amber, black
Skin Pattern: mottled, striped, blotchy, speckled, smooth, marbled, swirling, varigated
Male Options:

Skin Color: topaz, garnet, saffron, crimson, orange, rust, bronze, sanguine
Horn Type: tall, wavy, ridged, angular, backswept, spiraling, stubby

Female Options:

Skin Color: viridian, emerald, indigo, navy, violet, teal, lapis, cerulean
Frill Type: radiant, jeweled, short, ribbed, rippling, loose, coronal

Non-Binary Options:

Horn Color: teal, topaz, emerald, garnet, indigo, bronze, navy, crimson, violet

TUKKAV (18-90 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 170-244

Eye Colors: red, light brown, dark brown, hazel, amber, black, orange
Skin Color: black, brown, tan, gray
Fur Color: black, chestnut, brown, ochre, russet, sable, dun, gray
Mane Color: black, chestnut, brown, ochre, russet, sable, dun, gray

W'HOORN (20-130 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 155-218

Eye Colors: yellow, amber, green, blue, orange
Fur Color: gold, silver, gray, black, chestnut, auburn, russet, tawny, copper
Mane Color: gold, silver, gray, black, chestnut, auburn, russet, tawny, copper
Wing Color: gold, silver, gray, black, chestnut, auburn, russet, tawny, copper

JIN (17-88 Galactic Standard Years)
Height Ranges: 160-224

Eye Colors: lavender, purple, amethyst, violet, black, gray, murky
Hair Color: black, dark brown, gray, purple, lavender, violet
Skin Color: smoke, pewter, pearly, violet, lavender, ash brown, stygian
Horn Type: sleek, backswept, curling, oversized, small, spiraled

The Current State of Bashing

Zoe — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 17:49:24 +0000

Late last year I made a thread about the detrimental effect of the introduction of crits on the state of Starmourn's bashing (https://forums.starmourn.com/discussion/1274/bashing-after-crits). This post is not intended to revisit that but an attempt to address the multitude of other problems in bashing currently. (Just to get it out of the way, the game wasn't designed with crits in mind but we know they won't be removed, so there's no point going back over that.)

Alright, on to the ethically-sourced noodles meat of the issue. Before level 75 one bashes to gain extra stat points, lessons, and bound credits. Once one reaches level 75, they instead work towards talent points. The problem with talent points as they currently exist is primarily two-fold. The first and more complicated of the two major problems is that talent points only serve to increase the acquisition of further talent points, marks and bound (daily) credits. So effectively we can reduce it to 'talent points only major effect is to effectively increase marks and credit gain. Crits mean faster per mob kill time, DamageResistance, Dodge and SecondWind all mean less downtime lost to death/healing, the rest continue this trend of killing faster and having less downtime. (DR is an outlier in that its effect assists in PvP too, I should note). So the first problem is that endgame bashing is rather narrowly focused on what can be gained.

The second problem is that none of the above actually matters at all, because bashing cannot compare to credit and marks generation from incursions. Just some very basic math to illustrate this point - Victory Rush without the artefact and Speedup give a 2.16s balance time. In unrealistically optimal conditions (no downtime on either effect, always killing a mob with one attack, always having a new mob to kill (that is, queueing attacks so there's literally zero downtime) you could kill 100 mobs in just over 3.5 minutes. So just over 35 minutes to kill 1000 mobs, the same 10 credits gained from doing a a full hard incursion (50 space mobs). Obviously you're not going to kill even close to 1k mobs per 35 minutes and even if you did I doubt you'd reach the 45k marks profit (not gross payout) I average from doing incursions suboptimally.

A separate problem from the above material ones, but one I'm also going to bring up here rather than make a separate topic for, is that endgame bashing is, put bluntly, fucking boring. One of the major features of Starmourn was the ability to use most (though not all) abilities in PvE as well as PvP. Without crits (at the point effectively meaning before reaching level 75 and 20 talent points) the TTK for mobs is long enough that various strategies could be used, diversity of builds is more acceptable/less crippling, etc. Critical hits in their current state obviate any of that, as applying a condition that increases the damage of another attack becomes severely suboptimal compared to potentially killing the mob with one attack. Beyond the effect of critical hits, though, there has been an active move away from build diversity. For example, the presence of the frozen condition previously increased damage from Nanotech abilities, leading to freeze->swarm having once been an acceptable method of killing mobs. The change to Nanotech abilities scaling to mind subsystem, though, makes doing anything other than freeze on repeat pointless, a move away from engaging PvE. (I expect it to be correctly pointed out that many people automate their bashing and don't care about engagement. Those people's feelings on the matter should frankly not be taken into consideration, because by use of automation they have opted out of that side of the game. As someone who opts out of PvP, I don't try to influence PvP decisions and would hope that my thoughts on an aspect of the game I ignore wouldn't be taken into consideration.)

