Has pre-access killed Starbound's possible success?

The big thing about the move, to my mind, isn't so much that they're not in the same office. It's that they're not in the same time zones, and that, what with them being spread out on both sides of the GMT line, you're talking about s huge, huge time difference. There are staff members in the States, staff members in the UK, staff members in Europe, and staff members in Australia.

There is a minimum of five hours difference between the US and the UK. Could be eight, depending on where in the US those developers are. Then Europe is another hour ahead. Then we have Australia, which is another eight hours minimum. This means, that, basically, at almost no point are all the developers even awake together, barring meetings where they arrange to wake up in the middle of the night. I've played games across time zones, and it is awkward as all hell even just trying to remember who is awake when, let alone getting a group call going. While it was for gaming purposes instead of business ones, I have seen how awkward that is, just for a casual conversation.

Sure, other indie games have been made without developers meeting. And you don't NEED all the developers in one physical room to make it work. But there is a difference between a couple of developers largely all in the US working together and being awake at the same time, and then a pretty much globe-spanning dev team who have to plan everything days in advance to just have a conference call.

It does slow development in the short term, sure. And that is unfortunate, and also one of the reasons I've let the game take a back seat for now. But slow doesn't mean stop. And given how hampered they have been by these issues until now, development after this transition period should pick up to a far higher rate than it was before.

And when exactly should they have done this, anyway? Before they released the beta, when they had no money? After full release when they will be met with a whole new wave of buyers? There's never a "good" time to restructure, but it's apparent to me that it needed to happen.

 

once again talking about terraira as a game thats been out for more then 2 years to a game thats in early alpha
ignoring what i sead before
besides how is guns runing off energy a bad thing? its a good thing you silly
like i sead before you propley dont remember when terraria 1st came out
becouse im bored im gonna point out everything wrong

shields +1 (honestly sheilds are useless)
Guns run off energy and not ammo -1 (sure its your opinion but your wrong)
Can't upgrade or get modifiers -2 (guns come with there own modifiers and the games still in alpha)
Energy makes combat slow down -1 ( becouse runing around in terraria waiting for potionsickness and heath to regen isnt sowing down combat right?)
Guns damage and energy keeps them inferior -1 (you sead this already, and i aready prooved it wrong, so wrong)
No accessories, no acting except as a damage dealer -1 (techs work as accessories and i dont understand the last part)
There are turrents and there damage is static and bad high tier -1 (yah useing stuff from lower teirs are worse in higher tiers, who woulda thought)
Npcs can help in combat +1 (yah barely honestly)
Npcs have too little health to be any use high tier -1 (are you taking about the tiers that arnt balanced yet becouse its in alpha?)
No auto/enhanced regen ability so after EVERY singe battle bandage/food -1 (i agree that the ship should have auto regen but people keep forgeting that beds exists)

ok bored time over

 

I really doubt this game is going to die out anytime soon. I mean, it still has so many more changes to go through before it reaches its final form. Once it's had some time to grow, I'm certain it'll be a game people will come back to.

And besides, with a community as big as this, do you really think we'll let it fade away?

 

I agree mostly, except for the gun part. At least as it is currently, making them run off energy is way too big of a disadvantage against melee.

Also, can people please please stop to compare the game to terraria already?
Terraria is terraria, starbound is starbound.
If this game was intended to be exactly like terraria, then i guess tiy would have sticked with re-logic or whatever its called to make terraria 2.

As for the initial posting:
Not much "killed", for me, even tho i currently barely play starbound.
The game was already good, except the bugs of course, when the first beta release happened. And even though i am currently a bit bored with starbound, i still regularly read for news etc, and i can say, what i read usually makes me happy. (Also, i always get bored with games after a relatively short time, lol)
Whats more game-killing for me currently is the player-base. I initially bought the game primarily for multiplayer, however, everytime i went on a server, there were loads of script-kiddies, cheaters, and mod-users, ruining the game for everyone.

 

Awake?
So what you are saying is no one could choose to work nightshift on the team when in such a strange timezone difference, despite many people doing so? That or set a number of days to work a "shift" together when they would be all awake to coordinate if it was such a big deal?

Most of the problems "solved" by some sort of office could have easily been worked around with a little common sense and cost far less time and money to implement.

 

guns need a downside becouse they are ranged, it will mainly go in two ways,
make them slow
or make them have ammo/cooldown

starbound went for the cooldown route, and a game like terraria went for ammo
but if you make the restitution on ranged items too small, EVERYONE WILL CHOOSE IT OVER MELEE
becouse theres no reason to do melee if ranged combat it better in everyway

take terraria for an example
you can hold up to 4000 ammo on everygun and have unlimited mana there is NO REASON to go melee in terraria unless your an idiot or dont have a chose to use it

its gameing logic 101 people why cant people get that

yes maybe the restrictions on guns atm are alittle high (hell shotguns are downright useless) but you cant just remove the restrictions to make them better

oh and idk why i replyed this message to you dyskord, but just play on other severs, the devs made it clear that the game will be easly modable and it is a selling point for meny people

 

And currently most people choose melee, i would assume.
Of course, balancing this stuff is not easy, all i am saying is, that currently guns are rarely a viable alternative.
In my case i only use a piercing sniper in some cases, when enemies are lined up like in prisons, for example.
In almost every other scenario i am usually at a disadvantage when using guns, because the high energy cost prevents me from using techs for evasion, or getting a bit more distance between me and my opponent (so i still can have a ranged advantage).

