Ascension went live as scheduled!  What a rush!

Doc Lettuce completed the first Ascension Mission in 13 hours 14 minutes 56 seconds – winning a Mjolnir!  Congratulations!

We are awaiting the next 10 who will receive special completion rewards.

What is Ascension?

Ascension is a mission players can choose to take on – as part of that mission, experience, statistics, points, bank accounts and possessions are temporarily set aside. It is similar to “starting over” at level 5 – with no ability to trade with other players. At successful mission completion, a significant Completion Bonus is applied. Research, accumulated experience and items accumulated are converted back to the main account.

What’s this Completion Bonus?

This depends upon the specific Ascension Mission (in first release, there is a single mission – there will be more added over time). The first mission pays out 1,000,000 experience points to each of the player’s Officers in Star Pirates (Underworld Contacts in Spy Battle). It also unlocks a new item slot.

Wait – 1,000,000 Experience?

This experience bonus is for Officers and Underworld Contacts – an additional 1,000,000 experience is not given to the player. Note that this is 1,000,000 for each – this is not divided among the officers and the 10% ratio does not apply. If you are calculating quickly, yes this equates earning 40,000,000 experience divided out using the usual 10% accrual rate.

What About Player Experience and Statistics?

All experience accumulated while Ascending is added to the Regular Account when you Complete Ascension.  In other words, the accounts are merged.

A New Item Slot?

In Spy Battle, this is Nanoglyphs (name may change – but the poll has a clear leader). In Star Pirates, this is a Protocol. In both games, only one of these items may be active at a time and these are findable while Ascending and transfer back to the Regular Account at Mission Completion. After Completing Ascension, this slot and any items of this type remain open for your use in your Regular Account – however items of this type can be found only while Ascending.

Hold On: Star Pirates Doesn’t Have Item Slots!

Until now. A protocol is a single slot which any ship class may use – it is an operating procedure with pros and potentially some cons.  It is tied to the specific player and crew – it cannot be used by nor transferred to another player nor ship (though they can be sold back to the game).  These can be found by players in hourly (and points-based) searches while Ascending.

Nanoglyphs!  Tell Me More!

Nanoglyphs are patterned nanotech implanted into the subdermal layer of spies – each is uniquely customized to the person using them.  They are bonded to your neural net forever and cannot be used by anyone else (though they can be sold back to the game).  These can be found by players in hourly (and points-based) searches while Ascending.

How Do I Start Ascending?

A new Mission will appear in the Missions list. Starting this Mission will bring up a confirmation – clicking any of the mission links will start Ascension and $500,000 is deducted from the Regular Account bank balance. All loaned items are returned, funds and existing cash on hand is returned to the bank.

You must be Level 40 to start Ascension and your Fleet or Faction must not have a war upcoming. You must have Notorious Star Pirate or Special Agent Status to start Ascension. If your status runs out, Ascension will be paused by the system – to resume later, you must pay $500,000 and qualify. This pause is not the same as an “Auto-Pause” (see below).

How do I Complete Ascension?

You must progress through – and win – the Ascension Mission. Unlike player-created Missions where scripted encounters use weapon names and encounter names but select opponent statistics at random, Ascension Missions have scripted encounters which must be defeated before the mission can continue. As a safeguard, there are level requirements at specific key points – you must reach the level before you can continue.

Can I Ascend Multiple Times?

No, but potentially in the future.  At release, the Ascension Mission is a one-time mission, although players can Pause and Resume as often as desired once the mission is Completed it is finished. There are plans to allow repeats of specific missions in future.

What if I Buy a Ship or Safehouse?

This is sold back to the game and credited to the Regular Account bank balance at successful Ascension Completion.

Can I Transfer to the Ascending Account?

You may not transfer points, funds nor items to the Ascending Account – not from another Ascending player, nor from a Regular player, nor from your own Regular Account, nor from the Markets.

Can I Transfer from the Ascending Account?

You can transfer points from your Ascending Account to the Regular Account. You must have Paused Ascension to do so.

What if I Need to Stop Ascending?

You can select to Pause Ascending (from Settings). You can then Start Ascending, pay the $500,000 again and the mission and Ascending Account will pick up where it left off.

What About Fleet and Faction Management?

Players start Ascending at level 5 – this means ladder eligibility is not affected. Leaders can still control memberships, promotions, loans, vaults and armories – but while Ascending they may not access vaults nor armories for their or any other Ascending Account.

What About Wars?

At the time a Faction or Fleet War is declared, all Ascending members in both groups are automatically “Auto-Paused”. When the War completes, players who were Auto-Paused are automatically resumed. There is no control over this by the players – there is no cost to resume Ascension as a Result. Take care with this feature – note this is at the time of war declaration, not when the war is underway. It may be advisable for players who wish to focus exclusively on Ascending to leave their Fleet or Faction to do so to avoid an unexpected interruption.

How Does Upgrade Account Work While Ascending?

Notorious and Special Agent days are used up on both accounts at the same time and carry over from Regular Account to Ascending Account.
Purchases you make while Ascending credit your Ascending account.
Purchases made by another player for you credit your regular account – NOT your Ascending account (this means you will benefit from the SA days but not points in that case).
Purchases made while you have paused Ascending credit your regular account.

What about Purchases That Are Delayed by Payment Provider processing?

Certain purchases can take time to clear (ie. e-cheques). If the purchase was made while you were ascending and you have not completed the ascension mission yet, the purchase will be applied to your Ascension account (whether you are currently ascending or have paused ascension). If you have completed ascension, the purchase will be applied to your Regular Account.

