My Dissapointments With Starbound

When i first saw this game anounced and described, quite a while back, i went "Uuuuuuuh an atempt on the holy grail!". The holy grail being the endless game. It certainly lacks content atm, but if you read the news about planned implementations, some of the issues here is getting adressed there. I don't mind that i have to do some linear stuff. Sure the pickaxe/drill system seems weird and completely useless, but as for fullfilling some parameters to progress to the next sector, it makes sense. The next sector would eat me alive if i went in my starting gear.
My hope for the holy graill died a little when i saw the crops system. A fixed number of crops, fitting rigidly in a fixed number of recipes. Toxic top, feathercrown, eggshot... why not go with roots, a primary stat (like sweet, hot, acid etc) and maybes family name plus type. Root, toxic top, toxic, bright leaves. Bright leaves only matters for the seed, toxic only for food. Races could have a primary "tastebud" one race like sweet, sweet boost healing and speed, maybe acid is bad for them and do damage. Dishes mix up the stats, like acid counters hot and the type of food depends on an option in the cooking table menu.. boil, stew etc. Make your own blend. Ofcourse it would likely be painfull for peoples systems.... but developers are the Gods of their game, and Gods can do anything! No reality check needed Now i sort world peace.
There is by far too little to do and experience when you consider how much space you got to do it in. It would help if my beautifull pale turqoise sandstone did not turn into yellow sandstone bricks! All my cobblestone is the same gray sprite! I can't harvest grass for a hay roof, I have to demolish houses. The npc's don't realy interact or even matter, and on a max lvl planet, i get loot that is outdated by at least one tier. My planet is in a time pockett and stuff don't evolve while I am gone. Seriously, should my population spawn get killed from acid rain I woulden't cry, i would build a dome. Then spawn more.
I think i understand where the game is right now. People want to see it all, so the developers have made sure that there is an aboundance of resources and let us in to areas that isen't really ready for us. I think the game is lacking in the areas the original poster adress, but more importantly, the game is setup to let you create your own content, and short of a mod you have very few options for that.
I still hope this turns out to be the holy grail. I think (and pardon my french) you must be bunkers to even try for that. still i hope the aperant bunkersness is a sign of unrivaled genius. This game is not nearly done, and there seems to be alot of good ideas from the developers. There is also an overwelming amount of input. So I wait, and check out the koalas mood, will the fella be frustrated, angry, furious, depressed, or even happy next patch?

 

Well I completely agree with the OP. At the current state of the game, I don't see much content in Starbound. I don't think that the randomness of planet/monster/weapon could be counted as content. Most of the time planet hopping is boring, you shoot some stupid monsters and find 1 or 2 villages in a planet, which are repetitive over and over in many other places. The villagers, NPCs themselves are just like the monsters in human form. I don't expect and I don't think it's possible to create a village with unique stories/tales tied to it like those in Skyrim in a game of randomness like Starbound, but at least NPCs should say some lines reflecting their lore/culture/character or relationship with some nearby NPCs( like their friends or siblings). This way, I will feel more encouraged to talk to NPCs, to learn more about their race, not just killing them as of now for items.

Mining, the second important part is also boring for me. There are some moments of delight when you find a big amount of ores to your need. However, if you need to dig deep without any specific direction, then go back to the ground to do crafting, and do the process over and over again, it's just hassle. I don't feel anything special about my mining and it's not fun. I think one way to add variance, more excitement to mining is to add something like mini boss, guarding monsters over a big amount of ores, and those should be easy to find, closer to the ground level. So you can trade the player's long time digging and looking for the ores with their time fighting to beat those monsters, wouldn't that more fun?

Another idea is to have planet with high concentration of a specific ore, or village of NPCs that are willing to trade a specific type of ore for pixel or food or clothes... This will lessen the dependent on ore and therefore, mining in starbound and increase the chance for food/clothes and other merchandise to be made, not just for the need of the players.(right now you grow crop to make food and eat in every 15 minutes or so and that's the only purpose of food.). We can even borrow some of the idea/mechanics from simulation game such as import and export of goods...

Anyway, I love Starbound has followed the development since day 1. Hopefully the devs will pay some attention to this thread.

