Community Reddit AMA from 04.02.2014 (Questions and answers)

A compilation of the community questions and developer answers, all in one place!
http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1x0usy/ama_about_the_future_of_starboundchucklefish_link/
All of the official dev answers will be in YELLOW.

HOW TO READ
1. Question
2. Dev avatar
3. Dev answer

Also, some post are missing from here (on purpose!) because I wanted to focus ONLY on the developer answers in regards to Starbound. There are a few not entirely Starbound related things in there but yeah, enjoy!

Alright, let's go!​

I think building this kind of thing and exploiting the game mechanics is actually a lot of fun. Sure it sometimes breaks the intended progression, but as long as it's enjoyable that's ok.

The fish

1. Word has it, it's birds
2. We need to update it more often, we find it difficult to judge everything in terms of % though
3. A lot of balancing needs work, we'll definitely be buffing weapon drops.

Oof! A lot of questions, I'll answer what I can

1. I've learned never to estimate another date again. So I'm not sure sorry!
2. Ocean planets and Hylotl towns are coming really soon, some hylotl content might be in the next patch.
3. The initial inspiration from Starbound came from a whole lot of different places. But the major goal was to come up with a game that would continue to deliver and empower new content to solve the issue similar sandbox games were facing when new content ran out.
4. Ship building isn't too far off. It's likely the next thing in line after procedurally generated quests.
5. We're in talks with a bunch of different mercy companies right now about producing Starbound goodies, I really want a Floran figure!
6. Maybe, the in game wiring/automation systems are going to get a lot more complex. I know one of Kyrens goals with the system is building an emulator in game.
7. All current vehicle techs will become 'real' vehicles eventually. I don't have a time frame for you yet, but they won't be techs forever.
8. We particularly like balanced mods that add innovative or new ways to play. It's of course important to that they fit within the tone of the universe.
9. The game is going to be supported for a long time to come! Several years for sure.
10. We're going to add more benefits to settling on planets and doing more than just cannibalising them and moving on. Particularly in reference to the methods of earning pixels.
11. Answered in the summary

I'll come back to your other questions later, I don't want to get too behind on other posters questions for now!

yes!

I'd definitely like to add fishing at some point

Noted that you want that option!
Thank you for the kind words

A lot more steam integration is coming. Workshop support is something we're considering, inviting your friends to join your game is definitely coming, cloud saves are being considered too.

1. Something a little bit like this might happen with the building aspect of the game, though perhaps not quite to the degree of managing economies.
2. Breeding pets is definitely a possibility, it's easy to mix and match parts from two parent pets.
3. There will be an event system
4. Guns will most likely always use energy from now on

Tiyuri comes from a blues song

1. It won't be an actual tree, it will be entirely transparent. It's more a gameplay mechanic tree, where progressing using a particular mechanic unlocks branching related mechanics.
   
   
2. It's next in line after procedurally generated quests

We're looking at a whole bunch of ship upgrades beyond just the size. Though its initial implementation will likely just be size.

That could definitely be a style of generated quest.

It definitely needs improving, it was made quickly as part of a side project. Maybe we'll talk to the extended songbook guy!
What are the licences on unifont? We might be able to include your mod.

A lot of the things here are planned or in progress even. Not everything of course, but there are a lot of good ideas.

I think some kind of plugin system/API is definitely the way to go. Everyone wants their server to run a different way and we want to support that.

No real testing yet, it's still early. We're making the directors client super easy to use though.

There's a bunch more armour coming, as well as the ability to dye each piece. Some trees will drop different materials entirely, but there's unlikely to be more kinds of wood.

You likely won't even notice the pixel collection if you're busy progressing through the game in the way you choose. The reason it exists is so that adventuring, crop farming, building etc can all lead to obtaining the same currency. You'll still be able to hunt items and progress!

Not yet! We just signed for the offices, so we still need to go in and decorate and set everything up.

We're looking into cloud saves, as well as inviting friends to your server though steam

Likely you'll mark areas as vacant and NPCs will move in on that basis.

I definitely want to add more player made structures, they're so easy to add and coming across them in the wild is awesome.

Terraforming is definitely planned, controlling the weather and massively reshaping the terrain are both planned. Entirely modifying the level of the planet isn't planned at the moment but it's an interesting idea.

Being able to entirely destroy a planet and build planet like space stations are often requested and probably wouldn't be too difficult to support.

The cultists at least will be explored a bunch more later on.

