Starbound [ Page 2 ] | Cheerful Ghost

A Better Impression of Starbound

My impression of Starbound has greatly improved since I saw the trailer for the first time. At first I thought it looked ugly, but it's own artistic style has grown on me and I like it. The graphics remind me of Secret of Mana, a Squaresoft game for the SNES. In that game, when your power level is back to full, you hear some kind of notification and you can see that you are ready to attack at full power. It seems to me that I hear something similar in Starbound. Sometimes either while fighting or finishing off a monster, I hear a "bling" kind of sound. I haven't figured out what this means yet. Any ideas?

My current star system is "Alpha Gloomii 84 III a" and "b", "b"... Read All My impression of Starbound has greatly improved since I saw the trailer for the first time. At first I thought it looked ugly, but it's own artistic style has grown on me and I like it. The graphics remind me of Secret of Mana, a Squaresoft game for the SNES. In that game, when your power level is back to full, you hear some kind of notification and you can see that you are ready to attack at full power. It seems to me that I hear something similar in Starbound. Sometimes either while fighting or finishing off a monster, I hear a "bling" kind of sound. I haven't figured out what this means yet. Any ideas?

My current star system is "Alpha Gloomii 84 III a" and "b", "b" is where I set my home, a forest planet. "Gloomii a" is a snow planet, which has made me use some strategy in order to explore. It's cold on this planet and before exploring this planet, I had not yet crafted a Yarn Spinner nor collected enough leather to make the necessary gear. That was something I pretty much over looked for a while. So I placed campfires at intervals so that I wouldn't freeze to death. The threat level in this system is 1 and enemies aren't providing as much of a challenge as before I upgraded my weapons and armor. I also crafted a Light Stick, which provides some light around me. That and the flashlight help me save on torches, which I don't place very often anymore, instead I use them mostly for campfires now.

Compared to Terraria, I'm not sure how the size of planets are relative to a world. I also wonder if the planets differ in size as well. My first planet seems to be probably as big or bigger than a large world in Terraria. I've already enjoyed an improvement over Terraria which is that the terrain wraps around, going all the way to the left or right will lead you back to where you landed on the planet. I wonder if Terraria will eventually do that.

Some of the ore isn't as necessary as it was in the beginning. I'm mostly using silver and steel now. I don't have much use for copper or gold, but I've found out how to upgrade tools using ore (pretty simple), which is really cool. I've also crafted a refinery, which helps me get rid of excess ore and get more pixels (Starbound currency). I don't die as often as I used to, which didn't help me when I needed pixels.

Since I've been playing Starbound, I feel like I've learned at lot as well. I don't think there is a huge learning curve, especially if you've played Terraria, but there is still a lot to learn. I'm getting used to using more hot keys than I usually do. They have been very useful.

I have not yet traveled outside my starting system. I wanted to save fuel (or coal, which is still important) and stay near by and explore various planets. I've written down my home coordinates because I got a little lost and confused with the navigation system. It seems that you can type in coordinates or click the "Random" button. I'll experiment with that more soon, probably, as I'm making my wait through this final (second) planet in my system. I do now have access to the Beta sector, but I might travel around the Alpha sector for a while to explore the various planets.

I've already defeated a few bosses and some monsters that have that red stuff glowing from them (not fire). I just defeated the robot boss, which was easy since I took advantage of him getting stuck by some terrain between us. I know this was a cheap strategy, but I did take a few hits, he took plenty of them with my Tomahawk (not the Tiny one). One problem I ran into was trying to place the inactive robot so I could activate it. It seems I had to find a good stretch of flat terrain without trees on the surface. The penguin UFO wasn't very difficult, but it was cool and fun.

The game definitely seems a lot like Terraria, which I think is obvious and great, but it's still so much more, which makes it awesome!

Travis Admin wrote on 04/29/2014 at 02:58am

In regards to world size, yes, worlds can be very differently sized. Also, unlike Terraria, if you walk far enough to one side you end up back where you started, which I like.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/29/2014 at 03:12am

Right. It seems like Starbound planets are about as small as the small worlds in Terraria and as big as the very large ones. That said, there are more things in Terraria worlds than in Starbound ones. That said, a small Terraria world seems much richer in stuff to do.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/29/2014 at 04:59am

Well, after being on three different planets, they seem to be at least as large as a Terraria large world. I just finished wrapping around a desert planet that had snow in places. But, I also found a temple. I'm still exploring the planets in the system I started in. The original two that I found are just two among a few others revolving around a sun, which I failed to notice on my initial view of the navigation system, which I've gotten used to.

