Impressions, Findings on Upbeat Giraffe (Add Yours!)

So I dusted off the old Starbound Game today. And I was pleasantly surprised. The following are things I found and things my wife and I noticed upon playing the game for the first time in a year. (I had wanted to play nightly, and unstable for a long time, but some weird steam issue prevented my game from ever updating through those branches. Thankfully, the Stable did it within a matter of minutes of the update dropping without me having to fret about it.) And please understand, all "bad things" are just to point out what I know will eventually get sorted out, but I just want to offer some direction towards the things that jumped out at me while I played so they can be sorted sooner and given attention as "things people notice most.". I in no way require these to be fixed for me to be happy, nor am I complaining.

Some Good Things....

1. The game loaded about 60 times faster than it used to. I used to sit and stare at the loading screen for a long while (sometimes 4 minutes), but now it only took about 4 seconds, which was amazingly fast in comparison.
2. Upon viewing the character creation screen and making a character, I noticed there was now a Delete Character button, awesome.
3. Also there was the Nova Kids Race available, and well before proper "release", as it was stated it would be done. also awesome.
4. Upon loading into the game, I saw my ship was broken, and I needed to start repairing it, using my new ship A.I., progression had arrived!!!! I for one enjoyed this, as while I like sandbox games, I like them to guide me as I play, so I can feel like I am earning everything I find and put into my rag-tag/patchwork home built from of mixed objects I found across the universe.
5. The controls window was now active and just glancing at it taught me I could emote, which I hadn't known. The Lore book "controlling yourself" seemed less useful.
6. The new backgrounds are beautiful

A couple things that threw off the immersion...

1. While starting out, my wife and I discovered that even though we were on a team and playing the game through together in every way, there was no way to share quests, or their completions, and we had to pass all quest items to each-other to have them count for both of us. This wasn't too big a deal, but I felt there could have been some kind of work around for this added.
2. Lore books still always list as NEW, even if you've read them, again, not a big deal, but it makes it hard to keep track of them.
3. The scroll bars in craft windows and such, can not be clicked and dragged. This was by far the most difficult thing to deal with... it was there, but you could click all you wanted and nothing. You were forced to mouse-wheel and fly too fast over the list, many times missing what you were looking for, or use the (tiny) arrows at the top or bottom of the list which moved it suppppeeeerrrrr slowly.
4. Difficulty was tied to features I liked, and didn't like... forcing me to forgo the ones I liked to avoid the ones I didn't. I love the idea of eating to keep yourself alive, but really dislike dropping ores on death... therefore, I lose the food requirement part of the game. I would hope somehow later, you can choose each play-style option separately with a checkbox... rather than tying it all together. I'll probably be making up a suggestion on this in the suggestion forum soon... after I play some more. (Priorities right?)
5. I couldn't rotate those wooden "Mouldy Supports"... annoying.
6. There was 0 tool-tips for the buffs... I have only a partial idea of what some of the things are... but no idea what the purple circle in the tent means... is it that I can't be seen while in there? Please, show the buffs some love with some tool-tips.
7. While I could move my Inventory window to somewhere I liked it, and have it open there every time I hit "I"... opening a container always moved it right back in my way. A hook should be added to containers so you can save the "general location" of opening location of loot windows too.

Some more good things....

1. I liked being able to upgrade my matter manipulator and forgo the use of a pickaxe if I wanted. (Although, pickaxes don't have a level listed on them, so I couldn't figure out which was better... a gold or silver pickaxe. So I crafted neither.)
2. All of the different weather effects blew us away, well not literally, which was a shame, as I hoped the sandstorm would hinder movement or something, but was neat nonetheless.
3. We both loved how you unlocked new foods by cooking the ones you knew. She loves farming in games, so this was a big deal for her.
4. Man that climbing rope is awesome. (Although I feel it should be separated into tiers... like "rope", and "bungy cord", so range, bouncyness and ease of use increases as you play. Seems a bit OP currently. But whatevs, it's still super fun to swing around with.)
5. Saw that you integrated the sign maker mod someone made, two thumbs up for including the community as much as you do!
6. I saw a few dogs running around in the outpost, while I haven't figured out how to get one of my own, It seems pets have arrived too, ahead of "schedule", if such a thing exists.

And then a few more negatives reared their head.... they used "annoy", it was only kinda effective. Because it's OK, really. Keep up the great work!

