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What type of Story/Lore do you prefer?

Discussion in 'Starbound Discussion' started by Master Automan IV, Aug 14, 2016.

?

What do you think it should be?

  1. Old Story/Lore

    39 vote(s)
    38.2%
  2. Current Story/lore

    17 vote(s)
    16.7%
  3. Singular, yet original and unique plot

    10 vote(s)
    9.8%
  4. No story at all. Just lore/No goal

    7 vote(s)
    6.9%
  5. Race specific plots And/or multiple Plots(Non race specific)

    49 vote(s)
    48.0%
  6. Hire me

    2 vote(s)
    2.0%
  7. Turn Everything into a Edgy mess

    2 vote(s)
    2.0%
  8. Hire Neil Breen

    4 vote(s)
    3.9%
  9. Turn it into Jupiter ascending

    5 vote(s)
    4.9%
  10. Put alot of "In your face artsy nonsense"

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Master Automan IV

    Master Automan IV Phantasmal Quasar

    This also includes some other choices.(Some joke choices as well)
    I need to know the popular opinions of the Community.

    This will be a magical thread.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2016
  2. Leesolazy

    Leesolazy Master Chief

    I can't seem to enjoy the whole player-saves-the-world-from-hentai-tentacle-monsters storyline as much. The feeling of being in a vast universe with tons of planets to explore and discover kind of falls flat once you see that the story only picks up when the player completes a quest or does a mission. It's as if the whole story revolves around the player, like they're the center of the universe or something, like how people from the olden age used to think. Fancy that. "Generic chosen one #43194850 saves the world from generic monster #107234875" may be the best description I might have for the current storyline. It's too simple, too easy for the writers; and thus, too boring to enjoy without banging my head against my desk every time I choose to play through it, thinking that I might have been too harsh on the game and that I should give it another chance.

    With how the story is right now, I choose to make my own fun and make my own story, playing through the sand box portion of the game, travelling to a new planet and doing whatever, like running from crazy Avians trying to lynch me, thinking of me as an enemy of Kluex for bringing forth a hail of meteors down their town, even when it's actually their fault for building one in a volcanic planet of all places. But I guess that's what the devs were expecting the players to do, giving them a reason to write the half-baked cliche-ridden mud pie that caused it in the first place.

    Please don't sue me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2016
  3. Master Automan IV

    Master Automan IV Phantasmal Quasar

    What would a proper SB(In your opinion) story be like?
     
  4. Mile-High Hat

    Mile-High Hat 2.7182818284590...

    i've been thinking about this for a while. one of the things that drew me most about pre-1.0 Starbound was the lore - it just had such a great feel to it, and there was so much intertwining that i wanted to find out about.

    a tenet of the former lore was the idea of organization: namely, that it was a bad thing. every culture, no matter what it was, had its flaws. the Apex had their totalitarian government, the Avians had their cult, the Humans had the USCM, the Florans had their lack of education about the universe (and Greenfinger), the Glitch were a hivemind by default, and the Hylotl were incredibly pretentious. the only race excluded from this was the Novakids, since they had no organized civilization. the feeling you got from exploring everywhere, finding corruption wherever you went, was a sort of profound loneliness. it made you feel like you were a rebel against this horrible world - and that's where the Outpost came in. it was a group of rebels and misfits, people who were either deserters or refugees and didn't care about the laws and policies of their corrupt homes. that's why it made so much sense for there to be illegal penguin establishments there. personally, i would have loved going around space with my crew, feeling like this little group of rebels doing as we please outside of the reign of any governing.

    all this is ruined with the addition of the protectorate in 1.0. your character is no longer a survivor doing what they can to remain alive, while striving for the right thing, no matter how frowned up it is in their society - instead they've been transformed into a cookie-cutter Good Guy from a Good Guy organization. the humans are no longer corrupt, trying to scrape things together from a devastating attack, and have become the center of the galaxy instead (somehow while still having very little presence off-planet???). all struggling in other races has been minimized. the Grounded are nearly completely ignored in favor of the homicidal, religiously intolerant Flightless and Stargazers, the Apex are now doing much better in their resistance, Greenfinger has been completely removed (more on that later), the Glitch's problem is barely mentioned and never brought up in the main storyline, and the Hylotl's arrogance is now mostly ignored. it's just, as was said before in the thread, the Chosen One™ doing the Right Thing and saving the universe from a Monster™, with flimsy use of other problems in quests on occasion.