The tricky part of building a huge tower dungeon is the worlds of different sizes. The sky is a different height on each planet.

We might be interested in adding additional races at a later date, but no plans right now.

There are definitely some super legendary armours coming, stuff that's either super rare or has massive requirements.

It's unlikely we'll ever have stats. You'll unlock different gameplay mechanics as you play that will enable your character to access tech and skills not available to players that have chosen a different route.

Aside from just the in game lore books it's going to tie into the game in a bunch of different ways. First off you'll gain race specific tech/weapons etc as you progress. Secondly the missions will tie together each of the races backgrounds in more of a meaningful way. There are going to be some big reveals in there!

Yep, it's our official Twitter account. I'm the one who tweets from it.

We've done some work on species specific intros, there's a bit more work before they're in but they're coming.

Lore is going to play a fundamental role in the games mission and questing systems.

I could write a book on my thoughts on micro-transactions, dlc, etc. But very simply, I feel like micro transactions dilute a game experience. I feel DLC can be done right, but often isn't.

We will be adding options like that, but not until we come out of beta. You should try disabling the steam overlay and seeing if that boosts your fps.

Right now the only way to get the unlocks is by beating the bosses. I can imagine there being a mod that allows you to bypass that and go full pacifist.

I'd love to add some really advanced dwarf fortress style base building. But the depth there is just too wild.

I don't think we'll commit to dates anymore, hasn't been working out for us


These things have been planned since more or less day 1 and we think we can achieve them. Though they will take time of course.

I think we're unlikely to give any completion dates at this point as it's always come back to bite us in the ass.

This comes into play with pak file transfer described in the OP.

You're welcome! Thank you

I'm actually working on some harsh weather and environment fx at the moment, in-between trying to get all of the office stuff sorted out.

Enemies are built from a number of different pieces, arms, legs, bodies, etc. In the finished game each of these pieces will have a special attack or ability attached. We've already begin implementing these (imp arms get a gravity slam ability and certain quadruped faces are able to blow air at the player).

Melee weapons are getting alternative attacks and additional abilities. Monsters are getting more complex attack patterns, there will be additional status effects and augments. Combat in general is expanding in a major way.

Automation and other advanced forms of tech progression are definitely coming.

Ship to ship battles aren't confirmed, but if we do implement them I'd like to do random encounters/ships on the star map. That trigger an instance for the ship battle.

There are going to be new ways of accessing lore, but we don't want to make it too easy to gather it all.

Certain weapons will have multiple attacks, spears will be getting directional attacks!

Not all planets have dungeons, sometime the generator fails to find a suitable spot. More content is in the pipeline and should give more variety and make any specific dungeon less common.

Top priority, including procedurally generated quests. After the next patch it's the first thing we're working on.

1. There's no actual skill tree. Instead you've got gameplay routes that branch out similarly to a skill tree. For example, in tier 1 farming might involve crops, but could lead to animal farming in a later tier.
2. A ton of content is coming to already existing tiers
3. Earning pixels won't be a grind, we're going to be adding enough content and different mechanics to get you through without farming.

Races will have access to various different techs, armours and equipment other races might not gain until far later in the game.

I won't be moving to the london office, its not the best move for my wife and kids.

Make things and show them to the world.

The forums aren't ideal but it does work, I do read a large number of them and turn them into bugfixes.

I tend to track bugs on a personal todo list, low priority items i generally remove from the list because there is always a more important bug or new feature to deal with. The forum helps me see which bugs happen the most and should be fixed first.

Those probably aren't too far off. The joined/left message is probably very easy, the list a little more difficult but not hugely so.

The issue with porting Starbound to console/mobile is the difficulty of pushing updates. We'd really like to keep the two in lines with each other, but the speed of updates during beta makes that a little bit unsustainable. If it were possible we would like to do it asap.

Many of the features you'd expect from something along the lines of Tshock will be coming to the game as byproducts of the work we're doing on director mode.

in a later stage of beta

The end game is largely multiplayer based. That said, missions built by players, mods, additional quests and high level content will all be available in single player.

The idea is they'll be willing to pay more on the basis of not only the materials but the objects inside the area of the home.

It was never going to be in for sure, though I'd still very much like to do it. It would be a post final release update.

Mostly the boss progression is fixed to give us a running main mission/storyline. Which makes it difficult to change. That said I think the freedom itch will definitely be scratched by the pixel building gameplay.

It's definitely possible through modding!

