Some thoughts on early access, release dates, the big 1.0

Another analogy that sort of applies, and sort of doesn't. "Reviews" about this game is one thing - should I buy it? Many of us have already bought it, and yes, the reviews on Steam would probably deter many prospective buyers.

A poll system that is customer-facing is fairly useless - a poll system that is developer-facing might have some value. Similar to the "suggestions" tab on the website. If there was a feedback tab, somewhere that a person could post negative feedback (other than a public forum) and only the developers saw it. It was more of a private conversation and required the person to pick things that would lead them to actually explain the problem instead of just whining. That might have some value.

Edit: even better, that could result in an issue tracker. It'd be filtered, people could see what was being worked on, what the devs had accepted as legitimate issues, etc. Probably won't ever happen, but it might have a chance to put some order into the current chaos of complaints. I've seen the mods comment on how much daily noise there is surrounding these subjects. If an effort could be made to contain that noise and give it direction, that would be a start.

 

SeaFishelleEdit: Merged your two consecutive posts into one. Quality over quantity, please!

Well, you got part of it right. Most of us thought "thick and fast" updates would be regular patches(content add on, content updates, fixes etc.)and the occasional hot fix/"nightly builds"(As they call them). Instead, if you want to play these "nightly builds", you have to opt in and pray like heck it doesn't blow up your game. So yes, there was some confusion on the subject. Apparently, clarified by Tiy, those thick and fast updates wouldn't be patches at all. Just bits and pieces of the game that may or may not work. So yes, most Early Access/Beta games don't work like that. They usually just send a torrent of updates, when need be, including any bug fixing, hot fixes and so on within these patches. Starbound/Chucklefish takes the Linux Distribution approach.(Or so it seems*shrug*)There's a stable version, buuut, there's also an unstable version. You're welcome to try it, however, just be aware it is listed as unstable for a reason. So expect issues, proceed at your own risk. However, my friend, you do not have to pay for these additional "nightly builds'.(As some folks have already mentioned.) Cheers friend, greats things may be heading our way in the Starbound Universe!

Refer to my posts mentioning "nightly builds". To make a further point on these builds, there was a sticky(since unsticked/or moved cuz ... ya know ... anyway)on the Steam Starbound Forum tiled "Getting the latest nightly to work".

 

Tiy, it must be quite the job to have so many people having dished money into your work and trying to live up to peoples expectations. I love everything you guys are working on.

I just wanted to chime in on the when can a game be considered 1.0 etc thing. I think everyone seems to have missed the most critical part. A game should not be considered 1.0 unless the progress a player has made in the game is not erased due to patches. This is not by any means a complaint, I am just throwing it out there. Thanks.

 

If one can't convince me if a dinner is worth eating or not without writing an essay on it, then maybe they're not entirely convinced themselves...

Edit: There, just to avoid any potential misinterpretations and/or hostilities.

 

Nah, walls of text are just dumb

 

Isn't 1.0 when all the promised features are actually in game and working more or less as intended? Anything after that should be bugfixing and performance tweaks.

Game creation hasn't changed so much in the last however many years that 1.0 for a game is a subjective thing. Some developers might put out some terribly glitchy or unfinished stuff and call it a 1.0, but all that really does is damage them as a company rather than redefine or make 1.0 into a fuzzy concept.

 

Amen!

 

Sure the THREAD is civil, but the real war is being waged not in the threads, but in our minds.

 

Well played sir, well played.

 

The only thing I'm a little sad about, is watching all these updates run by on the nightly. But we haven't seen a stable update since April. I would much rather play a stable release from July, that has one new change. Then play in Aug with one or two more changes.

on the flip side, it might be a totally different experience once the new stable patch comes out, because it sounds like a lot of the game is going to change. None the less I'm right around 170 hours played to date. And would love to see some new stuff added to the stable branch.

 

I should know, I inadvertently write those sometimes... and then the self-loathing begins...

