Vector Squared -- Starbound Community News, Issue #2

Vector Squared, Issue #2​

Community Interview
Small talk with forum user Ricola.

How did you become aware of Starbound's existence?
A friend told me about it. We were talking about what our ultimate video game would be and when I described mine he replied: "so, like starbound?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but my fancy was tickled and so I investigated.

What aspects attract you to Starbound?
The most attractive feature to me is that most of the game is procedurally generated, making this a game of near-infinite possibility and enjoyment.

Will you mostly be playing Single or Multiplayer?
I think I will mostly be playing singleplayer, because I won't play multiplayer on almost anything unless I have friend with me. (I have developed a distrust of multiplayer communities and like to have at least one person I can count on.)

What are you looking forward to do in the game (and your friends, should the previous answer be Multiplayer)?
I know my one friend is excited for PVP (which is why I like to play multiplayer with him) my other friends I've told about starbound are just excited for the game in general.

If you could add something to Starbound, what would it be and why?
Oh man, I don't know. As much as I'd like my Knockback idea to be implemented, I have to promote procedurally generated materials. It would give SO much more value to exploration, and it would be great to see complex player-driven economies trading different types of materials. Certain minerals being found on certain planets would drive companies/guilds to capture that planet in order to mine that specific mineral.
PS: Well if procedurally generated materials are already planned to be implemented, I would actually want my idea to see attributes of planets/large enough structures from space.

Interview conducted by Keeper.

Plant People and Cannibalism
The news post is located here.



A recent update in Starbound's homepage shows a couple of pictures representing Florans and their culture, as well as information on the race's backstory. As one might usually think, plant-like creatures are beings of peaceful nature... Not in Starbound, ladies and gentlemen. The Florans are actually an extremely aggressive and carnivorous civilisation, even demonstrating cannibalistic behaviour at times. By observing their clothing and furniture, we can spot bones, tusks and even animal pelts, thus suggesting a culture that revolves around a concept of primitivism. Moreover, their abilities to salvage and reverse engineer foreign technology contribute to an increase in the Florans' own technology and arsenal - They're not relying on their primitive weapons and tools only, making them a considerable threat to sentient life. Nevertheless, while their aggression towards non-plant life seems to stem from a certain lack of understanding, not all Florans think alike. As a result, one might encounter more open-minded plant-folk. Still, beware in your travels, Starbounders! It's always good to be prepared.
~Keeper

Another Contest?
Will we have another contest? It’s been several months since the last one about the monsters. The previous one had a huge amount of people participating (31 pages of entries, to be exact), leading one to believe that there would be much participation this time, if it were to be implemented.
Do we want a new contest? It depends -- what does a contest serve to do? It allows lots of community participation, and at the same time, allows user input into the game. The creative juices can also get going. Now, all we have missing here is the part about the user input. So basically, the only thing stopping the community, us, to create a new contest, is the wariness and/or (maybe?) laziness.
Remember, there’s nothing preventing the creation of one, my fellow Starbounders.
News Flash! Admins prove us wrong...

~Nababoo

Fanfiction News Thread
A new writing informant thread up! It’s located here.
Forum user Vortex594, author of several works in the Fan Fiction sub-forum, has recently created this thread for any watchers of that sub-forum. As of the moment, the thread is the hub for all activities writing-related. It informs you when a story is updated, when a new one is made, and it has a master list of all the stories currently being supported/continued written by their respective owners.
I suggest you try it out, perhaps read a few stories, and spread some love to this often-abandoned section of the forums. We have some very skilled writers at the moment, creating master works of writing, that must be seen and reviewed for their full potential to show through.
~Nababoo

Feature
Oockpii’s Starbound Analysis is this issue’s feature! It displays an incredible amount of dedication, numbering at 29 videos so far. He’s released a new video every time something major happened -- that includes the recent Floran update, the building demo, the gameplay streams, and more. Show your appreciation! Head over and give a hello to our great community member.
Also, we only got one feature nomination the past week. How disappointing... send more, don’t be afraid.

Corporation Politics
Our inside informant Galactic Mindswipe has given even more information regarding the nature of the Corporation world. The Corporation Politics Meeting, talked about in our previous issue, is going on as we speak (or type, depending on context). The meeting will produce things very important for the Corporation world -- standardization and alliances.

As of this report, the members of the meeting have formed the LEC. They have agreed on various things, such as the conversions of pixels to dollars. Does this bode well for the Corporation world? Would you prefer a world with the LEC?

In other news, the company Sproutechand Starcup Café were founded, leading to many new possibilities for our world. Scruffy, CEO of Sproutech, almost got into a tussle with his inauguration, but it has been resolved by now.
~Nababoo and Galactic Mindswipe

Science Trivia
Black holes are very strange things. Their monstrously strong gravity causes very strange things to happen -- first off, time slows down as you get closer, and the space gets smaller inside the black hole. It’s a really abstract concept, so bear with me. Black holes are basically nature’s file convertor -- the space inside is smaller, but the matter going in gets crushed to fit that smaller space. And not to mention the spaghettification that occurs when your body is being torn apart by the gravity to atom-scale levels.

