Upbeat Giraffe Disappointments

Alright, even though I don't want to be a Chucklefish hater, I have to say that their product, which is going to be released in "January", is nowhere even close to finished, which is a bad thing since the nightly builds have been going up for a long time now. Consider this a review of the game in its current state, where I will point out flaws in as much of a constructive way as possible. Also, I will not draw any parallels to Terraria. Prepare for a lengthy review.

Section 1 - Controls

In order for your game to be any fun at all to play, you need controls that work. And frankly, Starbound has pretty unpolished controls. The movement controls need improvement. It almost feels like you're playing the entire game on ice. There's hardly any traction at all. One faint tap of a key sends you flying in that direction, making it very hard to do things like platforming. Instead of that, let's have the character start out slow enough to make platforming bearable, and then accelerate to make sure walking isn't too slow. They could also add a sprint key that uses up energy slowly, but speeds the player up.

Section 2 - Art Style

I really don't mind Starbound's art style. I really don't. I just think it needs tweaking. The planets feel a little lifeless, even with all the interesting plant life thrown in. I think the problem is the color scheme. The textures, although nice looking, don't pop out at the player at all. The colors should be brighter and a little more contrasting, that way the player actually notices the art style.

Section 3 - Combat

Even though the combat in Upbeat Giraffe is better than it was in the earlier versions, it still feels more or less similar. The issue with combat comes down to one problem: the enemy's attack pace. If enemies come charging at you really quickly, players don't get the time to watch their attack patterns, then figure out how to fight them. It just won't happen. If the enemies were a little more defensive, the combat system would be improved. The battle would be more about thinking up a strategy to get past a certain enemy's defense, rather than rushing in and hoping you kill it before you get killed. Another thing that I want to bring up is the variety in enemy attack patterns. Yes, while I like the variety of different abilities between enemies, the problem is that the individual enemy only has one or two attacks, making them very predictable. Adding in some more attacks to each enemy could easily fix this problem.

Section 4 - Game Progression

Oh man, here is the part of the game I hate the most. The game progression needs serious work. I'm going to divide this section into different parts representing each tier all the way up to titanium, which is where I completely gave up trying to progress.

Copper Tier:

I like this tier. It's pretty balanced, and not very grindy. The enemies are pretty balanced, and never did I lose motivation to progress.

Iron Tier:

This tier was ok. Getting the iron was a little grindy, and the iron crafting table is a complete copy of the crafting table, but it's not bad. The enemies are balanced, but sometimes I did lose my motivation to continue.

Steel Tier:

This was where I really saw how cookie cutter these tiers are. I didn't hate this tier though. The part I want to talk about is the erichus mining facility. The mission went on far too long, and the reward felt pretty underwhelming for saving people's lives from zombies, but it wasn't bad.

Titanium Tier:

Absolutely horrible. At this point, I would think that the devs would find some method to make mining more fun, considering how much ore you need to mine. But they didn't, and the result was a mining segment that felt identical to the iron segment. Now here comes the part where I quit playing. I got myself some titanium armor, and went to do the penguin quest. I had pretty good weapons that went over 200 DPS. I thought I was pretty set to do this mission, and that it would be simple, just like the erichus mining facility. Boy was I wrong. Dreadwing is absurdly powerful. Even with my good equipment, it took me around 10 hits just to take down one segment of his health bar. Meanwhile, his projectiles that are extremely difficult to dodge take off almost half of my health. Did anyone test this boss? Who thought it was a good idea to make the first boss in the game so difficult? The first part of the titanium tier wasn't this difficult. Why the sudden difficulty spike?

At this point, I just gave up. This game was not tested enough, despite having so much time to be balanced. Hopefully the devs will see this post and make these changes during the time that the update is in the unstable branch.

 

I hate to just dismiss all your criticism, but it seems like you're either playing the wrong game, have no idea what you're doing, or both.

Starbound is a sandbox game in the vein of Terraria or Minecraft. Repetitive mining is a staple of the genre. It's one of the things many people play it for. If you don't like this kind of mining, I'm not sure why you're here.

Secondly, the fact that you've had so much trouble with Dreadwing makes me think you haven't played many action games before. Most of Dreadwing's attacks can be avoided simply by not being underneath him or through judicious use of energy dash. If your weapons were doing that little damage, you need to get better weapons.

You complain that normal monsters require little strategy to combat, and yet you've clearly applied almost no strategy to the Dreadwing fight.

 

Dreadwing is really easy to tell you the truth the mining does get a bit grindy at times but i beat dreadwing with just a titanium chestplate a titanium sword and a basic shield.That and like 100 bandages which i only used about 20-30 of,hes not hard just lots of waiting.

