So I just "Finished" the game, and im worried about its core mechanics

By that I mean I got to impervium and I dont see anymore upgrades so I guess im at the end of the progression chain? So overall I would like to say I do not like the direction the game is developed in as is. It is such a cookie cutter time waster of a progression system with almost absurd levels power creep. One day you have the highest level armor possible and can wipe out planets in a single strike, then you move up 1 planet level and your suddenly getting killed in two hits and it takes 3 to kill anything with the hardest hitting weapon available. Its just staggering how quickly you will abandon old gear and even whole variaties of ores. By the time I hit sector X with a diamond drill I had no reason to even bother drilling anything but the "colored iron" flavor of the week because everything else (save the fuel ores) were worthless at this point. It isnt right how quickly old ores and armors are just abandoned and would make a new player cry seeing an older player just walking by full patches of diamonds because they arent worth the effort anymore.

Second Issue I have is the elephant in the room, "Is this Terraria 2?". Because sadly it really feels like it, Vast amounts of content are impossible to craft, there is little reason to build a home, and the whole crafting system seems trivial, almost a submechanic to simply gate off areas and keep you away until you have grinded long enough to not die instantly. Not like it really matters to begin with, once youve seen one random map feature youve seen all it will ever be and it gets boring very quickly. So much to the point I typically have something else playing on my other monitor to counteract the level of unengaged I am just farming through the game to see if something interesting will happen. it looks something like this:

Step 1: Go underground and mine "insert leveled ore here"
Step 2: Make armor and weapons of "insert leveled ore here" so you dont die instantly on the surface
Step 3: Run around the map mining fuel ore and "insert leveled ore here" hoping to find some random crate/event to give you something you can not get through crafting
Step 4: Build the item required to advance your crafting/Defeat the boss if there is one
Step 5: Repeat till done or really really bored

So lets face it progression is unexciting, combat is unexciting (its just the base mechanics, nothing really you can do to make it better), and large volumes of what you may want are unobtainable through any other means than pure luck. This is a Skinner Box if I ever saw one.


So that was the complainy bit, now what can be improved?
Crafting needs work, not only the menus are pure clutter if you are trying to find out what components you need to finish something but vast amounts of content are unobtainable through any means other than luck.

Power Creep is rampant, How about a system of leveling your choice of cosmetic armor through the use of new ores instead? (I find the vast majority of armors to be unfemininely unappealing so a better system of cosmetic choice with progression would be nice beyond just wearing some cloths I found as appearance armor all the time.) As well as weapons could use some leveling as appose to being tossed out so frequently like foodwaste at a resturant.

The Matter Manipulator is trivial at best and could have been an amazing tool for both progression and universal tools (because seriously who isnt sick of pickaxes,shovels, and woodaxes....). It would be so much better to use the ore (starting with stone) to make upgrades to the Matter Manipulator itself as appose to building tools. You could go as far as to say making "Frequency crystals" that make it easier to mine made of the leveled ores in order to speed up the Matter Manipulator. Because as it stands right now it sits in my ship Inv gathering dust which is a damn shame for the potential it could have for a multipurpose tool.

There is little reason to settle down anywhere. While im sure this will get fixed eventually through "stargates" or what not but what we really need are facility sized items that we can use to perform crafting/farming/ect automatically without our presence so long as the facility has enough fuel. This way you could make automated farms/ More efficient smelters/refiners that are too big to be on the ship/ Material crafting stations that will allow you to make all the block types in the game / Laboratories to produce science and medical supplies/ All this and the like but they have to be unable to fit on the ship and require energy. A high tech compensation would be things like Solar panels attached to your facility to generate fuel for the devices there. But grand scheme of things this Nomad living off of the ship gameplay is disheartening to the potential starbound can have when it comes to building a home/facility.

