1. If you're looking for help-related things (for example, the key rebinding tutorial), please check the FAQ and Q&A forum! A lot of the stickies from this forum have been moved there to clean up space.
    Dismiss Notice

Vector Squared -- Starbound Community News, Issue #12

Discussion in 'Starbound Discussion' started by nababoo, Jan 28, 2013.

  1. [​IMG]


    Hello, and welcome to another issue of Vector Squared! Last week, a brand new Paste, space anchors, moon screenshots, hairstyles, and wikis were covered. This week, an interesting Q&A session with TIy, cloning and the Respawn system, and the upcoming Chucklefish title, Treasure Adventure World, are covered. So get ready, cover your noses, and dive into the twelfth series of articles.

    Table of Contents
    • Treasure Adventure World
    • Spaceship Battles announced by Tiy
    • Community Interaction -- Badges
    • The Q&A Session
    • Game of Politics
    • Roleplay Section Rewrite
    • Respawn System Revealed
    • Question of the Week
    • Closing Comments
    Treasure Adventure World
    A few days ago, Tiy tweeted something in the name of Robit Studios. Tiy’s post was actually a retweet where it was stated that a couple more things needed to be put together and then information about a new game would be shared with the community.

    About half an hour later, a second tweet by Tiy came up. This second message was an advertisement of the new game called Treasure Adventure World (TAW), a product of Robit Studios in collaboration with Chucklefish. It seems that this game is actually a HD remake/heavily inspired by Treasure Adventure Game, a slightly older product (2011) also authored by Robit Studios. According to the game’s official website, TAW will be coming out soon and you can even see its debut trailer below:



    Treasure Adventure World will be a gaming experience where people will be able to embark in a huge open-world adventure riddled with mysteries, monsters, treasures and *getsomecrackersreadyforpolly* parrots!

    The Indie Game Magazine has stated that TAW will be a nostalgic trip for players who have enjoyed the several classics that inspired this game, as well as people who are merely looking for design and execution of high quality.

    Several individuals have mistaken Tiy’s tweets for Starbound related information. However, that was not the case, as it was just seen. Moreover, some users, after having seen the TAW announcement, have manifested the concern that Chucklefish may not be devoting enough attention to Starbound. Well, to help clarify the issue, it’s worth noting that certain individuals belonging to Chucklefish have completed their current tasks in regards to Starbound and, as such, have free time to work on other projects.

    Feel free to pay TAW a visit and uncover further information about the game. You may also check this fantastic article that goes into details about Chucklefish’s involvement in this new project. It might be something up your alley!

    ~Keeper & slaticus


    Spaceship Battles announced by Tiy
    Dum dum dum... Spaceship battles. I could finish this article right here and that would be enough to leave us all more cosmically hyped than a fan at a Justin Bieber concert.

    TheCrimsonBatman (Why is Batman red?) has shared with the community a few days ago a couple of pictures that display Tiy announcing in the IRC channel that he has some ideas about spaceship battles to be introduced in Starbound...

    Tiy stated that the spaceship combat system in Starbound would be similar to the one in the game FTL: Faster Than Light. Basically, the player runs around the ship, operating different systems to make sure that the craft runs smoothly, altogether while repairing damage received and launching missiles and other types of “peace-keeping-projectiles” at your foes! If you would like to see how the vessel is operated in FTL, take a look at this tutorial clip.

    Tiy also makes mention of multiplayer, thus suggesting that there may be PvP space battles and perhaps even crew against crew, rather than one versus one only. That’s right, perhaps you’ll be able to bring your grog-addicted friends along and let their rusty sabers do the talking!

    On a slightly more negative note, Tiy has also stated that this feature would only come into play after post release, so, probably not anytime soon. Nevertheless, the idea lingers in the air, as we bask in its outstanding potential...
    ~Keeper


    Community Interaction -- Badges
    As we covered last week, the brand-new badge system was introduced to the Starbound forums! It’s quite nice and shiny, and filled with interesting features. They’ve already got a couple interesting ones set up, and there are, in fact, more on the way -- the community is going to take a hand in helping this grow to be something big and large!

    As can be seen in this thread, the staff were taking suggestions and sprites for new badges that can be implemented interesting ones, such as ones for one for being the winner of a Winter Contest category, or being a member of the staff (featuring a very nice little gameboy!). Most of the ones showed off so far have showed a remarkable amount of effort put into them, along wiht that charm that only pixelated artwork can have -- the thread itself makes for an fun and interesting thread.

    Here, we’ll show off some of the more... interesting badges that were published.