 

The thing is bro, just because they have a list of amazing planned features doesn't mean they will ever get implemented. This game has been is development for a good amount of time and they don't have much to show for it. The list of planned features they have are completely impossible to implement for a small indie studio. There's just no way. Ever heard of Peter Molyneux? Yeah, right now Chucklefish is the Peter Molyneux of indie games. You can't just post a huge list of planned features and have nothing to show for any of them. That's called talking out of your rear end. I'm making a super awesome indie sidescroller that let's you board enemy ships, fight in space battles, explore planets, customize your own ship, fight monsters, craft items, build houses, terraform planets, create city's, create space-stations, fight bosses and get all sorts of crazy loot. I mean you can do anything in this game man. It's crazy. Now if you will just preorder my game for 15 dollars that would be great. Does that sound legit to you? Do you think I could actually implement most of these things? It's my first game and I have little to no experience but i'm sure it will work out, right? I mean, I have a few friends working on it with me! It will be great man! Trust me! It's the ultimate game! There's a reason AAA studios haven't made a game like this before. Because even they can't implement any of the features in their own game that Chucklefish is claiming will be in Starbound. I'm willing to bet money that 95% of the features that Chucklefish has on that Planned Features list will never be implemented. I'm not trying to bash the game, but when developers say this kind of stuff you really, really have to be a little suspicious.

 

Scripting complex NPC behaviors might be a bit of an ask. Agree with OP sentiment though.

Certainly, progression needs to be unchained from its current linear structure.
Loot and stats need to be made massively more interesting.

I wish Chucklefish had the courage to vary core mechanics away from Terraria. Visually varied landscapes and randomised enemies are window-dressing. Space-travel can be interpreted as a glorified 'generate world' button... I'm having difficulty isolating what is truly different. Someone remind me?

edit: Also suspect that linear & 'story-driven' is the antithesis of a 1000-hour+ multi-player sandbox. Pro-lore though.

 

Well, I thought I would come into this thread and it would be the same flame baiting crap. I'm pleasantly surprised.

The main points I agree on are the boxing in, and the focusing on the player as the only force of change. Those two issues really impact the enjoyment I personally get from Starbound. I think the latter will be something that is improved with time, as more things are added, however as people have mentioned, even things that do change the environment, only do so where the player is, now while you can't expect it to simulate changing environments and planets for every single planet in the game, it would be nice if things like meteor showers at least affected the whole surface, rather than just the screen space. In the long run, I don't think it will ever be as dynamic as the OP is hoping, at least in single player. I can see it developing some very large mutliplayer servers though, I know I'm going to be working on one once I get familiar with how to mod it.

As with the boxing in.. Well, that'll either be something that gets fixed, or that I'll mod out, it makes no logical sense to require previous tools to make the next one, other than to artificially lengthen playtime. I think the whole boss system is mostly just aping Terraria, and is rather unnecessary really, I can see why they've done it, to prepare the player for the next zone, however it is an annoying progression bottle neck, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a sandbox.

 

You could definitely "simulate" events for everything in the universe. At least, you could simulate simulating everything

One approach would be to have random events. Perhaps give the player some sort of radio/console that detects "abnormal" activity nearby. These notifications would randomly appear every once in a while in the console/radio. The player then visits the planet and only then is the event executed. Essentially, this would take advantage of pre-programmed events. When the random event occurs, a 0 turns to a 1, and when the player visits the planet the pre-made event is executed.

Not a clue on what kind of events would be interesting, but this would encourage exploration and collaboration (If the quests were difficult enough). I've said previously that I wouldn't mind if later stages of the game required multiple players to progress. In the game's current state, I don't feel there's any incentive to go multiplayer other than multiplayer.

I do think the game has a lot more content planned, but hopefully that isn't just "more stuff."

 

The most disappointing thing for me was the quest system. I was looking forward to the RPG aspects of this game. Even in Terraria there was a sort of a choose whatever boss you want to fight and if you can't beat it then try a different boss until you beat one. None of the bosses were required for progression with the exception of the wall of flesh and all the crazy nonsense that came with the defeat of it.

