First feedback and impresions

Been playing a few days, seen the old regime, the rebalance and I've lurked a while. So at 53 hours logged I thought I'd take time to lay in some feedback. Some of this is simply subjective preference, some of it is more careful feedbacks or balance related. I'll try to save the most contentious for last.

Firstly then, Aesthetics.

I have to say, I find the Science fictional aspect of the game as stands, rather half hearted. Which is a shame because it was a novel aesthetic that hasn't been much used and would have made the game more distinctive. It feels though that you had to make it science fiction based, to appease backers and got those elements out of the way as fast as you could to let you make the rather bland and equally half hearted Fantasy you wanted.

It seems that for every good Science Fictional element you've added, you find a way to take it off at the knee.

We start with a teleportation capable FTL ready void-ship. That runs on Coal.
We are given a cool looking, easy to use efficient feeling Mater Manipulator. That is flatly outperformed by stone age tools.
We can play as a race of sapient androids. But they have a culture straight out of a renfair.
There are guns, but good luck finding any, if you do they eat 'mana' and in terms of damage the best I have found are flatly outperformed by the iron zweihander I hammered out on an anvil. One hand gives and the other takes away.

Then we have the drops from chests and bosses, which all feel much more magical than technological. Even the lighting methods, are burning torches or a handheld flash-light... I'm not expecting some KSM hard SF aesthetic, but for what has been given a very Science fictional name, and is sold as SF, the trappings could be made more of, and its falling short from even a Roddenberry era feel at the moment.

Its particularly glaring because so much of the game is based on mining, and we aren't even given a way outside of burning torches to light us as we chip away with a neolithic pickaxe, which makes spelunking into a chore. My character, with the *FTL-spaceship* feels less well equipped for wilderness survival and spelunking, even after a few hours of assiduous crafting, than a a Geology undergrad on a caving field trip.

Controls, aren't bad as such,save one, 'Down+jump' to drop though platforms feels clunky compared to Down+Down, its easy to mistime its simply not intuitive or as precise.

Meele, is pushed hard by the available options but is also very imprecise, at best you can choose to attack to left or right, not the angle which feels very restrictive. Particularly when enemies leap about like kittens.

Racial balance is already off. Apex starting seeds let them make Banana bread, and battered Bananas both of which give generous healing buffs from the off, which none of the other races I've played can do without finding seeds wild. Given the difficulty getting reliable healing early on that's something that merits across the board parity one way or the other.

There are other issues I'm having, on balance, difficulty, spawn rates of materials, but those all have their own threads so I wont clutter with those.

 

http://community.playstarbound.com/...ayers-knock-it-off.44207/page-20#post-1449947

 

No. More. Hardcore player threads.

 

Seriously, 1 throw away comment, closing, in all that text, and that's what you focus on? Ok for sake of possibly advancing debate, editing the OP.

 

I look at older threads that moderator have closed because things get "out of hand".

 

Agreed there are issues that need to be fixed. The ore and starting food. On the magical feeling that is more of a personal problem then something that should be changed.

 

Good observations OP, I agree about the Sci-Fi thing. I'd like to see more science and space and less planet of the apes. Agreed with Penguin, keep "casual" and "hardcore" out of any topic you want to be taken seriously.

 

actually given the temptation with Apex would be to make them more primitive, I rather like the 1950s paranoid SF and futurist vibe they gave them. But currently I don't really get much enthusiasm for the SF from the game. Its not saying "YEAH! Travel the void, Boldly go where no [your race here] has gone before' its much more 'Oh, fine you can have a spaceship. But it runs on Coal, and Stone age tools are superior to anything made with Uberscience!' like a put upon GM who really would rather be running something else.

And, I have nothing against fantasy, apart from the fact its a road already travelled and I know where it leads. I just wish they'd be honest about it, by all means have a gonzo kitchen sink setting, but, have it a science fictional one if that's what you billed the game as.

 

Yeah, I'm enjoying the game, but I'm having difficulty with these aspects. I feel like my character is some sort of murder-savant who somehow stumbled onto a spaceship. After all, lots of other people I encounter on my travels seem to be able to build guns and such, but I'm stuck with 12th century technology. I think adding more sci-fi type aesthetics, especially in craftable items (guns, please!) would go a long way. Some laser swords and blasters wouldn't hurt, either.

At this point, it just feels like fantasy except there's a spaceship, which isn't really what I expected or wanted.

 

right now i feel like im an explorer in the dark ages/medieval period

except i have a spaceship which makes it THAT much worse

come on

The drill did make me feel slightly happier, but a laser drill would make my day