    A film reel for all those aspiring filmmakers!
    [​IMG]
    For the winner of the “short story” section of the holiday contest.
    [​IMG]
    One nice Gameboy for the mods.
    [​IMG]
    And... er... a derailing badge...

    [​IMG]

    Oh, and here’s a nice little message from SpaceNarwhal involving all the badges in a neat little story. Note: Large amount of pictures.
    Once, there was a badge.[​IMG]
    It sang a song,[​IMG]
    About Monsters.[​IMG]
    Lots of monsters,[​IMG]
    And how there were monsters everywhere.[​IMG]
    The song was so good, it got written down.[​IMG]
    But suddenly, it started snowing.[​IMG]
    So people threw paintbrushes at the snow.[​IMG]
    But that didn't help, so they sang about it instead.[​IMG]
    Instead of making the snow go away, it summoned Space Invaders.[​IMG]
    But we wrote them a poem, and they left us alone.[​IMG]
    We had to write this poem down, just in case,[​IMG]
    And it turned out to be the best poem ever![​IMG]
    So someone put it in a frame, and stuck it to a tree.[​IMG]
    People came to the tree, and sang the poem.[​IMG]
    They were happy.[​IMG]
    People made copies of the poem, and stuck those to trees.[​IMG]
    But some people stuck books to trees instead.[​IMG]
    These people were silly, they got eaten by Poptops carrying stars.[​IMG]
    The Poptops were clever, they had star carrying allies.[​IMG]
    One of them was an evil shadowy monster.[​IMG]
    Called Wox.[​IMG]
    Who inexplicably turned into the letter B.[​IMG]
    The people were happy,[​IMG]
    So gave each other gifts,[​IMG]
    Like typewriters,[​IMG]
    And strange symbols.[​IMG]
    People put their gifts in chests,[​IMG]
    And blew trumpets,[​IMG]
    Before talking,[​IMG]
    And fighting.[​IMG]
    Other people made films of the fighting,[​IMG]
    and sold them all across the globe.[​IMG]
    These people got very rich,[​IMG]
    And built ships to go to space.[​IMG]
    Most of them crashed into the sun,[​IMG]
    And became mods.[​IMG]
    This allowed them to find the key to interstellar travel.[​IMG]
    But they turned into laughing puffer fish.[​IMG]
    The fish talked,[​IMG]
    And counted,[​IMG]
    And wore pretty hats that changed colour.[​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    Some people decided to roll paper on the fish.[​IMG]
    And drew pictures of Vegeta on it.[​IMG]
    These people died.[​IMG]
    Unless they were Devs or IRC OPs,[​IMG][​IMG]
    Who transformed into strange winged creatures, with red plusses for heads.[​IMG]
    The creatures wandered aimlessly through space,[​IMG]
    Until they found a small gold kitten, with an hourglass on it's back.[​IMG]
    The kitten had friends,[​IMG][​IMG]
    Everyone loved the kittens,[​IMG]
    And the kittens loved them back.[​IMG]
    Inexplicably, the USS Enterprise turned up,[​IMG]
    So everyone played on their GameBoys.[​IMG]
    Or GameBoy Colors.[​IMG]
    They saw lots of pictures,[​IMG]
    And used lots of code.[​IMG]
    Until they'd played 1000 hours,[​IMG]
    When a little ghost ate their skins.[​IMG]
    This meant they were little more than skeletons,[​IMG]
    But they still had passports.[​IMG]
    The skeletons traded passports for useful goods, so some skeletons gained lots of passports.[​IMG]
    The passport rich skeletons painted pictures,[​IMG]
    And sang songs.[​IMG]
    Until they developed as a culture to have pointy mice,[​IMG]
    That they used to make quills,[​IMG]
    To write books.[​IMG]
    The books contained stories about robots,[​IMG]
    And mechs,[​IMG]
    And little drilling tanks.[​IMG]
    People drew pictures of the tanks, robots, and mechs,[​IMG]
    With paintbrushes.[​IMG]
    They kept their paintbrushes in jars,[​IMG]
    But creepers stole pencils from the jars,[​IMG][​IMG]
    Luckily, Wox wasn't evil anymore, so saved them.[​IMG]
    Until his brain fell out.[​IMG]
    Using the magic of the character creator,[​IMG]
    And afro power,[​IMG]
    And lots of paint, [​IMG]
    We managed to repair Wox,[​IMG]
    And had enough left over to build Shinx as well.[​IMG]
    Wox and Shinx drew themselves a friend,[​IMG]
    And all did chemistry together,[​IMG]
    Until their friend died in a horrific minecart accident.[​IMG]
    At least he tried.[​IMG]
    They gave his body to the pope,[​IMG]
    Who reincarnated him as the SpacePope,[​IMG]
    And gave everyone presents.[​IMG]
    Lots and lots of presents.[​IMG]
    Suddenly, the SpacePope had an idea.[​IMG]
    He went on Twitter,[​IMG]
    And Facebook,[​IMG]
    And wrote all sorts of nonsense.[​IMG]
    People were confused, but liked his stuff anyway...[​IMG]
    Mostly, he wrote epic yarns,[​IMG]
    About StarBound,[​IMG]
    And when/if he would get a beta.[​IMG]
    His yarns were popular,[​IMG]
    And people sent the SpacePope gifts, including GameBoys.[​IMG]
    Soon, the press arived,[​IMG]
    But it turned out they were agents, sent by GLaDOS[​IMG]
    So the real press had to beat them up,[​IMG]
    With billiard balls,[​IMG]
    Watermelons,[​IMG]
    And harps.[​IMG]
    The agents turned into a bag of spanners,[​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    Which people decided to throw at He-Man.[​IMG]
    Ace! They cried.[​IMG]
    As He-Man put on a hat, picked up a cane, and walked off,[​IMG]
    Into the stars...[​IMG]
    The people were confused,[​IMG]
    So went to the Darkbound,[​IMG]
    They played Yu-Gi-Oh,[​IMG]
    And Pokemon.[​IMG]
    As they shouted things in foreign,[​IMG]
    A wild rubber duck appeared![​IMG]
    Turns out the duck was an undercover OP,[​IMG]
    Who liked wearing Hazmat suits.[​IMG]

