Somewhat disappointing first impressions.

Having found Terraria to be rather enjoyable, I was interested to find out that a game with a sci-fi theme was in production and perhaps very foolishly made assumptions based on the apparent success of Terraria, that this game would play in a similar manner.

A few of the letdowns having played the game were apparent right off the hop:

1. The ship is nothing more than an interactive menu of sorts.

This was a pretty big one even though I suppose perhaps some people weren't surprised by this. I was generally presuming a more co-operative themed multiplayer would be implemented, which would have facilitated players starting together and traveling ostensibly together, and working as a team on 'a' ship.

The current arrangement specifically with regard to the fact, especially having players spawn in very different places was a pretty big let down. The game definitely seems to have more of a MMO directed feel which is something I neither care about or actively enjoy.

I prefer my multiplayer experiences to be more personal, and I immediately found this lacking.

2. Having to complete a tutorial mission in multiplayer.
Yeah, this was just kind of weird, and the fact that when doing local multiplayer two players don't start in the same place, and have no way to immediately interact with one another further drove home the decidedly MMO oriented theme of multiplayer, which again served to be a pretty huge letdown.



This is pretty much it, however it was enough for me to sufficiently lose interest in bothering with multiplayer which was one of the features I was the most interested in. I'm honestly not even sure I would have bothered getting this game had I found out it was going to play this way specifically.

I would say this is at least half my fault as I didn't really pay much attention to forum discussion on the game and what to expect from it.

Caveat emptor as they say I suppose.

 

Seeing as this is your first post, I'll agree with you that it's your fault for not researching what you're getting into. Also, this is a BETA. Things can change as the development continues.

 

Are players on multiplayer servers starting on different planets? For my server, we all started at the same location.

 

Are you aware that you can teleport to the ship of any party member?

 

It's a beta, what did you expect?

 

No, but it still doesn't change the fact that my original point still kind of stands, and is still fairly disappointing.

But that's good news I guess...

 

there will be improvements based upon feedback, i agree though this is beta not

 

Not that obviously, I sincerely don't know how that is even relevant.

Disabling a tutorial based on play mode could conceivably be about as difficult as a flagged variable.

 

You did know that you can just cut down a few trees and fuel your ship to fly away, and skip tutorialing

 

Please read this post , which would be helpful to undestand how the beta is working right now : http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/how-the-beta-is-going-to-work.31798/

 

I don't see the point, since the tutorial is part of the game's natural progression. People need to make that stuff to get anywhere in the game anyway. And if you're playing multiplayer, you can just take turns holding the item you're required to make, since it flags completion upon having the item rather than upon making it.

 

Just got off a 3 hour multiplayer session. Overall, 8/10. For a beta, I expected it to be pretty crappy, Hell, even broken in some instances, but all I got was some connectivity issues, and some blocks disappearing when I dug them up. Some of the most fun I've had playing a game in quite a while..
I really look forward to this games continued development.

 

That's why the beta has everything to do with it

 

Well, with the fact that you can teleport to other player's ships, I am failing to see your "original point".

Your ship is your small, mobile base (or that's the best way I can describe it). The starting quests are to show you the ropes from the beginning. This being a beta, like what was mentioned before, is largely the reason why you wouldn't see an option to turn off tutorials. I'm pretty sure that was last on the checklist to implement before the Beta was released. You can ignore the quests, you don't need to follow them. If you were expecting a Terraria-like experience, beam to your friend's ship, beam down to the planet together, and don't do the quests.

 

the ship will be your home and can be upgraded to be become bigger.

and you don't need to complete any tutorial in the game, just reject or ignore the quest and do what you want.

 

Just don't do the quests. Simple as that.

 

It's not a mobile base, as it were, it really is little more than an interactive menu.

What I'm saying is the immersion and cohesion factor is splintered and virtually nonexistent as it currently is, and that's disappointing.

I suppose my main concern about the tutorial is it serves as a direct obstruction to cooperative play when you spawn in different areas as it were. And honestly if you can beam to another player's ship through space, but you require fuel... well, that just further drives home my point about the ship being little more than an interactive menu.

It's just little things, but IMO things that nevertheless degrade the more personal aspect of what I enjoyed about cooperative Terraria, which is completely irrespective of whether it's a sci-fi or fantasy theme, more simply how that concept is implemented.

Still, I'm voicing concerns as I see them.

 

Ah, it seems we perceive the player's ship differently. A "Base", in my experiences, is a place where you store your gear, you can craft/setup there, and use it as a staging point for your activities. That's the way that I have thought of a base, and therefore, why I referred to your ship as a mobile base. An Interactive Menu would be where you would move your character to a certain location in your ship, clicked on a GUI element that sent you to multiplayer, or single player, or accessed game settings.

You store items, pull schematics, travel to different worlds, meet up with players, customize, and retreat to your ship. That sounds like a base to me

The beginning quest doesn't seem like a direct obstruction at all. You can progress through the game ignoring those quests, nothing is really locked behind them. They are just pushing you in the right direction, which was a huge personal complaint from myself and many others regarding Terraria: there was no real direction or objective. Quests give you objectives, but they aren't mandatory, and don't require you to complete them in order to play with your friends.

But I do enjoy the conversation, I like hearing concerns of fellow Starbounders and love interacting with you all. I apologize if I come off as rude, just stating my point.

 

You don't need fuel to beam to another player's ship. Just party with them (click the plus by your name and type their name) then click their character portrait over on the left and click "Beam to ship." You can go wherever your friends go! Though I'm hoping you may have figured this out by the time of my posting this Oh and you really can just completely ignore the tutorial.

 

You do realize you can put crafting tables, chests and everything on your ship, right? Your friends can board your ship as well... Half your gripes are features that actually do exist in the game...