Vector Squared -- Community News! -- Issue #35

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Introduction:​

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Grappling hook demos? Dungeon screenies? Advances within the realm of AI? New ship designs? A new stream? Looks like we’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started! Organicals and mechanicals, ladies and gentlemen, flora and fauna, welcome to Vector Squared Issue #35!

Oh, and as promised, we’re doing an interview the next upcoming edition! Check the “Question of the Week” for more info on how to participate!

Content

• Daily Updates
• Grappling Hook Demo
• New Stream from i49
• "About" Section Update
• Art Feature
• Suggestion Spotlight
• Previous "QotW" Answers
• Question of the Week
• Vector Squared is still hiring
• Closing Comments

Daily Updates

• 13th September - Following i49, the devs have identified and addressed an issue relating to the demo. In an attempt to clear up confusion as to what a player is supposed to do at the start of the game, the devs have added several labels above parts of the ship (teleporter, locker and fuel) to signpost their function. Aside from this, the devs believe the demo went smoothly after those first few minutes.

"It's three million miles to Epsilon Indi 5, we've got a full tank of fuel, a matter manipulator, we’re in space, and I’m a robot. Hit it."

• 14th / 15th September - NPCs now have limited dialogue, with more to be added later on. Optimization of code has also taken place, which will apparently be a benefit to modders. Wiring has also received some attention, including being able to connect AI such as security cameras and turrets. The prison dungeon is more or less complete, and work has begun on others. Environmental storytelling is playing a big part in this.

"How about, I give you the finger and you give me my phone call."

• 16th September - Work has been made on enemies, dungeons, AI behaviour and loot. In particular, the new AI behaviour for NPCs have made them act in a more logical manner. A new variant of the controversial Po has also been added.

• 17th September - The one and only grappling hook has been initially implemented as a tech item, with some more work still needing to be done on it. A new Glitch village / dungeon is being made. NPC behaviours continue to be improved, adding sleeping, sitting down and not walking into walls. The devs have also looked into how they are communicating information, which includes a roadmap update by the end of the week.

By Jonesy


Grappling Hook Video!

Well it's here! That Grappling Hook video that was promised so long ago. And boy, is it great! We finally get to see how the Grappling Hook works! So what happens is, after you latch onto a block, the hook rapidly pulls you towards the anchor. It can be held in one hand and therefore can be used with either a gun or a sword. (Or even a shield, if you want to do that for whatever reason). You can even have two of them and swing around like Spider-Man. This Grappling Hook looks really great and seems like it opens up an incredible amount of gameplay opportunities. Personally, I would also like to see a hook that can latch onto mobs and pull them towards you, however as said before, this one is certainly sufficient! The way that it's used in the video really makes me think about the possibilities that this offers to the game. You could be a slingshot soldier in PvP, and have a sword and a rope and use the rope to dash around out of reach of your enemies. You could even use two of the hooks to launch yourself even further, and switch to your weapon upon landing. The possibilities are (almost) endless!

If you didn't catch the video, you can watch it here:



~LazerEagle1


New Stream from i49
As well as the new grappling hook video showcasing it’s wide variety of uses, we were also dropped another video. A 1 hour and 23 minute video. Yep, that’s right, we’ve got another stream, and from i49 of all things (Better late than never right?). The video, showing Bartwe playing with multiple people, covers a lot of weapons and enemies, a little exploration, building and other interesting stuff. It’s quite long, but well worth the watch. *grabs popcorn*



And for the note, to fix the traditional “we need to get the stream working properly” part at the start, skip to about 11 min in. Happy feature hunting!

- WackyWocky


The “About” Section has been updated
It’s a small, but VERY important update for Starbound, as the “About” section has been updated. With lots of gifs, pictures, video links and in-depth descriptions of the game, it now serves as a very nice first impression for someone just passing by. You can find the updated info here.

EDIT: FAQ got updated too, here. Thanks ZanVaelius!
- WackyWocky


Art Feature
This week in the Art Feature we’re visiting Kirsten and her lovely drawings of characters found here. Her pictures have a lot of personality, with colors playing a large role in giving the characters a unique feeling to them. Let us present a few examples!







She even takes requests! Be sure to give her thread a look, maybe even drop her a request! Keep on being awesome Kristen!

- WackyWocky


Suggestion Spotlight
Suggestion spotlight usually features a suggestion by a single member, but this week we’re going to highlight a few community suggestions based on September 13th’s daily update. GeorgeV opened the floor to the community to share ideas with how best to implement labels for ship components at the start of the game. Here’s what his early example looked like.



GeorgeV assured everyone the text was just one option being considered, here are a few of the community ideas...

ZangooseSlash opened the discussion with his mockup replacing text with icons

Risk of Rain dev hopoo jumped in with a polished example of an elegant but subtle representation of component functionality

Systoll offered up another complete redesign, making the objects look a bit more ‘obvious’.

Namiwakiru didn’t touch the object design, but instead designed out a digital overlay to label ship components.

Mamba designed a tutorial overlay with information windows, complete with Mollygos!


