Refund or clarification on the state of the game

Now before you instantly lock this hear me out. I'm wondering if your offering refunds to people who originally backed the game when it had 5-6x more content and tons of endgame progression since you've effectively taken my money, gave me an unfinished game with tons of cool stuff, then took all the cool stuff away, handed me a scanner and said "Go look at the same lava planet 500x for your endgame".
Me and 2 friends beat this game in 2 days, had a full colony on 2 planets, maxed the ship, built almost everything and got almost every unique boss drop (all unique items end up being trash endgame btw) including the wyrmarang. Now there's nothing left to do without relying on modders to finish your game?

I get it, sandbox universe, but you couldn't even leave us with multiple colors of sand to play with. I'm now thoroughly disappointed in this game and unless your company plans on re-adding the content you've cut for seemingly no reason at all such as.
-Varied biomes
-Varied background scenery
-Unique planet variants (Magma planets you can go to early. or forests with very lethal creatures)
-Enemy diversification (I recall seeing 4-5 times more varied creatures before with 5x the number of attacks they have now)
-Cold and warmth mechanics on severe planets (Not this EPP crap your using at a progression crutch)
and the list just goes on.

Now i understand. The simple mentality of "Modders, oh joy, they'll fix all the thing we left out" is not an excuse to cut over half your content. I didn't buy left 4 dead 2 after being advertised zombies for months and then launched the game only to find out to get the zombies i had to get a player made mod for my game.

Please offer refunds to people that bought the game in it's original playable FUN state instead of forcing this crap on us and acting like you gave us something worth our money. (Which again, is even less then we were promised then when we payed for it) or clarify if this is "it" and your going to move onto something else now that you can call this a final release like most other devs have done on early access games that fall incredibly short of what the dev built them up to be.

I didn't pay for bioshock infinite only to get the case, open it and find a system shock 1 disk in it and that i should go get some mods.

 

well probably not, because we bought an early access and knew things would change.

i just found the enraged kaola version on an old hard disk, and damn it was so muc better when ti came to diversity. yes it has some flaws but these were not related to the variation, more of backgroudn mechanics.and some feature designs.

 

You paid to beta test the game fully knowing that it would change during development. You didn't pay for a finished copy with a list of things to expect, you paid to test a product with a list of goals that were subject to change. They don't owe you a refund, nor will they give one to you unless you go the length to chargeback, which I'm fairly certain will result in valve disabling your account if you purchased starbound through that.

Don't get me wrong, I do wish there was more content on release. However, don't act so shocked and appalled that things changed and you weren't happy with it. This is the inherent risk that comes with purchasing the right to test any early access product. If you dislike how it came out, either put in suggestions, use the mods provided/api provided to add content you desire, or make a note to not purchase chucklefish games anymore, or any early access products for that matter.

As for your opinion on mods : modding was made possible with an excellent framework purely because the developers knew that not everyone would enjoy their final vision. They're not their so devs can skimp on content; they've already promised future themed updates to expand on stuff. Furthermore, the fact that chucklefish made the content you miss in the first place means they're obviously not just getting lazy. The content was there, and taken out for a reason. Have they explained? No. However, considering there's no reason to remove already created content without reason, and the promise of themed updates, it's more likely they intend to expand upon things they removed further before re-implementing them. Chucklefish isn't some monster out to make everyone angry by arbitrarily removing content.

 

Where is the information on the future themed updates? I've gone over all the dev updates and past them announcing 1.0 and bugfixing it I see nothing on removed content or future content.
When i payed for this game, i got hours and hours of enjoyable play out of the great randomized planets and unique creatures. It's taken them years to make almost every creature the same (Either bird, charging, or jumping creature) and make the biome progression so streamlined that you have no reason to ever return to a forest planet.
Now I have the game totally beaten in under a week with all the unique boss drops? Im sorry but there's a point when you've cut so much that you should be releasing a flash game on newgrounds (some of which i've gotten more unique playtime out of then 1.0 starbound) and not a full steam release.

Mods are NEVER an excuse for lack of content. That's a developers shitty way of saying "We're lazy and don't want to finish the game. do it for us" I didn't pay to have a fan finish the game and make it playable again. Would the fallout series have been successful if they took all the vaults out right before release and said "Naw, let the modders add them back in. Our games finished" I payed for chucklefish to do so and they've done a terrible job of it.
Though again, if you can point me to where they announced their plants for post-1.0 content please, direct me because i cant find it.

 

ouch I feel nearly sad for laughing at this one, but the hurting truth is somewhere in there as I had some flashgames entertaining me longer than a week as well.

