So What Do You All Think of the Game's Progress?

I think it's still on schedule for a release this year, but just barely. In a lot of ways, this is inevitable for an indie release like this: It's quite likely that they're trying to do too much with too little time. Pushing back the release has always been a large possibility. Still, with four months left to meet the deadline, I'm optimistic that they can pull it off. I'm predicting something along the lines of the beta starting in late October, with a two month beta period before the official release. Whether this actually happens remains to be seen, but even if the release has to be delayed, I'm willing to wait for a higher quality game.

 

I really think they will at least release SOMETHING this year. After moving the date back over a year from their last failed deadline, and since then acquiring over a million dollars in funds, people would be truly furious, and I don't think they have the manpower to deal with that kind of backlash.

 

Looks pretty good so far. Watching gameplay without the feedback of playing makes the gameplay look a little stiff. I'd wager some of that will go away once I'm playing. Still curious what all they are holding back. Really looking forward the large number of assets for building stuff.

 

What's good? Building, definitely. Also the exploring factor. I look forward to searching for all sorts of cool stuff to add to my home base, essentially.

Creatures are nice, I'm expecting some almost Spore-like variety for the game, which is pretty cool. I'm curious to see what else will be added in that arena. Actually I might even come up with some ideas of my own on that front.

What's bad? Well... I don't like the enemy attacks. From what I saw most of them are, at this point, little more than different ways to bump into your character and do damage. I know it's hard to do with procedurally generated creatures, but we need a lot more variety than that, and attack animations too. That would make the combat lot better in my opinion. Of course, this is pre-beta so they may not be finished in that area. I'm not sure.

Also, I'm not sure, but it seemed like there were some scaling issues? I remember the stream they had the day before yogscast, I can't remember who was playing but the poor guy was getting massacred, because his attacks were doing about a fifth of the damage of the yogscast starters. On the other hand, the yogscast was doing fine despite how terribly they were playing >_>

 

I'm especially interested in the pets and farming, wouldn't mind if they added a form of ranching. I'd love to go around collecting pieces of other worlds, and bringing them back to my own.

That reminds me, in Terraria I had a containment room for 'Hallow' terrain to farm materials. And before I knew it, a clown blew a part of it open, and the Hallow spread like wildfire. I was up to my neck in killer unicorns for a while.

 

What I don't like is damn feature creep and devs' inability to make predictions about their own creation. What I like... Welp, many things, but almost all of them have annoying details that keep this game away from "Ultimate" title.

 

What do you mean exactly? Could you share some examples?

(not trying to sound condescending or anything, I am genuinely curious )

 

I think it was a wrong move to announce the game this soon, blinding people's judgements about the release date and leading to unnecessary ranting (and some pressure over the devs)
other than that, it's going pretty good!
in pre-alpha/pre-beta stages, it's common to delete entire sections of the game to start again, or even remake the WHOLE game from the scratch, wich isn't happening with SB.
devs are managing to add stuff and progress quite often IMO

EDIT: about the features... I like how everything (from platform, RPG and sandbox elements to pixel graphics) works together, rather than liking one or other single feature
and I dislike how, for now, even being varied, the monsters kinda fall into the same size and behaviors...

 

I heard that Starbound's creation was leaked, which led to a premature announcement of the game.

I honestly don't know if this is true or not as people say one thing and another, but if someone could confirm, that'd be awesome!

 

I am a sucker for loot and exploring. Setting up base camps and going on expeditions sounds like too much fun and I am really looking forward to it.

 

I said exactly this about a week ago and most people brushed it off: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/18th-august-progress.28259/page-3#post-1107692

 

The problem is that a lot of really basic stuff isn't working right yet. I noticed in Bartwe's stream that things got buggy quick when there was a lot happening on screen. Also, a few times pools of water drained without a hole to drain through. The fluid was just gone. These are things that need to be ironed out before any release.

I personally WOULD like to see these basic engine functions straightened out, and have it released episodically too. I'm hoping that getting tier one working was just to lay the groundwork in the engine, and that they will go back to getting the basics working as opposed to more features, but we will see once everyone is home from i49.

Fingers crossed!

