Hey Starmourn Sector! 👋 👽
New racial emotes are now available for all races to complete a culturally derived GREETING to other spacers. More info, including all racial emotes, is available in HELP RACIAL EMOTES.
RACIAL GREETINGS
| RACE | EMOTE INPUT |
| Amaian | LIFTHAND |
| Belaul | BELAULGREET |
| Bushraki | MODBOAST |
| Decheeran | DECHGREET |
| Elgan | ELGANGREET (Response: LINKARMS) |
| Human | HANDCLASP |
| Jin | HANDPRESS |
| Krona | TUSKRAISE |
| Nath–el | NATHGREET |
| Nusriza | NUSRIZABOW |
| Ry’nari | TAILGREET |
| Shen | CROSSGREET |
| Tukkav | HEADPRESS |
| W’hoorn | WHOORNBOW |
Note – These are totally optional greetings to help support anyone who wants to participate in lore-accurate RP for their race, but you’re welcome to greet anyone however you see fit! (Appropriately, of course)
** Shout out to Picram for its help with the Decheeran emote! **
As a reminder, entries are still open until March 8th at Sync for Greeting / Farewell PHRASES for this project.
I hope y’all like these emotes and put them to use building up cultural RP around the sector. <3
Workin’ away in the stars,
Argus and the Starmourn Admin Team
The stars have aligned –
Work is progressing nicely with the new tutorial area and we’re getting very excited about this new cast of characters having their chance to meet all of you!
In the spirit of keeping y’all in the development loop, we’ve decided to offer all of our current players the chance to participate in this project in one of two ways:
Racial Greetings
Submit your ideas for a racial greeting and/or farewell that will be solidified in lore. The W’hoorn are known for speaking of “fair winds”, so an example for them might look like “May fair winds find you.” for a farewell statement.
Tutorial NPC
Submit your ideas for an NPC character that players will be able to interact with in the tutorial. Your submission should include the character’s name, some hints at their backstory, and their full description (physical features, clothing, demeanor).
The character should be generally friendly, can be any race, and should have one of the following specialties: Historian, Archaeologist, Performer, or Scientist.
Again, we’re working full-steam ahead so SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY SYNC ON MARCH 8th! Otherwise we’ll finish drafting these and continue on to the next step.
Photo by @thesaboo on Unsplash.com
How to submit:
You can submit your ideas for racial greetings by messaging Argus in game with the text. For NPC ideas, please message Argus with a pastebin link.
Submissions are subject to admin review and approval and may be edited before being implemented. Not all submissions will be used, but all will be reviewed and appreciated!
We look forward to seeing what y’all come up with!
The Starmourn Dev Team <3
Get those gears a-turnin’ spacers… This just in:
The Starmourn admin team has issued a Leap Year RP Bounty! Submit your RP Request by February 29th for priority review on your admin-assisted RP event.
Overheard on the in-game news alerts!
To anyone out there who’s been thinking up a new improvement to their faction, an exploratory mission to find a new flora or fauna, a conversation about a unique brand of ship decal, or whatever else is tickling the mind these days, it’s time to pull the plug and dive on in!
Start your RP Request in game with the REQUEST syntax, fill out the details, review it twice, and SUBMIT by the end of February for priority review by the admin team. We want to learn more about what motivates you, the players, and give you support making those dreams a reality.
Sincerely,
The Starmourn Admin Team
Argus, Marra, Neritus, Elan, Senzei, Kauka, Figment, and Ferenzi
Now that good ol’ twenty-twenty-three has come to a close, let’s take a look at what’s on the docket for the new year, 2024. Keep in mind that this is a brief and vague outline of project goals, so it’s neither a guarantee that these things will be completed nor a complete list of ALL things we’re contemplating.
All that to say, we’ve got a list of over 20 projects on the docket and the team is very excited to get a-rollin’ on them!
Newbie Revamp
Re-imagining the newbie experience is going to be a main priority for the team this year. This massive project includes reworking the initial tutorial for new players, plus creating a new zone which will focus on further skill development and serve as a go-to location for returning players who need a refresher on the basics.