Muf mocked up a number of alternative symbols


Korzun illustrated what he calls ‘progressive reduction’, where the icon would become less ‘overly apparent’ as the player progresses through the game.


Beonadryt illustrated a simple highlight effect for when something’s a quest objective


Ernestopresto worked up an animated icon for the teleporter


Kettle showed how an overlay could work for the text labeling.


CarCrasher65 showcased an alternative text label design (with an opacity fade-out), and a ‘marker’ to identify quest objectives by their label.




Finally, there were a few humorous suggestions.

BobdaBiscuit mocked up a very...communicative...UI design


and Silver86 worked up a subtle way to highlight objectives.


There were a great number of excellent suggestions that didn’t include visual examples as well. A few of the more popular ones were different methods of highlighting the ship parts if they’re part of the quest, adding object pictures to the quest log, or disabling the teleport pad until the player obtains an unlock object from the ship locker.

This was a fun and positive discussion for the community, with lots of creative designs and ideas. Well done to all those who took the time to communicate your suggestions!!

~ Katzeus


Previous “QotW” Answers
We received many answers to our question of “How will you play Starbound?”, here are some of the picks.

Some people will be playing the standard way:

Jonesy:
“Anyway, I plan on playing Starbound mostly in PvE singleplayer, and maybe some co-operative PvE multiplayer as well. I'll probably be focused on exploring and building.”

Others have a more ambitious way in mind, a way to really challenge themselves and have a great time:

IceHatGamedude:
“Me and my friend have been eagerly waiting for starbound, and we have come up with way too many play styles to choose from, but we settled on the idea "We will travel everywhere together until tier 10, then once we hit tier X (The Pvp tier) we will each choose one random planet and must stick to it. We will fight for planet domination by finding and stealing eachothers flag. Needs a bit of work but sounds like fun to me, and that's what this game is about. FUN”

And some will go to extreme lengths to immerse themselves in the game, creating a whole identity and story, and living it out to the fullest:

ZanVaelius:
“I will play solo. I'm thinking about RPing a Floran archeologist type character. Fly around the galaxy looking for the ruins of ancient civilizations, settle on a dead world beneath a dying sun. That kinda stuff.”


Question of the Week
So let us move on to our question of the week! Per usual, the most creative answers will be chosen and showcased in next week’s edition, but with a twist this time! Those people will also be interviewed in an upcoming article in Vector Squared Issue #37! So with that in mind, let us continue on to the question!

“With the new Grappling Hook mechanics now having been revealed, how will you be using it?”

So there you have it, in what way will you be using (or abusing) the Grappling Hook’s abilities? We’re looking forward to seeing some great and creative answers!


We're still hiringVector Squared is still looking for a few more people to help out! This time it's not writers though, what we're looking for is:

• Someone do do weekly comics for us, or has a large archive of previously made comics which we can post of the course of many weeks.
• Someone to cover the "Code Corner" article we've been planing for a while, this part requires of course that you know some coding and can write a nice article about that topic. Kind of like a our "Science Trivia" articles, just with code as the topic instead.

If you would like to apply for any of these positions, or possibly have something else you believe you could contribute with, feel free to contact WackyWocky on PM at any time! We'd love to hear from you!


Closing Comments

• Thanks for reading!

Edits

• Updated an article with info about the FAQ update.
• Removed a double-video posting.
• Fixed a font issue.
• Fixed the font issue...again.

Previous Issues:
Issue #1 [] Issue #2 [] Issue #3 [] Issue #4 [] Issue #5 [] Issue #6 [] Issue #7 [] Issue #8 [] Issue #9 [] Issue #10 [] Issue #11 [] Issue # 12 [] Issue #13 [] Issue #14 [] Issue #15 [] Issue #16 [] Issue #17 [] Issue #18 [] Issue #19 [] Issue #20 [] Issue #21 [] Issue #22 [] Issue #23 [] Issue #24 [] Issue #25 [] Issue #26 []Issue #27 [] Issue #28 [] Issue #29 [] Issue #30 [] Issue #31 [] Issue #32 [] Issue #33 [] Issue #34

Blue’s Fanmade Newspaper Archive

 

Note: FAQ got updated as well

 

Ah, good to know! Thanks!

EDIT: Added that to the article!

 

Those art pieces are fantastic!

 

No problem. Molly also said she was going to update the pre-order FAQ but to my knowledge it did not happen so far.

I concur

 

That art is god tier, not really sure will mess around with the grapple hook but not sure if I have a goal for it.

 

I fully expect them to change the teleporter to a..........................."beamy" (for lack of a better word) kind of thing. I hope so anyways. It's one of the best ideas I've seen. Great issue as always VS. Keep it up.

 

Thanks for the article!

The compilation of the different ways to introduce new players to the ship's mechanics led me to think, "what if there was an interactive Ship AI NPC that would guide you step by step?" I wrote up a suggestion for this. Any feedback welcome!

 

I just love Vector Squared
Good Work! I can't wait for next month!