is there more game yet?

Yes exactly, thanks for agreeing with me.

 

Yup, that's the challenge of being a dev. Or a vendor, or a producer, etc. Basically, anyone with customers.

You have to listen to the people that tell you "You're doing it wrong!" because some of the people that say that actually give reasons why, and these people are helping show you ways that you can improve.

You also have to tune out or filter the people that say "Everything you do is pure love!" not just because that's creepy, but it also doesn't help you improve. It means you've done well up to this point but you should try to keep improving, always. It's important to know that you've good a good foundation, but you have to keep going and make sure the entire product is good.

There's a good portion of each "side" that is pretty much in the middle, where they either like what you've done, or kinda dislike it, but they're willing to explain why they do/don't like it, and what they would like to see instead. This is the best group to get feedback from.

That being said, devs do need to listen to the people that say "Good!" or "Bad!" without any reasoning, because if a lot of people don't enjoy the game, it's important to find and address potential issues even though that group can't communicate why they don't enjoy it.

 

Not loyalty as much as I don't like stressing over the small things in life, especially when I have learned arguing is pointless on the internet the majority of the time.

 

can be fun, though.

 

IMHO Starbound should've been released as a closed beta for a peroid of months to allow players to test working core mechanics and in-game features. But instead all I ever see anymore is content. Rework the tools in the game. Build up the combat. Have a solid means of pushing out changes that affect the overall feeling of SB. They are working on the progression system. After that they need to start looking into the community suggestions to revamp other features that affect the core gameplay. A major part of Starbound lacking its exploratory nature is there are little/to do quests and
the fact that our characters really don't have rpg elements is dull for a sanbox/open world title. Pushing out content instead of fixing what we already have to "quote" D-16 seems like a bad decision in my mind. They must realize in some point of time that if they don't start relaying a more Nexgen foundation this game will fall short of its hyped expectations.

 

I feel a large part of this is due to the nature of the team. While there are artist that also assist in some coding, there are only three primary coders. When you look at their objectives for the game and number of programers available to do it?

The results of so many (mostly cosmetic) updates vs major elements, makes perfect sense in that light. Something I can easily see continuing until people begin to mod in major revision for them to integrate or, they hire more programers to assist despite the slight time in the short term it will take to train them.

 

There definitely isn't less game yet, so that's a bonus.

 

Depends on the day really lol.

 

I believe a way to counteract questions like the OP brought up is to have more communication. When you go the Early Access route, you've bypassed the preorder system and in my mind effectively picked up investors. We're people who are investing in your game, providing the company with truly unwarranted pre-launch income for a product that may or may not live up to our individual expectations. The game released during a major holiday, understandable to some with the lack of updates around that timeframe, but you only get so much leeway with that. Many people get Christmas off, maybe Christmas Eve, but guess what? We're back the day after unless we put in PT or Vacation. New Years comes up soon after but everyone is back in full force after the holidays. I understand that the team is also operating across country and working virtually, something that as an IT person I am very familiar with. They're moving into a new office (Undoubtedly due in part to the income we early investors provided) and that might put some lead in their step, but we're past mid-March now and it's time for some major changes or some good communication of what to expect very soon and some projections, not features as we already received dialogue on those but something more along the lines of, "We are working hard to totally revamp combat and here are some screenshots and ideas we're working with." Take a look at Digital Extreme's Live Devstreams for Warframe on Twitch.tv. They have them I believe bi-weekly, and they're about 1-hour long with the lead devs of their departments and they just talk and answer questions regarding the present game and future of the game. Granted D-E is a medium sized company but it's interesting to see how different companies are keeping their games relevant and communicating intentions during "beta" (Warframe is in Beta and F2P on PC and PS4 presently). Strong, thoughtful communication seems to be the industry's relatively new pillar during development of products and continued support of released products.

I won't go on a long-long post of how Chucklefish should develop their game nor will I make too many assumptions on what they are or aren't doing behind the scenes, but three months after early access, the game's present state, if you remove usage of mods, gives me a very tangible opinion of what I might have to expect from Chucklefish for my 15 dollar investment pre-launch. Indie companies do not have the reputation or long standing backing of multi-million dollar companies, and as such can't operate on that level. Indie companies in my opinion tend to be more communicative with their intentions, keeping the community updated with piecemeal because it is effective in staving off hunger pains, because they lack the money to blow up hype on E3 or CES or Tokyo Game Show or PAX or have TV commericals and hammer you with ads. Indie companies tend to thrive on word of mouth in my experience and a solid tunnel of communication. You can't do it like the Cubeworld guy, and I would ask any Indie company to take a look at that game to see how not to back your title.

As an amateur developer and avid gamer, I personally thought providing ways to use mods on a game that's basically an alpha was a very strange path to go, but when I saw that CF moved to incorporate mods into the official game making them "Part of the base game" I thought, wow that's ingeniously devious, effectively crowd sourcing development by poaching modders' work. I play Skyrim off and on and use tons of mods that provide sweeping changes to Skyrim. They're so integral that I can't justify playing the game without the slew of mods available, but I've never seen Bethesda poach the top mods and release a Game of the Year Edition of Skyrim with the mods pre-installed as part of the base game. (If that has happened, I'm more than happy to be proven wrong).

