The First Mission defiantly, needs looking into.

A bit of both.

I believe that challenges should start simple, gaining strength over the game. But also that even more insanely hard challenges should be optional (and maybe even secret, why not).

It's terrible to get stuck in a game cuz of something that is mandatory (and poorly programmed, in this case)...

 

So, in short, it's a difficulty spike of sorts, with a simple strategy once you realize it, but then it might be too late and you have to wander through the caves again for another several minutes. I'd be for moving this to the second major boss, but then it might be a little easy by that point, so I suppose some tweaks to the arena and making sure the player knows about the laser in some way. I'm all for a challenge but maybe I don't want to play through something tedious just to be free to play the game proper. Maybe save the long haul journeys for higher tiers, or throw in some elevators after a checkpoint you can turn on.

 

I really really hate the idea of gating a digging and crafting game with missions where you can't do either. It is really stupid and ruins the game. Adding a fucking impossible boss at the end of a half hour dungeon crawl who kills you in three seconds is beyond fucking stupid and into 'we hate our customers' territory. It has to be deliberate malice. This is too incompetent to be mere incompetence.

A checkpoint or not having the tedious half-hour dungeon crawl (like in unstable) would put it back to merely 'stupid and annoying', but really they should not have missions where you can't dig and place stuff. If I wanted to play Metroid I would *be a completely different person*.

 

You really need to take a step back and relax a little. They can fix the boss, let's not get mad at the developers about it. They didn't say this was final. This is the FIRST time bringing it to the general public. They'll tune it just like every developer will do.

And the digging part of it. You can't dig in those mission areas because you could just dig straight to the boss. It would be ridiculous. They won't change that.

 

I'm actually enjoying the hell out of these new missions. They really break up the typical monotony of sandbox games. Keep'm coming.

 

Yeah I think the biggest qualm I have about the first mission is you have to go through a 10-15 minute dungeon just to get to the boss... at which point if you die you have to do it all over again. I sorta learned how to use a shortcut with the crouch+dash but it's still a pain ya know. There is a reason most all modern games have save points before bosses- it is almost guaranteed you will die a few times before beating it. The boss is also pretty hard by itself, I haven't beaten it yet (this is my 11th run or so, 4th in which I have lived to encounter the boss). So for me personally a checkpoint would be a major help. From what I garner it is almost impossible not to get hit from the boss- i managed minimal damage the first two time I charged the cannon, but in the last one the lasers scissor cut you and I don't understand how to dodge it. Not to mention those pink bastards running around at the same time...

so yeah... i understand the difficulty because I think the intention is to encourage the players to "max out" all of the features and discover techs, cooking, ect if they haven't. but for casual players who aren't used to this type of gameplay they need another option to fix the FTL, maybe something a little more grind oriented?. This boss has similar difficulty to some of the later bosses in Cave Story.

 

Interesting. It would be neat if you could gain a new tech before the boss fight that would let you bypass the dungeon metroid-style the next time through. Thus, it would no longer feel like you just wasted your time getting through the dungeon that way, and you can go back and try again with an addition of a new power that might help in your rematch.

edit: In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, just placing a teleportation tech in a chest before the boss would do all of this without changing anything else in the current build.

 

when i did the first boss, i went thru the maze slowly the first time. after i died at the boss, i just ran thru the maze in 2 minutes until i got to the boss again. took me about 5 tries.

with no prior knowledge of how the boss works, it can be a pretty frustrating experience. you really have to prepare stuff just so you can pass. relative to everything else you're fighting, theres a pretty steep learning curve at the boss.

my strategy for the first boss:
a few shields (optional) and 10+ bandages on hotkeys. bring a MELEE weapon. on my successful run, i managed with zero shields and less than 10 bandages.
run thru the maze until you get to the boss. heal in the little room before the boss by using the bed. this will save on bandages.
basically do the thing where you flip the switch on the boss.
theres 3 stages. each stage means the boss fires 2 or 4 lasers for a moderate duration (maybe 15 seconds), then pauses for a short duration (maybe 10 seconds), possibly spawning a little zombie guy to attack you.
it's pretty safe to go out and flip switches when the boss is resting.
the third stage takes some preparation. there will be 4 FAST lasers and theyll overlap each other across almost the entire room. the only safe spot i saw was directly below the boss where the shooty thing is. the tricky part is that the boss also spawns a zombie guy directly below him. you have to kill him to access the safe spot and you need to flip switches. patience. this will take some time.