 

The game isn't being released or finished or whatever in its entirety in January, that's just pushing the updates to the stable branch. We're still in Phase 1 of Beta, out of 3.

 

1 - agree. The momentum of the player is way too high.

2 - STRONGLY disagree. I think the colors are too strong, and too cartoony. But art is subjective, and is just my opinion.

3 - disagree. The combat has vastly improved, but weapons need to be more varied, with better energy usage

4 - Somewhat agree. The grinding for ores is a bit long. But the bosses are on the right track. They are currently unbalanced, for sure... and I'm sure they will be brought down in power soon.

 

I have to agree with Wyvern. I also want to re-state what Ariskelis said, this is phase 1 of 3 of this games beta. There is going to be a lot more imporvements and content added.

 

i had a hammer that did around 400+ damage when i battled him, try looking for better weapons, the random gen weapons are much better then the smelted ones this time around
and with my titanium armor all his shots didnt do too much damage and his little guys olny did like 5hp, if you low on helth you can always chug bandages or medkits

its almost as if the game is in a development branch in witch the content is unstable


then again im playing nightlys so i coulda been balanced for me, there has been 3-4 updates sence it hit unstable

 

Some nice questions and answers there.

Well, right now it sure is "in the vein of Terraria", from that POV complaining about mining being grindy looks a bit strange. But was it supposed to be so? I understand few starting tiers - crash landing and stuff, but wasn't SB supposed to have more "Technic" approach to mining or other method to break free from ore grinding haunting the genre. Automatic mining, making your own NPC "do" it, etc? Look at the mods, they have both way of doing it. Why promoting SB as being different from Terraria, using sci-fi setting, but almost not using it's advantages? Game scope surely shrank big time during development.

SB right now has very bad indication about if you weapon is actually good or bad because of

And yes, this "generic feel" really kills the fun of playing Starbound. I got a feeling, originally, all generic elements was supposed to be covered by different gameplay mechanics like real "research" of mobs, studying of local environment, lore, etc - all the thing that could hide RND-generation flaws. But now they gone and RND show it's ugly face from almost everywhere.

All game companies big ans small (even Blizzard) struggle around RND-generation. There IS a reason it's not very widespread method of doing things. Anyone who even remotely interested in how games are made and works (even common game folks, i think) understand that RND is tricky. So actual Devs knew it for sure, and they had to take steps to counters it. The things i heard are about more monster parts, better dependence between parts, biome-related mobs, but IMO it's not enough to make it "non-generic" yet.

 

No to the movement suggestion: that won't very handy at all when you have to move fast, right now, which can occur a lot in combat.

Weapons checklist

1. Did you find it in your current tier? If not, its bad.
2melee. Does it have ranged or alternate attack modifiers?
3melee. Does it swing reasonably fast for it type? Especially if lightning element.
2gun. is it a flamethrower? If yes, toss it. I've yet to find a use for the things.
3gun. Does the shot stick out like a sore thumb? If yes, consider it for mobs only.
4.what is the gun for? Fast guns are weak to shields, powerful guns are weak to dodge/parry.(an assumption, but one that helps with non legendary guns.)

 

As someone who just finished Terraria for the second time 2 days ago and still had a lot of fun, I must disagree.
Starbound does a lot of things better than Terraria, but mining is definitely not one of them.
I tried to play with a friend yersteday, we didn't go past the "iron tier" because of how boring mining was.
The monsters are just useless there. They don't aggro from far enough and are very bad at moving around (teleportation, flight, high jumps and going through blocks are how Terraria fixed this issue). Combined with the rarity of ranged attacks, I can pretty much safely ignore them.
Treasure chests are mostly uninteresting because they contain at best a very slightly better weapon than the one you currently use (Terraria moslty fixed this - not perfectly though - by giving accessories and potions that can be useful at any stage of the game, and having life crystals/fruits).
Mining tools are just plain terrible. At some point my friend and I simply stopped bothering with them. I'd reconsider if they were about 10 times more resistant.
Those three points are very bad in my opinion, as they just ruined the game for me. I'll wait and see if they make mining more eventful before giving it another go.

 

I've also beaten terraria twice, and a lot of stuff in terraria is obsolete since you've gotten past a certain point in the game. Currently starting to make durasteel. Also, the two games are not the same, nor should it be. Terraria is based in providing all of its content in a single world. Starbound encourages exploration across multiple maps in order to prepare and find the content that is your objective. I want tweaks to the mobs as well, but I'm going to say its a lot better than the potential one shottings of the stable environment. If you aren't willing to do some traveling in the game than I don't know what to tell you about the game's difficulty or boredom, except that I don't think they are aiming for an experience that can be beaten in one sitting, an early complaint iirc.

