Vector Squared -- Community News! -- Issue #39

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Content:

• Daily Update Summary
• Notable Topics of the Week
• Roleplaying Subforum -- New Rules, More Tolerance
• Gameplay Feature - Status Button (Alt)
• Tiy’s Blog Post Concerning Delayed Games
• Art Feature
• NEW! Stay Awhile and Listen
• Question of the Week
• Closing Comments

A Series of Notifications Thoughtfully Provided by the Video Game Development Studio Chucklefish Every 24 Hours or Approximate

• 17th October - More work on terrain generation and caves, as well as secret dungeon things. Drops were added to humanoid NPCs, so bandits drop clothes, money, bombs and whiskey (no word yet on if we can get drunk). More monsters and NPCs are being added, including the obligatory cultists. And a giant fly was added.

"IMHO, Cazadors were the single worst thing to happen to Fallout: New Vegas."

• 18th October - Nothing too exciting; mostly just fixes of various kinds, but all of importance. More NPC and object implementation was done, and a new dungeon was hinted at.

"Because no modern game is complete without the obligatory sewer level."

• 19th / 20th October - In addition to more bugfixes, pre-rendered enemies have been given their behavioural patterns. Food consumables are also been given additional status effects, such as health regen. More random encounters are being added. A boss teaser has also been released.

"I SEE YOU"

• 22nd October - More work on dungeons, NPCs and bosses. Lore is being added to the dungeons, and can be accessed via the codex.

"Science-fiction neo noir stories confirmed!"

Written with the talents of a reputable gentleman by the name of Jonesy.


New Image Tweet
Tiy Tweeted a new image recently, depicting an asteroid.



Asteroids are nothing new to the game, but some interesting observations can be made. Two types of mineable material are also visible in the asteroid; one looks like some kind of ore, the other some sort of purple gemstone. You may notice the distress beacon shown in the YogsCast demo, which was used to summon the first boss. Perhaps it serves another purpose, even just as decoration.

By Jonesy


Notable Topics of the Week

Ease-of-Reading
A topic about the font that appears in Starbound’s introductory page. Forum user LightPhoenix modifies the text in order to “...increase the flow of the text while retaining the pixelated style” (The full changes made can be seen in this post). Community members responded to it applauding the effort, saying that while both versions were readable, LightPhoenix made the text better. GeorgeV also made a response to the topic.

Horse-o-tron 3000
A topic covering an animated gif version of that mechanical horse we saw a while back. Just the gif deserves a visit -- the gif was made and posted by Rho. Kudos to A.N.T.I. for posting it here for all to see!

Anyone else playing the Beta? Couple of questions
Don’t ask. Just go visit the topic. Best laugh we’ve had in quite a while.

Showcasing how your first house is going to look like
A nice, long and still expanding topic on various base designs and tactical options. Already forum members appear to be creating base layouts -- while they may not necessarily be able to translate perfectly to the game, they serve as a great medium of base idea exchange, and their concepts are excellent. Even browsing through the topic and looking at the (high-quality) images should serve as a nice intellectual exercise.


Roleplay Subforum -- New Rules, More Tolerance
We covered the roleplaying subforum some time back. However, its birth throes weren't exactly the most pleasant. After its creation there was a lot of controversy between the roleplayers about how stringent the quality of the roleplays should be. Plenty of arguments rose up about the murky definition of high-quality, issues of “who-decided-what-this-should-be-about”, and how large a good-sized paragraph was. After much deliberation, it was decided that the subforum would stick to the ideals of “high quality roleplays”. Of course, the subjectivity, along with the implied elitism of the term, led to to a deep divide between the two factions and a subforum with less activity.

But fear not! Roleplay guru Mercenary Lord spearheaded an attempt at revising the old set of rules in order to allow for a more tolerant, inclusive roleplaying community that was healthy and buoyant with activity. After about six rewrites of the rules, the group eventually came to a consensus.

Based on the principle that the quality of the roleplay is secondary to the enjoyment of the participating users, the new rules had all sorts of neat additions. A clear distinction between rock-solid rules and guidelines, several helpful tips, a link to guides, and more freedom for the roleplay’s Game Master to handle their own roleplay in the style.

Congratulate Draken09, Mercenary Lord, Mailboxhead, Roxie Stables, Exodus, and Darthkitten for their hard work at improving the forum.

Now, some thoughts from the committee members for a future, far superior set of rules.

~nababoo


Community-Driven 18+ Server:
Deepclaw has brought forth the idea of an 18+ server in her topic here. Now, the notion might sound a tad bit mean towards younger players, although it is everything but.

We were intrigued by Deepclaw’s idea, and wanted to interview her about her project, below is the conversation that followed:

- WackyWocky


Status Button (Alt)
In our Vector Squared gameplay feature this week we’re going to give an overview of the status button! It’s something that may have slipped past some people since it was announced way back in May. It’s not talked about much, but it’s a great ‘quality of life’ feature.

The status button is by default bound to ‘Alt’. While held down all interactable objects will pulse with a glow. Here’s the example gif the dev team shared (noting that the pulse is smoother in game);



Notice the different types of interactable objects being highlighted, chairs, container/cabinets, crafting stations and doors (likely beds will highlight as well, they weren't fully implemented when above gif was released).



The status button also toggles on player nametags, as also shown above. When a player first appears on your screen you’ll see their name displayed above their head for a few seconds before it fades. When the status button is held these nametags are toggled visible so you can tell who’s who. Of note; players hiding in the dark will also have their nametags hidden, even when the status button is held, allowing players to ‘sneak around’ a bit in PvP.

