Direction and purpose in Starbound

This thread is based primarily off a response I made to another thread, but being the attention craving lunatic I am, I felt like I should post my thoughts outside of the bottom of the 8th page of another thread. That being said, I'm 24 hours sleep deprived and this may make no sense at all. So bear with me.

When it comes to starbound, I've found that very rarely does it feel like I'm actually achieving anything, rarely, especially after beating the skeletal dragon, do I feel like I am achieving anything.

You dig, and kill, and explore, so you can dig and kill and explore, in slightly more difficult locations and then, when you do dig kill and explore in those difficult locations, it's somewhat hard to point out any porpose at all. You can build fancy things: Great, that could have been done much much earlier, all you've achieved is a somewhat notable amount of efficiency.

The game needs some form of direction, some greater goal to be achieved. Even if that greater goal is utilizing sandbox elements, there should be something that stands out as an end goal for progress, also needed is an insentive to explore.

As it is, once you reach the final tier, you're kind of...done. Huzzah, you've mined fancy minerals and got fancy eqipment.. now go build a house somewhere. Enjoy.

Which is nice, sure, I mean, people like building and this game gives you HEAPS to build with.

But at the same time, the progression of the game feels hollow when you dont give it any form of impact for achievement half the time, you reach the next level, congrats, now you can start working towards the next level.

Why?

So you can get more powerful, so you can fight the same enemies, in a more powerful setting.

There needs to be some sense of achievement, some sense of "okay, now that I've got <x>, I can finally <y>!" when y isn't "fight tougher dudes", a feeling of unlocking something new, something that changes things.

That, and perhaps a sense of urgency. One thing that strikes me are the tentacle planets.

If by chance they can spread, perhaps a battle can be created involving fighting the spread of tentacles give a sense of urgency, give a sense of an ongoing battle for which you are ever better prepared to fight the monsters that lurk deeper within tentacle planets, which could be littered with underground loot which is protected by enemies of ever progressing difficulty, until you can eventually reach defeat the core beast in the planet for a large prize of some form. What's needed is to involve some sort reward system for progressing other than the ability to progress through a slightly altered amout of more of the same.

Also, there needs to be a more real benefit to exploring. Because, if you're unlike me and dont enjoy exploring for its own sake, then you're going to see a few of the different planets, say 'meh' and then just progress through the game, get the things you want and be kinda dissapointed that everything never really took more than a couple of planets.

Perhaps have some ores appear on different planets within the same tier and not on others, give a variety for planets that either encourages, or possibly even forces players to travel and explore.

Include random events that can take place, involve catastrophic disasters, incredible unlikely events, wonderous but brief meetings with well known lore characters, give people something to look for, to hope for.

Perhaps have interesting new game mechanics be avaliable to those who fight the right thing, or to those who look hard enough for it. (the first thing that comes to mind is some form of great 'world forge' tool, which would use vast numbers of pixels to let you custom build a planet for yourself. And maybe a similar set of world changing tools, perhaps one to add oceans, one to change the make up of an already existing planet, one to create your very own life forms, all found on some ancient alters on tier 10 but completely flat and empty dead worlds in some special looking chest

Create new and diverse abilities, new gameplay oppotunities, for those who search or work hard for them, rather than just the exact same game they've been playing from the start, only a bit faster and a bit harder.

 

You raise some good points here. Though, for me at least, the real fun to be had with this game is when I can build elaborate bases maybe one in each sector, out of random things I find...being beta and losing my stuff every few weeks i am holding off on building and just learning mechanics and trying new things.

That being said the game is still very much unfinished, each boss will have a story line of quests and there will be random quests from npcs. Also if i remember right sector X is a place holder, which they plan to turn in to new sectors like alpha-delta with their own storylines and bosses. I think when those are all implemented there should be more to the progression than there is now.

 

I stated the suggestions section my idea for a research system, where you scan creatures, plants, and so on for research points to unlock schematics and tech. I feel it could help progress the game more and make it feel more achieved. Same with an idea I had for crafting higher tier fuels rather than just popping coal and other ores into your tank and flying away. I feel this game needs to work harder on the early game rather than late to mid game. As a skilled modded-Minecraft and Terraria player I know all it takes is a bit of focus to breeze through multiple tiers without even noticing it is happening. Then the early game vanishes. In a Minecraft modpack such as FTB I will be bored in a few hours because I have capped out all my tech trees, while in Terraria I tend to make my way to end game gear rather fast. (about 6 hours to get myself to the point I am farming bosses for collection reasons rather than actually needing some rare item). Starbound is starting to reach that point for me as well.