 

For one, I have to say that I actually don't mind mining in Terraria, yet don't really like mining in Minecraft. Just because you need to gather resources to progress doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to have fun doing so. Terraria has a great balance in this category. There's dungeons, plenty of chests that actually have nice loot, and even bosses to find underground. Starbound just has chests with mostly outdated loot, mini biomes that don't actually do anything, and enemies. Minecraft is even worse than Starbound here. You hardly find loot, and there isn't a lot to discover. But at the very least you don't have to mine for too long in that game.

Second, what are you talking about with "Not being underneath him"? He follows you like a spotlight! And even if you can dodge him, as soon as you start focusing on actually hitting him, even if it's just an occasional attack, he's going to catch up with you! I don't see any strategy to use in this fight. It's a giant UFO that shoots projectiles onto a mostly level landscape. I can energy dash, but what about when I run out of energy? Am I missing something here?

1. Yes, in fact, I did find the weapons in my current tier.
2. Yes, my melee weapon does. It's a legendary skull hammer thing that shoots giant skull projectiles.
3. It does swing reasonably fast, considering the fact that it is a hammer.
4. My gun is not a flamethrower. It is a shotgun.
5. The shot is moderately visible, but I wouldn't say it sticks out like a sore thumb.
6. I would say that this gun is more powerful. It shoots a lot slower than the "fast" guns, but it has good DPS.

 

I don't know if you used copper tier weapons or not, but by the time I got the Dreadwing I had found a rocket launcher that did pretty high damage and took about 3/4 of a bar every time it hit. I had a hammer as well that did about the same amount of damage. There's a recurring theme of me being crushed to death by the falling saucer that's happened every time I fight Dreadwing, but doing it the second time was just as easy, if not easier.

 

There is no copper tier in Upbeat Giraffe, I think you're talking about the wrong version. When you reach dreadwing in Giraffe you are essentially locked into titanium gear (Which is actually 2 tiers higher than you'd fight dreadwing in Koala)

Since the battle now takes place in a fixed arena type map, and death is automatic failiure, the fight throws a lot of people since you need to start using your full skill set properly while dealing with a constant supply of adds, just focusing on dreadwing will see you over-run by mooks.

 

From how underpowered the OP sounds, it seems like he was using a hunting knife or something to fight Dreadwing. I guess I'll have to go with iron level weapons instead

I could only fire 3 rockets at a time, but it was totally worth it.

 

At any rate my advice to OP would be as follows:

Explore some worlds til you encounter a human, avian or floran dungeon, and steal yourself an assault rifle. Make the best titanium two handed sword unless you find a better two handed sword. Equip the dash tech. Make sure you have plenty of bandages just in case you need them.

1. Orientate you camera upwards a bit to ensure you have a good clear view of Dreadwing throughout the fight.
2. Use your assault rifle to kill all of dreadwing's mooks, switch to sword for the tanks if you're having energy problems. (The mooks have low HP and an assault rifle will sweep them away in a fast and energy efficient fashion)
3. Switch to your two handed sword and stay below dreadwing so he uses his "slam" attack (Which roots him to the ground for a few seconds)
4. When he tries to slam you, block with your sword to negate the damage, then wail on his head while he is stunned.
5. Repeat 2-4 until he reaches ~25% health.
6. Next he'll start teleporting. When he teleports, he'll always follow up with a slam. So when you see him vanish, get ready to block him, and repeat as per step 4.
7. ????
8. PROFIT!

Back in my day we used to actually learn boss mechanics instead of throwing the controller and saying the game is too hard... you kids never experienced megaman! #OldTimerImpression

 

I used a combination of weapons during the fight. I could explain it some, but I don't feel that would address OP's complaints....

Sniper rifle or similar ranged for when he's in the air.
Sword and shield for his swoop.(do not run away. it is based on you current position when he starts the move. This is what makes dash work when under him. Also, if you time it and jump before he starts the move, he will swoop harmlessly over you.)
two hander for generated adds, slam, (teleport/slam is fluff and not handled any different from slam.) And pulse cannon(running away provides free shots with a gun, but to avoid it you need to run toward and either dash or parry the cannon fire.)
Machine gun(bone rifle) for the initial penguin adds.(the tanks are helpless to up close melee)

 

*Shivers* One more unrelated thing that would inexplicably prevent you from firing a gun, a crossbow, or your shiny rocket boots.

Nah. I'd like a sprint feature but not like that. Perhaps just ~reduce~ energy regen rate while sprinting to provide some subtle balance for quicker escape from mobs. But then allow mobs to sprint as well.