Melee, i just need hold a button down or mash them like a maniac, AND i can still use techs like there is no tomorrow.

Anyways, thats just like, my opinion, man. I am not stating that i am right, and everyone else is wrong, like you are apparently implying

EDIT: (to your edit):

I am not saying remove all restrictions. Ammo could be made craftable, in a way, that you actually have to maintain getting certain resources to have ammo. Maybe lower DMG on some guns, if using ammo-based system, bigger cooldown on some types, like sniper rifles.
Besides that, i also wouldnt mind if it sticks with energy based, as long as guns are made usable at least.
(Even tho i would prefer ammo-based because.. well, call me old fashioned.)
Anyways, i have a feeling our discussion is going a bit off-topic here^^

 

what armor are you useing?
i can spam guns like crasy and still have energy to get away
then again i normaly used rocket lanchers that regen energry faster then they can fire =p

 

grenade launcher for the win!
haven't melee'd since i found it except in ultra tight quarters underground.
just find the right gun and they are every bit as good as melee weapons.

 

nade launchers are 1 handed once you find anouther one the real fun starts

 

Highest craftable armor. (Forgot name, brainfart currently^^) Dunno if there is even better stuff than this.
Then again, i havent explored all that much recently, because i am waiting for some bigger updates to happen ;D

 

you are the only other person i have seen openly say these things.

seriously, is it too much to ask to have someone work "company hours" when being employed full time?

 

So, seeing as company time seems based in London with the lead dev, you're saying that everyone in the US should work from midnight onwards, and the staff in Australia should work afternoons until the middle of the night?

I really don't think they would stay a cohesive company all that long if that was their attitude. As I say. Company time and working to "office hours" works great when everyone is on the same continent. It's a crapshoot when you're talking about staff on three continents. Not to mention the hideous complications from employment law, anti-social hours, and all that jazz.

 

why not? plenty of people work those same shifts every day, on all three continents involved.

i basically keep that schedule for my own project, myself. in addition to my full-time job, mind you. and doing all the things an adult living alone needs to do, like cleaning the house, paying bills, going shopping, etc.

so again.... why not?

 

Because this isn't "in addition to" anything. There's a difference between having a hobby which you pursue out of office hours, and those *being* your office hours. It honestly sounds like the developers *have* been taking this solution a lot while they don't have an office, but just because you can manage a work-around which sucks while there's no money, why should they have to keep doing so when they have the money to get them all in one place and have normal working hours?

Coping with a crappy situation because you have no choice is one thing. Actively electing to continue with that crappy situation when there are better alternatives is plain daft.

 

Because it isn't a crappy situation. Many people with healthy full lives work odd hours. It is a minor inconvenience, more so when they have an open flexible scheduling system.

Compared to moving across continents? /That/ is a hardship. Financially from the vast costs, emotionally as you leave behind friends and family, these are things that can actually be detrimental to a good work environment. For much of the time people are in London there will be months where there performance will be effected by this change. Maybe not a great deal, if they have moved a lot in there lives, but possibly it could be very jarring.

 

I could easily rebuttal and say go and look at the average ratio of long distance teams to real teams and people who work in office to those who telecommunicate. I never said that virtual teams were inviable. I stated that for the most part their chances of success are, even to this day, significantly less than that of a standard team. Also a few examples is not a standard by the way. Telecommuters may be on the rise, but at the same time, most are still within relative contact with their employers and while it has received significant growth since 2005 they're still a drop in the bucket compared to the standard workforce. Also telecommuters do not a full virtual team make, as a sizeable amount of the teams they work with likely are still in contact with one another.

You know the saying

The exception that proves the rule.

 

sorry, working second or third shift is not a "crappy situation", especially when you get to work your dream job, from home.

remind me again where you pulled this statistic from

 

inbervium?
anywho like i sead before everything in secotr x is unblanced and isnt working the way its sopost to atm
i would say try to use teir 1 guns on teir 1 monsters to see if its more blanced to your likeing

 

http://www.globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1204/1204.3374.pdf

Just two particular documents I picked up, not specifically ones that I personally have on hand, just some I googled up real quick. I'd rather keep actual business related documents and reports out of a discussion for a game I like.

Oh, and I guess there's this about telecommuters being 20% globally (Well technically, kinda, if you count all types)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/workers-telecommute_n_1228004.html