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

yeah, it's not like this is the mandatory first boss or anythin-- wait a minute...

 

If you really don't want to learn the necessary skills that will actually help you with dealing with future enemies then just /admin. Because clearly learning a pattern and a handful of mechanics is too much for the uninitiated.

 

i'm not saying that learning the pattern of a certain challenge or boss fight is unimportant. i'm saying that the cost of failure if you aren't perfect (several minutes through the mining facility) makes this challenge more frustrating than it needs to be. add the fact that this boss is what stands in the way of the player exploring the galaxy, acquiring better gear, and getting to the meat of the game, you have a recipe for many, many headaches.

...and, sometimes, the "uninitiated" might well be rather competent in platformers, puzzlers, and other games. stop looking down on people just because they aren't at your skill level.

 

Where you see headaches, I see incentive.

 

Difficult? No.

Time consuming and potentially frustrating? Very.

I don't mind how difficult the boss itself is, per se. Avoiding the lasers and whatnot is actually pretty easy. What I don't like is how the mission level resets every time you die! I wouldn't mind going back through the entire dungeon if the things I did a couple of minutes or so prior were still in effect! I am so sick of killing those moontants just to get another shot.

On the other hand, it does have its own oldschool appeal. I was never any good at Megaman.

 

it's not just me, though. *points to the poll*
it's fine if you're a challenge-junkie, but if something is getting in the way of making the game fun, it probably should tweaked a bit. i bought starbound to go "explorin' in spaec". if i want a hard challenge, i'll play 'megaman' or 'dark souls'.

EDIT: i should note though that my thoughts mirror those of user "ostu78" and others. my deepest issue is with the fact having to restart everything upon failure. upon the process of actually learning the fight. upon the process of learning how to execute this fight successfully.

 

Its because of mentality like that that we've lost key mechanics like hunger rendering the current food utterly useless.

 

I dunno. I was pretty upset when we lost the hunger mechanic initially. Then I discovered that the game actually seemed to improve because of it! The hunger mechanic meant you could never step away from the game for a while. And besides, the bonuses and boost they give are actually decent.

What I do miss, however, is death by exposure. It was something on the last stable version to be trying to keep your fire going as the rain kept putting it out while you were building a small shelter to protect you from the elements.

 

Very much this for me. It's very tedious to go back through the level over and over, but both the level and boss by themselves are decent to good. And before anyone says anything about skipping the enemies again, I'll just say I can't bring myself to do that. That isn't the "story" i'm telling.

 

i'm actually not a fan of the removal of the hunger mechanic, but they didn't make food useless. i'd personally prefer it be reintroduced as an addition to the current buffing system. however, there is hope that enterprising modders will bring the system back if the official devs do not.

...and stop jumping to conclusion simply because we aren't in agreement with another topic. it's obnoxious.

 

The incentive is to play the other 99% of the game.
Trying to avoid stockholm syndrome for your moontant captors is a horrible incentive

 

Right now this boss, mostly the need to get it perfect and having to run the ENTIRE dungeon every attempt, is frustrating me enough that this time instead of dropping this game for a year I'm considering both dropping this game forever, and keeping an eye out to never touch anything chucklefish creates again.

Extreme? Well, there is just no excuse for this needless level of frustrating repetition. Mandatory dungeon for progression and mandatory perfect run on a boss fight for progression means mandatory check point mechanic and game designers worth a penny should not be making this basic a mistake on a public release beta or not.

 

The boss is quite easy once you get the pattern down. However, the process to get that point can be very tedious if you don't catch onto it immediately. I like a good challenge, but having to play the entire level up to that over again isn't the type of struggle that makes me want to overcome it, it's the type of struggle that makes me want to play a different game. It's Ninja Gaiden level 6-type challenge more than Mike Tyson - I could put up with that kind of design when I was 10, but not so much with better game alternatives today than available at the time.

Now, I love the game otherwise, but personally, I play this game to have fun exploring and building crazy things. I don't want intermittent Battletoads flashbacks.

