Please Implement A Warp Beacon, Doing Anything Underground Is Tedious Without It

That's a pretty big exploit, and one that should get fixed. Imagine if when quitting the game, it saved your position and then loaded you back up at the very same position, next time you opened the game.

And before you say its impossible, I worked on a Terraria mod that did exactly this. It worked per server and per world, so a character who was present in multiple universes could have multiple spawn points in them. So the code is fully possible, if not trivial.

 

Absolutely true, I wouldn't be surprised however if it never was truthfully the intent in Terraria for it to feel "hardcore" as many casual gamers might consider that mod. It would be amazing if this was added on as a change based on difficulty setting, controlled either by character or server (both?).

However, this goes back to something I brought up before as have others I believe. We don't have a magic mirror (terraria). Terraria is a single world, having your location saved upon exit is relatively insignificant. Frankly after about the first 30 minutes of that game something like that is pretty trivial.

What this means is, the more "hardcore" players who feel when you exit it should save your location, find that very thing insignificant very quickly. Instead now all you've accomplished is making it less enjoyable for many of the casual, pick and play crowd. Especially when there currently is no reasonable way to return, you can't build teleport pads, you don't have a mirror, something you build for quick access is only used on that one planet and wont be re-used.... etc.

There is a huge disparity between asteroid fields and the ratio of risk/reward involved to digging down into a planet. The difference between the two is further exaggerated by the ability to teleport out of any location in an asteroid field.

It shouldn't be a free pass from danger, but there should be something to allow players to get back to the surface, or ship that doesn't cause the game to devolve into "I'm only going to grab surface minerals because digging down is just stupid and a waste of time".

 

Lol I just made a similar post. While I agree there needs to be a way to set a specific beam down location I'm not so sure about setting it underground. At least not right off the bat in tier 1. Prehaps as an end game max tier high cost to build thing. But we def really really need a basic item that will allow you to set the surface beam in location to be on the otherside of the planet and we need it ASAP. I suggested maybe having the flags that are currently in the game have this function. And the teleport window on the ship, well once you place a flag down that would then show a third option to beam to that flag. But that would only be able to be placed on the surface. This is something I think they need to add and I mean like last month add. ASAP. It kills the game to not have an item like that.

But I do see your point. Maybe the flag be the surface beam in item for tier 1 (using an exsisting item and the existing beam in code would mean they could get it to us quickly in the next patch). And then for the max tier end game they could add in a warp beacon item that would allow you to beam in and out from anywhere even underground. But again it's gotta be something very expensive to build and not easy to come by as that's a very powerful item. Also have it take a few seconds to beam out and have to place on the ground so you can't just use it from a hotbar and instantly get out of a losing fight. Gotta be balanced like that.

 

I definetly agree, at least on the flag part, Beaming where I want on the planet surface sounds *highly logical*.

 

That's the exact mechanism that most Roguelikes use with their Scroll of Town Portal, especially the *bands... It generally takes about 20-50 rounds to activate, which in this game would be something like 10-30 seconds or so. Just enough time to get absolutely creamed by any monster you are trying to escape from. Also, activating or using any items, or just moving, should cancel the timer. Look at it as if the teleporter is attempting to get a lock on you. If you move, it fails.

This ability could be available early in the game, if this method were to be used. The deeper you are in the planet, the longer you have to wait. Teir 1, near the magma sea of a planet, it should take around 5 minutes or more to get a lock. Hell, that's about 8 in-game hours, on most planets. Enough time to starve, almost, and certainly not suitable for a quick escape. The higher in teir you go, the less time the teleporter could take to get a lock, until at Teir 10 you basically get a free teleport from anywhere to your ship.

As far as setting warp beacons, a natural starting point would be the flags. If set somewhere with a clear view of the sky and no ceiling, it should allow you to set your spawn point on that planet. That way you could just set down a flag, activate it to set your spawn point, and as long as that flag is there you're good.

Then, around Tier 3 or 4, a new item could be added to the Mechanics or Robotics work bench: Teleport Beacon. This would essentially be an upgraded version of the Flag, would not require a clear line-of-sight to the ship, and would negate the waiting period for teleports. On-activation, you could teleport directly to the ship. In game terms, it can communicate with the ship through radio beams, constantly updating the ship on its exact relative location. Teleportation locks around the beacon become trivial, and anyone in line-of-sight to the beacon can teleport to the ship instantaneously, just as if they were on the surface.

At Tier 5 or 6, another item could be crafted: Teleportation Pad. This is exactly like it sounds. Activating the beacon would bring up the same dialog box that activating the Teleportation Pad on your ship does, and I'll come back to that in a moment.