So, now that I've dropped a massive wall of text about what I see as the problems of bashing, I suppose I should at least try to propose solutions to keep this from being a wholly useless, negative post. An expansion of talent points to address things other than marks/credit generation directly and/or indirectly would be massively beneficial to the game. That's something I pushed for when talents were previewed before their release, because I don't consider increased marks generation alone (this was before daily credits) to be a reason to continue the activity. I'm wary of suggesting more things that mechanically benefit PvE or PvP, but I think there's room for a number of other things to be unlocked. Exclusive customizations are one thing - hair/skin colour, etc. Or even beyond character customizations, ship customizations. There are honestly a lot of places we could go with an expanded talent system and I'm hoping this thread will generate ideas. I'm honestly a bit brain dead after typing all of the above.

An idea to rework the Evasion stat

Squeakums — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 16:43:03 +0000

Currently, our stats have options for 2 offensive stats and 3 defensive stats. Normally people specialize in one offensive stat depending on their preferred kill route. Lots of points are dumped into regen, and some (50-150ish) into life-force.

Evasion is mostly ignored. I don't think it makes for a terribly fun stat with its current mechanics, and I had an idea to rework it into something that does.

Turn Evasion into Shielding.

Thematically, it makes sense. We already have pseudo-forcefield armor from FlexaDerm-style, nano-thickness transparent layers on certain armor descriptions.

Mechanically, it could be something like a shield that has a maximum value of (base HP for your level) or (baseHP / 2) or some flat value like that. Then the stat comes into play with how quickly the shield regens to its max value. At 150 it heals 15% max shield per WW tic, at 200 it heals 20%, at 300 (effective) it heals 30%. If the shield is about half as big as your HP pool, that's roughly 250-500 shield points regeneration every tic for a max level character, depending on how heavily they invested into it.

Why the change?
It gives us another defensive stat to play around with meaningfully.
It slows down burst openers with a big chunk of extra hit points to burn through.
Sustained damage is really high. This would make it so there are easier windows to play around with swapping HP/aff Wetwiring prios.
Once the shield has been depleted, it gives you opportunities to take advantage of burst damage windows.

500 damage shield every 5 seconds? OP!
You have to consider that in order to get to this point, the person will have to have allocated points from elsewhere. So their HP regen is lower, their max hp (and therefore their HP regen) is lower, or their offensive stats are lower. It gives an opportunity for somebody that wants a tanky playstyle to do that in exchange for offensive capacity, which is a niche many enjoy and we currently don't cover. I've also just thrown out random numbers, these could be adjusted up or down as necessary.

With a bit of extra coding, this could also provide an interesting opportunity to do something with EM damage in PvP (where it might be extra effective against shields or something like that).

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the suggestion (regardless of whether you love it or hate it or anything in between).

Official Starmourn Discord

Bandus — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 01:00:28 +0000

Come join the Official Starmourn Discord!

What is Discord?

Discord is a voice and text chat program designed for gamers. It works on both desktops and mobile devices. There are versions available for Windows, Mac (OSX and iOS), Android, and Linux. The feature list of Discord is quite extensive, however, succinctly, it is a simple yet powerful program that enables communication. It is similar, in some ways, to programs such as Skype, Teamspeak, or Ventrilo.

What is the Starmourn Discord?

The Starmourn Discord was created to give players excited about Starmourn a place to gather and chat in real time. While the Starmourn forums and website remain the primary mechanisms for news and information about the game, the Starmourn Discord allows players to discuss character concepts, roleplay ideas, the economy, and much more! Also, using RSS plugins, the Starmourn Discord can help you to be informed when a new post is made.

What is discussed on the Starmourn Discord?

Generally, the conversation tends to focus on Starmourn itself. The discussions generally range about ideas for characters, discussion about how systems might work, the lore of the game, conflict, and more. We also have regular voice discussion sessions which are often attended by Starmourn Staff. There are also non-Starmourn related channels where other games, real life, or just about anything else (within reason) can be discussed. The objective of this server is to enable players to meet and interact with other players who are also interested in Starmourn.