 

currently there are shortcuts and hidden chests only accessible by morphball or glitching the dash tech, but you still have to brave some parts of the dungeon.
Checkpoints are much easier than tech- you don't have to use a tech slot or blank chip. For example: make a one way teleporter that is only turned on when both are activated. So there would be one in the entrance, and one before the boss.

 

These missions need to be optional. They are not fun. Oh no, I can't bypass the dungeon of tedium and unfun if I could dig. The horror!

Seriously, they ruin the game. It makes sense to have an invulnerability field in the outpost since you can break progression if you kill the NPCs with lava or whatever, but everywhere else in the game, just give it up already.

Seriously, there was a clone of this game that I tried and when I got to dungeon of invulnerable walls I uninstalled it because it's a cheap, lame patch for not wanting to design missions around the actual mechanics of the game. It breaks immersion and just makes me feel like I'm slogging through a chore. When the chore takes multiple hours because it has a fucking impossible boss at the end... seriously, whoever decided to put that boss there needs to hit themselves in the face with a brick until they knock the stupid out of their stupid heads.

 

Took me 4 attempts. The key for me was to not cross the chamber horizontally at the top. I only worked one side at a time and then hid at the bottom to reset the energy beam attacks. I think the difficulty lies in character control. For example if you are jumping forward and turn the other direction but do not move your mouse to change your characters facing your jump looses all its inertia. Very annoying, but I understand they are trying to limit backpetal attacks.

If anything, the first dungeon and boss shows the team can make fun and challenging platformer content. HOWEVER, it also really highlights the stiffness of character control. The level design does feel a bit like Metroid or Castlevaina.... I love that. The player control is really lacking, I was really hoping for the platforming to feel more like those two games.... maybe I was hoping for too much from the platformer aspect of the game.

 

I have and Idea, before the boss have a key in a chest. Then install a stand that requires that key to interact with it, at the beginning of the level, (In away that has it make sense in the universe). Also have it bind to the character so they can't drop it on death. Using the key will consume it, but sense everything reset the key will be in the chest again. In addition after the boss fight have a item drop that lets them teleport out of the dungeon. Sense they may be locked if no switches interact. Maybe even a simple button that opens a hatch that leads them to an exit.

I had a thought while typing this. Can I get some of the players who play hardcore, or have played it to give me their thoughts on this mission? As outta all the player base they would be hit the hardest.

 

i think the boss is broken, if anything. first, theres no checkpoints, which is the main problem. second, the patterns are hard as shit, the first is ok, the second is really hard, and the third is just broken. third, the sheild is op as fuck for this fight (and pretty much the entire game, but thats not related. seriously though, sheild 2stronk) just time it in the second before hte beam hits you and you take no damage. THE SHEILD TAKES NO DAMAGE. THE SHEILD WONT TAKE DAMAGE IF CONSECUTIVE HITS KEEP COMING FAST ENOUGH. EVEN IF YOU DO FAIL, YOU TAKE NO DAMAGE AND THE SHEILD STILL WORKS FOR A WHILE. to top it off, you can still dodge decently, so you wont have a problem in that regard. bandage in one hand, sheild in the other, you are untouchable. thats the first thing i did. i always took lots of time with my hotbar and inventory, but when all you need is the e key on your keyboard to damage the boss, that means sheild in one hand bandage in the other works the whole fight. that doesent work for any other boss. did i mention sheilds are broken? the enemies in the fight if anything make it even more disorienting than it already is, and don't add much. i had very little idea what was going on during the fight, and without the sheild, itd be much harder (except the third phaze, just stand right above and ye be invincibru, and the first is easy as fuck.) i dont see problems with the damage, you are supposed to try as hard as possiblwe not to get hit, due to the fact that its the only attack in the whole fight besides the mutants, and you can still heal during the fight as it doesent even near one shotting you. if anything, buff the lazers or somehow stop healing/sheilds, and nerf sheilds entireley. but NO CHECKPOINTS. the lack of checkpoints makes the boss infiniteley worse, the level is already both significantly hard(but if you got a sheild the hammer guys arent a problem) and its extremely long and you can go in the wrong direction easily. it doesent even need many checkpoints, just one or two would be fine. one after you see the first human npc, one right before the hammer guys or the boss.