 

I'd hardly call complete rewrites of entire systems and pieces of the engine 'one or two changes', let's be honest here

 

alright alright, one or two additions

 

I dont know what other people think about this topic. But for me, i bought this game current version and "next update what dev showed, promised before". So for me, there's no meaning pointing about play time, reputation stuff like that. At my point, i (or we) bought this game now and future together and if dev say like above, they think something wrong. There is popula sentence in my country, "people usually think different when they wait before the toilet and when they occupy the toilet" (sorry for bad translate) this means maybe when you need money u can promise lot of thing. But once you got money, you think different. If you not mean this, sorry about my mis understanding. If you are, please think what people want or expect or imagine, When the moment we decide to buy starbound.

(I am not in english using country, sorry about my bad english one more time)

 

I wanted to write a huge wall of text about why the game is nowhere near complete but it doesn't matter at this point. Its obvious that the particular progression update we all have been waiting for (we meaning those of us that bought the game in very early access and realized the game was grind ten levels of ore that all craft incredibly similar armors and weapons that just have different numbers and have been waiting for some actual substance alongside the formula) is not coming or even something the dev's think is needed.

I do not feel I wasted my money but am severely disappointed. Without mods the game is just plain boring. Twenty six hours of boring. Mine ore. Craft Armor with new ore for the eighth time Craft 2-H sword with new ore for the eighth time. Fight boss. Leave planet. Rinse, Repeat. Sure you can farm but in terms of advantages it gives you none. I have never had the need to worry about food. Exploring for dungeons is useless. The amount of extra items and content is abysmal and no I don't count plaid shirt in six different races as different fun vanity items to find. Techs could be rampant and abundant making characters ridiculously different but they just are ridiculously rare. So rare I don't even get excited I just hope that EVENTUALLY I find one.

People enjoyed the game, sure. But Ill continue to gather friends to play long Terraria sessions where our buildings actually matter and do stuff, enemies drop tons of rare items so you are always excited even if its the thousandth skeleton or fifth Eye of Cthulu, and the variety is just ludicrous. Ill take a screenshot of my world where I hand collected every armor because they were all fun to get. Nobody wants to go mine for eight hours in Starbound since there is no incentive for exploring or fighting monsters. Armors could give tons of abilities but nobody would care since there isn't any reason to fight. But they don't. They get cooler looking and then you go to the next planet and never feel powerful unless you return to the weaker one. I feel like a god running around in Terraria after thirty hours. In Starbound I may be awkwardly jetting around surrounded with bubbles and still dying in three hits.

I'm critical because I adore the game. I see how close to awesome it could be and it makes me sad that the post came across as pure defense and not hey lets see what we can do to make it even better.

There isn't the slightest bit of anger just disappointment that they consider this 1.0 . Had this been released as 1.0 and I not spent every day since the original announcement of the game waiting for it, I would've considered it a mediocre Terraria clone without giving it a second thought. I just hope that perhaps they will see what we are really asking for. You can add hundreds of monsters, dungeons, races, quests, and planets, but if we have no drive to explore or fight then it doesn't matter. I explore dungeons because I want to find a rare piece of armor or tech my friend hasn't found yet, not six iron bars (which I don't need), an avian skirt(available at every retailer near you), and three weapons that would have sucked two planets ago.

 

I think it really needs to be said that if you've read what the Devs have been saying, kept up with the updates, and read this blog post of Tiy's and what you have taken away from it all is the progression update they've been busting their asses off working on (for us) isn't coming at all, then you cannot read. I am astonished someone so completely illiterate can not only get hold of a computer and use it, but luck themselves into purchasing and playing a game and then signing up and posting on its forums. It is a Christmas Miracle.

 

Its a Christmas Miracle that a nerd like you aint gotten beat up yet.

 

What makes you think that

 

Nothing. Not a shred of evidence exists at all to support such a ridiculous claim. It is mind boggling, isn't it?

 

Don't know if everbody allready saw Tiys second reddit answer towards the matter:
http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/c...1st_tiys_thoughts_on_early_access_and/cj4bh34