    People were angry at this.[​IMG]
    Until the duck explained,[​IMG]
    The duck was made the leader of a clan,[​IMG]
    And wrote lots of threads about it.[​IMG]
    People wrote songs to the duck,[​IMG]
    And wished the duck would live forever.[​IMG]
    One day, a black cat stood up from the rest,[​IMG]
    Put on a suit,[​IMG]
    Picked up some paint with a mouse,[​IMG]
    And drew a happy face.[​IMG]
    The happy face made lots of people friends with the cat,[​IMG]
    And they made videos about him.[​IMG]
    The cat was one level headed guy.[​IMG]
    He wrote lots of letters,[​IMG]
    And stories,[​IMG]
    And poems. And hid them all in a dark cave[​IMG]
    Many years later people used torches to find the cat's writing.[​IMG]
    Turns out he wrote the secret to world peace.[​IMG]
    The secret was lots and lots of rupees.[​IMG]
    And inside each rupee was a little bug,[​IMG]
    Which the people had to hand to Tiy.[​IMG]
    Tiy made all the bugs into ink, and wrote a book,[​IMG]
    Which he promptly stabbed with a sword.[​IMG]
    Whilst the book lay dieing, Tiy watched the sunrise.[​IMG]
    The sun smelled like fish.[​IMG]
    People liked the idea of the sun smelling like fish, so made a movie, for smell-o-vision,[​IMG]
    And got the Count to direct it.[​IMG]
    Unfortunately, though, three pages worth of spam closed the thread. How unfortunate. However, feel free to browse through, or possibly start another badge discussion thread. ALL the ideas ;)
    ~Nababoo


    The Q&A Session
    What a day for the community. Tiy (and more than one member of the Dev Team) appeared on the IRC Friday and held a Question and Answer session with our community. Tiy also gave a shoutout to the world through his Twitter account about the IRC. The response was so large that it shut down the channel and forced the chat into a backup chatroom. There was a ton of information put out today, so much that Vector Squared is only going to hit the highlights.
    • Tons of information about “Tech” and what it can do for your character.
    • Actual info about the system requirements. Tiy-”Right now it runs at a very solid 60fps on and entry level macbook air, which is relatively low spec.” The build is also unoptimized.
    • There will be various chat channels
    • Crafting? CRAFTING!
    • And literally tons more. Seriously. Check out the full list of questions in this handy .txt file posted by user Dynafols!
    ~Slaticus


    Game of Politics
    As mentioned above, there was a Q/A session held by various members of staff this week. Tiy took it upon himself to answer the majority of the questions with very diplomatic and measured answers. Reading his messages instilled a sense of careful balance as he treaded between denying features and half-promising the possibility of others. Any action of affirmation was meet with a simple “Yes” and sometimes an explanation follow-up, but the fun began when a feature wasn’t in the game as we got “might be post-release”, “is something we’re considering”, or even “it’s something we hope to do”. We thank the staff for hosting such an informative event, and bonus points to Tiy for being such a smooth talker. Tiy for President? You got my vote.