Are there any rules on the Starmourn Discord?

It is important to note that the rules of Starmourn are not enforced on the Discord. That isn't the say that the Discord server doesn't have its own rules though! At present, there are unwritten rules that are common sense. We prefer to minimize the amount of moderation that occurs as we do not wish for the server to be restrictive or authoritative. However, hate speech, spamming inappropriate material, trolling, and discussing illegal activities are some of the things that do not have a place on this Discord. Generally, if someone is doing something that disrupts the Discord, an administrator or moderator will speak with them to attempt to resolve the issue.

Additionally, we welcome and encourage all discussion related to Starmourn! However, if you have a direct question or idea about the game, you should post it to the official Starmourn forums so that everyone can be involved in the discussion!

Because this is a public Discord server, a few security features are in effect. Before you can type in chat, you must have verified your e-mail address through Discord, you must have been registered with Discord for more than 5 minutes, and you must be a member of the server for more than 10 minutes. These are best practices that prevent bad actors from creating junk accounts to spam servers. If you've used Discord before, it is likely the first two items won't affect you at all.

Can I file issues and bugs in the Discord?

Nope! Issues, bugs, and other things will continue to be filed through all the regular in game channels. Talking on Discord about changes you'd like to see is also not guaranteed to get a response from the development team - use the IDEA command, or start a new thread on the forums, for a better chance of a discussion that sticks.

Will the Starmourn Staff actively be monitoring Discord?

Because of the ever-scrolling nature of the Discord, it's impossible to enforce the rules from our forums and game there. We are going to continue to enforce good behavior in both areas with separate moderation strategies, but because it's currently impossible to link game accounts and discord accounts with any consistent accuracy, consequences for poor Discord behavior will be limited to Discord, and consequences for poor game behavior will be limited to the game.

How do I get Discord?

Discord can be acquired by browsing to https://discordapp.com/. This page allows a Discord account to be created. From there, a user has the option to download Discord or use the webapp version of Discord. The feature set between the two are similar, one is simply web based. Also, the mobile version of Discord can be acquired from the Google Play store or the App Store.

How do I join the Starmourn Discord?

By following this invitation link: https://discord.gg/H8m7pFV

If you already have Discord installed, the invitation link will add the Starmourn Discord to your server list. If you do not have Discord installed, the invitation link will open the Discord page and allow you to create an account and begin using the Discord webapp. At that point, you will also have the option to download Discord if you wish.

From within Discord, you can also add the server by selecting the plus symbol at the bottom of your existing server list, selecting "Join a Server", inputting H8m7pFV into the field, and selecting the "Join" button.

We look forward to seeing and meeting you on the Starmourn Discord!

What do you do if you find a player's corpse floating in space?

bugbo — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 07:38:12 +0000

The other day I was flying around when I found some loose cargo floating in space. When I loaded it on my ship I found out it was somebody's corpse and a few junk items. When I docked at the station they gave me the cash value of the junk and the corpse was gone. Will the player who owns the corpse be able to scan the INR to get back some of their XP?

Idea: Elgan Public Access Holoshrine

Afesotinuilar — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 15:43:19 +0000

Here with a little proposal for a shiny RP/lore tool. How do my fellow 'gans feel about it?

Elgans revere their ancestors as gods, are fascinated by tech, and place strong emphasis on social justice and responsibility despite being chaotic swamp-frog-goblins
For these reasons, I'd like to suggest the addition of a new room/building in Biloxan - a public access holoshrine, in which players can input the names of Elgans past to bring up a little bit of dialogue and description about the deceased. It makes sense to me as a way to widely educate people about important figures, to celebrate their culture and contributions to their society, and to serve as an outlet for any 'gan to worship or reflect if necessary.

Their fixation on wealth generation and gaming would also, in my opinion, demand the addition of a 'total wealth contribution' score, which would be an inflation-adjusted count of how much wealth was contributed to the Trinity for redistribution at the time of their death. This scoreboard of top earners would be a clear indication of their highly gamified culture, and a fun little quirk you wouldn't typically expect to see in a place of worship. (Plus, ICly, it would be a good motivator to ensure families don't use their clout to hoard resources - you don't want your family's gods to be ranked low, so you go out of your way to increase the total donation score!)

Likely names of deceased Elgans to reference at the outset would be figures already named in brief via memorials, such as Corwin Meron, Heldisa Venci, and both 'Telean' and 'Govan', and should be expanded to reflect any deceased named Elgans from events and lore.

