(The poll is old and no longer accurate) Erchius boss, intressted in finding out the consensus.

To be honest I cannot vote. After a few deaths I slipped into /admin mode to get past the dungeon. The mechanics of the boss were simple enough, but I do not have the ability to gauge how difficult it would have been legitimately. I have been afraid to even try with word of some very annoying bugs floating around it. (Maybe it was a displacer beast in a past life.) I enjoyed the mechanics, they were not too hard to figure out. I did not enjoy having to restart the mission from the beginning each time I died though. That... was annoying and aggravating. (First death was a one hit kill in full steel armor/weapons by the partial mutant workers...)

 

Well you have to hit switches in certain orders to get further in, so its not straight running. It's kind of annoying which has made me decide to do other things with my time. I got enough annoying things in RL.

 

10 to 15 minutes to have the opportunity to make a 20s try.
This boss is killing the game for me.
Plz put a respawn point before the boss, i cannot do that dungeon anymore, i'm sick of this.

 

well, yeah, but you have time to hit switches before the monsters start to attack you, i know it, ive done it like 15 times

 

Well if I were designing this encounter I would have more cover points that the player could hide behind that would change periodically with a warning mechanism. My experience with deadly beams of light in other games is that they are unblockable so the idea of using the shield as protection isn't exactly something I'd assume players would normally consider. I think with a game like this before I even setup combat I would have put a highly configurable difficulty system that could be changed on the fly by the player or adjust automatically based on their performance with certain aspects of the game. Things like beam damage, rotation speed, fall damage, etc, would be tied into these settings. I don't really believe in a one size fits all approach, especially with a game that appeals to several different play styles. Sounds like a good basis for a mod...

On another note, I don't really care much for healing mechanisms that don't have cool downs because I feel like they take away to much from damage mitigation or avoidance. And as others have said, checkpoints are needed.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the hard votes are because lacking a 'frustrating' option, for having to repeat the dungeon.
I'd likely have no problem with the difficulty if I could try again nearly instantly.
Could spend more time learning the mechanics and less time running around.

 

My thought is that the level itself should feature deadly beam obstacles scattered throughout to "tutor" players in the ways of beam avoidance. Some on a simple off/on repeating pattern, some perma-on but able to be blocked by closing hatches.

Hell, have one that you can't avoid, one that fires in a tight tunnel and WILL hit you. Right before that though, have an NPC warn you...
"The tunnel laser is stuck! Hope you have a good shield, that's the only way you're getting through..."
And have a shield in a chest next to them, just in case. Not like a super-great shield, but certainly something that'd take a hit.

Thhhhhaaaaat sounds like a TON of work, and kinda counter to, well, most games in the history of games.

That said, they're supposed to be working on non-combat-based progression routes, so if you're not so much into the dungeon crawling, you should be able to get the required gear to proceed eventually.

 

Well if I were making the game from scratch, I don't actually think it would be that difficult to make. Essentially you have base variables for every stat (monster speed, monster health, damage output, etc) as well as the player variables. You could add modifier variables that the player could adjust. Depending on how damage is calculated, you could keep running logs of where the player takes the most damage and then have it adjust the modifiers depending on the areas that the player is struggling with the most, or excelling (for an automatic mode). For example if the player is taking a lot of damage from falling then the script would introduce a negative modifier to fall damage. I'm pretty sure I could sit down and code a rudimentary system in just a couple of days. The most time consuming part would be testing, but you could start out by making the increments small. I really haven't looked into Starbound modding that much yet, but if you can patch JSON with lua scripts on the fly then it's definitely possible to make a mod that does this. To me it would be fun challenge, alas it will probably have to wait until the semester is over.

It would be an interesting thought experiment to better distribute difficulty to avoid situations that vary from annoying to boring.

 

From what I can tell, a lot of people who are expressing frustration at the boss and a lack of desire to continue mainly stems from having to do the entire dungeon over each and every time they die. Dreadwing and Shockhopper put you within spitting distance of engaging the boss, and the Floran Party has no boss, aside from the NPC wielding a Bone Hammer at the end with armor that's giving him better protection than the other NPCs.

 

Echoing what others have said, it needs checkpoint(s). Absolutely needs them.

Second, I had no clue about the perfect block until I read this thread. My shield was constantly getting broken, aside from (to me) random times it didn't take any damage. I think it would be good to have some sort of mini-quest before this introducing people to perfect blocks, or some sort of in-game signage explaining it.

Also, the three tough moontants before the boss were awful. I hate pinging away at monsters while I stay out of reach because their AI won't let them attack/jump - it always feels cheap to me. So it took me a long time to figure out that was the only way to win with my armor & weapons. I think they need to be looked at, as well.

I almost quit the game because of this dungeon, and I love games like this. I did have to stop and take a break for a day or so because I was so frustrated. Making people run the entire dungeon over and over again was awful. Please, please don't leave this as-is - it's a horrible gate to the rest of the game, and you'll probably lose the more casual players over this.

 

Shields are good. Pulse jump is also good. The beams are scary, but if you are careful and observant you can almost always avoid them. You can kill moontants with whatever you want, but I usually bring a bunch of bandages and my best shield to the Erchius battle. It's not as important as pulse jump, but energy dash is also useful for getting yourself away from the beams or across the room in a hurry. Just keep spamming those bandages.

