My Dissapointments With Starbound

yeah the mining bit is wierd, game sureley needs respawn mechanics of ore like other games, this isnt real life so why cant it have magical game respawning mechanics when it comes to ore nodes... there is surele easy rules to apply so that the game world isnt unbalanced, like respawning only occurs if there hasnt been built anything by the player over the ore node...

 

And yet those same people now complain about the state of the game. It's a vicious cycle that would never end regardless.

 

And they have a right to complain. What is your point exactly?

 

My point is Chucklefish never lied when they started hinting and saying it wasn't ready. The whole how beta is supposed to work post was basically them saying how rushed this release had to be to meet the date so people didn't chop their heads off. Yet that's constantly ignored and people treat the game like it's completed. IT would have been a lot better if people had been a little more understanding that yet estimates can go wrong and they can go wrong more than once.

 

First thing: Lack of Meaningful Variety.
Real life tools and weapons are the same, a 9mm pistol and a .50cal desert eagle in essence are the exact same, but the damage they deal are different, a hammer and sledge hammer are the same.. the quality of the object also effects the effectiveness of the tool/weapon. Weapons also require training/practice before you get better at using them, so realistically the variance in tools/weapons follow a realistic pattern.

Planets are also similar because planets are made in similar fashions and the only real differences are the variation of gravity, the atmosphere, the tectonic activity and materials that create a planet. the only true difference a habitable planet may have are based on the evolutionary line of the lifeforms that live there.

Second thing: Linear Sandbox Progression.
Believe it or not, everything in video-games is linear. the only reason why games like Skyrim do not feel linear is because of all the sidequests and the ability to chose how to play... Just look at Mass Effect, everyone thought the way you played would make a difference, but the ending was the same regardless of your choices. Starbound just lacks quests

Third thing: Isolation.
The only thing I dislike is the isolation. I'll occasionally find the random NPC selling stuff and enemy structures, but I've only found two truly... okay three, populated planets, one was Glitch, another Floran and then a Mushroom people planet. so +1 to support there.

Fourth thing: Static Environments.
Aside from Meteor showers, which are simply re-skinned bombs that fall from the sky.. do you know just how hard it is to create non-static environments? Not to mention that this game is still in development so creating machinery is not a priority. Just look at minecraft, it's taken them 5 years to go from a simple random world gen/exploration game to what it is today and even then it's still a very basic game!



tl;dr


Stop being a whiny spoiled brat that expects instant gratification. If you dislike the game, oh well! You made a bad investment and should look elsewhere. If you like it but find it's lacking, there's a reason why the modding community exists.

 

Chucklefish should of planned better and not promised anything other than a "soon". And for the people treating this like a finished product, its clear from the launcher and the fact that this is a early access game that its not even done yet.

And the Beta release was basically them laying out what was happening in stage 1, 3 and 3 and then letting people loose to test for bugs and improve systems.

This honestly made me laugh. Sure both those are guns but I have yet to see a 9mm pistol pop off .50cal rounds. Are you saying they have the same penetration? And for the hammer and sledgehammer. Sure they are both hammers but the sledgehammer is bigger and allows you to strike with more force over a wider area. A hammer is focused on a smaller area and strikes with less force.

So no they are not the exact same. They are variations of something.

 

I'm sorry for bringing post from first page but...

Yeah, it isn't but i think a lot of ppl want a "Skyrim in space". If you threw away graphics and related stuff from Skyrim it turn into rather "weak" sand-box with simplistic quests and rather awful RPG-system (without mods). Making something similar in 2-d with some randomized stuff looks like a not so impossible task (for someone, not related to game industry) and first SB previews give us hope we can get what we want. But right now SB is much closer to Terraria than to Skyrim because Terraria is NOT a sand-box. It is 2-d platformer where standard (for a platformer) "levels", "stages", etc. is changed for semi-random locations. But game logic is the same - clear "locations", get loot, get stuff from NPC, kill boss and move forth. The fact that you could explore the whole world from beginning and "skip" some "stages" don't change anything. And now in SB it's even worse - each sector feels like separate "stage"(i know it's a placeholder for now, but placeholder for what?) with rather unimpressive content and challenges, and i don't know how Devs can improve it with current core mechanics. So main problem with SB - it's not a sand-box, although it;s been portrayed as one.

