Don't hold out on players

(EDIT: Most replies seem to imply that I'm suggesting something I explicitly denied in the part I marked red)


(From #2 in this article: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-all-games-could-learn-from-saints-row-iv_p2/)
And I think holding out is exactly what the devs are doing.
Of course I don't think everything should be available from the beginning, but a bit of everything should be. Currently we have very little in the early tiers especially tier 1. No vehicles, few guns, NOTHING cool that's advertised about Starbound. I have to agree with some of the other "complain-y" threads, that tier 1 just feels like a glorified (or not even that) Terraria.
I get it that the player character is stranded on the starting planet, having to scratch out a living in primitive ways, and gather fuel to fly away. But that should be it. Once you get off the starting level 1 planet, the universe should be wide open. If it's your choice to go directly to a level 10 planet, so be it. If by some chance you're able to live there, via insane patience or platforming techniques or exploits (hopefully will become rarer and rarer), congratulations.
Sadly that's not the case. Entire sectors of the universe are locked by arbitrary boss fights. You can't tame pets (one of my most anticipated features) until after tier 3 (so I've heard, haven't played after the update yet). Never looted guns even from gun-toting NPCs in tier 1. And I'm also worried that ocean biomes will wait until later - although beta, so there's still hope for that. It seems the devs are fond of implementing unnecessary and archaic limitations that contribute nothing to the experience (in a sandbox style game nonetheless), be it pickaxe sharpness (which I admittedly feel was never a problem or even effective), entire sections of boss-locked starmap, tech availability, or ways to spend pixels that entirely contradict the lore. Would it really hurt the game progression that much to open up the basic levels of each feature at the beginning, be it a primitive vehicle, a retro musket or taming alien creatures with food instead of pokeballs, just to get the player interested in searching for better versions of these cool features?
Please devs, show the potential of Starbound, early on in the game, in all its glory.

 

I agree, to an extent. Then again, by the 3rd tier you're already getting partially laser melee weapons, and they're making it more available to get guns from that point. Though for vehicles, I couldn't really see what kind of primitive vehicle it could be.
Though there needs to be some way to get guns other than buying them from merchants. Possibly crafting a random gun for each tier? Like say "Craft Tier 2/3 shotgun or sniper or assault rifle: [various materials]" and it gives random stats for the gun.

 

I have to admit I didn't read your post. I only hope you aren't complaining that beta is not as awsome as the complete game should be.

 

Come back when the first proper release of Starbound is out. You can only test so much at a time without it being overwhelming to try everything at once and watching everything break together.

 

If people are not realizing the diversity of starbound in tier 1, they are not exploring at all. In the latest patch, there is so much coal that it is possible to travel to 10 different planets in the first hour of gameplay. On these planets, they will run into towns, bases, different varieties of creatures, find loot, collect trophies and trinkets from the native seeded decorations, and enjoy a much more balanced combat system (if they dont craft their own weapons, since they are broken right now).

Then, they can use all of this to build a base/house/ship that suits their style and persona and get ready to fight the boss by gathering the required resources needed to survive the encounter. After that, they move on to a whole new tier of difficulty that comes with some new suprises each time.

If all of this content was in the first tier of exploration, or the entire game was open to exploring without earning anything... people would make their way to a high level planet, exploit some epic gear, and then never have a reason to experiance the metagame of working your way up in the universe, or feel great when you find a sweet looking upgrade when exploring a tier 2 planet. It sounds like what you want is not complete freedom (which you really already have) but instant gratification.

 

Well even before the wipe i didnt visited tier 2, i had fun building my "village" and filling it with guards and folks, while exploring the planets around and getting some pixels to buy more nps And now ill probably first explore some more before i settle on one planet, i donr rly have urge to rush trough tiers like others seems to do and then cry about wipe.

 

Uh, not quite.
Expanding your possibilities as you go along is what makes a game based on exploration more fun and interesting.

The biggest problem with Saints Row 4, and what the article fails to mention is that giving players all the great stuff up front also rendered a good chunk of content in that game moot.
Why drive cars if you can fly? Why fly in aircraft when you have super powers? All that work put into generating a cityscape terrain means little if you're able to ignore it so easily.

Which isn't to say that the player shouldn't EVER get access to those powers...but in analog they shouldn't get them right away.

Pacing is the key. Without initially experiencing limitations, the player cannot appreciate what they do get when they get it.

Admittedly, pacing is a difficult thing to gauge in a procedurally-generated game, but at least let them try to find it first.

 

God forbid someone might have to earn something once in a while.

 

In Terraria you could tunnel right down into the underworld right from the start if you felt so inclined. In Minecraft you can find a seed that will sit you right outside of a temple leading to The End. Sure you'll be underpowered for both situations, probably not as prepared as you could be, but you could go there.

This is the same thing. You could go and cheese your way to level 20 gear without much thought, but people who do that either do so because they want to see what it's like before going back to their main grind, or didn't care about the ride anyway.

