Why is this game so SLOW PACED?

Indeed, they do and my first impression of Minecraft was anything but good. The graphics outright sucked, the idea of chopping down trees with my bare hands was illogical at best, making a wooden axe to do the job was just as laughable, and please don't let me find the person who came up with the idea of a Creeper. But I still stuck with it and for some odd reason, I started liking it. And to me, progression in that game now feels even slower than progressing through this game. In its alpha/beta stage of development.

 

I had actually thought that the recent updates made progression too fast. Admittedly, the start can be a bit slow going, but it accelerates pretty rapidly. I'd prefer the progression to be slower, but with a bit more filler in between to make it seem faster.

 

The matter manipulator is terrible. It is worse than a copper pickaxe in every single possible way. It is the "punching with bare fists" mining tool of Starbound.

Build the pickaxe, and build an axe to go with it. Problem solved.

 

First time around? Yeah, it felt like a really slow start. It was really hard to collect enough ore to make the early armor, and even after I was able to make the item to summon the first boss, he destroyed me because my only weapon was a terrible bow. I died, and then the boss disappeared, and I had to spend another hour trying to find the silver to make another beacon.

But with my next character, I had an idea of what I was in for, and it went much faster, getting to the beta sector within about 2 hours of playing, and then into the gamma sector after a few more hours. With my most recent character, I was able to get to full impervium armor in about... 10 hours? Skipped through the last 5 tiers in pretty quick succession because asteroid mining is OP. This is currently a game where your knowledge of the game is what determines the speed at which you progress

 

Here is what I took from the OP:

You basically don't appreciate any kind of meaningful progression system and expect that you are not going to have to progress when you start over again and again. It's a beta, we are getting wiped and asked to start over and over. When the game releases, if that 25 hours of time you spent playing got you to the end game, you would be bored, and done with the game.

If you want instant gratification and a clear path, you likely shouldnt be playing a sandbox game at all.

 

In a game like Terraria, there are fun things to do and find right from the beginning of the game.

Starbound's problem is that it seems to want to save all the good stuff until later on. Can't have a pet until later, can't make environmental stuff until later, can't even get a gun until a little later. The very beginning of the game feels like nothing but a bunch of digging. I'm sorry but that bores me.

In fact, I don't even know when you exactly start seeing guns because I don't feel inspired to get into it. Ever since having to start a new character because of the ship wipe, I've mostly just been kind of waiting and watching.

Maybe I've just missed out on some things. If so then I'll gladly admit it and maybe take a look.

 

Please explain how that's a problem.

Surely much of the point of a game such as this is to reward perserverance on the players part?
Where's the fun in having everything handed to you in the first couple hours play.

 

IMHO, the problem isn't the pace, it's the quality of the journey. This will rectify itself as the game gets more completed & finished.

Speaking of how much digging we have to do, Surface Ore availability might get nerfed to drive us into Underground Exploration more... maybe to compensate, Pick Durability could be eliminated seems how there's no good use for the Mechanic at all...? (& remember nay-sayers, this ain't Minecraft.)

 

I think you're misremembering the speed you were able to accomplish mining / chopping with copper tools in Terraria.

 

The worst part is that you are forced to use a lower-quality tool as a component of the new one.

Why should you require a copper pick to make a gold one? You don't plate the copper pick with gold, you just make the pick head out of a different material.

(also, a gold/platinum pick would be terrible where iron/steel would fit in better)

 

If it's not slow to begin with what's the point in getting better equipment?

 

This is to make it so you can't jump ahead to quickly with progression. Sort of gameplay vs reality. I feel the ability to make impervium armor without first making rubium armor makes it pointless to make rubium armor at all. I would actually prefer it if you had to make each previous iteration before the current one. Would make making the previous armors have a point.

 

It IS a problem. Why would anyone want to play a boring slow tedious game for two hours? Terraria had fun chests you could find with interesting items that felt like progression. It had caves that went straight from the surface to hell if you followed them deep enough. If you were good at the game you could go from copper armor straight to gold to meteor to hell armor. Forcing people to use the previous tier of armor to make the next tier is forcing an artificial slow pace on the game so people can say "hundreds of hours of gameplay" when in reality if this artificial slow pace weren't enforced so tightly the game would have significantly less content.

My problem isn't the lack of content. My problem is why does the game take forever to let me do anything? As I said, branching off from Terraria or not, most people have played Terraria and will remember the good parts very vividly and when the supposed spiritual successor is slower paced, it will definitely be felt.

This only proves my point more. Once they flesh out the last tiers and add costs, the game will be even MORE snail paced.

