What's the Point of Progression?

I fully understand that this is an early, early beta, but as it stands I can't think of any reason to progress beyond maybe beta sector. From what I can tell, all the races, buildings, monsters, and environments can be accessed in Alpha sector. Aside from wanting later items for aesthetics purposes, I can experience all the game has to offer.

If I may phrase it another way, what do I experience differently in later sections beyond ore colors and inflated number values?

 

There's going to be a lot of quests (including a primary questline I believe) that will become more important and varied the further you progress.

 

A big element in RPG style games has always been gear collection. You have to go higher to get better gear, you have to get better gear to go higher. It's a vicious cycle most of us are addicted to. You seem to be immune to the disease... I'm jealous

 

That's... sounding suspiciously similar to the MMO skinner box, to me.

"Kill 40 blue spiders for me!"
"Great, now kill 40 green spiders for me!"

 

This is kind of where I am now myself.

The game wants to be about exploration, but they slam so many arbitrary progress gates around that there's no point to that, and there's just no joy in repetition.

I almost rolled one of the fish people after realising they are a cross between aboleth and deep ones.

But then I realised that all I would do is trudge over the same landscapes, grinding pixels, to fight the same bosses, in the same order.

 

Well, hopefully they implement new and interesting challenges the further you get. Mobs with bigger numbers vs my bigger numbers just doesn't cut it. Give them techs or something later, + more combinations of techs even further. Planets could also use some natural disasters later on or be a little less inhabitable in general.

 

It's so wierd to see the basic and oldest of game mechanics be nit picked and hated because of games like minecraft even though every game is about progression whether you notice it or not.

 

At the moment, that's the point to the beta. If you are playing, then take notes about what you like/don't like, take notes about bugs/glitches, and then make suggestions (on the suggestion board) about how Chucklefish could improve/add to Starbound. You're apart of the creative process, but right now, we have to make sure our paints are the proper color before we go about making a masterpiece.

 

I can say that there are biome types in the other sectors that do not appear in the lower ones. An example would be the tentacle planet, but as it stands other than different music and ground composition there isn't much difference between one planet or the other. I'm sure this will not be in the case in the future however and I look forward to what Starbound will have to offer with their planets.

The main focus for me currently while Starbound figures how it wants to do this sort of thing is collecting unique items and building interesting houses, because really that is what I wanted all along. The higher gear lets me acquire these things easier, so its a driving force for me to explore the other sectors and get the bigger numbers so I can trash the weaker guys.

 

There are different planet types exclusive the later sectors, which probably have their own exclusive dungeons. As well as features that open up only past a specific point, such as capturing creatures and making them fight for you.

There's not much now, but I've played stuff like Terraria, that have a lot less when you think about it, for a lot longer.

 

Terraria's gear progression works well because it becomes increasingly complex in how you utilize it. Like, from walking horrifically slow, to a moderate jog (aglet), to super speed (hermes boots), to double jumps (cloud in a bottle) and grappling hooks to more advanced grapples and rocket boots to wings etc... it gets increasingly complex in the way you maneuver, and also the weapons are not just bigger damage, but have remarkable mechanics to them which allow for a more involving combat experience.