MUSHROOM FLEET: SHOGUNATE SEASON 2

A StarMade Universe, running from: November 2015 - February 2016





A StarMade Universe, running from: November 2015 - February 2016

OVERVIEW & APPROACH TO CUSTOMIZATION

Greetings, lifeform. I'm plusnine. You may or may not be familiar with some of the things I've shared here on SMD:

Over my years of playing the game, one thing I've long appreciated is how many great options Schine has gracefully included for server operators to alter, tweaking to what's right for the people who play on it. I have been admin-ning on Mushroom Fleet, mostly in the background on the server for a few years now, but recently wanted to try my hand at re-game-ify-ing our server's "Shogunate" concept to make gameplay smoother, more enjoyable and more rewarding for our daily players.



If you're interested in joining the server, there's information and a quick-start-quite for that in the first few replies to this post. If you want to read about how we do things on Mushroom Fleet and why, keep on reading. There's a lot of useful information if you decide to join us in the Shroomiverse.



The primary language spoken on the server and Teamspeak is english, but our players come from all over the world.



CURRENCY, TIME & THE PLAYER-DRIVEN ECONOMY

In Shogunate Season 1, we tried to look at the ways in which players spend their time, and how that could be best translated into a currency that works for them in ways we felt the credit was falling short on a server that wanted to move toward giving players more creative freedom within their claimed systems, without putting the server at risk for griefing or lagging.



Thankfully, many of the variables surrounding cost in the configuration can be set to negligible costs, so things like starting a station, repairing a damaged ship, etc. could all be made to be free, liberating players from needing to ever check in on how many credits they have.



This Season we've tried to make as many ways player can spend time in the game: mining, crafting, fighting pirates, engaging in trade with one another and developing warp infrastructure, even exploration: fun and profitable! (after all, isn't that what your time is worth?)



TOKEN-BASED CURRENCIES & CUSTOM TEXTURES

After some experimentation, we settled on creating our first custom block, which would be used as a "token": the "Delta", which is a "compressed" in a Basic Factory, using common ore- and crystal-derived refinery byproducts: Alloyed Metal Mesh and Crystal Composite, and culturally equivalent to one million credits in the base game. When we realized we needed a token currency, we wanted to swag it up by making it it's own block. I decided to mess around with StarMade's sorely underutilized custom texture pack feature, and before I knew it, I had filled almost an entire sheet with custom colored hulls, animated displays, faction emblems, and more. The custom texture pack includes blocks like:

New hull crafting chains including colors like PINK, TEAL, SLATE, EMERALD, OLIVE, NAVY, CREAM and more!

New lights, logic indicators and animated displays

Letters, numbers and symbols!



The presence of "tokens" like Deltas means that players can be making Deltas directly in their own factories, by mining any asteroid (or planet if your brain is made of swiss cheese). You can also compress your Deltas into higher orders of magnitude, going from Delta 1 (Bronze), to Delta 10 (Silver), to Delta 100 (Gold), to the "Epic" Delta 1000 (a purple, animated block roughly equivalent to a billion credits!)





Faction Tokens are issued by hand, and can have value as an in-faction currency or a PVP trophy.



Deltas can be redeemed by players multiple ways: Faction Tokens are issued by hand, and can have value as an in-faction currency or a PVP trophy.Deltas can be redeemed by players multiple ways:

Spent at token-based "vending machines", created by server staff, prominent factions, and ship-shops created by the players themselves - a great way for players who enjoy mining and crafting to make Deltas securely when offline!

Redeemed from server Admins and the Shogun's "Barons" in person at an exchange rate of 1 million credits per Delta, as determined by the prices in the Ship Catalog Manager. Purchases are delivered in the form of a filled blueprint.

POWER STRUCTURES

BARONS

Barons are players with long, positive track records on the server. They know the game, they know the community, and most of them have run successful factions, some of them for multiple years running. Barony factions also recruit players. Barons are also trusted by the server staff to resolve Delta transactions in an equitable way by filling blueprints for players.



