Starbound Replayability

Well, I know that Starbound is still being developed and its already a fun game. But, right now, its only fun once. After one playthrough, my second was very similar. I am also aware that it is a sandbox game and what one considers a "playthrough" can vary. Some may say that you have completed a playthrough when you have built an empire. But someone else may say its when you have the best armor or weapons.

In my personal experience, I considered myself done after I got to sector X and built a couple things. But after I started a new charcter, everything was pretty much the same. Im not refering to seeing the same biomes and microdungeons, because I know they plan to change that. Im talking about the lack of development of your characters. For example, in Terraria(I know people are sick of comparisons to teraria) you choose between melee, magic and ranged. And you get accessories that change your stats.

Well, that's all. Anyone see where I'm coming from? Tell me your opinions on the matter.

Also I want to note that I do enjoy the roleplay community in Starbound, it enhances character development.

 

From what little we know of the new progression system, it's likely that the game will have more variability in terms of where you go, and what quests you follow and so on. They seem like they might also take the route of varying some content between races, though to what extent is unclear. That's my hope at least though.

However, I think Starbound...even more than Terraria...will benefit from the player's willingness to use the game as an engine to create a story for themselves. Certain elements will be the same per playthrough (repairing ship, going through gates, etc etc), but picking out goals for yourself will be a big part of what drives you through the game. Be it to find the Humans a new home world (and build a big colony there), or terrorize and deface all of Big Ape's research labs, or set all the Floran prisoners free without killing them despite their crazed, panicked assaults...and the usual lore/ore collection goals and so on. I suspect the new content being planned will play into that sort of autonarrative, what with the addition of new dungeons and microdungeons and so on.

I'm sure there'll be a point in Starbound, as in Terraria, where you've crafted the best stuff you can craft and you're hell on wheels...from there the replay value is entirely in its capacity to deliver new decision points in the quest/race content, and its capacity to inspire the imagination to find stories and goals for ourselves encapsulated in its universe and lore. The second is present now, though in a fairly limited sense. I do think the potential is there for both sources of replayability to be quite compelling once they're fully developed.

 

I've been able to replay it, but that's probably because I can replay everything.

 

I think your feedback is valid, and is in the process of being addressed by the developers, who agree with you. Right now, there is only one way to progress through Starbound. There are no rewards or quests for building structures if you enjoy that, because you're still required to craft armor and kill things and dig for materials before killing a boss to move on. There are no material rewards for finding neat things in dungeons and microdungeons, because you cannot sell items to vendors. Pixels come from the refinery or monster drops.

The devs have stated that they would like multiple (and different!) ways to advance through Starbound. Exploring (finding new stuff like relics and selling it), Landlording (building fancy structures and having NPCs inhabit them and pay rent), Treasurehunting ("acquiring" various goods and selling them, perhaps to next of kin), and farming (crops sell for money! seeds are sold by vendors!).

This would introduce replayability if you're interested in the different playstyles, but they're also adding combat changes, monster AI changes, world generation changes, and other things that should make even your first playthrough a lot more interesting and enjoyable.

My recommendation to you is to make a list of the things you do enjoy in the game right now, and a list of things you don't enjoy. Maybe even make a list of things you would like to see. Then, revisit that list when the next update is released!

 

There isn't much in the way of replayability because so much of Starbound is nothing but reskins or the same skins with bigger numbers attached to them. Exploration yields very little rewards, there is no reason at all to explore any part of the planets aside from the surface (and even then all the surface has is one or two locations, usually marked by a vast stretch of completely flattened land).

No storylines, no in depth combat, no interesting loot, no incentive to build a base (ala Terraria), very little difference between weapons and armors, no difference between enemies, very few bosses, only one of which has a semblance of a "story" attached to it and all of which can be "cheesed".

Personally, I'm impressed you made it all the way to sector X. To me the game became uninteresting after the Alpha Sector, but I pressed on in hope that something interesting would happen at some point. Sadly I was wrong.

Add all this up, throw in the dreadful lack of updates and it is easy to see why anyone would be uninterested in replaying StarBound.

 

I think, Starbound in it's current state has the same replay ability as any other sandbox game that don't have a campaign (like Sims, Civilization and MOBAs). You play the game you want to play. I get bored with Sims after I run through a family once, but my wife played Sims 3 for the past few years almost exclusively. On the other hand, I keep coming back to Civ V every few months even though it has no storyline whatsoever.

An average player will probably be bored after going through the current SB pseudo-progression once and seeing most of the mechanics the game has to offer. However, sandbox games are attractive because of the multiplayer communities, modability, role-play experience, and freedom. Thus, some players will chose to stay long-term for these features.

However, we will probably see more people come back after CF releases a more meaningful campaign. Additionally, replayability would be higher once developers include the storyline, varying and unique content for each race, meaningful loot, procedurally generated quests, and other features they already announced.

TLDR: the more content gets added the higher replayability will be, in current state too early to tell, and I am exited about proposed changes.

 

man I feel like playing sims 3 agian, It get's kind of boring after awhile because I got none of the dlc

 

Funny you should mention that because I just found out today that EA is giving away Sims 2 and all the DLC until the end of the month.

Now I have to decide if letting Origin onto this new system is worth it.

