Cosmpiercers

What are Cosmpiercers?

Cosmpiercers, colloquially called ‘Piercers, are ancient, extremely powerful sensor stations built by the now-extinct Elder Race called the Ta-deth. They still function to this day, and the major player civilizations (Scatterhome, the Song Dominion, the Celestine Ascendancy) fight for control over them against the sector’s greatest villain – The Ishvana. The Y’saari – another Elder Race – pay for their use.

Each space zone in Starmourn (a 250 x 250 area) might have a Cosmpiercer, though never more than one per zone, and all zones do not possess them. COSMPIERCER MAP will show you your location in relation to all known stations and COSMPIERCER LIST will show you who owns those stations, what rank they are, and when they’ll be vulnerable to attack.

Maintaining ownership of one or more Cosmpiercers grants your faction the ability to craft special items, powered by the owned locations, including boosts, target warps, insta-heals, and more! You’ll learn more about it in-game than we can describe here.

Capturing Cosmpiercers

Capturing a Cosmpiercer is a group effort which requires pilots, ground troops, and hackers to work together and take control of the various points on the Cosmpiercer or in space near it.

Control points come in 3 varieties:

• Hacking control points: Hack a terminal in the room to gain control.
• Ground control points: This is capture the flag – Stand in the room and keep it clear of any enemies. If the owner is ousted from the room and only the new power is present, ownership will slowly de-capture until it hits zero, then re-capture under the new ownership.
• Space control points: Spawns in space 30-50su away from the Cosmpiercer. Must enter a 5su radius of the capture point to start gaining control of it. Otherwise, it works like a ground control point.

Each participating organization (factions and/or the Ishvana) start with 500 Victory Points (VP) and lose 1 VP per second per Control Point other factions have more than them. After a siege concludes, players have 10 minutes to leave the vicinity or will be killed. Ships with no players on them will be rescued to their home stations, whereas ships with players on them will be launched into space.

Faction Cosmpiercers

When factions are competing among themselves for ownership of a Cosmpiercer, it’s considered a PvP activity and both the station and space surrounding it are open PK for anyone looking to pass through.

While Vulnerable, a Cosmpiercer’s shield generators can be killed. Killing the generators of a faction-owned Cosmpiercer will cause the Cosmpiercer to enter Lockdown for 24 hours, during which it is once again immune and cannot be attacked, granting the defending and offending teams time to group up and prepare. The Cosmpiercer will be Besieged automatically when Lockdown ends, right on the hour, so all teams should be ready to compete at that moment.

Ishvana Cosmpiercers

If the Ishvana have their hand in the mix, whether they’re defending a piercer or taking yours, the activity is considered PvE and has a unique procedure.

The overall strength of the Ishvana forces scales up the higher the rank of the Cosmpiercer and there is no Lockdown time after generators are destroyed – The Ishvana will immediately deploy to defend their besieged station.

Using a custom AI system, the Ishvana will send NPC ships to assail and blockade the Cosmpiercer, as well as Troop Carriers which contain Operatives and/or Vihana creatures which will stalk the halls of the location to contest your assault. Operatives are an elite team of Ishvana adherents trained in group combat tactics, and also highly skilled hackers who will seek out the access terminal to hack it. They also leave behind hacking bodies just like you do when you hack, which you can attack!