To those of you involved in this discussion on Discord, thank you for your feedback! Please trust that we will continue to reach out for ideas and additional feedback as we work through this process.
Critter Revisions
Marra’s been working hard on a significant overhaul of the critter system, including new types of tanks, many new tank features, new categories of tank critters, and a full rewrite of the treat mechanics available to all promo pets.
Continued Efforts on Project Homeworlds
Our initial updates to Kovalar are mostly complete and the Belaul have received some much needed love as part of that player race release this past month, but quite a bit of work remains for the rest of the player race homeworlds. We’ve got a lot of the base work done and look forward to continuing efforts on this MASSIVE project.
New Zones to Explore
Several new zones are visible on the horizon, shielded from view by that strangely opaque fog on the starmap. Some clues include – A new space station, historical sites, lore hooks into some nefarious actors in the sector, and deep-water explorations.
Hacking Improvements
We’re looking to implement a broad array of changes to hacking, including new ICE, multi-level hacking grids, better benefits for hacking, options to bust apart terminals, etc and so forth. Hacking is such a unique and quintessentially Starmourn feature, and we want to make sure it’s really given all the love it deserves.
Archaeology Expansions
In addition to some QOL changes specific to archaeology to ensure discoveries can be made in a more reasonably timely manner, we have begun planning additional digsite locations for release this coming year. Get those lemonade stands and fundraiser gala plans ready, arch-thusiasts!
New Systems Inbound
What could this mean? New tradeskills? New abilities? MORE?! We’re not going to share too much about these just now, but stay tuned (and stock up on lessons)!
Plus a bit more –
In addition to all the items above, the team is putting a re-invigorated focus on bug squishing, running player events, quality of life improvements, and a few final adjustments as we settle in to our place in Legacy Mode.
It’s going to be an incredibly busy year on our end, but we’re all so excited to keep rolling and continue making Starmourn an AWESOME place to play.
Cheers to you, and Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, everybody! To celebrate the kick-off to what will surely be another STELLAR year in the Starmourn Sector, everyone who signs in this month will get a free 5th Year Commemorative Badge and a giftcatcher!
With so much love and heart emojis and all that sweet, sweet jazz –
The Starmourn Admin Team: Neritus, Argus, Marra, Elan, Senzei, Kauka, Figment, and Ferenzi
It’s hard to believe 2023 is already coming to a close, spacers… Golly.
Join me for a walk down memory lane, will you? Let’s see what we accomplished this year before we release the roadmap for what to expect next year.
(Spoiler alert: It’s gonna be great)
JANUARY
Zarrach hacking the comms and earning all of Crake’s adoration (and resources).
SCC 2.0
Officialized the Starmourn Cultural Conflict channel on Discord, where we present new projects concepts to culture-minded players and get their feedback on upcoming changes
Hack The World
Released the first ever Hack Dungeon quest line with a new fave NPC Crake. Along the way, we also added hacking QOL improvements such as experience for ICE kills and hack command queueing
Getting Wild Out There
Added two new wilderness areas to give equal access to all factions.
Craftpedia Release
The new Craftpedia system allows crafters to learn more about materials in-game for custom crafted goods. This would become especially useful as the Trend System brings in new materials to explore and use.
Now THIS Is Pod Racing!
Argus made pod racing for a promo item and will never do better than that. Over 3,000 lines of prog in that promo item
Player Event: Song Military Reunion
Ran a mini event in the Deja Brew with a reunion of Song military squads that players can engage with and RP off in the future via RP requests!
FEBRUARY
A pink nebula serves as the next waypoint in the race, prime for competition within the Song Dominion’s fleet.
New Team Members
Figment, Elan, and Kauka join the team to provide some much needed bug crushin’ love and code expertise
Bury the Ghost Dancer!
Once just a meme, Krellstones now exist properly in game with special boards, pieces, and rules that seem to be pulled from the void itself. Starmourn’s answer to True American, Krellstones brings all the chaos you crave for a dice-based game within a text-based game. Get in today to collect all the sets!
