Anyone else disappointed that they lightened the story?

Some quick notes:

1. The Humans were NOT responsible or even IMPLIED to be responsible for bringing the tentacle monster to Earth. You're mis-remembering the codex entry that explained the humans' condition upon starting the game. The codex entry only explained why the human is alone on their ship without a crew, because they smuggled a 'cute' alien on board hoping to keep it as a pet and fuzzy-wuzzy ate their fellow crewmembers. This was probably an ALIENS reference. I'm not sure...

2. The Hylotl are still judgmental and pompous, but their hatred of the Florans was never unjustified. In fact, the Floran's savage invasion of the peaceful Hylotl homeworld was one of the few things I applaud Chucklefish for leaving IN. Although it bums me out that they made Florans just "forget" it and mysteriously become nicer for no reason. Like, they were at war. And that was fun to watch them interacting. Being a Hylotl dude walking into a Floran Settlement just all "What? What're YOU going to do? I DARE YOU!".

 

Humans having only 15.8 million outside of the solar system is realistic, even if it's unfortunate for gameplay purposes since it means few human settlements.

How many people want to move out in the boonies to set up a new town in idk Alaska, or for that matter even the empty bits of Michigan? We're talking temperate bits of earth here, not even lush/garden worlds here nevermind some of the more interesting biomes like Midnight or Scorched city planets.

 

No society is uniform, especially on planetary scale. There is Manhattan and then there is Harlem, there is Chicago and then there is Detroit, there is relatively well-off South Africa and Saudi Arabia and then there is brewing pots of povetry and civil unrest like Lybia, Egypt and Syria. And I dont think that noblebright future of Starbound is so bright there is no place on Earth that's more polluted, overcrowded, impoverished and myriad other -eds than clean, nice Lush or Forest planet. Again, something made people colonise places like Alaska or Siberia, and some people still go to active volcanos, to ocean bottom, to mountain peaks, to both of the poles, and hell, for some that's even a hobby.

And okay, by the same token, what would cause, say, a Floran or an Avian to leave their place and go somewhere else? You could argue that Apex could be forced by Miniknog, and Hylotl by their homeworld destruction, but that still does not explain Glitch presence, given that they don't have a definite ruler per se and generally stuck in Middle Ages (albeit my money would be on early Renaissance)

 

On the other hand, human civilization spread out over our own planet pretty damn quick. And are you forgetting the rush to colonize the New World? Or the various Land Rushes into Oklahoma, California, etc? It's slow-going at first but once things get settled and people find out that it's relatively safe now, there's always a massive rush like that.

Now then, the Protectorate has been a thing for 500 years, and that means humanity has had space travel technology for at least that long. You really mean to tell me that in all those centuries, not even ONCE was there a planetary land rush by humanity? That the only humans who ever left their planet were either prisoners forced off by the U.S.C.M. or dudes who wanted to go camping?

And this isn't even going into the issues of overpopulation or resource scarcity, either - issues that we're already facing NOW and would only be worse in the far future.

And Hell, just look at the push to colonize Mars now, and how many people are all excited that they might have the chance to go, even knowing the first few expeditions will likely die horribly!

No, sorry, the idea that only 15.8 million humans are living off planet Earth is not realistic. I think the phrase is "f**king retarded" actually.

 

Actually, a mere population of 15.8 million would likely mean a slow, ugly extinction for humans. I'm serious. And I suggest this possibility for two reasons: (1) Space is incomprehensibly vast and (2) humans are far, far more inbred that most people realize.

Small numbers of survivors thinly spread across the stars could be devastating to an already damaged human genome. Even in the game that is Starbound, without a mod, it is unlikely for two new characters to start out on systems close enough to make meeting up on the same planet a reasonable task. Without massive upgrades to fuel efficiency and fuel capacity, going from one edge of the universe to the opposite would take too long. Coordinates can range from 999,999,999 to -999,999,999, for X and Y. And that's only in two dimensions. IRL, there would be three dimensions. Even with FTL travel, adding a 3rd dimension would make meeting up that much more difficult.

Consider, also, that every sector of space has planets with fossils. And some of those fossils are human. Aside from the fact that this does not make much sense... (It would take, at minimum, a thousand years for a fossil to form. Reference.com: How long does it take for a fossil to form?) This proves that humans are thinly spread, indeed. And have you ever encountered a human village, let alone a human city?

As for being inbred, consider recent research that proves humans share a common female ancestor ("Mitochondrial Eve") and a common male ancestor ("Y-chromosomal Adam"). Research has also shown than the entire human race has less genetic diversity than a single family unit of chimpanzees. Consider, too, how many animals like dogs, cats, and cattle can inbreed without much consequence, while humans are a different story entirely.

In summary: It's very likely that, spread among billions of stars and without a new homeworld, a population 15.8 million would mean the end of humans. (And a very ugly end, at that.) Even confined to a single planet, a human population of less than 10,000 would probably lead to a slow decline and eventual extinction. Less than this may not be sustainable, considering the damage our genes have already suffered.

Humans must have come close to extinction at least once, already. And science points to the signs of a quote, "degraded [Y] chromosome near the end of it's life." Can humankind survive without a Y chromosome?

 

We don't really know the population of earth in starbound, space travel is likely not cheap, and requires considerable legal and financial loopholes to go through. These loopholes may or may not be eased at over time, but the large amount of incarceration suggests space is also home to a lot of lawlessness, both human and non human, to say nothing of whatever atrocities and disasters that the 48-hour news cycle picks up on.

 

Actually, I would like to point out something everyone has been missing in reference to humans in space. Teleporters. It seems like the only restriction currently placed on teleporters is that there seems to be some form of receiver for it, be it a flag or another teleporter. In theory, in order for humans to escape Earth, it would only taken one ship to find or set up a waypoint.

