If I hold down and jump, I want to go through platforms. This currently works! Yay. If I hold down and jump, go through one platform, and then let go of jump but still hold down, I should not go through the next platform I hit. This is not how it currently works, though. Holding my down key, despite letting go of space, means I keep going through platforms. Let's face it, many games have done this correctly and Starbound is one of the few that is not doing it right. Having to hit both down AND jump, over and over, in order to safely go down a platform ladder is a very lame way of descending! I think I posted about this back when the game first was playable and am sad to see it got ignored. Welp, you're about to release 1.0 so maybe you'll hear me out now. --- Post updated --- Vinesauce streamed 1.0 tonight to about 4,000 people and he had exactly this problem and complained about it. Other games don't make you go through the platforms if you let go of the jump key. Fix this freaking mechanic already!
Yes pleeeease. Either change this or give us place-able ropes. Making mine shafts is such a pain right now.
I agree with that remark. We need to be able to craft a simple way to go up or down a shaft. Either with what DaveKap suggested, ropes like Efrim suggested, or simply make ladders work and make them craft-able: it's not like wood is one of the first thing we obtain in the game, and ladders shouldn't be so hard to make from that point on.
Just stop holding the down key! That simple fix completely bull's your entire rant. Infact, I'm going to rant too, just to demonstrate the fact. I'm pretty disappointed I actually read that whole thing, as I'm getting conflicting views from the same post. In the first paragraph you complain that you're falling through multiple platforms at once by holding the down key. The problem is, your next paragraph complains that the alternative, dropping down one platform at a time, is a lame method of transportation. Make up your mind before you complain that the devs aren't pandering to your contradictory requests.
I would suggest and option for NOT going through multiple platform. The mechanic would be: - Hold S down and press Space to jump - Brings you through one platform - Press Space again to go through the next one I do not know how many time I killed myself fighting a monster and wanted to leave quickly, but ended out falling through 3-4 platform and killing myself. It is not a good mechanic in my opinion. Would adding it as an option feasible ?
I've now watched another streamer die because they're used to how other games do this and how Starbound doesn't. I have yet to find someone who thinks the way it is now is OK and everyone I've asked has agreed that doing it like Terraria is the best option. Just copy the damned scheme already. Ferociousfiend: You are misinterpreting my words. The lame part of descending down platform is NOT that you have to do it one at a time. The lame part is that you have to press and let go of a combination of 2 keys, which have to be hit in a specific order (so descending quickly means having to motion over your duck then jump keys, in that order, over and over), instead of having to just tap 1 key over and over. The combination of pressing "duck" and "jump" SHOULD ALWAYS make you go through a platform. Unfortunately, the current way the game works is that if you do this, the game puts your character in a state of "falling" that is KEPT, EVEN if you LET GO of the "jump" key. That's where the bug is. As soon as you let go of the jump key, your character's state should NOT still be "falling" but, at the moment, it is! This is what I'm trying to get fixed and HAVE BEEN since I started playing the alpha and was promptly ignored. The proper way of going down platforms is you push "duck" to begin ducking, tap (as in, press and then let go quickly) "jump" to actually fall through the platform and land on the next one, then tap "jump" again over and over, all while holding "duck" the entire time. This is how you descend down platforms. This is how other games do it. I don't know how to explain this any better! Hopefully, Ferociousfiend, this explanation helps you understand how I'm not complaining about the alternative method. I'm not being contradictory.
Starbound overcomplicates navigating platforms. It would be just fine handling them the way similar games do: press down to descend, jump to ascend. No accidental splats that way. And real ladders would be nice.
Yeah and I've got no idea how you guys botch this. hold the down key, tap the spacebar and let go of the down key when you don't wanna fall through platforms anymore. Holding the down key means "I want my character to not interact with platforms.", if you had to hold the down key AND the spacebar to accomplish this, you'd have to trigger your double-jump if you wanted to fall through a platform while in mid-air.
