This game has become near-impossible to start

First of all, guys at the forum, please don't say that it can't possibly be that hard. Just because YOU don't find it difficult doesn't mean everyone else is just seeing things.

Now then. As of the recent (Frustrated Koala) patch, this game has become impossible to start off at from an absolute beginner's perspective. I get my stuff, get dropped on a planet I barely know anything about, and already I've run into various issues.

a) The first one was before the recent one and is still persisting. Birds that do ludicrous damage and follow you EVERYWHERE except where they can't see you. Hell, even ducking underground can't 100% work.
b) There are instances where the sun goes through its cycle far too quickly to get anything of note done, mainly because the monsters are too hard to kill now.
c) Said monsters have much more variety in their attacks, and as such are more painful to deal with. One just charges into you and you need plenty of space because the sword isn't as great at backing him up now. Others are more likely to use ranged attacks than I remember.
d) Oh yeah, you might say that I'll have to move around more, but that can just tick off more monsters that do things a and c.
e) I don't remember boss monsters spawning so often, especially on the FIRST PLANET! ESPECIALLY TWO BOSS MONSTERS AT EITHER END!

 

I've noticed 2 things that seem broken/off balance for this patch

Guards hit me for like 10-15 damage, prisoners, robots... w.e they all hit around that

Body slam/Charge mobs hit me for like 40 damage?

And then there comes the crazy ass nuclear bomb birds, they hit like 80 damage when they shoot exploding balls? and when you cut them, their dead body falls on you and hits you for like 40 damage. Birds went from just plain annoying to super dangerous and annoying as heck.

And in addition to those nuclear bomb birds, there are also super mega crazy green spit of doom mobs. It's purple and it spits green stuff that does crazy damage just like birds. I'm guessing this long range attacking mob is off balance as well because if it isn't and it was intended for a long range mob to do a ton of damage... well idk what to say

 

I've been experiencing all of this and wondered how the brand new guys felt.
The first planet should baby the player a little bit IMO, just to dampen the cruelty of the game a bit so players can get into the swing of things.

Getting attacked by a group of assassin birds from hell is annoying even to me who is fairly decent at the combat system now.

 

Get.
Good.


I would hate to see you guys play Castlevania or even Tetris for that matter.

 

Maybe Starbound is just too much of a hardcore game for you.. It won't be for everyone. Try Terraria or Minecraft maybe?

 

I thought this was going to be about how the game crashes 9/10 times I try to play it which I'd agree to.

But no, I don't think the game's too hard to start besides what the RNG gives you. Even after the hotfix it takes around an hour to beat the first boss. (If you get pretty bad luck and head straight for it)

Edit: For an absolute beginners perspective it should only be very hard if they don't really play videogames, imo. Which is expected.

 

I would agree there is a slight learning curve for beginners, but I'm sure that will be worked out in the final release.

Right now it just gives you journal quests to do and kind of gets you started but doesn't have anything to do with hotkeys like i, j, x, and q.

I think the one bit of advice I'd give somone who's never played before is to not get discouraged for dying a lot.

Right when I got into it I was doing pretty terrible, but once I got the hang of it I was able to beat the first boss before and after it's damage was changed (and again today) all with only the iron bow lol

Then I spent 2 hours on a lvl 26 planet without getting hit once by a monster.

 

This game is one of the farthest i've seen from "hardcore".

Hardcore clunkyness for sure, but the difficulty doesn't arise from the nature of the game.

 

I'd love to watch you stream a new character because I'm personally having a nightmare of a time with mine.

 

I was just yanking OP's chain. The birds are going to be fixed for sure, I think Tiy is already working on it. So just sit tight and man up a little bit. C'mon, it can't be that hard honestly. Play Multiplayer with a buddy.. strength in numbers?

 

I'm fairly certain there will be difficulty settings. Any of the new players could go to the easiest one or go on creative and do fine, I'm sure. When they are implemented that is.

 

You need to know where it's coming from, to start out. I grant that that is true. Shit would be confusing-as-hell, if the last game you played was Super Mario Brothers.

Balance is super-wonky, right now. It's gonna change. It's really-super-mega obvious that it's screwed-in-the-what, with a bud-ump-bump.

I recommend you give it a sec, to get some balance going. Dude--you're right. Balance is totally insane, at the moment.

This current system? It's buggy-ass, butt-gobbling dumb. But it's really-obvious that it's just "let's get things going" placeholders.

 

Funny you say that, me and a friend started new characters after the hotfix and it was mostly just 4 hours of cussing followed by combined defeat.

 

Ass hats aside, I'm personally finding that I survive a lot more with this patch than the previous patch. Damage feels good, aggro feels good. Birds are now a threat and don't just get bored and wander off. It's really the skills the birds use that deal the most damage. I clocked one hitting for a big fat 50 per skilled attack. I think that's the problem with birds currently, but it's easily avoided by dodge or taking them with the bow. Best advice I can give OP is try to see the timing and pattern in some of the attacks and try from there. Don't be afraid to run away if you don't think you can handle it. Often they'll just despawn and nothing/something new will be there.

 

Wish there was a dislike button on the forums.

To the OP, it is a serious problem that is frustrating a lot of users. I feel that the changes to remove AP were made but it was probably already known that further balancing would be needed after that, their just wasn't enough time to do it.

It has and is turning people away from the game so I expect a patch in the next few days to offer a band aid solution.
Planets are random when you start and I had one experience where the trees were the vine type that drop plant fiber instead of wood.
Needless to say, no crafting table was made on that day, and because you need coal to move planets and digging with the matter manipulator is borderline insanity, I just didn't bother and went back to my main character.

Hope you have a better time next time but yes the start is now very frustrating.

 

Yeah, this is... the birds I understand, but the game is easy as hell otherwise. I don't see an issue!


You think the difficulty curve in this game is harsh? Try DOTA. <_> That game's difficulty curve has probably resulted in lots of computers tossed from windows.

 

Swift as the wolves of Icewrack.

 

Coming from someone with way too much time playing castlevania I'd have to say I find all this "gitgudd lelelelel" nonsense going about rude and paints a bad picture about those of us used to such games.

 

Am I really the only one that find the green spit mobs annoying?

I mean they do as much as birds and they're on the ground and shoot pretty far (straight projectile)

Those things have made me paranoid and I just keep my hp at 90% or above at all times (400 bandages boo yea)

 

What are you having problems with exactly I'll tell you want I did, I'm taking my time but I'm getting ready to fight the second boss.