Grappling hooks dont feel good to usee

there have been many changes to starbound that I didnt like, but I got used to most of them

not the grappling hook change. back in koala the grappling hook was great, it was smooth, you could build momentum, gain altitude, swing yourself around a single block and retract the cord and go CRAZY unwinding it

but not since giraffe. the grappling hook only seems to extend/retract several blocks at a time (very often I have taken fall damage but lightly tapping the down button) and its practically impossible to get above where the hook is (it may be actually impossible, cause ive never managed it)

one of my favorite things to do was go to an asteroid field and move around using nothing but dual grappling hooks and launching myself upwards at the speed of sound. now I can barely even get TO where the hooks are, and forget about going past them.

I dont know if the changes were intentional or the by-product of other changes, but I want the old way the grappling hook worked back. im making a post about this cause this is the time to point out problems with the game, and this is a big problem for me

 

Yeah. There's no need to restrict the grappling hook so much in a game where vertical access is pretty much never gated in the first place since you can just build your own platforms without limit, unless there's a shield generator around.

 

Good news; the nightly build updated and made the grappling hook more controllable. The increment in length adjustment has been fixed, and is much easier to finely tune. Likewise, swing speed is pretty fast now, AND I could build up some momentum (Not as crazy as in the past, but certainly better now).

Unfortunately though, they ruined the rope graphic. It's no longer striped, but the same as a regular rope. It's also a bit shorter, I think.

 

I would be content if they merely fixed the "tapping down makes you take fall damage" thing.

You should not take fall damage while having a hook out, ever. That kinda defeats the whole purpose of said hook entirely. The rest of the mechanics of Stable grappling hook I find are rather reasonable, other than perhaps the reel-in speed being a little slow.

As for the OP's complaint about not being able to get above the hook, well, um, it's called gravity and momentum. If you were to use such a device RL, you'd find that gravity would make it quite difficult to get much above the hook, even if you had a perfect swing spot. You'd need a LOT of starting momentum, a long swing, and even then, you might just barely get above the hook.

What I'd like to see, is for the hook itself to have gravity once it reaches the maximum extension. I can't count the number of times I'd see cliff outcropping above me, and wish I could shoot the grappling hook straight up with just a small slice of forward (perhaps 5-10 degrees) and let the hook fall ontop of the thing and latch it onto something and THEN pull myself up. But no, we can't do that lol.

 

Ha ha! I keep hearing so much about how crappy Giraffe is compared to Koala.

That said, I do think Giraffe has come a long way and has gotten a lot better, but I agree with you that grappling hooks are kind of bland right now.

 

MOST features of Giraffe are far superior to Koala.

However, there were a few little things that they changed that people don't like. We might not like the grappling hook, other players might think the GH is fine, but other things like the merging of the systems was a bad thing (I remember when you had to use items to learn to travel between systems lol).

To each their own, but as a whole, the game is far better than it was during Koala days.

I remember the overpowered weapons doing 1400 damage or what-not, I remember getting T10 armor and being downright invincible, etc.

 

The "Your Starbound Crew" mod has (or used to have) the ability to swap the stable grappling hook for the koala grappling hook, at the first-mate merchant guy I believe. But since the mod was reworked I'm not sure if its still there.

 

I never even really used the grappling hooks. Caves are too narrow to be useful I find, and on the surface there is nothing to swing from. Only fun I had was using them to swing from the bottom of an airship.

 

Grappling hooks with a limiter on their extension speed to keep them mostly safe to use would be a convenience at least.

 

While I realize this, what's the purpose of the grappling hook if, when you barely tap the down key you start free-falling far enough that in most cases, you're going to smack into the ground and take fall damage?

The climbing ropes don't even do that. The climbing ropes function as they should, they SLOWLY lower you down.

Is it rather sad that a few plant fibers can make an item that functions better than an item made with 20 durasteel bars? (yes, I realize the former is consumable and the latter is not, but still).

 

Just because there are ways around it doesnt make it a good mechanic though. The fact that you need to find ways around it pretty much say it all right there.

Back to topic. As I have only played the giraffe build I have almost never used the grappling hook because of the issues that you have listed. I have tried many different planets, tried to use it in different ways.... nope, pretty much useless to me. I find jumps and dashes to be the more effective solution.

But swinging around in one of the asteroid belts as you described sounds awsome.

 

Then what's the point of even using it in the first place, then? Because that's the thing you try to do without the grappling hook.

The point is... it's an "upgrade" that's actually a downgrade. You get climbing ropes at the very beginning of the game and they do pretty much the same thing (and better in some ways!) than the gun you gotta pay 20 durasteel for.

That's like having Impervium Armor that has less Defense than Steel and then going "Well, just don't get hit then!"

 

once upon a time

 

I'm pretty sure that's how it was always supposed to be. The striped rope looked like it was a placeholder meant for testing the graphics with the extension/retraction.
Personally I think it looked silly.

But yes I agree that the grappling mechanics leave much to be desired. If nightly's fixed it, that's great, but I really hope there's some way to get yourself up from a grapple to the side of a block without tech. Maybe have the character grab the ledge when the grapple is fully retracted and you press to retract more, if there's a ledge avaliable, at which point pressing jump will have you do a small vaulting-jump up onto the top.

 

Although that disobeys the laws of physics, it sure does look more fun.

 

Who cares if it defies the laws of physics. That video looks amazing! Why would they have taken that out?

With the techs and the ftl drive... lots of things dont entirely jive with what we consider normal. I really wish they hadnt changed that. I would absolutely have been using the grappling hook everywhere.

 

I wonder if there's a mod to put this back in. I might just use that mod to play around with this for awhile. Looks very abuseable though

Maybe it's not though

 

Abusable? I guess I could be considered that. But its not like this game has huge leanings toward competitive multiplayer or anything. Sure you can do that with mods I guess, but for the most part its about exploration and survival and stuff like that.

Still dont see any real reason they had to change it from that. The way that the asteroid belts are structured it really leans towards using a grappling hook like that or something similar. I have tried to do some asteroid belt exploration.... didnt get too far before I was merely a red stain. Kind of avoided those since then.