Space Racing
Players can now drop checkpoints in space to create and run their own race courses without admin intervention. Checkpoints naturally decay, so hit the track while you can!
Getting Trendy
Released Trends, the new design system by which players can contribute to the game and earn major marks
Incursions Updated
Ishvana Fleet incursions were dramatically improved and they hit much harder now (xoxo git gud, friends)
Player Event: Flower Heist
Ran another mini flower discovery event for Syzygy as part of their player plot journey to continue discovering all the flora the sector’s concealing.
MARCH
The latest trend has dropped and Shulamit’s wondering how to turn it into something reprehensible. Just another day.
Learn Me Somethin’, Professor
Created and released 18 new design tutors (1 for each tradeskill for each faction) with custom locations and backstories for each. Opened design quests to all players for the first time, via these tutors.
Trending Expansions
Added over 100 new materials, ingredients and colors into the Trending system.
Ship Furnishing
Introduced ship furnishing shops on Iota with interactive furniture items, themed goods, and pet-like droids in the pursuit of meaningful, engaging materials being made available in the world.
APRIL
That doesn’t look like any fish in Picram’s tanks… Perhaps it’s something new from the past?
Bug Stompin’
Elan crushed like 300 bugs in a weekend – Just one example of all the effort being put in by the team
Archaeology Unearthed
Released the Archaeology system with SEVEN unique areas and 10+ flora and/or fauna relics to discover with unique components to recover for each (and more to come!) The sheer volume of creative writing and lore expansion completed by the admin team and Worldbuilders was… incredible. Keeping digging – there’s more than gold to discover out there!
Museums Open
With Archaeology, released the concept of MUSEUMS through which each faction can complete free/open RP endeavors to study and recover artifacts and specimens through Archeology research
MAY
Cosmpiercers are a little riskier these days, but oh how sweet the rewards ~
Cosmpiercer System Overhaul
The Ishvana threat looms more aggressively than ever before, now taking an active part in Cosmpiercer engagements with AI space combat, ground combat, and even hacking bodies
Cache & Ta-Deth Crystal Overhaul
New ways to obtain crystal charges with options for noncoms to participate in crystal recovery. Also created the RICH cache system and timed releases to aid in coordination between the factions.
Player Event: Save the Piercers!
Ran a major RP event whereby the captains of the sector fought to defend the known Cosmpiercers from a massive assault which resulted in many piercers being destroyed. Thanks to some powerful teamwork and assistance from the mercenary boards, one was thankfully saved.
The Kali Warship is still available to explore for those spacers who are crafty enough to find and board it!
RPWHO Expansion
The RPWHO system now allows players to auto-flag themselves with a CONFIG option. RP has never been more accessible.
JUNE
Glittering shores awakening in a pink sunrise, the soft mists only slightly smelling of trash from Dregend next door.
Beachapalooza
We hosted a month long event with 6 new quests and several new NPCs to interact with on the Glittering Shores of Litharge. Poor Grilrek, probably still getting bullied today.
Project Homeworlds
Began implementing physical changes to Janilyn as part of Project Homeworlds, lovingly referred to in-house as Project HomeYaBetterWerk!, including a Customs House, interactive elements including the first Quest Board, racial shops, over 15 local produce items and meals, and a refresh of the map.
This was our practice round for an intended implementation on ALL racial homeworlds to flesh out available lore and give players a strong base to build their own RP upon. Between deep-dives in racial lore review sessions, many meetings for map review and flow, creative writing, and a dozen or more custom progs, this project took Marra and Argus about 65+ hours to complete. Whew!
Palate Expansion
Added quite a few additional design type options to the CUISINE tradeskill including fudge, tofu, and biscuits!
JULY / AUGUST / SEPTEMBER
Is this lights out for Starmourn? NO WAY.
Legacy Mode
Starmourn gets placed into Legacy Mode, and the team takes a little bit of time to recalibrate and determine how we move forward.
Thank you to everyone who reached out and let us know you still wanted to stick it out with Starmourn. Y’all keep us motivated and we are so grateful to all of you. <3
September – Argus and Marra officially join Neritus as Producers, now called Starmakers, and begin learning all of that stuff. What a ride!
