After today's announcement: what will be special about Starbound?

Phil Fish was just an idiot. TiY's casual manner is cool, and I dig it. I just thought the comparisons were unnecessary, and a tad rude. Even if true.

 

They can, they are, and given what history has taught us they will be again at some point in the future. Startlingly large amounts of people have in the past, do in the present and almost certainly will in the future subscribe to absolutely idiotic thought, and take entirely questionable actions, over and over again.

Don't mistake the number of people willing to agree on something for being right or wrong. "That many people" were once absolutely convinced the earth was flat.

 

Did i miss something??? what delay ?

As far as i read nothing has been delayed SB beta is still estimated for this year ?

 

I'm not sure any game other than maybe spore has randomly generated monster visuals.

Although a lot of games have similar elements as Starbound, I think one of the things that makes Starbound unique is the sheer scale of it all. They have a ton of art, a ton of randomly generated terrains, a ton of lore, etc etc.

 

Estimated... key word.

 

Has it not always been estimated for this year ?

 

Oh no, is this Tiy's way of saying that we can forget about the 2013 promise?

 

Well yeah but estimated doesn't mean it's set in stone either.

 

Starbound to me is like the child of FTL + Terraria/Minecraft/Anyothersurviveandcraftgame + (GOOD)Genetic mutations = Starbound

The "Ninja Rope" added by Omni looks really neat, The fact that I can have my own ship and explore unique planets across the universe is extremely neat, and the time and effort put into this game is phenomenal. I just wish the team could predict calendar dates or tell us whats left to do for beta/release (basically a todo list).

(optional read - please keep scrolling if you hate opinions)

Sorry to dig up old arguments but anyone remember the one about how Chucklefish wasn't being "transparent" enough (pretty sure that was the gist of it)? Then the opposing side was saying "You have daily updates, a Roadmap, IRC, and twitter feeds. What more do you WANT?" (Prepare your pitchforks) In my opinion it was not a request for webcams to be installed in the devs homes so we can watch them, or wanting daily hour updates, or live roadmap updates. I feel It was more of a "Hey how much is actually left to add until you can call it Beta?" Now we've all heard of the "3 teirs till beta" and "Roadmap at 70% = beta" (I heard it was at around 79% since last update) but we continually see new additions being added or upgraded such as NPC's, Dungeons, Bosses, and Bugs in the game.

Now if I was developing a game and had a deadline fast approaching and had the basic and fundamental features finished or close to finished with very few bugs, the last thing I would be doing is trying to throw an extra feature in (Instruments, very cool but at what cost?) that will be bug ridden then end up having to fix too or improve a feature that won't be used most of the time (NPC's have become a big part of Starbound now if you think of it). Not to say these features aren't good for the game itself, I can't wait to start an intergalactic band, but a lot of these things can wait till patches to see what areas need to be addressed based on how and what people do the most in the game(I49 was a great example of this).

(TLR) In short at this point it doesn't matter what happens (It's almost November anyway), the community and I will still enjoy this game if it were to come out now or next year.

With Love,
carcrasher65

 

Instead of telling you what's special about Starbound, I'll tell you what's not special about Terraria, Minecraft and other games you've mentioned. All of these games are awesome. I like them. But, for how long? That's the main strenght of Starbound. Lots of diversity. You won't get bored. Not in the next millenia. Procedural generation did a good job for maps in Terraria and Minecraft, but Starbound took advantage of that in any way possible: items, NPCs, worlds, galaxies, SOLAR SYSTEMS!?!

Plus, tell me how many of the space ships that have been built in Terraria and Minecraft can travel across the Universe? That's right! NONE ..!..( - _ - )..!..

 

What really sets Starbound apart is potentially infinite replay value for those who enjoy the game. The way the mob's Pokemon skills are randomized on each new world, along with a totally new aesthetic environment, and heavy emphasis on exploring dynamic environments, players who fall in love with Starbound will never have that feeling of sadness when they've finished the game and it is over because that moment will never come.

While I think all three of your poll options are true, it is this infinite scope that sets Starbound apart.

 

Hopefully.
I have serious faith in starbounds potential, and from what we've seen it's looking good. But we can't say for sure whether the procedural generation is really going to carry the game that far. Fingers crossed though, and it has my full support

 

Actually I feel procedural generation can only carry things so far in terms of freshness.

Maybe you can't run into every combination.. but many will begin to look alike. Also.. there are only five "types" of enemies really. Tall (humanoids), squat (four legged/tankedwhatever), aquatic (mostly fish), and flying (which all seem to shoot projectiles). Lastly.. anything that doesn't fit in with them by being piece meal and is instead handcrafted.. such as penguins/po.. that will stand out jarringly. As for planets.. once you've seen twenty combinations you'll have seen a majority of the primary ones most likely. Brain planet, jungle, water, and so on.

I'm not saying it will get stale overnight, but there is a reason they are aiming to make it so modifiable.

 

Just an example of someone who crossed that line - though I disagree that he's an idiot. He crossed that line for sure, to the point that he was being too 'human' in public than he should have been, but the guy is clearly smart and talented... just maybe not the best public speaker.

Let's face it, not many 'gamers' are very good public speakers

 

Yea, but this is game sale dude. It repeats itself. And telling someone their opinion on a game is wrong is kind of dumb...enough people like it to justify it's continued existence.

But this is about starbound, nt that.

 

Can you put an option in the poll that says "I don't think it's going to be a big deal, and people should stop getting so worked up over it"?

 

I honestly just want it to be fun and be something you don't easily get bored of. I don't need an amazing story, hyper-realistic graphics or insanely detailed combat. In my opinion, that's not what games are about. If I want great looking visuals, I'll go look at art or watch a movie. An amazing story, I'll look in a book, maybe a movie. But for me, games are about having fun and being something that's fun to play. I don't care much about bugs unless game-breaking. They are sometimes a pain to fix and are usually pretty minor, and it's impossible to find them all.

I don't expect an end-all absolutely amazing game. But I have faith in the devs to make something great. What I expect is something that's fun to play. I don't want something totally unique. Creativity is good, but too much can ruin a game. While giant baseball playing gentlemen time travelers from the year 9001 in space is an original idea, I doubt it'd make a great game. (inb4 someone makes an amazing game out of that premise.) You just need to take the good features people like and plop 'em in with new suggested ideas, and test it out. Take some chances, but don't get to extreme. You don't need it to be realistic, just fun. That's what a game is about, at least for me.

 

I don't think it will be anything special, and I think it will take a whole lot more than a picture of an animated fly to tell me otherwise.
Will it be good? Probably. Will it be anything new? No. I'm guessing it won't be.

 

Random random random-ness is what we like the most!
I like how the 'Traveling around galaxy's' is invented, quite cool idea.

 

There are a lot of potential behavior patterns even within one type, though. For example, whether they approach aggressively and try to stay up-close vs trying to keep their distance until they are ready to attack. What skills they have could also have huge strategic impact, like if they have the ability to guard as though using a shield to block damage, or if they are highly resistant to certain types of weapons. Depending on how versatile this Pokemon-inspired skill system is, they could have moves that allow them to switch movement patterns like being able to fly one moment and then land to attack from the ground and vice-versa, or they could even transform into a totally different creature when they are low on health.

While the mobs we've seen so far seem rather lackluster to be honest, I see a lot of potential there that we won't really know about for sure until the final release, after we've seen the end-game mob AI variety. My hopes are high, but like you said, they are making it very moddable for a reason and we may have to end up relying on that to fill in the gaps. If nothing else, the extra replay value that mods can provide would be multiplied by the way they use procedural generation.