While your body is being torn apart, the space around your body has been getting smaller and smaller squeezing and stretching your body as if you were being forced through a funnel and after some time the combined tearing and squeezing will have turned your body into a line of individual atoms. That’s not the only thing that has happened while you approached the black hole. To anyone watching, time has already slowed down for you so much that you appear to have stopped moving before you even began to feel the pain precluding your body splitting in half. The best part is that by the time you do start to feel the first bits of pain everyone you ever knew has died and it’s been quite a while since the sun exploded and killed all life on Earth (assuming humans didn’t already do that).
~That Guy

Q&A
It seems that Starbound will provide something that Terraria did not... Vehicles and mechs!
Q: What vehicle and/or mech would you like to see in-game? What about their abilities? Should players be allowed to carry items inside the vehicles’ trunks? Should vehicles be restricted to warfare only?
A: Let us see your opinions. Feel free to post them here!

Closing Comments:

• Welcome our new staff member, Keeper! He’s quite a productive fellow, and helpful too.
• We are also considering ideas of what to add and what to take away, as this is but beginning. Post on this thread and give us feedback on what you would like added to this fledgling news report!
• More graphics and art would also be nice (very) -- it’s rather bland having only text. If you have anything you would like to donate/give, please send it to the staff via PM. Art for headings, accompanying art, all of the sort.

Staff:
Nababoo -- Manager/Writer
Keeper -- Wordsmith
That Guy -- Scientific Consultant
Galactic Mindswipe -- Corporate Informant

Credits:
Ricola -- Interview
Zerak-Kyria -- Banner (Sorry, couldn't make it in this time)

Issue #1

 

I would like to see vehicles that can carry more than one player and some support style vehicles, such as artillery.
I think vehicles should be assorted, meaning some should be able to carry some kinds of items (weapon rack) and others other kinds (Wagon full of basic blocks)
Massive amounts of variation for vehicles would please me quite a lot, probably because variation is what makes me interested in Starbound.

Welcome Keeper, I hope you enjoy *squints* wordsmithing...
Egh that's your job? That stinks!-
I mean oh cool good luck... have fun.

 

Another good read.
Maybe you guys should talk more about what's going on on the forums itself. For example writing a summary of some of the suggestion threads, art threads, fan fiction or interesting disscusions in the general chat. I think most people will have heard the info about the game that the dev's show us. Perhaps you could make a rumors section of IRC snippets that have some interesting info (For example: A dev answering a question about a certain mechanic.). Anyway, keep up the good work!

Edit: Whoops. Missed the Fan Fiction thread section in this post.
But still, more of those thread sections or just a short list of cool ideas for people (Or the Devs) to check out.

 

@TTCBuilder - It would indeed be interesting to have vehicles in several different categories, such as warfare, mining, transport and what not.
And thanks for the welcome. ^^ My job is to attend to a couple of sections. This time was the interview, Floran article and Q&A. I also take an overall look at the whole thing, though I'm not the only one who does this, to see how everything looks like. I'm just an amateur, so if you spot any typos, mistakes and such, feel free to point them out. :alien:

@WoxandWarf - This interview was slightly random, yes, but I still feel that it is an interesting read to find out how fellow a Starbounder feels about the game, how he discovered Starbound and so forth. Just a short piece of entertainment and I, once again, thank Ricola for his time.

@NewLiar - Thanks for the feedback It's a good idea to talk about the Suggestions section, too. Honestly hadn't crossed my mind before.

 

I've been trying to do this the whole time

I'm glad you're frank, though. So suggestions, too. And Fan Art as well. I suppose Clans may get a part once in a while, too.

The problem with the IRC thing is that I have not the time to be on the chat 24/7 and monitor everything, and I don't have access to a network of informants

It's more supposed to be about the forum... *squints*

I guess this means more community required.

 

Oh, I always want more people.

We require more minerals.

 

I would like to be a staff. I already have been involved in the 1st two issues. Maybe I could be in charge of interviews?

 

I remember another paper that stopped a while back. I wonder though; how long will this one last?
I have high hopes for you though.

 

Send me a PM regarding this, comrade.

Yeah, the Pixel Weekly. I plan to update as long as I'm on this forum, which is to say... forever.

I'll do this until I drop dead, or the metaphorical cyberspace equivalent. The issues aren't too hard to put together, so I'm fine with all the stuff.

We'll make a segment regarding official dev news whenever there's anything new, or if we hear any interesting snippets anywhere.
The interviews are really nice as well, seeing as this is a community newspaper. They're my favorite part

 

I´m on irc way too much than I should be, I usually put it on before I go away in the morning and read it when I come back.
Maybe I could try and save anything interesting that I see on IRC.

Anyone have a suggestion with what I should save the IRC text?
I know there's this site called pastebin(?) or something that alot of people have used to record the irc chats with. Can anyone tell me how to use that?

 

-Reads while sipping coffee- "Hmm the stocks are up today, wait wrong newspaper!"

Love it guys! Though I think it needs a fanart section, also you might want to ask some people in the off-topic art section to hook you up with some graphics, I could get you some names if you like.

 

How do I find that / do that? (I have windows 7)

 

Yes, I'd love some names. More art, I say!

Does copy-and-paste work? Simple transcripts are enough...

 

I HEREBY CALL THIS NEWSLETTER STICKIED o3o
I love it! Keep up the awesome work! C:

 

Great to see a revival of the news posts. Keep up the great work!

 

Didn't even notice this, nice job!
(And I hope we have another contest )

 

Wait, so will every single post of Vector Squared be stickied? That would cause clutter the more issues it sends out.

I demand butt rub in the next issue.

 

As the new ones come out, the old ones get un-stickied.

No. Just no. *shivers*

 

i can assist you in that department good sir

on another note, nice job organizing everything so neatly, well done