RELEASED FrackinUniverse 6.4.3

I think it's time to bring this up(I'll bring this up anytime I encounter something with no CONSISTENT counter to it).



The video establishes key rules for when a difficult game remains fun inspite the difficulty(vanilla actually follows these well, though it's also easy):

1: Rule consistency. When the rules are consistent, the player cannot blame the game or developers for his mess-up, he can tell he is the one who screwed up. Vanilla starbound follows this to a tee actually.
2: Multiple solutions to a problem. Starbound(Vanilla) lets you advance different things at your own pace after you get your ship moving. The only true linearity is the main quest and the fact you need to get an environment pack.
3: Telegraphing: Planets with meteors scream "HEY I HAVE METEORS!" in the weather patterns in vanilla.
4: Iteration time(thankfully worms don't have much of an effect on this).
5: Usability: If something is to hard to use 90% players won't even bother with it. Sometimes even expert players will not use some things if they are unusable enough. A violation in #2 can often be the result of a violation in this rule.
6: Difficulty curve. Unreasonable spikes in difficulty can often chase players away from the game. The game has to be approachable for it to be enjoyable, even if it's meant to be challenging.

Even one of these rules failing will also automatically cause at least one other rule to fail: Lack of telegraphing will for example cause rule consistency to fail. A rule consistency violation leads to all rules failing 90% of the time.

When difficult is fun. Where do the worms violate the rules the video establishes? Some in depth reasons.

1: Rule Inconsistency. They have wildly fluctuating resistances and wildly fluctuating health. They do not obey biomes apparently, causing even penumbra or protocyte worms to show up in mountainous biomes(though these are the easy ones actually), some worms with no rewards at all are grindingly tough to kill. This makes them punishing, not difficult.
2: Inadequete solutions: Shield Generators aren't consistent devices that protect all nearby blocks, only things you either placed(apparently), or only dungeons that were there in the first place. They work when they want, not cause the player placed them. They are inconsistent, and thus, useless. Some worms are so tough turrets will not work on them, turrets themselves are very weak, and require tons of durasteel and extra resources to make.
3: No telegraphing. All planets should just list these things in the descriptions and all planet types should have varients which are more common without worms. This also hampers any solution you would include later if you don't fix this. Yes, EVERY planet that has them has to say it has them, period. It's that black and white cause they are that much of a problem.
4: Iteration time violation: It can due to the random number god, take a long time to find a planet without worms because of a lack of telegraphing, not to mention the sheer time it can take for a starting character to take some worms down.
5: Usability violation: See #2, shield generators.
6: At least your aware of this one, yes some worms cause a huge spike in difficulty.

What you made Sayter is a "Demonic spider", an enemy all players hate and cringe at the mere sight of thats also very, very common. Like Carpes or elephants in dwarf fortress, or the class 1 driller in descent, or the medusa in terraria or even creepers in minecraft(and i don't consider creepers that bad).

 

Seriously. Shut up already.

I know they have issues, because you won't shut up about it. I have also been clear that we are looking into it. No matter what I say, I get a huge, wordy reply on the topic. I get it. You don't like it. I don't care. I'll fix it when I fix it. Deal with it. End.

I'm not discussing this nonsense anymore. I can only repeat myself so many times before I lose my patience. It is now lost. Do not mention it again. Please.

To answer your points and get it out of the way:

1. They have fluctuating health and resistances on purpose, to unbalance the player. This is not going to change, no matter how nicely you ask. Different species, different stats.That they spawn in all, (rather than particular) biomes and not is the issue. So that will be addressed as I have previously already pointed out. More than once.

2. There are many solutions to the situation, namely defensive measures or simply not building on that planet in the first place *gasp* .

3. I don't need to tell the player about them beforehand. Nor would I. The point is to not know what to expect. Telling them ruins that surprise. To be blunt, they are creatures and not weather. Vanilla biomes do not list the native wildlife. I am not listing them. Don't care if you like it or not. Also see 1.

4. See 1.


5. See 1.

6. See 1.



Now, lets drop it. I don't want to hear another damned word about the burrowers for the time being.

 

Really, I love FU, and also of course sometimes I feel like "god, this is really hard", but I dont complain about it because most of the hard part can avoid by our effort, tactics, ideas, or even using another mod which makes game easier.
and I know Sayter and his team are just making this mod for their fun. not to make all what we want.
Thanks for making great mod sayter and your team. Plz take care, and be safe, keep up the good work. I really enjoying this mod now
Sorry for my bad English, since its not my 1st language.

 

sayter updated FrackinUniverse with a new update entry:

5.3.8.52

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

sayter updated FrackinUniverse with a new update entry:

5.3.8.52

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

sayter updated FrackinUniverse with a new update entry:

5.3.8.52

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

sayter updated FrackinUniverse with a new update entry:

5.3.8.53

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

...Xylia, you know when you said one of the NPCs was cheap? Tell me about it. I just got absolutely DECIMATED by some random glitch with an ATOM SMASHER. You know, the bigass beam cannon? It was one of those dungeons with the NPCTYPE Elitebountyhunter or something. They were everywhere. Only one had an atom smasher, but good god. I'm not going there ever again.