Let me know what you think!

- Sot

Shoot tips

Roilla — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 01:24:44 +0000

Hi! I'm Laura in game! (I changed my name and it didn't update on here.

I've been playing some of the other IRE games and finally caved and checked back into Starmourn after I saw the promo that it had going. I was around for release but I've long since forgotten my character.

I am primarily interested in how to level efficiently, role-playing, commerce, and light combat. Any tips?

Where'd everybody go?

Shrik — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 13:00:29 +0000

I played during the initial opening launch and remember WHO being upwards of 100+ people constantly, but after logging on recently a few times I've noticed that it never gets higher than 5 or 10 people now.

What caused the massive exodus?

A Request

Ikchor — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 00:08:26 +0000

Apologies for the clickbait-y title, I just didn't know what else to put this as and I figured a blunt title was fitting.

I want to start off by saying: yes, hindsight is 20/20 and I wish that I had thought to ask for this before this most recent classlead round. Better late than never though, right?

Since Starmourn is in beta and we have been half-jokingly referred to as beta testers in the past, I have a fairly large request: Please show us the math for damage, and how the math works for all the skills. On top of this, allowing us to freely swap classes and freely change stat allocations for a fixed period of time again so we can help fix other classes that may be lacking in numbers.

I do not presume to know what decisions are being made way (WAY) above my head as a player but if the joke is only half true that we are all beta testers and we are to actively test out, report bugs, and otherwise help unbreak/break parts of this game. That means - to me anyway - it's also half-true.
So some additional transparency would be helpful, I do not mean transparency as in 'What are our devs doing this week?', as that is already documented for us - thank you for that! - instead I mean the kind of transparency you get from knowing the nuts and bolts, x and y values of a profession's skills and how the stats work and work with it.

This started with a bit of the discussion in the Scoundrel channel on Discord revolving around increasing our normal damage output by a certain percentage, and it got me thinking at the time "Increase damage by a percentage, but of what and where in the formula? We don't know the math here, there might be something we're missing or we could inadvertently shoot ourselves in the foot and have it applied in the wrong place."
No pun intended. I didn't bring it up at the time because I was doing something else. Hindsight.

We already know how some of it works because that's been laid out in help files and just as a result of playing for so long some of it is known, such as one point of lifeforce (prior to the 2:1 threshold) translating to an increase of five hitpoints. However, beyond this, some of that information has been lost to us when a significant chunk of our PVP players shuffled off to other games to scratch their PVP itch.

Removing the ambiguity and the obscurity in this would go a long way to ending some old speculation, questions and some general confusion about our skills. Which would lead to a better grasp of what our skills should/could do in combat, and end the constant "This skill FEELS like its coming up short, but I can't confirm it" feeling and maybe give some people the confidence to go "Yeah, I'll fight. I get how my skills work numbers-wise, and I know why I could die."

To reiterate, free class swaps and stat resets for a period of time to see what happened to the other classes firsthand, and please show us the math going on under the hood so we can make better informed classleads in the future. I understand the second part is a fairly large ask as MUDs jealously guard their math for this, but the idea of having us suggest changes to classes while being in the dark about the real numbers behind them is a bit ... counter-intuitive?

Anyone else have anything to say about this?

Starmourn Memes

Zhedan — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 21:25:32 +0000

I didn't see a meme thread for Starmourn yet, so I figured I would start us off with a couple about my adventure so far:

Moonchild Tesseract Party this Sat!

Orrin — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 18:28:02 +0000

Hey everyone!

Just a reminder that the Moonchild Rainbow Party will be held on Saturday at sync - IRL that's August 8th at 7PM CST / Midnight GMT / 1am BST. Sync time tomorrow, to make it simple.

You still have time to pick up a rainbow tesseract and attend the party! (you don't have to but obviously the more tesseracts we have to open the more goodies we all get!)

Don't miss it! Previous attendees have received lots of goodies, including artifacts. The party will be held at Lamentations on Omni Station so that everyone can attend.

Hope to see you there!

(p.s. There will also be goodie bags, food and drink! Woo!)

Character Race/Class/Faction Breakdowns?

Xiru — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:59:04 +0000

Does anyone have a current breakdown of the game demographics? The last one I saw was from 2019. I'm just curious.

Crime and Conflict

Ikchor — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 20:36:56 +0000

Making this thread for the discussion (i have no idea if i put it in the right category) that happened today 2020/06/14 - Crime and Conflict so we can put things up that we asked, forgot to ask, or did not make it in time to ask, et cetera.