    additionally, the idea of some sort of huge mythological monster in Starbound is pretty ridiculous anyway. as far-fetched as the technology and mechanics could get, Starbound has always been a sci-fi kind of game - that's one of the major things that sets it apart from similar games, such as Terraria. making the main plot of the game revolve around magic, mythical being and creatures deals a pretty heavy blow. this is worsened by the magic background divinely intervening with the races, rather than them having origin stories that actually fit them and make sense in the context of the game (a la the Avian's). the Glitch are the worst example of this, as we never even learn who created them, despite that being one of the intriguing parts of the old lore. not to mention Novakids never even get any background.

    speaking of background, the codexes were always one of the most fun parts of the game. they were entertaining, often in a darkly humorous way that taught you about the game's universe while still keeping its cheesy charm. a lot of the codexes mentioned Big Ape, Greenfinger, and Thornwing. all of these three are notable for being entirely absent from 1.0, despite contributing massively to the plot. Greenfinger's scheming, drysap development, and role in the destruction of Earth? gone. Big Ape's iron-fisted rule, funding experiments, and amusingly despotic codexes ("A Children's Rhyme", anyone?)? gone. Thornwing's rise to power, complicated relationship with Avian religion, and ring of assassins? gone. what these three were planning was an absolutely vital part of the lore and honestly, the worst mistake 1.0 made was to erase them. alongside them, a variety of other codexes were scrapped, including all on the Agaran Menace (which evidently doesn't exist anymore, rendering Agarans themselves pointless NPCs).

    the thing is, ultimately, with the plotting between the big three and [redacted] plus the corruption of the societies, you had a very individuals-vs-government feel. now, normally, i would find this cliche, but it works for Starbound because Starbound uses cliches. it uses the laughably exaggerated aesthetics for just about all races, the over-the-top, macabre humor of the codexes, and the reversal of one stereotype for the Florans (the peaceful plant people) to another (the mostly-illiterate savage aliens). and that's part of Starbound's charm, that it can take things familiar to us and make it feel unique and us at home. its individuality, like the individuality of the outcasts from the alien societies, is its high point, and 1.0 does away with it.
     
  5. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    I'd be interested in a hybrid of the new and old. Start off with your own race, providing a basic introduction to controls, before going off into space at short notice and being rescued by a Protector. After they help you fix your ship, providing an introduction to combat and the matter manipulator, they encourage you to join the Protectorate, which you do. Or don't, if you want to just explore for a while and only join when you want to do the story. There'd also need to be a new human story, since theirs was originally fleeing earth.

    Anyway, after the Ruin attacks earth, you meet up with Esther to find that the remaining protectors are too busy dealing with the humanitarian fallout to listen to her findings about the Ruin. You then embark on a quest to unite the various races, by helping 'solve' their problems with a short quest line for each. This would involve gaining Floran respect to invite them on a 'great hunt', brokering peace between the Hylotl and Florans, somehow dealing with the Stargazers (either by exposing the true nature of Kluex, or removing them from power in a way that doesn't make it a repeat of the Apex story), aiding the Apex revolt against the MiniKnog, and holding some kind of Glitch Kingsmoot / Landsmeet to gain allies. These would all probably include reworked versions of the current missions, likely as the climax for each questline. You'd also get new dialogue with your companions and other NPCs, based on what missions are completed.

    Gradually, the Outpost becomes a hive of activity with human refugees, Apex rebels, Avian warriors, Floran hunters, Glitch knights, Hylotl samurai, Novakid gunslingers and maybe even some surviving Protectors. When the player is ready, they lead an invasion force to the Ruin, where they're faced with Asra Nox. Seeing as she deserves a proper story arc, perhaps your companions can convince her to change sides after you defeat her. After that, kill the Ruin, and you die. Get resurrected, and wake up sometime later on humanity's new home on Mars, learning that the Protectorate is ushering in a new age of peace and cooperation. But there's still work to be done with exploration and colonization, which you're more than qualified to lead. And the adventure continues!

