Summary Of IAMA with TIYURI

Questions asked are in Orange.
Answers by Tiyuri are in Green.
I will only be posting Starbound related questions.
You can read complete IAMA here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comme..._developer_on_indie_game_starbound/?limit=500

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Summary:

• Hunger System most likely will be coming back. It will be toggelable for those who don't want it. Food will expire after a period of time and need refrigeration.
• Temperature system is a tad complicated and different methods of approach are being looked into. May or May not come back.
• Controller Support is Coming
• Ship to Ship combat is not confirmed. Only planned after 1.0 if it does make it in. Would be similar to FTL possibly.
• Planet Ownership based on the amount you build on the planet may be a thing post 1.0
• Vehicles and Possibly moving platforms will be coming in a future update.
• Steam Integration \ Achievements \ Steam match making will be coming sometime in the future.
• A few bosses will be available which randomly spawn.
• Servers will be able to send mods to the client, so the client doesn't need to download them separately before joining.
• New Pets
• Shield Generators will most likely not be craft able by users due to high possibility of griefing. Though server side admins might possibly get some more control on protections.
• More farming tools coming.
• Large scale optimization will be focused on when the engine is near complete.

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Remember if you enjoyed reading this, make sure you thank Tiy - if you show him some love he may do more in the future. He was awake in the wee hours in the morning answering questions.

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Are there plans for more complex colonization-related events down the line, such as your colonies being attacked, construction of functional buildings beyond just housing (resurrection hub, communal spaces, etc), or anything else?

Absolutely. Tom (one of our programmers) is currently working on a procedural quest system that ties directly into the Colony system. He's taking a really interesting approach (the result of a lot of research) and I'm hoping he can do a write up soon.

Not only does his proposed system generate quests, but it generates quest lines and drama between different NPCs in (and out of) a colony. These quests may involve the colony being attacked, but often they're about the characters and their relationships.


Where do you see Starbound being in about six months? How long do you think it'll be until you see it as a finished product?

In 6 months or sooner I hope Starbound will contain a complete set of story quests that really reveal and wrap up the game's mysteries, an interesting procedural quest system that's rather unique to Starbound, a ton of interesting rewards that make exploring the sandbox feel more worthwhile, lots of combat changes, vehicles, mod sharing, workshop support and maybe even 'director mode'. We also plan to have hit console in that time!


Looking back on your journey would you do anything differently? If so, what would you do differently and why?

I would take a really long hard look at going early access so early. Starbound has taken far, far longer to develop than we had anticipated and much of that is down to sacrifices we had to make to go early access.

When we first entered early access we realised early on that a game at 20% completion just wasn't fun to play. Few games that follow a logical, traditional development cycle are fun to play that early on. We ended up ensuring each early access release was playable by developing sideways. Producing features that didn't quite match our vision, that we intended to replace later, because they were easier or could be produced in less time and ensured that each release was more well rounded and playable.

At this point it feels as if we've developed Starbound 4 times over whilst trying to get every feature into the engine we required to make the game we intended to make in the first place.

Luckily we're finally at the point where the engine is almost complete and everything we're producing as of this point is final. I think it's really beginning to show in the way the game is far more robust and polished, with complex and interesting game systems becoming a part of the core experience.


What's your favorite dungeon type in the game?

My favourite dungeon right now is one we've not included in any releases yet. It's a more traditional 'maze with various floors' dungeon that produces large, branching dungeons that end in mini-boss rooms. It creates very different layouts each time and it's length makes each dungeon feel like an adventure.


Have you got any big plans for Starbound after completing it's story?

The big plan for Starbound after 1.0 is 'Director mode', something I think is hugely unique and quite special. Someone compiled a chat log of my talking about it in IRC here:

http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/director-mode.5522/


Will we see at some point a way to "claim" a planet and maybe name it too, as an addition to colonies system?

One of the long term ideas (post 1.0 maybe) we were kicking around for colonies involved planet ownership. If you have the largest colony on a planet, that planet would become yours and you'd gain a particular resource income depending on the difficulty and rarity of the planet. However, another player (depending on server settings etc) would be able to come in and attempt to build a bigger colony/sabotage yours and claim that resource for themselves.


Did you consider adding small spaceships to fly in the planets and around their solar system?

We're going to be adding vehicles in a later update :)


Do you have any plans to release the source code of Starbound some time after updates for it are dropped, post release?

Yes actually! I'd really like starbound to become an open source project at some point. I'd also love to hand people the engine and let them make their own game


Will you add steamcloud to starbound? As a dualbooter between Linux and winbugs I would like to have the same game between both

It's planned along with steamworks and multiplayer features


Achievements when?

Planned, maybe before 1.0. We plan to do a whole bunch of integration with steams various services


Way back in your last AMA, I asked about the possibility of Elevators and moving platforms. Now that the big colonization update is out (and awesome, I might add) and we're one step closer to the "Vehicles" update, can you give us any more details about what we can expect from that update?