Yes, if you compare a world to a planet, Terraria offers much more diversity in one world of biomes and things to do. Although Starbound seems to break large biomes up into planets, moons, and asteroid belts.

Oh and did anyone else notice the "FTL Drive?" =)

Travis Admin wrote on 04/29/2014 at 01:18pm

FTL (the game) didn't invent that term, it's a common sci-fi trope.

http://galactica.wikia.com/wiki/FTL_Drive

hardeyez wrote on 05/01/2014 at 06:55pm

The "bling" sound is probably you picking up pixels the monster dropped when it died.

hardeyez wrote on 05/01/2014 at 06:57pm

Also, copper ore remains important to repairing tools (well any ore, but copper seems to be best bang for the buck).

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 05/01/2014 at 10:59pm

I don't think it's picking up pixels, as I know that sound. And yes, I haven't been refining my copper ore, but I've been using it to repair my diamond drill. It only takes one ore to repair one bar, which is pretty cheap, but I have plenty of copper.

hardeyez wrote on 05/02/2014 at 12:13am

Yeah, there's not much to spend ore on yet... I ended up collecting over 1000 bars of gold, then crafted up diamond drills for both my kids and spent a chunk of that. :)

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Starbound First Impressions

I'm finally playing Starbound and I thought I'd share my initial impressions, which actually comes less from game play and more from watching someone play it.

I've been watching Paul Soares Jr.'s YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/paulsoaresjr). I decided to start watching his Starbound videos, which I've been enjoying. They are almost 30 of them and I'm almost done with that series (each video is about 20 minutes long).

I thought that by watching some videos, I might be able to get a better idea of the game and whether or not I wanted to play it. I finally decided that I wanted to try it. When I first saw video of Starbound, I thought it looked kind of ugly,... Read All

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/26/2014 at 11:19pm

Another bug perhaps or just simple user error? I don't know, but for some reason after I made and put a campfire in my structure, my sword was no longer grayed out and I could use it. I also found out that running the OpenGL Launcher performs better than the other default option. Apparently the default option uses DirectX.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/27/2014 at 05:13am

"I don't think the day/night cycle is as important in Starbound."

Wow, really? Unless it's changed drastically, it was majorly important.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/27/2014 at 06:05am

I honestly haven't played long enough to see if that cycle is important and it wasn't obvious to me in Paul's videos. I think he said more enemies come out at night. Further investigation (Google search) reveals that more difficult monsters come out at night. I just recently finished Paul's Starbound videos and will be playing more very soon.

For those of you who've played Starbound and Minecraft or Terraria, I want to know what your thoughts are on this game compared to the others. What do you think about the various similarities and differences? Are you aware of any other similar games?

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/27/2014 at 06:50am

Ok, as for the issue I had in the first comment I left here, I figured out what happened, which I want to share here so that others might learn. Haha. I was running around with my Broken Phoenix sword, which I found on my ship (among the other things). When I switched to something else in my hand, my weapon icon was grayed out and I didn't realize I could click on it in the hotbar. I also didn't realize that I could have simply pressed "X" to switch between held items. That's kind of a duh because I read the configuration notes while I was on my ship. But it was simply something I overlooked and was misled by the name of my sword. Each race is given a sword or weapon at the beginning and it's usually named Broken something relating to the character's race, hence mine is called "Broken Phoenix." Weapons in the game don't degrade, just tools, which can be repaired with any type of ore apparently.

Did anyone else fall for the same mistake? Hahaha

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/27/2014 at 08:54am

Ok, I've played during the night and yes it is worse! I also found out that my issue with the teleporter was most likely due to not hovering over it with the mouse pointer. I like the music and using the flashlight. I think it's cool, too, how the sound changes when you go under water.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/27/2014 at 04:53pm

Yeah, more difficult monsters come out at night. I sort of spend the night digging BUT once you get to a certain gear level, the night monster toughness isn't too bad.

What gear are you at?

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/27/2014 at 08:48pm

1st tier, copper helm, copper greaves. I stored the Broken Phoenix since I made a Tomahawk.

