Why Starbound was disappointing to me. (Listed reasons of why. Hopefully not TL;DR)

While making a comment on Reddit describing my Early Access experiences I made this long list.

Background consumer knowledge: I backed Starbound way back in February of 2013 and was really excited. I've been playing the game's Beta since December 2013, on and off, up until June of 2014.

I know Starbound is not officially out yet but this is a list of why I think Starbound feels so disappointing to a lot of people and I want to ask if these design choices are going to be kept, improved, thrown-out, or already changed. I also want to see a discussion if anyone else has felt the same way and other things you've picked up that erked you the wrong way. I hope this actually helps Chucklefish improve the game! And also, keep their job together within community basis.

• NPC interaction is uninteresting. They leave no meaningful interaction

The NPC's aesthetics, looks, and different homes and village styles are all SO INTERESTING but in the end, they have NO character. You may see them spawn text once in awhile but you will never have a meaningful action with them. You can trade with them, but you never really learn about them. They don't even interact in their homes interestingly. They follow simple walk back and forth, run away from monster patterns. Sometimes they will attack other groups BUT even then you don't have a context because you don't hear them say like "I hate (insert race here)". There is no context.

• Exploration all feels very much the same. Even on new planets. Obtaining resources is just a grind.

Exploration in Starbound is very fun at first but it trickles down to an obvious pattern over time. You are very excited at first when you get to travel to a new planet and just in awe when you hit that travel button and the inevitability of beaming down to that pleasant planet you picked among the bunch. Before you could get to travel to that new planet you probably had to work a lot for fuel. You went mining downward plenty. While mining down you may go through caves, with mobs, and little detailed mushroom houses too. Neat touch on the little houses! I just wish they meant more and had some interaction and led to something bigger. You might find a few treasure chests, but alas, its mostly just regular stuff you've seen before. Maybe a power-up, cool, but those are an issue in themselves. Very cool to find them though. In the end, the cave systems all feel the same. Even when you go from colored dirt, to sand, to cobblestone, to maybe a freaky looking flesh block, it all just feels the same. The mobs you meet down there feel the same. You will find the same resources. You find a flesh block biome and you expect maybe some freaky mini-boss or hidden treasure that rewards you with flesh armor or weapons or something just extraordinary! But you don't. You travel to a new planet still with excitement maybe expecting something new, but the only new things are tougher enemies, different looking biomes with no actual heart, and the same cave patterns downward. Nothing of interest but rarer resources.

Newly met Monsters are uninteresting because they all attack similarly and drop the same items. Monsters don't even drop valuable items. Just pixels and meat. All monsters EXCEPT BOSSES drop just plain money and meat. It makes no sense. Tougher monsters? They just drop MORE money and meat. No interesting rare drops. I thought could be a simply fixed but Chucklefish hasn't and it seems like a terrible design choice and things seem uninteresting..

Even if the background and trees are different, every planet just feels like an opportunity for new resources and you don't actually have fun finding hidden tombs or secret caves because the NPCs don't have interactions, there is no secret lore, nothing of interest. Feels very alpha.

• Randomly generated weapon finds feel pointless.

Just plainly, they all feel the same and pointless. Sometimes you will have a grenade launcher, an assault rifle, a revolver, a shotgun, but they all really do the same thing because in Starbound the combat situations are very easy to break down. Enemy shooting at you or enemy charging at you, or a mix of the both. This is tied hand-in-hand with the combat system of Starbound. If the combat was more complex and interesting, with better AI interactions, the use of shotguns vs an assault rifle would be much more interesting and have you actually switch between during different situations more purposefully. Weapons all feel similar and don't assert themselves as functionally different. There isn't a shotgun for close-range, no rifle for long-range, they all just shoot enemies at the same distances and same situations so variety seems pointless. At first they're cool to see differences BUT little do they matter because..

• Combat is boring.

I think it would be much better if the A.I. reacted more organically. They would retreat, not charge mindlessly. You could wait behind a door after a retreat and an intelligent enemy could approach the opening carefully peeking about and you can sneak up a drop on them. Organic reactions such as, running away, hiding behind cover, attacking in groups from different directions possibly. Complex A.I. algorithms and actions that give a feeling of actual meaningful insight to encounters if not able to reach a kind of depth and believability to the world aesthetic.

• Monsters and mob drops are the same constant items throughout so killing enemies seems pointless. Bosses are self-crafted and never drop rares. Bosses drop the exact same items every single time (except when you have to get the Superior brain...which was just grind a for an item to advance your ship and crafting capability).