We don't see teleporters in the various villages you naturally find, but there is one of the Ark Post, and each location where you find a key. We can even calculate the amount of money it would cost to build a teleporter.

Diamonds cost 1200 pixels. A teleporter core costs 15 diamonds. The Wooden Teleporter costs 3000 pixels.

In total, it would cost 21000 pixels to build a basic teleporter, in order to compare this to real-life money, will need to find a pixel to dollar ratio using items that we can find both in the real world and the game.

Using Bread to make the ratio, Bread roughly cost about 2.40 dollars. Bread in the game cost 50 pixels.

Using this metric, We can calculate that (Dollar Cost of Teleporter/ Pixel Cost of Teleporter = Dollar Cost of Bread / Pixel Cost of Bread)

We can solve for the result (Dollar Cost of Teleporter = Pixel Cost of Teleporter * (Dollar Cost of Bread / Pixel Cost of Bread)

Which gives us a dollar amount of 1008 dollars.

However, in order to be good scientist, we need more samples because the bread metric might not be a good one and might be distorted for quite a few different reasons and bread might be highly devalued in the future do to a number of reasons.

So here is a sort list of possible dollar prices for a teleporter based on the price of several in game objects :

Bread Metric = 1008 Dollars
Flashlight Metric (Presuming the dollar price would be 20 dollars since the ingame flashlight doesn't look that fancy) = 4200 Dollars
Hunting Knife Metric (Presuming a cost of 30 dollars ) = 5250 Dollars

All of these are pretty archaic compared to the technology we see, so we can presume their cost would drop in relation to more high tech equipment, and pixels is more of a game mechanic than a story element, but it seems like it might not be common to have a home personal teleporter, it seems like every major city would have public teleporters for use.

Most cities we see are small and isolated, and the sector of space we are exploring seems to be the frontier considering we don't get to see (by ship travel) any of the other races home worlds nor any of the important locations to get the keys. It also raises the question why there wasn't a teleporter in the Protectore base, though there might of been one in an area we didn't explore. I think we are really over estimating the number of people who died on Earth.

 

So... you´re saying to not rush then because the game is not ready yet? Why they released then ? My bird from anotha featha .... what a sorry excuse. The storyline is lame in a cosmic level, don´t blame me ou call me idiot. I luv the game, and as a beta player i see a lot of things come and gone, but... the storyline, the racial Sail´s and weapons.... why.... why,dude...... So much potential, wasted.

 

I think that with big ape, it would be much better if you didn't actually kill big ape, and that he is a real person, but not an apex, so they made the big ape computer to be his mask and he's not actually defeated.

 

What.

We defeated only prototype weapon. I'm pretty sure Big Ape him(or it-?)self is pretty safe and far-far away from those pesky kids and their dog player.

 

While the original story was more "adult" I suppose, I think it was honestly a bit too grim and un-hopeful. Of course they over-corrected a bit. But, I think they have room to grim things up a bit again, story-wise. There are a few things I wish were better with SB story. But, it is what it is.

 

Big Ape is more unkillable as an idea than as a person. Even with the boss we kill, the only thing the Miniknog need do is clamp down on any rebellion and make another, meaner, Big Ape.

 

Or even merely hide Big Ape's death so nobody knows it (Big Ape was also used for surveillance, so it is obvious tha tthey wouldn't want to let their population know that they aren't being watched because the watcher is dead).

 

The rebels also have the propaganda.

 

Ya mean all that Defaced, Vandalized Propaganda symbolizing their Defiance of the evil tyranny they fight against?

 

To be totally fair, though, are the Miniknog really evil? I mean, tyrants, yes, absolutely. But evil? They're not power-hungry. They're not greedy. They're not in it for fame or fortune. Really, let's think about this... they don't even have a ruler, instead ruling by committee under the name of a glorified figurehead. Every single Miniknog, no matter how high up, faces the same punishment if he goes against the group. Now, I don't call that righteous per se, but it certainly sound like humbleness to me.

You could easily argue that all they're doing is trying to keep order. Sometimes in order to make an omelet you've got to crack a few eggs... the (totally understandable) issue that the rebels have is that... well, nobody wants to be the egg that gets cracked.

And before you bring up the lore about the Miniknog starting the plague so that they could force VEP on the people and then take over, let me remind you that little tidbit was only ever speculation at best, Rebel propaganda at worst. ...of course you could also argue that VEP has in fact been good for the Apex.

The point is, I wouldn't call the Miniknog evil, so much as just having a very severe case of "Ends Justify The Means Syndrome."

 

Paidforbythefamilyassociationofbigape

 

They're highly immoral, using any excuse to detain their citizens and perform horrible mutagenic experiments, which nobody comes out still sane from.

That's why they're evil, their citizens are mere lab rats in their eyes.

 

And how much you wanna bet that rebels won't end up that way? Mind you, such riots and revolutions are prime material for all kinds of dictatorships and juntas, look at the Africa and Eastern Asia during XX century.

And this argument could be countered too, but the main question here is why you can't ally yourself with Miniknog? Why you must go with the rebellion?

I mean, look at Skyrim; you can go with Stormcloaks and secede from Empire (thus screwing things for everyone on greater picture since Empire would be weakened even more as a result and Aldmeri would just go full "divide & conquer" mode), or you can go with Empire and crush the resistance (thus reinforcing the grip of a corrupt, decadent regiment). But imagine if you're allowed to only sympatise the Stormcloaks and Empire barely tolerates you at best and shoots at sight at worst, so you can't even ally yourself with them. It would be kinda one-sided story, don't you think?