The year is chugging along, and Starmourn is chugging along with it. It’s April now, and while the weather is getting warmer for most of the northern hemisphere, things in Starmourn are heating up too. In fact, we’ve been experiencing a bit of a population boom lately. We welcome our new friends, and once all these government shutdowns are over (as soon as possible, please!?), we hope that at least some of you will find a way to stick around!
Here’s a few things you might have missed if you haven’t been logging in.
Murder at Scatterfest
Remember that music festival we talked about? Yeah, that happened…but things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
The mood was high and energized after successful sets from KONF3KTION and Orrin Omnifarious, and the crowd was more than warmed up for the
headlining band – the famous Space Rogues – when they took the stage. However, halfway through the first song of their set, disaster struck. During some kind of lighting malfunction, the lead singer, Silhouette, appeared to be killed on stage. Naturally, the festival descended into chaos, with accusations being thrown at everyone from the event organizer to other bands about who was responsible. The Space Rogues pleaded for Scatterhome to take responsibility for the crime that had been committed, and the Marshals Woodro Phis’tor and Poet tried to keep order in an increasingly riotous crowd. Hope, Orrin Moonchild, Agi Ironbound, and many other individuals swiftly began to investigate.
Things are currently under investigation in Scatterhome, and there is a bounty for any information active and waiting to be claimed. Could the recent, violent overturning of a Bodean warehouse (and the destruction of several valuable security bots belonging to a local collection agency) have something to do with this, or was it just an unrelated coincidence? Murder and mayhem are awfully common things in the rowdiest faction in the game, after all.
The Sabiak Teahouse and Spa
We know life has been stressful for a lot of people lately. So it might interest you all to learn about the Sabiak Teahouse and Spa that recently opened on Atria, the Decheeran homeworld.
Whether you’re a Decheeran or not, Thistletwig and Filbert hope you will come visit. Enjoy a rootsoak or a scented infusion, enjoy the many varieties of tea that are available, and help feed the poikos (or take one home to put in your fishtank.)
With five new quests, a bunch of cool souvenirs, and even a hidden title (can you find it?), this establishment was a labor of love, with wholesome, leafy delight in every detail.
April Promo
In April, the Worldbreaker’s Wheel is once again the game of choice in Starmourn sector. This month, we have a bunch of new, spring-related items and artifacts that can be won from the Wheel, including:
Items
- RoamTek Botanicals is proud to release their gardener’s starter kit. Perfect for hobbyists, this rustic crate will be a charming addition to your decor, and has also been packed full of everything you need to get started with growing your own flowers. Comes with a random assortment of seeds sourced from all over the galaxy!
- Straight from the exotic greenhouses on Jerzah comes a potted heik-il plant. Don’t let those who say this species is a dangerous, toxic weed dissuade you from owning one of these unique companions. They’re really rather friendly, and very easy to feed – they’ll eat just about anything!
- An experimental environmental control panel has been released by Clear Skies Consolidated, allowing you to manipulate the very atmosphere and environment of your ship. Installed with cutting edge software that is intelligent enough to construct a pleasing environmental response based on your vaguest voice commands.
- A fresh new issue of Downhome Spacer is abloom with springtime fashion tips this month, along with gardening related news and articles from all over the sector.
Artifacts:
- The Repopulator – Little is known about the workings of this device, as it just popped up on the market recently, without disclosure of origin. When activated, it reboots the neural activity in the brain of all denizens in the area and sends their regenerative systems into overdrive, effectively reanimating everything in the area. (ACTIVATE REPOPULATOR to respawn all mobs in an area every 2 hours). The Repopulator is available for free purchase at any time for 1500cr in the ARTIFACT LIST
- Camou-foliage – The latest in stalking and spying, the Camou-foliage will erect a believable holographic field around you, masking you behind the image of a large shrubbery to all prying eyes. (Hides you in the room until you perform an action. Leaves a shrubbery visible in the room though)
Collectibles:
A new collectible set has been released in our ‘historical’ category. Collect all five cards to learn about these historical Decheerans and their influence on the sector, and as always, collecting a complete set of normal or foiled cards will allow you to receive some unique bonuses. The normal set bonus will grant you a unique nature/plant themed message when you are killed and will also alter the look of your corpse to fit this theme. The foil set bonus will allow you to COLLECTIBLES ACTIVATE 12 to call forth a mass of writhing vines in your location. The vines will last for 2 minutes or until a personal enemy attempts to leave the room, where the vines will pull the person back into the room, put them off balance and prone them.
