Hello all, long-time Starbounder new to the forums though. Just wanted to say that I love so much about the game and that while it is a bit disappointing to hear that the bounty system isn't quite panning out how they hoped, I respect their commitment to quality. For me the biggest thing I think that's been missing in the game since launch is that after you visit a few of each type planet the universe gets remarkably stale. I look forward to whatever they bring in updates to add more diversity and encounters to the base game. There needs to be some seriously heavy dungeons/events/instances or something added liberally throughout to help the endgame from feeling like fishing for base/station materials. Anyhoo, that's my take. (Yes I know there's mods but I've tried the Frakin' Universe mod and didn't care for it).
The decision to port Starbound to consoles may very well be the death of this game. Sad, because I bought into this game as soon as it was available on Early Access based on my experience with Terraria. I don't have any problem with consoles per-se, but far, far too many small indie developers seriously underestimate the amount of work it is to support multiple platforms. This has been the death of (or at least a massive time-sink impacting quality and features) for a great many promising games. Not to mention that the console version almost always ends up being an inferior experience due to the lack of mod support, which a great many indie games (Starbound included) depend on. Quite disappointed that Chuklefish is taking Starbound this direction. I wish them the best, but from what I've observed of nearly every other indie game is that this almost always don't end well. Edit: Would it be possible to post this development update (the OP) on Steam as well? The most recent update there is from the 1.3.3 hotfix over 6 months ago, and gives the impression that this game has been abandoned.
Like all other SB updates, Steam will receive the update first typically, with GoG usually being a few hours behind, or at least that's how every other update has worked.
I would love to see weapon durability sometime in the future, The idea of weapons breaking and knowing you need to protect then with something like a repair station makes for an even more interesting adventure.
I can see this being possible with mods already. I'm not saying there are mods for weapon durability, because I don't care enough to check, but I am saying it can probably be done.
In games that have durability systems, they usually end up feeling like yet another tedium like the hunger meter and they are even MORE annoying if you have to hold yet more junk to repair them with.
I think it would be a nice touch for survival mode at least, They already have durability for mining tools, so I think they should have consistency and add the option for durability for all items such as weapons armor and the already implemented mining tools.
Well, I suppose if you *really* wanted such a thing I suppose it could be possible, maybe... As long as it's optional and I don't have to screw with it lol. Can't say I understand why people find it fun, but that's just me.
I understand where you're coming from, It's not for everyone. I was just spitting ideas out. I've always liked the idea of weapon durability ever since Dark Cloud. Sorry if I upset you.
Nono, you didn't upset me at all. And yeah I played Dark Cloud.... the durability system is OK in that game, except for the perma-gone weapons if one breaks, and how some enemies very quickly reduce durability. It basically forces you into using Xiao and nobody but because you don't get another ranged character until Ruby and by then, Xiao's already been powered up far beyond Ruby.
Unless I'm completely missing it, they haven't put any update news on Steam since October of last year. 10/18/17 being the most recent posting in Starbound's 'Recent News' feed on Steam.
The Recent News doesn't get updated, but when a patch comes out, Steam gets it immediately. This is what happened with the Mech Patch and all other patches before it.
@Jeffreyg228 I think that if weapon durability happened in Starbound it would need some kind of balance to keep you from breaking special weapons. One game in particular comes to mind with weapon durability is Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones. That game gave you a dozen of special, useful, and irreplaceable weapons; every time I had to use one I spent ten minutes considering how I could not use one. Although Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy I think the same applies here, the items in Fire Emblem could not have their durability restored. While what you have suggested includes a way of fixing the weapon I think that there could be instances where a special weapon would end up breaking out of necessity. I think that weapon breakage is a great idea, but it should not be like a pickaxe or a drill. It might be more interesting to see the weapon get a downgrade when it is broken. For example a tier seven Protector's Broadsword would go back to being a tier one Broken Broadsword from over use. Weapons can break permanently if you can craft them but ones that you have to put some effort into such as boss weapons, quest rewards, and unique weapons should have this "insurance policy". The Broken variant of special weapons would be unbreakable but have poor stats that make it virtually useless. I think that this would maintain a balanced system; special weapons continue to suffer from the same constraints as average weapons but do not have to potential to lose them forever.
I think durability makes sense in a dedicated survival game like Don't Starve - where the resource economy is basically the entire point of the game - but I do think I would find it tedious and annoying in Starbound.