    Here is a condensed list of what was discussed in the Q/A session:
    • Tech can grant different types of movement.
    • Each species has a different ship design, but the layout remains the same
    • Progression in the game allows for increased ship space
    • Other players can board your ship (if invited)
    • Each melee weapon class swings differently
      • Might be a secondary attack for melee weapons
      • Weapons mods can change how a weapon works (ex: hammer creating shockwave)
    • Camera view can be adjusted
      • Some items will grant a larger, 2D-scoped view distance
    • Most Ranged items require Energy
    • Tech is unlocked and activated rather than equipped
      • A person can change what Tech is activated while on their ship
    • There will be multiple chat channels in-game
    • Water will be able to freeze on snow planets
    • More direct item interaction, such as sitting, laying, and using a large variety of objects
    • “Line of Sight” will likely not exist
    • Server Moderators can possess NPCs; performing actions and talking through them
    • Skyline will properly reflect the solar system you are in (ex: proper number of stars, moons, etc will show in the sky)
    • There will be explorable ‘man made’ environments “off-planet”
    • Electricity / Generators are not implemented
      • They may or may not be featured in an optional mode
    • The modding API will be a mix of Lua and DLL.
      • Built to be easy and not require external resources
    • Crafting requires different devices depending on recipe
    • Crafting is instantaneous
    • Bosses are currently pre-designed
      • Generated bosses may appear post-release
    • Sub-bosses are procedurally generated
    • To capture a creature, you use an item on it when it is at low health
      • This item (and the creature attached to it) can be traded
    • Captured creatures can be stored and used via the ship
      • Once a creature dies, it returns to the ship (and can be used again when you visit it)
      • You may have 3 active creature slots
    • Planets feature one main biome
      • It can contain specialized sub-biomes
      • “micro-biomes” also exist
    • World generation happens while you play, to prevent loading screens
    • Planets will have varying temperature and gravity
    • Planets can require special equipment to breathe on
    • Starbound takes advantage of CPUs with multithreading technology
    • Volcanoes are not currently implemented
      • This may likely change
    • There will not be Mercenaries on release
    • Vehicles are not customizable
    • “Creative Mode” may be implemented post-release
    • Sneak mechanic is not currently implemented
    • “DNA-splicing” may be available post-release
    • There is no event system in place (such as natural disasters)
    • Loot is currently Free-for-All
      • May be later changed to appear client-side for private looting
    • Non-planets can be generated with special dungeons
    --Strife


    Roleplay Section Rewrite
    There was a lot of action in the Roleplaying section of the forum this past week, although it might have gone unnoticed in the general scheme of the forums. At the beginning of the whole remodeling, the powers that be decided that the quality of the Roleplays in the forum were not entirely up to the standards hoped for. So if anyone was worried about the sudden lack of access to the RP section, it was due to a intense remodeling of the rules.

    If you feel that the rules still need to be tweaked somewhat, you can place your thoughts here.
    ~Most of the staff

    Respawn System Revealed
    On Friday, Tiy posted a gif revealing what respawning will look like, or rather, what cloning will look like.

    [​IMG]

    This is something many have already seen coming as cloning is used in practically all sci-fi games that involve reincarnation. It’s also a popular topic in fiction and philosophy with the main question being: “Are you really still yourself?”.

    The DEV team obviously had this in mind beforehand as Tiy posted that he liked the philosophy behind it, stating that dying will bring a feeling of loss because the new body is a fake. A duplicate.

    The community seems to split in opinions about this method of revival. Some think it fits perfectly, others, not so much. What’s your opinion?

    A possible achievement was also mentioned and it seems like the ultimate challenge. Who will be the first to claim the title of Home Grown?

    ~WackyWocky


    Question of the Week
    Q: Do you think clones experience an afterlife?
    A: Answer in the thread! Let's see what pops up...


    Closing Comments
    • Thank you for reading this as well, Reddit users! We’ll probably be posting this there as well from now on, seeing as we have such a nice audience there as well :D
    • WHERE BE DA FANFICS ~ Merc
    • And alas, no science trivia this week. We’ll try to fix it, though. We’re sorry!
    Staff
    Nababoo -- Manager/Writer
    Keeper -- Wordsmith
    Mercenary Lord -- Lector Ficta
    Strife -- ???
    Active Link -- Scientific Consultant
    Slaticus -- Author from the Shadows
    WackyWocky -- Mystery Man

    Credits
    blind sniper -- Banner

    Previous Issues:
    Issue #1 [] Issue #2 [] Issue #3 [] Issue #4 [] Issue #5 [] Issue #6 [] Issue #7 [] Issue #8 [] Issue #9 [] Issue #10 [] Issue #11
     
  2. Sgt. Sprocket

    Sgt. Sprocket Parsec Taste Tester

    Why is this not stickied yet?
    THIS IS MADNESS.