 

The answer no one wants to hear including me.

This is a beta. It has been stated things will change including the tier system. Quests will hopefully add some purpose to the game.

So don't treat what your playing now as a finished product because it's far from it.

 

We are hearing you, we are simply stating what portions need improvement on the path to a finished product.

 

This thread was criticising systems and gameplay that are subject to change. The way the thread was worded sent me a message that the OP played for a couple hours and said "that's it?". And the thread has only a couple suggestions that should be elaborated on and some that have not much thought put into them (OP was sleep deprived so this is forgiven).

So what I'm saying is. This thread is one big complaint about something that is obviously changing.

 

I'd advise not playing until its out of beta, currently unless you can get enjoyment out of building / finding bugs your going to be stuck for things to do.

 

I think the biggest problem isn't that we know they will change, rather that we don't know how they will change. The devs havn't said much, about systems that are going to change, other than "it's placeholder" if we could get some information on how the system they will use is supposed to work, we'd know what to give feedback on. Take for example the current tier system, that's Tiy said was completely placeholder, we have no info at all on what the "real" system will look like, will it work in a similar way or will it indeed be something that's completely different from what there is now?

 

They need to fix progression. The procedural generation of enemies needs a bit more guidance as you go up in difficulty. As it i now, almost everything feels the same no matter what level it is.

I still think they wont really achieve a satisfying progression until they unlock all tiers on a single planet. This way we can always find a challenge no matter what "sector" we are in and progression can feel less linear and more like us trying to conquer a planet/system.

 

The way I see it, having already paid for early access you now have a choice: to either continue playing thoroughly as each patch is added, only experiencing say 10-15% extra content, exhausting that content within one or two days or even one or two hours depending on how much free time you have to play and the manner of the content in question..

OR you can forget Starbound entirely for now, forget these forums find something else to play and return to it a few months down the line.. as an almost-completey new experience. Quests / Storyline added, much-complained about tier system finally balanced and everything else that people have issues with at this point in time being addressed.

Third option, most unpopular and extreme minority it seems.. remember this is a beta-testing phase and stop trying to look for 'content' in an unfinished game. The core mechanics are still being implemented and we're all here to playtest bugs and provide feedback. Not complain about 'lack of purpose' etc.

 

Currently I am sitting on a solid 82+ hours gameplay time, which isn't huuuge, but considering I only got it like after christmas I think is pretty okay. But yeah, sleep deprivation was probably a pretty big factor in the majority of the suggestions.

The main thing I was alluding to really was just the fact that in a looot of games, progressing leads to just doing the same thing, just a little harder now.

And it was striking me that starbound might suffer that later on too.

I am aaaactually really happy with the game, and not so much criticizing it, as attempting to open up discussion about possible future weaknesses that could be looked at, in addition to bringing up a couple of vague ideas as to what might make the game a little more interesting.

I guess it's somewhat out of fear after playing a lot of a game called warframe.

In warframe, you can work towards getting loads of new weapons, grind levels on those weapons, get new abilities and access new worlds, and it has all the makings for something really quite exciting, but upon playing it for some time, it's pretty quick to realize that "oh. this is just more of the same" as really, the things you do in the super hard high level insane areas, are the exact same things you were doing in the lower level areas just about, just with a more difficult setting, and you realize that all the grinding you did, was just so that you could grind for the unique items in that area, then grind up levels for them, then wonder what you're meant to do then.

I was just saying that I hope that starbound wont be like that in the future.

It's still in beta, I know, and that means that, in fact, most things about the game will be subject to change, and much of what will be, currently isn't here yet. But really, when games are in beta, there's never really a better time to voice concerns and suggestions for the games future.

Also, @Poseidon : I am fully aware of everything you said, and am not yet at the point where I even have to wait for new content, I am perfectly content to continue zipping about exploring new planets to see what I can find, what the coolest planet I can discover is, what biomes I haven't seen yet, so on and so fourth.

If you read my original post, I am a fan of exploring for its own sake, and am happy to simply wander looking from planet to planet to see what there is to see.