    Overall, I like idea of both the old racial starting stories and the current one, but they're both a bit undercooked. The universe is far too unresponsive to the threat posed by the Ruin and your accomplishments made in fighting against it. Your allies do very little, barely acknowledging anything you do. Even the missions themselves are a bit meh. But even so, I can see it working. It just needs to be done right.
     
  6. baltosaa

    baltosaa Pangalactic Porcupine

    ^This very much. The old codexes were so intriguing in every sense of the word. I never even know that Greenfinger, Big Ape, Thornwing and (apperantly) the third [Redacted] characters were planning something. That sounds so awesome.

    This sounds good as well.

    Overall, my opinion is that we need the old codexes/lore back, and maybe we can couple that with an amazing story to go along with it.

    Part of me feels like the story could be a bit more "naturally occuring" though. As in, instead of being directly told "go do this" to begin the storyline quests, you end up discovering the story overtime, somehow.

    I have no idea how this would take place exactly, but, as I said, it'd have to be less "Hey, go do this! *BAM* storyline begins magically" and more "over time and during your adventures, you make various discoveries and whatnot, and then you slowly (somehow) activate the story over a series of events".

    Needs more of that "natural flow".

    (Am I making sense? I hope I'm making sense..)
     
    Gia-Knight, Blevruz and Axl4325 like this.
  7. Sean Mirrsen

    Sean Mirrsen Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I've had a little discussion on the matter on Discord recently, and happen to have a post saved because it broke Discord's 2K character limit.
    (edited for compressing some later posts in and formatting)
    Add to that most of the old lore, secondary race-specific questlines, and the old racial variety, and I think it could work out rather well. The cause of your ship crashing on the same planet as the Protectorate ship would be explained later as remnant traces of Ruin influence that destroyed the Protectorate ship before.

    It at least allows for the multiple characters in the same universe thing to make more sense - the cosmic coincidence of you going to a planet where a Protectorate ship is crashed notwithstanding, it at least allows for multiple ships having escaped Earth (instead of just the one in the cutscene), does not require the universe to be littered with ancient gateways leading to a somehow still-unknown outpost, and throws away the "you are the chosen one now do what you need to do" nonsense, allowing the player to do whatever he wants.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2016
    Blevruz and Shadencile like this.
  8. Plasmataz

    Plasmataz Subatomic Cosmonaut

    In my opinion Starbound's infinite universe might be a step in the wrong direction in terms of a engaging, content packed universe that feels alive and changing. Currently, while there is much to explore and do, I can't help but feel like the universe around me is static and dead. Only the PC seems to have a ship, and almost every planet seems to be colonized by these incredibly low tech villages that don't interact with each other. IF the universe was limited to say, 200 star systems (randomized with each character), you could have 5 of those stars be "Home Systems" for all the various races (Humanity could maybe also have a random star where the Protectorate is trying to rebuild). Each race would have a surrounding area of influence and there could be multiple influences for some of the races. It could also be a new way to do the story quests, in a "smooth and natural way" that some of us want. For example, the current system has you randomly run across the surface of planets until you find enough green objects in a settlement to be able to locate the mission. While this DOES invoke a sense of exploration, it's not meaningful. All those towns don't do anything, they're just there. And once you scan all the clues, Esther just happens to perfectly pinpoint the location of the artifact is, then you do one instanced mission that has no effect on the universe.