Crime

There needs to be varied punishments for crime in Starmourn, there's really only two or three flavors:

- fined
- fined AND enemied
- enemied for life (or until a faction leader comes around that doesn't remember why you did the thing)

Both obviously carry a penalty where you are killed on sight if in another faction's territory while enemied. This works for alot of crimes, but small ones like graffiti? Getting enemied/KOS orders thrown on you is pretty extreme (unless the graffiti itself was pretty pervasive)

I would like to see a 'softer' punishment option to enemy status: Prohibited.

Prohibited status does not bar you from entry BUT

- Guards will immediately move to your location (assignable) and follow you around.
- Your entry and exit to faction territory is broadcast on FT (with a cooldown/channel on you leaving and entering so you can't just spam in and out to annoy people into gagging it away)
- Faction members can path track to you. Target is alerted of this.
- Cannot perform or attend concerts in factions you have prohibited entry to.
- Cannot invis in
- Mask automatically falls off?

Faction Mark Generation

Ikchor — Sat, 30 May 2020 03:58:01 +0000

Late night discussion in game has me pondering ways and means for factions to generate marks on their own, without relying heavily on (in)voluntary deposits from players. I'm just going to list off what I've thought off of the top of my head in the discussion and subsequently hope that my thread doesn't immediately get flagged for review as that has been an on and off thing for me all week
Most of this would be handled by whoever holds the accounts privilege/factionpower, naturally.

None of this is intended to be a major revenue source so much as a means of funding other faction ventures like subsidized ships and ammo for newbies, gear for returning players, marks rewards for doing things that benefit the faction et cetra. Small stuff.

- Faction held refineries
This got tossed around for a different reason but it'd be a nice steady drip feed of marks for factions. Maybe tie in a cosmipiercer influenced bonus to production so there's some reason for them to exist? Not crucial, since the main benefit is they'd never shut down and ideally won't be limited by the 3 of 3 types limit.

- Concert proceeds
Holding a concert in a faction should generate income for that faction based off ticket sales. Would this significantly impact groups like K0NF3CTION and Omnifarrous? Yeah probably, depending on the size of the cut but you're using faction property to make money, something should go to them out of courtesy. Maybe as incentive, there is a price multiplier for faction bars but Lamentations doesn't have that. The trade off between them is that at Lamentations you're not making as much but its all yours and to prevent this from being used ALL the time and defeating the point: Only three(?) acts per Sync can play at Lamentations whereas faction space is limitless. After that it's up to the factions to decide how to draw bands into their venues.

- Direct purchase of resources
Long story short, something similar to the other IRE titles comms market would probably go a long way to helping out.

- Trade Terminal Income
Recurring cost of having a shop in a faction's trade terminal network, set by economic types. Omni network is free but you can't use marks to boost your ranking on the list.

edit:
- Faction Designs
When a design is shared to faction listings, the download cost is doubled. Half goes to the designer, as normal, and the other half goes to the faction.

These are just my thoughts and suggestions, if anyone has anything to add, please do so!

Questions on Jin beliefs and being cloned

ParsleyFree — Fri, 22 May 2020 18:47:33 +0000

Hi everyone,

Recently joined and enjoying getting back into roleplaying. Some questions:

Jin-related:

How do Jin, who traditionally spend their lives preparing for death, regard being revived continuously through cloning?

Does a death that causes a clone to activate count as that kind of death for which they have been preparing?

As far as I have been able to reason for myself, I think from my character's perspective, who is relatively young and has died twice already, that they are experiencing a continuous cycle of life and death, and this, philosophically, can provide opportunities for emotional growth (or other personality changes).

On the topic of cloning:

Is it believable for a character to experience forgetfulness and other time-related disorders after being cloned? Could you believe adverse effects related to memory over the long term from repeated cloning? Or are such aberrations generally unheard of due to the time the technology has been around?

Do/Could deaths in space affect memory? If (from the main site) "brain state is then uploaded to a cloning facility whenever you land on a planet or space station with one"? My character died in space and I was wondering if my character would reasonably be able to tell others about it, if I look at the last time I was on a space station as "upload of memories".

Hello!

Vundara — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 22:01:50 +0000

Hello, I'm new to Starmourn but not new to IRE MUDs. It's good to get back into MUDs and potentially friendly communities. I've already seen some good people in-game and hope to build friendships with like-minded roleplayers. Cheers!

