Vector Squared -- Starbound Community News, Issue #11

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Welcome, once again, to Vector Squared! We’ve got this thing in a groove now. We’ve got all sorts of treats for you this week! While last time we covered the security breach, hairstyles, interesting sand mechanics, the new ocean biome, and the confirmation of the beta, we’ll be taking a look at other things this week: The Starbound Wiki, the update of the Character Creator, a bunch of new released information, most notably involving moons, mysterious anchors, forum badges, and a whole ‘nother fanfic review for all of you to enjoy. So prepare yourself, get a cup of hot space-chocolate, and immerse yourself in another issue of Vector Squared.

Table of Contents

• PasteBin -- IRC Transcript
• Badge System
• Fly me to the Moon
• Starbound Wikis
• Anchors Away
• New Hairstyles in the Online Character Creator
• I am Tiy. You are Tiy. We are Tiy.
• Navigating the Stars
• Fanfic Review
• Suggestion Spotlight
• Science Trivia
• Question of the Week
• Closing Comments

PasteBin -- IRC Transcript
In a recently released IRC transcript, Tiy talks about many of the important things that have been on the mind of Starbounders -- a beta roadmap, and the process of creating Starbound.

He first started off by saying that the beta roadmap could be coming sometime soon -- but there may be difficulties in organizing it due to the way that Starbound is currently being developed. Every time they want to move on to a new feature, they create a system for it; a system that combines all the aspects of easily-moddable, intuitive, and making it so adding content is very easy.

He then continued on to say that the reason the radio silence was so long between sporadic updates of content is that once they finish a system, they can create content for it extremely easily.

This will hopefully make for some interesting information for all of you out there. An explanation, finally, for the gaps of released content.

Tiy finally finished off by saying general things about how far the game was in development -- evaluations of the progress of many systems. You can read and interpret yourself how far you think the game is.
~Nababoo


Badge System
The forum staff have finally managed to add forum badges! Expect many multi-colored badges everywhere in the forums, now that they’ve arrived. Currently there’s only a small collection of badges, but this thread here is currently remedying that by adding many more pixelated goods, courtesy of any volunteers. Badges for those such as a Hat Contest runner-up, or an artist who takes and does requests for people.

As can be observed, the medals are more based on achievements -- a concept totally different from the title system that we had in the past. Rather than needing 500 posts to get a certain trophy (and as a result, a title), now you can just post a story, art, or any other contribution, and receive a medal. This can complement the forum titles quite exceptionally, and make for the function of custom titles without the “favoritism” aspect of it.

We’ll see what innovative ideas the community can come up with, which will be added to this list. Stay tuned for further developments, and don’t forget to lend a hand to the people working on it, if you can.
~Nababoo


Fly me to the Moon
Let me play among the Stars! - You got that right, Starbounders. Prepare your space helmets, country’s flag, oxygen tanks and to deal with conspiracy theorists - Moons, here we come!



Sir Tiy McTiyson Tiyingston has tweeted a few days ago the above image alongside the sentence, “Some more work on moons, grabbing some moonstone”.

Taking a closer look at the figure, three different types of moonstone can be observed, namely yellowish, purplish and greenish types. Do they have different abilities/mechanics or is the only differentiating factor among them the colour? Well, what we know for sure is that you can build Moon igloos in more than one tint! Ahh, if only Armstrong and the Moon landing had been filmed in colour...

Another thing that can be seen in the image is a space suit which resembles the traditional astronaut gear. Makes sense... But the question rises: Judging by the size of the helmet, what will happen to head hairstyles/fins/mods that are simply bigger than it? Is it safe to assume that the head props will be “removed” when the character uses such an item, only to reappear after unequipping it? And why would Robots require such an outfit? Could they have internal organs such as the other races have or is it merely a fashion choice?

Finally, another question can be considered: Will such planetoids have day and night cycles, similarly to the way regular planets might have, or will they be in constant “bright night”, as seen above? It should be safe to assume that the second option is the most likely one, taking the shown picture and lack of atmosphere into consideration. Oh, and what about gravity? Will jumping a tad too high on a moon send the player on a one-trip journey around the universe?