Check out HELP COLLECTIBLES for more on how the collectible system works!
And as is always the case, you can earn yourself a free Wheel spin every day after playing for at least an hour, or buy as many tokens as you want under the ‘artifact packages’ section of our website.
What’s Next?
We are leaving out a lot of stuff, here. We haven’t even talked about our recent Discord discussion led by Bandus, the activity level and enthusiasm of Saio and Damiel (our newest Storytellers), the recent glut of updates to our public wiki, or the upcoming Enterprise system (spoiler alert!). And don’t even get us started on what we on staff have been tossing around as an idea for a big summer blockbuster event…it’s a doozy.
If you’re reading this, we hope you’ll consider logging in and getting in on some of this action. As one of our players said back at launch, the game is here, and ready to welcome you with a shot of whiskey, a mug of hot cocoa, and a greeting full of sarcasm of profanity. See you there!
Hi, Starmourners! Wow, the world has gone a bit crazy since the last time we posted, huh? While we can’t wait for things to get back to normal, we also want to encourage our players to stay indoors as much as possible, for the safety of themselves and those around them!
Which means that if you, like many people these days, find yourself with a lot more time on your hands than you used to – you might want to log back into Starmourn. We’ve made some changes, and if you haven’t played in awhile…they might be up your alley.
Talents
Reached the level cap, and don’t know where to go after that? We’ve got good news for you! The game doesn’t end at level 75 anymore.
Once you are level 75, any normal experience you gain will be dumped into a new “talent experience pool”. When you have enough experience in this pool, you may spend it to gain a talent point. You can then spend this point to enhance a number of aspects related to your character. This system effectively removes the cap on experience gain, as you can continue to gain post-75 talent experience and points for a very long time. Naturally, the more points you get, the more experience it will cost to gain the next point.
To interact with the system, you can use the TALENTS command.
TALENTS LIST – List your talents and distribution.
TALENTS SHOW <name> – Show information about a specific talent.
TALENTS ACQUIRE – Acquire a new talent point (if you have the xp)!
TALENTS INVEST <name> – Invest a point in a talent.
TALENTS RESET – Reset your talent distribution.
Xenoslayers
Fantom Laboratories, a respected scientific institution, has recently broadcast a universal commsphere message filled with worrying news. It seems that, due to unknown circumstances, certain creatures in the wildernesses of the galaxy have begun exhibiting abnormal behaviors and enhanced physical and mental abilities.
The fine people at Fantom Labs have vowed to help keep the galaxy safe from these threats and to find out what lies at the root of these mutations. They are calling upon able-bodied hunters to bring these things down as they appear and bring them the corpses for scientific study. They will kindly alert everyone on a wide band frequency when a new specimen is spotted…code name and location included! And they swear, they probably didn’t have anything to do with this.
What does this mean?
Periodically, a random mob from a wilderness somewhere in game will be elevated to either Betarch or Apex status. This status will enhance that mob until its death and grant it new powers. A Betarch will receive one power, while an Apex will receive two powers. Alongside these powers, the creatures themselves will be tougher to kill and will deal more damage. If you probe them, you will see what powers they currently have – which could be any number of deadly things, from toxic poisons to berserker strength.
What you need to remember is that they are almost impossible to take out by yourself – you’ll need to bring friends in order to succeed.
