New Patch: Fuel

I'm not sure what makes you think you'll ever be stuck anywhere. The new patch hasn't been out long enough for anybody to have been trying to jump all over the damn place anyway. Just give it a day, at the least.

 

Then don't update damn it, they're not going to hold back on making changes because it might affect someone's play style.

Think like a developer trying to challenge a player, not like someone casually strolling along doing whatever.

 

Updating isn't optional, but that isn't the issue, I know I'm not alone in feeling this way, and while I agree that wood as a fuel source is a bit silly, so is coal (in a space ship). The whole system needs a revamp in such a way as not to force any one particular playstyle. It's a sandbox game, you don't want to be boxing people into routes of play in a sandbox game.

Tedium is not challenge, the new combat is challenging (and more fair) and I enjoy it. Being forced to mine out swaths of a planet just to explore is essentially the same as being made to grind for pixels. It doesn't really add any extra gameplay elements, it just adds time wasted doing things that I don't want to be doing.

 

I know, but some systems are 1 planet, or maybe 2 planets only, and both can be quite bare. It's a little frustrating when that happens.
Plus, there's the thing that you kinda own an interstellar ship... So why can't you you know, jump between systems more easily?

I'm not saying it's bad that we have to work a little more to get resources for fuel, I'm saying that coal is just not a good enough one, having in mind it's spawn ratio and it's actual usefulness as fuel. I mean, it gives you even LESS fuel now, and that's just a little too much. Like someone said, it could be a nice idea that, after you've done your share of beginning quests, you'd get a sort of machine that refined that coal into a more effective fuel. Allowing you to jump between systems more easily.

And hell, I don't want everything to be just a snap of a finger, so I also think that jumping between sectors should cost a heck of a lot more.

It's all in finding a good balance, and right now I don't think it's reached that point.

 

Sandbox means you can stray away from the main storyline, but you still have to follow the game's rules.
If the game wants coal as fuel, coal is what you're going to use. No ifs or buts.

 

We're in beta, and they're making changes specifically to be tested and receive feedback. Including negative feedback. We aren't in a stage of "play it the way we make it and like it," but rather, "here's what we're doing right now, are there any major problems with it?"

For how many people say "It's beta, shut up!" when someone complains about something being incomplete, no one seems to realize that beta is about -testing,- not waiting for everything to be implemented. Besides, it's a bloody sandbox, one would think appealing to multiple playstyles is kind of in their mission statement.

 

Gotta take the good with the bad man, especially when we're dealing with a RNG. Just admit it, pre-patch it was too easy to get everything we wanted and now that they've balanced it and taken away our toys, it's a little off-putting at first.. That's ok, I honestly believe after a few days, you'll see my point.

Also, it may not yet be perfectly balanced as I've said, but I definitely don't think this is any reason to start crying 'rollback'. I think it's a step in the right direction.

 

As mentioned above me, yes, there is ifs and buts, because it's beta, this is the time for feedback, especially on features that need tweaking, changing or improving. The very fact that not everyone enjoys this system is reason enough to show it is an issue that needs looking into at the very least.

 

I personally enjoy having to search for coal to fuel my ship. With wood as an alternative fuel source, I would just jump from planet to planet searching the surface for loot. Now I actually have to explore underground in order to make it to another planet. Wood as fuel is just too cheap.

 

I have never used Wood as a fuel source. It was too easy to find a lot of coal anyways before the patch. I haven't tried it after the Patch, but before it was very easy to get huge amounts of coal and than you get the higher items, like uranium and so on. So, yep, I like that they changed it.

 

But I prefer hopping from planet to planet. I have a space ship for a reason.

If I want to spend my time living like a mole and searching for precious ore, I'll fire up Minecraft. I bought Starbound since I was interested in a planet hopping science fiction sandbox.

 

Yeah.. This is my issue with it. If people wanted to live underground for the whole time, good, they could do that, and we could do our thing. Now we're limited for what? To force us to dig even when we don't want to? There seems to be no good reason to put such a dampener on it.

 

Problem is, exploring just the surface of planets gets very tiresome. Also, if you think about it in context, you're a survivor. You found the nearest planet you could to gather resources, it doesn't make sense for you to be planet jumping like crazy so early in the game.

 

Perhaps the wood could be made into charcoal as a 1 per 1 fuel in the furnace?

 

I dont understand how making people explore a planet to find coal, "discourages exploration".. surly MORE exploration is required instead of just surface skimming?

Besides, I think the whole fuel thing is done very cheaply. I mean, seriously, coal? fueling a spaceship?..

Why cant we have proper recipes for making proper fuel? different recipes produce different fuel blocks which have differing levels of efficiency?

Maybe even a fuel crafting station.

There is so much 'GAME' to be had here I'm a bit disappointed its been done so cheaply

 

I don't want to go spelunking. That's the "exploration" you're advocating. I'd rather find new planets, see new sites, and meet new people than spend hours tunneling beneath the ground where its dark as a dungeon and dank as a tomb.

Look, mining is fine and good, but I don't want that to be the focus here. There are several high profile, well made games that do just that as well as a sea of shoddily made knock offs. I'd rather be an Explorer, not a Miner.

 

There are 20+ planets in almost every starting planetary system that require less than 200 fuel to go to.

It's not like you are stuck on one planet. Once you've explored even half of those, you should have enough fuel to go beyond that.

 

And that would fix the problem of overabundant cheap and easy fuel... How exactly?

 

Tiresome in your opinion, I don't see that people who like that should be forced away from it. From a story point, I've suggested much better ways of changing the starting planet to fit into the story than this.

Really? Because mine has 3. 1 of those is a snow planet, so too cold to explore immediately.

 

I think he means that you turn two wood into one charcoal. And what problem are you talking about? God forbid space travel be quick, easy, and painless in a game called Starbound. What if Faster Than Light made you spend twenty minutes in every sector laboriously siphoning gas clouds to fuel your ship?