Me and every other person on my multiplayer server have died doing this; we all came from Terraria where the system is much cleaner and more functional. Then again we have hooks that work properly and other mobility options so maybe the double-jump for mid-air platforms would be more of an issue here? Frankly we just need place-able ropes/ladders/chains. That would mean less reliance on the platforms in the first place and would make the issue far less of a concern.
I came from the Terraria system too and I don't remember ever dying to this concept. Just let go of the S key when you don't wanna fall anymore.
1. Due to the fall speed in this game; that is often far harder to time than simply tapping down one time would be. 2. Due to occasional lag on servers; or simply slower frame rate spikes due to optimization you can miss your jumps even if you time it right. 3. Heavy fall damage; a wonky grappling hook (that is gated to the mid game); and considerably more limited jumping and mobility make compensating for a miss much harder. 4. It doesn't have to kill you to be annoying. This happens to me at least once every time I play; often more. At my level in the game now it just does a little damage. It's still annoying. 5. My suggestion above was that the current mechanic would not be a problem except that they cut off, broke, or gimped every other kind of vertical mobility. If they implemented place-able climable objects; improved the grappling hook or added more of them - I would be fine with the current system.
I've posted on this very topic before, as have others. I wish they would fix it. Some people responded by saying, "Yeah, but it's not that hard." But input being "not that hard" is not the goal. The goal is to make it intuitive. As it stands, Starbound has the worst drop-through mechanic of any game I've ever played... and with such an amazing game and such amazing developers, it just doesn't make sense. I think they just haven't made this a priority cause they've been so busy. But I hope to high heaven that they fix drop through mechanics soon. It's just backwards, and it would be the top of my to-do list if I were making the game. Addendum: Also, the improved drop-down mechanics suggested by myself and other players (hold s, then tap jump for each platform, or hold to continuously drop) allows you to rapidly tap the jump button for each platform, if desired. This ensures that you NEVER take fall damage from climbing downward. on a really long series of platforms, and you can still get down extremely fast.
I've never had any issues with jumping down through platforms. I actually prefer the way it is now as it's much faster to move down through platforms.
This is pretty much the problem for me. I MIGHT be able to get used to the platform mechanic if it was only used when navigating safe cities. I still think the key combo is awkward and sometimes deadly, but it would be doable. Add in needing to navigate platforms while fighting in some areas, and it goes from annoying and sometimes deadly to frustrating and very deadly. If you are able to fight while going up and down platforms without a) accidentally jumping when you mean to descend, b) descending too quickly and taking fall damage, or c) failing to go through the platforms at all and getting hit when you can't move, please make a video of it with some training tips. Obviously lots of us need to learn the secret of making this less awkward.
Wow, so much hate for such an already intuitive control mechanic. I've fallen through and died because of this due to my own incompetence, but I never stopped and thought Oh hey I shouldn't fall through if I keep holding the down key, because that is exactly what I expected would happen.. This other method sounds bizarre and unnatural to me. I suggest using wall jump and a rope. edit: also, I agree the game needs ladders and placeable ropes.
All of the streamers I have seen playing the game over the past week have had issues with platform navigation, so I'm still not sure how intuitive it is. I mean, yes, it is obvious that we have to ket go of both keys when we want to stop, but when playing, the movement never feels right. And when fighting it goes wrong so so many times for me. As I said in the post above, if you have made (or can point me to) a video where this mechanic is used well in a fight, please let me know. I would love some tips. Because this was awkward for the two years I played the beta and it is still awkward now. Thanks.
I've been messing around with platforms, and a sudden realization struck me. It takes more than two whole seconds to fall through platforms enough to take minimal damage, and four or more seconds to be killed. If this is happening to you at ALL, either you don't have enough platforms (and somehow miss the one platform you DO have there) or you need your reflexes checked. This is just my dumb old observation, and I might come back with results from exstensive testing.