All barony factions have a large warp gate leading to their home systems from the spawn shop, making it a "Hyperspace Bypass" of sorts. Having a friendly Baron near your territory is a great way to get plugged into server culture, meet other players, and have access to their Hyperspace Bypass gate that can accommodate your most impressive ships! Wealthy players can even buy Hyperspace Bypass gates from Shogunate Joe at the spawn point.



ADMINS

Admins are a varied group of people on Mushroom Fleet, and not all of them will handle your Delta transactions. Some have limited time and must spend their time on the server focused on things they are building or developing for the server. Some of us have factions players can join, which helps fast-track those Delta Exchanges.



PLAYER FACTIONS

There are lots of smaller player-driven factions on the server, too, which I think is fantastic! The Barony system is great, but sometimes a player's schedule just can't seem to line up with the Barons or Admins they might want or need. Other times, they just want to feel like your own lifeform. We've made a whole host of changes to the rest of the game so that players (or groups of players) who want to go independent and just experience the universe on their own terms can have an enjoyable go of it, while still getting to participate in, and even benefit from a Delta-based economy.



Here are just a few of the factions that will be operating this Season:



CHANGES FROM THE DEFAULT STARMADE EXPERIENCE

MINING AND CRAFTING

Most of our long-time players are experienced StarMade players, who have seen the early game many times before, so wanted a way to avoid the need for them to build the same ugly brick-salvager just to get themselves started again. To complement the Delta economy, rather than institute a flat mining bonus, we've generously altered the capsule and mesh yields for every ore and crystal in the game, essentially "buffing the capsule refinery", allowing players who wish to craft, or specialize what they produce in their factories will have a far more direct path to being able to build their projects in game and on the server. Barons have already started selling mining ships for Deltas the form of pre-filled blueprints at the spawn shop, so if you don't have a mining ship of your own saved, but don't feel like building one:

COMBAT







The stations are designed to be fought by players in groups of 2-4 in ships with about 500k - 1m shields. Most ships 75-200m can find a way to contribute to fighting pirate stations.



To test your knowledge of StarMade combat mechanics and turret AI, each pirate station is fitted with a number of loot Tanks, some of which include high-value Deltas. The loot tanks have no shields of their own, are fitted with Warheads, and Deltas are fragile - if you go in guns blazing, you will blow up your loot! Figuring out how to loot a pirate station can be difficult, but players who pull off a successful raid will find themselves well rewarded. I am by no means a Starmade combat expert, so I contacted Zero_sen to work with me on designing a fleet of pirates for the new universe that could be used to reward players with Delta currency. I removed all the default pirate stations from the game that we could and replaced them with two difficulties of Zero_sen's deadly Symtech Pirate stations and platforms, and a whole host of pirate ships for players to go head-to-head with on a regular basis:The stations are designed to be fought by players in groups of 2-4 in ships with about 500k - 1m shields. Most ships 75-200m can find a way to contribute to fighting pirate stations.To test your knowledge of StarMade combat mechanics and turret AI, each pirate station is fitted with a number of loot Tanks, some of which include high-value Deltas. The loot tanks have no shields of their own, are fitted with Warheads, and Deltas are fragile - if you go in guns blazing, you will blow up your loot! Figuring out how to loot a pirate station can be difficult, but players who pull off a successful raid will find themselves well rewarded.



Bounty hunters rejoice: Pirate ships summoned in as reinforcements also reward players: Each is fitted with a number of Symtech Pirate Emblem blocks, which can be redeemed from a token vendor at the spawn point for Deltas.



There is more PVE action players can look forward to appearing this Season:

Just like the mining ships, players will be be adding pre-filled combat ships, turrets and specialized station-fighting ships in vending machines at spawn for repeat bounty hunters. If you have a good one, find a baron to fill the blueprints and work on sales commission!