 

The Starbound team thought they could make a game with everything re-skinned and super predictable AI, the player base realized how lame it was, so now here we are with Chucklefish "fixing" the whole game, making things better yadda yadda yadda......Its too late Chucklefish, your player base is gone and they aren't coming back, no matter what the Starbound fanboys say!

 

Anyone who likes Starbound is a fanboy obviously, not because it's a good game and what you're spouting is idiocy. Nope!

 

There is no need to start insulting people. I happen to think his is opinion is actually rather close to what the truth of the matter actually is, if ineloquently stated. Personally I think the developers vastly overestimated as well as overstated their progress, were unable scrape together much of anything let alone a full game by the promised 2013 release they stated when pre-orders started, quickly cobbled together a very rough Alpha build and then somewhat deceptively sold it as a Beta.

The player base was initially receptive to their push for an Early Access release, but because of the extensive delays, very poor public relations work and what is almost universally agreed to be a stifling attitude toward criticism that receptive attitude gradually turned to mistrust and often times outright anger. I've personally spoken with many of my friends about this whole matter, and a great many of them have taken a "Too little too late" attitude towards StarBound and I honestly don't see that changing. Chucklefish as a brand, in the eyes of many, is permanently tainted.

StarBound may some day be a very good game (at this point I can honestly say I have no idea), but to pretend that it's Early Access program has been anything but an abject failure would be willfully ignorant of ChuckleFish's many missteps.

 

Again you fail to correct the mistake that he made in the first place which is willfully speaking for the player base and having it decidedly so that they have been "lost". The receptive behavior I saw before the beta release only grew as the days went on, becoming more and more anxious for the beta to be released already. Apparently this entirety of people you speak of though now will never trust Chucklefish again and have them labeled as "tainted" You're obviously exaggerating the extent of things along with the amount of people you seem to believe feel the same way. It's a good game in development, quit acting like it was the second coming of Christ that was delayed.

 

I respect your and your friends' opinions, but I would like to give mine for balance:

I've put in more than a few days into this unfinished game, as such I believe my $15 is already well spent. Anything else I get out of Starbound is just a bonus. Even though I stopped playing for a while, and lost some interest, this is mostly due to my short attention span and the plethora of other games available on the market (and my growing Steam backlog). I will come back when Starbound is announced complete or a few versions after, and at that point I will view the game I will be playing as Starbound 2.0. As far as I am concerned I have already paid for and played Starbound a few Koalas ago. The game wasn't perfect, but it was a fairly fun diversion (7/10 for repetitive end-game and lack of polish if I was reviewing a finished product).

I think calling any Early Acess a failure is very unfair just because of average consumer expectations of delivery dates. I have been waiting for Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts 3, Half Life 3 (or episode 3) and Last Guardian for most of this century, and am not yet willing to write them off (I have bought a PS3 specifically so I could play Versus XIII and boy was I pissed at the next gen exclusive announcement). Here, the Devs gave us a chance to play the game before it was completed and are giving us an opportunity to contribute to the development process and shape it to be a game we would love. This is why I am constantly lurking on a forum for a game I haven't played in months and have no plans to play any time soon. If any of the big studios would ever do the same, we probably wouldn't have Duke Nukem or Alien Colonial Marines type disasters.

 

Thanks you all for your opinions!

 

as a massive role player i always find replayability im either making new bases or working on my city planet spreading my influence and power until im ready to take down big ape and kluex!

 

You seem to have a terrible recollection of what actually happened. The fanbase put tremendous pressure on Chucklefish to release a beta, even when Tiy himself said it wasn't ready for release.

If you're going to complain about the game/Chucklefish, at least get your facts right. Deliberately spreading misinformation is a pretty dumb thing to do since it's a bannable offense y'know

 

Yes, there was complaints just like any other early access alpha, along with a few extra because at the time of preorders a full game was promised in 2013 and in the end ChuckleFish delivered an alpha in December of that year.

However, check the reviews from around that time. They're almost universally positive, now they're somewhere around 90% negative. Other games that launched their Early Access program haven't suffered the same fate. The two others I am currently playing still have very positive reviews and they don't have nearly the problem with angry customers that ChuckleFish does. There is a good reason for all of this, and it is quite simple actually:

People aren't reviewing StarBound as a game, they're reviewing Starbound's early access program as a service.

Now, as far as I know none of this is a fabrication and is as accurate as possible, from my perspective.

Also, your last sentence seemed somewhat hostile and oddly aggressive, was that your intention?

 

Ain't it other way around? CF were in such dire need of money so they had to open preorders much earlier than intended just to stay afloat? And if game weren't clearly near playable state at that time why 2013 was set as release date? Why it wasn't something as "mid-2014" from the very beginning of preorders?

 

That's pre-orders, not beta/early-access.

The beta came after CF had already raised a ton of money on pre-orders and at pressure from the fanbase to release early-access.

 

Also remember, they did promise a full game to be released in 2013 when they started pre-orders. If they didn't start Early Access, at the rate they're going they likely would have been a year to a year and a half late on that delivery and no doubt would have had to pay a lot of refunds. By starting Early Access they got to keep all the cash and take as long as they like to produce the game.

I think the idea that Chucklefish only released an Alpha because of "pressure from the fans" is disingenuous at best.