Killing these creatures rewards MUCH more experience than normal, better drops and there’s a guaranteed loot token for each kill. Also, Fantom Laboratories are interested in the corpse (for science!), so whoever will deliver the dead creature to one of their laboratory locations on Krell, Kovalar or Delphi will gain a mark reward and increase their standing with Fantom Labs (you might want this for the future). If you’re looking to redeem your loot tokens, each lab has a secretary or accountant that will help you with this – each lab grants a different lootset from the past.
RANKINGS XENOSLAYERS shows the current top monster slayers in the game – will you be one of them, or will you be left in the dirt?
What’s Next?
Don’t forget, Starmourn’s daily credit system has been up and running for awhile now. Logging on and participating in various activities will see you netting yourself a tidy handful of credits each day.
As for these new systems we’ve introduced – they are still in the balance stages, and we’ll be adjusting them on the fly for a little while to come. To that end, we could use your help! Please give us your feedback – our forums are a good place to start!
We know times in the real world are tough and stressful for a lot of people these days. Social distancing won’t last forever, but while it does, try to relax and have fun where you can! We’re with you, and we’re here for you, and we hope to see you in the stars whenever you’re ready.
Starmourners (and anyone else reading this), we’ve got some awesome news today and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are!
Starmourn is now introducing a way for all players to gain up to 20 BOUND Credits each RL day. Performing various tasks in game will reward you with 1-2 bound credits, up to the aforementioned cap.
You can easily keep track of the list of tasks and your progress within those tasks with the DAILYCREDITS command. The status resets every day at the Sync.
There are a few repeatable tasks that you can do several times a day, but they will give half the reward (so 1 credit) after you complete them the first time. These tasks are marked on your Daily Credit status in the appropriate column.
The current task set is as follows:
1 Fulfill the daily Xeno bounty – 1 credit
2 Complete any 10 quests (REPEATABLE) – 2 credits
3 Hack 10 points worth of terminals – 2 credits (Level 1-5 terminals award 1 point, 5-10 award 2 points and 10+ award 3 points)
4 Harvest a Ta-deth crystal – 2 credits
5 Win a duel – 2 credits
6 Kill 100 mobs (REPEATABLE) – 2 credits
7 Kill 5 enemies in incursions (REPEATABLE) – 2 credits
8 Have a design approved – 1 credit
9 Refine 5 asteroids/gas scoops (REPEATABLE) – 2 credits (This counts when you queue up the goods)
10 Complete 2 performances – 1 credit
11 Craft 10 items – 1 credit (This refers to items crafted via tradeskills)
We’ll be monitoring this system over the next few weeks and make adjustments and fixes as necessary! Above all else, we hope that this change will encourage people to play the game we all love – after all, more people online means more fun for everyone else, right?
So play on, Starmourners – we will see you in space!
So, Starmourners. I bet you’re wondering what we’ve been up to since the beginning of January, right? Read on, because we’re gonna tell you!
Since the turn of the year, implementing the playerbase’s hundreds of classlead suggestions have taken the bulk of January’s development time. It continues to be a focus for our lead coders, with substantial refinements to the B.E.A.S.T., Fury, Nanoseer, and Scoundrel classes, with decent inroads on the Engineer. We’re continuing to listen to your feedback, here – don’t be shy about filing bugs if you notice something amiss with the new features.
February So Far
Open on Omni Station this month is The Amory’s pop-up store, stocked with a whole host of sexy things designed to enhance your love connection. Tokens for the Amory can be found in this month’s boxes, which you can get as prizes for Playing Cupid with all your friends in game – or for being the target of a Cupid of your own. Surely people won’t mind a little nanite dart. There’s more exciting Valentine’s Day news in the works, too!
Also introduced this month as an IRE-wide change is the addition of new Iron Elite membership options. Now, when you purchase an Iron Elite membership, you have the ability to purchase a 3, 6, or 12 month bundle, with an immediate windfall of credits and XP bonuses for you to enjoy.