I think if the quest system gets implemented and is as awesome as it was made to sound, I will be so happy. I am extremely driven by progression and completion. I love opening my pip-boy in Fallout and looking at all the quests I've completed or my journal in Skyrim and seeing all the stuff I've done. It gives me a sense of progression and achievement. Right now the only real achievement is getting better armor. Armor that isn't all that interesting besides the cosmetic changes and even then it's questionable. I just hope that they stick with the development and refinement because despite it's flaws it has amazing potential to be a great game. I always come into betas expecting there to be issues and for the game to be of a lesser quality, but in the end it's not about the game or how good it is. It's about how the developers react to these issues. It's all in the recovery.

 

Some poeple have unrealistic expectations. Why would you expect such an open ended complex gameplay in a mining game? This is all it is, and all it will ever be. Of course there will be a twist here and there, but these are all twist for a MINING GAME. Sure, there will be NPCs- but they will only be impressive by Mining game standards. So dont expect any sort of "radiant A.I" or anything more complex than a few fetch quest and quirky lines of dialogue.

This will never be Skyrim in space. i repeat - this will NEVER be Skyrim in space. the sooner you can come to grips with that, the sooner you will be able to appreciate this game for what it is. Another cool MINING GAME. where you mine.

 

As much as I'm enjoying the game, I agree with everything there.

What is the point of exploring the universe if it's just a bunch of re-skinned planets with very minor differences?
What's the point of exploring and looking for NPCs if all they do is walk back and forth, occasionally sell you bad items, and say one thing when you talk to them?

I would be a lot more likely to travel if the planets were significantly different, or if there were cities/villages with "living" NPCs.

 

I dunno man, I was under the impression this was an extraterrestrial sandbox adventure game. In fact, they don't specifically mention mining anywhere in it's description. And if this was a mining game, I'd be even more disappointed. Why would they add all these meaningless enemies and npc's and vanity items before even adding some sort of cave in feature or more complex smelting methods or anything that would make mining remotely interesting.
On another note: what's with all these Skyrim comparisons? This one was a particularly long stretch.

 

Yea this pretty much sums up all of my fears about the game. Especially the weapons, and OP hit it spot on with the weaponry. Weapons in this game are so damn boring, my worst fear for this game has come to light and OP illuminated it for me. Please make weapons interesting to use, guns are worthless.

Where are my plasma whips?
Guns that shoot a lightning rods into the ground that have arcs of electricity pass through each of them to set up elaborate traps?
Mine launchers configurable to stick not only on walls, but to the foreheads of people you don't like?
Flails, laser based throwing knifes with creative red trails behind them?

Wheres the creativity you come to expect from an indie game?

 

I have only found evidence of the first point and fourth point(partially) being confirmed to be in the works. Though for the first point, it may not be much variety for armor(just energy or armor). I found no evidence that the second point will be addressed. The closest way point three will be addressed is with quests, but I don't think that will be enough. So, these seem like they are legitimate concerns.

Ye olde liste of what to expect: http://community.playstarbound.com/...information-retired-due-to-release.450/page-1

 

Geesh man, your attitude makes me wonder about... many things.
Anyways, I am really surprised about your belief that indie studio cannot do anything more advanced than pixelart chiptune platformers and artgames. I mean, just look at games like upcomming No Man's Sky. It was made by a team smaller than that of Starbound's, and it has randomly generated worlds and ability to leave planet and go straight into the space without loading times. How many big companies have that for an offer? Oh, not to mention Chicklefish already got a game for showing, and it already got some of features we were promised from beginning of development, like randomly generated worlds with other random stuff sprinkled on top, so it's not an empty promise.

There are 26th planned things in the list. So, according to maths they need to fulfill like one and a half of the promised things to go over 95%. If you include the fact they already included some of data and assets necessary for ship expansions and demonstrated screenshots of key binding... yeap, your claims already are rather inaccurate. Anyways, I do understand why do you perceive a great risk of Ealy Acess / beta stage game of remaining in the same stage indefinitely, but the Chucklefish team have demonstrated a determination to keep the game on a specific quality and content level instead of releasing it earlier for a quick cash grab, not to mention they actually fixed a notable amount of bugs and added quite some content in a period of less than three weeks, which is staggering for an indie company.

Also, thing about Molyneux that made him infamous is, you see, his habit of claiming his game will revolutionize X and Y even if in the end it turns out there's nothing cardinally new, his overambitiousness about features does not extend the average ambitious dev promise quota.

