The slowly dying sandbox

I couldn't quite give you one, all that makes me think about is the painful reality of Koala.

I remember koala, and how I used to land on snow planets and find everything there in magmarock and lava, or finding Heck in the underground of a planet. It was always fun to run into those mini-biomes, like "Yes! I've found another mini-biome! I wonder what's inside?" -- back then it felt like there were far more of these than there are now.

Even if Koala itself didn't EXACTLY have the most planets.. it sure as heck had variety in my eyes... the mini-biomes kept things entertaining and interesting, especially when I had no idea what planet I'd land on even though it says it's a forest on the tin. For all I know that could be a desert waiting for me down there...

 

The progression itself is less what i care its the visual diversity within the biome, the generated mobs, the genrated trees the gnrated dirt color size and gravity and weather. because that made planets truly unique. Now every of the biome is nearly the same except for a low amount of tree selections a tiny diferent color and the massively reduced naimal generation. Every planet felt special in the old version (I had in fact a huge list of coordinates where I wrote things down making a cool combination). Now I only have a list of the cities to quickly get through the scannign quests for every new character I make. (until I stop bein lazy and make a dedicated "scan planet" with these objects. But I am not interested anymore hopping entire days in a row between "lush" (back then called arid or grassland because of similar visual style) planets because it got boring already after the 5th one.

 

I remember going to 5 or 10 different lush planets back in koala, just so I can find the perfect mix of grass and dirt to find something that remotely resambled earth for my home-planet.
More often than not I had blue grass, green dirt or anything in between. You know, it isn't as much about the "true" variaty to me. The atmosphere on each planet was so different due to the differnent shades, backgrounds, sky-color etc.
It *felt* like I have never been to that place, so I wondered what other places may look like.

I don't want to be ungrateful or anything. I did enjoy Starbound since 1.0, I just don't feel like comming back to it soon.
I also don't think Taiyuri and the rest of the Team is incompetent or anything, far from it, it must be a nightmare to balance a beast like Starbound. I'm just wondering if anything will change about variety in the future or if the Team thinks, it is good as it is now.

 

Oh I know what you mean. I've spent hundreds of hours in Koala version. Although doesn't show on my steam, because I was playing offline. That was reason I mentioned all of that. The variation was just shifted in other areas... At least now the biomes are more colorful. Not in the same sense as it was in Koala, which a chunk of people actually overlooked and put off as just a reskin or recolor. I was not one of that chunk, so I know where you are coming from. I explored a lot in Koala, and even in this new one I am practically doing the same thing I did then.
"Lush" didn't exist back in Koala. I am guessing you are referring to grasslands or that one paradise biome I guess. Don't remember the actual name of it. But was not Lush. Lush I believe was put in to have a starter planet that people can start on to have a gradual progress through tiers. Something like that.

I for one loved the color variations, and some of the biome terrain variations. I think the only thing I miss though is weather and gravity variations. 1.0 I still see planets with various colors. I don't think all jungles have the same color of dirt. All lush planets do, or at least that biome does. Forests also don't always have to same dirt either, and do have a variety of trees to choose from; which is random to an extent like before. Lush will always be the same, as it has to be; to accommodate new starting locations throughout the universe. I am one to make many characters, so having a familiar start is fine, as long as it is not the same planet. That is my thought on it.

They may have plans to add things, but that is something we will have to await and see. Thank goodness I am quite patient. Whom is to say when, but in the meantime I do like what they have now, as it is a foundation to work off of. I would love for them to make an extra tier of star that would have all biomes in the mix, if not actual section or something... I don't really know how they will go about many of the content, but all there is to do is add from here on out to make more content. I think I write too much. ><

Anyway I understand.

 

F YEAH.

you knwo what? my HDD is gettign full, so i slapped in an old one form ym old PC. And its batuful, enraged kala form the 24.04.2014 just the thinsg mobs spit at me makes me happy. They make sounds towards me I have alöready forgotten they did

ok downside no upgardeable sip, but i am fien with that for now.

yes graphics look quite older as well

 

@LilyV3 Gotta' love having backups of prior versions, no? I have most of them in each iteration back to angry koala I believe; however those are on my external. Didn't feel like copy them over. So even if I want I could. As it is also a decent version despite fewer things. Even have mods backed up from that version. Variety is the spice of Life being one of them, if I remember correctly.
yes pros and cons...

 

its a verison wher ehunger existed too, and heat system. god is that amazing

I need to see if the game even can properly generate new planets with W7 64 bit because the old one was not played on that OS

 

oh yeah... which are the perks of the edition. They did fine in win8 64bit... unsure if 64bit was one of the boot thingys, but I am assuming so; it has been a while. At least that version had directx. Also it had a somewhat limited modding. Well of course you could still do a whole lot, but some have run into walls with that iteration of modding. Like the old colony mod for the Koala edition, to name one. The author mentioned it just simply was not possible with the current iteration of modding capabilities, and did all they could.

Anyway... It was an enjoyable experience all the same.

All Koala versions had hunger & temp system. Far as I remember. Even the last one, rampaging Koala. I think that was the last one... mind a bit foggy on it. ><

 

it really feels so diffrent the birds and stuff evertyhign si so nice, more animal soudns more animal diversity, they even reduced a lot creature parts as it seems I have seen only 4 planets and they differ all a lot more than in the current version.
I have an entire chest full ro metalplated trees and the braintrees exist it really wow, I almost forgot half the things of that massively diversity it had.

