What should Starbound really be about?

I'm getting suspicious too now they are directly copying over Terraria's difficulty system, which never really felt like a difficulty system at all, but rather like a "how much do you want to rage after getting killed" system.

Hardcore modes and difficulty should be handled separately in my opinion.

 

I actually like the mining part of the game. It gets the player to go undergrounds of a planet and you can find a lot of really cool things down there.
So having mining as an important part of resource gathering is something i like. Honestly with resources so abundant on the surface of planets right now, and early planets already having high level minerals, kind of ruins that experience. Dig down in the first planet and walked away with a diamond pickaxe. The following tiers all i needed was easily accessible, and available on the surface.

As a result a planet exploration quickly devolved into jogging across the surface, picking up any minerals you can use or need, scouting any dungeons or villages, and after you come full circle its back to the ship and on to the next planet. Rarely spending more then 30min on a planet before moving on.
In my opinion minerals need to be far rarer on the surface and really get people digging down atleast a bit to access the more basic minerals the planet offers. Higher value minerals should be much deeper.

However it would help with the monotony if depths offered a bit more interesting content. Mobs are honestly no more interesting, there are a few cool gimmicks but nothing to big like an entire underground civilization or even a dungeon. Fossils, something planned for the future, would also surely make digging a bit more interesting.

Also the crafting should not focus so heavily on metals, so crafting involves more then just digging down. And metalic alloys should be a bit more interesting then previous tier metal + coal.
For starters involve some more mob drops into crafting recipes, especially early on. And maybe have early abandoned dungeons or mini-dungeons involve scavanging materials in chests and lockers. And ofcourse trading for ingredients (ores, bars, mob drops, etc), salvageables, armor and weapons.
Infact, scavaging would be a really cool mechanic if you ask me.

NPCs can also play a bigger role in resource gathering. Wouldnt it be cool if it was an option to set up a village and villagers can take over certain jobs? For example, an NPC that mines. Technically it might be to much or inconvenient if it actually destroyed blocks to really mine. It might destroy things you dont want destroyed.
But it could "generate" ores over time. So you are out exploring and you come back to your village or base, and the mining npc has recovered some ores based on the planet and what ores are available on it. And i think NPCs performing similar jobs like that (farming for example) is something a lot of people would really like, and it also adds a purpose to build bases.

Now this would mean mining itself would become a bit more interesting and the player has to do more then just mine to mix things up a bit. And at the same time, offering some alternatives even if these might not be as optimal.

 

Woah woah, guys, hold your horses. If i remember closely, i never intended to mean that Starbound is a terraria clone. It isn't.
And yes, i really expected something different from Starbound, basically the main emphasis of the game, but i'm really fine living with the idea that Starbound is whatever you make it to be.
Starbound is whatever you make it to be.

Well, here's the problem, i guess. Starbound is currently still in it's infancy stages, and hardly is whatever it will become.
I wholeheartedly believe Starbound will grow and become what Terraria or Minecraft could never be, a true game of freedom.
But, as i said, i now believe that Starbound is still too young to be able to provide players with tools and content to allow Players to decide their style of gameplay.
Right now, it's still has a predetermined style of gameplay, and that's basically the formula many games used too.

Mine--->Craft--->Advance.

But that ISN'T BAD, Its a great start.

I'm just a stupid dumbass who can't wait for the things to come, and expect too much for a game this young.

Sorry bout that.

 

Unconventional use, but if you meant it then more power to you.

 

That's a good point. I suppose when I hear "clone" I instantly think it's being used as an insult. I've read it being used that way dozens of times and it's hard to unlearn things at my VERY advanced age of 29. Regardless, I do think a lot of people use the word "clone" as maybe not an insult, but at least a kind of dismissive wave of the hand. "Oh Starbound is just a Terraria clone." The main judgment being passed is that there was little to no innovation or differentiation from the template which, in this case, is Terraria.

Regardless of how people are using it, we can shift away from the usage most quickly by coming up with a commonly accepted genre name to minimize the need for the word clone. I vote something like Crafter Sandbox. Those are the two main elements shared by games like Minecraft, Terraria, and Starbound while largely omitted by other games. You have sandbox games, and you have crafting games, but the two together would usually constitute a "Terraria clone" or "Minecraft-like." $0.02

 

How about "Dating Simulator"?

 

Both CoD and battlefield have guns that shoot people.

I know this example has been used a lot before, but my point is: Who cares?

You can make the "these games have similar gameplay. They're clones!" argument on countless games. Sonic and Mario? They both jump on things to kill them, and both use powerups. In that sense they're clones.

 

Okay. So if it is a secondary mechanic, you can still do it. And other people can explore space. And then everyone can be happy. Instead of just you.

 

Once you get to the highest tier with the best armour and infinite fuel in the form of Uranium, Plutonium, and Solarium then you'll never need to mine again. Then the game becomes all about exploration as you look for high tier weapon vendors, tech, and places with building materials for when you start building. Starbound is one of the few games I found where end game isn't boring.