    In terms of the Apex misson, you essentially made a huge change to an entire galactic civilization, and there's no way to show any reaction to it. It's also rather constricting since for an open universe role-playing game, you're being forced to play for what's considered the "good side", AKA the rebels. What if your character wants to sympathize with the Miniknog instead? In a more fluid, limited universe, you could have a Miniknog home star, and some of the surrounding star systems could have Rebel bases, hidden on asteroid fields and less hospitable planets (since they are hiding) that try to contact you when you jump in. "Hey, we're registering your ship as a Protectorate vessel, blah blah blah, help our cause, do some missions for us, we'll help you get what you need". You've discovered a mission questline (that you can do at your leisure in the order you locate the various races rather than in what order Esther tells you to) that builds up to the finale, which is taking on the Miniknog and removing their influence from the universe. Maybe Apex you find could now reflect that, speaking freely, replacing all the Miniknog guards in cities with Militia instead. Of course as I said, this needs to be a roleplaying game, where you choose what your character wants.

    Sympathize with the Miniknog? Why not be able to switch sides and become a spy at the behest of the Miniknog? Or instead of being contacted by the Rebels first you happen to jump straight into the Miniknog home system? You're a relatively unknown person, a Protectorate, maybe the Rebels would trust you? The Protectorate is dead anyways, you don't have to follow their ideals. Do a series of missions for the Miniknog, and they end up paying for your services with the artifact in exchange for a finale that involves destroying the Rebel leadership and instilling an iron rule over all the Apex. No more will you find rebel bases, or if you do they will be heavily under siege by Miniknog troopers that storm the place and kill everyone. Maybe you see them capturing the rebels, maybe you find that any Apex labs you found before now have many more captive test subjects. You could get rewarded with more than just the artifact. Maybe each side provides a different benefit, some incentive for helping them. Maybe you could even get a Unique crewmate from each side with buffs.

    With a limited universe you could also see if you could have the various races try to "push" their influences over other home systems or try and take over planets. Would be nice if planets you discovered before would "generate" a new structure if the world allows for it and the context makes sense. You could even have galactic trading, and potentially rare events where some stars would generate the remnants of a space battle between two races or opposing factions that you could loot for some goodies. City planets could also be a thing, 2000 block wide exploreable urban environments similar to that of the intro mission, with many skyscrapers offering different services like upgrades, new gear, etc, all connected by tubes.

    An infinite universe is a lovely IDEAL, but unless you can populate it with an engaging story and not just bland emptiness and repeated planets, it's a bit tedious and there's no reason for any racial differences as there's no cultures or lore to back them up anyways. Starbound should have two gamemodes in my opinion, a limited story-mode universe, and an open sandbox universe. Hell, if they want they could do a New Game+ where the limited universe suddenly expands and becomes randomly generated as far as you want to go (as long as the original universe is marked out of course for easy return, since that's where the content is packed). There's also many, MANY more lore friendly things they could place into the universe. That alien race that bestowed advancement onto the Avians? That could be the grounds for a Stargazers vs Grounded conflict. Maybe the Grounded want to shatter the idea of Kluex being a god and send you out in search of the alien ruins to find proof that Kluex was simply another Avian (though a very important one).
     
  9. Sean Mirrsen

    Sean Mirrsen Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Starbound can, or rather could, take a number of lessons from Space Rangers. It does the "living procedural universe with the player being a part of a multi-racial paramilitary organization and fighting against a galactic threat but not tied down to it and free to explore and do as they please" thing quite well.
     
  10. Master Automan IV

    Master Automan IV Phantasmal Quasar

    That sounds interesting.
    Not what I thought of, but it could work.
    I'll add that to the poll.(If I could)

    My idea of SB plotlines is alot more unpopular.

    See I just don't want ANY trace of Current lore.(Well maybe some)
    But I don't want the player to be forced into this White area saving the universe, but being in the grey area.
    In fact Old lore really was making alot of races factions organizations in a very grey area.
    In new lore, it's literally just a black and white story. And the ruin is just a snore to me.
    It's pointless its unnecessary and out of place for such a minimalistic plot, IMO.

