The tips and tricks thread

Tecton

I'm starting this thread as a place where people can share their tips and hints to help people get the most out of their time in Starmourn. Post up any tidbits that you feel will be helpful for others as we start this journey together. I'll post some of the tips from the closed beta that might be helpful to you all too, to get things rolling.

Tecton

Combat feels deadlier.  I could usually take two creatures in Achaea or Lusternia at the same time, but combat in Starmourn is tough.  Most creatures worth leveling on are going to be a tough fight.

If you are not paying attention to evenly matched opponents, queuing attacks, and prepared to heal or dash then be ready to accept a few deaths.

Tecton

And speaking of QUESTS, you'll be thrown into the main story line quest right away. Embrace it. You're going to learn from the quest, but you may also learn a bit about your character too, if you're open to it. Also, take advantage of the ship tutorials.

(And when you're told to stock up on ship weapons, a review of the commands might be useful before you embark on that journey.)

If you're not used to DIALOGUE TREES, you will be soon. They're a lot of fun. Some choices have more consequences than others. Enjoy.

LEARNING SKILLS is about to be a lot better for those of you coming from other IRE games. No more learning blocks of 20 or even 90 at a time. You have the lessons to learn exploration all at once? Learn exploration all at once. No really, LEARN 1750 EXPLORATION from Caliber will work.

When it comes to BASHING, expect it to be slower than you're used to in other IRE games. For one, there's no equilibrium, herb balance, salve balance... etc. There's simply balance. You're going to have to decide how best to use each balance or else you'll end up dead...

...And then you'll be cloned. You'll come back to life in your new body, ready to go, save for a bit of experience. You can get most of that back by finding your corpse, taking your INR from it, and using your MINDSIM to SCAN the INR. But beware, someone else can beat you to that.

You can also beat them to theirs...

Tecton

You're going to fly around in space a lot, but if you want to take shortcuts, sometimes you don't need to get into your ship at all. For example, Gallen is accessible from Omni. It's simply a trip to the Aleph voidgate, then to the Nabian voidgate, then to the Gallen station. You're welcome. 

But if you decide to fly around in your SHIP, it's pretty damn fun. Just you know, keep up with your SHIP INSURANCE just in case you fly into a sun. (It starts off insured, at least.) 

If you don't fly into a sun at least once, you're doing it wrong.

As mentioned before BASHING is a slow grind. You're gonna feel it if you're coming from other IRE games. But it's not the only way to earn XP. HACKING and certain SHIP activities give you passthrough experience.

Keep up with your gear! ARMOR and WEAPONS drop from mobs, and you'll want to keep them in good working shape. Repairs can be done on most space stations. If your drops are failing you, you can exchange or sell unused gear or you can buy some at various shops throughout the sector.

A lot of skills have menus built in. For example, a Nanoseer typing VOID will see skills they've learned in voidism. Pretty nifty. 

Tecton

I'll add a couple of my own too

• HELP <your class> has a bunch of information on things like stats and what they impact, where you'll want to spend your lessons in the beginning, some basic pvp strategies etc.
• Especially early on, look at investing your stats in lifeforce and regeneration, they'll help you immensely when you're small.
• Grinding isn't really the most efficient way of leveling up, you'll find doing quest (and especially the main questline) to be far more rewarding in terms of XP gain.
• It's not a sprint, its a marathon, there's nothing in the game that's gated behind max level, so don't feel pressured to have to power level. Enjoy the atmosphere, interact with players, investigate the various fun systems that are on offer.

Tecton

One of our early testers made up a metro-style map of the voidgate network

https://metromapmaker.com/?map=iuRvaVG4

Tecton

The map of the sector is probably relevant to show you again too, since you can actually see where things are!

Sethysia

- If you want to snazz up your roleplay and get all diggity dig down into your roleplay, HELP CUSTOMIZE and CUSTOMIZE OPTIONS show you what you can modify. Soon, you too can be standing in the docking station of Omni Station poised like a queen (CUSTOMIZED POSE) and swaggering everywhere like some entitled royalty (CUSTOMIZED GAIT)! 

