No incentive to build bases on planets.

After playing the game for a day, I noticed what I can think can be a major handicap to Starbound's sandbox open-world building concept: you simply don't have any incentive to build bases on planets (other than for creativity, I suppose).

You can place your tools, chests, items, furniture etc. all on your ship. There are several major tactical benefits to this:

• Monsters don't attack your base on your ship and can't catch you off guard when you are resting/crafting.
• It's very quick and easy to beam back up to base.
• (most important) You can carry your mobile base from planet to planet, without the inconvenience of rebuilding it each time. This point also subverts the idea of carefully choosing your planets and investing in colonizing them, and instead encourages quick strip-bare--and-leave gameplay, which if done too much is against the sandbox building spirit.

If future updates allow us to upgrade our ships to bigger ones, this issue will only become worse.
I'm all for the ship acting as a small tactical/forward base for purposes of initial colonization, but I don't think it should become a full substitute to building on-planet bases, with all the challenges thereof, because it kinda makes the whole idea of 'building anything you want, anywhere you want' pointless from the adventure/RPG perspective.

I wonder how can the game make/incentivize you building and defending on-planet bases. Perhaps NPCs that only stay on planet? Or farming patches that require atmosphere? Or introduce drawbacks/restrictions to building certain items on your ship, as opposed to a planet?

Other ideas welcome.

 

There is an incentive, actually. Some of us don't want to put all of our tools and whatnot on our ship, or store them in the locker and just place them when needed. That's a pain in the butt to do that, and besides, there is a lot of stuff. You'll run out of storage room eventually from crates and treasure chests piling up in your ship, because your locker can't hold everything.

Also, NPC-Spawners (Items you find) don't work on your ship. I've got two guards at my base, and a Stim-Pack vendor.

 

You can put like 20 chests (each holding 16 slots) in just the upper part of your ship, supported by beams. The lower part can still contain a load of useful tools. Perhaps eventually you run out of room, but it lasts for a while, and at a minimum, means that you won't bother building small or medium size bases, only making very large bases worthwhile since they would have more room than your ship.

I haven't yet encountered NPC spawners, so it may be a valid point there. They would have to significantly contribute to your strength in order to make a difference.

 

I am currently using my ship as a mobile base for resource gathering so I can build my home. It is about building your world. I have ran across a Glitch village and I was blown away. You can make the world how you want it if you are will to spend the time. That is why I love this game. I am a builder... there is plenty of incentive to build a home base. Also... I have a terrarium world where I hang out and grow my plants.

 

They do act as a significant force multiplier. Having the ability to buy Red stim-packs is a fantastic resource, since they give a strong regeneration buff. Also, the guards destroy any monster that comes close to my base.

 

There is one - banana bread! Hanging out on the planet means you get more time/space to grow crops, and food cooked from crops I've found to be way more awesome than just alien meat.
(Plus I'm a builder, so duh, I'm going to build a base even if I don't have to!)

 

I noticed this exact same problem earlier. to me, it feels like a planet is "dead" really quickly because of trees either never growing back or taking forever to grow back. Maybe trees should grow back faster or trees drop seeds you can plant to grow them. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing tools banned from the ship and only usable on planets.

 

As I mentioned, the creative types who like to build for building sake, will still build bases of course. But I think it's nice if building bases is part of the game's progression, rather than an optional thing. In Terraria, for example, you _had_ to build out your base to house the NPCs and advanced gear, or you wouldn't be able to to progress effectively.

So far I don't see Starbound put the same need for building on the player, because it's so easy to run back to the safety and comfort of your ship, and fly to the next planet after stripping the last one dry in one or few runs rather than colonize a planet to keep it, and defend it as your own.

 

Using the ship like that seems cheesy to me.
I wouldn't get too attached to it. Will definitely get nerfed.

 

Some NPC spawners work on the ship, I know the chef one does.

How's it cheesy? It's your spaceship. Spaceships tend to have a lot on them.

 

It's cheesy because it subverts the spirit of the sandbox building game, as mentioned in my OP. It turns it into a scavenge-and-leave kind of game.

One approach to mitigate this is to figure out some way for your spaceship to require supply/logistical support from planets. Such as your range/power being limited by some ground radars that you built, or whatever (I know it sounds silly as described, I haven't thought out the details, only the high level idea). Right now your spaceship (very strongly) supports your on-planet gameplay. I think the other way should also happen - your on-planet gameplay (especially building up bases) should support your space faring ability.

 

It just seems too convenient. It also gives even LESS incentive to build a base on the planet.

Just realized I kind of repeated what you said in OP.

 

I rather hope it doesn't - one of the main things that interested me way back when was the ability to build custom space stations and ships to use as bases. I'm actually rather disappointed that ships have been reduced (in concept, at least) to their current status.

That said, I'm all for incentives to build on the ground. I just would like to be able to do both as the mood struck me - its a sandbox game after all.

 

imho this could be fixed if you could teleport to your home planet like you can now teleport to your ship (and back again, of course). Without an easy and quick way to get to my homeplanet (+back!) i doubt i will ever build a home base because the ship is much more convenient to use

Also, changing the ship so you can't place objects in it wouldn't solve this problem, it would just make the game less convenient (and thus less enjoyable)

 

Where are you guys finding these NPCs?

 

Nerfing the spaceship is a terrible idea.

Instead of not allowing you to craft and keep things on your ship, there should be more benefits to making a base on the ground. Villagers and what not.

It's never a good idea to try and force people to play the game how you want them to. It's better to gently nudge them how you would like them to, and if they don't want to that is all right. This is one reason I don't like how you need to use a bow to get alien meat. Whose idea was this

 

how about

keeping it the way it is, and let everyone play the game the way they like?

sounds crasyhu

i personaly funish my ship so i barly have any room to have all those crafting stations

seeing as the game has like 8+ diffrent ones that do diffrent things and are big, your not gonna have alot of room

tho i would like a bigger ship lol, i had to give up my ape poster for my couch

 

I would like it if we could just build our own ships. Make them take a lot of specialized resources, like fuel. This way we have incentive to build a ground base on biomes while we harvest and gives us an endgame goal (to build a mega badass ship). Make it so we need resources from all types of biomes and force us to explore.

But yeah, atm all I do is just hang out on my ship.

 

I support the idea of nerfing the spaceship, either limitting the amount of items you can put there, or restrict some of the items. Though others might have better ideas.

 

" i hate how other people play the game so lets ruin it for them"

why limit ship custemability/creativity in a game like this,

talk about a stupid idea

the big incenitive to build on the ground is space unlike the crowded ship