 

"Leaving Early Access doesn’t mean the end of updates for Starbound by any means, instead it will mark a shift away from engine work and towards additional content creation."

http://playstarbound.com/final-approach-to-1-0/

There is no detailed information about themed updates (possibly a poor choice of words on Conco's behalf), but they are updates nonetheless. The fact that they have reiterated several times in the past that they will keep working on the game post 1.0 does in fact mean that there will be further content.

She never said this. You're putting words into her mouth. The devs never said this either, actually. By "not enjoying their final vision" she is talking about people exactly like you. Just because they made it extremely moddable doesn't mean they're purposely being lazy.

Now don't get me wrong, I am too a little miffed about the lack of content, and I am totally guilty of relying on Frackin Universe to add end tier planets for endgame exploration. (The "random" planets come to mind.) But comparing this game to a AAA game like Fallout who has a much more professional (not to mention bigger) team is a bit silly. Fallout was/is $60 when it came out. Starbound is.....$15. It seems the devs were even nice enough to not push the game to be more expensive come release like they said it would. It doesn't exactly seem like a wonder why Starbound relies so heavily on random generation to make ever-lasting content. (Something I wish was more encouraged in AAA titles in fact.) You can only do so much with a limited budget.

Honestly this should be stickied. I'm sure we'd all like an explanation on why content was removed, but until they do, I feel like everyone should stop overly worrying about it. They literally just finished the game. Let the devs take a little break instead and drop the pitchfork for now. They have personal lives too. Hopefully soon we'll get a blog post as to why certain content was removed, and then, just maybe, it might make a little bit more sense. I'm pretty sure the devs are more than fully aware about this.

It's not like Starbound is the only game in the universe where content is cut.

 

I play games since a looong time and probably even too much, and starbound is the first one where such a msssive amount was cut off.

 

Yeah, it's a big list, but like I said, there might be a reason for it. (Redundancy, balance, needed for future content.)

http://starbounder.org/Category:Removed

 

A bit of redundant redundancy in the first sentence aside, there is a simple, slightly less evil perhaps, but still not so much excusable reason to take out working content.

Have you ever been so down on your budget and income, that if you go to take out a loan you take out a larger sum than you actually need, so you can make the first few monthly back-payments with the overhead? In regards to content removed from Starbound at release, I see it as exactly that. A way for Chucklefish to generate positive attention among the new players, or those returning from a long hiatus (the Unstable/Nightly version of the game had not been consistently played by more than some 300 players daily, according to Steam stats), by "releasing new content", that they already had all along and just needed to hide from relevant eyes and maybe superficially change something in before returning it to have an excuse for removing it in the first place.

That is, of course, if any of it will be making a comeback.

 

then you haven't played Destiny. or Halo 2. or WoW. Fable's sequels, the list can go on for a couple posts.

I'm sure 99% of games that have come out after, say, the SNES days, (sorry flubbed the reply omit this part) have had to cut varying amounts of content for whatever reason. those two first ones I listed, Destiny and Halo 2, had huge - sometimes game-changing - chunks of their content removed due to timing or redundancy (or lame publisher decisions). and check this out, some of the removed content from WoW is being re-implemented in the new expansion if information is anything to go by.

 

@OP: At the end of the day, this and that said, you've gotten your money's worth over and over at this point. Just because you've finished the game and have played it for years now during development doesn't mean you're entitled to get a magical-bull**** refund. You finished the game, you had a lot of fun with the game, you played the game for hours on end... and now you want your money back? That's just outright disgusting.

 

The disgusting bit, is the practice of some developers to do things like this. Wanting a refund in cases like this is not about wanting the money back, it's about telling the developer, in material terms, that you disapprove of what they've done, regardless of how many hours you've put into the game to that point.

 

Be that as it may, as some people have stated, we played an alpha and a beta version of the game that was subject to change. Now the fact that they removed some things to re-work on them to later re-implement them *aside*, you of course have all the right in the world to express your opinion on whether you agree with a decision or not, but go so far as to ask for a refund after you've definitely gotten your money's worth out of something is just plain wrong.

 

No fact like that exists so far. There was no specific comment on the removed content, and what the actual plans are. Just, "working on it", which can mean anything.

I haven't gotten my money's worth out of the game. The in-dev version, the beta, the Nightly? Just on the sheer amount of accumulated hours, yes, perhaps I could have said I did. But the released game is not the game I had gotten my money's worth of fun on.

If you want to make that distinction, that the game we played in the Nightly was subject to change and does not represent the actual game, then please own up to it when you're talking about "what it's worth".

