The worst thing to come to Starbound yet ...

Im not playing the nightys but do think its a good feature, adding a bit of a point to dungeons other than just digging your way through. I would imagine it is a work in progress though so i would guess it will be refined.

 

I always thought the point was all the pretty loot ._.
for my houses
that I build

 

Flares might actually see some use now . Also maybe even having a small mech like the 'heavy gear' suits with many lights on it for these dark dungeons might be cool.

 

Now that sounds cool hehe and well, the pretty loot should still be available for mining when the shield generator is implemented rhombold so its all good as they say

 

Shield generators also pave the way for player building protection on multiplayer servers. The generator has an ID associated to it. Every protected block also shares the same ID, it's the way that multiple dungeons on the same planet can have generators that don't interfere with each other. There may be some unintended functionality, but I absolutely welcome this change. It's something that's been needed for a loooooooong time.

 

I stumbled about that yesterday (after finally starting to try the nightly build). At first I thought my game was buggy but now I see it is intended

While I understand that no blocks may be removed before beating the dungeon or finding the switch - it would be nice to be able to use torches at least. Oh well, torches or not - the loot has to be mineeee!

 

There is definitely meant to be/going to be a shield generator that you can find/disable in order to be able to manipulate your surroundings. You are probably just having issues with it because you are using a nightly build and it is still in development... But either way, I think the shield generator idea is one of the best things they could have done. Without it, dungeon structure, platforming elements, and challenges in general were rendered entirely pointless.

 

One argument I can see regarding torches in dungeons, the way it works now, you can place torches through barriers like walls and floors. This lets you spam torches all about and light up what is maybe meant to be a dark, dangerous place while getting a look at what is around the corner or on another floor. Darkness and light are all but removed as a mechanic the dungeon designers can use for atmosphere or challenge.

That said, I did have a problem with lighting in the mine on the starter planet (which, as some have mentioned, does not seem to have a generator yet for turning off the shield). Using a 2-h weapon, I could not hold a flashlight and fight at the same time, so it became an exercise in drawing enemies back to lit areas so I could see where they were in a fight. I don't think I had access to flares or any other light sources at that point, so some tweaking might be needed for the design there.

 

Wait - you can hold the Flashlight _and_ a 1-h weapon at the same time? I thought only shields would work and therefore never tried that. I feel kinda dumb right now... thanks for the hint!

I see that problem with 2-h weapons too, had the same problem. And boy did I search that starter mine for a hidden switch... Hopefully there will be a little tweaking.

 

On the one hand, I genuinely like the shielded dungeons thing. The game was kinda lacking some challenge there, and for stuff like Apex maze-installations and story-important moon bases, it totally makes sense.

On the other... I kinda feel like the mine dungeon in specific is one that maybe shouldn't be shielded. I dunno. It's a mine full of natural caverns, kinda feel like you should be digging through it, opening up routes the miners didn't finish that might lead to blacked-out hidden "rooms" with potentially-neat stuff inside.

Of course, that's kind of a problem with the mine dungeon on the whole: the lack of "prize" to it. Frankly I've been skipping them entirely for a while now, because really there's jack-all worth the effort in any of them unless you're way early in the game. There's not even any interesting building materials to be found.

Hell, if a mine is a likely dungeon in starter worlds, might be best to leave it un-shielded to ease players into dungeon-exploring, THEN introduce them to shielded dungeons with the moon base to incrementally up the challenge.

 

I think that there should be 2 types of shields, one that blocks the placing and removing of things, and one that doesnt block light sources (non-solid ones anyway, not that I know of any solid ones)

 

Yeah, right now the dig site is the guaranteed dungeon for starter planets (Garden biome). It's basically a jump-start on early game supplies, and completely pointless after. Guess that status might change if they're planning on doing more with it. Always a shame to see it spawn on higher tier worlds.

Seems common sense that something designed to facilitate digging shouldn't prevent it. You don't start digging a hole with the intention of turning it into a much bigger hole, then design the process so that the hole will be rendered completely un-diggable halfway through the project.

Figure they'll either change it around for that dungeon in particular (the current status being an unintended side-effect of a prototype system implementation), or they have something planned for it that we haven't seen yet.


Also: Is it supposed to be a mine? I keep calling it a 'dig site' 'cause I've always assumed it was some kind of like archaeological dig or something. Camps, fancy pots all over the place, lack of mining machinery. Noticed I'm the only one in here not calling it a mine.

 

Once they make it apparent in-game as to the reason why you can't break blocks I think it'll be fine. From what I gather right now, it looks the same just unbreakable.

 

Eh, I'm okay with it. The only problem I can see is certain dungeons (avian tombs) having pits that can't be jumped, which might cause problems for disabling the generator.

 

Hopefully those are far enough along that you may have other ways across through tech or something.

 

Oh, they should DEFINITELY add some kinda visual clue when you try and break a shielded block.

I'm just still unsold on that dungeon-type in specific's need to be shielded as a gameplay issue.

 

I think the feature is pretty awesome, cant wait to see the finished implementation. I do wish they would add locks and a useful defense system as well. I've compensated for now by using extremely hard blocks

 

Since the reason to shield a dungeon goes beyond it making sense for the specific location, I am ok with this one being included. Yes, mines (or dig sites, whichever it is) are for mining, but the shield is more to make sure you can't just cut to the end of a dungeon by going through a wall or removing traps.

The generator needs to be there, though, and in the current setup it isn't.

 

I personally like the idea. So you find something on the other side, but you can't get to it while the generator's online.

Means that once again you have to work for it. I really like this idea. Although I can see how that irritates people that like to use torches, or place blocks as shields.

 

Well yeah, but... the mine doesn't really HAVE an end. Or traps. Or prize. Or particularly tough/dangerous enemies. It's just kind of a... place. With really low-end stuff inside.

My thought is, if the mine is a dungeon that is nigh-guaranteed to be someone's first crawl due to the way planet generation and ship upgrading goes in the new build, then leave it unshielded to "ease" people into a dungeon crawl. Working in cramped spaces, etc. Then, when they get to a more advanced dungeon on another planet, you can go "okay, NOW try it without digging!" to escalate the challenge.