My Dissapointments With Starbound

This is the main point I have been trying to get across. The game is a touch on the stale side, especially in the begining. I know they're working on it. I'd just like to see a more intense focus on the basics.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Is this Starbound or Ninja Gaiden Bound? Beat Boss 1 to get to Act 2? Having said that, though, the updates from the devs give me the impression they're looking into alternatives. I hope they do away with a lot of the linear stuff. That and some of the ridiculous restrictions.

 

That is still a sandbox game, even if it has something separating the still nearly limitless sectors. Take GTA for example, in the older ones you couldn't go to some parts of the cities until you got farther along in the story, and they were still considered sandboxes to some extent.

 

Well, I'd argue currently, The things to kill are all more or less the same, scaled slightly, and what to dig up is more or less the same, but used for slightly scaled versions of the same items. And to dig and kill the higher things, you have to dig and kill the lower things. Those two are pretty linear.
But you can build whatever you want, that's entirely true. Personally, I've never valued aesthetics as much as mechanics and there are little mechanical ramifications with building, but if you are one for aesthetics, this game will definitely deliver a rich sandbox experience.
However, this does not seem to be a game centered around building so much as a game centered around hack and slash dungeon crawling. In the latter aspect, it's extremely linear and is not really exist in a proper sandbox environment.

Indeed, there are many conflicting opinions going around on these forums, and the dev's aren't obligated to listen to any of them.

 

GTA is an open world game. Not a Sandbox game. They are two very different things.

 

Not replying to you exactly but to this whole chain.
The definition of a sandbox game is a game that "gives the player considerable freedom about how and when to approach objectives". While it is arguable about HOW you approach the bosses, you can choose when pretty freely. You can do it after you have a full set of decent armor and the best weapons you could find and a bunch of techs after having explored as much of the first sector as you could. Or you could do it with your starter weapon and in your underwear. The definition of a sandbox game was never something like "You can do everything everywhere anytime you want" that was simply the definition of a few popular sandbox games.

My case in point, in Skyrim you can't go to Sovnguarde (or however you spell it) until you get far in the storyline, right? Well it's still a sandbox game regardless of such a petty limitation.

 

I'm probably double posting here unless someone posts in the meantime, so I apologize.
The actual definitions of open-world and sandbox are incredibly similar. The only difference being that in a sandbox game, you are typically given tools that allow you to modify the world yourself and create the way you play. Which Starbound does.

 

Sandbox = focusing on the sandboxy aspects of the gameplay. In my opinion, calling starbound a hack and slash is pretty spot on atm, as pretty much none of the focus so far is on the sandbox experience. The building and exploring feels more like thrown in mini-games the way things are now, it's something to do at the side to extend playtime.

 

That's not what a Sandbox games is at all. Ultima Online for example is a Sandbox game, or at least it was. It let's you develop your character however you want and play whoever you want without the developers of the game telling you what you can and can not do, within reason of course. There also isn't much of a central plot-line to follow and you aren't forced to do any quests to gain items or open up new areas. Minecraft is a sandbox game because even though it has a minor story which is to kill the Ender Dragon, you can completely ignore it and craft all the items and weapons in the game yourself, while going on your own personal adventure that you created. Grand Theft Auto is an open world game because it forces you to follow specific missions in order to open up parts of the city and unlock items and vehicles. You have no choice in the matter of whether or not to do these missions. If you want to get anywhere in the game you have to do the missions, BUT you are also somewhat free to roam around the city in-between the missions with the items you unlocked by doing the missions. By Sandbox they mean creating your own adventure, not building things.

 

I just got bored with it realizing well all you do is get the next best armor.. thats all you aim for in this game.. :/ I've become bored. It becomes to tedious.. but ey I've never made it past silver armor or past the second boss.. i just lost interest fast really.