 

If by adding content you mean copy and pasting mods made by the community then sure. I guess they did. The thing about No Man's sky is that the things they claim are in the game actually seem plausible. They've already released two fantastic games so they know what theyr'e doing and then they aren't claiming you will be able to do a bunch of crazy stuff without having anything to show for it. It's a procedurally generated space exploration game. That's it. They aren't saying that you can board enemy ships or colonize planets, they aren't claiming there will be a bunch of intelligent NPC's in the planets and they aren't claiming you can completely terraform the planets. Their main goal is actually quite simple, not technologically but in terms of an idea. They aren't trying to create the ultimate game that you can play forever. They just want to make a game where the planets are procedurally generated and there are no load times when leaving them. See the difference?

Peter Moleneux saying he wants to create the greatest RPG of all time or the greatest strategy game isn't the kind of thing that made him infamous. Practically every developer says things like that. What made him infamous was his constant claiming that you could do all sorts of amazing things in his games that were never actually in it. Like ultra realistic hunting, you could plant trees and then come back months later and they would grow, you could have kids and they would grow up to adulthood and go hunting with you and questing ,all the NPCs in the game where super lifelike and where like actual people, you could build your own houses, you could build your own towns, you could become the mayor of towns, you could become the king and make thousand of choices that completely change the world, there where seasons in the game and so on. That's what made him infamous.

 

Kind of a funny thing to say, since that's basically what every single repeatable quest in Skyrim is.

I'm sure there'll be plenty of quests told by codex entries (which Skyrim also does quite a bit of.) The main story quests will also probably be a bit more involved.

 

First off, I am a little blown away that someone actually made a thread expressing disappointment in a game that is so far from being finished. I expressed this in an earlier post in this thread, but I think the level of cynicism around an unfinished product just merits a reiteration. This seems to be a place where those that just want to complain about something have gathered to spread some hate, and I think we would all benefit from a little more constructive vibe.

Not true. A small studio they may be, but a lack of manpower only means a longer development cycle. This statement has been made without consideration for talent, determination, or time.

I bolded the nonsensical part of this quote that you made up and added to attempt to discredit them:

Yes it does, because that isn't by any means an over-ambitious scope. Only three of the things you just mentioned aren't already in the game (I didn't count space stations because the framework appears to already be in place. Depending on the scope they intend, they could just be another kind of planet/asteroid entity.)

Not entirely true - Tiy worked on Terraria, so there is experience at this sort of thing involved. As an application developer, I know that having experience creating something once only serves to make future iterations much better.

Blizzard does the same thing all the time, and it has made their games stellar. World of Warcraft has a lot of features that were originally created by modders.

Maybe let's let them finish the game before we decide if they have fallen short and should be infamous? Do you think maybe you are getting a little bit ahead of yourself? What you imagine they are going to pull off and what they aren't doesn't count here - I think you are just hoping it fails so you can say you were right and had it pegged all along. Do you really want to be that guy?

Are you seriously talking about this game in the past tense? You paid $15 to play a game way before release - a game that you were told was unfinished and had a lot of work left - and now you're passing judgement as if it were released? Do you know what beta means? Have you spend even a fraction of the time reporting bugs and giving feedback that you've spent ignoring their disclaimers and warnings?

 

Although I agree with much of your post, what worries me is that Tiy has said repeatedly he wanted the beta to be as feature-complete as possible. That means beta is there to fix bugs, to tweak difficulty, to add minor things that are in the works right now, such as quests, progression, scaling, what have you. I'm not convinced those things address the legitimate issues people seem to have. Now, if Starbound was completely revised for the better during this beta, hallelujah, but I think we both know that's not likely to happen...

 

I agree with all the points made by the OP, the biggest point for me being nothing happens unless you make it happen. I would really like to see some scenarios like the Blood Moon on Terraria but with the added effect of stopping you transporting back to your ship. This would give you a reason to build a base/defense and for me would add a little bit of life to the game.

That being said I'm sure things like this are planned for the future.

 

And it would have been had the vocal minority in the community not kicked up a storm for Chucklefish to release now rather than delay again

 

And the reason the majority would complain? Chucklefish made a promise after all the delays to release the beta. If they broke that promise I can imagine the shit storm that would break out.