26 September update, finished, with some small suggestions at the top. 15 October update, figured out an easier way of fixing tungsten. Added some comments about the story. Caution: lots of content. So, you wanted to make a sci-fi game, but... This will cover issues with metallurgy innaccuracy, racial structures and a few other things. I'm gonna put all the small things at the top for light reading. How about new species in capture pods allowing you to name the species? People could make their own xenobiology research. This does mean that these creatures would have to have things like stat variations, maybe based off the planet type and size of creature? Another idea is the ability to use all those monster drops to augment your weapons for better customisation. The vanilla broadsword could be edited to have higher attack, induce fire damage etc. Same for armours. Swap the colours of fiery stars and frozen stars. In star terms, blue means very hot and red means really cold. In the colour spectrum you have red as the first, cycling through to orange, then yellow, then green, then blue and finally violet as the last. This is because the wavelengths get shorter and more intense. Maybe E.P.P packs could each only be suited to one job with the augment system allowing for dual protections if so chosen e.g. An alien planet could have better treasure than most radioactive planets, but require A radiation protection pack with a respiration augment or a breathing protection pack with a radiation resist augment. Also, a clear definition of what poison is might help. At the moment, it's evil green stuff. It's treated like a corrosive where applicable and a venom where also applicable. Either things that don't have bloodstreams are or are not effected depending on if it's corrosive, so maybe different versions like poison and acid might help? That would mean that acid would require special equipment to survive and poison requiring the E.P.P A radiation protection pack would require a different crafting recipe however. And now for the big suggestions. Races in Starbound have nice semi-solid lore behind them, but gameplay variation seems the way to go. I'm not just talking about a few statistics bonuses or the Race Gameplay Variation mod style, entire new crafting systems should be made (along with that other stuff) Florans are plant people, so plantlike abilities should be included. Photosythesis is important, but without nutrient, doesn't work. Florans should get more out of their food in large amounts of sunlight. A weakness to fire is pretty much written in the dialogue, so it should be written in character properties. Also, Florans should get more from meat than vegetables as meat has more of that nitrogen, not to mention the near constant lean towards carnivorous behaviour (florans seeing plants as we see animals) They should also be able to consume meat raw. I know that the dev team have tried so hard to avoid that, but creatures uncomfortable around fire and a constant diet of meat would probably eat meat raw. They are also told in-game to be great manipulators of plant life, so why not give them a station to do this rather than the standard crafting stations? It's mostly carbon, so crafting advanced carbon-based objects and bioluminescence-based light, but not being too good at metallurgy and fire would suit. Racial weapon crafting selection being spears, bows and hammers. Novakids are star matter pretty much, so properties like stars should be used. They shouldn't be able to be poisoned as you need a blood system to poison in order for that to work. Ice and fire damage seem to be irrelevant as they won't really be affected (even said in game) This doesn't mean that they are hot, as it is said that they're interstellar gasses, but could be about lukewarm, but yet, have nothing that really notes temperature change. Players, please note that Novakids are not made of fire. That aside, radiation should actually heal novakids as you know what radiation is to stars? Food is what it is, but you know what isn't food? Anything that uses material denser than Hydrogen gas. It would pass right through them. They should be able to do things with metal at low cost, due to their lore stating that they are adept with metalwork. Hopeless with masonry though. Racial weapon crafting selection being any ranged weapon, but no melee weapons. The Glitch are robots, no matter how much their programming suggests against. Glitch can get away with a respiratory combustion engine (a synthetic stomach) but poison is a tricky topic, which was assessed earlier. They claim on having tough shells that can survive things other races can't, so why not let them? Glitch should be able to make the basic crafting objects at low cost, but going beyond iron could be painful as the medieval era did not have much experience with metals such as tungsten, titanium and anything further (pretty much anything before alchemy was limited to what you could get on a garden planet) Perhaps having a greater knowledge about basic work with metal, stone, wood, leather and cloth would help. Glitch not having very green thumbs, as the medieval period was a time that could make