Hmm, my first reaction to "monsters damage on touch" is a knee jerk "NOOO!". On paper it sounds like a huge step backwards. But il wait for the patch to appear in stable and try it out for a while before i judge. Perhaps it just works well with the new combat. (I could try it out in stable, but since i allredy have a bit of a negative mindset about it, its likely better to wait for some polish/bug fixing before i try it out)
Nice to see the new update ready. I hope you'll work on performance, too, as it's really an issue. A actually love the new mechanics, they make fighting much more challenging!
I think the direct contact damage was a needed addition. A lot of the moster's more dangerous attacks you could cheese by running up to them and forcing them to cancel.
The contact damage problem could be resolved by putting it in as an option which could be enabled or disabled.
Actually re-introduced. So there is nothing new under the starbound sun But the contact damage doesn't seem to be like an immediate hit, comes a little later than actual contact. Feels not too bad, but still...
So I spent about 3 hours playing the unstable last night. Everyone else has said that the touch damage is stupid and what not, so I don't feel the need to add my input when the community is more or less at a consensus. Instead, I want to focus on the positive stuff and what could make it better. First off, MAD props for how you guys worked in the boomerangs and gloves. I love how interesting the glove mechanic is, and maybe, in the future, you guys could do something like that with the other one handed melee weapons. Boomerangs were also quite awesome, I found myself enjoying using the Ice Boomerang and Lunarang the most, but the energy chakram was also quite useful. The Magma Boomerang was pretty good too (I mean, it had the highest damage from what I saw). I hope you guys continue to add onto these weapon types until they're a regular part of the family. I was a tad disappointed that staves didn't get anything significant (at least, from what I saw, this is all sorta subjective), but I'd imagine that making a bunch of unique staves would take time. Might I suggest making some RNG staves? I mean, it shouldn't be too hard to do it considering how the special moves for melee and gun weapons were added, but anyway, the special moves for the melee weapons were great, and I love the changes they underwent. Spears feel more like the defensive counterpart (I don't know why, but it just felt sort of... tanky, I guess?), swords feel more dynamic, and hammers really have a weight to them, and all the weapons' specials reflect their new attack styles. No problem there.... Oh, but it feels like the spawn rate for guns being in chests is higher than melee weapons? Like, maybe it's just me, but I only found about 14 melee weapons, and I found 37 guns (I counted). I don't know if that was intentional or not, but whatever. Everything else was more or less great as well. The midnight biome was pretty spooky, and those demonic scythe egg things scare the crap out of me. The frozen biome was gorgeous, and I really loved how the crystals reacted to any light you put on them. I also like how Hyotl buildings and npcs are starting to pop up now, it really makes the world feel bigger when more than just 3 races spawn naturally. I love how the standard monsters make the universe feel more.... I don't know, memorable? It's nice to go to a planet, see a couple of RNG monsters, and then occasionally see a few monsters you've seen on similar planets. Also, Poptops are adorable they whistle and stuff too, it's a shame I can't capture one. vehicles are pretty cool, and on the right biome they really make a huge difference in travel. The option to store them in that pokeball thing is also a really nice touch. Maybe you should make the repair spot (the little orange drone next to the pirate mechanic guy for anyone who's reading this and didn't know) more obvious, though. With all that said... I think my only major qualm with the build (besides the touch-on-contact thing) is that you removed the boat tech and didn't add anything to replace it, which effectively made traversing poison/magma oceans virtually impossible without admin mode or an absurd amount of healing items. Funny story, I actually wound up losing my hoverbike in a sea of lava because I thought It would be able to go over the stuff. I was very wrong. Anyway, you guys keep doing you. You have my support and what not.
Meh, I don't see why it would've been hard to give them conditional super armor until the attack was initiated/over, depending on the attack. With all of the love they gave melee weapons, maybe they felt that it was a little OP after all of this (and maybe they are, Lol. that spinny spear skill is freakin' deadly) and that the Damage On Touch was needed? I mean, it sort of makes sense if you think of it like that, but I think a better alternative would've been speeding up some of the monster's slower skills and boosting their HP/Damage to a more reasonable point. No sense in revamping a combat system that started to get its own unique feel to it and then backtracking for the sake of convenience.