1. The zoom in + symbol on the starmap/nav screen, doesn't zoom you in. Thankfully, the "-" works just fine, as does right and left clicking.
2. Sooo many boxes to store things in, but no way to distinguish whats in what box until I open them... making me rely on my memory, which is only like... DOS powered. I forget my name sometimes. A way to name a chest and mouse over it to see what you named it, would be great. The ALT labels shower would be useful here too, hitting ALT could pop up small text over the containers you named as well. Currently, it only names players, and makes everything usable glow.
3. You can't close a container you have open without moving your hand all the way to ESC. Pressing E again, just opens the closest container to your character. Having E close whatever container you have open would make me love you... no really, I would LOVE YOU. awkward hugs.
4. Sadly the controls window didn't accept my mouses side buttons. (I tried to set my swap hands, and select hands buttons to them, but they registered into the window as "mousewheelRight and mousewheelLeft, which they are not...)
5. I kind of wish item tool-tips separated lore and use info. The neat little sayings and stuff don't help much in explaining what something is for sometimes. Most of it you can just figure out, but still... cooked meat (or any food for example), says it's delicious, but not what buffs it gives for what duration. How am I supposed to know what is better than what?
   
6. There is no way currently to see the number of current health you have. I can see current amounts on the inventory window, but not my max hp. I wish there was a way to add numbers to your health-bar on the top left so you can see current on the fly, and max in the inventory window.
7. Rain that fills already present water puddles seemed inconsistent, allowing us to do it, then not. (although the fact you could even do this surprised us. In a very good way!)
8. 2 of my codex logs that I started with disappeared after logging out and logging back in. I had 5 and now I have 3... I think one of them was "controlling yourself", not sure on the other one.
9. This last one is just a comment, and less of a gripe. Once upon a time back in the alpha I think, ores generated in the background... I miss this feature, wish it was back... I noticed you added "ore chunks" that you could break to get more ore... I wonder why that was chosen as a way to increase ore yield over a feature that was definitely more superior in "immersion", at least from my perspective.

EDIT #1 -
Afer playing some more, I need to add a few things to my lists.

Some more good things.

1. Really loving the outpost, it's a great idea to keep the 'linear' stuff apart from the 'sandbox stuff' so you don't have to worry about not ever finding the random quest giver on a planet.
2. So many more songs to play with the instruments!
3. The new Navigation screen button to center on your ship is super useful. Who knew!
4. Birds aren't quite so annoying as they had been.
5. The variety of items you can find are still quite high, haven't made it far into the game but I am finding plenty of stuff to decorate my house and ship.

A few more things that could see improvement.

1. The way the first mission is ordered (the layout of the building) makes me feel like asyou progress, you should be able to hit a button that opens up a shortcut you can use if you die to get to the deeper parts of the dungeon quicker. Especially on the last boss, that has a "hits you no matter what" attack. I played with my wife, so we both took a different path to hit the buttons around the boss making it easier, but I can't imagine how hard it would have been solo.
2. I think all planet types should become available as you play. Currently, the "nice little forest" biome you start in will never be seen in a moderate difficulty system, or risky one... but I think they should be. I agree that you should earn your way into harder biomes as you play, but I don't think the easier biomes should be limited to the easy tiers. They should be present in the harder difficulties... so when you get further into the game you don't just only have to visit lava planet after lava planet. I assume difficulty is based on monster level, not just environmental hazards. So this could be done.
3. Add the older crafting table, anvil, and forge to the recipe for the metal crafting table, metalwork station, and alloy furnace. I didn't realize the new stations were duplicates with 'new stuff' in them until rearranged my home to fit both copies of each. Once I put them all down and realized, I ended up removing the old ones and feeling quite silly. If they had been part of the recipe I would have known I was replacing them.
4. Repetitive mini-dungeons abound! On the starter planet I had (and as far as I know, everyone who plays on the same seed has, as I saw Paulsoarejr the Youtuber run into the same thing.) At a certain depth, the same two or three mini-dungeons spawn. So if you dig to the right or left at that level, you encounter them over and over. Some almost spawned directly on top of eacht-oher. I found at least 20-30 of the same buildings. And that means I got 20-30+ copies of every item inside. I feel this needs to be trimmed down or at the very least spaced out. So much that you will still find them if you dig down, but not so much that you say "oh yay... another one of these. I guess I could use 50 potted plants."
5. I haven't seen a single 'strong monster'. They used to exist in the form of a regular monster, but bigger with symbols coming from them to let you know this guy was different. I enjoyed these encounters. but havent seen one yet. Are they still in???
6. Again, I can't help but stress the need for more detailed Tooltips, and actual tooltips on things in the UI. Buffs, empty slots and all that. A new player may not realize what the eyeball (vanity) slots are for.
7. I want to be able to pick up gnome houses to decorate with. Maybe have two versions of each home? One pot type and one object type?
8. I wish guns when they fired created a small pulse of light at the muzzle. Especially the ones that visually have a muzzle flash animation. Right now, only guns that shoot glowing projectiles create any light.