Everyone starts with one teleport option when activating their ship teleporter: Teleport to Planet Surface. This would pick a random location on the surface of the planet below, and teleport you there (what, you didn't think you were in Geostationary Orbit, did you? No telling where you really are above the planet). Once planting down a Flag, you would gain a second option: Teleport to Flag. You could set down as many Flags as you want, and teleport to them by selecting them from a submenu. This would work by just changing the spawn point. Once planting down a Beacon, you would gain a third option: Teleport to Beacon. Any number of Beacons can be active per planet, and like the Flags they can only be accessed from a teleporter that is on the same planet, meaning either you must be in orbit around said planet in your ship, or: The third craftable, the Teleport Pad. From a teleport pad, you can teleport to any beacon within range (planet or nearby moons), or to any other Teleport Pad in the same Star System!

So to sum up:
Initial Teleport - Random surface location.
Flag - Place in clear surface location to set semi-permanent spawn point on that planet and can be accessed from the Ship Teleporter.
Beacon - Place anywhere on planet to set semi-permanent spawn point on that planet, and can be accessed from any teleporter in the same planetary system.
Teleportation Pad - Allows teleportation to any Beacon in same planet system, or Pad in same star system.
Ship Teleporter - Works as Teleportation Pad plus Beam To Planet Surface, to Flags, and to Home.

Transport within Star Systems then becomes easier as you go up in Tier and place down some Teleportation Pads, but transport to different star systems is only posible through the miracle of FTL engines.

 

Sorry for the delay but.. This is exactly what I ment with a good break down of how it could work in different tiers. The game desperately needs this mechanic and at least the tier1 version of using Flags (which are already in the game and could just be adapted) could be implemented fairly quickly I'd think. Can we please get a dev response to this subject so we know you guys understand this is a Huge problem and the players have near unanimous agreement as to such? Maybe let us know how you plan to address it? Because honestly, without a mechanic that allows me to alter the beam down site using flags or something, anything, the game is simply too tedious to play and I'm gonna have to shelve it for now.

 

Whilst a lot of people have commented, the vote is far from unanimous. Especially when you consider that everyone seems to have a different way of going about it.

I personally feel that not only is it easier to do things underground, but advantageous to do so. The first thing I do on any planet is to find the core and see what is around. With this as my FIRST step I see underground travel as anything but tedious. Birds are more tedious.

If you are struggling, than maybe you need to upgrade your tiers and abilities. If you are on permadeath than maybe considering easing up a bit. If you decide to shelve it than that is your choice...however there are more frustrating bugs worth shelving it for.

But as far as grand sweeping statements understand that they are not the feeling of a whole.

 

Gonna have to disagree with...

...Well, pretty much everything here.

Not only is a potential return climb far more tedious than anything else in the game, but the ability to log out and back in to get back to your ship makes *not* having a beacon pointless, as all it does is disrupt people's ability to team up.

Don't forget that there's just less to find underground, too. Past a point, if you need ores? You just go to an asteroid field. End of story.

 

For the sake of simplicity I'm going to assume you are new, have never needed a specific material like Tar, or stumbled upon the 2-3 types of underground bases PER SPECIES. I'm assuming you have never found butterfly boost or bubble burst nor have you tried jumping with your drill at an upward angle or even utilized the grappling hook. Also I'm assuming you don't utilize lava, you don't enjoy caves, and have never understood that planets have 'levels' one of which makes underground escape possible by carving out the background; that none of these are in your wheelhouse.

I would recommend actually getting more involved in the game before writing it off.

 

400+ hours.

Your assumptions fail massively.

I actually have good reason to assume *you're* new, or otherwise didn't think this through very well, because most of those things you listed can be found near or on the surface on various planets.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it still massively supports that digging deep needs to be more engaging and less a chore to be worthwhile.

 

I said "for the sake of simplicity."

Because understanding how you've put in 400+ hours and missed all these points is BEYOND ME. I've putt in 400+ hours and the very day after finding this thread (as a newbie) found several ways to overcome the problems.

 

Hah. It's funny. You're saying I miss things, and yet it's you who misses the obvious.

Need lava? Volcanic planets. Need tar? Bit tricker, but some planets have it on, or very close to the surface. Underground bases? The ones on the surface are always bigger and better. In fact, the tech mazes are on the surface. Bubble boost allows you to clear the surface of planets with incredible speed in the higher levels, finding any encampments, various surface ores and more. The grappling hook is how you make early use out of asteroid fields. It's far, FAR more useful there than underground, especially as you can teleport out at any time. If you're looking for fuel or ores there's no contest.

Don't forget that if you're blowing up apex bases as a legit source of metal blocks, most of the big ones are near the surface.

Edit:

Also, all of this, every last bit, doesn't address the fact that digging is currently *tedious.* Just because something unique can be found underground, doesn't make being underground any "funner."

Part of this is a lack of a recall beacon, which once again only matters when you're on a team. Past that, though, even if there is stuff to be found underground, Starbound lacks a certain sense of wonder that the underground of Terraria has.

I'm sure, with time, some of this will be rectified, but right now nothing feels like randomly stumbling upon a glowing mushroom farm, or accidentally tripping over a bee's nest in the jungle for the first time in a playthrough. That, and I gotta be honest here, the underground in Starbound could use to be more cavernous and maze like. Less drilling, more treacherous spelunking.