Starmourn: Year 2 Incoming!

Vega — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 04:47:35 +0000

The year 2020 is right around the corner, and I know we are all currently in varying stages of 'prepared'. Thankfully we have Starmourn. So despite all the New Years resolutions we're probably going to make and break for the important shit, let's have a chat about all the shit we want to get done and plan to get done in Starmourn for the second year.

Are you going to make new friends?
Pick up a tradeskill?
Maybe dabble in some PVP?
Oh, how about finally reaching level 75?

I'm sure you all have something up your sleeves, so spill!

@Ilyos and @Eukelade feel free to also throw us a bone.

Everyone else, tag someone you want to hear from.

My Starmourn credits for your Achaea Credits

Meraki — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 01:28:40 +0000

I find myself with too many unbound credits here and too few on Achaea. If you find yourself in the smae situation in reverse let me know and we can arrange a trade.

Starmourn RACING

Lhundrup — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 19:30:03 +0000

(This is not a post about space racing, but ground-based racing)

Text-based racing! Here's how I imagine it working in Starmourn:

Firstly, I think vehicles that can be used for racing should have several slots available to install upgrade parts which will improve the vehicle's performance. A vehicle's performance should just be represented by a hard number, say 100 is stock, and 130 is fully upgraded. With just this portion installed, we have the potential to have drag racing! Drag racing; I believe, should depend solely on a vehicle's performance and have a randomized value drawn when racing another driver. So, If your vehicle had a performance value of 115 you would draw a number at random between 95 and 120 (or so), your opponent would have a performance value of 105 and be able to draw between 85 and 110. So, when the race commences there could be some flavor text, but the winner is determined by whomever draws the highest number.

I think that would be fun! We could have vehicle meets, betting, npc drivers, tournaments, etc.

That would be a fun first step in the world of Starmourn RACING!

Straight lines and super engines are fine and all, but what about some futuristic racing with awesome gravity defying tracks?

Here's how I see it potentially working:

It will basically be bashing. You could have 3(or so) stats dedicated purely to racing. They might be: Handling (responsible for decreasing stamina loss from turns; or enemies) Strength (increases "damage" dealt to turns; or enemies) and Stamina (increases your total stamina) I see it working similarly to hacking, You have a pool of stamina that you need to maintain in order to reach the goal. Let's say at level 1 Racing you have 1 point in each stat and 1000 stamina points. Let's race! When you start a race you are taken to the track and are in your vehicle of choice. I see the "track" as just being a private room in which enemies (turns, obstacles, stunt areas, straightaways) will spawn! I think that by using this, you can even let people design their own tracks by allowing them to select what enemies spawn in what order. HERE WE GO! "You are teleported to your Delta Racer" The christmas tree lights up! 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! The first enemy to spawn is "a medium straightaway" This enemy will not attack you, and will replenish some stamina when you "FLOOR IT" (which will kill it). This will spawn the next enemy: "a soft left turn" which will immediately "attack" your vehicle for low stamina damage (let's say 100) You must then TURN LEFT to retaliate, and you will inflict damage on the "turn" which is determined by your vehicle's performance value and your strength. The amount of damage you inflict on turns will be a big determinate factor in your final score (Or time). I think you should only be able to "attack" each "enemy" once... So, it wouldn't be a traditional enemy in that you need to reduce it to 0 health. But, rather a numerical source for the driver's final score. You hit the turn, it disappears and spawns the next section of the track: "a right hairpin turn" that immediately hits your vehicle for large damage (300?) but you deftly TURN RIGHT and deal (200?) damage. What's next? A ramp! Simply TURN NITRO to initiate a powerful boost to launch yourself off the ramp; crossing a pit of not-so-lucky racing vehicles and inflicting damage.

After several turns, obstacles, loops, and jumps you find yourself crossing the finish line! This is the final enemy, it does not attack, and you need only FINISH RACE to receive your final score (or time) and return to yourself like when finished hacking. Okay, I admit, I am horrible at math... But I think a person's final time should be derived somehow from their total damage dealt to enemies...

So, what happens when you reach 0 stamina? YOU CRASH! But, I feel this shouldn't simply end your run - Maybe you simply hug the wall violently and your final score is reduced by a %. But, then you correct yourself and are given 30% stamina back to get back in there!

Using this method, I think you could create some really neat and challenging tracks! I see a rankings board being pretty popular here...