Upcoming Features and Events
A little later in the month, we’ll be unveiling a feature-rich new game which we think most of you will rather like. The hint is in the image – so keep playing! We’re still in the testing phases, but when we release, you’ll know it!
And at the beginning of March, log in to participate in ANARCHY, A Scatterhome Music Festival. Organized by one of our most prolific players, Scatterfest promises to be an extravaganza like none other. In true Scatterhome fashion, we’re sure the event promises to delight with a few twists and turns nobody could possibly be expecting…
That’s it for our glance back at January (and some of February), and our peek into the next few weeks! Don’t forget to pick up a bag of conversation hearts at The Amory so you can tell your loved ones “I’LL KILL U LAST”.
Happy February!
The new year is here, and Starmourn feels more refined and grown up by the day. The game has advanced in leaps and bounds from its fledgling beginnings to something that we all feel truly proud of. Not bad, for something that’s barely a year old as of this writing!
We hope that 2020 will be just as jam-packed with new features and events as 2019 was. The development team is full of ideas for the future of the game, defining a path for the coming year that will lead us out of open beta and into a full release. Keep reading for some peeks at what the team is most excited about and actively planning to work on and release in the coming year.
What’s Next?
Classleads are the first thing on our agenda – with hundreds of entries, we have a lot of work to do! And we heard you – the B.E.A.S.T. class in particular will be getting some major TLC. A new system for continued experience gain after level 75 will be implemented, giving us all exciting new goals to strive for.
On the PVE side of things, the main questline will be revisited in 2020, taking us further along the journey with Voxxi, Cassandra, the Ishvana, and all our old friends (and enemies). For roleplay, we are planning a major overhaul in the way Storytellers can interact with players, giving them a way to directly influence the directions of play and make the world seem rich and alive. Roleplay in general will continue to be a focus, with new tools and code specifically for enriching your experience and deepening your sense of immersion in an ongoing story of your own design.
Also in 2020, we hope for our dreams of a colonization system to come to fruition. We are still in the planning stages, and don’t want to spoil any surprises, but this is already shaping up to be the biggest project of the year. The team is enthusiastic about making this feature the one that will change the face of Starmourn – and MUDs in general – in a huge way.
Ongoing, of course, will be further refinements to existing systems, plenty of player-driven events, class balancing, and bug squashing. We’d like to see further ways to work with our unofficial Discord community. We’re kicking around ideas for a new class! We’re even talking seriously about robot battles thanks to a player suggestion (you know who you are).
The features and events we’re planning for the coming year are putting stars in our eyes. We’re hopeful that you’re as excited about the future as we are, because we can’t do it without you. The stars are waiting, space travelers. We’ll see you out there!
Starmourn’s first year as a publically accessible game in open beta has come and gone, and the months since December 17th, 2018 have whirled by in a blur of new features, squashed bugs, and player-focused roleplay events.
By January 2019 we’d already fixed hundreds of bugs, done a pass on classes, and enabled a myriad of quality of life improvements to tradeskills, areas, the economy, cloning, and more. We’d also figured out what sort of movies humans managed to bring with them off that penal colony on Callisto – it’s thanks to Top Gun that the alien races of Starmourn know what aviator sunglasses are.
In February 2019, we started our first round of classleads and opened retirement for all. We performed a big overhaul to how ships function, making the whole shipforging system more fun and intuitive for players to use. February also saw the introduction of the Bounty Hunters and a bunch of new content, including the spooky, ancient halls of Tranquility Deepness and the corrupt laboratories of Wundishu Biotech.
March 2019 was sad for all of us as we said farewell to our star quarterback and biggest contributor to Starmourn’s success, Justin Walsh (Tecton). We didn’t let that slow us down, though, introducing new content in the form of level-scaled hacking dungeons across the main faction cities, along with an overhaul to quest rewards. The economy and pvp continued to be refined and improved as well, and our first Storytellers were introduced to the game, cementing Starmourn’s continued focus on player-driven roleplay.
