What's the state of the different factions? And other questions.

Xiru

Hey everyone!

Been a while since I've been on the forums, but life has evened out and I'm looking to get back into Starmourn. I'm basically a newbie again, so I thought I'd come here and try and catch up.

Specifically, what's the state of the factions? Are they all going strong? Is there any conflict going? Is it possible to play casually in every faction?

Also, it looks like there's a million new things to do and try and I can't even remember how to bash or hack or fly a ship so it might be a while before I even get to try that. But what's new that you'd absolutely recommend trying out?

Kestrel

I'm in a similar position so I too would like to know the answers to these questions, but so far here's what I've gathered:

• Get Ata's Global Pathfinder. Super useful stuff.
• Performance is a pretty neat system. Lots of new systems including this one aren't properly documented yet so you'll need to read the announcement posts to figure out what's what. This one's detailed here.
• Xenozoology is another cool system, basically go up to any random animal and XENOZOOLOGY SCAN <target> to get started. You'll figure it out pretty quick, it's intuitively designed.
• Nanoseer is basically the only class worth playing, lol. RIP in pieces my Scoundrel love.
• We have "mounts" (AKA hovercars, hoverbikes etc.) They don't do anything mechanically and to be honest they're a bit of a hassle to use but if you want one for cosmetic purposes check PROMO MARKET LIST HOVER
• Oh, right. We have a promo market now. So you can buy cool exclusive prizes that other people paid credits for. PROMO MARKET LIST.
• There are cosmetic pets on the promo market. Currently: lapine bunny, robotic feracht kitten, robotic skulf puppy, three-eyed rosewing (kind of a must-have for Jin tbh). Also sentry drones which apparently do a bit more than just stand around looking cute. But they also stand around looking cute.
• We have fish and you can have a fishbowl on your ship with fish in it but don't waste your time with this lol, it's kind of useless and a pain. (Sorry staff + Clover I know you worked hard on this but I don't get it.)
• We have all kinds of other furniture items you can decorate your ship with, also on the promo market.
• You can now customise your ship more thoroughly to look fancy. I haven't yet figured this system out or I'd provide more detail. But basically you can have a tacky flame deco thing on the side or something.
• You can now customise your character's armour, gear and engineer bots with a cosmetic design, for credits. HELP CLASS CUSTOMISATION. E.g. Clover has a robot vuu queen which is super badass.
• Ships were dramatically revamped. There are far fewer types now. (Check AB Captaincy) but each type is a bit more customisable, so you have light interceptors, reg interceptors, heavy interceptors for example, with different hull/turn-speed attributes etc. Again idk much more than that yet, someone else will have to explain.
• Economy was overhauled. Autofactories etc. are v different. Someone else will need to explain this in more depth, I don't quite comprehend it just yet and the documentation is buried in the announce posts somewhere.
• Hacking is way cooler now, there are all kinds of sekrit instanced level-scaled quest dungeons hiding behind the city terminals. I really like this, it's probably one of my favourite updates so far.
• Song Dominion seems like the most active and organised faction right now. Scatterhome is heavily populated but utterly chaotic, CA is basically an NPC village, probably because people don't like being dismissed or called liars when harassment in gaming is addressed.
• @Ilyos is now in charge and is doing a bang-up job. Bad apples actually get banned now! Yay! And he's super friendly and helpful and addresses issues/questions promptly, both on the forums and in the Unofficial Starmourn Discord. All hail our new Ilyos overlord!
• If you're looking for RP I recommend hanging out at Lamentations on Omni Station, Malice in CA, Gravity in Scatterhome or the Verge in the Song Dominion. The new performance system means people looking for social interaction can be found there pretty reliably these days.

Xiru

@Kestrel - you are amazing. Seriously.

Zhulkarn

[Admin edit]: You two, time out!

@Xiru But a more fair observation would be as follows:

Regarding organization Song Dominion and Celestine Ascendancy are on par but Song Dominion has more active and seasoned players right now. Scatterhome is as advertised it is a chaotical place and they are numerous too. Celestine Ascendancy has been always at smallest population even when Starmourn started and the players here seem be more EU-zone aligned while I see more Dominion players on US-timezone. When you seek activity you can find in all of them, I would not promote one over the other because I do not know the nature of your character or whether if you will roll a new one. 

Zhulkarn

Xiru said:

Hey everyone!

Been a while since I've been on the forums, but life has evened out and I'm looking to get back into Starmourn. I'm basically a newbie again, so I thought I'd come here and try and catch up.

Specifically, what's the state of the factions? Are they all going strong? Is there any conflict going? Is it possible to play casually in every faction?

Also, it looks like there's a million new things to do and try and I can't even remember how to bash or hack or fly a ship so it might be a while before I even get to try that. But what's new that you'd absolutely recommend trying out?

Answers to other questions!

Regarding the conflict, there has been a great deal of back and forth between Dominion and Ascendancy regarding cosmpiercers but they de-escalated for a goodwhile after the cosmpiercer system went through a series of changes. 

And I can speak for CA, we are rather casual considering the faction itself is about late-stage capitalism along some revolutionist vibes, so it is more or less about involvement. Nobody will crack the whip on people for not involving themselves since RPwise Glisal II itself has fifty billion people on itself But more rewards for those who contribute like anywhere else. I believe other factions should have lots of rooms for casual playing as well. I mean it is a game after all.

And millions of things were already answered above!

Kestrel

[Admin edit]: You two, time out!

Zhulkarn

[Admin edit]: You two, time out!

Cubey

Well this thread is off to a great start. Do not respond to hijackers. Flag/report and move on.

Xiru said:

Specifically, what's the state of the factions? Are they all going strong?

Yes. Song is very active. CA has been at its most active since april-may. Scatterhome I have less info about, but it's got at least two active bands so there's that.

In terms of organisation power, Song is well organized and driven as usual. CA is lacking in leader numbers but the ones who are active are very proactive and it has a good economy going.

Xiru said:

Is there any conflict going?

Not at the moment. Minor Scatter vs Song cosmpiercer fights broke out a few weeks ago but things have calmed down since then. I assume pvpers wait for the open pvp resource missions.

Xiru said:

Is it possible to play casually in every faction?

Very much so.

Matlkael

Song is, I'd like to think, very organized. We have:

• a favour and advancement system in place (the medal system)
• rewards and credit sales
• regular writing projects (the Klaxon Horn and the Tourism Travel Guides, as well as Case Studies [admittedly, less formed than the first two])
• a lot of help files, from newbie guides to hunting guides and information on industry, hacking, piloting, etc.
• seasoned players who have, more or less, been continuously active since launch
• --- incredibly stable, and while this is very good, it also means it can feel a bit static

I haven't played in Celestine regularly, but from my alt, I've gathered that they have:

• an advancement system
• a reward system (true to late capitalist form)
• a newbie assistance program
• a load of helpfiles which are also interesting because they have advertisments (again, capitalism)
• highly compartmentalized groups (Coriolis Studios, AICo, LOB, III...I'm not even close to being familiar with them all!)
• --- least populated faction; on the other hand, this means you can easily get recognized if you put in a bit of effort

Scatterhome is, true to form, the most disorganized bunch. However, they still have:

• a lot of helpfiles; I even get some of my ideas here
• a LOT of people, from newbies to veterans
• --- you get left on your own, which often means that newbies don't get a lot of suppport (but newbie assistance is improving!)