You needn't go into too much detail, maybe just share what you'd like to see or what your overall goals are in terms of vehicles / moving platforms. I can understand if you don't want to talk about things still in development given how the community behaves sometimes.

The idea is to get the concept of server side entities with physics and collisions that the player can interact with. This means things like elevators and moving platforms, but it also means things like vehicles that can seat multiple players, or platforms that one player can stand on and another player can remote control. We'l likely only include a handful of vehicles in that patch and ensure they all feel really good to operate, but we'll likely make a lot of use out of various pseudo vehicles like platforms and elevators.


How far have you been planning the Starbound development, like - when you will decide that game is finished, and will you be adding new content, or bugfixig, or whatever after that?

We have a very solid plan for everything up until release, then we plan to continue supporting the game for a long post release. Particularly with Director mode, which should add a whole new way to play the game.


Do you guys have a plan to improve combat? I remember reading that combat changes were coming but I haven't really seen what the plan is for it.

We've taken a few steps in the new update, bullets are faster, attacks are more responsive, feedback on hitting monsters is much better. It already feels a million times better than what was there in the previous update.

The next update is the combat update, it'll contain special attacks on two handed weapons, new armor stats, new monster types, unique items that take advantage of our scripted weapon system to do incredibly interesting and varied things.

http://gfycat.com/ObedientSecretFlounder here is one of many quick experiments


Does the Starbound team have any cool features for multiplayer in the pipeline? I'd love to see some cool community features baked in for larger servers! Also, I once maintained a little player save editor and I might start working on it again if you guys are cool with that sort of thing. (are you?)

One of the multiplayer features I'm most excited about is servers distributing mods to clients, so you'll be able to jump straight onto modded servers. That and steam integration for workshop and matchmaking/inviting friends.

Totally cool with you working on a player save editor


What is the cutest animal/monster/critter you find of Starbound? .

Obviously Derrick


Will we see more biomes added before 1.0? If no, what about after 1.0?

Yup! The artists are working on two new biomes at the moment. A ruined city and a midnight biome.


Hey, Tiyuri, do you guys intend on adding Hylotl and Novakid villages to the game just like the other races? I know we have saloon set now, and Hylotl furniture is already ingame, but unobtainable. Those are my favorite races, and I'd really like to see them more often, just like any other race. Keep up the good work, team!

Definitely intending too, they're sadly just not as fundamental to gameplay as the other things we're working on at the moment, but I'm desperate to get all of that furniture spawning and god knows a wild west themed village would be amazing.


Are you focusing on open world mechanics or more on objectives like colonies?

I consider colonies very much an open world mechanic, it ties into every aspect of the sandbox! That said, the missions and sandbox are both equally important to us. One will feed the other.


When can we expect the survival elements to be refined and added back in? Or will they be added back at all? And if they will be, would you mind giving us an idea of what the plan is with them?

The plan is to reimplement hunger before 1.0 with some changes. Food will rot if left in the inventory for too long (refrigeration will keep it fresh!). Hunger will deplete slower and food may become unstackable.


By curiosity, with all the content seen in outposts, is there a possibility of seeing some of that content "leak" into regular NPC villages(like newly opened franchise for Frögg Furnishing)? And can we expect more content to be developed for villages in terms of gameplay or services they could offer?

One of the major additions to villages coming in the next update is procedural quest lines. These quest lines will define and evolve relationships between village members. I like the idea of Frögg Furnishing and some of the other outpost shops expanding!


Will we ever get pets that follow us? I don't mean the combat pets, but rather like the ship pets; it'd be nice to take our ship pets to our home planet, or something.

The thing about ship pets is that their being tied to a single location allows us to do a lot more with their behaviour. They can be cross and choose to ignore you or stop following you, they can be playful and run off after their toys. If we have them following you most of these behaviours will become irritations. But some members of the team are definitely championing the cause.

We have discussed being able to bring pets to a world and have them tethered to a location so you can bring them into your colonies.


is ship to ship combat in Starbound still going to be a thing? and any chance the game going on sale anytime soon so i can get some copies to my friends ?

If we ever do ship to ship combat it will be post 1.0. I like the idea of a team manning a ship like a multiplayer FTL.

How would this be handled? Currently every players have their own ship so would we see something like players having the options to "join up" as part of the crew of an already existing player ship when joining a multiplayer server(especially with how large upgraded ships can get)?

Well players can already form parties and visit other players ships in order to travel together. During travelling perhaps those ships could be attacked and it's up to the current crew to jump into action.


Is there any way to change a character's name after it has been created?