In any case, you will receive an in-game PM with the details of your purchase and information on which account it was applied to.

New Hall of Fame Category?

Yes – a new Ascending Hall of Fame is part of this release. This tracks overall time to completion for each Ascending Mission.

When Does this Go Live?

We will announce the release date later this week. We want to ensure everyone has time to set aside to enjoy it. We’re getting close to “Back to School” days and final summer vacations and want everyone to enjoy as they wish.  We intend to provide at least 7 days notice before such a large update to the games would go live.

Is there a Bonus for the Very First Player to Complete Ascension?

Yes.  There will be a unique medal given to the first player to complete ascension.

In Star Pirates, the first player to do so will be given a small item known as a Mjolnir  — check the item guide.  (Please note we would appreciate players treating this prize and their health with respect and care.  There is no point in winning it if your gut is damaged due to a dozen Red Bulls worth of insominia!)

A subsequent announcement will reveal the bonus for Spy Battle.

50,000 Celebration: Star Pirates has crossed the 50,000 player mark! Everyone online in the last 5 days who is level 5 or higher has been given 5 Notorious days and 5 points. HURRAY FOR 50K!!

Many, many thanks to the community who has supported us for two great years – without your generosity Star Pirates could not exist.

P.S. [MIN] Admin256 2010-06-24 13:39
~5050 drained an entire 1805 Walkin Whisky. (That was my personal one and only)

If you asked our opinion on the best way to celebrate the successful release of a space-shattering game update, we’d probably tell you that nothing goes hand in hand with big updates better than…well, a space-shattering party.

That’s why, if you happened to glance at the shoutbox post-launch of miniwars, you would probably have seen a whole lot of partying, and general carrying on from admins and players alike. Yes, in the course of our celebrations we probably consumed well over 1.5 Billion cargo worth of Walkin’ Whisky, Venusian chocolate, Alpha Centauri Rum and forbidden Sunburst Chardonnay (shhh!) – not to mention all the boosts applied to our spaceships! It was a fitting way to celebrate the launch of the biggest game update of the year. (So far!) We think it was worth it, and we hope you do too.

If you then asked us if we were crazy, we’d probably tell you that yes, we most definitely are…but what does that have to do with us drinking all the Whisky?

A lot of enhancements lately – some heavy behind-the-scenes work for speed improvements being one, the spying/disguise/online bonuses (including reduced energy costs) in Spy Battle: 2165 and a host of other subtle game improvements.

Probably the most exciting (and visible) improvement in the past while is upgradeable items. Rares, Rare+, Very Rare and Very Rare+ items in Spy Battle: 2165 and Star Pirates are now extendible. Not all items in these categories can be upgraded (yet) but more are being released on a bi-weekly basis.

Congratulations to the players of Spy Battle: 2165 on achieving HOSPITAL: 1000.

Star Pirates reached 430 players online – and Spy Battle 227. Wow! Thanks everyone for your continued support and being part of such a vibrant community!

Many thanks to Apt142 for organizing the very successful Star Pirates Lego Ship Contest:

1st place:
Dane Agathon’s Dreadnaught
Prize: 3000 points

2nd place:
DentedHead’s Frigate
Prize: 2000 points

We added a best virtual category since there was so many entries on that level.

Best Virtual – Barbo’s Warship
Prize: 500 points

And because there were so many great ones, the mod judges picked their favorites and awarded a little extra to them.

Mod Choice Awards: SirGir’s Admin Team, Naecht’s Dublo Dreadnaught, Bridgeburner’s Bar

(pics to follow)

We are fast approaching the official one-year anniversary of Star Pirates on April 25th, 2009. When we opened on April 19, it was in the beta mode with selected players from Baneworld. So there are players who’ve been playing longer than Star Pirates has been open (at least officially). Wow – what a year. THANKS TO YOU!

We’ll probably celebrate on THURSDAY since many players will be away on SATURDAY. Anyone who’s ever played would do well to visit on THURSDAY, they may find it a Notoriously good week.

We’re proud to announce two major milestones in the growth of our games occurring on the same day.  Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Spy Battle: 2165 surpassed the 10,000 player mark!

Star Pirates surpassed the 30,000 player mark!

To celebrate, all players online over the past week have been given the following bonus:

2 days of Special Agent status in Spy Battle: 2165

2 Notorious Days in Star Pirates

Remember – the server day ends at 20:00 EST.  Be sure to make the most of your free upgrade!

Armadas have been released in Star Pirates!

We have selected Rackspace as our new host company for two of our games – Star Pirates and Spy Battle.  The new (powerful!) server is online and the games are being migrated in the background.  Following this we will be running further validation and verification tests including load simulations.  When this passes, we will be providing updates as to when the ’switchover’ will occur.

We will at the appointed switchover time be taking the games offline, doing the final data synch and bringing up the new servers.  The outage time is expected to be less than one hour in duration.

Our current host provider failed to provide the timeline and quote they promised us today for a parallel server machine setup; on top of this the server faulted – the host provider did nothing – and all of these are absolutely unacceptable.

We are working on the arrangements for a behind-the-scenes preparation / migration to a far more powerful server hosted with a company with an impressive support promise and reputation; we have been in discussions with them and they are preparing options for us to review tomorrow.

The goal is to do this both in as quick a time as possible with as minimal interruption as possible – to that end we are employing their services with the migration assistance. Details and timeline are being firmed up tomorrow.