Novakids will probably hit close to the end of beta. Adding more races isn't planned at the moment, it's a huge task. Dungeons, dialogue, etc

They should hopefully be ok, but honestly I think you'll WANT to start a new character at that stage.

Thank you for the kind words!

A lot of the stuff we add levels with the player. There will definitely be some items that are lower end only, but you won't always need to play a new character to experience everything.

We check out the suggestion forums all the time! I'm sure there are better ways to accumulate suggestions. Our up vote system is nice but lots do get missing in the flood.

They should have the same universe, perhaps a generation issue is showing up.

Yes, we have a fix for this and a few other issues pending and should be out 'soon'-ish.

There are a few things that can cause performance issues, some of the more common causes: * compatiblity flags (http://community.playstarbound.com/...-fix-for-low-fps-on-high-end-computers.44409/) * steam overlay issues * bad drivers or not meeting the minimum system requirements * a game bug generating a lot of errors in the starbound.log file

Try running sbdiagnose.exe to see if it detects an issue.

Running from a seperate server can be faster because asset loading done by the server will then not be interfering with the client. this is a thing we are looking into.

We'll have favourites and markers for previously visited planets!

The underground needs to get a lot more interesting. One of our artists/biome designers Legris is working specifically on the underground right now. Adding more content and more interesting terrain.

My number one desire is to get as much of Starbound in as possible.

I think there's definitely enough content now to begin playing, but a year down the line there will be so much more it will definitely be worth a second play through.

It's something we've been doing already and are definitely willing to do more of

No MMO thing, that's right.

I'd love to get some valve IP in the game as a cameo of some kind.

 

I would like to throw in this post coming up in a min once I copy pasted it, thanks for giving us the information TvK, apparently they are again unable to post the information on the official forums by themself.
So basicly the official forums got completly ignored and they headed instead to reddit. Oh well... I see something coming. Some developement which isnt good.

Alright here it is, I put it into spoilers for 2 reasons:

1. Its being posted somewhere else by me
2. It includes quite a good chunk of hate towards reddit and the whole concept of posting and hosting events ONLY there. Hate which ends in wrath. But instead of only hating I try to reason myself. So read spoilers if you want to see my opinion, if you are a redditor you may want to skip because I am extremly solid with that opinion towards reddit, they reflect the bad experience I made in the past and you cannot change what happened...

 

Hehe good one

Let me do another one:

Q: Do you guys hear on the official forums who do not want linear progression?
A: Official Forums? Well here on Reddit they agreed to our suggestion with Yes!


Alright now time to cool down and play the game actually, I might get too involved in this <.<

 

I don't really have any questions yet, but many thanks for displaying all the information! Worth every minute

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Thanks for all the effort guys! Developing a game like this is really tough work. I'm also glad you've finally decided to stop giving out dates! That should help a lot.

Oh, and ignore the angry internet people. You are the devs, you communicate however you see fit/feel comfortable

 

Post that there echos fit there better...

http://de.reddit.com/

 

Even though I did read most of those during or around the event time, it is nice to finally have a compilation here of what was answered to some degree.

Thank you @TvK.

I actually rather enjoyed quite of few of those answers, as it filled at least some questions I didn't even think of. Some quite amusing and informative in what I was kind of expecting. So it is good to have some degree of confirmation, even if not a complete one. Sure they will figure this and that out with each thing they have in mind. Really I am not all that concerned about it being one way or another, as I am mainly enjoying what they have been laying out so far; so in essence I know I will enjoy each thing as they come to fruition.

I guess I am one of those that is easily entertained in what ever I do; even if my imagination does go overboard sometimes.

 

Missing one of the most important questions/answers.

Shame on you TvK.

 

Hahahah, sure!
^.^

 

wow
such professionalism
much fake penis joke
amaze

 

Technically, it was a "fake penis" joke, to match your fake outrage.

 

Fixed
and it's only half-fake outrage as the joke was old as it got thought up

 

[Sarcasm]Mean TvK censored the other thread about that reddit stuff!!!! GUYS GET UP WE HAVE TO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH!!![Sarcasm]

Wonder how long it takes till people blow off steam here. I blew off my steam and feel happy that I can go ahead and uh enjoy again.

 

They should just redirect the forum to Reddit. It should be easier on them.

 

I hate Reddit, rather read it here. Thanks, TvK. Many... thoughts. I mean, thanks.

 

Reddit my ass, thats the spirit -Demoman from TF2

 

all my love