In April 2019, a Ry’nari tribe revolted against the new Lord Commander of the Song Dominion, resulting in a shocking kidnapping, while elsewhere in the sector, whispers of a black market began to circulate among those less inclined to legality. Also in April, we welcomed our new producer, Ioan Sima (Ilyos), with open arms. An IRE vet of over a decade, Ilyos hit the ground running with a roadmap to the game’s future, changes to the game’s economy, and a finished set of classleads.
We were all about ship customization in May 2019 – with our new system, players were able to personalize their vessels for the first time, pimping them out with snazzy colors, patterns, hull shapes, and more. We took another look at Cosmpiercers. We introduced the vehicle system for hoverbikes and speeders of all kinds. Let’s not forget the Cerebral Augment Chambers and faction missions, either – those were also new, as of May.
In June 2019, the Bushraki living in Scatterhome’s Oldtown came under threat by a charismatic but unstable interloper. Players were heavily involved in influencing the direction of a plot which ended with the death of Chrome Skulls ganglord Kuda Shayato and the formation of a Bushraki colony on an Iota system asteroid. New Dikamazi swiftly became known for its odd fusion of organic and cybernetic plantlife.
Exploration was the name of the game in July of 2019. From the new xenozoology system cataloguing the animal life in the sector to the new wilderness zones filled with resources located throughout the game, players roamed everywhere this month. Not only were these new features introduced, we also ran the game’s first auction and finished up the player-driven plotline in New Dikamazi with the defeat of Tsake Shayato. Phew! It was a busy month!
Everyone was a star in August of 2019 as the PERFORMANCE system was introduced, allowing players to sing, play instruments, form bands, and put on concerts. Naturally, this system was quickly taken advantage of by the game’s first music festival. Song on the Verge had a lineup of rockstars a lightyear long, with the Song City Hippies arriving as surprise, last minute guests. Pirate refineries were released in August, adding a new layer of depth and combat to space. We had our first Discord-hosted staff/player discussion in August, something our wonderful Discord moderator has continued to host for us every month or two.
September 2019 was the month we all went back to school. Along with two new tradeskills for players to learn – Mixology and Furnishings – we also introduced multiclassing.
In October of 2019, a strange dynasty rose to prominence, aggressively recruiting members. The Congregation of T’rath, led by the fanatic, mysterious Shoko T’rath, began to spread a message throughout Litharge, urging citizens to take a stand against life extension technology which they saw as immoral. A violent terrorist attack saw the temporary closure of the cloning bay in the Celestine Crossings, and an appearance by H.E.T.E. representatives. Thanks to player actions, the leadership of the cult was soon rooted out, and the cult of death chased back to the shadows.
November 2019 was all about hacking. We increased the level cap for the skill, introduced the new HACKING CONTRACTS ability, and revealed FRAY Outsourcing, a mysterious enterprise hiring players to retrieve items of worth from corporations and businesses across the sector. Also in November was our much-talked-about Cosmpiercer revamp, and it lived up to the hype, deeply enriching the PVP element of Starmourn and giving all of us something to fight about.
Hearts were warmed in December 2019 with our first Winterflame, a month-long event filled with winter-themed festivities. Players traveled to the festival grounds on Uycheon III, where they assisted with icehorn slaying, marshmallow roasting, ice skating, akbaz grooming, gift-giving, dung collecting, and more. The first Winterfest music festival was also a smashing success, headlined by Talking Tukkav. Another round of classleads was opened, netting us hundreds of responses to sort through and implement.
Looking Forward
We hope you enjoyed this look back at 2019. Starmourn’s first year was a fantastic voyage of adventure and discovery. Together with the playerbase, we navigated uncharted space, and at the end of the year, we feel a lot more confident about what we’re able to accomplish as a team and where we’re headed next. It’s astonishing how far we’ve travelled, and we’re excited that the coming months look to be even more exciting and filled with fun! Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll take a dive into our plans for the coming year. See you soon!
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