 

I honestly don't think I'll ever see the damn boss, as this "play through the whole dungeon over and over again" is already getting old, and tiresome. What makes this even worse is that you NEED to complete this dungeon, and KILL this boss, in order to play a big chunk of the game that USED to be more easily accessible. I just came back to the game after a while away, only to find my save and world wiped AGAIN, and I was about to forgive the game when I ran into this.

I genuinely feel disinclined to carry on. Minecraft is buggered atm, and this was Starbound's chance to have a really good go at being my go-to game...

 

Suffering from falling damage or having beastie issues?

 

Honestly, it's easy enough AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A SHIELD. I didn't even have the double jump tech at the time, and
I beat him on the first try. And before you say "well you're just some sort of pro", Dreadwing killed me once and Stockhopper MK.I
was an utter nightmare that I literally HAD to come up with a cheesing strategy JUST to beat.

 

it's super easy, just learn the laser's pattern... or if you feel lazy, double shield your way through

 

It's not so much that the boss itself is difficult, but having to go back through the entire dungeon all over again is a pain in the butt, especially considering how much damage the boss can do with those lasers. Leaves little room for error.

 

I think that most of the issue is that, while the boss itself can be easily dealt with once you learn it´s patterns and get a few techs (The starter techs, specially Pulse Jump and Bounce, can make it faster and easier to kill), the rest of the mission is a bit of a drought level, unless you bring a good ranged weapon (An assault rifle and a rapid-firing shotgun, along with a sniper rifle, should allow you to quickly deal with the Moontants), as, unless you use the bunk beds to turtle the map, it´ll take quite a few bandages, which, if you didn´t bring enough, can be problematic (Of course, they are cheap to make and buy, so that doesn´t really have an excuse), which, when combined with the lenght itself (Which is at least compensated by the containers regenreating, meaning you might find a good gun or at least a bunch of pixels and blueprints there), means that trying again takes a long time.

 

Quite frankly this boss is just the worse idea ever.

First you have to run through a huge cavern killing tons of enemies to get to the boss which is A, boring because everytime you die you have to repeat the whole process and B, not exactly easy the first few times.

Then you get to the boss which is incredibly hard. And before all of you who think this is easy say anything. Remember that no everyone has the same hand to eye coordination. The moment that thing gets hit once and the lasers get very fast it's very hard to dodge them for the vast majority of the users and this is merely the first boss.

To make matters worse, after getting killed I get an error after I die to this boss... Or rather after I am cloned back. Not entirely sure this is related to the boss or not but either way is yet another pain in the rear with the huge loading time the game has.

I played this game long ago, like right after it was available on steam and for a few patches and it was fun. Now it has turned into frustation simulator... Quite frankly won't be touching this until the Devs do the right thing and hit the boss with the nerf hammer.

Progression bosses should never be hard, they should be able to be easily defeated by the casual player... There can be missions and world bosses that are hard for the people who want a challenge. But making even the beggining of the game this hard is far from fun...

 

I don't think the Erchius horror is a bad idea, nor the best idea of a boss level. I think it's pretty decent, but still in need of a few tweaks in some areas (but mostly with the transition between the dungeon level and the boss level).

First of all, is the lengthy and perilous dungeon you have to go through every time you star over. Yes, it seems to be hard during the first few tries, but this might be to the fault of the person in front of the screen. Are you really being cautious with your actions, or are you trying to rush your way through it? No, I'm not calling anyone a noob or a pleb or anything. What I'm trying to say is that it's not about the skill of the player, as much as it is for the amount of patience and preparation they had beforehand. Dressing up for a party or reviewing for a big test is no different than getting ready to whoop Erchius butt. The Erchius Mining Facility presents itself as a reason for players to go to planets and make use of the few resources that are currently available to them, mainly sand, healing water*, plant matter, oil, and iron, which are generally obtainable within starter systems (plus a decent enough gun+shield combination, preferably with status damage like fire or poison). If you have all of the stuff you needed, but still fail, doing it again the second and third time around wouldn't be so much of a bother, as you'd know what's ahead the second time around. Defense is a good offense. You can't expect the game to be nice to you if you don't know how to back up and plan your movement before charging ahead. Mobs in the game are pretty much weak against the shooting-whilst-avoiding maneuver, and this applies to the Erchius Horror as well, but with the shooting part removed.

You can stack bottled healing water effects with bandages.

There are a number of faults in the map design itself, too, of course. As I've said earlier, the map itself is lengthy and dangerous, and going through it is already a challenge in itself. Having a boss fight after all that doesn't make it any better, as you'll have to repeat the whole ordeal of having to go through tons and tons of mobs flinging fleshy liquid goop at you if in case you accidentally die, like me, for being too stupid to not have the bouncy tech active and taking too much fall damage during the boss fight. The transition between the map and the boss level absolutely needs some sort of a checkpoint before the boss area, or at least at the part where the axe mutant was first introduced. Concerning the boss battle itself, I think the Erchius' rays are too powerful right at the first phase of the battle, which presents a learning curve that might be too deep to provide enough time for players to make sense of what is happening and devise a plan to beat the thing. Having the rays' damage nerfed at phase one and then have it gradually increase from phase two, I believe, would be a better way to present the boss fight.

An alternative solution to the dungeon part is to have the dungeon and the boss levels as two different missions. Have the boss level unlocked as a new mission after completing the dungeon level, an viola, you get less complaints about having to repeat the dungeon over and over again.

This is all just me rambling, though.

 

I kind of like the build-up to the boss. I definitely agree that its length can be tedious if the worst happens and you're forced to begin all over again. I kind of hope that the bed at the end (at the least) will become a checkpoint of some sort.