Starbound is great but...

I love this game! It's awesome! I think it could be better than Terraria, but... It needs work. Now I know it's in beta and it's still growing,but there are some things in the game that I feel should be added or changed.

Spinning metal doodads (forgive me, I don't know what they're called)
They're the things that can be found all over the universe. The strange metallic objects that, when interacted with, have a wide variety of effects, from healing you, giving you speed boosts, to burning you, poisoning you to even instideath. Now I don't mind the thought of these things being here, but in all honesty they're kind of useless. Why risk your life and loss of pixels for the possibility of jumping higher for a minute? So here are some things I feel could make these "doodads" more relevant.

1. Disable ALL buffs and debuffs and instead make them permanent stat boosters. Make them even rarer to find and have them give you the ability to permanently increase your attack, health, energy or defense, but have it be randomized. This would make then a great addition to the game, instead of things you would rather pass over altogether.

2. Make the things they give you actually worth the risk. A fairly large amount of pixels, a strong weapon, etc. If the idea above doesn't sound good the have this idea. This would make these "doodads" that have the possibility of killing you actually worth your time.

Race specific abilities
The races are awesome! I love each and every one, but whats the difference other than appearance? It would be awesome to have races with different abilities. Like have Glitches have higher defense than most, but a severe vulnerability to electrical attacks and hazards. Hylotl can breath under water (come on, they're FISH!) or at least have them have a longer duration under water. Avians can glide. Florans can run faster. Apex can jump higher. Give us some kind of variety to what each race would be able to do!

These are only a couple of things that I would love to see in the game. What are your thoughts? Do you have any more ideas? Can any of your ideas improve upon mine?

 

Race unique traits are not happening.

 

A man can dream though.

 

Well I'm sure there will be mods that do it.

 

i think all this changes can be added with mods tough.

 

But do Glitch dream of electric sheep?

 

Permanent stat boosts may be a bit too far, but an alternative that I would suggest is a temporary stat boost that would last through your gaming session (i.e. stat boosts active until you save/exit the game). While I do enjoy permanent stat boosts I feel that this could result in overwhelmingly powerful characters and likely imbalance gameplay. The potential for a high quality item being produced by these "shrines" could also be nice, though. However, I would strongly recommend keeping the "possibility of insta-death" aspect of these shrines as when you interact with them there should be some level of risk involved (ESPECIALLY if the permanent stat boost concept was actually implemented).

 

Racial armors will give unique traits in the future though.

 

The reason why race-specific traits are not going to happen is because it's bad game design. Attaching specific traits to specific races forces players to pay cosmetic and gameplay opportunity costs simultaneously. A well-designed game should allow players to make cosmetic choices separate from gameplay choices. Instead of forcing players to have to be restricted to a certain gameplay choice with their cosmetic choice (or vice-versa), we should be asking the question raised by the most brilliant girl ever to grace the face of our planet:



This is why bonuses that are usually considered "racial traits" will be tied to armor sets instead.

 

@krylo: Nah, I bet they just dream about static.

It's a pity there won't be any unique race traits. In my opinion the devs completely miss the ball here. (That's how you say it, right? Missing the ball? >_> Please correct me.)
6 different species, born and evolved from 6 completely different worlds. One can fly, one lives underwater, one is vegetation, one can hang upsidedown in a tree... And yet they can all jump the same height, have the same amount of breath, same running speed...
A real pity. I hope they'll change their minds as the game evolves.

 

Not even close. The game is better for incorporating traits the way they are.

 

So a Florian can make Florian specific armor and trade to a Human, and the Human can get the sunlight regen? (or whatever florian armor does)

 

yes

 

@Kriptini: That's an opinion you're free to have.

 

Correct! Any race can receive the armor bonus from any armor set, meaning you can be a gliding Hyotl or a water-breathing Apex!

I just have a very hard time understanding why forcing a player to potentially make a choice that they don't want to make in a sandbox game is a good thing. My bad.

 

Some people would rather just have an ability instead of being the race that can give the ability to their friends. Although as a builder, I kinda find that dull.

 

Woa there, perma stat gain? You high? That can be exploited soooo hard. Just think of it,
play for long enough and nothing can kill you but you can kill everything.

 

Why sir there is such a mod http://www.nexusmods.com/starbound/mods/304/?

 

So are you saying the Elder Scrolls and DnD games are doing it all wrong? Having race traits adds DIVERSITY to a game, especially with an online multiplayer mode.

 

But having race traits conflicts with uh... how do I put this? What you want to look like.
It adds unnecessary hindrances and advantages for people who pick a race because they think looks cool.

And as for the buff things being harder to find, as long as they remove the instakill ones, I'm all for it.