Feedback Post game is bitter ash and darkness

Speaking of keeping up with WoW on the MMO scene, also keep in mind over the course of WoW's life they have also obsoleted large chunks of the content with some regularity. On the content side, I'd be willing to say most that complain about a new game not having the amount of content that WoW has is more due to the difference of diversity in content. Since I stopped following WoW, I can't really speak about its current state, however another MMO that has been out about as long, FFXI, I can comment on a bit more if needed. The big key aspects of most MMO's content is Story, Social, Guild, Crafting, Leveling, and Endgame. If any of those areas are lacking or not present is typically where the lack of content concern often stems from, the other part no developer can keep up with, and that is how ravenously the more hardcore gamers devour content. There are literal races to be the first ones to finish the content, and often happens in less than a week anymore. On the endgame part, something interesting to keep in mind, is that a number of games over the years have included content specifically for post story or a 2nd playthrough, such as hidden bosses, extra difficulties that get unlocked, different endings based on a number of things, and many others. Which is something the OP mentioned this game is lacking at the moment.

Now regarding Starbound, due to the nature of the game it will be constantly compared to Terraria and Minecraft for better or worse. Minecraft due to it being one of the most well known sandbox games in general, Terraria as it is the current leading 2D Sandbox/Adventure game. Right now Starbound falls somewhere inbetween Minecraft's creative mode, and the hectic pace that Terraria can end up having later on. So keeping mind that those are the two giants in the room, and there are other rather notable ones in related genres, there are certain expectations that people see as needing to be met. On the Builder's side, there needs to be a decent variety on materials to build with, and also thanks to Minecraft's Creative mode there is a need to have some means to easily build without being interrupted by the wildlife all the time, which is likely a big reason we have barren planets and the pixel printer. From Terraria, there was the feature of NPC's moving into structures one built, which looks to have led to our Colony system. These two aspects very quickly are becoming expected standards in the genre if they are not already so. On the Adventure side, both Terraria and Minecraft have parts that are there to challenge those seeking it. Minecraft has the Nether as well as where the Ender Dragon lives(can't recall what they call the place currently) Terraria initially had the Dungeon and Hell, and has continually kept adding new challenges. Currently, Starbound really does need something a little more challenging added to it, it used to have the sector system which unfortunately went away before I could access the last one, which looked really promising in satisfying the challenge itch for a very long time. It doesn't need to be on the hectic level of Terraria's end game, and the whole game shouldn't start feeling like Creative Mode light after a certain point either.

Now while I don't expect Starbound to have the same amount of content on release as another game, there are basics that should be covered pretty quickly. And in some areas have some fresh new things. After all, why should the game always lag behind and copy what other successful games have been doing, part of why a lot of new MMORPGs are also referred to as WoW Clones. Instead of having challenging endgame content have to wait to be developed, why not find ways to make it happen naturally? Such as not necessarily introducing a whole new set of gear to be a carrot to get people to do new content, but allow the content to generate in advance up to a crazy high level of danger in some areas. There would be no real tangible rewards other than bragging rights for being able to clear whatever level of planet, much like how in old school games High Scores or Time attacks, or even made up challenges. Or on another front, since we have a colonization system, why not expand that into a dungeon system as well? I think some of the ground work for this is already laid out, as in the Avian section of story and underground Glitch ruins, there are sections that will spit out bats. Which the monster spawning can either be related to placing an object similar to a colony deed in sections of the build that spawns hostile npcs, or even utilize the capture pod system as well. Both of these would be ways to take the lead in the genre instead of following the leaders.

 

As someone who made it to Sector X, and made it there pretty quick? It was not "satisfying". It was just MOAR NUMBERS. Nothing different, just quadruple-digit health points.

Hell, you could easily skip five tiers just by finding the right friendly merchant and skimming a Lvl10 desert/snow planet for its high-tier surface ores in super-soft terrain.

 

This would be cool.

