So I picked up my copy of Starbound on the 9th, and having far too much time on my hands, I already have a character at Impervium tier. I'm having a LOT of fun with the game, and as beta continues, I have a few ideas about how to make the game a bit better. I will warn you in advance, these suggestions may not be that well organized, but here they are: More Dyes - From what I can tell, there are only three dyes right now: the primary colors red, yellow, and blue. I think it wouldn't be too hard to get additional colors: For the secondary colors orange, green, and purple, just mix the primary colors. Black could come from ink a la Minecraft, which could be mixed with orange to get brown. White could come from a new flower petal, which could be mixed with red to get pink. Improving Health Regeneration - Maybe it's just me, but it seems that all beds, bandages, etc. regenerate the same amount of health per second. This gets to be a problem when you get more advanced armor that boosts your health to ludicrous proportions (relatively speaking), as it takes forever to recover. My suggestion is that health-restoring items be tweaked to heal a percentage of health per second, instead of a fixed amount. For instance, a Wooden Bed would fully heal you in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether you're wearing Copper or Violium. As you rank through the tiers, and construct the more advanced beds, you regenerate faster. Then either have Impervium be the fastest regenerating, or have the absolute fastest be your respective racial bed. (Florian for Florian, Apex for Apex, etc.) Deactivate background music when playing an instrument - Whenever I play a musical instrument, it conflicts with the music playing in the background. The only place where I can play my instrument in peace is aboard my ship, which is nice, but I'd like to be able to hear my own playing more easily when on a surface. Simply add a switchable option in audio settings that, when activated, the background music will automatically stop when you or somebody near you is playing an instrument. Then, when there are no longer any musical instruments being played nearby, the background music would automatically restart. More Types of Merchants - The only type of merchant I've seen so far is the type that sells clothing. I'd like to see some that sell special weapons, armors, foodstuffs, maybe even blueprints for building materials and furnishings. It'd also be nice to see some merchants who are willing to buy stuff from you. Dialog seems to suggest that this is supposed to be possible, but if the feature is there, I can't figure out how to use it. I stand corrected; there are other types of merchants. Expanded Refinement Capabilities - Refinement is a great feature, but as of now, ores stop being refinable starting at Titanium. I think this should change. If it's overpowering that the devs are worried about, they don't have to yield more than Diamond, I just want something to do with my spare Aegisalt and Cerulium when I render them obsolete. UPDATE: January 29, 2014 Chracter Creation Color Indicators - It's a minor annoyance that I can't choose Human undy color, but one that I think would be easy enough to correct, while at the same time improving the character creator altogether: Put a little box next to each color selection that is filled with the color you have chosen. Saving/Naming Locations - This is a feature I see requested a lot, and I would concur. My suggestion on how to implement it, is to add a craftable "Dedication Plaque" item. It would be crafted with Cobblestone, Gold, and maybe a Circuit Board so that it can act as a navigation beacon. This would let you easily travel to the location you place it at, and would also let you name the planet, if you want a more interesting name than "Gamma Psi Whatzit III b." I might add more to this list later, but that's all for now. If any of these features are already in the game unbeknownst to me, or if there's an official blog, twitter post, etc. saying that any of these are coming, please point me in that direction.
There are blacksmiths and food merchants in villages, though the weapon/armor selection at the blacksmiths seem to mostly be bottom tier racial weapons and the occasional blueprint. The food merchants only sell ingredients, mostly from their race. Personally, I've not figured out how to sell things and I'm not alone in that. If it is available, it is really obscure how to do it. Personally, I'd really like to see recipes and seeds for sale as a random chance alongside the ingredients. So, some of the things you want here are available already. The best stuff, not yet as far as I know. ^^
Hmm... Never encountered smithies or food sellers... Guess I haven't done enough exploring for villages.
It is apparently possible, but not in a general "put item here to sell to merchant" function. It's possible to code a merchant with "reverse" trades, or even item-to-item trades, but it requires LUA scripting that is beyond me at this moment.
