Leaping Monsters!

Starbound has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time (great artstyle, sense of humor), and I'm aware it's early beta. Just a disclaimer of sorts!

it's just that the "jump at player until dead" combat style has gotten old really fast. It seems like as they jump at you occasionally their hitbox gets strange as well (this also seems to happen when the monster punches right through you). I mean yeah certain techs make avoiding them easy but I'd like to see somewhat better AI in future updates. Combat's pretty good aside from the leaping monster phenomenon. I don't know, it's a minor gripe but it can get really frustrating when you're trying to mine. Not as bad as Terraria could get during an invasion (which I hope Starbound gets, that'd be sweet as hell despite how annoying they can be).

Also, the birds. Someone's a fan of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Though I hear they've been nerfed at least once. :B

 

Monsters are getting better AIs in future updates, from what I've heard.

 

Sounds good to me. I guess they want to get the major stuff out before they go for the minor things which is totally reasonable.

 

The birds are certainly annoying, especially the ones who shoot a stream of projectiles. Each of those hit for full damage, which simply obliterates me every single time. Otherwise they're not as bad anymore I guess... They used to follow you forever.

 

It IS Beta after all, so there's gonna be fixes and adjustments everywhere I'm sure. Monsters also can charge, but most seem to have body slam.

 

yeah, when monsters have about three attacks (charge, body slam, projectile) in a super early beta there's not much you can do. I just wanted to get the complaint out of my system rather than let it fester.

At least they generally look cool killing you.

 

Some monsters are actually ridiculous though.
On my first planet, there was a black crocodile type thing that would charge at me and then fire off fire projectiles which did insane damage, and if it wasn't that it was this red thing that could punch me about 50 blocks.

 

I get punched into the ground every so often, and really it's the little smaller jumping enemies that kill me the most since their hitbox is even smaller. One was two eye-stalks on either side of the body or something like that. The random generation has interesting results.

@TheJetternaut That's the nerf I was talking about. Even still they chase you for a long time.

The birds that divebomb you are pretty annoying too.

And then there are the miniboss-esque enemies which also do the jumping attack... which usually leads to me either boxing them in with dirt or dying a somewhat humorous and quick death.

 

I swear this thing was a miniminiboss. It punched me for 39 damage and also sent me off of a cliff for the same amount of damage, but it had the interesting habit of instantaneously clearing the screen.

When it comes to birds, I like it when they divebomb, gives me a chance to beat them up. And when I've got a sword that can knock them to the floor it makes it all the easier.

 

The freaking projectile-birds always kill all my guards and my villagers and everybody because they can spawn even in the middle of villages.
Guard: "PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPON!"
Me: "Ok."
*bird monster that I was fighting turns around and kills guard*
"I hope you're darn proud of yourself, guard."

 

Guard AI's a bit odd too, they'll follow you quite far out of the village to tell you to put your weapon away.

that sounds really weird Doublejho. I was in an asteroid field and got smacked off the side of one and fell to my death. Couldn't use my grapplehook in time. Fall damage is almost a non-issue in this game, unlike Minecraft or Terraria where falling about five feet deals some damage.

 

Unless you jump off the side of an Avian Ascendant Tower, in which case I took precisely 143 damage (gravity bubble might be bugged though) and died. The idiotic Ascendant who jumped off with me?
...Survived. Without wings.
Npcs don't take fall damage. Even the Ascendants who allegedly die almost every single time they hit the ground.
I laughed so hard.
I also take fall damage whenever I jump down my tunnel to the depths of heck on my homeworld, but thanks to Pulse Jump and Gravity Bubble it's generally not a problem.

 

Yeah, the NPCs and monsters don't take falling/environmental damage yet aside from the acid pools.

Actually I got one-shotted by a Poop Golem the other day. Apparently they're super powerful or something.

 

Yeah, they one-shotted me too. The trick is that they seem to be unable to jump. Get onto a higher ledge a little bit farther away from them and you can spam a massive volley of arrows (or gunshots) without fear of retaliation.

 

It's kinda weird seeing an outhouse in the middle of a snow biome, then finding giant flies and poo monsters. After the one-shot incident I just avoid them since there's no real loot to speak of anyway.

 

The Po aren't supposed to kill you in one hit anymore. If they still do that, then it's a bug.

 

I barely get hurt by Po Golems, even in the same sector (X).

 

it was a Po Golem, not the little living happy turds, unless you meant the Po in general. Also I heard something about being able to capture the little Po with the animal trapper; is that actually possible?

 

The guards themselves need to take the initiative to attack the hostile birds/creatures instead of just letting them get the first hit, as most of the time they may die in the first hit. The fall damage itself seems to have been balanced somewhat better (compared to how it was when the beta first came out), though that also needs to be tweaked as there is no real way to die from fall damage, unless you are low on health/fall down a giant pit you made/fall from a extremely high place.

 

My biggest gripe is how the traps that do 40+ damage to you.. Don't do a damn thing to the NPCS and monsters. Awesome temple guards followed me and fell into the saw pit and are now having a mosh party screaming protect at me. OH look a bird fell in there with them. EXCELLENT, *Just covers it with dirt* Nothin' to see here folks