Notice Ask us anything.

Will there be planet terraforming?

Well you're kind of terraforming throughout the entire game no? But if we're talking mass scale terraforming that likely won't be in the beta. It is planned however. I think I know how I want to do it.

 

So how will spaceships be handled? Will we have to share our space station with other, real life people?

Players from the same party can visit eachother's space ship. Only the captain of the ship can control it. But if you're on board when he flies to another planet, you'll go there too.

 

Will there be actual founded civilizations on certain planets? Cities, metropolises, etc.
If it's too much of a spoiler don't worry about it.

The engine is capable of generating cities. We haven't put a much work into it content wise yet. It's probably one of the first things we're going to be looking at post release.

 

Will worlds carry between players?

Yes

 

I know that you have decided to go "one planet — one biome" way, like Star Wars works. With sub-biomes, of course. But is it possible, through terraforming, to create multi-biome planet/homeworld?

For example: I want to take a lava inferno planet (think Io or Venus), cool it down somewhat so that lava wasn't everywhere, plant some jungle trees, pour some water lakes or maybe even create an ice glacier. And I mean not manually, block by block (this is obviously possible, although could be extremely long and tedious), but using some more advanced and efficient ways.

Basically: tell us about terraforming possibilities please.

Terraforming seems to be a number one request so we're going to put in the effort to do it right. This likely means it'll be part of a post release update though. Ideally you'll be able to entirely change the planets biome and sub biomes to create whatever you want. The foreground blocks would change to match and then plants etc would start to grow.

 

Hi Tiy,

Q: Could you perhaps elaborate on the 'logistics' of Multiplayer?

For example, when starting a new Universe (server) with your friends, where will we all be? Will we be on different random planets from the start or will we start on the same one together? Can I board my friends ship and travel with him? If so, what happens to my own ship? It'd be great to know how much individual freedom each player has and how much impact each player can have individually.

Thanks!

Players start on their ships (after leaving their homeworlds, for various reasons.) We haven't decided yet if all the ships should be orbiting the same planet. It doesn't really make a great deal of sense.. but it's nice for multiplayer. You can board your friends ship and travel with him. You can also warp back to your ship at any time, which will remain where you left it.

 

A question about weapon.
Will there be unusual melee/ranged weapon? I mean, I want to kill aggressive mobs with electroglove or maybe some kind of arm cannon...



There are already lots of unusual weapons. But I think these are the kind of things I shouldn't spoiler

 

What are your hopes/plans for the future after Starbound? Would you hope to improve upon your creation (with a sequel, DLC's etc) or to try creating something a bit different?

Thanks!

It's all going to be about improving and supporting Starbound for quite some time. What will we do after Starbound? I don't know yet honestly. It might make sense to make a sequel at that point or we might want to move onto something entirely new. It depends on the mood within Chucklefish at the time. A lot of people want to do a trixel Starbound.

 

On the galaxy map and the solar system maps will there be a way to create notes on specific planets/stars? Or will I have to bring out the age old paper and pencil.

There will be bookmarks and quite likely a universal notes part of the GUI.

 

I can't remember if I saw this somewhere or if I was just dreaming, so here we go:

Will there be a "jukebox" craftable of some kind in the game, or any other such mechanism that will allow us to choose the background music we're hearing? I was thinking it would be nice (on the ship especially) to be able to choose our interstellar cruising music.

This isn't there at the moment, though there are items that play sounds and one of them does play music. We'll consider it as a post release update.

 

How much of the game mechanics/features need to be completed for beta? I know many people have been chompin at the bit to get an idea of how much of the game will be available in beta as opposed to release. The road map is only tailored for the actual game and we're all curious about estimates of completion for beta.


All of the base features need to be done (almost all of them are, and the final ones are being worked on). The features that add charm and soul are also important. Essentially we need to be happy that the experience players have is the one we want to present. That experience is coloured in great part by features that may not sound essential.

We have a roadmap we're working towards that we believe will bring the experience to that point.

 

How exactly will claiming a planet work in terms of game content? Will it just allow you to build on the planet or will other options become available? And will random events occur on player owned planets like attacks?

It's a way of protecting a planet from other people for the most part. You can build on any planet unless it's owned by someone else. In which case there are some restrictions. We're also looking into things that can only be placed on a planet you own.

 

How many pets can follow you at once, and are some creatures hostile towards each other?

You can carry up to 3 monsters at once. But only have a single monster active. Some creatures are hostile towards each other.

 

What is the current block height limit on a planet? Is it determined by the size of the planet?

The engine is capable of infinite block height. Right now it's set at a large number but we're going to do some interesting things with the sky and we'll likely change the number after that.

 

My question for this post will be... Are there going to be floating blocks in Starbound? - Like how in Terraria you can place blocks in mid air without them falling down. Or is it going to be more like how it works in King Arthur's Gold, where you have to place blocks from the ground and up, and have them supported by background walls?

Most blocks float in Starbound. There are blocks that fall and even cascade but for the most part they float. I think in a game like KAG requiring proper support makes sense. But in a game like Starbound floating makes sense. You can't simply place a block in the air of course.

 

Will you continue on creature generation after release? My concern is that I'll start to notice the similarities between each monster to soon, as I've seen a number of the random monsters I've noticed the same head or body at least 5 times now with a brand new coat of paint. Do you intend of adding things such as scales or feathers that might be added to the body, head, or tail to further random monster generation?

We're going to keep improving and expanding creature generation after release. We've already got a bunch of really cool ideas that are just too content heavy to get into the first release.

 

can Planets that cannot be landed on be scanned for ores and minerals, like in Mass Effect?

That's the plan

 

Will there be a global server for players from all over the world? -*-

Anyone can set up a server. Of course playing over such long distances is rarely as nice in terms of performance as playing with someone nearby, there's only so much you can hide a bad ping. But it's possible to set one up.

 

Is there a system in place that alerts or assists players on planets that were previously explored by other players? I'd hate to land on a planet and explore deep inside a cave only to find a dozen empty chests and a dungeon that has been stripped of all its valuables.

There isn't at the moment, but the universe is so vast it's unlikely this will happen. That said I think planets are large enough that it's unlikely a player will strip one of everything valuable and it's actually quite interesting to stumble upon a previously explored world.

 

Will it be able to run on low end PC's making it playable on most computers?

Depends on your definition of low end . We'll put proper specs out once we've done some optimization. Right now though it runs at a solid 60fps (with vsync on) on an entry level macbook air.