I don't believe or think CF is anything like Wollay (Because they haven't been) and SB won't be like Cubeworld with long long months of seemingly no development, nor communication, but a way to keep threads like this from even coming up can be countered and preventive measures can be put in place by having a solid communication of intentions, and not just fluff. Content is content, but I know myself and I'm sure many others look at something like an Agaran update or some other piece of fluff and scratch our heads because on one hand SB is being treated like a fully launched game in that area and yet we all know there is very little "game" in present SB beyond the most basic elements of a 2D Minecraft, basically Terraria style game.

That said, when they do release a big update to the game, I'll be around to eat it up happily. I think the Starbound player in me really wants my Human Mech Tech to be worth a damn, lol. And I'm just waiting for an update to make some change to that, without mods. I haven't touched any mods as I want to experience Chucklefish's game, much like I did with Bethesda's Skyrim. Subsequent playthroughs or when I've played the vanilla game enough will warrant a heavy influx of mods to make the game just the way I want it.

 

many mechanics from fallout: new vegas were very obviously derived from mods dating back to morrowind. the difference is, they didnt copy wholesale. they further adapted and developed the mods onto their own thing. which i think is kinda great.

wholesale integration (in early access beta no less) puts a very bad taste in my mouth.

 

I imagine that's the case for many games that are updated, post release with DLC/expansions, with strong mod integration. I'm sure Bethesda took mod ideas. If I remember, I believe they even had some kind of contest regarding mods. That said, very little is original these days and everyone is inspired by something someone else has done, but like you, I feel the same about "wholesale" integration. I was surprised when I learned that the Novakid was actually a mod and you could just get the mod now and use them without waiting for CF to integrate it into the game. Why go that route? If they want to showcase the mod, so be it, but why choose a Novakid over some other new race mod the community has made to be part of their base game? (Why not pick 5 more races with polish equal to or better than the Novakids from the mod database?) It would be better for CF to look to the mods and design their own stuff using the mods they like as inspiration, instead of integrating them as is.

But yeah... that's another topic altogether.

 

The Novakids came first as a race idea, that as a preorder bonus goal of reaching somany sales, Chucklefish where going to add in themselves. This was months before the beta became available to play and mod. The mod that lets you play them, is a fan mod.. done before Chucklefish could even start working on the official version of them.

Tho you bring a good question to mind. Why not add it, if a fans gone and done most of the work? Now they don't have to hire an extra hand to get it in before the end of beta.. but its an awkward place when fans are getting to content before they can.

 

Ah that's very interesting. Thanks for educating my ignorance on the matter.

 

I have just dropped the game. I still check on the Reddit thread time to time but other than that i don't expect anything at all in the near future.
They have had so many different release dates and with the game still sitting on stage 1 for 4 months i doubt we will get the game this year.
Extremely disappointed this far.

 

I'm with you on this. They have said so much about having daily/weekly updates heavy patches all this jazz. And I've been patiently waiting for huge changes to SB. But in return I get Hats... weather.. and more hats.. I probably won't touch this game anymore until its finality. I have Dark Souls 2 to dig in acouple hundred hours. And other real crap to deal with. But I hear ya man. I'm getting to the point to why even bother checking the homepage for patch notes...

 

Curse you TF2 for making "Enough with the hats!" a battle cry for the chronically impatient.

 

I pretty much just check to see if they ever decide to say anything about getting the game out of alpha and into the beta they told us we were supposed to get. You know, that stage of the game where there's actually stuff to do.

 

They are running as a chicken without head. Im used to code games like this one (with less sprites work) or similar 2D 2.5D for advertising companies.
And all i saw this 5 Months is a shame. They only know how to do promises to hype and broke them after because their incompetence.

Are they amateurs?

 

Agghhh, the Whack pack is back...Zander and his merry men (Misho, Pigsegh et al) of mass complainers. You must have seen some reddit or 4chan rants to come back trolling here. I thought you kids were gone once the beta was released, as you (and the rest of the whack pack) stated repeatedly that it would never happen and that it wouldn't be successful...extremely wrong on both accounts by the way. So since you here, how does crow taste?

Paco <--- for old time sake

Your unwavering negativity is truly remarkable, well over 3 hundred posts critical of chucklefish. I don't think anything could change your opinion.

 

Trolls.. The Whack Pack.. Was there any point to this
post? Whether are thoughts are negative criticism or positive feedback. We are all here wanting something more in Starbound. Period. Complaining about development of a game that has seen very little changes in its core nature is natural on every level. It's mid March now and people are concerned about the progress and speaking up. Im afraid thats the reality of being a consumer of a product that is very redundant and leaves a bad taste in our mouths. To quote you. Chucklefish has been feeding us the crows and frankly we are tired of spitting out the feathers.