Until answers emerge, we’re stuck looking at the image’s pretty purple horizon...

~Keeper


Starbound Wikis
Wikis -- repositories for all information related to anything you can imagine. They’re quite abundant, with many, such as The Vault (Fallout), or the Elder Scrolls Wiki, have become everyday parts of the community. Already, the Starbound variants contains most of the knowledge that is known to the community, and it compiles it all in one neat place.

If you haven’t already, use the wiki for all sorts of information-gathering -- Vector Squared occasionally uses it as a resource. Everything you need is compiled in one, neat place, along with the occasional screenshot and/or picture. There are currently several -- a quick google search will bring you to most, if not all, active ones.
~Nababoo

Anchors Away
Forum member Forever has created a topic today with a quite interesting image:



First of all, that figure is a screenshot from a recent Bartwe’s video stream. Secondly, it seems that Tiy has stated that the massive anchor actually belongs to an (*drums*) Avian Airship! If that’s the size of the anchor, can you imagine what the actual size of the airship might be? Can we use the chain similarly to a ladder? And what can such vehicle be used for? Are we able to pilot one of the airships and lay chaos underneath? Do we need a crew?

These are fantastic news! While there are many questions in the air, we keep on discovering many things that will be making it into Starbound and we cannot help but jump excitedly!

~Keeper


New Hairstyles in the Online Character Creator
Forum user and Starbound Contributor tramsan has just shared with the community that the Web Character Creator has been updated with new content, specifically hairstyles for all races!

It is worth mentioning that our feline forumer M’aiq the Liar, using his super feline sight, actually managed to spot this before the announcement and created a topic to inform the community accordingly. Sneaky cat!

Anyways, you may access the new version of the Character Creator right here.

Among the new styles, more than a few stand out the most: For instance, we now have a fabulous Venus Flytrap style for our Floran friends!

Closed:


Open:


Taking a look at the Robots instead, we may see new head mods, such as a completely wrecked style:


Or even a terrific mod that may resemble an insect:


These are just a few examples of the many new options. Pay the updated Character Creator a visit and go bananas!
Finally, tramsan has announced that the next thing that will be added to the Creator will be the “Personalities” option, though that may take a while, as it is a more complex task. Nevertheless, we will be kept up to date when such update occurs. Keep your eyes open!

~Keeper & Nababoo


I am Tiy. You are Tiy. We are Tiy.
We are all Tiy. There is no escape from this thread, and no one is immune. It covers the frightening possibility -- is Tiy the immortal ruler of the universe, complete with time-travel capabilities? And are we, too, similar beings to him? There is no true way to verify this.
In-character aside, this thread is somewhat of a joke thread, combined with a conspiracy thread. It states that, as said above, are we all Tiy? Do we possess power similar? Perhaps, perhaps not. The thread quickly received a whole mess of replies very quickly, most of which are playing around with the idea of “Tiy-ism”, along with several that break the norm, involving references and Iruyit, the (supposed) antithesis of all that is good.

Even Tiy himself commented on this thread, stating that “It was weird”. Well, it’s to be expected when the community’s horsing around like that. One of the more interesting threads out there, it is worthy of a visit, and possibly another to add to the innumerable legions.
~Nababoo


Navigating the Stars


As the dev team inches ever closer to the release date that we are all anticipating with bated breath, more and more information is trickling out. This week, we have been handed an in depth view at how we shall navigate the massive galaxy. You can read about it after the jump.

Now, as always with the release of more information, especially a major game mechanic, there is of course some rampant speculation. Even the news crew at has some. My main thoughts were drawn from the blog post directly.

1. Gas giants and their resources. How do we get to these resources? Mobile space drilling stations?
2. Fuel. Where will we acquire it? Can we make it? Is it environmentally friendly?
3. George stated that we can walk on more that just planets and moons. What else will we be able to explore? Abandoned spacecraft? Derelict space stations? Asteroids?