 

True, and that's not what I'm against. I just prefer instead of locking away entire systems from early tiers (say, pet taming), the basics are available, and it would get more awesome later on.
Hope that's just a beta thing. If this stays to the final version, it seems to indicate there's no enough lasting appeal or diversity or depth or whatever in each feature, so the entire feature has to be delayed instead.

No, I've explored too much and find it's not diverse enough. The creatures might look and attack differently, but those translate to nothing. No descriptions, no different uses, etc. Planets have no difference in gravity, atmospheric makeup, mineral content, etc. Most biome blocks differ only in graphics.
Again, hope that's just a beta thing. And since the devs are already implementing more creature behaviors, I hope that indicates something more is planned.
"people would make their way to a high level planet, exploit some epic gear, and then never have a reason to experiance the metagame of working your way up in the universe"
I would argue exactly the opposite. Having better gear would enable people to experience the variety better, travel into different environments, "use all of this to build a base/house/ship that suits their style and persona " in their own pace, and generally enjoy the game. In addition, exploiting epic gear shouldn't be something that can be done that easily as long as you get to a planet. I hope skipping levels would carry its risks, and be appropriately rewarding.
"Instant gratification" - I guess you may say that. I simply don't think the "metagame of working your way up in the universe" should last for the entire game. There should be a point where things open up, and people are free to experience the best features of the game, without having to work through 5 or 6 bosses first.

 

you are missing another point. if you don't have access to something, if you have to work long and hard to get it, it feels way cooler.
i played wow, yeah, i played it, at the beginning, you had your slow mount and 40 (ok, i've played a pally, i got it for free), but than, when reaching 60, you were able to buy a fast mount..... you were ABLE, in 99,99%, you did not had the money, not even close.... i farmed days, weeks, just to ride 40% faster (200% instead of 160%)..... i fought through a quest to get my mount instead of just going to a merchant und buy it.... i gathered some guildmembers for the final quest, we fought through scholo, killed the boss, i turned in the quest.... and i got my fast mount... i rode trough half of the world, from stormwind to menethil, used the ship to get to those nightelfs, rode down to terramore (or what was it called?) and i planed to finish my ride in ironforge, ok, i had to raid at that time, so i quit early, but it was a great feeling.... nowadays, you get your first mount at 20, instantbuy, you get your fast one at 40, instantbuy, and just don't care anymore... having to fight trough a few tiers to get to some special stuff makes it way more entertaining having it, no matter how boring/awsome it may be...
the same goes for SR4... having all those superpowers.... oh, i cann call my gang... mah, nvm, they die from colleteral anyway.... oh i can call my... nah, nvm, calling them takes to long, i can just nuke half the town anyway... it feld boring after some time, in SR3, i drove around the city even after beating the game, in SR4.... finished it, never touched it again after that.... maybe when the DLC get's 75% off....... maybe

edit: oops, sorry for pushing it up. didn't saw that i had an old thread open

 

I just posted it 2 hrs ago.
Anyway, I can equally argue if the game teases you a bit about what you can get later with a taste of the most basic level in each feature, then you'll feel even more motivated to get the better ones (after still working long and hard). Currently, for a new player that haven't been following the development and announced features, there's little indication of what they could do later.

 

You should be happy, sword now do 5000 DPS...

 

Why?

 

So unless you have flying boots, robots, mech suits, NPC's at your beck and call, lasers to mine with, several variants of guns available to you while having the ability to survive on a level 10 planet before you step off you ship then the game doesn't meet your standard?

Gotcha.

 

It's a bug they're fixing, that's all.

 

They must have read your post...

 

You didn't.

They haven't.

 

I am aware its Beta and I imagine things will be very different with the end product:
I dunno, I think I'd like a bit more variation too. I get the whole progression thing but I also hate not being able to experience things while I was developing my character initially. I like to have a challenge but I don't think its unreasonable to want to have the option to explore places that are for later tiers either. I also played Saints Row series and I know how in the later games being given everything sours the experience and makes the game get boring super fast. As mentioned before though, a game like Terraria is an excellent example of a game that lets you go for the higher level stuff but at a much greater risk. Sure its fun to have earned your right to play with a pet or have a special set of furniture, but what about the people who wanted to have the opportunity to raise that pet from the beginning. I guess in a super convoluted way I'm trying to say it wouldn't be the end of the world for a hand full of the later tier stuff to trickle down in the first tier stuff. I remember in the first area of Dead Island you could find a single shitty revolver with barely any ammo. I think it might have been the only firearm in the whole first area, but it gave the player a sense of what would come later. I guess I'd like to see a jungle or two mixed in with the tier two worlds. Just to mix it up a little cause it kind of takes me out of the game knowing that some planet types only exist in different sectors. I apologize if a lot of this is off point or not making any sense, I'm still getting used to posting in forums.