 

Are you seriously trying to be the figure head of EVERYONE? WHY would someone want to play for 2 hours in the first tier? BECAUSE THEY CAN, good god, I guess the term 'Different strokes for different folks' completely flies over your head.

 

And they can and have to. What about people who want to advance faster? Oh boy tedious pixel grinding!

 

I thought I had explained it. I have no desire to argue. Instead, I'll simply provide the requested explanation-

If this game was made properly, then players wouldn't need to persevere to begin with. There would be fun things to do and find from the onset. If I wanted an experience where I persevered only to be rewarded later on, then I'd just stick to my job, thank you very much. Now, I'm not saying give everything away at the beginning. Even Terraria doesn't do that. Not even close.

You see, for some people the fun isn't in just crossing the finish line. The most fun is in the journey to get there. That is the reason why I've spent many hours messing around in Terraria, with all it's various things to do. It's for that same reason why I don't care for grindy games. It's for that reason I'm not inspired to play a beginning character in Starbound where the only real thing to do in the beginning is dig or find bland stuff.

Terraria's worlds are full of caves and tunnels of all sorts of sizes and shapes. You may be surprised how much that can add to the exploration factor. On the other hand, Starbound's worlds are filled with multi-colored dirt. Whoop-de-do. What's odd is that interesting cave systems were promised before the beta was released. I bet they get around to making interesting cave systems later. I've a feeling it's something they really want.

In Terraira, it's so open you can't even say it has tiers at all. At the beginning of the game I can find a wide variety of weapons and things. Spears, blowguns, boomerangs, tools, etc. From Starbound's onset, I can dig or hopefully find a chest that has a melee weapon that's probably going to be similar to what I already have.

In Terraria, if I see an unusual thing like a statue or painting, my first reaction is to go over and get it. In Starbound, if I see an unusual thing like a tent or such, my first reaction is to wonder if I've already got it in the 3d printer.

Terraria encourages you to put a spin on things and play the game your way. Dig straight down, explore, whatever. Hell, they even added ropes to make Hellevators more fun.

On the other hand, Starbound tries to restrict you and penalize you from playing the game any way other than the way the devs intended. Durability, inability to pick up money dropped on death, heavy banking penalties, etc, etc. I could go on. The funny thing is that Starbound's restrictions actually don't work very well. Yet, they're still there to provide the proper annoyance in the beginning. Hence, they do not provide the intended challenge, they only add to the tedium. Even my pet cat can understand that. It's a problem I've seen dev teams struggle to avoid since I first started following game development in the 90s. Yet, it's still there. Here in Starbound. Do the devs not understand? Are they just being stubborn to their own detriment? Who knows. I can play other games. I do, in fact. Haven't touched Starbound for a while now. Neither have my friends. Not trying to troll or be mean. Just not interested. Maybe it'll get interesting later. We'll see.

 

Thanks quenton, that is exactly the point I was trying to make. Much more eloquent than I was putting it.

 

I think Starbound got a bit more interesting with Angry Koala, but I do get Quenton's point. For me, I don't see progression as slow, just uninteresting. The weapons are dull and over similar. So a spear has a pokey animation and the short sword a slashy one, they function identically. The hammer, axe and broadsword, functionally identical. The special abilities give, most often, an additional projectile or a DoT. The armors have uninteresting abilities. The picks only vary in speed. Crafting isn't very interesting. I'd prefer to make copper/gold plate walls and components for equipment with copper wire, steel beams, make alloys for armor plating that you can make stronger by finding new elements and with them, making more complex alloys.

I wonder if we had a portable hand scanner that we could use to scan items in temples and dungeons, if it would be more interesting than lugging them back to the ship.

 

Personally speaking, I am of the old-school variety that doesn't mind returning home with an inventory full of treasure.

Just watch the first few seconds of this. Or just look at it if the link displays the right image. That adventurer with the wheelbarrow full of treasure. Now, that's what I'm talking about.


But, it's too bad that adventurer isn't in a game like Terraria or Starbound. He'd have quick sorting or shift-click quick stashing options once he got home.

 

This sounds like a thought out & well reasoned point.

I can agree that there needs to be more fun & reason to explore around since this makes things like Ore Hunting & such not a grind... but I assume stuff like this in the form of Quests & such is awaiting implementation. Maybe Exploration themed Mini Games could be cool too, like if there was such a thing as Planetary Scavenger Hunts or such... Things like Pick Durability also needlessly slow down the progression & hold up the exploration & do nothing fun in return.