14/4 AMA - New Game Info [Updated]

Hello Vayne,
Worlds are indeed circular, if you run all the way Left, you will end up in the place you started running. Then, you will run in circles.

 

Thank you for the response really excited knowing that ^^

 

I'm not Sure why I didn't added such thing in the Main Topic List... ahah must fix that.

 

Yeah there's a few more things that kyrenn and the others have said about the core mechanics of the game that could be considered important.
You can just click their names to go right to all their answers: http://www.reddit.com/user/kyrenn

 

Great! Modding API is one of the most important things I'm looking forward to. As far as I know, all firearms use energy now, so I hope it will be possible to create weapons that use regular ammunition rather than energy.

 

Didn't see these posted(some are similar). There are probably some that relate to the Announced Game Info thread, but some of that is worded as speculation still. I'm not going to spend time formatting more than I already have.

What is my ships progress tied to?
If I co-op with a friend, do we both advance? Or when we split up does only one of us end up with an awesome ship?
Tiyuri reply:
It's tied to your character
You'll both advance

With all the extensive modding you are allowing, is there any chance of getting Steam Works support for the Steam Release? How will these mods work for multiplayer?
Tiyuri reply:
We would really like to do Steam workshop. We're looking for mods to be packaged and distributed to the client on connecting to a server.

Will research/unlocking higher level items and gear be based on the server or the individual player?
Tiyuri reply:
We've kind of adapted the research system and it's become part of the crafting system. So each player progresses solo.

Will there be any re-customization available after you create your character?
Tiyuri reply:
I'd like to add the ability to change your characters appearance on being cloned (respawned) for an in game fee (isn't it sad that I had to write "in game" there).

How high can you build, will there be skyworlds with treasures again?
Tiyuri reply:
You can build a long way upwards, until you reach space.

(Regarding NDA on Beta)
I make gaming videos on YouTube and I was curious as to what your policy will be on that.
DemanRisu reply:
Kyren confirmed in IRC that there won't be an NDA on the beta. That sort of restriction would only hurt this game's prospects on the internet, after all.

Will I need to use a wiki to play this game?
DemanRisu reply:
Hopefully not. I definitely feel that it's going to be very user-friendly compared to, say, Minecraft - there will be a tutorial and a main questline, and the crafting menu tells you what you need to make things.

How much of that backstory will we be able to uncover, and how? 'cause I'm a huge lore nerd.
DemanRisu reply:
I'm writing a whole buttload of books - I'm expecting the whole Lore Document to be 80-100k words long when I'm done - and there will also be dialogue, logs, little one-liners from interactive items in the environment... lore nerds will be very happy with this game.

Hi, how am I going to be able to customize my ship and what benefits will I get from doing so?
Rhopunzel reply:
You'll be able to place blocks, background blocks and objects in the ships, and there's a progression of upgrades that make the ship bigger.

I wish I could see the source code or something, but I realize that's probably not possible.
Tiyuri reply:
We might open source it some time in the future

I've been thinking, and would it be possible to have a sort of "MMO" style to servers, while still retaining that small-group experience, without anyone being able to come over and intrude?
Tiyuri reply:
Maybe, we haven't tested a server with a huge number of players yet. So it's hard to say what the server specs would need to be. We are going to allow players to daisy chain servers together though.

Will you set up an official thread for suggestions from the community for post-release content? It would be great if there was a way for the community to vote certain ideas to the top to make sure they get noticed by the devs.
Tiyuri reply:
We're actually looking at an upvote/downvote section of the suggestion forums to make it easier to see what people want most.

How in-depth are you planning for quests to be? One of my favorite things about quests spawns from the Elder Scrolls series. I love having lots and lots of random little side quests to do that are really key to the game, but add a lot of depth. So basically, will the quests be main storyline only?
Tiyuri reply:
There are going to be a ton of side quests that aren't at all related to the main story. These quests will be somewhat procedurally generated and unlimited in number.

What are the mechs going to be like? I haven't heard a lot of info on mech systems, so I was curious how they would be used in the game (for attacking, mining, transport... so on)
Tiyuri reply:
Mechs will have a bunch of different uses, they use the players energy bar for power and can be beamed down from the players ship.

How will you find guns? Will it be easy to find new guns, or will it be a rare happening?
Tiyuri reply:
We'll keep them rare enough that they're still special. But not incredibly rare. You'll find them in dungeons, villages and chests. You'll be able to buy them and craft some of them.

What can we expect in terms of diversity in planets other than the biomes? In other words, how much of a change will there be going from one planet to another? Thanks for the AMA.
Tiyuri reply:
Within a biome, a whole ton of things change. Trees, colours, backdrop, ore distribution and a whole bunch more. But outside of biomes, the threat level, the temperature, some environment variables, enemies, dungeons, the terrain shapes, the style of caves, the underground layers and more.


What are the current blockers to launching a public beta? No need for a timeframe, just curious what is blocking.
Tiyuri reply:
I think the game works best as a sum of its parts and leaving some of those parts out or incomplete would just muddy the experience. I want the beta to be a pretty complete game, just lacking the mission portion.


Will there be any sort of mounts?
Tiyuri reply:
There will be some vehicles. You can't ride any animals yet, but that's definitely a plausible post release feature.


