Every once in a while, even pirates can work as a team.

June 12th was one such very rare occasion, as 270-odd Star Pirates
collaborated to break the previous Shipyard record of 2109. A timer
counting down to 13:00 set the tone for the event, and generated lots
of excitement in the game. In the end, the old record was more than
broken - we blew it right out of the solar system, with a whopping
new record of 3145 taking its place!  With at least 3 stations being
fully cleared, and the Shout Box scrolling by almost too quickly to
follow, the game atmosphere was positively electric.

Every pirate knows that to the victor go the spoils, and this event was no
exception. All the pirates online during the event received 30 points
as a surprise bonus, and experienced the “Thrill of Victory” - a 20
minute event which provided a welcome boost to player stats. When we
see how smoothly it went today, it’s not hard to imagine that soon we
may be witnessing something (as yet) unheard of - SY 4000 and beyond!

“It is a modern miracle that these Admins manage to run a dupe-free, cheat-free MMORPG in today’s online environment. These guys ROCK! :)”

Galaxiana from Star Pirates

We’ve had a busy past 3 months. (Click here to see details), but as ever players want to know what’s next?

Well the plans over the next 3 months include:
* Missions: more tweaks and additional functions. Roll out of a version to SB-2165.

* Medals: we will launch medals; a tangible form of the HOF that shows on your profile - but with a lot more categories to compete in.

* Ascension: once you’ve hit level 40 (?), we’ll enable you to lockbox your cargo, items and stats, and restart.  When you hit that level again, you can keep the things you’ve found, plus unlock your old stuff AND get a unique bonus found nowhere else in the game. Oh and have bragging rights for the game as well.

* More details on the backstory of the Starcrash Universe - home of StarPirates and SpyBattle 2165.

* Plus new items, NPCs, and other feature upgrades you’ve come to expect from the hard-working Snakehead Games team.

Will these all come about in the exact way I listed here - heck no!  Natural evolution, user testing, feedback from you - that’ll change them, but the basic ideas will be seen over the next few months!

Cheers!
– Admin ArrBilly out!

So what has SHG done over the past 3 months?

A lot. As always, a lot.

www.baneworld.com is being migrated to the larger NEaB community. That means lots of more quests, content, and players to infuse the game.  If things go well, in 3 months it’ll be fully run by the NEaBS admin team.

As for our more popular StarPirates.net and SpyBattle.com, our Gem over that time is:
* Mission Control - see post here.  Players get to “live” the stories of their cohorts.  How cool.

It’s live in StarPirates and a variation will be live in SpyBattle soon.

We knew that our games could be confusing to start, and if someone’s confused, they’ll wander off before giving the games a shot!  So another big release was:
* Walkthroughs for new Players: Try to get confused about the game now! Just try

Also released:
* Dozens of new NPCs to fight
* New items
* Updated jobs
* A slew of gaming upgrades; we’ve lost count.

On a sadder note, we’ve mourned the real life passing of one of the games’ legends.  We miss you GDL.

On a happier tone, the marriage of two of our players lit up the community.  What makes this marriage extra special?  They met in the game, fell in love here, and continue to bring cheer (and pirate ways) whenever they come online.  And maybe if you’re nice they may give you some of their unique wedding cake (!)

We’ve also cleared some trouble makers out of the game. Community is what makes our games extra fun - we won’t put up with those that are dragging it down.

Since role playing is such a huge part of the game, (thanks role playing community!), we’ve been involved creating official Canon for the SP/SB universe.  This allows storycrafters to ensure their work fits intot he overall tapestry (no pressure tho).  This has been underway for a while, and will be released this week.  Lots of hard work, and sacrifice, from the Role Playing community to help with this. Thanks.

What’s next?  Well that’s for another post.  Stay tuned!

– Admin ArrBilly out!

Want to live the StarPirates.net universe in gritty detail?  Or help CREATE it?  Then Mission Control is right for you.

StarPirates.net’s Mission Control allows players to go through text-based missions written by other players.  Make decisions, fight any number of NPCs, gaining treasure and respect along the way.

If you’re more into the creative side, join the 100s of Role Players in the game, who have started creating missions for you to play.  In fact, within 2 days of launch there were over 50 missions - many of them detailed and high quality. Attesting to the players’ love of the game. And, obviously, caffeine as well.

So logon to StarPirates and check out what is being called “The Coolest Upgrade to StarPirates.net this Year”.

– Admin ArrBilly signing off!

No, not in the industrial age sense, but rather a method of playing the SHG games.

Our group on the community is here:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Snakehead/

Thanks for setting it up “DrHorrible”.

The growth of the StarPirates community sometimes surprises me.  I received this in game message today.0

From Hogan of the Harbour
Date May 05 2009 16:16:18
Subject StarPirates in webcomics

I know SP show up alongside a lot of webcomics, it was through one of those I found my way here. But… SP has also been referenced in none-advertising form, namely here: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magical_Misfits/index.php?p=546427

You just can’t confine good pirates to a game. Just in case you didn’t know…

Well we do now :)  And thanks for spreading the word.

It seems we have more and more StarPirates fans. They come in all shapes and sizes; even feline!

One of our players took this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YKl26vnRGA

Change the colour and it could be my cat, tbh