 

So long as there is something like high-level versions of all planet types (Maybe only after beating the final boss), post game will be plenty fun.

Building high level colonies is kinda neat, would be nice to do that on a backdrop other then darkness/ash, maybe with some randomised unusual weather too. (High level forest planet with acid rain or such). heck, randomise the backdrops too, then you get to explore the galaxy for a cool enviorment rather then going to the nearest "desired type" planet you see.

 

Really bummed out to learn that 1.0 is still going to have "planet types," and that high level planets are still only going to be handful of types instead of any-and-all. I thought they did away with that.

 

Give them time.

They said awhile ago that they would like to do a high-level star that features all planet types with high level difficulties. So yes, you could find high level desert/forest/jungle/whatever.

Maybe not 1.0, but give them time.

Or look for a mod that changes it.

 

I don't know. At this point, I'd be pretty surprised if they got rid of the concept of planet-type post-1.0.

 

Planet Types are a thing I view as necessary. If you're looking for specific things, you don't want to try 50 planets until you finally find what you're looking for. I mean, what if I wanted to make stuff out of reeds?

I know that swamps are more likely to spawn on Forests and Jungles. But yet if planets didn't have planet types, who knows how many planets I'd have to check until I finally found a stupid Swamp sub-biome. It'd be the Avian Moon Crest (and similar) all over again.

Isn't more sub-biome diversity good enough for you? There needs to be some sort of identifier so you actually know in essence what you're getting when you beam down on a planet. Sub-Biomes are OK and all, but I would prefer if at least 60% of the planet was the type listed in the cockpit preview. I'd hate to be looking for, say, a Snow planet and beam down on something and it end up being 25% Snow, 75% everything else.

EDIT: I think all they need to do is add an "Unstable Star" and allow it to have all planet types at all difficulty levels and perhaps it could have 2x more planets than other stars.

 

I think it'd be better if biomes were well random and the ship nav menu would just give information. Maybe have it based on current ship upgrade level, where you start out just able to read average threat level, then biome with the most surface area, then list of all biomes present on the planet, and finally a full breakdown of what biomes and what percent of the surface each occupies.

Buuut that's not going to happen, and I guess we're getting pretty far off topic now.

 

Having a progression system is not bad. Also I think Starbound in its current iteration is closer to an RPG than Terraria is. Starbound even has a story. I would have liked more tiers of armor admittedly, but oh well. They deleted that idea. It's still going to be a good game I'm sure and I'm sure 1.0 is going to be awesome.

 

And again.....Mods, Mods, Mods.

If the base game is good, you can only make it better with mods. Well, ok, if you download a crappy mod, you could make the game worse, but.... don't download crappy mods lol.

 

Have to agree with this. The replies at the beginning of this thread were outright retarded... The OP has some legitimate claims which many of the users seem to reply with "You don't like starbound how it currently is?!?! YOU just don't even know the type of game starbound is, it's... a linear-sandbox-storyline-not terraria-but very much like terriraa- but with less rpg type of game... / "Mods, mods, mods, if you're not satisfied just wait for a mod to be made that give you the features you are looking for"...

I realize people are trying to be optimistic but to indoctrinate the OP with "mods. mods, mods" and "starbound is a -super ambiguous- type of game" when he is giving simple criticisms is low brow, imho. Don't get me wrong, I love some of the mods that were made for Starbound... but many of them don't even work with the current version and really, the contention that criticisms aren't valid because there may be some mod out there in the future that addresses your concerns with the game in it's current state is a ridiculous one.

I love Starbound and I'd like it to be the best game that it can be. I think the OP want's that too. Even in it's current state Starbound is a good game. But if just a few more things were added it could soar so much higher. I agree with the OP and I feel for him. I'm not saying that exploring is a terrible end game. But I agree that it could be better, that's all.