I'm afraid there's not really a way to change a character's name at the moment. Some character save editors exist out there, you could try one of those, but be careful what you download. I'll talk name changing over with the team tomorrow (20am here at the moment!) but I like the idea. I'll make sure we keep adding animals. Though lots of people are asking for a number to go with the words.


Any chance we'll be able to name our ships? Perhaps display the ship's name when you first beam aboard it, in the same way planet names are displayed when you first beam down to them?

That's a nice idea, I'll see how easily it can be implemented


Any plans for variations of city location types later? Most if not all current "city type dungeons" are based on the planetary surface. Variations could be Sub Orbital \ Underground \ Under the ocean etc.

We're going to have ocean cities and possibly floating island/asteroid cities. As well as a ruined city biome.


Will we see more pet updates soon for Starbound? Such as being able to have more than one pet, having other race's pets, having pets follow you on planets, etc.?

We have a bunch of plans for pets, some of them might make it into the next update. We need to get those pet slots working!


1st: Say, do we get to meet the Hylotls on the surface? Like even a little temple of theirs rose from the ocean.

There will be a chance to meet the Hylotls, but it probably won't be on the surface!


For the combat update, will weapons without blocking get another look?

Yup, there are lots of changes to every weapon, even as far as the manner in which primary fire functions


The Scifi Dungeon was recently removed. It was one of my favorites. Will we see something similar again, or was it really just an experimental one off that was never meant to be in the final game? (as quiqksilver mentioned here)

It'll be improved and replaced it just wasn't polished enough!


What plans, if any, are there for better server maintainability and performance? I run a dedicated server and find it very difficult to get anything meaningful or useful done in my universe.

Specifically what i mean is that i have a ton of things i would like to build for public places, like a PVP arena, or a refueling station that harnesses the "Martinus Transormation" as a couple examples. What typically happens is that i get the build done and the planet becomes too laggy to have people visit. Or building doesn't finish due to the server becoming too laggy to play on with more that half a dozen or so people. I have a semi-beefy server (2xQuad Core Xeons, 32GB memory, RAID etc...).

Maintenance wise these built structures, if they do become popular places, will run into the griefing issue. Daily backups and restores are a band aid, as well as the simple dungeon id things we can already do. I do feel though that there is a layer of server protection that the owners are missing.

I believe that when those things are solved, actually server communities can be born and the true potential of the game furthered.

Thanks for reading, love the game!

Multiplayer is something we plan to make super strong and stable by 1.0. We're constantly improving it every update, but as long as we're constantly changing core engine code and adding large new features stability and speed will suffer a little. Luckily all core engine code is almost complete and we'll be able to pump time into really perfecting server support.

We're also planning to add shield generators for admins to use if they need to protect structures. Those along side being able to control whether or not modded clients can connect to a server should solve a lot of the griefing issues.


Could there be such a thing as craftable "factions" minishield generators for factions in future multiplayer faction in the future? And on the subject of multiplayer, when colonies are expanded upon would there be a way of seeing a particular planet is "claimed" by another player, like an influence aura around the planet(or star?) in the actual starmap showing player/faction ownership?

shield generators are so tricky to allow players to craft. Because the potential for griefing is so huge. Players could effectively trap other players in a small part of the map.


will you be able to make it as easy to host as it is in Terraria with litteraly just clicking a button and being able to have friends to connect instead of messing around in port forwarding options and setting things up to be specific number ?

We'll be implementing steam match making to make this super easy, as well as some other nice server features. Perhaps a URL you click to go straight to a friends game


For Starbound Multiplayer can you make a teams thing like Terraria has and a toggle for PVP in the options menu ? Also i'm not sure if you've heard of the show Rick and Morty or not but if you have is there any chance there could be easter-egg like nods toward the show in terms of item descriptions appearances or funtionality ?

Will the bosses ever become open world again ?

Will item crafting ever get to a point where the player would be allowed to add their own effects such as radiation or light to them and name the items similar to how Bethesda has been doing enchanting since the Elder scrolls 3 Morrowind? (maybe even before that but I only started their games with Morrowind)

You can turn on PVP and enable various different teams at the moment through commands. We need to add that functionality to the interface.

We have some big rick and morty fans in the office, we'll see

We plan to have some bosses that still spawn within the sandbox, along side more interesting minibosses.

Item crafting is going to get more interesting, you'll have to wait and see on that front


Are you going to add controller support?

Yup, it's one of the things we're hiring someone to work on for console, that will be put into the PC version too!


Will hunger and cold/over heating return ? (hopefully as a toggle-able option for those that do or don't like this)

Hunger definitely will, with some good changes. Cold and warmth we're still investigating


can it be toggle able please ? its a good feature for those that like the extra challenge but it gets in the way for those that just want to explore

It will be


What are the teams' considerations about temperature, and what are your thoughts about it?

