Hey, folks! July is here, and it is... a lot! But in a good way!

This month, we'll have a new and interesting addition to the game debuting, but you'll have to wait til nearer mid-month for that as we frantically try to make it as cool as possible for you AND tie it in to some official player RP times!

But don't worry, there's plenty of other stuff to do til then, like:
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AUCTION!
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We have an AUCTION starting NOW that features items big and small, for marks and for credits. The stuff we have on offer is...

Credit auctions:

A private building - This could be the house of your dreams, a headquarters for your org, a warehouse for your pets - whatever your heart desires (within reason).

A player shop - Ever wanted to own your own restaurant? Cafe? Jewelry Shop? Clothes outlet? Now's your chance. You will get a shop anywhere in the world (to be agreed with devs) to make your business thrive.

A vending machine - Stock up to 10 of your designs in a portable vending machine, emblazoned with your branding! Placeable anywhere that isn't already an NPC shop.

A logo stamp - Want to be able to stamp your goods with your own dynasty/org/shop branding? Now you can! Design a logo and have a stamp made, which can be used to emboss any designed item with your chosen emblem in a chosen color.

A custom infusion capsule dispenser - A luxurious infusion capsule of your own design! You will receive a dispenser that will produce 3 of these per RL day, so that you and your friends may have an infusion made especially for you at the spa!

Marks auctions:
A nanite compression cube - A rly big bag. Holds 255 items and is searchable, has an item list, items can be shown off from within the bag, and your (loyal) promo items will reset to inside the bag if placed in there! An organizational dream!

A weapon upgrade token - This misshapen little metal token features the logo of a mysterious Heot Mnpa-cero; on the back, simply the words "GIT GUD. (A token to upgrade a weapon of your choosing to non-decay and extra sturdy.)

A token of friendship - Ever wanted Poffy Tango to greet you like his long lost brother? Or for that Jin guy in Gravity to slap you in the face and call you a motherflakker? Now you can!

A hard-light billboard - Are the ad projectors just not cutting it and you want to go to the next level? Then this custom, hard-light billboard might be for you. Display your message, ad or ideology for all that enter a specific room to see! Now in many many colors.

Any artifact up to 500cr - Does what it says on the tin! Pick any available artifact up to a value of 500 credits.

Artifact: Crafting Bureau Permit - This nifty little permit removes the submission fee on designs and halves urgent design fees. Worth 500 credits.

A crafting bureau backhander - Bribe the crafting bureau to give you a full set of COLLECTIBLES featuring the original Glisal Guardians, and a foiled set at that! (Entitles the winner to one extra tradeskill slot).

The AUCTIONS command will show you the list, and the AUCTION command will show you the syntax. HELP AUCTIONS will tell you more about how to bid.

This won't be the only auction we plan to have, so don't worry if you had your eye on something like a custom pet or a fancy ship that you don't see listed here - those will come in time! We just want to make sure we have as much as we can pre-written BEFORE the auction so that people can get most of their auction items right away. So - selling a fancy ship means having the fancy ship pre-written BEFORE the auction, and as you can see from all the updates, we have been... a little busy. Keep your eye on the next one if that's what you're after!

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AUCTION-CONCURRENT CONTEST!
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Weve been thinking, and we have decided we would very much like to see more player-owned shops and buildings, and we dont think that these things should only exist for people who can afford the credits.

So& we will be running a new contest concurrently with the auction, in which you can win your very own player shop! This will be anonymously player-voted, so everyone can enter, and I will make a separate post about it as this one is getting to be quite the epic.

Of course, all the entries are now in for the Omnicrafter contest, so the winner and RP event will be announced tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who has entered - were all loving reading your amazing creations!

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MISSION CONTROL IS BACK (for good?)
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As mentioned in my first announce as co-producer, I mentioned that we would be shifting focus slightly away from promos and onto getting the important job of game up to scratch, and weve made a HUGE start (Neritus - you are an actual wizard). So we've decided that - as its the most popular promo by far - were turning on Mission Control& indefinitely!

Everyone's favorite game of chance is playable in all the faction cities, and at the Almasi Arena. To play, you can either buy full missile batteries from the website https://www.starmourn.com/credits/ - the missile batteries are under the "Artifact Packages" section - or compile one for free by collecting missiles (10 missiles makes a battery).