 

*grin* elites dont mess around.

 

Yeah, I see that now T^T My question is, where did they get all those weapons so quickly!? I don't even know how to obtain the Smasher!

 

perhaps whoever hired them to defend the facility provided them with the armaments.

 

The worms don't increase the difficulty for me it actually lower it. Since getting mid to end tier ore simple and they are simple to kill. I can shred them with a mining lazer. Since there whole body is a target that adds up all the damage it get in one setting. It's all about having a weapon that don't hit 1 part but all.

Btw sayter if u do read this i want to know why the going to the center of the planet and mine its infinite source is removed? I loved doing that but now i can't farm my infinite nitrogen and sulfur planet anymore. :c

 

thats my stance too. yea, they cant be a btich to kill...but if it gets me Zerchesium early on...who gives a crap? I can build a zerchesium spear shortly after and ANNIHILATE those worms

as for the cores: i didnt change them. no idea.

 

It's a bit of a mixed bag. Can't get lava from cores of lower tier planets but can get Bio Ooze from proto planets. Doesn't seem to be any real consistency to this, or perhaps Bio Ooze is the exception. However, this has been around since at least the 1.2 days. It wasn't a 1.3 change as far as I know.

 

meh. hardly critical at any rate

 

I like the worms, and the difficulty factor. It's good to have an "oh shit" moment now and again, for some mindsets, just as that same mindset grows bored when nothing unexpected or challenging happens. If you want something to complain about, try playing a hardcore character with these "out of depth" spikes. I lost a character to what I assume was dire worm (it was huge and nasty) digging too deep for peryite. (Not that the character death feature works on my setup, but I haven't taken the time to work out the cause...)

Edit: I don't think the worm in that case was an example of a disproportionate difficulty spike, given where and what I was mining. Just an anecdote about a satisfying tragedy.

That was a tragic one, as I would have been kitted out in War Angel after my mining there was done, and would have had no cause to fear worms going forward.

I've had more trouble with the extra dungeons, really. Can't dig and they contain traps that use effects quite alien to vanilla starbound to kill your character.

I sympathize with the base building problem worms present in tandem with fickle shield generators.

But on subject, I can think of one specific thing that keeps striking me as out of balance (and not in the player's favor) - the volcano dudes can have projectile effects that get pretty ridiculous under certain conditions. For example, the purple volcano monsters most often found on penumbra worlds can kill near-instantly a well equipped character if they get trapped between the monster and a wall, or happen to fall directly on top of one. You get hit by every single projectile they produce simultaneously and the damage racks up way quick.

 

Typo with all 3 pieces with the Pyreite armour with "Lav" rather than what I presume is meant to be "Lava" listed under the immunities.

 

Well on ores yes, they do make it easy, the main problem I speak of is in fact base building. If I don't plan on building on a planet then worms are a benefit rather than a hazard.

I do not mind hard mobs(specifically ones which cause high damage, i like those, I hate high health common enemies though, everything being a tank bethesda style is a turn off), I do mind them when base building is fully disrupted with no real practical solution(again, even creepers in minecraft were easier to counter, just place a fence a few blocks away around the house).

High damage = ok. I have to dodge more, learn the tactics and patterns and come up with some tactics of my own to deal with it.
Ultra high health(with or without high damage)= boring, lame and very annoying and frustrating. Not hard at all, just takes a while and some extra health items.

It's just the base building and their threat to it that makes me really despise them enough to consider them a demonic spider. I wanted specifically to build a colony and base on an irradiated world(and found worms spawn practically at the surface on all of them, even large irradiated worlds), I've since given up on that idea and decided only ocean-like planets are the only place anyone should ever, ever settle(I won't condemn you for settling anywhere else, but really, ocean planet benefits far, far exceed in so many ways to non oceans). I mean, oceans water can be so versatile, and condensors in large numbers on an aether sea is pretty effective. Or know, toxic and poison if you like fuel but don't want a dozen condensers. Ocean-like planets are just superior in every way to non oceans.

 

Two words:
Tabula. Rasa.

These worlds are also 99.999999% Burrower safe. The only way you're ever going to run into them on TR worlds is in the VERY deep mini-biomes below the surface. But those are VERY deep down, as in 5000-10000+ block range. Same goes for any other type of creature.

Seriously, colony building is why these worlds exist in the first place.

@sayter
Little issue/question, but is Grass Remedy supposed to use the miracle grass seed instead of the clipping? If so, nevermind. Otherwise that recipe needs fixing.

 

There's also Eden worlds which are nice if you like Bees because of their longer day cycles, and most Edens tend to have areas where the only enemies present are bandit camps. Once you kill the bandits, no other enemies will spawn on the surface there.

Bonus points for free FU machinery, solar panels, and structures full of rare/difficult to make blocks/furniture/crates that you can steal as well.