~Slaticus


Fanfic Review
So I was thinking, why do we need to- Oh, we’re live? Oh. Uh…Hello, Starbounders…Welcome to another installment of The Fanfic Review! I’m Merc, running on four hours of sleep, and today we’re taking a look at a long-ish running Fanfic, Above, by Ikbenbeter. This Fic has been going for a while now, if I read my source correctly and so I thought I’d give it a look. Let us begin review-action.

The story, near as I can tell takes place on the planet ‘Ares’, with a human protagonist and an Avian dueteragonist. I’m not very clear on the details, but I think our heroes are abandoned in a sort of desert world, where, amidst turmoil and inter-party squabbles, the group makes an incredible discovery. That’s where the story is, thus far, and so that’s where I’ll review from.

The grammar is good. Maybe not perfect, but it does its job, which is good enough. It felt a bit too rigid at times, as if everything had been checked to grammatical perfection. This would normally be all right, but the grammar suffered a bit, so it really came off as sort of dull. I was also very confused by the dialogue. I could barely tell who was speaking, and when, and where, and to whom. I was unable to buckle down and enjoy it, like I should have been able to do. Grammar gets an 8 for being good, but it could definitely improve.

Punctuation and Spelling are definitely the high point here. No misspellings that I caught, and only a few places were missing punctuation. There isn’t really too much for me to say here. I give PAS a 9/10, because there were some minor problems, but not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Sadly, the story just isn’t working for me. I don’t really know what’s going on besides a very vague picture, and without a clear idea to read with, I can’t get into the story as much. The story starts in media res, and while this is possibly a good plan, the in media res started in the wrong timeframe, right AFTER the key action, and not during it. This made things hard to grasp. Intrigue gets a 7, due mostly to the odd formatting.

Characters get a 6/10. It really isn’t working for me. All of the characters kind of blend into each other, due in part to how all the different dialogue spoken blends together as well. They all have the same voice, the same look, and the same mindset in my head. I just can’t get into it.

The lasting effect is what really kills me. It’s a build-up of the other four categories, and while the grammar was good and the PAS was sturdy, the lack of formatting and little involvement I felt with the story can’t be denied. Lasting Effect gets a 5.5/10. I doubt I’ll remember much about this story if I can’t even understand it the first time around.

SCORES:
-PARTS-
1:7
2:7.5
3:7.5
4:7
5:7
6:8
7:7
F:7.3

-CATEGORIES-
G:8
PAS:9
I:7
C:6
LE:5.5
F:7.1

Real F: 7.2
~Mercenary Lord


Suggestion Spotlight
This suggestion is the perfect example of how simple things can make the game or break it. Forum contributor Rade has created a suggestion regarding how grappling hooks and other types of rappeling technology could be used to make travel simpler. Terraria was cited, and Rade stated how large of a difference that the grappling hook made in the game.

Then continuing on, the concept of tiers and technological progression was merged. What if there were to be longer rope length, or a gadget that propels you further. Quite interesting, is it not? Speculation on how that would be added comprises most of the thread, further. Check it out if you want a more in-depth version of the summary above!
~Nababoo

Science Trivia
Light: A Menace?

The speed of light through a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. Your first thought to this would probably be “How can it be exact with a whole number?” Well, that’s because the length of a meter (in the SI system) is based on the speed of light through a vacuum. Light also has some pretty cool properties. For example, incredibly high concentrations of certain frequencies can have very… deadly effects.

Light is actually what allows heat and other radiating energy to travel through the air. For example, a beam of incredibly, highly concentrated microwaves (a low-frequency light wave) to make the water molecules in any object boil and evaporate. Infrared radiation (the next frequency range above microwaves), on the other hand, can be used to heat up an object directly bypassing the need for there to be a reasonable amount of water.

As the frequency of light increases, the type of energy that is carried along with it changes. I am going to call this type of energy “radiation” partly because it has similar effects to atomic radiation. Ultraviolet light, X-Rays, and Gamma Rays are all light waves that carry this type of radiation, and we are very lucky that the sun does not emit these wavelengths in high amounts. Radiation has this very interesting ability to give people (and animals) cancer.