ROLEPLAY

I think that there should be an awesome raceway where everything vehicle related happens! Maybe a space station in it's own right! What I envision as a raceway of the Starmourn sector would be a HUGE warehouse filled with pre-made sections of track that are mechanically assembled by some kind of robots into pre-configured circuits going around the space station (kinda like slot car tracks). I could see this method including both pre-made tracks and player-made tracks. All you need is a nice variety of "sections" of track and you got yourself a track builder! We just have to determine the order, and which of the enemies spawn. Say we can build our own tracks willy-nilly but we need to fork over some marks if we want to publish said track and have it available as one of the station's regular tracks.

Our First Year in Space!

Eukelade — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 03:41:19 +0000

Hey everyone - we've done our first yearly round up - it's located on the website, right here: https://www.starmourn.com/2020/01/04/our-first-year-in-space/

I think the facts are all pretty well outlined in the post, but on a personal note, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for being the coolest playerbase I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Seriously, you guys have made me laugh and cry (and laugh until I cry), sweat anxiously as I attempted to speed-read through miles of combat spam, and yell at my computer screen in shock. I feel genuinely lucky to have spent the last year getting to know you all - it has been a joy!

Here's to more fun in 2020! Happy New Year!

I'm done

Cubey — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 17:06:46 +0000

I'm done with this game.

I'm done with the fact my faction is dead. The faction I've spent months of efforts to maintain and keep active, months that felt like extremely unfun work (instead of what they should have been, fun - because it's a video game and games are supposed to be fun, right?), and now it's so dead that I can't even delegate any leader duties to others, because literally all who is left are people who are already in leadership positions, those who aren't interested, and newbies. Starmourn is not a big game right now and none of the factions are particularly big, but neither Song nor SH are as dead as CA is, and I can't shake the feeling I'm responsible for that somehow.

I'm done with the PvP community, and being constantly told to git gud because I can't win a 2v4 fight or because I have an opinion that goes against the grain, such as deciding not to use mudlet (which I find ugly and unappealing). I'm done with PvP itself being high stakes and how it's apparently a controversial opinion not to want to lose hard earned ingame resources in a one-sided conflict for minimal gain. When I tried to instill a sense of not being a griefer in the community, I experienced intense pushback time and time again, both from people who think it's in-character so it's okay to do, and those who think it's just a game so you shouldn't worry so much about what happens in it. Nevermind that the ingame losses suffered still require time to recoup, sometimes hours of time wasted that are no less real just because you spend them in a game.

I'm done with my efforts at RP falling flat, having found myself challenged to write interesting emotes and things to say and feeling extremely inadequate for it.

I came to Starmourn with a goal in mind, to be a great and memorable player, but in the end the only memorable thing I achieved is the number of OOC arguments I've caused. Everything else was an uphill battle that ended in failure and I no longer have the motivation to deal with that. Dropping the game and nothing of value is lost.

Updates Post #311: Guard INRs

Flipilaria — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 16:02:43 +0000

-- Updates - #311 --------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 12/29/2019 at 15:18

Author: Ilyos, the Arbiter

Subject: Guard INRs.

Based on forum feedback, we now have a first iteration of guard INRs:

- Faction guards may now be fitted with an INR, allowing them to respawn every 2

hours

- This new upgrade is purchased just like any other upgrade via FACTION GUARD

UPGRADE and costs the same

- The INR upgrade has its own slot and will not lock you out from purchasing one

of the other regular upgrades

- The INR does not add to the guard's upkeep like other upgrades, but instead

costs the faction 5,000 marks per death. Failure to pay for this on death will

result in the guard's permadeath as usual

- FACTION GUARD INFO will display if a guard has an INR or not.

- Once bought, this upgrade is permanent.

- The guard will respawn in the room it is HIREd in or, in the room it is

STATIONed via the relevant commands.

- Guards respawn with their upgrades intact

- Don't be alarmed if their maintenance status shows up as 'bad' in FACTION

GUARD LIST while they're recloning.

We will monitor the costs, respawn times and other related mechanics based on

your feedback.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's have that TL;DR bois

Camus — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 22:39:43 +0000

So I recently started playing again (like, today) after leaving for quite some time. I played for a month or two starting from day 1. I guess I'm looking for that TL;DR on what has changed. How are CPs now? Incursions? Did artifacts divide the player base into top tier and everyone else yet? Is hacking more fun? Looking for the reasons to stay back I suppose.