I think if we put it back in it needs to be more intuitive, perhaps related to weather effects that obviously appear on the screen rather than a hidden stat. The tricky part is then figuring out how to do it underground.


Hey Tiy! Anything about more "In-Depth" armor customization? Like, instead of just coloring, you could do more to armor and clothing to really make it your own, special piece? It sounds good on paper

Not sure if it'll be pre 1.0, but we'd like to do armor augmentations one day, changing the stats around somehow


Are there any plans to increase the difficulty? I'd personally like to see the implants done away with in favor of something more immersive that isn't basically, "oh, you did a quest and now you can walk around and breathe radiation like a champ."

Maybe a hazmat suit, a diving suit, etc. etc. would be more appropriate?

Any plans to make it so we can create colonies on worlds without oxygen and have blocks that enable oxygen to be produced inside a building and be contained by airlocks or shield generators?

Some of these ideas we're considering and will be part of the finished progression. Others I think we'd like to leave to the realm of mods. It's hard to add depth to survival systems without adding too much difficulty for people that would like to play casually


Can you consider implementing more tools for farming? Like hoses or more widespread watering cans that can cover more ground?

Also have you thought of adding onto the wiki? Some information i search for is either a stub, unavailable, or confusing. And i think there's more than 1 starbound wiki, which further confuses me.

More farming tools are coming, and katzeus is working hard to bring the wiki up to speed


Would there be mass optimisation soon? Because my friend still complains of lag abit, so its difficult to play with him. Maybe there could be major optimisations every few stable patches or so?

We'll be working a bunch more optimisation into the next patch. Luckily the features planned for the next patch shouldn't have much of an impact on performance so it should be just a net gain


Modding question: will we get the ability to define custom star coordinates? Also, what about setting hard limits to the universe size. IE: for making custom systems in a controlled location for adventure/story style mods.

Interesting ideas, likely not too hard for us to add either. Might be post 1.0 though as they wouldn't be features we'd use ourselves


what is the most exciting thing you have personally found with in the game ? or what do you hope could be improved ?

I think the major areas that need improvement right now are combat in the context of more diversity, better rewards that feel valuable when owned and a more interesting underground. We're addressing all of these things in the next patch and I think it's really good to make the game feel polished.


I'd like to see more of the Starbound lore in the game to discover how each race came to be and their history. Are there any plans to implement back stories to the races within the game some how? Or will it be left open ended ?

When the story update rolls around with its set of missions you'll learn a lot more about the races. Also the story update will contain a whole bunch of new lore documents and quests that tie it together nicely.


What awesome feature do you wish you could add to Starbound but couldn't?

If I had infinite time i'd implement the crazy monster generator we had planned that just ended up kind of out of scope. It'd make monsters and planets feel far more unique but I doubt we'll have time pre 1.0. That said, there will be a lot more monster variety by 1.0, just the insane spore-like system we were experimenting with might come a bit later.


With the hiring of at least one member of the StarFoundry team, can we expect to see features from that mod make it into the vanilla game?

Metadept and Healthire are really pushing for it one day. I think to bring it to vanilla a lot of the Starfoundry systems need a lot of work in the accessibility department, but there are some great additions there

Is a dye system in the works for Starbound?

Yup!


Tiyuri, are you ever planning on doing anything with instruments and songs in Starbound? Honestly I find them as pretty great. Especially how we can play our own songs but I personally think some instruments need polishing. Are you ever gonna add any more instruments? I was hoping in particular the ukulele.

One more question; IIRC, you guys are developing a way for players to share missions and worlds between each other? When will this feature/tool be available for players? How will it work exactly? Also, will the public ever get the tool like the one contributor quiksilver possesses for easy development on maps?

Id like the instruments to have some gameplay mechanics attached and Stephen is always adding new instruments in his spare time, so a ukulele may come. The version of the map editor were using will be released eventually, but I think without a tutorial from us it may be a bit of a nightmare to figure out at the moment. Maybe we can write some documentation and get it out sooner


For Starbound specifically, why is performance/optimization not an absolute prioriteit? I feel that performance is in such abysmal state right now, to be blunt

It is a priority but there is only so much we can do with the large changes we've still been making. At this stage of engine development though, our engine programmers are dedicating more time to performance than anything else, most of the remaining content creation requires very little in terms of huge engine changes.


Hey Tiy!
I created Galaxy Citizen, one of Starbound's largest and most active player community apart from your official community, and I just wanted to say thank you for the game that you created. It has been a pleasure running a server for your game over the last year and a half (even with the server problems) and we hope to keep going with getting players playing together in the game for a long time to come!

I know server perf and stability is probably the ultimate thing we can do for you and the community but if there are other ways we can help you out too definitely let us know.

 

Thanks made the correction.
The yellow is a bit of a mystery - I used command replace all references to the yellow color code.
The forum must have had a hiccup and threw in yellow by it self.