Will starbound be a game defined by god awful grinding?

This is the key right here, and the cause of the disconnect. SB is going through an identity crisis in a way. It wants to be an epic space exploration RPG, but its mechanics and gameplay is rooted in a mining game. As a surface exploration RPG, its shallow- as a mining game its shallow.

(in its current beta state)

 

This, I'm glad someone else sees it.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you not need to get to Sector X before you can even see Tentacle planets? Is it not conceivable that there will be similar environs you'll need to reach the end of the game to experience?

And what inside the game incentivizes people to take their time? You can reach the end in hours, and at that point you have the whole of the cosmos to explore. For many the time spent getting there will feel like prep work.

 

I need you to find me the coordinates of your 60 coal planet please. No one is elitist or carebear, this game is beautiful because it can work for nearly everyone, but some people are so freaking entitled.

 

Lovely. Okay Socrates. Starbound is not a lot of things. Now if you don't want to answer it. Fine. But don't hide behind philosophical rabble. It makes you sound silly.

 

In a way yes. The thing about CoD is every kill feels a bit unique. For exsample: I shot him in the head from across the map, I shot him right before he shot me!
You are still doing the same thing over and over, but it dosnt feel like you are. In Starbound, there are only a few ways to cut down wood and mine iron, and they feel the same, joyless clicking everytime. If everytime you cut down a tree some random event happened then maybe it wouldn't be as grindy, but that wouldn't be a fix it would just be chaos, lawl.

 

Fair enough, there are a few special biomes up there, magma and volcanic included. Your second paragraph is however what I am also "preaching" here, it takes little to no effort to reach the end at this state of the beta, and I am baffled at the complaints of grinding when, like you said so yourself, you can reach the end in a matter of hours. (Like I also stated in one of my earlier replies myself).

Edit: I am however also saying there is no need to rush it, really, as tier 1 planets have tons of content in itself. So if you really feel like the game is a grind, why not take your time?

Alright, lets talk logical fallacies then, if you have nothing better to say?

The game is nearly endless, you have billions of planets to explore, currently there's nearly 50 types of dungeons/villages and what more to explore. There's 4 tier bosses, with 6 in the making. They have plans for real bosses, in real boss-settings. They are clearly not done adding content.

Starbound is a sandbox game, it emphasizes cavern exploration (have you even found a cave dungeon yet? or anything unique in the underground?), it gives you the choice to build something grand, or something efficient. It lets you explore a ton of content. Once the game is finished? Who knows? The possibilites are endless and the devs are very open to suggestions.

So instead of being a poor excuse at a troll, or at the very least a jerk - try going at this game with a view less blinded by tunnelvision.

 

Tiy, we're gonan need your input here.

 

I suspect that's likely because, as you encountered a moment ago, people subscribe to a definition of grinding less rooted in time invested and more in how much fun they're having performing the tasks. They'd much rather have progress that comes naturally with their enjoyment of the game (call of duty kills) than progress that comes at the expense of, or in preparation for, more enjoyment of the game (twenty bear asses, levels 1-x9 in most MMOs, etc.). You deem the shallow time investment enough of a mitigating factor to render the interruption acceptable, they don't like the concept altogether and would rather the whole game be finding that content instead of suiting up for it.

Which brings us back to what I said earlier about the flattened staircase progression and the cycle of obsolescence and blah blah blah blah.

 

I'll try and grab them once I get home. Assuming that character didn't bug out due to mp.

And "entitled?" Just because you disagree with someone who finds the endless mining cycle tedious doesn't make them "entitled."

Get down off your high horse and actually read what a lot of posters are saying. Current mining just isn't very interesting or fun due to the lack of underground content ( which will hopefully improve in time.)

I also wouldn't be adverse to higher pickaxes giving higher speed boosts than they currently do.

 

The way I see it, people who use the word "grinding" are just using that to describe they find repetitive. That's fine. However, from what I've seen so far from this thread, the game will not change enough for those people to think of it as otherwise.