The sheer amount of energy in radiation interferes with our cells’ DNA replication and can cause the process to go awry, in addition to potentially destroying the organelles of the cells. And, anyone who’s taken at least high school biology (by American standards) should know that when DNA doesn’t replicate right, we get cancer. So, if a person were to somehow concentrate ultraviolet light or X-Rays into a focused beam, they could make a cancer laser. Gamma Rays actually carry so much energy that such a contraption would essentially be a death ray due to the amount of damage it would output. Luckily, all of these are incredibly impractical and inefficient with today’s technology.

Leftovers:

• TVs built before the 90s (estimation) had such a high microwave output that they could be used to melt chocolate and make popcorn.
• The above scenarios are what helped conceptualize the microwave. (There’s a whole story to go along with it)
• Ultraviolet rays do not make it past the skin, so you only need to worry about skin cancer from those.
• Sunburns are the preliminary stage to skin cancer.

Questions, comments, concerns? I’ll gladly answer them all. And if you’ve got any suggestions or ideas for future topics feel free to post those as well.
~Active Link


Question of the Week
Q: What are your new favourite hairstyles in the Online Character Creator?
A: Post them in this thread and let us know!


Closing Comments

• I’m running out of Fanfics to review. I like to look at the ones which are recently updated, and more than one chapter. Otherwise it’s either stale or short. Help me out, guys! Go write some Starbound Fanfiction. ~Merc
• Don’t forget, the feedback portal is still open to anyone who would wish to tell us how to improve! Located HERE.

Staff
Nababoo -- Manager/Writer
Keeper -- Wordsmith
Mercenary Lord -- Lector Ficta
Strife -- ???
Active Link -- Scientific Consultant
Slaticus -- Author from the Shadows

Credits
blind sniper -- Banner

Previous Issues:
Issue #1 [] Issue #2 [] Issue #3 [] Issue #4 [] Issue #5 [] Issue #6 [] Issue #7 [] Issue #8 [] Issue #9 [] Issue #10

 

So much stuff. O_O

 

wow... keep up the good work

 

This is all so impressive and well done!
Again!

Too bad I can't read them all... too busy...

 

I'm guessing robots could use the suit to protect them from freezing. Moons are known to be very very very cold, and their electronics might not be able to handle that.

 

These articles are great,
keep up the good work!

Or as i like to put it, heres a cookie

 

Thanks for the kind comments. Vector Squared's staff appreciates any kind of feedback.

 

Good work guys!
(btw, I made a special badge for all the press-gang Let's see if it will be implemented)
little correction: in the Table of Contents there's 2 entries of Fanfic Review - is that supposed to be?
- this is my favorite hairstyle. I've laughed so hard...

 

Thank you very much, blind sniper. That is mighty kind of you. :alien:

Thanks for the correction, too. It was a mistake. Nababoo should fix it once he pops by.

And the Peapod hairdo is indeed quite humorous.

 

We had a week full of content.Nice work guys.

 

Why, thank you. 'Tis a very kind gift.

And also, fixed. Sorry about that

 

Nice, Didn't read the last issue but this is very well done.

 

Why thankyou so much.

 

Radiation and interferance. Its possible the robots electronics arent capable of repelling the interferance that stars and other spacey-bits could produce. The suits are there to shield it.

I can think of a good example, ever listened to the radio and heard 2 transmissions trying to come out of your speakers at once? WHat would happen to an intelligent artificial life form if, say, pure static were trying to clog its brain? I would assume that means madness or coma.

 

Of the new hairstyles, this one is my favourite, although, only when it's neon pink for some reason:
This >> one is my second, and I like to call it "the X-wing"

 

I keep reading this every week because I think it is new.

 

Keep this up, I personally love reading new things about this game because it means its one step closer to releasing!

 

May I suggest a theme to next issue's Science Trivia section?
I think it would be nice to teach people some things about Cloning. Because, you know, there's so many speculations about this matter...