Overall, the game has improved a lot over the last year. And we are so very much enjoying it. We haven't come across any game breaking issues or FPS problems that some people are reporting, so either we are lucky or the issues they are having are computer/OS/Hardware specific.
I give the update a big two thumbs up!!! Was sorry to hear pushing the update had so many issues you guys had to stay late, but overall, it was worth it!


Please, Forum goers, feel free to offer your own feedback in this thread in the same manor I did. But please, offer opinions as a guide to the devs to let them know what jumps out at you while you play. Don;t word it as incrimination or anger at changes you disliked, or are upset are missing. It solves nothing.

 

Heh, I know it's a silly gripe, but I I actually bought a keyboard that has extra buttons to the left of the esc key... my own fault I guess, but I always hit those instead without looking.

 

I was going to make a thread like this for me. I'm not sure if this is the absolute worst way to give feedback, but anyway here goes. I'm pretty much only putting negative stuff on here, so let me say from the start that the game is great and I love it.

-Would like to see numbers in the character creation thing again- or something like that. It gets a little tricky to say "I'll probably come back to this one, but I want to see all the others first"
Just making wishes here, but what if it worked almost like an inventory/equipment screen? Like click the "brands" tab and there's a little "inventory" of brands and you can mouse-over them to see how they'd look, rearrange them, put ones you like side by side for quick comparisons before "equipping" one, etc.


-Critical hits: It seems like there's critical hits now. Why was this added? I don't have any super strong feelings about this or anything it's just like "huh?"

-Walking backwards is slower: I hate this. My guess is that it's to limit back-pedaling while shooting, but it affects everything. Please find a different way to handle this. Having graceful mobility is one of the most basic joys of a videogame and I feel it's a mistake to prune it for the sake of such a specific singular issue.

-Although cave-gen is noticeably better, caves are still not interconnected enough. It's not fun to just bore through layers of rock hoping to find another cave, and now that picks break (quickly!) this is a serious annoyance. This might be my number one complaint because exploring underground is so very fun- but blindly cutting shafts through terrain is so very boring.

-There is TONS of repeat content in mini-dungeons and virtually no loot. I recommend that caves connect more frequently and mini-dungeons spawn less often with more stuff in the boxes. People will still find them because it'll be easier to explore, and they won't find carbon copies of the same 3 over and over. This way finding a mini-dungeon would be something to get excited about instead of just "oh look another avian tomb. Do I want to bother chewing my way over there..?"

-A few natural light sources underground could make nearby caves more noticeable. Little things that spawn rarely on top of tiles like glowing fungus, crystals, or burning gas vents would do the job. They could all be smashable with no loot and juust enough light to show that there's some open space in the area. I guess those random-buff capsule things kinda do this already, but just a little more would be welcome.

-Combat was really tough starting out, but the first piece of armor I got really made a huge difference. Perhaps one of the early quests could give enough iron ore to make a chest armor and smooth out that first step.

-

Agreed.

and agreed, big time.

Nit picky silly stuff:
-Song selection menu displays some names strangely- not sure why. I assume the UI for songs will one day be gloriously improved.
-Someone at the outpost told me about something that would let me "breath" in a vacuum or something. Real easy typo to make.
-Love love love that hunger is gone, oops this isn't a complaint.

 

The ore clusters were meant to entice people into cave exploration and smooth out caving a bit... Caves had way to many negatives compared to just digging around although digging around got rather boring. But I feel like having ore in the background in those caves would help out aswell. Having many options with diffrent costs and benefits definitely would help the game out. I also noticed that ore makes a sound and glimmers when you mine it... I like the concept but I wish the ore glimmer could be something that occured from shining your flashlight in the direction of ore aswell.