 

trying not to drag this one out so ill be quick.... BETA

 

I agree with pretty much all of these points, as they are the main flaws in the game.

 

Get out.

 

Lets face it. There is only one true sandbox game in existence and that's Garry's Mod

 

aw man skyrim in space would be awesome , you know it is . dem space dragons.

 

Well, it's true, where aren't any "true" sandboxes out there. Their mechanics and contents either is extremely restricted like in Minecraft (without mods) or they are not random and their content is heavily "script-driven" like in Skyrim. But it doesn't mean that one must create a game with random content in it, which serve no purpose aside from decorative and call the game a sandbox and heavy game mechanics restrictions just to make it feel longer.

 

Ahem, you mean skyhook and that other minor thing? How is that "copypasting" if they properly credit the authors, not to mention smoothly improve the mod and add new content, such as additional visuals and such? Not to mention that, as I already previously stated on this thread, at the current Progenitor stage they still have many technical things to weld up before they can move on to directly gameplay influencing elements, not to mention such early stage is a perfect time to experiment with core gameplay.

Well, Chucklefish does have some experience and involvement in multiple projects, not to mention their investments in other teams seem to be fruitful too, with Risk of Rain and Adventure Treasure Island both getting praised in the reviews for being fun games. Plus Tiy was involved in development of Terraria, and that game did earn success, too. What else do you need?
No Man's Sky was used an example that team's size doesn't matter, when it comes to experience that's a more subjective criteria as there are just too many directions you can be experienced in, from animation and programming of visuals to skills in self-promotion and thoroughly bugtesting.

Well, ahem, I'm rather amused how you still stand on that even after I corrected you. While promising super features that later get cut in development are super common, not to mention there were no impossible things in his promises, with almost every single game having them even if those were actively boasted to be implemented, only Molyneux practiced such activities as promising his game will alter the gaming world, even if it's a block smashing game thanks to wining which you become a "God" of some game or whatever.

There is no question will devs actually improve this game, only when. And if you really want to accelerate the feature creep, I recommend either giving constructive suggestions on how certain gameplay features can be improved instead of ranting that there are features that should really be improved. Or, you know, make some mods, maybe they'll end up in the game...

Well, you got a point there. You can't make a real sandbox without allowing people to add their own content and additions... though, Starbound got that already, and the game seems to feature quite a liberal modding system, so I really wouldn't worry about lack of wonderful Starbound mods in the future.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/41754/?

I don't know if this is good or not, but orbital bombardments in Skyrim sounds funny.

 

The "sandbox" game definition that seems to be going around sounds like a terrible game. There arent too many good games that fit the criteria to begin with.

I think when the devs described this as a sandbox, they meant more in the mold of more popular open world games like GTA or....Terraria

 

or Spore, or Gmod, or Minecraft, or... um, nevermind, plenty of examples, I guess.

 

All those games have progression..except Gmod i guess.

Some are saying a sandbox is COMPLETELY open and you are allowed to do whatever you want at any time. Few real games are like thatethat unless its just for creative purposes.

 

So, Minecraft creative, many games with cheats and/or console commands and already mentioned Gmod? Hmm, I sure wonder why on Gmod everybody prefers gamemodes like Dark RP or Trouble in Terrorist Town, and Minecraft's survival mode is significantly more popular...

 

I mean on a dumbed down level they both function in the same basic way. So things like ammunition type, design, fire rate, etc etc can be viewed as stats. Same goes for tools, though I used a bad example.