    To answer the Q of the week, I have played Futurama the game and when you die everything goes black and in white text it says "GAME OVER", then you regain consciousness in your clone, so no, no afterlife.

    :rainbow:
     
    nababoo likes this.
  3. Tojo

    Tojo Existential Complex

    I think cloning fits perfectly. Terraria's cloning left a bit to be desired instead of suddenly appearing in your bed. You can also assume the the cloning chambers will only be in your ship, space station, and home planet-when you finally craft the cloning chamber for said planet.
     
    nababoo likes this.
  4. 777eza

    777eza Existential Complex

    Madness? THIS IS STARBOUND! :sparta:
    Also good job as always. :DD
     
    Klemar, Keeper, nababoo and 1 other person like this.
  5. Zerathras

    Zerathras Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    No event system in place? I thought starbound was planned to have random events on planets. Can someone confirm this or cite it's source? Or perhaps i'm misunderstanding something.
     
  6. Sgt. Sprocket

    Sgt. Sprocket Parsec Taste Tester

    It is probably that there is no event system yet, but weather and stuff has already been in development for some time. Other events like invasions, dunno. Time will tell.
     
    nababoo likes this.
  7. Zerathras

    Zerathras Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Can someone please locate the source of that information?
     
    nababoo likes this.
  8. Tojo

    Tojo Existential Complex

    I remeber Tiy saying something about wanting natural disaster to occur, but other than that i have no idea about random events, well unless space battles count
     
    nababoo likes this.
  9. Tojo

    Tojo Existential Complex

    Hey Wox try this website it should work fine http://treasureadventureworld.com/

    Edit: wait were you talking about the original game as in the game this one is based off of?
     
    WoxandWarf likes this.
  10. Dynafols

    Dynafols Black Hole Surfer

    With that file on here, I feel like I accomplished something for once, yay!

    But my current concern is the "creator mode" I believe Tiy mentioned. Where he mentioned that players could control NPCs and create there own "adventures" in such a way. However, I honestly don't see that working to well. Most people just want to go on the adventure, not create it (unless it's a custom map), even more so hold the hand of someone. If I could set NPCs to go to certain destinations at certain times, etc, that would be great. But honestly just being able to control a few things and hold the hand of someone through an adventure while trying your hardest to make it seem epic might just be annoying and a bit boring for the actual creator in most cases. But that's just me.

    Tiy, (if you read this(and anyone else for that matter), you should take a look at the games "Sleep is Death" and "Dungeonland".
     
    nababoo likes this.
  11. Tojo

    Tojo Existential Complex

    nababoo and WoxandWarf like this.
  12. Tojo

    Tojo Existential Complex

    Think of it as the Buck quests from Farcry 3, if you played them, basically there was a npc that sent you on quests, but always appeared at the end of the quest just to spite the main character, which i found hilarious.
     
  13. Dynafols

    Dynafols Black Hole Surfer

    You'd also have to build everything, set up the mobs, the treasure, the traps, puzzles, landscapes, etc. hmmm... may I ask, what would you do in director's mode? I'm curious to know.

    Also thanks, Director's Mode, got it, (sticky note to forehead).
     
    WoxandWarf likes this.
  14. Strife

    Strife Existential Complex

    [​IMG]
     
    WoxandWarf and nababoo like this.
  15. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    That Q&A session is quite something. It sheds a lot of light on Starbound, and makes me want it even more.

    Also, SpaceNarwhal's badge story is glorious. :up:
     
    SpaceNarwhal and nababoo like this.
  16. Ghostar

    Ghostar Steakeater

    *Stickied*

    I ended the madness!

    Good volume this time, lots of info! I find it odd you had nothing on the contest results but that's a big topic in of itself so I guess there is no point in mentioning it again. Looking forward to the next volume.
     
  17. Mianso

    Mianso Black Hole Surfer

    Awsome job.On a note,the mod possessing npcs thing is actually the director mode planned for post release.
     
  18. Tired. Very, very, tired.

    We'll be sure to cover more of that kind of thing this week, and procrastinate less work harder.
     
    RexMori likes this.
  19. LastSuicide

    LastSuicide Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Awww, no science trivia this time? I'm a bit sad now...:(
    and for the rest: good work! :up:
     
    nababoo likes this.
  20. Some... inconveniences.
     

Share This Page