 - For those yet unaware, you can participate in INCURSIONS on your ship and shoot down those pesky invaders to familiarize yourself with your weapons controls, and also to raise your Captaincy rank! (INCURSION LIST, INCURSION MAP helps.)

 - Those finding for joints of leesa skins (mmm, space drugs) to smoke should hang out more with those who enslaved or tried to enslave Cassandra Min. My favourite unintended find so far.

 - Don't neglect to put some stats into Lifeforce, Evasion, or Regen. They help a lot when you're beating up things that hit like a mini asteroid.

Zack

Something I see new engineers asking a lot:

1. You can see where your bots are with BOT LIST.

2. You can call your bots back to you with the HOMEPORT skill, 30 lessons total into Bots (15 lessons more if you learned the basics from Sprocket)

Don't forget to read your skill files. AB BOTS!

Qitorien

Zack said:

Something I see new engineers asking a lot:

1. You can see where your bots are with BOT LIST.

2. You can call your bots back to you with the HOMEPORT skill, 30 lessons total into Bots (15 lessons more if you learned the basics from Sprocket)

Don't forget to read your skill files. AB BOTS!

Also,
ORDER [bot] FOLLOW ME

Orion

The IED commands don't actually require IED in front of them, and that also includes the construct command. Of course, Bugs are not part of that.

Tecton

Orion said:

The IED commands don't actually require IED in front of them, and that also includes the construct command. Of course, Bugs are not part of that.

Pretty much any ability doesn't need the preceding root verb, the system will try to match it against your current abilities! MINIGUN <target> works just as well as MWP MINIGUN <target> etc.

Xiru

I've noticed that. It's a nice feature!

zacc

Can't find the location of zones, stations, planets, etc.? HELP STARCHART.

Need a larger map window in Nexus? Close all the other windows (room, items, quests, chat, character, etc.).

Be sure to MARKS MOVE <#> TO CARGO before storing cargo at a station.

Useful commands:

STATIONS - displays a list of stations you've visited

LANDMARKS -displays a list of landmarks on the current map

VOIDGATE - displays all the voidgates. Use this to find the zone in which the voidgate is located, then use STARCHART to find the location of that zone.

    VOIDGATE NEAREST <your current system> - find the nearest voidgate

    VOIDGATE SHOW <voidgate> - displays the inbound and outbound connections of that voidgate

bairloch

Tip for anyone playing in Nexus. Even though there is a map, it doesn't show all the icons yet. You'll still want to CONFIG MAPSHOW ON to see all the icons for the PTP, Shops, etc.

Skarra365

A tip to help with the Newbie spam without just shutting it off on Nexus:

Using the gears button in the bottom right corner (Settings), turn on "Hide all chat messages in the main window if they are shown in another tab"
Back on the client page, right-click anywhere, hover over over Channels, and click on Newbie.
Right-click on the page again, hover over Tabs, and click on Global Communication Window.

As of now (at least for me), turning on the Faction channel tab doesn't work, and with the global chat tab gone, Newbie will be on its own, and everything else will appear in the main window. If you keep the global chat tab open, ALL chat will appear there, meaning newbie, says, faction tells, others, and NPC dialogue, which makes it impossible to do quests.

Cubey

Equipment: screw armor, focus on weapons. Much better bang for your buck.

Stats: the other way around. Screw offense (at least on low levels), go all out into HP/regen.

The real money maker is <comment deleted, I don't want competition>

Indi

config MXP on

Squeakums

Indi said:

config MXP on

What does this do? At work, can't test it. 

On a similar note, CONFIG SHOWDAMAGE ON to show how much each attack is hitting mobs for. 

Slander

In Mudlet MXP makes clickable links.

Indi

With a lot of movement being special exits,  lift, station transfers etc, I find myself using the mouse or touch screen a lot more than I have in other muds.

Config mxp adds links just like nexus has by default. 

Also great navigating skill lists, help files etc.

Minion

I just want to re-emphasize getting your INR after a death. Particularly for the newer players. I see a lot of corpses laying about. That alone is typically a few percent worth of xp back from your death at lower levels.