I nevr made bakcups because never though any game would reduce itself so much on the way to a release.it makes me quite sad seeing that different now again.

 

I don't think it is a matter of them reducing parts, it is more of the fact that unique creatures are taking up spots. Rather you see less RNG ones in the new versions so you generally don't see too many variations. Only way to confirm whether or not there was a reduction would be to unpack the files.

As to backups... I just kind of formed a habit over the years to do so... Always have saved each iteration. I think the only two iterations I don't have are the first 2 Koala versions, since I didn't even have the game then; and only was able to watch others play. Reason my backup starts roughly 2 or 3 versions in. That and for a while there was looming character wipes then. Forced habit of ... More like reactionary habit of backing things up. Like when someone learns to walk or ride a bike for the first time. They just do it out of reaction of what they did in the past, or learned there of. Anyway... birds were never truly a problem to me, even in the early iterations that I played; and yeah death birds were there in angry koala. As well metoer starting planets...

Yeah there are quite a few differences. some are quite subjective though in bad/good. After all the game still has a pretty sizable audience of fans. Even back then. Some more silent than others. I know what I liked in each iteration, and that was enough for me.

Although saying that... I am just easily entertained to begin with. I can find fun in tossing a ball around like hot potatoe, or space out imagining in my own world of thought. So was pretty easy for me to take to 1.0, and the Koala versions pretty much about the same; even if I did play each differently. Well went about them differently, even if just ever so slightly. Tendency to utilize what I have in order to stem fun out of it per say. Just the way I am...

 

the issue is I have way too many games and when the utility of fun in a game slips below another one it simply is not going to be the game of choice.

 

Yeah I have a lot of games as well. I switch between them often enough depending on my mood; if I feel like playing a game. Sometimes get overwhelmed by my collection, and that is only counting my steam library, as I have console and other PC games from way back that all I have to do is install from disc. So I know the feeling of having a ton of games to choose from, and yet limited amount of time. Can't play them all, but I can at least attempt to play this or that when in the mood for a specific type, genre, or style of game. I look at each game individually and if I deem it not in the mood at that moment I don't play. Each one satisfies a certain mood of mine. Subtle differences in playstyle with each that are not common noticed off the back tend to lead me sometimes indecisive to which I would at that very instant.

But to be expected when collecting games since the 80s from various platforms... I just make do.

 

i got a mod on steam called better barren that you can use for barren worlds

 

I never liked barren due to it being as barren as moons use to be in giraffe versions... ><

I like have at least some mobs and terrain variations to work with. That mod though is an improvement though; I'll give it that. I think that one is also on here as well. Wood be nice if the pixel good store one was updated on here. Trying to avoid workshop mods, as I like manually putting them in.

Can Say that FU is also a decent one for planet variation. But it adds a lot of things I am... overwhelmed by. As well changes that I don't like to certain things. But still also a decent one. Wonder if I can convert the original Variety is the spice of life mod to 1.0... I guess I'll have to relearn the new modding system, been meaning to; but time limited...
Thanks.

 

Agreed on all of this, except: The undergrounds are actually alot more varied, then i remember, once you're past the, what i like to call, "depth of repeating structues". Too bad, you never really wanna be there for too long, if you even dare to dig that deep and the reasons for that brings me to my personal gamebreaker:

What makes the situation even worse, is that the game throws alot of inconvenience and waiting in your way. I mean ALOT.
Knockback, without a way to mitigate that, mobs that go into "invulnerable state", neither dealing damage or attacking you, crafting is straight up waiting, no map/minimap, no way of improving efficiency or convinience in terms of movements, past the first 3 techs, no way of fast-travel out of the underground on survival/hardcore, without bringing teleporters, inconvinient UI, inability to assign hotkeys to commonly used consumables, like healing items, stimpacks, food, light sources or ropes/grappling hook - the list goes on.

In similiar games, you get rewarded with more efficiency and convinience (or sometimes, complete whackieness endgame) during progression. In SB currently, all you get are slightly higher numbers than before. Legendary weapons, if you can find them, are the only refreshing thing.

Also, did i mention, that there are like 4 different "procedually generated" quests spread out across the entire universe?
1: "Rescue X safely"
2: "Find X, deliver it to X"
3: "Find X, craft X, deliver it to X"
4: "Defeat X"

I feel, like instead of procedually generated quests, a big chunk of scripted ones, randomly popping up would've been a better idea.

I'm somewhat suprised, SB got the 1.0-stamp in it's current stale, errrrrm, i mean "state".

 

I remember that.

At least we have the Radiant Worlds mod.

 

As I'm progressing through the game again, I'm starting to realize just how much content is gated behind quests now instead of just being craftable with the right tech. What little motivation I had to make a mod that skips quests has vanished now that I realize I'd have to re-introduce all of the old crafting recipes for things, like Violium doors.

 

No, you got it right... It is very stale.

Mods are necessary now. FU adds back the variety. Races add back playability. UI needs fixed. Audio needs re done. Quests need expanded. There is soooooooo much that needs done. This 1.0 is such a step back :/

 

thanks for keeping this friendly, guys

 

Interesting, I thought all the best mods originated back in the Koala days. And my memories of the best youtube vids are from Koala Starbound not Giraffe.