Mob drops are not rewarding in the end. It would be so much better to see random drops, albeit actually matter, be implemented into the game. I do not believe random drops like randomly generated wearable items would suit this. Possibly weapons, tools, rare resources, etc. would be a good fit that have purpose in your inventory usage. You never really find bosses on a surprise whim. You do encounter mini-bosses but they are just LARGER versions of the same monsters you come across. And guess what? The mini-bosses just drop larger amounts of money and meat. Bosses do NOT drop rare items or weapons. They simply drop parts you use to put into your space ship to travel to other planets (which hold not much more interesting but more resources).

I've played games like Monster Hunter, Diablo, Torchlight, even basic combat RPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona whereas whether combat is tedious or fun, mechanically those games REWARD the player. That is what Starbound is lacking. In rewarding the player for their combat efforts. We do not receive anything surprising or alluring after an encounter. Its almost a mood killer if not already.

* As a side note I thought it could be really cool if there were more death animations in Starbound as-well instead of seeing enemies burst and explode because it seems really generic. I'm not asking for gore or anything gruesome, but it would actually be REALLY immersive and cool just to see enemies and mobs fall down into displayful death animations. How a mob dies adds personality to them! In death they may try to crawl away. Maybe try to walk towards you in a last attempt to stab or shoot you. Maybe wimper in sorrow, get on their knees, and pray as they die. REALLY. Those SMALL miniscule things really add a lot of depth to a game. So have at it Chucklefish!



I already know some of these aspects are going to be obviously improved on. NPC interaction is being worked on (I hope) but some other aspects like mob drops, making combat and randomly generated weapons feel more purposeful, making exploration more interesting, I am not so sure of. Please post your opinions and thoughts. All are welcome and thank you for taking your time to read if you have.

 

Funnily enough, I actually feel like they've talked more about the 3 things you're unsure of than they have about NPC interaction.

 

Dude, like, check the news sction of this forum, all progress is there, they preety much did and do a daily progress log in there.

They have worked on A LOT of stuff since they moved to London, and its shaping up to a great deal, heck, 1.0 is suposedly comig wich should solve atleast 4 of your 5 complaints.

Seriously, check it out.

(also, nice Oscar of Astora avatar)

 

People like you need to quit seeing someone make valid complaints or reviews and taking it personally. The devs need to see things like this, even if it has been said before, to know what areas need work. Or to know there needs to be more pressure applied to fixing those areas. The OP was being constructive, but replies like yours are not.

 

No they don't. Not when the statements are fundamentally wrong in every way.

 

To

I don't think he was ever taking this post in a bad way. Yeah I agree the devs need to take these things to light. What he said was harmless and just saying, hey you missed out on some things, the devs actually are working on it.

Buuuut we have heard "the devs are working on it" thousands of times over before, y'know? He wasn't being rude though. Let's not start anything guys. Hahah.

If the statements are fundamentally wrong we would like to see you elaborate...

Look. I made a long list of my reasons and explained them BECAUSE I know elaborating my reasons only makes them valid. if I'm wrong I am happy when someone tells me, straight up, but only when they show me how. Don't just say someone is wrong without anything to back that up.

Tell me what about everything I listed above is wrong in particular and elaborate. That only makes what you said, "the statements are fundamentally wrong" valid. I want Starbound to improve but this is my flawed experience thus far.

I really do want to see your opinion on this but only if you can elaborate.

Edit: Grammar just about everywhere.

 

He's just getting at that you're commenting on a version that's several months out of date. The game has changed quite a bit in the nightlies, and most of the stuff you've brought up is stuff the devs have been working pretty hard on. You can find the info for that in the mentioned news posts they make almost daily.

Right now, for example, the crafted boss fights aren't even part of the game. Looks like they're being replaced with actual story missions, and there's some framework in for a couple of those. All mini-bosses drop weapons now too. Combat and monster AI has been completely re-tooled, and they're doing a lot of work with weapons and armor.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of changes made to the nightly build (that is unavailable in stable): http://starbounder.org/Version_History/Nightly

Not sure how much they're doing/changing with NPC interaction at this point though, beyond the quest system.

 

The current build STILL does not have a delete button for characters. I think this is important in scaling how much the game is being taken care of. I think it's really low, for this reason and I am disappointed since I remember purchasing this game last January and thinking by summer it would have many more things.

The modders need to be recognized for their passion for Starbound because they are the only reason I have kept interest in this game!

Actually if this game did not run on Linux systems I would have lost complete interest (lol)

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic from the original post's content, it is just on my mind currently.

 

It has been added in the nightly build.

 

It would be nice for people playing that are not aware of the nightly to be able to have a delete button, right???

 

So... all the work done on the game since spring, as documented in many many many blog posts, forum posts, and wiki lists... is meaningless in the face of an outdated version of an under-construction game not having a microscopic feature that doesn't even actually affect gameplay.

Okiedoke.

 

Edit: I shoved all of this to the main post. Reading it is re-iteration.