    Having racial plots/questlines AND some brand new non race specific questlines is in my opinion the best option.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2016
  11. cooltv27

    cooltv27 Heliosphere

    one thing that makes being the good guy or bad guy fun is the CHOICE of being there

    as it stands now I dont care about the apex or their fight, im told to help the rebels and have no other options so I help the rebels
    something that would make me care is if I could choose to help the rebels and steal the artifact, or help the miniknog and earn the artifact. or perhaps ask for the aid of one of the other factions im friends with to help steal it

    the biggest part of making a world (or universe/galaxy in this case) is that the world has to feel alive, your actions need to change things. built a colony? NPCs in other villages in the solar system should reference its existence. crushed the rebels? make their npcs much much more rare
     
    STCW262 likes this.
  12. STCW262

    STCW262 Heliosphere

    I think that the lore could be broken down in that, for the most part, the current one isn't so interesting, but it DID do quite a few improvements (WARNING: WAll of Text has appeared. It's the sleeper. Don't fall asleep)
    Broken down by race:
    Apex Lore now actually SHOWS the rebellion (Apart from the Apex PC previously being part of a failed rebellion), but now it's EVEN MORE DIFFICULT to sympathize with the Miniknog. From what we see, they're at least 95% evil (Before, they cared a bit about their citizens. Now they don't care about them at all), without much in terms of redeeming qualities, apart from possibily that their citizens have decent standards of living...if you don't pay attention to the repression. It doesn't help that the character of Big Ape is now more flat.
    I've seen a few places (Such as TV Tropes) that states that he got to power after preventing the Apex from dying out, and he uploaded his mind to a computer to be better at surveillance...and the scientists in charge of keeping him functional began to edit his personality in order to experiment. That feels like a line that could have been fleshed out (Right now, whatever explains it is pretty hard to miss if that is true in the first place). For example, that could have been done by being able to find artifact archives of how Big Ape originally was (Say, what if it turned out that Big Ape was originally a reasonable authority figure that really cared for it's people, and his ideals were pretty much the opposite of the Miniknog's ideals of opression and using their population as breeding pens of test subjects?), or making the uploading thing more explicit.

    Floran Lore is something I have a mixed opinion about. While Greenfinger as a character was removed (Which was pointless, as simply renaming him would have allowed his name to be turned into a title without removing him), it now actually shows that they aren't agressive out of maliciousness, but out of a "What Measure is a non-Floran" mindset (This is best shown in the "Maku's Journal" entry). In the old lore, that was an informed trait that wasn't really shown in the game, to the point that, except for a few outcasts, it was REALLY EASY to think that they were 100% evil, and that said trait was added to stop players from feeling that they were doing all the other races a huge favor by destroying Floran villages (Or, in other words, they were portrayed in a way that made it VERY easy to think that enacting genocide against them was something good).

    Avian Lore is pretty similar to Floran lore in terms of opinion. While, similarily, they humanized (For lack of a better word) the Kluexian Avians and shown that they aren't an evil religion. Just note how the new lore changed how their faith perceives sacrifices and ritual suicides: In the previous lore, it was the usual "If there's no sacrifices, our god will get REALLY angry". Now, they see it as a privilege and as the only guaranteed way to have a good afterlife (Which is closer to how the Mayans saw it, which is really fitting because of the Avians' Mesoamerican motif).
    However, they aren't portrayed as being perfect, either, so it is a rare case in which it isn't difficult to LIKE both sides of their conflict. On the flip side, they also lost an interesting character without having to (Unless it's that Thornwing has done a better job at keeping the Ring of Thorns a secret, but that is just fanon and doesn't count).

    Glitch Lore has, IMO, improved for the most part, as now it not only tells how they WORK (Before, they not only were a "Biological" mistery, and now we see why they don't realize they're robots in the first place), but we also get to see a bit of their politics and how their society works. Before, it mostly paid attention to the Outcasts, to the point that it nearly felt as if their society only revolved around killing self-aware Glitch.