Free missiles come from listening to the MUDS channel (check CONFIG to turn it on or off!) or completing the daily XENOZOO BOUNTY, which will reward 1-2 missiles. Remember, if you're a few missiles short of a full battery (arent we all?), you can even buy a couple to finish your battery for cheap! We are also adding mod drops to the bounty indefinitely, so youll get a mod AND one or two missiles.

Check out HELP MISSIONCONTROL for more details on how to play!

As usual, for every 25 shots that faction members fire, a free missile battery will be given to all those online in that faction (this free shot doesn't count towards charging up another 25 shots and it has a slightly different name so you can tell it apart). Check how close the faction is to a free shot by using MISSIONCONTROL BONUS.

This month our big prize is that every hundred shots, until #500 a special "token of friendship" will be awarded to the winner. This token is very special, and you should read HELP FRIENDSHIP TOKEN right now to gain an understanding of what it is. At shot #600 we will give away another Emergency Life Support artifact. After that? Well, we will update you when we get there!

Here's the other stuff on the grid this month:

Artifacts:
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- SmartCore Personal Stylist - Allows you to define up to 3 sets of descriptions, poses, and clothing sets, then change between them instantly. Usage: STYLIST
- Trading Net Downlink - Allows you to access a tradenet from anywhere, instead of having to travel to the terminal (defaults to the nearest network from Song, Scatterhome, Celestine, Omni and Diamond Belt).
- First Class Ticket - Don't wait around like genpop. Take a special, ultra-high-speed transport equipped with complimentary, first class amenities and get to your destination in half the time.
- H.E.T.E. Military Discounts (pvpdeath) - Reduces mark costs on death by 90% if killed by another player (Does not stack with the usual 90% discounts).
- Combat Analyzer (pvpkills) - Increases experience gains when you kill another player by 33%.
- Extra trade terminal slot - One extra shop in each tradeterm network. Stackable up to 3.
- Ship Message Beacon - Allows you to use SHIP MESSAGEBEACON <message> to deploy a 24-hour beacon in space that broadcasts a message to all those who can pick up the signal on their SHIP BEACON. 1 hour cooldown.
- Hardened Surveyor - You upgrade your triangulation gear with the latest tech, enhancing its durability. OOC Note: will not prevent object decay, simply prevent charges from being used.
& and a few others, go take a look!

Items:
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An eclectic holo-formed picture frame
Keep those holocards forever, and show them off to their best in this vintage fleamarket styled holo-formed frame.

A string of fairy lights
These gorgeous little lights will give any area one of a selection of atmospheric jewel tones, or set them to color changing if you cant decide!

A plant-filled terrarium - If you like the idea of having a small pet, but are put off by how fish flop around and how damp they are, why not try a terrarium? Suitable for keeping any number of pets happy to live on dry land.

A nanoplastic critter box - There are a few different critters available in this box - try out a miniature ice crab, a miniature coral creeper, a miniature crowned lizard, or get lucky with a leesa bug and start your own leesa-skin farm. Careful, though - these little leesa pals can be kind of hard to catch.

A stamp of authenticity
This high-tech device will make a designed item non-decay, leave a mark of authenticity upon that item, and then permanently archive that design (see HELP STAMP for more)

Also returning:
Holographic ad projector
Ship catalogue
Vorstenoot plants
Atomic matter articulators (can be used on the new, exciting customization requests!)
A fireworks launcher
a novelty insta-holo camera
a premium white leather mask box
Minor artifacts, credits, lessons and more!

You might have noticed that while some of these are new items, they're mostly just reskins of other things we've had in the past. There are two reasons for this: a) Many people really like the functionality of these and asked for them to return! b) We've been using all our creative and admin-y juices to get other things sorted, fix bugs, and do other things which we deem more important to the game right now, so making new promo items isn't on our priority list, and half-assing it is not our style. We still think what we have up there is pretty dang cool, and we hope you like it.

In other news, we will be having a post catching up with our Storytellers and what they're up to soon, so that you can all keep in the know! They are all working really hard behind the scenes on various projects, and unlike the coding and Producer updates, they don't get a ton of recognition for all their hard work, so look for that post soon if you wondered what it was the Storytellers are working on.

And, as always, if you'd like to ask for any personal/factional or other RP goodness, send a message to your factions storyteller (HELP STORYTELLERS), or to me in-game or on damiel@starmourn.com

Saio also has a great RP event coming up this month that will benefit ALL the factions and introduce something new and fun, but we'll talk about that more when we get there!

Until then, happy bidding, happy shooting, and happy Starmourning!

Damiel