Okay. To forward the discussion I want to talk about what I think is fundamentally flawed with the game and elaborate why it made the game so damaging to play. I want these things to be fixed, and from the sound of things, everyone is just saying "oh yeah they're working on it". Great. I hope they really are.

Mob Drops and Combat
The one thing I mentioned that erks me the most is the mob drops and boring combat. I've played games like Monster Hunter, Diablo, Torchlight, even basic combat RPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona where among either the combat IS fun or NOT mechanically it at least REWARDS the player and that is what Starbound is lacking. In rewarding the player for their combat efforts. We do not receive anything surprising or alluring after an encounter. Its almost a mood killer if not already.

Does anyone else agree on this?

Combat in Starbound does not feel the best. It is alright. I think it would be much better if the A.I. reacted more organically. They would retreat, not charge mindlessly. You could wait behind a door after a retreat and an intelligent enemy could approach the opening carefully peeking about and you can sneak up or drop on them.

Mob drops are not rewarding in the end. It would be so much better to see random drops, albeit actually matter, be implemented into the game. i do not believe random drops like randomly generated wearable items would suit this. Possibly weapons, tools, rare resources, etc.

* As a side note I thought it could be really cool if there were more death animations in Starbound as-well instead of seeing enemies burst and explode because it seems really generic. I'm not asking for gore or anything gruesome, but it would actually be REALLY immersive and cool just to see enemies and mobs fall down in an animation and die. REALLY. Those SMALL miniscule things really get me to love a game! So have at it Chucklefish!

Please...I actually want discussion about the games flaws and what you think could fix it.
The devs are 'working on it' but they could definitely appreciate suggestions and feedback on their currently flawed systems. Just hoping they're doing a good job doesn't cut it. They do need some hands from outside the office you know? Thank you.

 

Combat has been revamped in the nightly builds just fyi. Two handed swords have block functions and shields are not the infinite invulnerability hax they were before. Also mobs have a ton more attacks and like you said don't just charge mindlessly all the time.

 

It would be nice for people not aware of the nightly to have everything on the nightly, but alas...

They've implemented biome-specific drops and weapons/tools blueprints that are specific to the biome. like a snowball tommy gun.

 

True but that doesn't make that argument valid. There is development on that front and it IS public both in game form and in the form of posts on the front page.

 

I was just making an equally valid comparison, aka, I agree with you.

 

Ah sorry. It's like 4 AM on my end so my brain is sufffering the sleepy debuff

 

Edit: Again I shoved a lot of this into the Original Post. Reading it is re-iteration again.

Exploration and RNG Weapons

Exploration in Starbound is very fun at first but it trickles down to an obvious pattern over time. You are very excited at first when you get to travel to a new planet and just in awe when you hit that travel button and the inevitability of beaming down to that pleasant planet you picked among the bunch. Before you could get to travel to that new planet you probably had to work a lot for fuel. You went mining downward plenty. While mining down you may go through caves, with mobs, and little detailed mushroom houses too. Neat touch on the little houses! I just wish they meant more and had some interaction and led to something bigger. You might find a few treasure chests, but alas, its mostly just regular stuff you've seen before. Maybe a power-up, cool, but those are an issue in themselves. Very cool to find them though. In the end, the cave systems all feel the same. Even when you go from colored dirt, to sand, to cobblestone, to maybe a freaky looking flesh block, it all just feels the same. The mobs you meet down there feel the same. You will find the same resources. You find a flesh block biome and you expect maybe some freaky mini-boss or hidden treasure that rewards you with flesh armor or weapons or something just extraordinary! But you don't. You travel to a new planet still with excitement maybe expecting something new, but the only new things are tougher enemies, different looking biomes with no actual heart, and the same cave patterns downward. Nothing of interest but those oh so rare resources.

Randomly Generated Weapons
Just plainly, they all feel the same and pointless. Sometimes you will have a grenade launcher, an assault rifle, a revolver, a shotgun, but they all really do the same thing because in Starbound the combat situations are very easy to break down. Enemy shooting at you or enemy charging at you, or a mix of the both. This is tied hand-in-hand with the combat system of Starbound. If the combat was more complex and interesting, with better AI interactions, the use of shotguns vs an assault rifle would be much more interesting and have you actually switch between during different situations more purposefully.

Does no one feel the same on these points? Come on. Don't just trail along like everything is okay. I think the developers want to know when we actually feel something doesn't feel right to us. It is for the better of the game in the end, and, of course, we have to be courteous to the devs under a lot of workload.

 

Also, suggestions are great, but saying "we should have a delete button" after one has already been implemented, or generalizing and saying "we need more rewarding mob drops" when that's exactly what they're doing doesn't help in either case. My "their working on it" comments are only as specific as your suggestions were (actually more so because I gave a specific example).

you only want unspecific suggestions/changes that have already been acknowledged.