That said, so far I haaaaaaave made contributions to the bug spotting department, and that THIS THREAD is me providing feedback. It's not me 'complaining about lack of purpose' it's me suggesting that purpose and a greater insentive to explore in the future would be a nice addition. While I am sure that they already have similar things in mind, feedback on what they have plans to do can act as a good indicator that they're on the right track.

 

Don't jump on the "Ohhhh I have a reason I want to shape the game" reason.

Look I read this all and you offered some suggestions that had no substance. Not only that but half of your post is complaining about the current system and how it gives you no purpose. You don't even offer any that would add purpose other than the tentacle planet, but earth is long gone.

All I'm saying is that the current system will change never have I stated that you could not suggest what direction you want the game to take but you did not suggest much if not anything.

The fact is. This weakness you are telling me about is already changing. You can tell the devs would direction you would like them to take the system if you want but I want you and others to know this is not the final product you are playing.

 

82 hrs is a lot. i would worry about burnout on an unfinished product if it was me. but YMMV.

 

id love a skill system but <w< i spose others would hate that.. also id love alien invasions :O like you can see the massive ship in the distance getting closer and closer and if you don't ditch the planet before it gets there then when you try to port up you get trapped in their ship or if you die you get sent there aswell

 

Skipping past all the arguments;

A really cool concept is that there is some 'dominating force' attempting to conquer the galaxy planet by planet and us as players have it in our hands to affect it.

I love the idea of threat level 11 tentacle planets (next level up) that contain a world boss that is rather tough to reach. I really like that idea, it gives end-game folks something to do continuously.

 

The mocking tone is a little much, but really yes, I know this is not the finished product, literally if it was, I wouldn't be here talking about it.

Also really the tentacle planet thing was in no way talking about earth at all.

Yes, earth is gone, and if the beast that destroyed earth, is the same beast that is turning many other planets into tentacle biomes, the perhaaaaps lore wise, it could be said that the same thing is happening to those?

At which point, it could be introduced as an idea that the game later on could be an attempt to stop the progress of the beast or whatever, save planets, all that nonsense.

Really, I'm not going to go full into details for a series of suggestions just made as avenues to take to avoid stagnation, especially when the devs would probably have their own plans on the matter.

...Also my other ideas were less about purpose so much as insentive to explore, though this is mostly for greedy reasons cause that's my favourite part of the game so far, and I'd love for it to get even more exciting.

While they say they will change in the future, we dont know how or even in some cases what, they will change, and while I think it's safe to say "Everything will be good in the end", it still leaves me curious as to whether it's going to be a case of "it'll be mostly the same, but with a lot of extra content" which would be nice, or "It will be largely a different system, with a lot of extra content." Which would ALSO be nice.

It's hard to know where one is supposed to make suggestions, and/or point out problems, when our knowledge of what is to come is so limited.

So I am pointing out the biggest problem for me, and thus making sure that, no matter what the case, my concerns have been aired.

 

Mmm, honestly I like the idea, and I like the idea of some reward system stemming from it for late game people, adding something that isn't just something to make killing more of those planets easier, but perhaps something along the lines of a new tool or fuel for a very late game obtained item that allows the player to do something unique.

As I said before, I like the idea of world generation, along the lines of "for every <x> worlds you save from the evil tentacle beasties, you can make a brand new planet of your own, allowing them to choose stuff like tree type, dirt colour, rock type, % of the world made up by <a>, <b> or <c>", maybe creating items that let you add a mini biome, like the geometric or eyeball biome to your newly created world or something.

It'd give people a way to hand design their own homeworlds, give them something that might feel meaningful to do late game, and give them a physcal, tangible reward for it, each planet being made feeling like a trophy.

 

While I haven't played nearly as much as 82 hours, which by the way is pretty ridiculous, I can see a few of the current flaws with exploration and world generation.
I have visited many snow planets in particular, and my conclusion on them is that they are pretty much planets with white dirt and few plants. Not very exciting. I think the first thing that they need to do in order to make exploration more interesting is to make biomes more distinct by adding unique minerals and dungeons that can only be found on certain types of planets.

A couple of unique events would be pretty nice too. On all the snow planets i have been to i have never actually seen it snow. A big blizzard would be pretty cool. Especially if it had some effect on the terrain.