So much! Yet so little..

Starbound is awesome there is no denying that.. However, i'm having a small problem with it!

This game is huge! So many planets! So much room to explore! Wonderful! But.. Theres nothing that makes me want to explore more.. There seems to be a lack of incentive to go explore each sector! I know its only beta, and I hope that this is only temporary until they implement more features into the game. But I skipped through each sector without really needing to explore more than 3 maybe 4 plants! Can you see what I mean?

Heres another example, the random encounters are really cool. I've found some awesome towns and dungeons! But 99% of the time I only leave theses places with a few more pixels in my pocket..

It just seems that Starbound isn't utilising that huge scope its presenting to players! Am I missing something or have I hit the right note?

Like I said, I hope this will only be a temporary issue of mine until the game is fill out with more stuff.. Aaaaaaand discuss!!

 

As many people have said before, yes. There's just no real incentive to explore other planets in a sector. Here's to hoping it gets better as this game grows.

Also, the current tier system is placeholder, so that shows some promise.

 

I think there are a lot of people (myself included) that feel this way. Once they flesh out building and quests I think it will become much more viable. Right now they are getting mechanics and progression worked out, then I think we can expect to see a lot more content push.

I would like to see special resource types only found on certain biomes that are needed for cool items; not just for decorative and furniture stuff.

 

It's a strange thing, but I find myself almost disappointed when I find a huge village. Sure, it's cool, but I didn't build it, and it's already sort of complete. I'm not going to feel good moving in, and I don't want to build something similar on the same planet too. It's a bizarre situation in which I feel like there's nothing to do at that point. The villagers are safe, having a good time, and they acknowledge me, but I don't really belong there. Strange I know. I'd almost rather be beamed down on a deserted ice world, and have to really fight to survive. It might just be the way I play however.

 

Well the game isn't finished. But yes I agree as of now it feels empty, in the end you only go to planets for ores and the hopes of finding dungeons and airships.

 

If you guys wouldn't mind throwing your experience in here, it might help to visualize the problem later on.

I'm trying to collect information on how much people actually explore in the current system:

http://community.playstarbound.com/...t-needed-how-many-planets.54562/#post-1542419

Thanks.

 

The exception to this for me was finding a ruined tower. I did not build it originally, but I did repair it, deck it out with crafting rooms, and move in.

 

I think everyone is forgetting that the game will eventually include quests, both a main storylie and an infinite number of randomly generated quests. I think those alone will keep us going for a long time. (Though I wished at least the random quests were in already.)

 

Random quests would be nice. It would be great to have something to do other than endlessly grind pixels.

 

I know that feeling

So i usually just kill them all then run off crying

 

I agree. However I think when things like quests are implemented which most likely will have you fly from one planet to the next the incentive might be their. And you never know they might come up with some very interesting ways to make exploring sectors more interesting.

 

I for the most part only explore the surface of any planet I go to, or half way down sometimes on desert planets. The problem I feel like it that there's just an over abundance of options to explore, but not really good way of telling where there will be a reward.

It's sort of like real life in that sense. If I dropped you in the wilderness somewhere with basic tools to survive, you're not gonna search every nook and cranny, you're going to follow clues and logic to make your way to the most rewarding path. Right now in this game, the only reliable clue we have to go on are "there's always something unknown on the surface" and less reliably "there might be something unknown underground". Unfortunately, underground takes so much longer to explore and even then what you find might not even be a reward for you, so it isn't even as good a time to reward ratio as the surface... which is already fairly low due to lack of content at the moment.

 

So beam down to an ice world and do just that?

 

Hate to break it to you but I'm pretty much betting randomized quests will involve grinding on repeated things like "Kill 10 Pikachu looking things", "Bring me 10 iron ore," or "Kill this thing over here," etc. Randomized quests are kind of a double edged sword as they're kind of hard not to make them follow such a pattern, but I'd rather have them than having nothing at all after the main storyline is done.

 

Thats precisely what I'm hoping. The devs have mentioned something about randomly generated quests? Well not completely random.. about as random as the monsters (I cant be arsed to explain..) But yeah, I really hope these quests have us jumping from planet to planet to collect things other than ore and pixels! And eventually ending in a sweet reward! I still think theres a balancing issue too.. but thats for another thread!

And further more, they could do a lot more with the random dungeons! Almost every one plays out like this.. Enter, mercilessly slaughter the inhabitants, pinch a cool looking chair (or 6), and leave..

But I cant stress enough, I know its beta, I suppose i was hoping for someone to reassure me that "Yes, the devs will add more interesting content that will have you hopping, skipping and jumping around the universe!" Thats all I suppose I could ask.. Whats the most interesting thing you've found?

 

I'd accept "go kill this special huge beastie" or "go and grab this special doohickey from Dangerous Location Alpha" as randomised quests that'd add a bit of spice, if nothing else. Now, if you want really fancy random quests, the best place to look is Daggerfall. I'm pretty sure that making random quests like that is a heck-load of work, though.

 

There's a major incentive to explore other planets. The first person to find and post the seed of the tentacle planet inhabited solely by female Florans is gonna get MAJOR street cred.

 

Quoted from the main page upcoming changes. This will help a little with that depending on how its down. Most likely you'll have to stop at planets to harvest some resources to keep moving toward the next sector. The slight planet difficulty, once balanced, will most likely be helpful to give you a better idea of the kind of gear/loot you'll find on a planet. Now just hope they implement trade stations and planets with unique resources!

 

The thing is, there arent really 1000s of planets. Not anymore so than the 1000s of seeds in Minecraft. In both games you get some nice variations, but basically the same thing. Biggest difference is that SB is trying to convince you that each seed is a unique "planet".

They promoted this as the kind of game where you have to visit 100s of planets, but its really just a slick and seamlessly integrated reroll world mechanic. Its great in that respect, but terrible if you think you're getting a universe of diverse content. I think they shouldve made it to where a player could be satisfied playing 1-2 planets, but had the option to travel as much as they want. The same way i can play 1-2 seeds in minecraft, but reroll as many worlds as i want. They build your expectations, only to disappoint. Whereas in minecraft, you appreciate the little variances since its voluntary, and not necessary for progression.

 

That I totally agree on. That's why in the Trade/Colonization thread we've been talking about wanting planets with unique resources, or make it where not every planet has the same ores/resources. And right now that's sort of true. There are some planets with tar, some without. Now that might only be true when it comes to blocks, but I imagine a lot of those planet unique blocks will be needed for crafting recipes they've yet to add. I could see tar being required to make roof tiles (which are in the game). I also imagine there will be more mobs that will be planet/environment specific. So yes, while more than one planet may have the same resources/mobs/etc as another somewhere in space, not ALL the planets will have them.

I'd settle for about 10 variations. Maybe some unique NPC or mob stuff that would keep me exploring. But really it'd be the ability to build trade stations or colonize planets to expand my "influence" or "empire" that'd keep me exploring and building.