Does Starbound lack charm?

Disclaimer: I love and respect Starbound, I'm not bashing the game but merely criticizing it.

I came from Terraria and before that Minecraft so I've got some different perspectives on randomly-generated open-world sandbox building games. Lately Starbound hasn't been able to keep my interest like it used to and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it's unfinished, which is totally fine, Rome wasn't built in a day. However I'm wondering if the reason this is happening is that there's something about Starbound's core concepts that turns me off. Starbound isn't a Terraria clone, obviously, and I don't necessarily want it to be but I suspect Starbound is doing some things that Terraria did better. It's almost as if Starbound lacks the charm that Terraria had despite having a beautiful soundtrack with great visuals.

Does anybody else have thoughts on this?

 

I think the game is charming, it's just unfinished. I knew it was unfinished before I bought it and did my research for a fair bit of time before finally purchasing it, so I knew exactly what I was getting and I'm pleased with the development so far.

 

This has to be the best thing I've ever seen on these forums (I don't spend too much time on here, but still). I wanted to say something about the loot but I wasn't entirely sure where to go with it. The main reason I made this post was because of what you said "But unless something is said, it will be too late to fix." Think me and you could do something about this for the sake of the quality of Starbound?

 

Or we just wait until the finished game is out.

I think Starbound has charm though.

 

Talk about a useless reply.

 

Not that I really care. Just adding to my post count. Obviously.

At least take it as a bump.

 

Whatever.

 

Yeah I just wanna make sure they're headed in the right direction seeing as this game has a lot of potential.

 

the ablity to play insterments with any song you like makes it way better then the others, just by itself

 

Not to mention the backgrounds especially at night

 

Especially using BiomeTex.

Otherwise there are a few flaws:
TECHNICAL
Shadows aren't really dynamic (theres a mod that fixes that but still)
OpenGL can be faster with proper use of Vertex Buffers
Post-processing shaders - SMAA, Dithering(used to enhance colors), LumaSharpening(trim out the edges of pixels), Bloom (colored lightning), vibrance/tonemapping (environment enhancements)
This is programmed in lua right? Why aren't we using Just-In-Time Compiler for Lua (LUAJit), it makes games WAY faster on older hardware.

ART
Can we pic a style or do we have to be so generic? I recommend steampunk/cyberpunk mix.
Special Effects, i mean i like the ones we have right no, woosh and its green flame or whatever but those can really be enhanced with bloom and vibrance to make em almost painting like.

Just brainstorming guys.

 

I feel it has charm enough. It does lack in a few areas as mentioned above. I think we all forget sometimes that the game is still in development and can get boring quickly when we run out of things to do or explore etc. I had the same thing with Rust and Day Z. Thankfully Starbound is keeping me honest so far (25 hours in at time of writing).

For more options / immersion I think more missions would be a good addition to take a break from sandboxing and base building. Search and rescue missions or a whole variety of them won't be far off I think. With such an active modding community these areas will be addressed by the community even if the developers don't expand that idea. When you look at the support of the Mods section on this site and also the inclusion of Starbound into the Nexusmods website I beleive that 'charm' will be in abundance in future.

For example look at Skyrim: Came out in 2011 (I think) 3 years later there are billions of mods for it of all descriptions. I reckon Starbound will be the same in years to come....but just remember these things take time. This game deserves your patience. Don't be scared to put it down for 6 months and come back later on to see what's changed.

**EDIT**

It has charm in abundance. The look of the visuals. The lighting, the atmosphere when you dig deep. My opinion is that it has plenty of the stuff.

 

I find that the game has charm, it sounds more like what you are missing is things that are yet unfinished. I definitely agree on the treasure ideas! I find that I quest for tech, seeds, instruments, recipes and codex entries. I'm still discovering new things in the game as I explore and I love seeing all of the different trees, creatures and worlds.

I would love to find truly useful weapons along the way too, especially from the mini boss enemies. So far they're good for capturing the local creatures and looking interesting, but not much else for the end game. I'm assuming being able to sell to merchants is coming in the future. I will find the game to be more charming when we can make towns where the villagers don't get immediately eaten by the local fauna. I just consider it all to be a work in progress and add or vote on suggestions as I go in the hopes I will see things I like in the game in the future.

 

Another solution which I'll be implementing to an extent in the Avali race mod, is to allow players to craft these stuff they want, but to make some of those recipes require obscure, non-craftable components that they must explore to obtain. The fundamental problem with the current system stems mostly from the fact all crafting materials re easily obtained from basically anywhere; need titanium? - Just fly to gamma or delta sector and dig, anywhere. Depth or environment isn't even a factor.

On the other hand, you can give players more interesting recipes if they must search for the parts; a sonic cannon that fires bouncing waves of energy? - I hope you've found a unharmonic oscillator module; better get exploring kiddo! (I hear the avians make them, so maybe find some avian temples)

 

I found the game quite charming in the beginning, but after we got married it just sits on the couch and drinks beer.

Ugh, gotta go, Starbound wants dinner. "Yeah yeah, I'm comin"

 

One step forward in making Starbound feel better would be to have better-looking particle effects. I know I shouldn't completely compare this game to Terraria...but look at Terraria's particle effects from swords, guns, weapons, etc. They look so freaking cool. The ones in Starbound look bland and boring, to be honest.

Also, not enough items and actions create particles. So yeah, more particles would help, too.

 

Last fall I dug out an old patio in my back yard. As a result of that, I now have about 186,845 bricks. These things fascinate me. They've got a great feeling of mass and texture, they're man made yet still retain a natural aspect and God knows they stack like a dream. As a born SB-type game player, I've naturally gone out there and, for a couple hours at a time, have rearranged them into different configurations. I say I do it because I'm trying to discover those brick's value, either in practical or artistic utility, but the fact is that I just like messing around with them. To me, those bricks have charm.

On the other hand, the wife has told me, in no uncertain terms, that she wants that great big horking pile of freaking ugly bricks out of her back yard and make no mistake about that, buddy boy.

The point is, you're never going to get a general consensus on something's charm because the concept is entirely too subjective.