 

I really like the variety they've shown in the form of different trees, plants, and blocks. I'll be able to build all sorts of things, and apparently I'll even have a very easy time modding in new blocks, too. Being able to place blocks four-at-a-time will allow me to build all these things much faster, too.

I like the way the tools allow you to break blocks in an area rather than always one at a time, and how the block damage stays around and slowly fades instead of disappearing instantly, so it will be a bit easier to make tunnels that aren't straight vertical or horizontal, and they'll look more natural as well. Plus, having the ability to walk up and down one-block slopes means you'll be able to go through these tunnels with no trouble.

I really like how the dungeons are actually made of rooms that are fitted together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. This means they'll be able to do so much more with them than what we saw in Terraria, especially in terms of platforming and puzzles. It also makes it much easier to mod dungeons by simply adding new room files, which are apparently in the form of common image files of some sort.

Although I really like the idea of an infinite array of weapons and mobs, we haven't actually seen that much variety in them. They may have a wide array of visual pieces, but what really matters is having a wide array of unique behaviors. When I've seen Tiy show off the guns, it seems like he pretty much shows the same four or five types of guns. The variety in the mob behavior seems better than that, but isn't as unique as I'd hope for. I assume that as the developers finish higher tier content these things will be much more interesting, but I am not impressed by tier 1. They certainly have promised a great deal, and I have confidence that they will deliver on that promise.

I don't like how the Med Kits seem to work exactly like health potions. Hopefully they will change to a system where healing requires you to use energy, and works more like an entire class so that you have to choose your equipment to heal more effectively. To help players that don't focus on healing, items like Med Kits should just give you temporary buffs that slowly regenerate health, just like when you are resting in a tent or bed.

 

You sure there were no hole in the background layer?

 

I feel that the developers are working in their own pace and this is good.
I think that we will see the beta in late October or early November.

 

Random mobs - nice idea, but they look strange and unnatural for a world - like bright yellow violent happyface on ice planet. It's impossible to guess who is hostile - at first it looked like a selling point, but now it looks annoying.

 

If they don't charge at you the moment they see you, they aren't hostile. Logic.

 

I think it is actually a really cute aspect of the gameplay. If you were a space explorer taking your first steps on a new world, you probably wouldn't know what was aggressive until it actually attacked you. At any rate, it would only annoy you when you first get there, and you can always shoot up the passive mobs to be safe.

It is rather unfortunate that the mobs' color-palettes don't seem to be filtered to give mobs a little more match to the environment, though. Maybe Chucklefish will add something to narrow-down the mob types by planet type so that you don't have any red-scaled fire-breathers on that ice world.

 

You say that, but really, look at our own planet. Who would expect that a large, warm blooded mammal with thick, heavy fur colored orange and white with black stripes would live in a green jungle? Or that black, white, and yellow flightless birds would live among blue-white icy glaciers?

I could go on (tropical fish, peacocks, butterflies) , but my point is, camouflage is not the only survival strategy. And even when it is employed, is not always meant to conceal the animal from our eyes. I think most people expect animals to be hidden because, in places where humans have taken over, it's usually only the animals that can hide from us that continue to do well. In less civilized parts of the world (or other worlds as is the case here) the survival strategies, and by extension the animals, are much more diverse. Evolution can take some seemingly bizarre paths that make no sense without understanding the history, and the other creatures in the environment. So I have no problem with the strangely colored alien beasts, because they are alien. It simply isn't immersion-breaking for me.

Also, arguably, if you were a predator on an ice planet, surrounded by prey adapted to the cold, wouldn't breathing fire be an advantage to you? And if you are red, it doesn't mean your prey can even see the color red. Making up stories of how these animals come to exist on these planets sounds pretty fun to me.

 

I would imagine jungles and deep-sea environments would have plenty of brightly colored creatures. Arctic and desert environments tend to have much higher numbers of camouflaged species because they can't rely as much on cover and the environment doesn't have much color variety itself.

I never said "all mobs should have camouflage". I said that they should be filtered to match a little bit more. For example, have the chance of matching-colored mobs be equal to the combined chances of all other colors. That way half of the mobs are color-matched to the environment and the other half are brightly vibrant creatures that stick out like a sore thumb. That would give a more believable and visually appealing mixture of species on each planet.

At least, so I imagine would be the case.