Experience per level

Zhedan — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 06:28:56 +0000

Hello! Just curious if anybody has put values to the experience per level in Starmourn. I'm not entirely sure how this works, or if it is frowned upon by the admin (if so, then I have no interest!). But, coming from Achaea, somebody managed to calculate the numbers which was helpful for estimating the grind to 75! Just wondering if there is any intel on this yet...

Proposal: dungeons in space

Steve — Sun, 24 Nov 2019 19:20:24 +0000

One of the often mentioned issues with space is that it doesn't do a good job of incorporating other aspects of gameplay, like ground combat and hacking. I've enjoyed seeing how IRE has been working towards integrating these systems, and I had an idea for blending all three, inspired by pirate refineries and hacking missions. Pirate refineries are neat except that they essentially require a cruiser or battleship and they reward commodities only, which are of interest only to people engaged in incursions, making some marks, or CP raids.

Remember that quest that involves attacking a defense platform that spawns fighters? Destroy the fighters, then disable the platform, then dock and advance. What if we had dungeons that combined that mechanic, incursion difficulty ratings, hacking, and ground-based, 2+ player dungeons that scale with level (like how New Dikamazi scales from 50-75)? Before I go on, here's what I mean by incursion difficulty ratings combined with level scaling:

Easy difficulty would spawn ships of similar difficulty to Easy incursions, would scale in level with a minimum scaling level of 20, and, if applicable, would have hacking terminals at level 4.
Medium difficulty would spawn ships of similar difficulty to Medium incursions, would scale in level with a minimum scaling level of 40, and, if applicable, would have hacking terminals at level 8.
Hard difficulty would spawn ships of similar difficulty to Hard incursions, would scale in level with a minimum scaling level of 60, and, if applicable, would have hacking terminals at level 12.

So, where we are now is that a player approaches the defense platform, engages it, and the platform deploys some fighters to defend itself. We blow up all the stuff and dock with it, and then there's mobs that scale with level.

Here's where it gets thematic. I'd love to see there be a variety of these space dungeons.

Imagine you find a Loroi slave den on an asteroid. You want to shoot the slaver scum and free the slaves, so you open fire on the asteroid's defenses. The Loroi smell an opportunity for more slaves, so they attack you. Foolish slavers! They're ranked Easy, and you've shot their ships to bits a million times before. You blast their ships out of the sky, fire a few shots at a ground-based turret, and dock. It's time for the raid.

You get on foot and your quest begins in earnest. (Sound like hacking quests? Yeah, that's the idea.) You raid the slaver den, slaughtering all the Loroi. You free the slaves, who thank you profusely -- quest complete; they ask to hitch a ride with you back to whatever backwater station you call home, and you, Hero, assent. But while you're walking back to your ship, you notice a locker with a big, juicy lock on it. Naturally, you walk on over, inspect the lock, and hack it. Bingo! You find a weapon cache and some money. Mission accomplished. Time to take these freed souls wherever; surely they'll tell tales of your heroism.

There could be a lot of versions of this. Here are a few ideas:

A corporate factory's bots have gone berserk, and you've got to set things straight. But they'll pay you better if you don't destroy all the equipment; they just want you to get in and reboot the systems. But hey, bots are terrible, and, knowing this, they pay you handsomely. Would they notice if you hacked another terminal and stole some corporate secrets while you're at it?
Binaries, trinaries, what have you -- they're odd. Ata's NPC twin sees that you're in the vicinity of one such cluster of these weird things, and, now that you're blowing things up, he contacts you and asks you to do some "research" on them.
Some bored Sahakren have taken up a hobby of pitting drugged up Bushraki against each other in pit fights, tinkering with them between competitions. The Bushraki aren't happy with the arrangement. Do you help the Sahakren, who offer to pay you handsomely to preempt rebellion by finding and killing Spartacus? Or do you help the Bushraki kill their captors?

As for hacking, I'd want most of the hacking options to be either alternative means of completion (maybe a safe pathway) or means of getting more loot (chests). Making hacking a requirement for completion of a quest for one such dungeon would be fine, but making them all complete with hacking would gate people out too much.

I'd want generous experience rewards, generous marks rewards (in the form of marks, equipment, or both), and maybe some commodities, too. I'd also really like to have different, known floor plans, a la hacking dungeons. But probably bigger.

Bonus: Very Hard difficulty. Hard (or very hard? please?) ships plus generators, deadly monsters intended for 75+ (meaning talents), hacking level 16 or higher. Appropriately grand theme, like Ishvana or a HETE facility gone rogue.