How to make Starbound a good game

Hi all, I'm here (hopefully not wasting my time) to leave some comments on the game and how it tremendously need improvements in may aspects.

I will start with the forum itself. Imagine you're registering in a forum, what do you expect? I myself want it to be easy and fast, and the best way to do this nowadays is to allow people to associate their facebook profiles. If many discussion forums are doing it, game developer forums shouldn't even consider not doing it, period. The other think that strikes me in the forum is my supposed privileges. I visited the forum just because I wanted to leave a suggestion (more of a remark really) on how the game should be improved and I don't have enough privileges to post in the suggestions page...I would imagine that one time loggers like myself do it just in the hopes of suggesting something not to participate actively in the forum, this said, it would make much more sense that the suggestions thread was the one unlocked for new members and all others locked or whatever...


Anyway, on to the game.

As I started playing it I was really anxious, mainly because I thought it was gonna be a Terraria ripoff and since I enjoyed many of Terraria's aspects I had high hopes for this game, although all other ripoff's so far have been a major let down.

As I created my character I was a bit put down because I had expected better graphics. And although it is interesting to have various races the customization options are not enough neither the colors we can use for stuff.

After that in the game I tried to change the screen ratio to match my laptop and full screen it as well. The options function somewhat awkwardly but at least they're working. When I changes my aspect ration to 1366 : 768 the whole game was like in bullet time z_z My laptop is far from being a powerful machine, but seriously how can a game with this level of graphics consume so much memory? I remember Terraria had good looking graphics and didn't require much in terms of memory/ graphics...

IMPORTANT: Make the game integrate more with windows, mainly when you try to minimize it. Make the game pause and stop eating away our memory if we suddenly decide to make a pause...

I found it awkward that someone in spaceship had a broken hero's sword, seriously...Why not just some lame phaser or whatever weak (broken) gun? This game would gain a lot more if you tried to make it "realistic" (perhaps believable would be a better term) or at least try to take something from final fantasy, they have all sorts of creatures and stuff but they all have some logic behind it.

At the start I was dismayed by seeing flying creatures throwing me balls of lightning/ fire sprays/ bubble sprays and whatever stuff that tended to kick the ship out of my poor little avatar. It was indeed frustrating the initial difficulty, tied of course with there being no explanation on how to use properly our universal tool. The initial missions should explain how to use right/left (front/background) click and how to use the +shift key to place only one tile at a time.

The whole castaway thing although overused in games is still a kickass concept to use in any game and I really like it.

I think you shouldn't have ripped off the materials used for objects in Terraria. I found it absolutely stupid to have silver/gold/platinum as materials for weapons and tools Don't you know those are pliable (soft) materials? They could never have been used for such things unless they were ornamental...why not have materials like zinc, tin, brass (copper + zinc), bronze (copper+tin)? These were indeed materials used my people in the past, that's why we had a stone age, a bronze age and an iron age. You do it with steel why not with all of them?

Something that I hate is the scarceness of materials and the time it takes to farm them. Since we are playing "lost space boy" why not give him some kind of detector? Upgrades providing more range and better material detection...

The first boss was for a me a huge WTF...small penguins or ducks or whatever they were just flew in and tried to kick the shit out of me x_x The most ridiculous aspect of this was that I had to use a sword to destroy a UFO (before update) or a bow (after one of the updates)....come on, make it a bit believable please...I've looked in the web to see what other bosses you had and it only got worse...

In my initial planet there was some kind of monkey base, interesting, aside from the fact that they all had shiny guns which they didn't drop when killed...why not try to imitate elder scrolls in this and make NPC's drop what they carry and vice-versa? Make them carry less shinning stuff for what I care...

When I finally was able to discover that I could use wood/coal as fuel (not mentioned/ required in the quests from what I remember) and got the first upgrade for the space ship I visited some of the other worlds...how come all of them had life forms and sentient life to boot? If planets are to near to a star or too far how the hell can they have life? And why is all the fauna out to kill my guts? Can you please that a look at the Spore universe? I think the space in spore was tremendously well conceived and displayed correctly the various stages of life, why not do the same?

The dreaded dying and losing our precious pixels...I think the dying system in this game is simply...retarded! How could it work? Make dying something not so easy to accomplish. Make it more believable! If my character falls into lava how the hell do I resurrect with all the stuff I was carrying (less some pixels)? (you should really call these star credits...) A not so bad way of making it believable was some sort of saving system in our ship. Someplace we could use to make a copy of our ADN which would then be replicated in case of our accidental death. As to items, yes it would make much more sense to lose them all!! In the case of lava permanently, in the case of any other thing our stuff should just stay there with our dead body, or some of it stolen in the case we were killed by sentient live.