 

completely agree it's a little floaty.

 

I just finished the boss for the first time. I didn't read every responses here, but I feel like giving my two cents however.

Firstly, I have to say the mining facility is awesomely well designed (except for the "shortcuts, more on that later). I immediately got that dooming sensation when I entered. The music, the dark ambiance (not pitch black, but not too bright) and the details were very immersive. That's a big thumbs up. And the fact you cannot interact with the level makes it unique and changes the deal. I had lots of pleasure doing it the first run.

First time, the hammer guy killed me and I thought it was the boss. I was a bit disappointed I had to do the whole dungeon again, but I prepared better for the fight and get killed by the same dude the second time. This time, I felt like something was wrong, so I tried to get a bette stuff, but I didn't found anything really better and resorted to a third run (after a bit of googling and discover with little despair I wasn't at the boss).
Third time, I finally killed the hammer guy. The two others were way easier because you have plenty of room to deal with them. I finally encounter the boss (I already knew about the switches, so I knew what I will be facing) and he ripped me out in seconds.

After that, I had to try 5 or 6 more times, having to do the whole dungeon between each boss encounter, and that was not fun at all. Even when I finally managed to kill that big crystal, I wasn't feeling happy. I felt like "dammit, I hope I'll never have to do it again", because I know that even if I restart the mission, I'm not sure at all I'll be able to kick his ass again.


The boss itself, he's strong, but I feel like ok about how strong he is. Terraria players were used to strong bosses, I am too, and previous "stable" version of starbound were having some not too shabby bosses (maybe a bit too easy). The real problem I am having is that you can't do anything to make your encounter easier :

• Whatever the weapon you have, it's not really gonna help you (apart to get rid of the moontants, which I personally ignored).
• You cannot have any better armor than the steel, thus the lasers will reduce your life by 45 points each time you cross them, which meant I could exactly stand less than 3 shots.
• The tech are very helping, and I don't have anything to say about that.
• The strategy is very important, but even though I set one, the adrenaline was pumping in my blood, and it was hard to follow (this is something everyone has to deal with himself)
• Last thing : The healing. I think it is the key for winning (when you can't follow your strategy).

This makes this boss very difficult for me. If you remember Deathwing who was the first boss of the previous stables, he was difficult when you first encountered him, but you were able to gear up and get things easier.


Fighting the boss, even as difficult as he is now (I'm not saying difficult for a Starbound expert. I'm no expert in that game, and in fact, I'm no expert in any game anymore since I had to work for a living) could be fun if you didn't had to spend 15 to 20 minutes (I admit, I didn't really measured how long it was, but it's definitely more than 10 minutes, for me) to cross the whole dungeon again.
This is where I found maybe the only lack in the level design, which helped me a lot in getting faster to the boss. The "shortcuts" made for the morph tech can be used while crouching and dashing. I must thank Pumpkin_Masher for the tip because without it, I think I'll have my brains all over the walls of my flat by now.


In fact, it seems I repeated a lot of what people were already saying. Well, too bad, I wrote that much already, it's begging to be sent

 

I got another question any other players using a shield. Does the laser just go right through you and damage you anyway with a perfect block?

I'm at my wits end with this boss

 

I cheated in some higher end stuff then I needed for the boss (aka left a crate containing most the high end stuff from my novakid character on the start planet) and I still couldn't get the final shot off on the boss, only had one switch left and it was dead and nope laser hit mid jump I freaked and then fell to my death.... I officially give up as even with stuff I shouldn't have the boss is damn near impossible

also don't bother trying to shield past the thing doesn't work.

 

Shouldn't, as any hits done on a perfect block negates any damage received to shield or player. It is when normal block breaks when you start to receive any sort of damage yourself. At least in my experience, bosses included. Could be wrong, but I didn't notice any damage going through even with regular mobs.

 

Did the same thing with my SO. We kind of cheat with just a ton of bandage and try to die one at a time, since as long one person is still in there before the other person join back in the mission, the mission didn't get restart.
Then we just bandage through the laser and flip switches.

 

I figured out what it was. Apparently the laser hit me form under.....
it looks like this entire weekend I put into getting FTL and I can't do it.........