Starbound NEEDS at least 1 Terraria like planet in order to be an epic game. Proj Mgr needed.

@up So much this!

As far as I know, Steam should do this automatically. Probably nightly is not configured properly (yet), but release version certainly will be.

 

Point still stands.

 

I just think it would be nice for planets to have more than one major biome if they're bigger. LIke, say a planet has forests AND jungles (why do jungles have to be radioactive planets only), or a planet could have Savannah and desert areas. Forests and snow planets, jungles and swamps... that sort of thing. Smaller planets it seems alright for them to have one main biome type but bigger planets could use some variety. Alien forests? Alien swamps? Diversify your planet's portfolio!

 

Yes I find it harder to put lots of detail into Starbound

 

Terraria has a splendor and wander- of potential hidden within its worlds. Vast, and filled with many things of reward. There needs to be an incentive to investigate a world. Perhaps as stated a boss, an encoutner, some kind of event- perhaps something very unique and very rare that can at least exist on each world. Perhaps a finite resource- However it is. We need to also look at the psychological effect and award that clicking games tend to offer.

When we progress- we constantly have more choices, options and can continue to progress, having clear and consistent feedback helps make those games more enjoyable despite their simplicity. Just as it feels to find one new item, to slay one boss, and find more resources in Terraria. It's a step to advancement, or progression in one way for another.

It holds dear to me, for example. That worlds should (And maybe they will) Have real environments. As I've heard they may, or already do. Haven't played in awhile. I'd like to create artificial atmospheres- spacestations, or worlds without air. Managing and mtaining complex systems is a balance- airlocks etc. That is something that appeals to me.

But as does it appeal to me, there also needs to be a sense of growth- it was something that annoyed me, where worlds could be just useless, places- without a single value to them, or something to hold them dear. I think something that makes them sparkle and shine woujld be great- I'km not sure what that would be. But perhaps a long-term goal, progression wise. Or something to encoutner, and overcome. Uniquely randomized bosses- to some degree. Or a variety of bosses locked within some worlds- potentailly hidden in some arena- or vault, that would unleash havoc.

Terraria had corruption, and the hallow which spread. What would happen if one would unleash something sealed away in one world- on purpose or by accident. Something to fight against, fix, or restore. There are many options and potential varieties that can span between the planets. Especially with mods furthering the ability to allow for such customization. But Id enjoy it more in the base game, so that mods could improve that experience further should it be needed.

 

All I'm saying is you can fix a lot of nightly version if you try hard enough. It changes per day though and a fix one day doesn't mean it's fixed the next.

 

From my personal experience, nightly has been bug free for the most part. Sure there was the mishap from before, but in the past 2-3 months, its been rock solid. Everything worked exactly as expected.

 

They've gone a long way in addressing those things with this next update (added 450+ biome-specific microdungeons). Also in one of the recent Streams Supernorn (I think) mentioned down the road adding mixed planets that would feature multiple main biome types. Like maybe a snow/arid or ocean/tropical, etc. Also the all the parallaxes do wonders for making planets feel more alive. Not to mention the new world generation adding significantly more height/depth variation. If you've played nightly you'll notice huge mountains and low valleys on a single planet.

Far as the OP goes...Here's the thing: Terraria could do a lot with one world because there was only one world. While that one world is much deeper in regards to mob variation and bosses, it is still...one world. When you're done with that one world in Terraria, that's it. You're done. Nothing else to do. Sure you can roll another one with the same character and blow your way through progression again, but that's kind of boring. Terraria is a fun game, but it's also one you essentially beat, then put away until the next huge update where there's more stuff to do.

Honestly, I don't see much difference in the Terraria world than in Starbound planets (again, I play nightly). Terraria has WAY more predictability in terms of world generation. You know exactly which biomes are there, every, single, time. What's so special about the Terraria worlds that's different from Starbound?