OCTOBER
Candy Dan approaches Rapa’rak hall as the gates re-open for the Rapadruk season.
Rapadruk Sweets
A new tradition for the Starmourn sector established in 2022, Rapa’rak hall reopened this year to terrify and delight tourists looking to learn more about the Rapadruk holiday while Candy Dan and his cohorts spread the sweet-tooth spirit.
Scare the Storytellers 2023
We received a bunch of awesome (read: Terrifying) entries for Scare the Storytellers this year and are proud to remind y’all of our top two stories: Arrick the Everdying, submitted by Poet, and The Lys, submitted by Picram.
Player Event: Scatterhome Museum Heist
In collaboration with Morgan, Marra created a sensual art “enthusiast” (j’accuse!) who visited a grand showcase of the Scatterhome Museum exhibits and, probably totally unrelated, served as a key suspect in the theft of a beloved NPCs heirloom jewelry!
MORE. LORE. THNX.
Argus and Marra begin a new branch in the lore deep-dive necessary for PHYBW, the development of two new player races, and a complete rewrite for race, class, and faction blurbs.
NOVEMBER
Tomes and stacks of lore archives, highlighted and noted to the max between paw prints.
New Website, Who Dis?
Argus completes a full overhaul of the Starmourn.com website with additional review from the volunteer team and several key Worldbuilders. Check out the new discord widget (visible on mobile), updated nav bar, updated FAQ, and Things-To-Do page in addition to general updates to all other pages.
There’s still more to do, but our content is now #UpToDate with Starmourn’s current progress for the first time since the BETA announcement in 2018.
A Fresh Start
As an admin team, we agreed to cull 2,000 old bugs in the system from players that were inactive/unreachable and reports dealing with old systems, etc. Only about 70 were re-opened and the remaining items are both more accessible and more actionable now. Whew!
Team Additions
Senzei and Ferenzei rejoin the team as Coders!
DECEMBER
A Human child on Reynolds spaceport ready to beam you in the face with a fresh snowball.
Winterflame 2023
Ironbeard struck out on his trusty route for Winterflame, bombarding the Sector with gifts aplenty. With his arrival, the Winterflame festival grounds re-awoke in the Tosmar hunting grounds, once again plagued by the mischievous void imps and a mysterious fog.
Faction Winterflame Flavors
We brought in additional Winterflame flavor to each of the faction stations with custom military member reunion messages for the Dominion, a bustling snowball fight amongst the youths for Scatterhome, and a towering conifer for the Ascendancy.
Paperweight Updates
Deep in Razor’s Rift, the Paperweight Tundra got a facelift with a new 100+ room hunting ground called The Strand and a full overhaul of the Belaul’s great belfir Tree, Mymaeir. Along with this, we created a first-of-its-kind NPC generator now applied to the Belaul and Bushraki in New Dikamazi which generates a randomized collection of NPCs with 9+ personalities and custom descriptions and responses.
Player Event: Rainbow Party
Sutherin Ironbound hosted a Rainbow Party to celebrate the spirit of Winterflame and put those giant rainbow gifts from Rohna to good use.
Song Dominion Gets an Admiral’s Lounge
As part of an RP Request from the Song Dominion, we worked in concert with several Dominion leaders to create the new Admiral’s Lounge on the Danica Transit Station, now open to the WEST of the Deja Brew. As part of the release, Kauka created a new Legendary Bushraki incursion type with the players enjoyed so much that we decided to bring it into the incursion rotation!
New Player Races: Belaul and Bushraki
This post is pretty recent, so go check out the blog post below this one for more info. Both races are live NOW on the website – Make your character today!
We’re Out Of BETA!
After 5 years of hard work and dedication, Starmourn has officially been greenlit to leave BETA and take its place as a standalone game. While there’s a lot more work we want to do, and even more fun things we want to add, we’re excited to cross this checkpoint in our development journey!
End Of Year Player Commendations
As part of an annual tradition, we are collecting player nominations for New Years Rewards to acknowledge players who: Have the best roleplay, are notable titans of industry, bash the hardest and for the longest, and other categories including write-ins. Regardless of how long you’ve been playing, we’d love to see your responses.