I'm more of a pirate guy myself, will we be seeing any class that is themed like that? I would like to have a pirate race while pillaging and plundering the multiplayer servers ;D
Tiyuri reply:
The Penguins you see pop up fairly often are actually a race of mischievous space pirates

How "populated" with "stuff" are the underground areas of the planets?
Tiyuri reply:
They're full of ores, plant life, monsters, 'smashables', liquids, stuff we haven't revealed yet

Will there be mechanics to cater for pvp within starbound?
Tiyuri reply:
PVP works already, and there's going to be an optional always on PVP mode for people who want a day Z style experience in a sandbox world. Post release we're going to add a bunch of PVP game modes.


I heard there is a HUGE amount of generation in this game. Can you elaborate?
Tiyuri reply:
The universe, worlds, biomes, trees, guns, armor, melee weapons, npcs, dungeons, the sky, the weather, underground layers and more are all procedurally generated/have procedural generated elements.


Will you be adding controller support for the game? Or is it mouse & keyboard only?
Tiyuri reply:
At release it will be mouse and keyboard only, but I love steam big picture mode so I definitely want to add controller support.

How early is space travel going to be hours-wise? That's probably my most anticipated feature!
Tiyuri reply:
You'll be stranded on a planet with no fuel at the start, but if you know what you're doing you can get off of there very quickly indeed. It's just to ensure we don't throw players in with the sharks.

How long does it take for you to code a single item? Graphics and all.
Tiyuri reply:
It depends on the item, if it has a COMPLETELY new function and requires new engine code it can take a little while. If I want to add a new gun, npc, armor, with its own stats and behaviour, I can do it in about 2 minutes with no programming required.

(Regarding Novakids glow in-game)
Is it an innate thing, or the effects of a "race armor" like the other races ?
OmnipotentEntityreply:
Well, all players emit a very faint glow that lights up themselves. Anything more will probably be an effect of a race armor. Not sure though.

Edit: Moved to spoiler to limit scrolling...

 

Thanks for your contribution! I will have an Look for what of that wasn't announced yet (some they just said before that AMA) and add it to the Main Topic.

 

The one biome per planet thing worries me a bit. It's always a bit immersion-breaking when a desert is next to a rainforest next to a tundra... but I would still like a good variety of biomes on one planet, like ocean-grassland-forest-mountain works fine.
But then again, Chucklefish probably know what they're doing.

 

There should still be variety, though it won't be the crazy change Terraria and minecraft are when going from one biome to another. My understanding of the sub-biomes are that there are a number of them per biome to provide variety while staying to a consistent theme.

An example (from my mind, not a dev) of this would be in a desert. You would have oasis sub-biomes, where you would have trees, water, maybe even different wildlife. You would have a barren part, where the ground is hard dirt and there are rocks sticking up from the wind. You would have parts that are dunes of sand. You would have parts that are dry but able to support small shrubs/cacti and a few small animals. There might even be ruins of a city half-buried in the sand.

If you think about this for your ocean-grasslands-forest-mountain. The biome might be forest and inside of that forest you could still have sub-biomes that contain mountains, grasslands and oceans. You just wouldn't have a desert/jungle/lava/whatever biome there. Unless volcano is a sub-biome.

While diversity of life is varied on Earth, it might not be quite as varied on other planets. This may even change depending on planet size with extremely large planets being able to support more than one biome. For now though, the biggest thing is that space travel is easy to achieve and jumping from one planet to another should be as simple as walking from biome to biome in Terraria. If you grow weary of a jungle and want something new, you have the ability to teleport to your ship and travel to a desolate lava themed planet. Trying to cram all that diversity into one planet would (to me) make things feel crowded.

 

OK BIG TOPIC UPDATE ~~ Research Stuff, Tutorial, BackStory, Quests, Underground Info, etc...

 

farming has been confirmed for a while

 

1 Biome isn't that bad. But still they could script a bit the engine for make combinations of Biomes for example "Jungle and Swamp"

 

AWWWWWW YEAH!!!! I get the feeling SB's beta is getting really close somehow!!!

 

About Biomes: Don't forget they have stated that there will be "mini-biomes" that the engine will calculate, like a lake with palms in the middle of a desert planet (oasis if you will). So there are plenty of possibilities for mix/matching just won't be to so much of an extreme as going from a desert to an alpine mountain range to a deep jungle. That's not even taking into account civilizations and all the bits that could come with those, dungeons, etc.

 

I hope that what he means with "different approach to the grappling hooks" is we can actually swing with them instead of being pulled to what we grappled to. It'd be nice to have a LBP2 / LIERO-styled grappling hook mechanic:

Shoot the hook, hook stays there, you can then jump and swing;
Up arrow to make the rope shorter, therefore approaching what you hooked to;
Down arrow to make the rope longer, allowing for larger swings.

Always loved grappling hooks in any game ever, I hope they do as well in Starbound as they did in LBP2 or LIERO

 

HOT! I came.

 

It would be more than madness if that appeared be in the main topic, hopefully it isn't!

Indeed. They must input the futuristic Starbound Style and Function on them.

 

I've got a question. Is Starbound got double pistols and ability to change fire modes in guns?

 

Thanks for putting this together Bacon. You're my favorite. Mmmm... bacon :drool:

 

Hello Blackthorn.

Double Pistols ~~ There will be double handed weapons, is likely that there can be double pistols but as an Gun (you can't equip 2 guns at this time, it may change).
Add Mods in Guns ~~ Yes, Some weapons may have mods that make them do very different things. Example, a hammer mod lets you smack the ground and create a shockwave that travels along hurting enemies.