Please Implement A Warp Beacon, Doing Anything Underground Is Tedious Without It

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by Pizzarugi, Dec 7, 2013.

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  1. DukeSkath

    DukeSkath Seal Broken

    Not to mention the fact that dying halfway around the planet (as I just did, heh) means an annoying trek back to the spot of most recent loss.
     
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  2. winevirus

    winevirus Void-Bound Voyager

    I die like that all the time. Or say I find an lab or prison or something I want to use as my base for my home planet, but it's a 10 minute run there. I don't wanna have to run that far every time. It's a waste.
     
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  3. Enzam

    Enzam Pangalactic Porcupine

    There is a mod for this. Planet side teleporters. I agree that this should be implemented but for hose f you who don't like waiting and hoping, the mod is available.
     
  4. GESTROW

    GESTROW Aquatic Astronaut

    lol then how would you beam back to your ship if you are with a friend while he warps to another sector
     
  5. Enzam

    Enzam Pangalactic Porcupine

    Well rather than it being nonretrievable you could have it be made of several place able components that when put together they make a beacon, having it b multiple components would discourage frequent moving but it would make it possibl for transfer.
     
  6. Tiny Starcrosser

    Tiny Starcrosser Master Chief

    How about to teleport from underground you must level up your beacon like you level up your ship which for each upgrade could lead you back home. But during these teleports from deep underground stuff could go wrong like a beacon malfunction causing death explosions but to counter act dieing from your beacon level it up to decrease this from occurring
     
  7. Spatial_Pioneer

    Spatial_Pioneer Void-Bound Voyager

    To be fair this is what the green stem packs are made for. If you can time your jumps well, arm yourself(and stay frosty) can practically fly back.

    Another method- before warping up to your ship build a tower of dirt. Like a hundred blocks straight up. Then when you return to the warp spot you can use dirt or other unwanted blocks to make a 'sky bridge' eventually hitting the tower. ((The first couple of times making one of these, I was so far up I missed my mark and ended up passing it entirely) the tower will help)
     
  8. Necryel

    Necryel Pangalactic Porcupine


    The problem with a beacon i that each one would require it's own set of non standard data, and a menu spot on the ship's warp platform. While this may not seem like an issue, It would require even more data to be stored in the already massive planet files and player files. With each beacon being selectable, your warp menu would soon become overwhelmed with beacons you might have left behind or because you had multiple locations you wanted to "bookmark." The developers have already given you solutions to the problem of traversing the planet's surface: Make a sky rail to the spot you want to go to, bubble boost, butter fly boost, a car. so "going the distance isn't as much of an issue as you make it out to be. The other issue is going through the winding depths in order to reach a planet's core.

    To this, I have a very simple solution: Bring some doors, some platforms, and make a personal, vertical mining shaft. It's easy, just dig straight down, or straight up (jumping a lot) bring a bunch of wood to make platforms and doors so you can get in an out at various depths. You can easily line the walls of the shaft with the materials you've been excavating so this is a cheap, and practical solution, Especially if you've spent some time farming trees for their wood. A beacon, while convenient is not by any means necessary given the options available to you. With a bit of planning and effort you can make your life rather easy in the long run. It just takes a little bit of thought and work on your part. A beacon is simply a sign of laziness An elevator would be more practical and prevent the embarrassment of dying from trying to get down the shaft too quickly.


    If a "Warp Beacon" or some such thing were to be implemented, it should follow the same limitations as the ship's warp function, usable only at the surface in order to avoid it turning into a "panic button in the depths. But again, I reiterating that there are other solutions available to the players to make this entirely unnecesarry.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2014
  9. Aquillion

    Aquillion Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Anyway, we definitely need more options for teleportation. Part of what I was looking forward to in Starbound was teleportation -- being able to beam down wherever I want, set up teleporters, etc. Technology should feel convenient as you get access to more of it -- it should change the game and change the way you approach the game. Allowing people to set up rapid warps around the planet would go a long way towards that.
     
  10. Piemanlives

    Piemanlives Subatomic Cosmonaut

    While I'm in favor of the possibility of beacons the arguments seem to be going in a slight circle, obviously those against it believe that it removes the danger of exploration etc. etc. while those in favor of it see it as a possible convenience. I'm obviously for a change in the teleport system, so my question for you people who are not really for this idea, what would you want to see if the teleport system was changed?
     
  11. Spatial_Pioneer

    Spatial_Pioneer Void-Bound Voyager

    Portals.

    Like the portal gun in the game of the same name. One in-one out that can be placed wherever the user sees fit; but only one at a time. Therefore it's only as convenient as you make it...a lot of frustration can arise from pressing the wrong button.

    Ultimately, I feel this would fit right in with both the sci-fi and adventure themes as it would merely provide a gateway between the high tech world that is your homebase, and the untamed frontier that is the universe.
     
  12. Enot

    Enot Subatomic Cosmonaut

    It's been mentioned before, but the magic mirror idea is still in my opinion the closest and best solution in terms of getting "back". That said it was brought up in another thread, which I can't recall atm, of allowing for players to teleport to their ship, but once underground, and depending on the depth, it no longer is an instantaneous endeavor. It was suggested to take a few seconds, which I believe is still too short, something along the lines of 10 seconds, and interruptible, meaning its not an "escape danger" just a tool for getting back.