This trend of "colored Iron" has got to stop. Your adding so many ores that the old ones are rapidly outdated and useless. Instead you should work with the ores you have copper-diamond but use them in more complex ways to the point where you were previously using alot of iron-coal so you ignored copper but next stage all of a sudden you need alot of copper and coal so you shift you focus. The level of the planet would determine the abundance of ore on the planet including fuel ores. But as it stand right now once you get the drills every ore aside from the colored iron of the day suddenly become worthless.

*I decided to do a video review of stage 1, and yes I know its a beta but that does not make it immune to criticism*

 

The game has been out to the public for 14 days now and you don't like the way it's heading? How can you even know where it's heading?

 

This!

I know a lot of people are mystified about the direction of the game. The devs have not changed the direction at all. They only have changed mechanics since some were more technical then expected. I expect they are working there butts on to recreate that image they have. I understand that people are a bit lost as to what is going on and where are we heading with this game. It will be known soon enough to the fullest extent on the information the devs tell us.

 

maybe you should re-read the "Phases of the Beta" post....

 

i would whine and moan about this post. but im not going too.

i'll simply state this game is like an onion.... the dev's have the onion... they give us a layer of said onion. we play that layer inform the dev's it wasent up to scratch tasted bitter.

the dev's contemplate our feedback and work with us to provide a better game so far we are at a bare minimum of what this game is really about, we test and play and test and play, telling the dev's what dont and does work.

 

Currently we only have content up to tier 4 of technology. We have no dungeons, we have no space combat, we have no quest system, world generation is still being worked on...

It's far too soon to make any judgement on the game's "direction", we're looking at the most fundamental, incomplete form of the grand plan. The current goal for beta testers, asides from feedback in what directions we'd like to see, is feedback on balance.

 

Exactly. We can't judge a book by its cover. And we have barely scratched the service of this "cover" of the game.

 

oaky, but you realize that the whole sector X thing is a placeholder for future content, right? You're not actually meant to breeze through the ores like that (i did it too), a lot of things need rebalancing and tweaking, and as stated in the "Phases of beta" outline, if you don't want massive shifts in core dynamics, character wipes, rebalancing etc, then wait for phase 2. I don't get people complaining about things like this at this stage, because its obviously not finished. they've said as much.

Don't like the direction the game is heading? Don't play... wait for the full release...

geez...

 

Which is why im giving my feedback btw... if no one says anything then clearly they have every reason to think all well in the kingdom. Regardless of "direction changes" you have to face facts that there are 5 whole planet levels of copy paste mechanics that look like they could continue ad-infinitum. That is what concerns me.

 

This again? Seriously?

 

The first step in progression is test the waters of content. Second step is to re-engineer the mechanics to make it better. Third step is to add additional content and test again. It will get better, at the moment we are just testing the sectors. Nothing more.

 

To be specific we are only testing the first 4 sectors PLUS the giant melting pot of subsequent sectors

 

I do share your concerns with the power creep especially - having such a vast difference between lowest and highest tier encourages a strong segregation of content, gates to progression need to be more organic (such as minecraft's limitation on the kind've materials you can physical mine through when using inferior tools). But the tier system as a whole seems to have been received quite poorly and looks like it'll undergo some more itterations yet before they settle on anything.

But some of your feedback *is* irrelevant, for example your concerns about the matter manipulator. On launch day we only had up to tier 3 and people were concerned we only had pickaxes (even though astute people noticed we had art assets for drills and laser cutters), when tier 4 got fleshed out they unveiled drills; peopel insist drills are too slow. But we still have laser cutters and 6 more levels to go... I'll wager that matter manipulators make a comeback at a much higher tech level.

 

And seriously what is with the hostility, I know forums are forums but for crying out loud is feedback such terrible thing here?

 

your "feedback" basically amounts to "finish the game and put in the features you already said would be implemented, why isn't it done yet waa waa waa"

That's why I recommend people not play this game unless they read the "Phases" document and are fine with an unfinished product, which is what it is.

 

Pretty much what the devs wanted to test and see how it went. See what people thought of it. Its hard to know what the market would like to see without testing the waters. Thats why this team is driven to make this game better for the community and not for their wallet.