 

This is what I have to say of what you mentioned, the ones that I wanted to say of:

I have to agree with the the scroll bar part, as that was something I noticed even in the controls setup window. Click drag on that would be wonders.

The starmap thing with the + not working... You can not zoom in unless you have something selected; this was something I haven't had problems with since I don't use the + and tend to click on the system planet as that goes where I want. Wouldn't know how the + zoom would really work if nothing was selected, maybe it should go to home sector; unsure of that.

The mouse buttons 4 & 5 don't register? didn't know that... hmm... yeah that is something I am sure they might look into; I myself have a 5 button mouse, with only 1 scroll wheel. Hardly use those extra 2 buttons but can see the usefulness in them. (I read that one first as slide buttons.>< Then when making this reply I noticed what it actual was. lol)

The naming container bit I would love to have, as I am such a packrat when comes to storage. >< Although at least there are several ways for now to indirectly label them. And now with the sign maker that makes another one added to the list. Ways I usually label is with blocks, when it is a block, and with furniture would be by theme. Weapons mind as well use a spear rack or something like that. Well I find creative ways to label my chaotically organized storage. Although I tend to remember where what is after a while, I still end up checking ever chest. One reason I like the new ship upgrades; to separate my storage areas and the like. (so far only having the first expansion.)

I like what they did with the pickaxes, and it is pretty simple to figure out which is better. Just think of which is more valuable. Gold is more valuable than silver. However the thing I don't like of them is there is not much difference in the use. The durability is the only difference to an extent... There is power to them but you would notice more of the difference between platinum and copper than you would between copper and gold. Well I do anyway. The first three only seem like it is durability and not very noticeable length for each tier of pickaxe. On that note it is nice to have a choice, and a good early game thing to use while upgrading the MM.

I would love tooltips for status effects. Oh the one you mentioned for sleeping I think all that means is you are sleeping; after all it is a circle with a dot per say. Which to me resembles an eyeball. Well that is what I got from that. Still would be nice to hover over the ones in effect to know what they are called to get an idea what they are. Some more obvious than others. As long as tooltips can be turned on/off in options for those that don't want those kind of things.

Food buffs I was not thrill with, since they took out hunger for the moment. So right now the food to me is like potions and don't have a use for myself. Doesn't mean I will not eventually mess around with them, as I like the farming aspect at least a little bit. I just like having at least a reason beyond aesthetics to farm though in order to do so early on. That is when habits form. I actually prefer building more in these type games where you can manipulate the environment to this degree. Hence my aesthetic comment in the prior sentence. I do know hunger will make a comeback in the later difficulties; although unsure if they are in right now, as I have a casual character.

The difficulties or game modes as they are I don't mind and agree with you there, although right now with no hunger on the normal one; far as I know, the drop ore bit doesn't even appeal to me. I don't mind drop ore part, but if that is the only difference then I would rather play on casual. I will probably have one for normal when they put in what they have in mind for hunger, but for now casual gets me to see more of the game at this time.

My own Additions:

Since I can't think of much of what you mentioned, as I like quite a bit of what you have said and have noticed most of it. What I have to add to that list is due to generation.

The star difficulty I don't mind, but the variety still needs a bit of work with the planets contained within. I don't mind the group of biomes you will find, it is actually ok. It is the weather that you will find on those said planets. If you go to a jungle or forest it will always have the same weather. That is something I am not too fond of, but can live with. Would be nice to have some variants in weather for the biomes like it use to be. Granted I would say more certain weather patterns more prevalent than others for certain biomes, but have a factor for rare or uncommon occasions where like a jungle would have acid rain or pools of acid. Things like that. Give variety to the biomes even more when done that way.

That was something I noticed and does make the biomes themselves not much variant of each other within the same biome. So I can only hope there are tons more biomes added or variant of biomes added or even both. Right now in that respects it feels like a downgrade from what it was. I love the generation in general, dispite the surface underground lacking on the planets I have explored; as in not seeing a hole/cave that connects to an underground network. So the underground still needs a bit of work I am sure but for now is alright. I don't mind digging as I have to get my building resources somehow.

I think the only other thing i would even mention would be the quests and those I love. Even if right now it is basic one direction, as in the progression type; I am sure that will be touched up later, I still enjoy what there is now. Some may not like that coffee line of quests, but I rather enjoy that. I found it amusing.

I am sure there are other things I find wrong, but not many.

As for all the good I have been enjoying a lot of the game. From the ship upgrades (again I have only seen larger ships in the pictures, and only have the first expansion) to what there is in game to do for myself.