 

no matter how much this game gonna get nerfed there will be ALWAYS peoples whining about how hard it is...i wont ever understand these noobs they want everything on golden paplate and complete game in matter of minutes or few hours

 

But by that definition, do you want to gring 1k wood, to get to another place, to gind another 1k wood (or coal), so you can go to the next planet to grind wood/coal/other stuff.
Not everyone wants to mine all day, just to end up mining more, for what ever thing they want to do with it. It is grinding.

But as I said, it's not grinding, because it takes long. It's grinding because it's the only "complete" feature currently in game, and it is not fun, because it ties in with exploration, which isn't a compete feature. When more features will come, like random quests and such, it won't be as big of a deal, even if it stays boring, as you will be able to go and do other things is you are tired of holding the left mouse button.

But I would like to repeat something Crazher said, tho a bit differently.
It's ok to voice problems with the game, but it's only half of what the devs need to make a change. So a feature is boring/feels grindy. Now the devs know. But what should they do about it? They are in the dark when it comes what the playerbase wants if people don't say what they want, only what they don't want. They can have their own ideas, sure, but that doesn't guarantee most players will like it. So if you see a problem, try giving ideas on how to fix it. Otherwise it won't help the devs too much.

Like for instance, let's look at quests.
While it wouldn't make mining less boring and repetitive, it would give something else to do when you're tired of mining. You could also throw out the refinery, and give quests good pixel rewards, to give a bit of reason to do them (tho it's not entirely necessary to remove the refinery for this. Multiple options to gain something is welcome in my book). You could say "Yes, they are planned.", but we don't know in what fashion, or when, so ideas are still welcome. Show the devs you really want quests or other stuff. What they put in and when isn't a rigid thing. It can change. But only if the community voices what they want.

 

Ah, yes. That cleared it all up for me. Haha.

All joking aside, I think that Starbound is definitely trying to find its place as others have said.

I think the pixel requirements is the biggest weakness because where do they come into play when crafting an item? Ive honestly never seen a game do something like "Oh you have wood and iron? Well you cant make a pickaxe yet until you have your 3 gold coins to pay the gods in thanks for this crafting moment!"

Pixels seems like 3d printer "ink" and because it's that it is also useful as a universal currency for trade. Again, where does it come into play when "primitively" putting objects togetbrr.

 

The problem is, people are making a problem out of nothing. Most of the problems described in this thread are based out of ignorance of the game mechanics, such as saving coal by traveling within your planetary orbit or within your solar system (0.5 coal to travel within your planetary orbit, or 25 coal to travel within your solar) - rather than spending 100 coal to travel to another solar system. There is a INSANELY TINY chance you find yourself in a solar system with only one planetary orbit, with only one planet/moon on it, forcing you to pay the higher toll of travel, but more than 99% of the time you will find it easier to do as I just described, rather than doing what most do - which is traveling to all the solar systems.

I am not on a high horse, you misunderstand what I mean when I say entitled. A lot of people are seeing this game as finished - wrongfully. They say "WHY DID THE DEVELOPERS DO THIS WTF". They did so when they turned up ore generation to insane amounts - despite it being announced - despite it being in the changelog - there was still insane amounts of surprise from this, even complaints because it was seen as "this is how it will be" - and that is where the entitlement comes in. I have seen people "review" this game as poor and lackluster already, it is pathetic to say the least - especially when the devs are so open about what this stage of the beta actually is.

Maybe I didn't make my views on the entitled clear enough, there are quite a few people in this thread that do bring up real issues. But take a look at the OP's tone, the way he talks about the game being a waste of time if nothing changes - that is entitlement - he is demanding changes or he walks away as he wrote.

 

Troll, no. Jerk, quite possible. In fact, more than likely.

Nearly endless is a VERY big accomplishment. However, that is an incredible void to fill. *trumpets sound* FIFTY different types of dungeons! OVER BILLIONS OF PLANETS! Hmm, copy, paste. Vilages, more of the same.