 

Perhaps fact was a strong word to use, and you're right, the removed content or any subsequent extra content may never come, so that's a thing. I guess you're just gonna have to trust the devs and wait. Maybe *then* if the content never comes up people may have a little bit of a case to make towards devs not keeping their word, like the devs saying they are officially stopping or moving on to something else, or something.

As for not getting your money's worth... I consider that just playing with words at this point. Before the game reached an official "released"/1.0 version I played it a lot, and had a lot of fun. The game is the same just some things are changed as we all knew they could. Even if I could have only played the 1.0 version of the game for 10 minutes and then suddenly the game stopped working forever, I'd still consider having gotten my money's worth out of it because of all the endless hours I've spent in it creating things and playing

Anyway, given this threat a whole lot more attention that I should have at this point. If you or anyone else would like to beg for a refund that makes no sense, by all means. My 2 cents are on the table.

 

look, a lot of people are pissed and for good reason. thats bc playing a game can be very emotional like enjoying art. you become attached to it and becomes part of you somehow. i mean its just a huge disappointment. Yes, you're right in some ways. Maybe we shouldn't have hoped for something that seemed really wonderful to stay or become more wonderful. But thats really sad. Its difficult to not act out when something really cool is just snatched from you.

The refund bit..well, i get where you're coming and some good points were made regarding this issue from a practical standpoint but it does not apply in this situation like this. The reason why people ask for refunds in the first place if they are bing honest bc something went wrong, something is fishy. The person feels they've been conned.

 

If that's how the OP truly feels, then why is he asking for the refund in the first place? If you go to a movie and watch the whole thing through, you don't get your money back. You already watched it. When you go out to eat, if you don't like the first few bites you take it back then. You can't finish 3/4 of your meal and then tell the waiter to take it back and you want a refund. Why should this be any different? These services are a up to personal interpretation and taste: there are no guarantees to match everyone's view, and games are no different. I think at this point anyone who would be entitled to a refund would people who buy the game now, not 3 years before.....

He has every right to express his reason on why it's not the game he was expecting, but it's just as "disgusting" to request a refund for something he knew was subject to change yet he spent so much time on anyway. His personal idea of the game not being in the final product does not entitle him to a refund.

"Fishy" might be a little harsh. That's making it sound like he's accusing the devs of something without any actual proof, like the OP is asking for a refund for something he personally feels. There's quite a bit of people who voice the same opinion sure, but that's only the vocal minority. The other people are either actually just playing the game, or they've moved on to something else.

 

While i'm not super fond of how a lot of things have changed, or whether or not i agree with the design direction, i don't feel a refund from beta testers is merited. As someone above stated when you buy in to beta you are buying the game in it's beta condition knowing full well everything is subject to change. Now if you followed development posts (which i've seen VERY little dev/mod posts as of late.. hmm..) during beta development and bought the game on release to see "This is not even close to what i've read about" then yes, you should be entitled to a refund. I also agree with the statement that a refund is less about money and more about showing a developer your disapproval. Because in today's world where microtransactions are finding their way into games you actually pay for in the first place, costing developers is really the only way that matters. It's sad that words of the community don't carry much weight unless you're some "celebrity" on youtube or have 100000+ followers on twitter or whatever. I barely have a twitter and my youtube account exists only for a long distance friend to see some game play videos he's interested in for whatever reason so i don't expect my criticism to really go anywhere. Being that, do i expect the devs here to give a crap when i voice how much i loathe the fact that ship pets are mandatory, or that the back slot with multiple options pretty much forces you to shove all the rest aside for the very mandatory EPP? Nope. But i state them anyway in hopes that the little guy's voice sometimes can be heard without making it cost them money.

 

Not to mention they actually did do refunds for the game...........years ago, before CF had an office, when it was announced the game was going to go through a huge, huge dramatic change and offered refunds for anyone who felt like they couldn't stick around any longer. It was already a long time in the making and it was understandable for anyone who wanted one after finding our it was pretty much another year or two away.

(The implications of the refund are a bit hazy to me, but I'm pretty sure they did this before in the past.)

But now the game is finished, and now you're asking for a refund?

 

Basically, that's what it amounts to. And it's even worse than that. I've followed the development, I've played the game, and up to a certain, very recent point, most things were fine. In one fell swoop, right for the release, all these detrimental changes happened. Even for me, who has stayed with the game for a long time and actually played the in-dev versions as they appeared, "This is not even close to what I've read about" applies. There was no indication of major sweeping changes like this, right up until they happened, right at release, because the devs intentionally held back 1.0 content from Nightly testers, claiming it's "to avoid spoiling people to the new story and progression".

The game did not merely change in-development. This release, is not what the game's development has been leading up to. For whatever reason, Chucklefish managed to pull of a Shyamalanian swerve even on people who've been following the development the closest.