Hello Sector!

Today marks my return to volunteer admin-hood. As some of you may know, I've decided to keep pressing on in a volunteer capacity. And with that, we would like to go over some of the changes coming down the pipes.

Firstly, some admin changes. We are no longer going to be calling our game-runners Producers, so that we don't cause confusion with other games. Instead, we're going to be calling ourselves Starmakers (what we previously called our technician role of sorts). And I say 'we' because Argus and Marra will be joining me in co-running the game going forward. Argus and Marra will have just as much creative control and direction over the game as I.

I know many of you have been wondering about what is happening with Mission Control. While none of us admin will particularly miss making new promo items every 2 weeks, it would be a crying shame if all that hard work were to become inaccessible. Mission Control will remain open with a generic prizetable which pulls from the full list of available PROMO items, artifacts, ship and habitation rooms, etc; and of course, the number of missiles gained through daily activities will increase.

In addition to the fun of randomized prize winnings from MC, we're also working on implementing a more straightforward market of sorts through which you'll be able to purchase promo items directly via marks or credits. Stay tuned for more info as we tidy this new system up!

Next we get to the status of the Conflict Rework. Its still my intention to release the capstone update which will tie everything together, unleashing Cycles and the Games. That said, the change to Legacy is having us re-evaluate some aspects of the overall systems design, so I wanted to budget a bit of extra time in there for some re-reflection.

In the meantime, one of our most important immediate term goals is to ensure that the game feels right, and that the switch to Legacy will not leave players in the lurch with character progression. We also now get to do some really fun things which would not have been possible in the previous freemium game design model. In particular, it opens up the way to introduce especially rewarding character progression paths for our newbies. I will be continuing to work on the Conflict Rework, but more actually-realized changes in the short term will likely be in this vein. In particular, since we usually do the Newbie Challenge in September, we want to make changes to the Newbie Challenge such that it is permanently available and has no time limit, a lovely suggestion from the Discord.

Speaking of, the Official Discord is no longer Official in the sense that it is no longer IRE-administered. In practice, our Discord differs from the other games Discords which were made through official channels. Our Discord instead began in an unofficial capacity with a player, Bandus, who wanted to have a place for people to talk Starmourn. Under Eukelades guidance, this server eventually became marked as Official. So there really is no actual change to the Discord to report here, other than the name change. Starmourn Bot will remain there providing two-way communication between the game and the Discord.

Lastly, I wanted to give you lovely folks some extra thoughts on the whole Legacy matter: This is not particularly well-known, but when Damiel and I began as co-producers, we were unpaid volunteers then, too. Over time we were able to receive a little bit of financial support from IRE for our efforts, but it's safe to say that money has never been a real motivation to work on Starmourn. What is motivating, instead, is all of you. It's the community that's gathered around this beautiful little corner of the internet. The best way to help is just to keep enjoying the game and getting the word out that Starmourn is not dead, and maybe even worth the time of your friends who may have previously been put off by the pay-for-power model.

The Mission Control and PROMO changes should be ready soon, and the newbie challenge changes will be ready to go for September. So keep your eyes peeled!

Yours always,
Neritus