    Human lore, meanwhile, is exactly the opposite: I think that, overall, they threw a lot of interesting things and added so many plotholes it feels like Swiss cheese that's been shot up with a minigun that fires shotgun shells.
    1-The Protectorate wasn't a bad addition...but they wasted the implications of it, as it could have been the SB equivalent of the UN, or something. All we see of it is "Your PC is a Protector, and the incarnation of Hentai has destroyed it". We don't see any survivors, or any sort of hint that the Protectorate EVER existed in the game. We don't see outposts, bunkers, or anything. You'd expect an organization of as much relevance as it supposedly has to have SURVIVED the destruction of Earth. The most pathetic thing about it is that they could have had more lore after Earth was destroyed that could have shown how, say, they're dealing with the refugee crisis, or their relations with the other political bodies seen in-game.
    2-The game implies too much that the players were the only survivors of Earth. That one is simply ridiculous, since the game only shows 2 ships exploding out of 3 (Counting the PC's), when any sort of logic would have dictated that there would have been lots of Earth survivors (In absolute terms. In relative terms, it could have been low).
    3-While the old lore implied that Earth was destroyed years before the game (The PCs already said in several descriptions that they were alive, as the Human PC states repeatedly that he/she misses Earth, and the Apex PC apparently lived in Earth for some time), explaining why they aren't in such an awful shape to deal with it (Even through the closest they had to a government wasn't really much more than a colonial army), now the humans have more advanced tech (Namely, the Matter Manipulator, althrough they only copied it from their Artifact) and the Protectorate would have been better at dealing with the aftermath than the USCM, but they somehow are on the brink of extinction, which is also caused by another plothole that somehow turned it from "Dark, but with bright elements" to "Even more grimdark than Shadow the Edgehog: WH40K Edition with OST by Linkin Park" (Explained below) even through the lore was supposed to not be so grimdark as it used to be.
    4-It is stated that Humans weren't interested in colonizing the stars. While it would have been easy to swallow that they weren't interested in expanding beyond the Solar System, it is just plain weird that they apparently didn't want to expand beyond their homeworld even through LOTS of reasons for doing so could have been used. For example:
    Off-Earth land is cheaper.
    There's lots of resources in other planets, so harvesting them would have easily made humans move there to get a job.
    Moving offworld would be perfect for nationalism, since they would have had a whole planet for themselves and would have easily ended interstate strife (Namely, why would 3 groups keep quarreling over some mountains when each one could have a planet for themselves, for example).
    The exotic landscapes would be PERFECT for tourism.​

    Hylotl lore is, IMO, better in quite a few things. For starters, they aren't a whole race of jerks who think they're better than everyone else. More specifically, they still think their society is superior, but there's less characters who act like jerks about it, and the lore now makes them show why they think so.

    Novakid lore has, IMO, "improved" in that at least they're mentioned rather than feeling like the only reason you get to play as one is so you can be a special snowflake. Even then, they're grossly underrepresented, as they have no story characters, are barely mentioned (At least, they're mentioned at all), don't have their own mission, etc...
    The worst part is that there IS a reason why they don't have an artifact (They're the fragmented remains of the Cultivator)...and it isn't explored at all. For starters, why does the Gate portray them (I go for the handwave of "A Novakid tried to "correct" that mistake with surprising precision")? Would that mean that the Cultivator was biologically similar to the Novakids?

