Now i know this game is trying to be like the Terraria in Space, not a bad thing, in fact i applaud it as it makes me giggly like a schoolgirl, but one thing that made Terraria so good was its weapon progression system, each weapon was unique, everything was special and could be catered to the playing style of the individual. The hole that i believe this game has fallen into is the Skinnerbox issue, where you feel compelled to keep playing for the CHANCE that you will get good loot instead of building up to it and feeling accomplished, and like you "earned" this epic new item you made. it leaves all your good weapons to chance, which is disappointing. i understand that randomly generated loot makes for an exciting experience, but that only lasts so long before it just kinda dies out. so while random items are good i do notice you have some with repeat names. now if those became standard items with the buffs like, crappy, or sharp or epic, then this could be avoided, however i also understand that the game is far into development and may already be too far down this road for the change to be possible. Anyone else?
Yes. This is the problem wit many, many mmos and I hope it doesnt become a problem for starbound. Random loot is fun and exciting, but eventually you get bored of it, and you want to just work hard, find the materials. Find the stuff you need then craft it. Or maybe buy it. This could be fixed with maybe adding a player shop option, but I think that would probably b a pretty controversial thing (people want it people don't) and I think it would just ruin the game, making it so you dont go to villages to trade, but just to the shop. I think the best solution is to keep random items, but also introduce really good items hat can be worked towards. Thanks
I'm perfectly fine with random loot, but the problem is that proper loot is primarily in surface chests. 95% of weapons found/dropped are melee as well, the only way to get a decent ranged weapon is to look up co-ordinates of Airships. Random loot is fine, but farming for good weapons needs help.
I'd like to be able to find good ranged weapons, they're my weapon of choice. Or, they would be if I could find one. Technically, there are weapons you can craft (in the anvil etc.), but the ones you can find are better anyway.
I would like to see some mythical weapon quests for instance having to track down some temples with weapon fragments in each, then u must find a lost alien blacksmith to forge the pieces together, then a wizard casts a spell and viola you have excalibur
You could try exploring a few asteroid belts, if you've got the proper gear to operate there. There's fairly common little bases in there that, in my experience, always have a container with a weapon in it and fairly frequently it's a gun. This may not be true in lower sectors, however, as guns practically seem to not be in the loot tables, period, in the first few. Probably more reliable than attempting to find an airship, unless you already know its coordinates. I think I've stumbled across a grand total of one. I've also found higher quality weapons in them.
I think you guys are mis-understanding what a skinner box is and how the definition is appropriate in a video game. In a skinner box, an animal is conditioned initially by providing rewards for success, but a punishment on failure. Later rewards are withdrawn and instead only a punishment meted out for failure - the term skinner box in the context of MMO's usually applies to gameplay mechanics where players arn't doing it for the reward so much as doing it to avoid being penalised, yet discourages them from quitting, because they will suck up the full extent of thep unishment. For example daily quests that offer time-gated rewards (Dilithium in Star Trek Online, Quartz in Guild Wars 2, Tomestones in Final Fantasy 14) which iof you don't play X many of a certain mission type per day or per week, you'll be left at a disadvantage and fall behind. I don't see that Starbound could ever have skinner-box like mechanic introduced or why it would need it, given there is no long-term payment model to encourage players to keep grinding and playing, or to time-gate content in that sense. Random loot generation more appeals to the part of our lizard-brains that gives rise to gambling behaviour; wanting to see what's in the next box so to speak
Informative but maybe a bit irrelevant. OP may have used the wrong term to describe his concern but I think his concern is valid. He's worried that you'll never be able to craft weapons that are better than those found in chests and that searching will become boring. For me it's not a concern because I enjoy searching.
I think the craftable weapons are supposed to be a gate to each tier, entry-mid level for the threat level, not supposed to be clearly superior
I have to agree with this. Right now the game seems to be grind materials for armor, find any weapon by running along the surface of the planet, then kill the boss and go to the next level. I think the main problem with the system is the randomized loot being mostly the same and consistent among each threat level, and for the most part being identical to crafted gear except for the DoT effects like Poison or Burning (which are worthless after Threat Level 2 because those effects don't scale with weapon damage). As for the solutions, I think this would help: Severely reduce the number of weapons found in chests. You can find 2-3 weapons per chest with near identical stats. Chests should have other equipment in them like survival equipment, unless the chest is in a place where specific items make more sense (Clothes and Clothes Blueprints in Chests that are in tailor shops, Weapons in Chests in weapon shops) Reduce chest generation outside of generated structures. It doesn't make sense to find Chests just littered all across the ground. They should be rare. Change loot based on location and type of container. Surface chests will have poor loot like okay weapons for that Threat Level, or mostly items like Bandages, Pixels, or basic materials. The further down you go, the better the loot. As for dungeons, they should have slightly better loot than other chests at that depth. Add a ton of unique armor and weapons for every Threat Level, and cut back random generation. Things with custom effects and looks you cannot find anywhere else. Give these the ability to generate quests to find them through logs you can find or through quests.
Randomly generated armours have already been denied by Devs, but I don't imagine it'd be impossible to mod in, though linking randomly generated loot to quests may be difficult unless they're similarly legendary tier with very little difference. A way to do that would be that picking up ANY piece of that set will trigger the quest, and you'd have to complete the set with other specific parts, or maybe craft with the randomised piece to finish the quest.