I hope the building and farming paths are done well as those are the ones I am awaiting to arrive in game, and will welcome them when they do arrive. So I see what there is now as decent enough to play out; well for myself, even if a bit slower than some others...

 

I know this is a teensy weensy gripe, but I don't like that I can't escape menus with E anymore. The escape key.... it's... so.... far........ up........... THERRRRE.

Otherwise this is fantastic. I'm definitely still tinkering with things and recovering from the shock of losing my characters (I read the post, I know what's up) but it feels so wonderful to have all these new, lovely things.

 

Oh yeah, since there's been a lot of negative response to it, I just want to say that I for one love the new MM/mining sounds. They're really good.

 

I also love the ting noise it makes.

 

I got around 3 by binding my inventory to Tab. Hit E to open the container, hit Tab and it closes your open inventory and the container.[DOUBLEPOST=1422556674][/DOUBLEPOST]Also the scroll bar not working with dragging is a pain, indeed. I notice the tiny arrows at the top and bottom of the bar do in fact work, but they're small and hard to click. I figured when they get to polishing the UI more they'd fix it not scrolling with a drag.

 

The mining outpost you have to go to for a mission is a nightmare unless you find some good gear while exploring the other planets. If it wasn't for this 'pollen pump' poison gas spray gun I found, I would have a hard time progressing through the game with how difficult these darn pink slime monsters are.

This is especially problematic, due to the fact death resets the whole level. Made it to the boss and die? Tough luck, start again.

 

My friend and I have noticed some pretty serious lag in the new outpost, and some of the larger villages. We aren't playing on toasters, so I'm not sure why a game that looks like super nintendo causes this much lag.

 

Basically you did what I requested people NOT do in this thread (get angry and all that)... but I will respond to your points anyway.

1. Linux fix is coming, they have stated so on Twitter (prob be good if they stated it here too....)
2. Try adding sounds for infinite procedural animals. You would end up making the game file size MASSIVE. This was there solution to that potential problem. Even if you had like 20 different sounds, then people would complain they sound too similar.
3. I like them, and so do some people. The pickaxes don't make these sounds, so use those if it bothers you that much.
4. Dig straight down. After about 2 min of straight down digging, Wala. Not hard at all.
5. The starting planet will have a lot of weak stuff, and same goes for each planet as you progress, its all tiered. If they gave you all random stuff on every planet globally, you would have the best item in the game at the start.

I am enjoying it immensely. It's all about perspective I guess. And what you were hoping the game would be? If you want "SANDBOX SANDBOX", Starbound, as far as I know, was never meant to be that. It's "Progression, Sandbox".

 

I'm sorry.
Maybe the post was really a bit harsh.
Thanks for the answers
1) If this fix is comming (which I didn't know as it wasn't mentioned anywhere here in the Forum and I don't have twitter) I'll be very pleased
2) You take the point , although I haven't had a problem with the animal's sounds
3) Maybe there should be the option to switch back to the old sounds in the beta. Along that I also agree
4) I will do so.
5) Okay. But maybe you should fix the script for starting planet. I ended up 4 times in a row with different char on a gamma planet witch doen't make fun IMHO.

KR
Bene

 

I personally don't have any control over the script. I'm just a player. As for the starter planets, they are all similar for a reason. Like earth, it's the "safest" type of planet... be a shame to start on a volcano planet... :O

 

Nah, it's not the planet type itself but shouldn't it begin with alpha?

 

My starter planet was Epsilon something something. i think it's random, and it's just the name of the solar system.

 

I think they chose to go away from "Alpha -> Beta -> Cthreepeo -> Delta..." when they merged all sectors into one sector. Now, planet "difficulty" is identified by planet type. Garden planets of any name and location will be easy, while Volcanic Steamy Death planets will probably always be difficult.

It's a big change compared to the previous Stable version, and they could have highlighted it more when they were announcing changes, but I'm pretty sure it was intentional.

 

As I've mentioned in another topic, I'm having some seriously bad processing/framerate issues. It wasn't like this before the update - maybe a couple spikes if I was going too fast over a planet's surface - but now my game is basically unplayable due to how bad the lag is. Seems like an optimization issue to me.

 

Another problem I have with the game, which they didn't fix with this update, is that the music plays only one track on a constant loop until you either leave the planet and come back or wait for day-night transitions.