Terraria has a really cool map function, why don't you have that?

I like the way we walk out to the edge of the map and come in the other way, it gives a sense we are in a small planet, but can't you improve their size a bit? Like make less planets with life more put more life in the ones that have it. This would open a lot of space to create possible quests.

Since we are playing a space game, why doesn't my ship have any form of weaponry? Implement space battles ASAP please. Check out how Spore worked with these.

I like the weapon variety in the game but there should be MORE! And it should be available based on the development level of the planets. Medieval planets should only have swords/bows/ spears/ medieval firearms. (Try to imagine our own planet in the past, and what you expect from weaponry in the future. ex. Star trek/ starwars wise) Firearms and lasers and all kinds of advanced weapons should be improved a LOT but made much harder to acquire (more expensive/ from harder NPC's).

I've see a dude riding a horse in one of the worlds saw, why not implement the option to mount stuff? Having our own mount would be awesome! Lots of neat stuff you can create for this.

Terraria way of using NPC's is really cool, why not use it as well? But in the sense of being possible to contract people (body guards/ vendors/ builders!!!) for certain amounts of pixels. It would require you to make a time system within the game to manage contract time...like terraria

Speaking of Terraria, both games have day/ night cycles which is nice. But in terraria we are in a flat expance of land whereas in the game we are in small planets!!! If you want to keep the little planets idea at least make day/ night cycles believable. Just cover half the map with a walking shadow and stuff changing all the time!! Seems like something hard to do Also as said above, increase the size of the planets to make this believable.


Well that's all folks, I don't remember anything I could add.

Hope any of the developers actually sees this, and I would love to see all of my recommendations or some of them at least being implemented in the game...

Cheers,
César

 

I like how half of this thread is "you shouldn't rip off Terraria" while the other is "why don't you copy Terraria?" and then there's an inexplicable part at the beginning about the forums being too hard to use and the graphics not being good enough.

I'm leaning towards troll.

 

Well, uninstall the BETA and take a hike bub. I could only manage to read half of it. Just sounds like you need to go make the game you want to play.

And this is a serious comment. Starbound is just not for you. Please move along, nothing to see here.

 

As someone that doesn't use facebook(andsimilar sites), i'm damn glad this forum(and all others i visit) doesn't request that upon registration. Would be fine if optional, but really dumb if mandatory.

And your thread is an example of why there are posting restrictions to some sections, it would just shit up the sugestions subforum with nonsense if anyone could post there.

 

All I got from the hilarious amount of the word Terraria used is that 'this isn't Terraria' for the most part.

 

Your thread title will earn you NO friends.

 

I think that if you feel the need to replace or modify so many aspects of this game, you really are just looking for a *good* terraria clone, and not Starbound. Just as Legend of Zelda isn't Dark Souls, Starbound isn't Terraria, although all four of these mentioned are good games.
It seems you are looking for a realistic sci-fi game, and not a fun, lighthearted, at times ridiculous, sandbox space exploration game with penguins.
I suggest Planetside, if you are looking for good graphics, and a lack of the above mentioned qualities that make Starbound a game that we all enjoy.
As for the reference to spore, please note that this is a game about space exploration, not creature creation. The idea is to explore and enjoy exploring and mastering the universe in which you have been placed, with the assumption that a you are in the tail-end of the space-age, and a lot of planets have already been settled.

Oh, and I'll add in the comment you were all expecting: The game is like 2 weeks old, you can't expect it to be perfect now, and if you had read the current update (The one explaining all the to-be added features and changes), you might have seen that.

And if you're trolling, here is an appropriate reaction:



I wish you luck in game hunting,

-Phoenix

 

I think most of your points are valid and some of your suggestions I like as well. I especially like the remark about starting out with a broken hero sword. That is not very scifi.
(and after 35 hours I still have no gun)
Obviously this game is work in progress and a lot of it will be changed, that's why suggestions are important.
Have you seen this?
http://playstarbound.com/the-future-of-starbound/

It's some stuff which is planned in future updates.

 

Yeah, leave your feed back on Star Bound, act as if terraria doesn't exist, because in these forums it should'nt. This game is already great and its not getting better when all people do is base their opinions on an older game with less variety.

 

TLDR

My advice to you, learn2code.

