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

You guys are all looking at it from the "I'm stuff in a bad situation,better TP out"

This about it this way:
You traveled the planet, and found a great spot to build a home. Oh, but you just died. To travel back takes a whole 3 minutes of walking. But with a warp or teleportation pad, or whatever, you can beam directly to your home.

THAT is what I want beam locators for.

Its currently a glitch to be able to beam up while underground. If pads are implemented, then I say make it unable to work after a certain depth. Still makes caving hard,but its easier on you in terms of saving locations as homes and whatnot.

 

You guys are all looking at it from the "I'm stuff in a bad situation,better TP out"

This about it this way:
You traveled the planet, and found a great spot to build a home. Oh, but you just died. To travel back takes a whole 3 minutes of walking. But with a warp or teleportation pad, or whatever, you can beam directly to your home.

THAT is what I want beam locators for.

Its currently a glitch to be able to beam up while underground. If pads are implemented, then I say make it unable to work after a certain depth. Still makes caving hard,but its easier on you in terms of saving locations as homes and whatnot.

 

The whole reason for tool durability was because of Tiy's passionate hatred of hellivators. I remember suggesting this very same thing becuase it would mean Tiy gets what he wants (us exploring not just digging straight down) and we get what we want (not having to endlessly trek back and forth through caves to get to where we were before).

Obviously, the idea wasn't accepted back then. Maybe it will be this time.

 

Well it's fine to make a teleport system to beam about on the surface of a planet, I usually just build any structures at the place where I beam down to make it easier if I die but allowing underground teleporting just doesn't make any sense. If you dig deep then there needs to be risks and a certain amount of effort involved to build your way back out again otherwise it becomes too easy to get the ores and makes the rare ones redundant as you can just dig directly down, get the ore and teleport straight back out again. But these problems already exist due to a low death penalty and just quitting the game to get back to your ship.

 

I really want this as well, but I think it should be restricted to placement on the surface as a means of locking you're beam-down position to a different spot, so that you can continue where you left off, or can place if in your home on the planet.

I don't think you should be able to beam from underground. I think they should make an elevator a proper craft-able item in the game, and that you'd simply place a beacon at the top of the elevator.

 

I think we should be restricted to having only so many such beacons at any time. But, have a way to recall them from the ship so we don't lose them by accident.

 

Terarria also had a teleporter that, after a lot of work, can take you across the map instantly. Something like that, sheet you'd have to manually set up the transporter link would work. So you'd build a little outpost at the "spawn" and then transporter links to whatever areas of interests you like.

 

tl;dr: Setting your own landing point is likely already on the way, a suggestion on how I think they should work, Starbound may need some cave generation tweaks and more options for early game tunnel navigation

I'm pretty sure they talked long ago about implementing some method of changing the teleportation position. It's likely either still in the works or disabled for this phase of beta testing. What I'm hoping for is a teleport pad similar to the one in your ship that functions as a landing pad that you can use to beam up from inside your base where you otherwise wouldn't. It would have to be locked to only function above a certain depth to prevent exploitation, but hopefully still deep enough that you can build subterranean facilities near the surface or take over a conquered dungeon and still have it function.

I think if someone wants to build a really deep facility near the mantle as their home they should be able to, but maybe make it so it requires a series of expensive relays for the teleport pad to function that far down. This way it's not likely to be used just to farm materials.

As for the tedium of climbing back out of the ground after spelunking I really do feel it, but some kind of game breaking teleport isn't the answer. If you look at games like Minecraft and Terraria their cave generation system often creates massive networks that can lead you from the surface to bedrock/hell with minimal to no digging required. I haven't found any caves like that so far in Starbound. It mostly leads to me to getting as low as I can in a cave before I just start mining my own way down out of frustration. There are some great caverns and caves down there it's just hard to access and navigate them.

The climbing ropes in Terraria were a major quality of life improvement as they gave players a much easier method of navigating their tunnels than building dirt spires and I think that's what Starbound is sorely lacking. Early on in Terraria when you decide to head back and don't have a magic mirror you just follow your trail of ropes back to the surface. Later on you use your grapple until you find the mirror. The current "climbing ropes" are good but not nearly as useful and a bit too expensive. I barely find enough plant fiber to keep myself bandaged without wasting it on one time use grappling hooks. It would make more sense for it to have durability and the grapple gun we eventually get is just an unlimited use version with longer range and the ability to dual wield.

 

As other people have said, the only way this wouldn't ruin the game is by restricting it to the surface. What's the point of even having caving if there's no risk? Do you also want to just be given 10 of each ingot every in-game day?

 

I really fail to see how it would eliminate or even reduce risk. Nobody is saying that it should be a usable-from-inventory item that instantly beams you back to your ship. All the lack of it does is make building underground pointless.

 

Simply make an item that costs a fair bit of pixels to craft, that has a 20-30 second cast time, and beams you back to the ship. Then it can't be abused to get out of sticky situations, but will remove the insane tedium of backtracking through a deep cave.

 

This idea that somehow the ground magically prevents you from having functional teleport/beaming systems because of 'reasons' just plain troubles me.

What is so special about these 500 feet of dirt, exactly, that allows my already-essentially 'magic' system of beaming from ship to surface... incapable of ever being able to select a location underground? Should it not be a matter of interference? Should it not be an issue of needing some sort of device to 'enhance' the teleporter targeting computer's ability to 'lock onto' an underground site? Maybe it's a beacon. Maybe it's a small 'structure' with a pair of transmitters. There needs to be some way of getting from the depths of a mine to the surface that doesn't include HIKING back for 30 minutes through already-explored caverns.