a Floran faint, and Florans are hardy creatures. Racial weapon crafting selection was a lot of fun to conceive, how about Glitch having a beginning module selection to see what they can craft. The Glitch can choose from four specialities: Beserker; axes, hammers and broadswords. Knight; shortswords, shields and bows. Hunter; bows, knives and throwing weapons. Mage; staffs, wands and explosives. Hylotl are fish/amphibians, so an aquatic lifestyle would make sense. It's canon that they can hold their breath for a really long time and are adapted to living in the water. They should have a days-long oxygen holding ability with movements in the water as easy as walking on land. They should also start out on ocean planets as that is where they are home. Another problem is that they are stated to be vegetarians. If you are raised without eating meat, you cannot one day wake up and say "I'm gonna eat meat now!" If you do try, your stomach will hate you for it. This means that Hylotl will not be able to eat meat without some food poisoning effects. Hylotl should be masters of creating water-based and water proof items with a distinct knowledge of the ornate. Crafting should be a desk with papercraft in mind as well as heavy duty for that pesky underwater pressure. Racial weapon crafting being broadswords, knives and assault rifles due to the love of swift elegant movements. Apex are constantly stated to be bigger and stronger than humans. Let's use that. Apex should run faster, jump higher and hit harder as part of their biology. As a price, they should need to eat more in normal and have a hunger bar in casual. Using a powerful body and powerful brain requires an enormous amount of energy. Apex should be good with high tech materials, but clumsy with delicate parts due to their big hands. despite clumsiness, they should build large electrical structures for low cost. This could make building particularly ornate furniture difficult, but large industrial machines easy. Racial weapon crafting being knives, machine pistols and rocket launchers due to being high tech. Avians are obsessed with flight, so there should be something focused around that. Avians should have more maneuverability in the air and slower falling for better air travel. The trade-off being lighter bones mean low defense. Crafting would be a good selection of bricks and symbols, due to their society. Also, a lot of light materials for potential flight would be a good addition. Gliding gear would be ideal. The racial weapon selections being Spears, bows and knives. Look, if you want to hold on to the Protectorate so badly, consider; Wouldn't the Miniknog and the Stargazers be directly opposed to this as it takes away their power? Also, the Floran and Novakids don't appear to be creatures that would care about anything like the Protectorate, so not much support there. That really only leaves Hylotl and Humans. Unless the galaxy is dominantly populated by either, the Protectorate wouldn't have much of a sphere of an influence. So ask yourselves, how did the Protectorate become powerful and not become the enemy of half of all the spacefaring creatures? The story is okay, apart from the Cultivator, the Ruin, Tonuac, Nuru, the Baron, that Hylotl person, the Protectorate, killing Big Ape, killing the Kluex Avatar, Asra Nox, the Bone Dragon, not being able to just buy the Erchius crystals and somehow doing better at a hunt hundreds of Florans have been training for. That's everything. De-linearisation of metal finding should be added if what I stated above would be considered true. Different amounts spawning on different planets rather than different types on different planet tiers. Maybe with a quick and easy way to get to the outpost to help this along. This moves on to metallurgy itself. Tungsten should be polished up because http://www.tungsten.com/tungsten-about/#TungstenUses and http://www.livescience.com/38997-facts-about-tungsten.html shows that tungsten can be forged and bent in pure form, but become brittle when impure and oxidises quickly (thus becoming impure [thus thus becoming brittle when exposed to air]). This pretty much means that tungsten isn't workable on its own. It needs to become a carbide to ward of the oxidants. Why not cover this blemish by calling tungsten objects steel? Not to mention, steel bars being rather than 2 tungsten ore, 2 tungsten and 1 coal. Tungsten could be used for quick big-scale construction in airless areas (not underwater, water is a great oxidant, works better when the construction is half submerged) Either that, or just call tungsten aluminium. Does the same job gameplaywise, but at least a more plausible material is being used. Durasteel (or as I know it, fairy metal) is ridiculous as steel is an alloy. You do not find alloys in ore form. How about the durasteel ore being replaced with something made up and the crafting recipe for durasteel bars being 1 iron, 1 coal, 1 titanium and 1 of that other thing. Other thing should be a metal, or what you'd be creating would be too brittle.\ Aegisalt needs a name change. Simple as that. Salts are brittle, therefore make poor armour and weapons. Basic chemical properties.
