The lack of rpg elements is surprising to be honest, there is no character development... It would be nice to be able to lvl/rank to grow your character, it would provide the need to complete random missions and it would also increase the need to explore and fight monsters... Having racial abilities and character skills would dramatically increase content, It is nice having a tier system, but if weapons and gear is the only thing leveling, what else is my character gaining or learning? leveling up crafting would upgraded recipes and add more control of your crafting size (Voxel/pixel size) for your matter manipulator. Example: Crafting size and control; lets say you could pick the the size and angle you wanted to craft. Example: Crafting 10 wooden doors you should learn a new recipe, (reinforced wooden door)..etc Example: Blade or other edged weapons could add increased attack, speed, or add additional attacks...etc Example: Jumping should increase height or gain a perk for it, like wall sliding...etc Example: Leveled monsters by layer of the planet and planet type, the lower the layer the harder they are...etc Skill concept.
I feel like it'd change too much of the game, or at least send it in a different direction it is already heading..... HOWEVER!!! I feel like this would make quite a good mod as then it is optional for whether people deal with that or not.
They've said they don't plan on adding leveling of this nature. Its not the direction they want to go with the game.
And it makes me sad...[DOUBLEPOST=1441225308][/DOUBLEPOST] Where do you find out what they are planning? When i first bought the beta it had hunger and temperature tracking. Now it doesn't have anything, i play alone so single player is pretty much me just building and avoiding stuff i feel is pointless...
Leveling stuff like stats doesn't really suit a game like Starbound. It's more of a role playing game thing. And while I love me some rpgs, an RPG Starbound is not. Having to level up things like Farming, crafting, or what have you would just be tedious. I don't wanna grind by digging dirt so my character can more easily dig out a diamond later on. I prefer upgrading my matter manipulator every so often. That isn't to say I hate grinding. One of my favorite things to do is money grind for the best equipment in the next shop in the next town in an rpg. I also like levelling characters up to the level cap in games that have some good grinding spots.
Just so you know, RPG means Role Playing Game, but at the same time, starbound is an RPG where you aren't likely to ever have a leveling system. It is more of an upgrade/survival/exploring system. I can see leveling going one of two ways. The first way would be killing creatures/crafting/quests/mining for xp all in one; the second way would be a system that separates them like what you are recommending. Each method has their perks: The first means that the player can level up doing what he/she feels is best, while the second means that players can choose what they upgrade when needed; they both have one similar problem that would kill the concept though: grinding. Grinding allows the player in an exp-based system to overpower themselves in battle, making it to where they can grind for hours to make the game easier on a planet when the difficulty curve is supposed to rise. With an exp system, players can abuse grinding to make the game easier and easier no matter the difficulty, which is okay in games like Dark Souls for their massive amounts of rage-inducing difficulty, but in a game like Starbound, an exp-based system would ruin the difficulty curve. Starbound is supposed to be a game where you can hunt and prepare for the next area, but no matter how much you prepare, the difficulty will remain the same in the next stage, so you still have danger when you explore their ever-improving landscapes. An Exp system may be fun for the first few hours of gameplay, but in a game like starbound, it would ruin the experience for some players. The only way I could see a way to fix that is to make creatures level up as you level up, but that would be a problem with multiplayer.
Even that would be nice, everybody is so worried that chucklefish couldn't pull it off... Having some leveling system wouldn't hurt the game at all, it would actually add content. May it be perks, racial abilities, or even character ranking like the item tier system. Starbound is indeed an RPG in many ways already, the only thing missing is the leveling system, they could in fact pull this off without hurting the game, we already level our gear and ship with the tier systems... The game is made up of several layers, the surface being the starting layer and should contain the lowest leveled monsters, the lower you go the harder they should get. So if i can rank up my ship, my armor and weapons why can't i level my crafting, i craft 10 wooden doors you learn a new recipe (Reinforced wooden door)...etc The skills you level would only help you develop your character, learn new recipe from actually crafting or cooking, run faster, jump higher, help your friends craft and level.
Depending on how it is done really is what determines the value of the idea. That goes for anything really. In theory, it can be shown either way, but the true value of it is the application. There are other ways than the examples I give, and it would be completely wrong if I said it was impossible to make a decent exp system on Starbound. The way I see it, as long as the grinding doesn't affect combat, an exp system shouldn't break the difficulty curve, which is the only thing I'm actually worried about with this.
True, i would like to avoid the senseless grind as well, but if crafting, fighting and exploring all levels you, that would eliminate most of the grind right there. It would have to be something simple yet attractive, a system that would work for both play-styles for starbound.
Crafting: Recipes work the same way, but start off a bit higher in costs because it would take more items for you to perfect an item if it was your first time. The more you craft of that item, the less it will take to re-craft it and items with similar materials, but it has a limit. Jumping/Running: Probably can be leveled up by making a way to level up tech in tiers as well. Fighting: Probably find ways for players to upgrade their armors (with limitations of course) Exploration: Basically your experience going around from place to place. Helps give specific information about some planets (ex: biomes that are on that planet/rare generated structures) Rank: Totals up your levels in all of your skills/stats and informs the player of your rank. Each improvement of a skill will not increase your rank, and the rank takes longer and longer to increase the higher your rank is (of course).
I am glad to see someone so open minded, i understand why some people worry but to be honest i believe chucklefish can pull this off very nicely.
I'm just saying, the first thought of an exp system, people usually think combat-based (both for or against), which is probably not the best thing considering static health of creatures per planet, but an experience system without combat involvement or an improvement system could prove helpful in some areas.
Whether or not they can pull it off, CF said they don't want to do a leveling system. And personally, I don't want one either.
I'm with you Lazarus. I can see this being done on perhaps another game but putting in a leveling system is usually something you'd do much earlier in designing a game (in my very small and not usually requested) opinion. I feel like it'd change the game quite abit from what it already is.... I suppose that's why the post I first put on this thread was to have this as a mod.
This concept is perhaps more cheesy than my pizza. Or @lazarus78 your feet. Honestly? No thanks to this. The game is like supposed to be a sandboxy game. Adding this wouldn't make it enjoyable cuz it goes away from the whole building concept.
I know what RPG stands for. But when it comes to how people define video games, RPGs have their own genre. JRPGs like Final Fantasy, the old Phantasy Stars, Lunar, Dragon Warrior; and Western RPGs like Fallout, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Fable, and the like. Using the non-game genre designation of RPG would mean literally every game is a role playing game.
It's not even sandboxy at this moment, at this point it's just about building, no actual survival elements implemented like when they first released it...[DOUBLEPOST=1441411210][/DOUBLEPOST] Fallout and TES are both RPG's and as nothing to do with final fantasy, role playing elements doesn't tie it to turn base or rely on leveling for combat, just something to rank up for better gear and recipes or new abilities.[DOUBLEPOST=1441411590][/DOUBLEPOST] The engine makes no differences when you implement something like this, it wouldn't change combat it would only add abilities, not make it turn base and i think you miss my point, it would still play like starbound just with character development added. They plan on adding space battle, so will tier 8 ships be stronger than tier 1? if so that is a level system, same with gear... So ranking and leveling is already in the game. Ranking and having some leveling curve is also what makes it sandboxy.