Read the HELP MINDSIM file for more details!

ivan

If you're using the nexus client, WINDOW <command> creates a window and populates it with the output. E.g. WINDOW INCURSION LIST creates a separate window with the current incursion list. So useful.

Quell

Don't fall into old RP habits. We're not warring kingdoms, divided by our use of eldritch magic or being undead. We don't have to be so black and white. 

Our factions may be ideologically opposed but so are modern day real life countries. We have a glorious galactic community and economy. Go RP with your rivals. It doesn't mean we're all sleeping together. War is still war; buying Pollivar a drink doesn't mean I won't try to burn him to a crisp later at a Cosmpiercer.

Don't shit this game up like the others. 

Crorr

On the other hand, CA just got done with a bloody revolution to overthrow the corporatocracy, who in their last dying gasps promised literal worlds to the Song Dominion for their assistance and support, and Song waged a decades long war to try to collect. Most of our characters were born after that period if our in-game choice of ages went the way I think it did, but we would have been toddling along listening to papa lion/spaceelf/wookie/leezard tell us stories of those bastard [Rebs|Doms|Mercs|perverts|pirates] and their [<insert atrocity>] and how he/she/it/they singlehandedly took out a dozen of the [<negative adjective><slur>] with his/her/its/their [trusty turret|B.E.A.S.|Nanoprobes|BARE HANDS], etc., etc., etc.

Kestrel

Crorr said:

On the other hand, CA just got done with a bloody revolution to overthrow the corporatocracy, who in their last dying gasps promised literal worlds to the Song Dominion for their assistance and support, and Song waged a decades long war to try to collect. Most of our characters were born after that period if our in-game choice of ages went the way I think it did, but we would have been toddling along listening to papa lion/spaceelf/wookie/leezard tell us stories of those bastard [Rebs|Doms|Mercs|perverts|pirates] and their [<insert atrocity>] and how he/she/it/they singlehandedly took out a dozen of the [<negative adjective><slur>] with his/her/its/their [trusty turret|B.E.A.S.|Nanoprobes|BARE HANDS], etc., etc., etc.

I’m a Jewish gal who grew up listening to horror stories of what it’s like to watch your uncle buried alive en route to a concentration camp because he couldn’t keep up. My sister married a German. He’s a nice chap. My grandmother, the Holocaust survivor, liked him. Times change. Civilisations aren’t homogenous.

EDIT: Modern parallel: there’s obviously tension today between Russia and the US. That doesn’t mean any time an American meets a Russian IRL it’s going to be a Mexican standoff. Russians and Americans can be pals. It’s cool. Your culture might not be the same and you might have opinions about the other country’s politics but it’s not like the two countries have an embargo going on. The average Russian does not have beef with the average American just for being American, nor vice versa.

Indi

More tips and tricks, less advice on how to interpret game lore, please?

Crorr

ARMOR UPGRADE <slot> WITH <type> is completely valid and if you only have one piece of armor in your inventory it will even select the correct piece.

Likewise JUNK SCRAP ARMOR will just scrap the first piece of armor you picked up, which if you're keeping things up to date and aren't saving or keeping armor to sell will be junk anyway.

Maruna

Crorr said:

ARMOR UPGRADE <slot> WITH <type> is completely valid and if you only have one piece of armor in your inventory it will even select the correct piece.

Likewise JUNK SCRAP ARMOR will just scrap the first piece of armor you picked up, which if you're keeping things up to date and aren't saving or keeping armor to sell will be junk anyway.

Wtf I made a script to handle both of these things... Talk about time wasted

Crorr

Just so people have a scope of what the game means, bring at least 40 repairkits, 2 astromechs, and 10 kinetic batteries to the level 10 quest. Be prepared to end up at a net loss for your trouble, discounting xp.

Maruna

Crorr said:

Just so people have a scope of what the game means, bring at least 40 repairkits, 2 astromechs, and 10 kinetic batteries to the level 10 quest. Be prepared to end up at a net loss for your trouble, discounting xp.

You should need close to that many. I went with 10 kits and 1 mech, and still came out almost full on shields. The ammo is about right, though.