Alright, that's an hour of testing. Note log 11/28/15 + Teleportation animation looks much more interesting during loading. +/- Early enemies are much harder on first planet (touch damage) - Early enemies aren't using special attacks on first planet + (in reference to touch damage) knockback greatly increased on melee + redacted 'early enemies not using specials', one used body slam (more intelligently than previously would, it chased me into a position where it would reach me with a slam) +/- New two-handed ability on starting sword is a whirlwind, but with low damage and high knockback is essentially just an 'oh crap' button. - Flashlight sprite 'blinks' a lot during movement. Personal issue. +/- Found new enemy type (charges, has shell, explodes into three enemies) they drop nothing +/- Enemies at melee range pose a considerable threat, and my start as a Floran is slowing me down somewhat. + Found an enemy with fairly consistent ranged attack power. Made it challenging to approach it in melee. Need to find a shield. - Zubat. Nobody likes zubat. - Get first gun. Immediately trump all starting enemies. Nothing can hit me at a range because I can just backpedal for days. - As melee I'm annoyed with distance balancing, as ranged I just sit on a ledge and snipe stuff. Possibly a flaw in my playstyle? Jumping over enemies just seems a lot easier with guns. +/- Some enemies seem to be considerably faster than me on foot. Backpedalling negated, but melee crippled even more. - Seems the shellnut enemy is unfinished since it doesn't appear to have a drop pool. Not really a deserved -, just something that's incomplete currently. - New sword with a new attack: Uppercut. Why -? Because I can't get that close. Uppercut will always pull me to an enemy, thus causing touch damage. + Flying enemies take less knockback from guns. Melee has a distinct advantage against these enemies. + Food buff and food cooldown brought more in line (only tested on cooked meat) + varied underground enemies. No more of the same two to three enemies underground on a planet. I've seen wall crawling snails, acid spitting lizards, and something that tore my face off fairly quickly (before I saw what it was. Looked long and black.). That's all the testing I'm doing for tonight, I'm tired and stayed up a little too late for this.
I still can't play. An error message pops up every time I try to launch Starbound. From what I've seen on this page, this new update seems to be interesting. I can't wait to play it!
I've played with it a few hours more... and honestly, I'm now a bit torn. On the one hand I still hate it as a mechanic and I definitely still feel that it adds nothing to the experience of combat for me. On the other hand, it's not been quite so bad this second time around in terms of annoying me. I still don't LIKE it... but it's not going to stop me from trying out the rest of the update whilst I wait for it to reach Stable.
Yea, it's not as gamebreaking as it was before, but it's not really enjoyable either. On one hand, the new special moves give melees the much needed distance while still retaining their melee properties, and we'd probably be overpowered without it,... but on the other hand, it feels like it wasn't the best solution for this problem by any means.
Finding a bunch of minor nuisances (bugs, errors, annoying things), but so far this update is pretty solid. Although, two things that don't warrant a feedback thread since they're short sentences; Chakrams are incredibly weak, and "unique" monsters don't feel unique when they're all on the same type of planet. Otherwise, this is getting good. Keep up the pace! EDIT: Also hate how all unique monsters are inherently hostile. Neutral monsters wouldn't hurt. EDIT 2: I just noticed the penguin plushie kickstarter died without a whimper. Now we have to make the tank ourselves, darn.
Was the pun intended? Anyway, still love it Neutral monster wouldn't hurt..... Yep, definetly a keeper joke in my book ^-^
The damage on touch doesn't appeal to me at first impression. It gives a disincentive for walking through an enemy, but it'll still feel floaty until some knockback or stun effect is added.
Well I've been molested many times throughout my planet exploration, I don't like it when strangers touch me constantly. Especially when every stranger touches me. I feel like they've removed neutral monsters.