    I'll be frank on the subject of getting back, leaving game and rejoining is the easiest and best way at the moment and takes some time, but breaks immersion, breaks parties etc. Killing yourself, depending on your play mode is also a solution if you wisely opt to not carry your wealth with you constantly. Point being, that its a task that can be accomplished, returning to ones ship, it would be better however if this was part of the game mechanics, rather than a work around method.
     
  13. Necryel

    Necryel Pangalactic Porcupine

    For simplification purposes, I'll use the term "Beacon" to refer to any proposed means by which a player may instantly traverse the distance to any point other than the initial teleport start of any given planet. With that definition in mind, I'll agree that if any manner of beacon were to be implemented, and the restriction that it only be functional on the surface were not adhered to, then I would agree that "warm-up" time of at least 30 seconds to a full 60 seconds would be an acceptable means to prevent such a device from becoming a "get-out-of-trouble free" card. The player taking any damage, moving, or being hit with an attack even if it does no damage should be enough to interrupt the process. I would also make such a device extremely epensive to make in terms of required materials and pixels, and limit it to a single production or that only one such device at any given time may be linked to the ship. This would make it possible to use only in late or "end-game " conditions, and keep it from being from taking the place of skyrail functionality. Being an imperfect copy of the ships own systems, I would also not be opposed to it's use resulting in a random chance of incurring a negative status other than instant death. Perhaps to include: Burning, poisoned, confusion (movement controls reversed, hotbar buttons randomized), or current hp reduced by 50% on arrival. This to me would then balance the benefits and effectively prevent abuse of such a mechanic.
     
  14. Enot

    Enot Subatomic Cosmonaut

    I guess my point with reference to the magic mirror is, that having multiple means nothing, using the item has the same effect, it doesn't store any additional data for a return location or anything to that end, it simply takes you back to your ship.

    Also with the time for it, it needs to be long enough that it isn't like we've said get out of jail free, but it can't be so long that the option to leave game or death are still preferred methods for ship return.

    To reiterate, my recommendation does not add data to any stored maps etc, and will not solve issues of going back to a location outside your normal warp in, it simply is a tool for returning to your ship, that wont function as a get out of jail free, but won't make exiting the game to teleport back the easiest and best solution.
     
  15. Necryel

    Necryel Pangalactic Porcupine


    I see, so you're actually recommending a one-way teleportation from wherever you're mining, back up to the ship? That does make implementation easier since there won't any need to record any return location. I would also make such a device a consumable item. Forcing the player to strategically consider when they would wish to use such a device until they manage a substantial stock pile of them.
     
  16. Enot

    Enot Subatomic Cosmonaut


    Correct, and I agree there would be a couple potential ways of managing how easy it is to use. I know this doesn't solve the problem of changing warp in location to a discovered base that you would like to call "home". It does solve part of the problem, and I would suspect implementation of my suggestion as a starting point would be fairly easy, and get us at least perhaps "half way" there to what people are looking for.
     
  17. rustphoenix

    rustphoenix Void-Bound Voyager

    I don't think you should be able to ever warp from underground; this is easily exploitable. Example: You dig too far underground and are surrounded by monsters which are going to obviously kill you. You plop down a beacon and instantly teleport yourself to the safety of your ship. It would make the game much too easy and exploitable. Instead I think that later on, maybe you need to upgrade your ship or something, but your ship could analyze the terrain and allow you to choose a warp spot. Example: You arrive on a new planet and open up the A.I. that Chucklefish is planning. It has an option for "Scan Terrain" which will take time and energy to complete, and can be progressively upgraded; i.e. first level just gives you a view of the top blocks, the next one is topographical... On this map you can click on any spot on the map and it will open a menu: "set as default warp", "warp to position", and probably some other options which I can't think of at the moment. I think that until you upgrade your ship, the "Scan Terrain" button should be grayed out and unusable, but the map still functions for areas you have explored. Idk, maybe someone can expand upon this.
     
  18. XRiZUX

    XRiZUX Spaceman Spiff

    This would be very useful... Maybe have the ability to connect warp beacons together too, so you could warp from one beacon to the other.
     
  19. Enot

    Enot Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Considering you can always just hit esc and leave the game to accomplish that, this is not even remotely close to being an exploit, if you can already accomplish the exact same effect "manually". If anything you would call that an exploit, and something like this being added as something the helps with continuity.

    It was discussed previously that depth would have an effect on the time taken to use the warp, similar to what you later describe about terrain scanning and time taken etc, this could be folded into something similar where the initial capabilities require longer scanning to "find" you deep down, and this time frame being shortened as you upgrade it. However, not reaching instantaneous.

    The idea of scanning the planet and determining your warp down location etc is interesting, and could be very effective, since it seems to be a somewhat common frustration that you would have to run for 5 minutes just to get to the town on a planet, even after visiting 2000 times...
     
  20. FawkTheElf

    FawkTheElf Void-Bound Voyager

    My solution to is to save and quit to the Menu, and log back in, you will see that you are in your ship. But i do like your idea.
     
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