Is it just me or is there much less reason to go underground?

Seems to me most of the action is on the surface. Access to many dungeons, strong enemies, chests, wood, even basic ore like copper, iron, and coal can be found without mining anything. Seems the only reason to go underground is to get better ore. I have found 1 merchant underground as well as a little blood bank storage area (one single room, no enemies) but it seems like most of the fun stuff is on the surface.

Am I just not looking hard enough?

 

From what I understand a fair amount of the less-random content isn't in either. I'd expect more dungeons and fun little things as development goes on

 

This has been brought up a few times but it's Beta, so I agree we should keep mentioning the things we especially would like to see worked on. For now, yes - it feels like going underground is more of a chore than fun or interesting. I hope they'll expand on it.

 

Pixel containers are more abundant underground and I have found a few dungeons underground too. A lot of stuff hasn't been added yet, however. I found one gigantic base underground, but I am not sure if it was only underground or had an entrance above ground.

 

Yeah, there's definitely less underground content than overground. Besides mining and pixel capsules, there's not much of a reason to go down, as far as I know. All underground dungeons, I believe, have an entrance at the surface.

 

The big thing I've noticed is that the underground (in terms of ore) is replaced in some ways by planet jumping. Why mine forever to find coal when you can run across a planet's surface and harvest it as you fine it?

On the other hand. The payouts are much larger underground. I've come across truely magnificent coal, iron, and copper deposits quite frequently while mining.

 

I've said it before but I think it bears repeating that (for me at least) the process of underground exploration would be much more pleasant and less of a chore if the surface caves connected more seamlessly with other tunnel complexes. I look at Terraria where spelunking didn't require mining through a screen's worth of rock to get to the next cave--it felt more like legitimate exploration and less like mining straight down to reach the next "tier" of ore availability.

 

I did find a small underground tomb, nowhere near the surface, no entrances at all .. I had to dig my way in. Inside was a tech chest, I believe.

 

There are a lot of things on the surface compared to the underground, I'll agree there. But there are also some thing you will find in the underground that you won't find anywhere else, at least until I'm proven wrong or find it myself. An example would be rare ores (depending on planet level) are more likely underground than on the surface. As far as 'content' is concerned, I found what looked like a mineshaft underground and a small brick house. Inside it was a frog bomb merchant. Yes, he sells bombs. I was always baffled that I would have to pilfer towns to get them. Now I found someone who sells them. And it would have never been found if I didn't like digging into the ground. Exploration is one of the core elements of the game; you'll never know what you will find. But like stated above, there will be more to come; it is Beta after all.

 

The problem is that to get to anything decent underground, it takes more time and gives you less of a reward than simply exploring the overworld is, because the underground is so sparse in comparison.

 

I kind of like the idea that finding good stuff should require some work. I'm fine mining underground and it doesn't take long to find some tunnels.. but they usually don't lead to anything. I spent a couple hours underground yesterday and all I found was those little breakable containers (which hardly seem worth smashing open as they seem to contain a static 5-10 pixels on all levels of planet)

 

Yes and it's a good thing.

 

Care to elaborate on that?

 

I'll agree, yes. I was stating that I could find things underground that I couldn't elsewhere. I do spend most of my exploration on the surface of planets. Hell, materials like Gold Ore you start finding just littering the surface at upper 30s planets. But I will never find another bomb merchant again, and he helps me blast through that stupid obsidian on lava worlds...

 

I think two of the issues are that
A) Mining speed still has to be tweaked a little bit to make progress satisfying--not so fast that it feels insignificant and not so slow that it feels like an utter chore. I trust the devs to continue tweaking to general satisfaction.
to my understanding, a LOT of content remains unimplemented in the current build. Give it time; I think as more stuff is revealed exploration will feel less and less barren all around.


edit; Bahahaha. Apparently in attempting to use go-to point delineation method I inadvertently created a sunglasses smiley.

 

It feel less adventurous and more arduous diging mineshafts all the Tim caves feel either like one huge open spaces or small openings. Maybe I'm just spoiled from Tearria

 

In terraria the first thing you always did was min straight down. Everything of value was underground. Now in starbound things are more balanced. You have a lot of reasons to explore the top of the planet rather then instantly digging down.

 

You never dig straight down in terraria, rule one and you only go underground after you established you base, even than you would go down a cave to start your exploration because you starting pick is slow to dig

 

Terraria you spent a majority of the time underground since most of the things you needed were down there. In this game (for now at least) most of the content seems to be on the surface. That's honestly fine. If you went to planets with civilizations, I would expect most of the "content" to be on the surface as well.

I have really only 4 reasons to go underground in StarBound atm:
1. Rare ores that I know I NEED that are down there. Yes I'm looking at you Diamond Ore.
2. Soft Bricks. Building house material too lazy to destroy Glitch / Avian settlements for them + I am not heartless.
3. The famed Frog Bomb merchant. Found one. Ever. Will never find another supplier of explosives. Obsidian doesn't stand a chance!
4. To see what they will add in the days to come since it's Beta.

I honestly like going underground to see what there is. I do see a lot of the same, but I will come across something new after a while. It took me 50 planets to find that bomb merchant. And by 50 planets I mean ones I went underground in.

On a side note, never dig straight down. There is no magical horseshoe that will prevent your plummet to your demise. Though there is boost jump and dash...

 

Just to clarify: I am not complaining. I know much content still needs to be added. This was just a question.