Tiy: The tier system is entirely placeholder for beta, the final system is not remotely close to it.

For me, the tier system completely ruins the game and I'm aware this is likewise for many other people. But I couldn't help but notice that Tiy answered in a fairly popular thread suggesting to remove the tier system. With his exact words being quoted in the thread title and below.

He had said this a day before announcing what was coming in Starbounds future which is quoted below and highlighted in red of which contradicts. So I got to admit I'm pretty interested in how this can be explained by a Dev or anyone who spends a great deal of time on the IRC.

 

Okay, but where is the suggestion?

 

No need for one, its a query to a previous suggestion of an old thread.

 

Awesome, now it can be swamped out by complete waffle Maybe the forum needs a General Queries board.

 

It'll get swamped in GD and it'll get ignored in Suggestions. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I sorta agree with what you're saying here, though. I'm not entirely fond of the way the tier system currently works, I do think the game needs some vertical progression but at the moment it's a bit too steep. I'm curious to know what sorts of things are planned. However, the devs may still be tossing around ideas and rough models, trying to get a feel for what sticks, so it's possible they don't even know completely.

 

If anything, I would say just to use that direct quote when reporting threads that are redundant to clear them up faster.

 

The whole tier system if kept in is a loss of direction in development, the game will be far too linear. I've ranted about this in the forum countless times and so far most will agree that the tier system needs to go, it takes out any mystery in the game.

 

I'm not sure what you'd want regarding 'non-linear' gameplay and 'mystery', they've already said it'll have gear progression following a storyline, which hardly involves forcing you to follow said storyline or rush to the final sector/tier.

In comparison to Minecraft for example it's a bit linear, but compared to most games that have multiple levels of equipment (following a general increase in awesomeness) it's actually pretty open ended aside from 'story-gating' of 'high-level' gear, which is generally a balance/progression issue.

The mystery of this game would be rooted in exploration and interacting with NPCs (Quests, Rumors, Companions, etc? Who knows, most of all potential things aren't in this stage of the beta).


I guess my only real question is "What would you replace it with that is inherently better for a story-based loot-driven sandbox game?"

 

Although some of this might not be relevant it still kinda answers you.

 

i gotta admit im kinda curious too. both quotes tend to seemingly contradict eachother

 

Well, if we disregard him saying the finished version not being remotely close to this one, then I suppose he might have meant that the tier lines would be made a litte more blurry in the same vein as the difficulty curve. Er, instead of just Tier 1 and Tier 2, you might have Tier 1.5 or Tier 2.3 and what not. But that would be fairly close to the current system and he did say that the finished version won't be close to such so...I don't know. But when I think about this, how can a loot system not be tiered in at least some sense? Maybe not so specifically labeled as such but it still is what it is. If one item is completely superior to another item, then that's the next tier. Simple. Now, I will say that the current system is a tad unbalanced for what it's supposed to represent because as it currently stands, there are items in lower tiers that are actually completely superior to items in higher tiers. For instance, the legendaries. Very few legendaries are better than uncommon/rare items of lower tiers. Now, if it were the other way around, I could understand because a legendary is, well, freakin' legendary but sadly, it's not the case.

 

I really wish threads like this had a suggestion following a rant. Maybe I missed it, but reading the thread I see that you don't like it, but you don't offer a solution either. You may have done just this any other time you ranted about their tier system, hell you may have done it here, I just don't see it.

I also do not see what is being contradicted. Just because a change is happening in the future, does not mean it is a final implementation before release. Both of his statements can easily remain true because we don't have a clue how long this game sits in Beta. Could be that an easier fix for the interim is to refine the current system before completely overhauling it.

But spell it out, be more clear (rather than it shouldn't be so linear) as to exactly what you would do to fix it. Show these dev's that you got the gonads to solve what you see as a major problem.

 

I interpreted the first quote as him saying the current tier "system" is a placeholder, not the tiers themselves. IE currently for most tiers you simply build something with a few metal bars and unlock the next tier, and the early tiers you build something to summon a boss. While the plan is to have quests leading to bosses which advance the tiers. Totally different.

I will agree I am not a fan of the tiers, current or the proposed changes. It's not very sandboxy, very linear progress from A to B, with little replayability if it all runs on quests as well.

 

What was linked above links to the suggestions, I've not put a suggestion here because its not a suggestion thread. So as you can see it was moved because I didn't leave a suggestion in the first place, more or less hoping for some input by a developer or someone in the know.

 

What I really think would be interesting is if they released two versions of Starbound on the Starbound launcher (labeled Test A or Test B, something like that), each with different systems of progression. One would contain the current, vertical tier progression system, with slight tweaks, whereas the second one would contain a completely rewritten progression system, as Tiy mentioned before the great list of planned features. Afterwards, they could create some sort of sticky poll, and let the community decide which one would prove to be better for Starbound.

 

Well, Tiy Said this:

He did NOT say:

"There will be no tier system".

He said the Final System is "not remotely close to it".

The changes you outlined in red:

and

Sound like those ideas are "not remotely close" to what we have now, which is "Kill boss, make Starmap Upgrade MKx and go to new sector, rinse repeat".

Sounds about right, IMO. He didn't lie or mislead or anything.

 

I think the entire tier system should be taken out of the game and Starbound should focus on farming simulation