Hey everyone, long time no dev blog! A couple of weeks ago, we had a panel at EGX! Thanks to everyone who came and asked questions and talked to us afterwards - it was really lovely to meet you all! If you missed it, it's up on the Youtubes now. We've been working on the next update! Here's a tiny sneak peek: 'Til next time!
If thatThunderCookie is right, and we are getting starbound: the roguelike... Sweet Jesus I'm going to have a heart attack and die of hormone induced shock because of how ecstatic I would be. (You might also want to take a look at some of the suggestions he made. He's right you know... The foundation and structure you provided for your game is fantastic, but you need more before it becomes your dream condo.)
THERE WILL NEVER BE ENOUG ROGUELIKES! Because there isn't an oversaturation. There's an oversaturation of games with roguelike elements, but are just games with permadeath and randomly generated dungeons. starbound's overly awesome potential for RNG makes them an amazing candidate for a proper purist roguelike game that is like rogue... Randomly generated items with unpredictable effects akin to the potions and scrolls of old, cursed equipment (maybe) with crippling effects, enemies spawning with equipment far beyond your own (much like that one time when a kobold spawns with Excalibur and one-shots you). It's all there, waiting to be type into amazing lua scripts full of possibilities...
Now, the issues with turning starbound into a total RNG dictated game boils down to a couple key problems: Turning the game to a system in which it totally relies on randomness would require a massive overhaul, of which would take a lot of work and time invested. This major change would cause a MAJOR rift within the community. If folks are going to get angry over a hotbar fix, imagine how they would react if they had to deal with a massively game changing update.
I'm not saying an overhaul, I'm referring to the "ancient trial" dungeons that were added in the nightly, which behave sort of like mission dungeons, but have procedurally generated layouts. It'd be an endgame dungeon system to play after beating the ruin, and would come with its own different parameters.
is the next update going to include optimization fixes because i'm really getting fed up with the fact that i can't play this game without it running at like. 3-6 fps with input lag
That sort of thing is entirly possible in the current game. The hardest part would be actually creating the "puzzle pieces" that get stitched together to form the randomized dungeon. But otherwise an "Rogue Legacy" type mechanic is very possible. Starbound's engine is highly modable out of the box, so I think it would be interesting to see a total conversion type of thing made. I wonder if chucklefish would ever license out their engine... I mean it isn't some super flipping awesome feature rich mega engine, but it does have a really high level of configurability. (Hard coded mechanics aside...)
Which is what it looks like they are doing. And believe it or not, the amount of vanilla assets gives starbound some seriously awesome potential. There's a neat vid showing planets generated with only vanilla assets and modified vanilla code. They are fantastically unique and breathtakingly beautiful in their eldritch and strange way. Makes me sad CF went with the realistic route rather than the chaotic route.
The mod shown at the bottom is the only one used. All of the weapons are also vanilla, being created with basic custom commands that could probably be incorporated into vanilla buildscripts.
Well that was a nice viewing. Quite what I was expecting, and overall thought. Keep up the excellent work. Cheers!
That video hits the nail right on the head. I especially agree with the need for more diverse planets and biomes. Constantly going through the same fiery worlds just for some relevant equipment for my level is extremely boring. Exploration and dungeon crawling is probably the most fun part of the game for me.
The picture of that ancient thing.... Novakid mission? Seeing as the Novakid are fragments of the cultuvator.
Ah, I see now. Thank you for answering my points... I hope I didn't sound cynical in those posts, as that wasn't my intention what so ever.