    Now, racial lore aside, the new lore is somewhat less interesting in that now the main antagonist is an otherworldy abomination that somehow can't avoid killing it's own underlings even through doing so making it's own destruction REALLY easy, but there's other issues:
    1-The artifacts effectively mean that quite a few of the achievements of the SB species were likely found in their artifact (Humans copied their artifact to get the Matter Manipulators, Apex most likely got the VEP from their artifact, Greenfingers might originate from the Floran artifact...), which means that pretty much all of them were uplifted in a way or another (Which used to be a trait exclusive to Avians, who were made as a deconstruction of technological uplifting without social change), and, once again, used the WAY too common plot device of "The main achievements of humanity (And the other races, but it normally applies to humans in other media) were actually thanks to ancient tech", which gets pretty tiresome. In fact, it would have been interesting if it went the other way: By the time the Ancient ruins were discovered, most races already had better tech, Except for the Avians because said ancients uplifted them in the first place, and non-Outcast Glitch because they're stuck in the Middle Ages.
    2-The Artifacts aren't even of comparable power: From what we see, the humans got the jackpot and the rest got the equivalent of a crappy birthday gift: Florans got a bone that "Isn't even chewy". Hylotl got...Whatever it is. We don't get to see what it was. Apex likely got the VEP from there. Avians merely got either a symbolic gift, or (If we go by possibilities that aren't even implied that much) the basis of their tech, and Glitch merely got what is apparently a "shiny bauble" that doesn't even have an implied function.
    3-The plot now goes for a bit of a "Chosen One that saves the universe" line. For starters, we don't get to see what the humans would have done after losing Earth (In the old lore, the USCM were planning an attack on Earth in order to destroy the tentacle mosnter), or how the other races would have reacted (For starters, the Miniknog could have began to take Human refugees for secret experiments now that they're in a weak position, the Hylotl could have been helping out the human refugees, the Floran greenfingers could have been trying to make their tribes help the refugees to make Florans look better...)
    The worst part is that the game unironically expects someone who managed to oversleep on the day of their graduation to save the UNIVERSE. It feels something that would have fit a comedic plot, but the game does this seriously. An even worse part is that it would have been pretty easy to play the PC as a Fake Ultimate Hero who is actually skillful, but part of the dialogue implied something among the lines of "Tried to leave on a field trip and actually destroyed a huge monster that was threatening to kill his/her whole group" would be something that would fit really well with the PC. In fact, an issue is how there's not much flexibility to play in different ways, such as being able to actually TALK to NPCs with dialogue trees.
    4-The plot now leaves open way too many things in the ending, such as whatever happened to Asra Nox:
    She could have fallen into hopelessness and killed herself, tried to recreate the Ruin, etc... In fact, there could have been a whole questline that involved making her realize the wrongness of her ways and redeem her.
    Another example, as pointed out above, is that the Novakids are the remains of the Cultivator.
    5-The pointless ludonarrative dissonance used in the ending: For starters, it simply doesn't make sense, gameplay-wise, for the Cultivator to have to use his remaining energy to revive the PC. Apart from that, it wasn't even really necessary: it would have been more fun to have to go back to the surface before the Ruin actually explodes while the dying Ruin sics as many of it's spawn as possible in order to take the PC with it (The one-way door would break after killing the Heart of the Ruin, or something), or to be suddenly able to teleport from the core after killing it; which would get a message from Esther or some other character telling the player to teleport away. In casual, that would still be Gameplay/Story Segregation, but it would have been a lot easier to stomach when it only affects Casual instead of affecting Survival as well, not to mention that making it so that it isn't possible to teleport away on Casual while fighting the Ruin (With a message, of course) would avoid THAT.​
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2017
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  13. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    I don't mind the simple story. As I look at it just like that, a simple story; since that is not the primary focus of the game. Even saying that though, I wouldn't mind seeing branching paths.

    I am not overly fond of startup thing that gives a sense this is who you are from beginning to end as an intro to get into the academy. That is me though, since I rather like the flexibility it has now, as in I am able to come up with what I was doing before the academy, and reasons for joining it. Having it designated like the text box intros of old was a bit this is who you are in your face kind of way; leaving not much for RP of your past.

    Now I can't say that the one we have is the best of story, as it is ok. Something that doesn't overshadow the other things that are in game. Granted I have only gotten up to the glitch portion, which currently have not done that mission yet. That is besides the point, as I knew it would be just a simple story. I was expecting it to be so, as there are other aspects to the game they wanted to have a balance of significance. Well I think anyway, and is my own deduction of that.

    What I would like to see is the current sort of branch off. Like certain missions will open up other paths that will lead down another storyline that may have a different way of getting the missions beyond scanning. I don't mind the scanning bits for the main storyline, that is fine as scanning is something important throughout the game; especially if you work with colonies. On branching paths though I would imagine the storylines that off shoot form those will be racial in some way. Like the avian one would unlock an extended avian story that delves deeper into avian history. Maybe some of the older texts could be used for such things, but marked as old texts. After all books or anything written is in the viewpoint of the author writing them. So some might be over fantasized, and some just a list of facts that were relevant at the time of writing.

    Even though I chose current and racial as my choices in the pole, I would have chosen having the old ones as well. After all many of the old texts, short from the boss battle ones, were really nice to read. It was like a history in a past in those current writings of the old texts. Some even sounded like research or propaganda like, if not just a view point in how they understood what they were writing about at the time.