Terraria World

• Corruption or Crimson
• 1 Dungeon
• 1 Pyramid
• 1 Temple
• 1 Jungle
• 1 Beehive
  
• Some floating islands
• Insignificant micro-rooms (basically all the same)

Starbound Planet

• 450+ micro dungeons
• Challange Rooms
• Chances for multiple dungeons
• Tons of biome diversity (17 major biomes so far)
• Villages
• Airships
• Prisons
• Castles
• Avian Temples

I've found Starbound worlds way more fun to explore. Starbound planets are like playing slots. Who knows what you'll get. Yes, I understand exploring one is quite a lot like exploring another as far as the "task" of exploring goes...but you still have a different experience each time. The point is you can kind of look around for one to explore, decide which one you want to explore, and unless you do some actual exploring, you will never really see what all the game has to offer. It's on you, the player, to pick one to explore and look for a good one to colonize. Except you have infinitely more options than you ever did in Terraria as far as worlds go.

You have the right idea as far as a player wanting to stay on a planet...you just blamed the wrong mechanic. The problem isn't the world. If you want to incentivize players to fully explore/spend time on a planet and make it exciting, the best way to go about it is to expand on the colonization system. Reward players for building, for having more buildings, and specific buildings. Introduce an automatic/sim economy system. Allow the summoning of bosses, or have raids triggered based on biomes on the world or which buildings you have, or completely random. Require building of defenses for protection from raids. Have NPCs offer quests to be completed ON that world. That's what Terraria did different. It had nothing to do with their world/planet generation. Terraria required you to accomplish things ON that world in order to progress.

Starbound has the features in place to be way more robust than Terraria in regards to a planet. They just have yet to streamline them. The only thing I think Terraria has on Starbound currently is combat and mobs. I think Starbound mobs are kind of blah. I never pay attention to mobs and most are inconsequential, boring. Then again, regular mobs in Terraria got that way quick. That said, I think a LOT of that will change as the next step in Starbound is fleshing out the combat system. I'm betting combat will get a lot more fun. I definitely think Starbound would benefit greatly from creating specific planet-based mobs, mini-bosses, and bosses.

 

I feel like this is more or less what I was saying, but you put it quite eloquently.
Especially based on the TC's pictures, I don't really see what there is to do in Terraria that can't be simulated in Starbound.
You can build unbelievable things in Starbound, too!
... and now you can charge rent for them.

 

I agree, I really do. But, I'd like to see more, and furthering the depth of each world in a way that is unique- I found the events or the situations that Terraria put me through were fun and unqiue- sometimes even unwanted but it forced me to work to complete them. Something random and spectacular happening- or even horrifying. A sense of wonder or just possibility.
I like it all to be honest, Starbound is still great game, and I know it has gotten leagues ebtter since I last played it.

 

In response to Vandrick, it sounds like SB is moving in the right direction. This is exactly the type of thing I want to see, I want each and every planet to offer depth and variety. I realize that it won't likely be as densely packed with content as a Terraria world, but definitely more than what currently exists.

One of the things that makes SB planets at the moment feel so bland and similar is the enemy NPCs. There was a "lot" of emphasis on the monster engine that could randomly generate a huge amount of different monsters, but strangely they are all very similar with a few superficial differences. But I'm sure this is something that will be improved upon in the future.

One thing I think Terraria does well is with the implementation of the hard mode. I love how beating the normal mode final boss unlocks so many more enemy types, events, upgraded bosses, weapons, armors, etc.. I think that would be a great way to go with SB. Maybe not the exact same way Terraria does it, but some kind of new goal or change to the universe after the initial goal is reached.

To keep this short though, yes Starbound does indeed have the potential to be the better game, but at this stage for me it's not there yet. I have confidence it will get there, it's just taking awhile to arrive.

 

I would love more motivation to fully explore a planet. Perhaps there can be something that provides you a bonus for the % of a planet explored by the player.

I'd have it be something the player builds/buys and sets on the surface of a planet, and as the player explores, it "gathers data" and provides items or pixels the more you explore. I'd play it off like some kind of intergalactic company collecting information. Having this also provide a meaningful mini-map would be fantastic as well.

The other problem you run into is that biomes just feel like a set dressing and don't seem to have much impact. The monsters are still the same randomly generated monsters you find in every other biome (with exception of some dungeons). Making them have differences that are meaningful would be fantastic.