 

No I am merely pointing out that Starbound is complex enough that there is always more than one solution for any problem. I didn't miss them...There's just not enough room to fill in every problem with examples of how to solve them. Thank you for helping me demonstrate that.

All I'm saying is that this tech is a huge waste of the devs time considering that it is merely for convenience; a convenience mainly gor those who have not explored all the options.

Sure it'd be nice to teleport to your base, or to your death point, or whatever...but then it becomes less the charming Starbound I know and more the mainstream "nothing outside what we don't think of" style gaming.

I'm saddened to be having this conversation with someone who should be playing long enough to appreciate that challenge.

 

Formulas exist for a reason, and understanding what is actually part of the formula and why it works is important.

Tedium =/= equal challenge.

I'm sad to be having this conversation with another person that doesn't understand game design at all. You should go watch Egoraptor's latest rant of the Legend of Zelda games, it covers all of what you don't seem to understand, though I question whether you would make the connections.

Be warned though, if you once liked Ocarina of time, you may never be able to look at it the same way again. Personally, I always found it tedious and formulaic in all the wrong ways, though. But that video is a perfect example of why formulas are important and needed, what happens when you get them wrong or ignore them, and why tedium should NEVER be mistaken for "challenge."

Starbound has formula issues. All some people here want is to see a few of them fixed.

 

I'm not a designer and never claimed to be. One thing I do know is about genres; and the example you chose is not a "sandbox" game.

I've seen monstrously complex contraptions meant to funnel creatures to a gun and then their dropped items to the player. Incredibly tedious, and with little reward I must say. Not creative?

I've built perpetual energy using the Starfoundry mod by pumping lava to the surface and water to the core. INSANELY tedious. Not creative?

I made a space jump to the core, a little landing pad of water...just to see if I could. (I can, but lining it up so you actually land correctly, is very tedious)


These are all examples of things not in the game, nor probably ever will BE in the game. They were made because someone applied their creativity...and when it comes to sandbox games-that's kinda their higher function.

I'm really not trying to get into an argument with you personally; I've felt this thread has been useless for a while now. It was the sweeping statement that you had no right making that I took offense to. Go ahead and bug the devs for something they probably don't want to deal with...but don't put my name on your shortcomings.

(And certainly don't threaten to 'shelf' a beta game for not getting what you want... that's kinda ridiculous and self-righteous)

 

Anyway, illogical people aside:

Almost in complete agreement with this. While I wont shelf the game personally, I agree that this very much is a huge gaping issue with the game that should be addressed at some point between now and the final stages of beta.

I know that altering planetary beam down spots is going to be implemented at some point, but I think a more robust transporter system in general would benefit the game as a whole. If anything, doing something better than the Terraria Bed/Magic Mirror system (which was essentially that game's equivalent) would be a boon for the game's feature list. If that planned gate system is ever a thing that happens, this should be included along side it.

 

I however am really against changing the current warp system. It works considerably well (minus the few targeting bugs and a pretty unique layer swapper bug).

What I don't wish to see happen is the precedent being set that just because something is difficult, it can be solved with an update, here being a teleportation system.
Not using slippery slope logic here, ACTUAL requests go as far as being able to teleport away from danger...and ACTUAL mods being able to teleport through walls.

I'd say there needs to be a line drawn somewhere between tactical advantage and lethargic advantage. If any changes were necessary I'd say ship-planet spawn point transfer would be a good idea...but now I know that the spawn point affects other aspects to the game; so I know it's easier in theory.

Anything underground is crossing the line and is just a ridiculous use of the developers time. They would be taking much more of the 'do-it-yourself' aspect away then needed. And 'do-it-yourself' is really Starbounds base

 

Point is, logging out and back in allows you to accomplish the desired effect of leaving deep areas with ease.

Seeing as there is a work-around, there is no debate about lethargy or not here. You can, and it is easy. If they are going to allow the system to operate in this manner, then there should be an ingame equivalent to prevent the breakage of gameplay (leaving game and returning).

If the intent is for there to not be a way to accomplish an easy return to your ship when deep underground. Then change the logout mechanics to prevent this.

As of right now, its a gross contradiction. Saying "they don't want it to be easy to return" yet retaining a fatal flaw in how the logout system works, which bypasses this intent entirely.

You can argue slippery slope all you want, and ignore the fact that you can already achieve the desired outcome without mods.

Caveat being of course if they have FINALLY changed this login/logout system since I last played. Having obtained and done plenty in the game, to the point of feeling like I was constantly waiting and hoping for some kind of update. I figured it best to wait for a while and come back to lots of new things.

 

Y'know...or death. Death does a pretty good job.

 

And before anyone brings up the fact that this isn't an option for permadeath...realize that you are asking the devs to make it easier, when you aren't willing to do the same.