 

I voted hard because I cant even get to the boss. The mini-boss in the pit that you drop down into and pull the lever keeps getting me every time.

 

Sadly I thought that was the boss at first only to find out, that its a second set of minions of which I think there're three of them. To beat the first one simply jump up and use the steel bow (forgot its name). The other two can be beat in basically the same way.

 

I like to play this game with my girlfriend but she's not all that good at video games and can get frustrated pretty easy. oh the ladies...
So you can imagine how somewhat-unavoidable lasers and adds and a resetting dungeon would seem all to overwhelming to her for the first boss/dungeon.

Is the boss fight itself hard? Not really.
It took me one death to learn the ledge before the boos fight is not actually a ledge.
One death to learn to run fast from second lasers.
And one more to learn where to stand for the finale.

But my girlfriend gave up the first time the dungeon reset.
Not because the boss fight was too hard, but because going through the thing we just did all over again isn't fun (even if we did get extra space suits!)
So yes, put in checkpoints. For those who prefer a dungeon reset I'd suggest getting to the end, beating the boss, and running the dungeon all over again.

 

I managed yesterday, and somehow everyone is right. Once you go through the steps calmly and correctly, it feels easy, almost cheesily so.

Still, I died 4 or 5 times and rushed through the dungeon (not the best preparation to then do the boss calmly and correctly, as I found out...).

It was tedious, though. Alas, there's one merit in dying against that boss:

What the boss teaches players is that it's really important to equip for the job at hand. It's not button mashing and having enough bandages. It's the right tech (the speedy one helped me to keep up with the lasers, as well as the double jump one), the right weapon (in this case: shield).
Such a lesson might be on purpose - players need to understand that before they are left out into the universe. Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.

A checkpoint would still be very nice, so that learning can happen with a little encouragement to try things out, instead of stressing people to win on their first try.

 

It's not a 'difficult' boss, it's a puzzle boss at the end of a fairly unforgiving dungeon (the first really difficult part of the game, to be honest). If you mess up, you die. If you know what to do, and you know how to perfect guard, it's almost a test of basic control competency, and a thing to make sure that players understand how to optimize their loadout for the current situation.
Spoiler for later bosses:

Honestly, I found Dreadwing harder my first few attempts. I'm not sure I like where the Erchius Horror is, progression-wise, but it IS an interesting fight and I'd like to see more boss fights like this and Dreadwing, and fewer like the Floran Gladiator

 

I did find it hard, not hard enough to come whine in the forums about the game being to hard but hard.

As many have said the biggest problem is having to run the whole dungeon again when you die.

First time i died i did horribly got hit by lasers multiple times and overall ran around the level like a drunken cockroach on crack for 20 seconds (then i died) trying to figure out what to do.

On my second try i got to the second boss pattern and died after the laser switched directions and i had low hp from the monsters.

On my third try i killed the boss very easy, first and second stage went by incredibly fast and i figured the lasers in the third stage dont hit you beneath and on top of the boss.


Keep in mind all this without defending with my sword or shield, to anyone who is having trouble with this boss i highly reccomend remember you can block and plan your movement around the level with that in mind, also dont be cheap with bandages and stimpacks once you do it once you will find it was actually shallow and pedantic.

 

I agree with, well, 44% of the people at the moment. It's just incredibly frustrating to have to run the whole level every time I die. And I've died a TON since I'm generally a spaz and have a really hard time controlling the character under pressure. I generally fall off the platforms and into a laser, or try to heal myself and get splashed or zapped... then once I die and start over I get incredibly frustrated and when I start over I'm even more anxious to finish the level... which makes me die even faster next time.
I still haven't beaten the stupid boss after maybe 10 tries over a few days, since I try two or three times then ragequit swearing that I'll never play that stupid game again. I wouldn't mind this as an optional boss, or if there was at least some sort of checkpoint, or if some part of the level was persistent... but as it is now it's just incredibly frustrating and making me not want to play the game ever again.