 

Again, that is more about mob generation than it is world generation. I do agree with you, by the way. But this is something they can fix by adding biome specific mobs with biome specific behaviors, drops, etc.

One thing that I think would help a ton in motivating players to explore planets is to add NPC guilds (like an Explorer's League) or an NPC that reward players for mapping out planets. Maybe have a "scanner" type item that fills a database with information you scan (monsters, creatures, trees, races, etc). Maybe something to record how much of a planet you have explored (in percentages). Take the item back to the guild and they reward you based on how much you've explored and scanned. At least something like that, providing the rewards were big enough for exploring a high percentage of the planet, would keep a lot of players exploring one place. Good thing about a system like that is that it doesn't force anything on players, because let's face it, a LOT of us like hopping around from planet to planet.

 

I feel like the way Starbound could tackle this issue is that, imagine each of Terraria's biome and how by themselves had pretty substantial depth and things to do. Now just make those biomes their own planet, tentacle planets could be infectious and if one is in a system with multiple planets it could start invading others much like corruption. Each biome having a unique boss you can find while also having random chance bosses like the king slime in terraria. I think what might help with this too is to do away with RNG creatures, I never really liked them and what they could do is create say 20 creatures per biome and each planet of said biome would either make use of all of them or only have a select number of them.

 

In a universe with a few quintillion planets (not an exaggeration), you're gonna need RNG creatures to fill them out. If you think things are repetitive NOW, then what's it gonna be like when you know exactly what every desert biome has monster-wise?

Now, I DO feel that special biomes need special creatures, both for variety and for making the biomes feel more "complete". I would like to see biomes have their own individual RNG pools to pull from, with parts more thematic to the environment. Crystaline spiders, cyst-like flesh monsters, long-legged oil-skimmers, woolly beasts of the tundra, etc. Biome-tied RNG will help make things feel less "seen it" when a new planet-type produces monsters you literally could never have seen before, because the parts weren't available at lower tiers.

 

I honestly don't get why people are still comparing sb to terraria.

It's blowing my mind.

These two games have very different concepts. One is a non story driven sandbox that focuses on player progression through gear. Literally that's all terraria is. Sb is a story driven sandbox with procedurally generated planets focused on exploration and adventure... they are 2d pixel art with a sandbox aspect but are vastly different. The scope that sb wishes to hit is enormous. While terraria is much smaller.

Granted I enjoy terraria. I still play it. I'm not hating on it. It's great for what it is and hits the nail on the head. But please stop comparing it to sb when they are vastly different. Stop wanting devs to make terraria 2. They are making their own unique game.

I'm all for people voicing their opinion but too many times people have gotten on the forums and asked for sb to be terraria 2.

 

What do you compare Starbound to?

Not to be argumentative, but I dislike the "you can't compare" arguments. You can always compare.
Take apples and oranges, for example. Both round. Both fruit. One is citrus. One is not.
Look a comparison between two things about how they are alike and not alike.

But seriously, what do you compare Starbound to?
Terraria is like its cousin. There's no other games out there worth comparing to.
Edge of Space? Minecraft? The closest thing to Starbound that I know of is literally Terraria, despite how differen they are.
And yes, they are very different concepts, but you can still compare what one does (subjectively) better than the other.

 

It starts to occur to me that since some point, everyone completely forgot about the general idea of creating special content-rich planets as opposing to sharing new content across the universe and instead concentrated on the good ol' 'which game is better'. We're pretty much on the way to get this thing locked for off-topic.

 

I see where this going, more lollygaging away! Anyway pretty much terraria isn't rightfully to be put in play, pretty much the dev. have to do little trade for one side open and pretty much it have to be small one. Not a big one where is easter egg can't filled in.

 

Since Terraria was built around having one large world with lots of monsters and bosses and items to find, yet StarBound was built around planetary travel with a few items, making you explore the universe more, one boss per system in SB may be good, although with hundreds of systems this may cause a few to many bosses, but there again you can replay regular bosses as many times as you want currently in SB & Terraria but even if this or anything like this were implemented, it would be months before release...