You are missing the point here, and filling it with more grandeur. The point of the thread was about grind. Not about the game being a sand box. Not about the fact that they have to fill billions of planets with the same 50 dungeons and towns. Think about that for a second. "Fill billions of planets with the same 50 dungeons and towns" Even if they had 200 different dungeons and towns. It is still billions of planets. Billions.

You carry the banner "sandbox game", "open world", and things like "freedom to play YOUR way". But one simple fact remains.

The thread was (and I'll say this again) created to complain about "the grind". Another poster made a good point about "masking it". I agree with that.

How does it emphasis "cavern exploration" other than presenting a hole, and hinting that there may be ore and pixels down there? Furthermore, why should a game called "STARbound" emphasize CAVERN exploration? How assenine to say that.

I understand they are not done adding content, but putting new stats and a fresh coat of paint on a set of armor and calling it "New content" is hardly that.

You'll say. "offer a solution". I can't, and neither can you. I'm not trolling, I'm engaging in an evolving conversation.

The problem with "endless possibilities" is that it's endless.

So instead of calling me a Troll, and trying to flame my rear end, understand that right now the game is bare.

 

Thats part of my point as well. People do not understand this game is far from finished - this game is more alpha than beta, simply because beta means a the product is finished but being tested and fixed. But on top of that, people do not actually gather these materials while doing their other adventuring - cave spelunking? Come back with a quarter to half stack (250-500) of coal easily.

And then the fact that people are so damn upset when a tiny thing doesn't sit well with them. Like OP threatening leaving Starbound with all his pals if no change is made.

 

Haha that was a good read op.

And yes, this game is more about grinding then about actual exploration in a vast universe, hopping from planet to planet.
If you look at the screenshots on the Steam page there is only one underground shot.
But in reality you have to spend most of your time underground hopefully finding some good ore spots. I already have RSI in my righthand finger from holding the mouse button.

Although it does get less annoying later on; I have a better pickaxe and the back lantern really helps. Placing torches all the time sucked the last bit of fun out of digging.

The biggest issue for me at the moment is that fuel is hard to find.
I don't quite understand why we even need fuel to travel to other planets actually. Since there are a kazillion planets anyway what is the harm in letting me hop from one planet to another?
(and let me place a flag/marker so when I die I can teleport to that location on the planet)

 

Except that there is nothing "difficult" about mindless mining, elitist.

Most of us are not asking for mining to be removed or "nerfed," we're acknowledging that maybe some things could be done to make it more fun. We're also asking for some changes so switching planets, a core component of the game, is slightly more accessible than it currently is. It should still take effort, but the game currently discourages doing it much at all.

 

So you take one thing I say, out of context, and you go on a rant about it? You fail to grasp the fact that there is no need to grind to play the game, progression comes by itself, because the game is filled with content - this thread is about skipping a lot of that content in order to be the very best there is and just reach the end.

The game emphasizes cavern exploration in several ways, half the content is beneath ground - the devs themselves emphasize it as well. Now another problem you have is, that you can't get past the fact that this game is a Sandbox where you can travel planets, but also mine on the planets? Why would we travel space AND explore caves of these planets? "How assenine". Do you know what you need to do to build? Mine. Do you know where you can explore? Underground caverns.

..is where I stopped reading. Because you are clearly not paying attention to neither the changelogs nor the developers.

I will add another point to what this game is, its moddable - there is literally no end to what we as a community can make out of this game, should the developers not do so themselves.

Like I said previously, either you a troll, or you are a certain kind of people. You are not engaging in a conversation, you are merely invoking more and more fallacies in order to get your point across.

And just one more time - The game is still in beta, they have thousands of new features in store for us, a lot planned, a lot of ideas are thrown out there by the devs. They made enough armor and weapons for there to be filler for 10 tiers so far - by the time they're done its likely that you can merely progress through exploration.