 

I can't speak from your side since I'm sure we play differently, but the assets and everything to focus on building and exploration is there with dungeons and tons of brick types and colors to build what you want. That coupled with flat planets that are literally there specifically for building means that all the things are there for the player to focus on what they want. Be it exploring to find the dungeons to do the hacking and slashing, just running around and killing thing, exploring to gather materials to build something, it's up to the player to do what they want.

 

The main thing to remember is that at current state most of ambitious features, like settlement NPCs having a better AI and so on, are not implemented and there are only placeholders taking their place in some cases. You should just be a little bit more patient than that and the features will be ingame eventually.

 

Curse the double posts. No, that is -your- definition of a sandbox game. If you're going to use the term sandbox, get the correct definition and actually compare open world and sandbox. You can't change the definition of sandbox to help suit your needs. By definition, Starbound is a sandbox game.

However, arguing about the definition is pointless anyways. I see where you come from, but you have to realize that just because that is your vision of a perfect sandbox game and that's what you want, you can't claim that the game is something else because of that. To put it in a simpler light, it's like when a high-class person goes to a low-class restaurant and claims that it isn't a "real restaurant because of a, b, and c". The game is what it is and it can get better, and these forums are here for constructive criticism to help benefit the game because we are the testers. Saying that the game is simply "not a sandbox game" doesn't get the developers any closer to making the game what you want it to be. If you feel strongly about your opinions and think they would benefit the game and a majority of the people that play it, make a thread about it.

I don't discourage your opinions or anything, just don't go around claiming that the game isn't something that it is by definition because it causes a lot of confusion and drama and bleh. All in all, you make good points and I do hope the game opens up a bit more.

 

How do you know this? Where is it written?

"Definition - What does Sandbox mean?
A sandbox is a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game emphasizes roaming and allows a gamer to select tasks. Instead of featuring segmented areas or numbered levels, a sandbox game usually occurs in a “world” to which the gamer has full access from start to finish.

A sandbox game is also known as an open-world or free-roaming game.
Techopedia explains Sandbox
Gamers play sandbox games according to their preference. These games include structured elements - such as mini-games, tasks, submissions and storylines - that may be ignored by gamers. In fact, the sandbox game's nonlinear nature creates storyline challenges for game designers. For this reason, tasks and side missions usually follow a progression, where tasks are unlocked upon successful task completion.

Sandbox game types vary. Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) generally include a mixture of sandbox and progression gaming and heavily depend on emergent interactive user gameplay for retaining non-progression-focused gamers. Modern "beat 'em ups" and first-person shooters have delved more deeply into the sandbox realm with titles like the "Grand Theft Auto" series, "Red Dead Redemption," "Assassin’s Creed" and others, allowing gamers to run and gun wherever the mood takes them.

In spite of their name, various sandbox games continue to impose restrictions at some stages of the game environment. This can be due the game's design limitations, or can be a short-run, in-game limitations, such as some locked areas in games that will be unlocked once certain milestones are achieved."

Definition of sandbox taken from http://www.techopedia.com/definition/3952/sandbox-gaming

 

Thanks for this.

 

Guess that proves both of our points then. It's a sandbox game, just not the most open one.

 

Agree with the original author on all points.

 

My only big gripe is optimization but that is more of a personal computer problem. If my computer was decent it should play fine even at this current stage.

 

why are posters acting like the definition of a "sand-box-game" changes anything? If you dont want to call SB a sandbox game- then dont. . Defining it any further is not going to change the game or its development process. It is what it is.

 

However, fact remains that it is advertised as a sandbox game.

 

my concern in large part isn't about what isn't implemented, but rather what doesn't seem to be on the list of things to implement. For instance: will npc's have structure to their societies? Will nomads have a reason for being alone? Will they be anything more than objective dispensers and loot droppers? I'm fine with it not being in the game yet, I'm just concerned it won't be in the game *ever*.

 

One great point was made: make suggestions. Complaining isn't productive, but offering suggestions up certainly is.