Keep building your larger combat vessels, because more combat with the Symtech Pirates, larger, meaner stations is on the way!

New threats and alien races to face off in specially prepared systems in in the far reaches of galaxy!

EXPLORATION





I wanted to also address the exploration side of the game, and provide players with answers to some of their longstanding wishlists. To that end, All the game's default "decayed" stations have been removed, and replaced with a selection of 22 "Massteroids" - large scale, hollow asteroid stations that Zero_sen and I created in smEdit, all in different colors, sizes, orientations and arrangements. Players can purchase these stations for 10 Delta from an available admin (or Baron, who will relay the request to me) and build a base inside it!

The first player who can spot all 22 types of asteroids will be given a huge reward! Leave a signature Explorer's League Beacon at the ones you discover, and record the coordinates. When you've got all 22, you win!

There are strange alien monuments out there, but they're pretty rare! No one knows what they're for, but I hear Shogunate Joe is interested in collecting them if they are pristine and unspoiled!



In lieu of the Trading Guild stations we've placed Shogunate Repair Beacons (which will repair a damaged vessel for free), Delta Presses (for making cash on the go), Burger Joints (free parking) and other types of stations generated into the fabric of the universe.



Other adventures to look forward to this season:

Astronaut-mode events like King of the Hill, Spathi Basin!

PVE story/quest/dungeon-hack stations!

TRAVEL SETTINGS

Sector size is 4km

Jump distance is 12 sectors

Warp Gates travel 16 systems.

JOINING THE SERVER

INSTALLING THE CUSTOM TEXTURE PACK



IMPORTANT: Installation of the texture files require a little bit of file juggling, but many players find they cannot connect to the server at all unless they have installed the pack correctly. Follow the instructions carefully, and be sure to back up your StarMade installation!



Install MF: Shogunate Season 2 Resource Pack

Be sure you're merging in the new files into your installation, do not replace the entirety of your data folder.

Test the texture pack in single player. When you open a shop menu or creative mode, you should see the new colors of hull.

IMPORTANT: Installation of the texture files require a little bit of file juggling, but many players find they cannot connect to the server at all unless they have installed the pack correctly. Follow the instructions carefully, and be sure to back up your StarMade installation!InstallBe sure you're merging in the new files into your installation, do not replace the entirety of your data folder.Test the texture pack in single player. When you open a shop menu or creative mode, you should see the new colors of hull.

GETTING WHITELISTED

Mushroom Fleet is a whitelist-only server, and you will need an authenticated StarMade Citizen Registry account uplink to play. Whitelist requests are taken at:

CONNECTING TO THE SERVER AND GETTING STARTED

Server connection address is:

play.mushroomfleet.co.uk:4242

We're in the StarMade launcher's server lists, too.

When you first connect to Mushroom Fleet, be sure you REJECT the server's offer of custom textures (you've already installed them, and the StarMade's texture pack download feature is currently broken!)



RULES

Be sure to read the rules, there's a lot of good information for new players and details not covered in this overview thread.



SPAWN SHOP

You'll start with 5 Deltas and a filled blueprint for a Trufflehunter mining ship. Browse the shop and decide if you want to pick anything up before you leave. The Trufflehunter has a rear expansion bay if you want to expand the salvage array or some extra shielding. On one side are the official, verified shops, the other side is unverified. Buyer beware!



MAKING YOUR FIRST DELTAS

There's also a Shogunate Delta Press at spawn. If you decide to mine in the nearby asteroid fields, you can bring your haul back here to turn it into capsules and Deltas. Once you've saved up 10 Deltas, consider ditching your Trufflehunter buying an upgraded mining ship from one of the shops at spawn.



JOINING YOUR FELLOW LIFEFORMS ON TEAMSPEAK

Use of Teamspeak is encouraged, but not required. The address and password will be provided to you in the StarMade welcome window when you log into the server.



CREDITS AND THANKS