That's not danger. That's not challenge. That's just boring. If I didn't think it was interesting enough to stop and explore there on the way DOWN, why in the world do I need to see it again on the way up? What value does it add to the game to turn the act of mining/exploring into a grueling slogfest through poorly lit tunnels? Functionally, what does it provide to the game? To call that challenge... or difficulty... is to demean the meanings of challenge and difficulty.


If my mines were to suddenly flood with deadly radiation, that would be DANGEROUS.

If there were the risk of a quake bringing the tunnel ceiling down on my head, that would be DANGEROUS.

If there were some strange creature lurking deep beneath the desert that suddenly developed a hunger for the stone walls I built my subterranean base out of... that would be a CHALLENGE.


Those are just a few dangers and difficulties of VALUE taken from the top of my head. They would be of VALUE because they add intensity and thought to the game. They demand that the player react to an unexpected, challenging scenario that may or may not be outside of their comfort zone. The consequences of failure here might be death... but it could also be the loss of time, resources, or access to a vital tunnel system in your mine. These are just a few ideas of what could be many that add real DIFFICULTY to the game. Meaningful challenge, not just tedious backtracking disguised as it.

Right now, what happens underground is this: I slog through about 10 - 15 of the same enemy, over and over again, until I find a space where I decide enough is enough and build a base. Then I dig out in every direction, search for anything useful, and bring it back to my base. Along the way, maybe I see one or two other creatures... none of which are any real threat since they're mostly within the same difficulty level as the ones I've killed before them. The tunnels are all nicely lit, my base is easily accessible, and nothing down in that tunnel is ever a challenge again. Beyond the first walk through, it's just a mindless grind towards where I'm going... occasionally accompanied by a pit-stop to dig a deeper tunnel in search for something interesting.

I usually don't find it. I usually don't find much of anything.

With a groan, I slog my way back to my base, drop off whatever crap I picked up, and quit. Instantaneously, I'm back on my ship. Any danger of trekking back up through the mines is already averted. There's no need to do it, and since it provides nothing but the same experience of cutting my way through 10 or 15 of the same monsters I killed getting down to my base in the first place... why would I ever do it?

Now. Why not remove the boredom from this equation? If I can at least get back to my BASE easily (by building some sort of teleport beacon that sets my spawn down there), then at least when I come back in the morning I can jump right into the action. That's where I want to be, that's where the things I need are. So long as the player needs to be in 'range' of whatever the Beacon / MacGuffin is... it doesn't become the challenge-killing panic button described here. It becomes a system for removing the mind-numbing process of climbing up and down through the same stretch of tunnel over and over and over and over and over ad nauseam.

Walking is not a challenge. Sulking down through a series of already-explored and well-secured tunnels does not fill me with a sense of adventure and dread.

It bores me.

 

Ugh. Fine. I made one.

Here you go: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/portable-teleporter.40758/

I will not be using my own mod to simply TP out of a bad situation, but it does have its uses in sub-surface basings... As there are limitations to the modding area right now (Such as a lack of an API list that I can use), I have to do a lot of trial and error.

 

Simply make an item that costs a fair bit of pixels to craft, that has a 20-30 second cast time, and beams you back to the ship. Then it can't be abused to get out of sticky situations, but will remove the insane tedium of backtracking through a deep cave.

 

Doesn't even have to be expensive or high tier. It should also have a cooldown.

I mean, either way, you can just save and exit right now, but it definitely is tedious.

 

I don't understand all the fuss. When I'm done spelunking I just save and exit. Gets me back to my ship and saves my progress at the same time.

 

I would love it if we could build an elevator with programmable floors. Would be great for building an underground base.

 

I don't understand the arguments that it makes things too easy. If you think it makes things too easy, don't use it! Why should your gameplay prejudices affect everyone else? This is one of those games that can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

 

You also do understand that's already in the game, right? The ability to warp back to ship at a moment's notice? It's called saving and quitting the game, coming back results in you starting back on your ship. It's practically the alt-F4 tactic on Path of Exile used by hardcore league players. And you can't expect the devs to remove this emergency either and honestly expect players who are trapped someplace to just stand there. For several minutes. Waiting to starve/freeze to death. That won't make players regret their decision of coming in poorly prepared, that will make players regret their decision of pre-ordering the game. Nobody wants to stand there and do absolutely nothing for minutes at a time.

And spelunking is already dangerous, the monsters that spawn in the caves get increasingly stronger the deeper you go. If you're in a threat level 4 planet wearing silver armor, you can bet the monsters near the bottommost reaches of a cave will be strong enough to do 30-40 damage to you per hit. Now imagine being in a threat level 40 planet doing the same thing.

What's wrong with building an underground base/bunker/town to hide from monsters when you can already do that on the surface? And why should players who would prefer to live/explore underground be punished with tedium? You can easily find the gold/silver/platinum+ just by skimming the surface of planets and looting dungeons and not once have to go deep into caves.

 

You can teleport back to your ship anytime you want at the cost of 20% of your pixels.

Other then that i'm am all for both being able to make home spots on the surface and having a portable teleport device.

Edit: oh yea good point you can just quit game lulz i'm feeling kinda slow now for not thinking about that 8P

 

I would like the idea of being able to warp to a specific PLACE on a planet's surface. Not underground, but if you build a base somewhere or see a cool structure, you can choose to warp down. Also, a beacon/landing pad to decide to warp down. That way you can warp to a mine if you have one.

Also, for those wanting to get underground to a base for example, make teleporters for a planet, that teleport from the one teleporter to the other, except they are relatively expensive, and must be placed, not hand held.