~ Katzeus


Tiy’s Post About Game Delays
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BETA WILL STILL BE AVAILABLE IN 2013.

So, as you may or may not know, Tiy made a recent blog post about games that are delayed. He opens up with a very nice quote that I hope will strike a chord for most of our fellow forum-goers. “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” Tiy is informative about how games that are rushed and released before they are ready are generally awful excuses for games, and aren’t well-received by its players. I know a lot of people are starting to feel some angst towards the developers, because the forums feel like the Devs aren’t living up to their promises of release dates, and such, however I really do feel like this hate is unwarranted. What Tiy is trying to say is that Chucklefish is trying their hardest to make sure that we receive a game that is a superb experience, and they want to make sure they do it right. A lot of stuff is said in this post, but I think these two paragraphs speak the most.

“On top of that, we’re at a time in the games industry now where gamers are demanding innovation. Often those demands fall on deaf ears where AAA studios are concerned and there’s a good reason for that. Producing something new requires overcoming uncertain challenges. When you’re producing a game that does something different, particularly when it’s something complex, judging how long each technical challenge will take you to overcome is a complete nightmare. Uncertain challenges and untested genres don’t mesh well with the AAA world of budgets, publishers, deadlines and goals.

So gamers look to indie studios for innovation, studios willing to take the risk, willing to put their livelihood on the line, willing to deal with ‘as long as it takes to make this happen’ development. This is what we do here at Chucklefish and that’s something I’m very proud of.”

Tiy also goes on to say that “Realistically there are only three types of games.” Games that are unfinished, buggy, and borderline unplayable, games that don’t change very much in between each iteration of the series, such as Call of Duty, and games that are delayed, but end up being great in the end. He says that himself and the rest of Chucklefish would prefer to be in the final category. I don’t necessarily agree with Tiy that there are only three types of games, but he sounds sincere and his intentions are good. I respect what Chucklefish is doing to deliver us the game of their dreams.

And in case you still think that Chucklefish is at fault for what they’ve done, then hopefully Tiy’s closing statement can sway your opinions. “But the finished game WILL be worth the wait, we’re all happy with how it's shaping up and super excited to get it to the point where we’re happy with it. You’ll have the chance to help us do that this year with the beta and we’re looking forwards to that too.”

Additionally, there is a thread for the topic, however, I’ve been told it’s kind of a riot. Maybe this song would be fitting for it! Haha! So be wary!

NOTE: Lazer’s opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Vector Squared or other members. Please don’t witch-hunt.

~LazerEagle1


Art Feature
Seeing as one can never get enough of seeing their favorite character in a multitude of ways, we'll be showcasing Ironangel2k2's art topic this week. What does he do? He takes your pixalated character, like so:

And makes them into something like this:



Other examples:
--->
--->
--->


So yes, if you want your character re-envisioned into an epic space mercenary of laser-spewing doom, go check out his topic here!

- WackyWocky


NEW! Stay Awhile and Listen
This week, we’re going to start rolling out a new regular piece called Stay Awhile and Listen. We want you, the community, to submit a topic (be it about Starbound, gaming in general or whatever takes your fancy) or two for us. Then, some of the staff will share their views on it in a discussion. We’ll be accepting the first topic this week, so thinking caps on.

By Jonesy



Reader Feedback Survey
Several times in the past Vector Squared has asked for your help in improving our services by way of feedback from a survey we provide. The time has arrived for another such survey and we ask that all you readers provide complete and honest feedback.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read our articles every week; we aim to continue providing a quality news service that you can enjoy.

If you wish to fill out an anonymous survey to help us improve Vector Squared, please go here.


Closing Comments

• We’re attempting to go towards a more polished and community-oriented newspaper, with exciting interactions between both writers and readers. Bear with us!

Contributors
WackyWocky - Space Banana
Jonesy - Master of the Obscure Pop-Culture Reference
harnackam - The Puzzled Mind
nababoo - The Homeland
Shardival - Ink Mage
Strife - The Scriptor
MahBucket - The Unidentified Object
Katzeus - Sirius Business
LazerEagle1 - "Vote Lazer for moderator 2014" ...Nothing to see here folks.


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Blue’s Fanmade Newspaper Archive

 

Good job like always guys

 

Nice job clarifying that beta will be this year, a lot of people missed that in Tiy's post.

 

I love Vector Squared even more from now on
Excellent article, interesting and well written in general.
Good job everyone!

 

Well done another great issue.

 

Still the best community wrap-up. Keep it up.

 

"the quality and fluid motion of the gif is excellent. Kudos to A.N.T.I. for creating an awesome, steampunk charger."
In his post he said rho posted it. Rho probably made it.

 

Actually, you're totally right! Slight misunderstanding, correcting it now!

 

Thanks WackyWocky! This was cool!

 

Gah, sorry about that. It did seem rather fishy.

 

I originally intended to just say it in the middle of the article, but I figured a lot if people wouldn't make it that far, so I was just like: "Fuck it. I'm putting it in italics at the very beginning."

 

Nice work!

 

Views on community involvement, interpretation, and iteration in game development. With the advent of the internet we've seen a huge rise in outside sources creating building blocks, content, and even milestones for games in development (more so with open indie development). How do you think it has effected or mutated the process at which developers create games? Do you think games like Starbound, Minecraft, and others are better for it? Do you believe triple A games could benefit from such open procedures as well? Elaboration welcome of course.

 

I look forward to it.

 

hooray for nu rp rules 2.0 shiny sparkle edition

success all round