The problem with Starbound is that it's keeps you submerged in a linear story until you finish it of course, to which the game seems to end so abruptly. Exploring is a awesome element to have as part of that end-game but the OP is right, it ISNT enough. We can only explore the procedurally generated structures so many times before we've seen everything already (and that really won't take too long after we have completed the story. Combine this with no tech to upgrade or search for, nothing more you can do with your gear, no more rare/powerful weapons you can find... All that is left to do is build in a world which you've already seen nearly all of. I get his point.

It would be really great to have some sort of end-game. Maybe upgrading weapons that you've found, establishing as many colonies as you can for the protectorate, searching for MORE TECH, upgrading your EPP so that it can hold more than one augment, etc.

 

You're wrong imho, i could also insult you and call your opinion retarded and write "imho" at the end to make it "my opinion" and get away with it, but that's not the kind of guy i am.

 

And it will be better, either with 1.x+ or mods.

Give it time.

They're trying to nail down the core game systems, get enough content in it that it is a full game, that way people can stop playing the "IT'S STILL IN BETA!" excuse as to why they won't play/buy/promote it.

 

In all seriousness, if you don't like my opinion that's fine. I've explained why I don't agree with the "mods, mods, mods" and "you don't know what type of game starbound is, so your criticism aren't valid" mindsets (which I'm guessing you agree with), and yes, I do think that they are retarded and I've explained why I think as such. I don't think it particularly pertains to "the type of guy I am", as you put it, I merely voiced my opinion and gave reasoning to why I think what I do. If you don't agree with opinion then that's fine, I'd like to hear why in all honestly. Your blanket / meaningless comment to my reply is again, low brow. IMHO
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I get this, and I hope that this is what the devs have in mind. The "ITS STILL IN BETA" excuse to discourage people from playing is very lame. I personally have not heard any word on what's to come after 1.0 or if there will be an endgame of any kind. Or mods can add something equally as satisfying. I would prefer actual additions of content from the devs though.

 

@Nzae :

1). "Mods don't work with the current version": This will change, and fast. Since 1.0 is probably the last major change to the game's engine/LUA, most likely updates after 1.0 will not likely break mods, or if they do, the fixes should be simple. The reason why Glad Giraffe mods don't work on Unstable/Nightly/1.0 is becuase of huge sweeping changes to the game's LUA/JSON. Such huge sweeping changes will probably not be a thing moving forward after 1.0, therefore mods should break a lot less often, and more modders can keep up with the game.

2). Why is "there could be a mod that fixes your problem" not a valid counter to criticism to the game? If you don't like something in the game, 90% of the time, you can probably mod it. Don't like the Erchius Ghosts? That's an easy fix. Mod them out. As long as it doesn't concern core UI elements like the hotbar, you should be able to mod it out, or mod new content in. If you can't, I'm sure if it's a serious enough problem that enough people agree, SOMEONE will make a mod for it unless your gripes are so uncommon, that there are few others who share it. Then what? You expect them to cater to just you?

 

While I'm not fond of "mod it" as a "solution" in general terms... I mean, the freakin' game was made and expressly advertised as being easy to mod and go to town with it what all you gonna make?

 

The big reason this is not a very good counter to people's criticism of a game, is the problem that not all mods may be what they seem. In this day and age, people disguise computer virus in a large number of ways. So saying the solution to ones criticism is to go find and download a mod, and at the same time put the system you are running the game on at risk to other things. So do keep in mind not everyone is comfortable with downloading and running untrusted software from random individuals. Also of note, not everyone is comfortable going in and altering key game files to start making essentially their own mini-mod.

 

....................wut?

Are you kidding me?

I mean, really, are you kidding me?

You're not going to get a computer virus from JSON and LUA files.

They are literally notepad files that you can open in notepad, lol.

In fact, this site's mod repo FORBIDS executable files for that very reason.

EDIT: *whispers* Oh, and .....mods do not alter game files.

 

You do realize the game at 1.0 will have steam workshop support. right? No one puts viruses on the workshop.