For more information and the form to submit your votes, check out NEWS READ ANNOUNCEMENTS 479. Learn more about rewards and how to participate in the post.
Submissions should be sent to Argus in-game or on discord by January 3rd, 2024!
The past few months have been pretty busy on our end, and we’re so excited to keep rolling out new content for our community to enjoy. Stay tuned for our 2024 road map in the new year!
Your Starmourn Admin Team
Argus, Marra, Neritus, Elan, Senzei, Figment, and Kauka
We’ve been hinting as hard as we dared, but now it’s finally time for the big reveal! This year we’re unveiling two new player races: Belaul and Bushraki!
Both of these races have been highly anticipated, but of course Bushraki are the fan favorite that you have been asking for since LAUNCH! We are so excited for everyone to dive in and learn more about these awesome new additions to the Starmourn player sector.
A hardy race of avian humanoids native to the frozen planet of Paperweight, the Belaul have only recently taken to the stars for the first time, having lived for many millennia in peace and seclusion. While their technologies differ from those of the interstellar community, the Belaul are far from primitive, living in comfort and safety thanks to their technological achievements, such as advanced optics, solar power, and wireless energy transmission.
Though flightless, they have an impressive pair of wide-spanning wings which extend from their shoulder blades, and their bodies are covered with feathers ranging from a stark white to a tawny brown shade. Their three sharp talons on both feet and hands serve as dangerous complements to their curved beaks. Despite a relatively small stature, the Belaul have little fear for the predators of their ecosystems, resting comfortably on their perch at the top of the food chain.
As recently as 212 A.E following the crash of the Li’Gon, the beginning of a terrible Ice Age has overtaken the temperate grasslands and boreal forests of their home. As the climate continued to shift, the Belaul gathered around the greatest belfir trees, creating a network of tribal communities called Nests beneath the boughs of the frost-resistant forests. When lost in the frost for too long, some Belaul become deranged and violent, succumbing to a well-feared disease called ‘tundra madness’ which can only be cured by a potent combination of locally sourced herbs.
Communities within each of the Nests are led by two leaders called Wings who are chosen for strength and wisdom respectively. Intrinsically connected to the natural world, Belaul hold a great reverence for the Sh’than’alu, a pantheon of gods embodied by the animals of the tundra, which represent crucial lessons that every Belaul must understand. Each tribe thrives in isolation, neither contributing significantly to interstellar economies nor relying on them. Their native language is made up of both tonal chirps and gestures, with celebrations and cautionary tales chirped through song around a bonfire.
A troubled people with a violent past, the Bushraki have been shaped by generations of enslavement, experimentation and warfare. Remarkably similar in physiology to Humans, the Bushraki bear little resemblance to other humanoids as they undergo drastic body modification even before birth.
Fueled by rage and bloodlust after generations of torturous experimentation by the Sa’hak-ren Hierarchy until 366 B.E., the genetically modified Bushraki shock troops turned on their oppressors and escaped into the sector, dealing drugs and punishment in equal parts as they pursued righteous retribution. Their brutality caught the attention of the Ishvana, which granted the beings Mindsim technology and promised aid in their quest for revenge, but this alliance was never meant to last. 200 years later, the Bushraki betrayed the Ishvana in the Second Ishvana War, making an enemy of the most brutal force in the sector and resulting in the destruction of their homeworld, Dikamazi.
Despite the steps that Bushraki society has taken towards rehabilitation, they are still kept at arms length by many communities across the sector who are unable to look past the struggles and outbursts of the modern Bushraki, or past their history of cruelty and genocide as unwilling soldiers of their former overlords. They have been slowly reforming their culture with major population centers located in Haven City and New Dikamazi and a focus on improving their status in the sector.
Bushraki have been genetweaked to support drastic body modification that would otherwise prove lethal. Today, Bushraki express their identities in the style and function of their implants, and take enormous pride in the abilities it affords them, whether that’s doing shots of engine-oil or staring into the sun.
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