In survival mode the degradation of weapons is a good idea, as they said, the weapons you find (normal, green and blue) could be broken and lose the weapon by complete break if they are not fixed. But the purple weapons, they should simply lose effectiveness, but by their "quality" they would never be completely broken, you would not lose the weapon, it would simply do little damage or none if it was completely broken. I play in survival and I always have to bring food, the only bad thing about this, is that the food "is not stackable", I would like to be able to take at least 10 roasted poultry, or 10 chops cooked in the same hole, "by default, without mods ". These things should be something that the game should have by default "in survival mode" at least. PS: Sorry for my english xD
Being able to carry 20 food around with you in 2 inventory slots would completely destroy the whole purpose of having the hunger meter in the first place. If you could carry that much food, then you're guaranteed to be able to go the entire time until the food rots (40 would easily be enough to last through the rot timer), and the rot timer itself tends to be rather generous, giving you nearly a real-life hour of exploration. All of this...... with 2 inventory slots? FU allows food to stack, and you know what? Lately I've been of the mind that the hunger meter is actually pointless tedium. It doesn't really add anything to gameplay. Every 5 minutes or so I open my inventory, grab an item and click outside the box to eat it. Takes like 5-6 seconds whenever I notice I'm not full. Wow, whoop-de-doo. There's no intricate system where your character performance changes if your character gets hungry, there's no weight mechanic where if you eat too much you get overweight and lose agility, there's none of that going on here. In fact, the vanilla food system is very.... basic. Everybody can eat everything IIRC, so clearly the best way to go about it is to carry rice (which does stack and never rots) and make boiled rice (carry a campfire around on you) anytime you need to refill that little orange meter. Thing is, though, this entirely negates the hunger system and any "survival" aspect of survival mode and it turns Survival into "I drop my crap when I die." which is even more annoying and tedious. Oh, and "I can't beam out underground" ... more annoyance as you have to back-track all the way up to the surface of the planet after doing some mining. But hey, some people like saddling themselves with annoyances, I guess. Some people also like pain too, from what I hear.
If I remember correctly, the old beta with the original hunger bar was basically the same, just without a rot timer. And people insisted on having their beloved hunger bar back when it was taken out so it could be improved on. I knew I'd look back some day and laugh about it. This is why I play casual, folks. With a food bag full of rotten garbo that was once a random pickup.
At least in FU, the rotten food can be used to make mulch to make plants grow faster, lol. Now, I did mod my difficulty settings in FU to get "Casual with Hunger", but after a few playthroughs I can safely say that it really doesn't make that much of a difference. Just 1 more step of tedium, 1 stat I need to watch. Right now in my latest playthrough, I have 12 meatvine plants growing in my home laboratory. They produce 1-2 raw steaks when harvested, and each harvest is more than enough to last me until the next. And it isn't like getting those is hard or anything, and even if not, there's always bows and a flag set on the starting Lush planet. Run around, oneshot all the easy enemies and get more than enough food to last until everything rots. In fact, you can even abuse the system -- carry a campfire or a microwave on you, and right before the raw meat is about to rot, plunk said campfire or microwave down, and cook it. Said meat will now be fresh as new, so you can actually get double rot timer's worth out of each steak.
The survival mode in games is like that, you do not like it, it bothers you, but many people look for something very difficult in survival mode, for example, in a frozen planet, you need to make a fire to warm yourself or you die of cold. Or, on a very hot planet, drink a lot and settle in the shade from time to time so as not to die from "heat stroke", the need to eat, drink, or eat it rot with time is normal. The survival mode in Starbound is veeeeeery relaxed, in other games, this way you have to take it seriously or you die in a short time. This is a matter of taste, for me to eat every X time is not a nuisance, it is part of the survival mode (which in itself is a relaxed survival mode as I said). Losing the objects when dying and losing money is another part of the game in that survival mode, that forces you to be more sure, if you know that you are going to lose the objects, and that you have to be careful with hunger, play more .. tactical? call it what you want, but it makes you think more about the consequences of your actions (In addition, the objects that you lose are recoverable in most cases, if you go back to the site they are there, if they fall into the nucleus of the planet in the lava, then not xD). This is the survival mode, and it is what the people who play in this mode look for, in other games the survival mode is very hard, this is nothing in comparison xD
It's not that I'm against survival mode in games, the caveat being that the game needs to be designed with it in mind. These things work in, say, Don't Starve. Why? Because the game is designed around survival at it's core. Starbound (and Fallout: New Vegas) are not designed around this at the core, and that's why their survival modes feel "tacked-on". They go partway with a smidge of survival aspects, but then they stop and go "nope, that's all the further we go" and for good reason: some of the things you're suggesting just don't make sense in a space-age sci-fi world. I can carry around an object that lets me re-organize matter as I see fit, but yet I'm going to die from lack of heat? Can't I make some kind of science magic thing to keep me warm? Why yes, I can. It's called the EPP.