That could be an option with different filters you can toggle through at your leisure. Sort of like Monaco's various color schemes.

I'd much prefer it, though that also sounds fine, if enemies weren't so "Hard" to kill by default but spawned in greater numbers when they do spawn (But spawns are fewer between) and an Elite and Boss system was in place. Red tinged guys being elites and at least four spawn on a planet at a given time, with rare Boss encounters that are a step between encounter-bosses like the Mech and Deadwing and the planet-bosses. Though the presence of a boss should be alerted on a planet's danger indicators.

I thought it was perfectly lengthy and I was pleased with the baser challenges rather than a grossly overwhelming boss that almost 1shots you all the time despite having the recommended level gear nor takes a billion shots to do damage. The reward... Well, that was a bit lacking to be sure. Like, it'd be great to get a tech based off that digger machine you got the crystals from to help in your own mining efforts. Though a tech such as that doesn't make sense with the current tech slots. There should be a new Vehicle tech slot where you can insert things such as mechs, drills, boats, flyers, ect.

Like I said somewhere up there... absurdly overwhelming... They almost feel like bullet hells, but Starbound doesn't have decent movement for a bullet hell. Too floaty and weirdly both unresponsive and too responsive in addition to"Basic" functions taking up energy from your weapons (such as energy dash, and double jumping). If your Techs had a separate energy from weapons at the least then that would help it out.
It'd also be fantastic if you can tap shift or something while holding a direction button instead of double tapping.

I only beat him because you can cheese the hell out of him when he's just barely on screen and shot from there. But even then it takes an absurdly long time to kill it in recommended gear (Particularly with assault weapons. I kind of feel like there's some damage to armor ratio thingy that caters to singleshot weapons)

 

I think I'm going to try my hand at vivisecting the strawman arguments you've seemed to put up here.

Point 1: Controls
From the many hours I've played, I have barely noticed the controls being terribly slippery at all. I can see my character sliding a pixel or three in a direction, but this is hardly an issue. In addition, one tap of a key only sends you a block or less in one direction. If for some reason this is really an issue for you, you can hold shift to slow your character to a walk. I most certainly do not want a gradual acceleration feature, because with the amount of dodging and running you do in fights or to get around, that would result in a lot of lost health and people complaining over actually bad controls.

Point 2: The Art Style
There is nothing wrong here in my opinion, barring the somewhat-neon colors of some of the creatures. While it's true that they sometimes don't seem possible or real, I don't see any problem anywhere else. Naturally however, this is all subjective and your opinion may differ greatly from mine.

Point 3: Combat
Hey, you have a point I agree on. I do think your suggestion here would improve player vs monster combat somewhat, as it is kind of lacking strategy.

Point 4: Progression
There is no copper tier. So I'll start at the iron one instead.

Iron tier, was to me, fairly okay. I spent a while mining iron, yes, but not terribly long, and a few of the minibiome things I found were neat. I'd like to see more underground stuff that makes it more interesting.

Steel tier was cookie cutter? One moment, let me go check...

To me, steel tier was pretty fun because I filled it with going on quests, building a base in the middle of that, mining a bit to hollow out an area for a later project... When I look at the very base of the game, if you were doing the absolute minimum to get to the next tier, yes I see this getting boring. But what kind of person ignores all the exciting things hidden around an area just to get to the next? As far as the Erchius Facility went, I enjoyed it quite a bit. The atmosphere was rather creepy, especially when I had a bit of trouble fighting all the beasts off, and I thought it was fine in length. Again, this is subjective and your opinion differs from ours.

Titanium tier is I suppose grindy, but no more than the other tiers though it still may feel like "I think I've done this before...". The fix is to add better and more exciting and above all useful objects and items to the underground. People have explained this here before me.

Dreadwing's fight. Seriously. I have no idea how you managed to mess it up as badly as you say you did, though I have an idea. You likely tried to take him down using the same strategy-less tactics that won a lot of monster fights, and died horribly because he functions much more like a classic pattern-recognition boss. Remember Metroid? Yeah, Dreadwing functions more like an NES or SNES boss with more attacks. For one who claims to love strategy so much, you don't seem to apply it when there's actually a need. By the time I fought Dreadwing, I had dual crayons as strong as titanium shortswords (Yes I know how silly that is, fear me ) and had only moderate trouble taking him down because not only do weapons of the tier work well on him, they work well enough so that if you can use strategy to recognize his patterns, you have enough openings to murder that penguin.

Especially concerning this information. You found a skullblade and still can't manage to take a lot of health off of him? You have a shotgun and a legendary skullblade and you still can't kill Dreadwing?