Then you can make a game yourself with everything you desire.

 

Don't worry; I have an alternative set of steps we can take to make this game a good game.
1. Stop complaining
2. Support the developers
3.???
4.Starbound

 

Look: this is a pic of Kirk and Spock eating cake

Makes no sense, right?
Well, I'm still on topic!

 

"I'm really disappointed in the graphics even though I watched videos of the gameplay beforehand and knew what I was in for"

lolwat?

 

Because it hasn't been implemented yet. A map feature will eventually become a thing. Plus, Terraria didn't have a map function to begin with until much later into its release.

Because this isn't Terraria

Because it's a starter ship, and as for space battles it... oh hell, I'll just direct you to this which can be easily accessed by looking at the main site page.

Yes, because Terraria is the only other game in which similar materials are used. There are no other games where such materials exist.

Most of your suggestions would only result in adding a layer of unnecessary annoyance to the game. You seem to not be willing to look at everything from a 'fun' or 'imaginative' way, and instead seem to be nitpicking at things by not finding it 'realistic' enough for your tastes. This is the quickest step to not having fun with something, and there's such a thing known as suspension of disbelief.

Various aspects of what you 'suggest' are planned, but in various ways that may be different than what you are thinking. The devs have plans on how to flesh out the game and the world even more, and it'll happen in time.

 

Starbound is rip off of Terraria therefore it should be more like Terraria so that it is... not a ripoff? I got kind of got lost in the waves of contradictions that even some of your better suggestions were kind of overshadowed. What was we talking about again?

 

Sure starting with a broken sword is not very "scifi". However, starting the game with even an extremely weak ranged weapon would be just a tad over powering even if it does use the energy bar (which I enjoy). As for graphics, I personally love them. I think too many games focus on graphical quality and not gameplay. Speaking of, the gameplay thus far is really solid. The multitool is useful in the beginning but not over powered. The use of the energy bar for techs and ranged attacks is a great idea. Even the controls are super solid and it is only in beta. I personally can only see this game getting better. Sure augment the gameplay a little bit and add more content such as more hair and clothing options etc. Other than that, I am astounded that the beta is only $15. As for the integration of social networking.....some people like that, I personally don't. I think social networking is part of what is bringing games down (to an extent). Other than that, shut up and enjoy the game. Also these are just my opinions. Don't yell ;_;

 

The large majority of the OP is either...

A. Been talked about prevoiusly numerous times.
B. Already in development.
C. Simply not true. (Enemies do indeed drop guns. Not nesscarily their guns, but guns and not on every kill.)

I'm not trying to be rude, but it seems you blindly bought this game not even attemping to read about it frst, played no more than 2 hours of the game, and made this your first post

 

Are you people taking offence to the tone of his post or to the actual criticism and suggestions.
Because I think most of it is spot on actually.

More live on some planets, less live on others. yes please.
More space weapons and ability to loot the weapon the NPC is actually using. yes please.
Realistic night and day cycle. okay not really an issue.
Better graphics. I would love this but probably not going to happen.
Better windows integration (and an actual pause option). This must happen.
Better tutorial. This is obviously much needed and will be coming I'm sure.
Gold and silver for weapons and tools is a bit odd, and something I would expect more in a medieval and not a scifi setting.
Less grinding for materials. I wouldn't mind getting rid of fuel at least in this space exploration game.
Dying really could use some work, be honest.
Different planets having different development NPC's (swords, guns, etc.) extremely good idea. Gives real diversity to the planets.
Body guard and vendor NPC's are actually already in the game.
Mounts? Mounts are always cool. spacebike or robothorse ftw.
Space battles are actually coming.

 

Alright. Let's see here...

Forum point is stupid. Maybe people don't like facebook (I have friends who hate it)? Maybe people don't want something screwing with their facebook accounts? Stop being lazy. It takes like a minute longer. Freakin' age of instant gratification...

Complaining that it's a Terraria ripoff then saying it should have more features by using Terraria as an example? I don't think I even need to explain.

Graphics is inherently stupid. In case you haven't noticed, some of the greatest games had terrible graphics while some of the worst games had great graphics. I blame modern devs trying to make their games look as pretty as possible without considering gameplay.


Also, you're comparing a FINISHED game to a game that's still effectively in its ALPHA. Most of the stuff you're complaining about is stuff that's already been planned and will be implemented. Like Terraria so much? Then go play that instead. Clearly beta-testing is something you shouldn't be doing.