My thoughts on spirited giraffe

I got into Starbound in 2013, but took a break after my first experience with the game a year and a half ago. I've been following the game's progress intermittently since then and decided to jump back in after the major stable update came out recently. I progressed right up to the mech boss, but got stuck after killing him (the door to the teleport wouldn't open). I figure it's time to take another break from the game, but here are my thoughts.

Things I really liked in my play-through:

• matter manipulator is awesome and I love the upgrade options and their progression.
• ranged weapon variety and balance seems spot on.
• the new combat system is great, especially not having to avoid contact with monsters but only their actual attacks; the shield system is cool in theory but I couldn't really use it effectively (switching to a weapon and a shield while juggling bandages, a flashlight, and steak was a bit too much).
  
• music is fantastic and really lends atmosphere to exploring the different planets.
• planet bookmark system is great as well as the purchasable teleporters.

Things that I think need some fixing/tweaking:

• minor quests need a little more substance and variety and I would love to be able to get quests from NPCs on planets and not just at the Outpost.
• major quests (missions) are great, but I wish instead of getting teleported to them from your ship, you'd actually get coordinates to the planet/moon that the mission is on and have to travel there and find the quest on that planet/moon yourself. This would improve immersion I think.
• picks and (to some extent) drills are useless. The matter manipulator is far superior. It's unbreakable, has its own hotkey, and has great range. I don't think the matter manipulator needs nerfing though, but maybe the picks need to go and the drills need to be unbreakable or at least a lot more durable.
  
• planet difficulty needs a little more variety within tiers, so there's more room for risk and rewards.
• nanosuits are great mechanism for tier progression but they render the planetary hazards moot after you get them. It would be great if they didn't eliminate said hazard effects completely (requiring periodic stops to drink water/sit by a fire/consume anti-rad drugs/switch air tanks or maybe allow hot/cold planets to be less hazardous at night/day,) or if the planetary hazards where mixed and matched (radioactive supercold or superhot planets for example).

Some interface nitpicks:

• some hotkeys for weapon sets would really enhance my playstyle (two handed weapons are a breeze to switch to but switching items out of the left and right hands is a bit cumbersome, especially when fighting something).
  
• a separate hotkey to the building inventory would be nice.
• a toolbar for building blocks would be nicer. My regular toolbar is just too full with guns/gadgets/consumables, so I have to either reorganize the toolbar whenever I want to build something or build tediously from the open inventory.
• wish there was more space for descriptions in planet bookmarks and teleport bookmarks, I'd love to be able to write a paragraph or two about the stuff I found on the planet (merchants, unique biomes, useful monsters for future trapping, etc.). The bookmarks are a great improvement but they still require a lot of memory work to figure out why you bookmarked some planet a few weeks ago.
• make menus remember their open position. I like how you can move the inventory menu around to a new position but that gets reset whenever you open a new container.

Overall though I love the direction the game is going and can't wait to get into it again when it's done or when the next substantial update comes out.

 

I really agree with this. As it is, it really feels like missions and the progression are completely separate from everything else. Like the universe that you're free to explore is just somewhere you go to do your chores and get the materials you need for the next tier of armor, so that you'll be allowed to go back to "the real game" or at least "the other game."

I love the missions a lot, but they just don't feel like they're an actual part of the same universe.

 

Because coordinates are not the same across all systems, making sure the mission is on an appropriate planet would be difficult.

It would be cool, and I would like to see it, but I can understand if it never does manifest.

 

I've been in a similar situation. Played the game when the first clients were released, played intermittently as time went by, until I just didn't focus enough on the game anymore, simply had other things to do or got bored of it.

Returned to the game recently, like a week or so ago, and I've been enjoying it again, especially since I've progressed further than I did before. I don't think you should give up just yet, as that boss can be a bit unforgiving. I have one of the highest tier armours and if I go back to that mission, he still wrecks me if I'm not careful; having the game at zoomed in as least as possible is helpful for that fight... Other than that, find the best possible weapons and try to figure out the boss' patterns.

 

Looks like I'm not the only one who remembers having to build a beacon to summon Dreadwing, took a break from the game and have been at it again for a few weeks myself. Testing out the Nighty Build is also a big plus as it helps figure out bugs and stuff before the next patch update.

I would agree that the Mech mission is too difficult to solo (Imagine how many Hardcore characters lives have been claimed by that Penguin bastard), the room is too open for a fight like this. Having to dodge missiles, electricity, flamethrower, and his damned dash attack, at least put in some obstacles or cover to hide behind.

• They at least need to bring back the repair mechanic, The MM seems to be the go to mining tool anyways rendering the other mining equipment useless.
• I would like to see stars past fiery that have a mix of lava, freezing, and radioactive with much more challenging monsters and better loot. Maybe even add abandoned and derelict space stations that can be warped to like you can with planets that have rouge security systems and interesting loot.
• The nano suits are a step up from the different sectors of space you had to warp to in order to fight the next boss. I would like to see the temperature and hunger systems return, however the suits make sense as far as having to switch em up between traveling to Radioactive, below freezing, and fiery planets.

 

Indeed, even the best drills are a bit of a waste of time, sadly. The MM used to be worse than everything else, didn't it? Seems the tables have turned.

Would love to see that too honestly. I mean, the stuff on those planets is already plenty challenging to me, but even more would be nice; plus, I know that if i played in a group frequently then it would be much easier to deal with the mobs anyway.

 

It should be easy to force a "quest planet" to spawn at certain locations.
Perhaps there's just some barrier to entry beforehand, or maybe the story is that the planets are hidden somehow, so you can only find them when told their exact coordinates (depending on if they are spawned with the universe or spawned when you get the quest).

 

I mentioned something related, in another thread, regarding someone's idea:

 

There is no current system to force spawn a system.

 

I believe it is within Chucklefish's capability to have missions be actual locations.

They could do like, after the starmap is generated but before the player actually gets in game, search for a few random "barren" planets (or a moon, in the case of the Erchius mission) and overwrite them with the mission "planets," save the coordinates and link them to the quests that enable the missions. In the event that someone finds a mission planet by sheer luck, they could either make it so you can break sequence and just try to do it, or simply have the main doors not work/Dreadwing not spawn, and have a teleporter available to leave with.

Actually, they could even just grab an unvisted barren planet and convert it when your character completes the quest to gain access to the mission. Then different players on the same server could complete the missions at separate times without having to protect or "reset" the planet used by the first player. And after you complete the mission, maybe there could be like an optional/puzzle portion to the dungeon where if you succeed, you reach the shield generator. Dream big why not.

 

THIS... is actually a really great suggestion! You should, y'know, suggest it!

Perhaps have a hotkey that toggles which toolbars you're using so you can swap easily between your building/adventure toolbars.

That, and if the event wasn't in a separate instance they couldn't punish you for forgetting to put your ores away by making them vanish upon death.

Obligatory player-infuriation is an important part of any game. </subtlest of sarcasm>

 

I play on casual, so I know not of your infuriating ore loss.

 

I pre-emptively set my characters to normal like a doof because I'm awaiting the (hopeful) re-implementation of the hunger mechanic and it seemed to me like they were going with a "hunger tied to difficulty" idea. I figured if I set my characters to casual I wouldn't get to play with it. ]:

 

Can't something like starcheat change that? I don't know how tied in such things are.

 

There isn't but they have had the intention, in the past, to put something like it in, at some point. It is of course possible that the idea was abandoned.

 

Izzat a mod? I don't mess around with mods. Not that I'm AGAINST them or anything, I just like playing the game vanilla.

 

I would love such a thing.