    So having branching paths off the current would be something I would like to see, and maybe incorporate some of the old texts into them. Then maybe even extending the current story further and have other branching paths, or at least leave open enough to enable such. I wouldn't mind more side missions that contribute to the story in some way that unlock at certain parts in progress of main or branch path.

    Who knows maybe even new texts could be added.

    I am one to like the simplicity, as you don't want the story to overwhelm you with you must do this or that, but more of a gradual pacing. That and I am easily entertained. I am one that could be entertained just watch the trees in the wind or sunset, or my crops growing... That is me though. :nurutease:
     
  14. Sharp(JQ)

    Sharp(JQ) Ketchup Robot

    I did not like the Protectorate and the destruction of the Earth, which is not in the past.
     
  15. Denny Davito

    Denny Davito Space Hobo

    The type of story that makes me want to down 21 shots of vodka just to forget how the "characters developed".
     
  16. Leesolazy

    Leesolazy Master Chief

    I'd like a story that is less linear, with branching stories that have different endings based on your choices and certain acts as a player. I prefer a story that kind of leaves you in the dark, only giving hints and clues as to what is happening around you, like giving you little pieces of information which would all be up for you to put together like pieces to a puzzle. You know, like the codexes from the pre-release, the little things you find out after exploring the universe, meeting certain people in certain places under a certain context, things that make you see things very differently from how you saw it prior to discovering some "hidden truth" about it, even things that are very believable, but are actually lies, and even "clues" that contradict each other to throw you off and prevent you from reaching a definite conclusion so easily. And when you feel you've learned enough about the truths of the world you're in, you could then choose different ways in which path to choose. It's like a detective game of sorts in which you get closer and closer to reaching the -real- ending after you've gathered enough truths and filtered out the lies to truly complete the puzzle.

    For example, you start with some basic, generally-known "truths" about the MiniKnog as a starting point for the Apex storyline (I imagine having different storylines for each race, which are all open for all players to follow through regardless of their own race; e.g., a Hylotl can follow through the Floran's Greenfinger storyline, later moving on to the Novakid History storyline, and so on). As you explore more of the top-secret laboratories, colonies and even rebel encampments, you find more options on how to lead the story and resolve the conflict, or in some cases, incite another conflict.

    Like, if you chose to not find more about the MiniKnog and head straight to destroying everything related to it, that's how the story ends: after aiding the rebels in their cause, the MiniKnog is no more, and the Apex citizens are now free to do whatever they want without immediate consequence courtesy of the MiniKnog, causing a massive wave of confusion and chaos where anarchy rules over, eventually ending with the populace becoming torn between some wanting to remain free, but in turn risking their lives trying to survive the environment as well as other Apex, and others wanting back the oppressive, yet ultimately much safer society controlled by its government. Alternatively, if you choose to investigate further about the MiniKnog, you get to find out how the Big Ape entity was originally an AI purposed to be essentially a perfect leader, without any human (or in this case, apex) errors adding into the formula, but was then reprogrammed to better accommodate the researchers who now control it. Knowing this, you could choose to find a way to somehow "reset" this AI back to its original state to bring it back to its original purpose, which was to build a better world for Apex to live in. Or more interestingly, you could raid the laboratories and kidnap/recruit its researchers (or gather techno knowledge yourself) to reprogram the AI and allow you to use it to rule over the Apex.​
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2016
  17. Gilligan Lanley

    Gilligan Lanley Space Kumquat

    Know what would make Starbound an uber experience?

    Dragon Age: Starbound Edition.
     
    Relten likes this.
  18. Lintton

    Lintton Guest

    Why is community in quotes?
     
    Jonesy likes this.
  19. Relten

    Relten The Waste of Time

    Massbound Effect Episode 1: Bound for the stars.
     
  20. Lintton

    Lintton Guest

    Either I would get. I love how they make stories with character choices. Though hopefully the graphics don't get improved, actual detail would mess up my outfit. ^^;;;
     

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