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All People Want Is For Starbound To Be Awesome

Like many of you, I excitedly boarded the Starbound hype train. After a few weeks of reading the nearly daily updates, watching the update videos and talking to friends, I was hooked. I wasn’t alone as many people on Cheerful Ghost and all over the internet were really excited to see play Starbound. In April of 2013 the Starbound beta hit and over the next few months the Starbound fans funded the game at 4 million dollars! We sailed through the three pre-order bonuses of the new race, collectable fossils and starter pets. My excitement level was crazy. Clearly this game would be the answer to my prayer for an awesome open world building game in space that took the... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/23/2014 at 01:56am

I haven't played Starbound yet, I've been waiting. I'm glad to get an update on the development of the game. I've been wondering when it would be released. I feel like I can sympathize with Chucklefish in trying to have a central hub of developers. Sure there are remote tools out there and such, but I think that face-to-face contact will be a big help. It would also solve their time management issues. I'm sure that once everyone's together then development will speed up and hopefully we'll see that in the quality of the game.

As for when to play Starbound, I'm still not sure. I believe all I have to do is tell "someone" that I'm ready and he'll hook me up (yet again and gratefully). If that offer still stands "T" *cough*, then I'm probably ready for it as I've been playing Minecraft and growing tired of it (playing and not knowing why I'm still playing it). Otherwise, as stated above, I'm sure once the team is together then that will be a great time to play or prepare for a significant update or release date.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/23/2014 at 04:31am

Face to face does have advantages for sure. I've seen working remotely work out fine, but each company is different.

I think things will improve as well. It's a great game and I hope things get.. More greater

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/25/2014 at 11:19am

As I mentioned in Travis's Minecraft post, I've been watching one of my favorite YouTube gamers, Paul Soares Jr. Before playing Minecraft, I watched his "Survive and Thrive" series. I just recently finished watching his "Paul Plays Minecraft" series. I noticed he has some Starbound (and Terraria) videos as well, so I've started watching those. Initially, when I first saw video of Starbound, I thought it looked a bit ugly, but after seeing more of it, that initial impression is fading. The game looks like a glorified Terraria, which is good really. I like some of the game mechanics I've seen so far. It's cool how gravel works in the game (like water) along with sand. There also seems to be LOTS of items. I'm also curious about how to tell if an alien is friendly. Apparently some are and some aren't, but even the friendly ones can be killed. Anyway, the game does look interesting and I look forward to watching more of Paul's videos. It may be getting time for me to jump in the game.

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Starbound: More Information On Improving Player Progression

"As we said before, the current progression is entirely temporary, existing to provide temporary gameplay whilst we work on the engine. Today I want to share more with you about the games new structure and the beginning of the game.

First of all we’re removing the different universe sectors. In the final game there will be only three sectors. The sector the majority of the game takes place in, a pvp sector and a creative sector without dangers.

Instead of progressing through the game sector by sector, you’ll advance by upgrading your tech to allow you to visit planets that were otherwise inaccessible due to hazards. An example being a planet with no breathable air.... Read All "As we said before, the current progression is entirely temporary, existing to provide temporary gameplay whilst we work on the engine. Today I want to share more with you about the games new structure and the beginning of the game.

First of all we’re removing the different universe sectors. In the final game there will be only three sectors. The sector the majority of the game takes place in, a pvp sector and a creative sector without dangers.

Instead of progressing through the game sector by sector, you’ll advance by upgrading your tech to allow you to visit planets that were otherwise inaccessible due to hazards. An example being a planet with no breathable air. Progression will be less linear and more akin to the kind of progression you find in modern metroidvanias.

We’re building the game with 3 main paths of progression that branch off later on. Farming, adventuring and building. We want players to be able to advance through the game whilst doing whatever they enjoy most.

At the beginning of the game (what would be the alpha sector in the current progression) you start on a ship with a broken fuel module, giving you access to only one planet. Through a series of quests you’re taught how to farm, find trophies in dungeons and build the beginnings of a settlement. Completing these quests will give you the pixels you need to use your ships 3d printer to produce a new fuel module. Which in turn allows progression to the other planets in your current solar system.

At this stage were introducing a new planet type called an outpost. A small and safe planet populated by members of every race. A safe haven for trade and quest taking. You’ll learn how to generate pixels through selling crops, taking quests, selling trophies found in dungeons and renting out houses in your settlement.

From here each of these roles will expand outwards as you progress (for example animal farming becomes an optional part of the farming progression)."

Really looking forward to see the games progression change. Whereas the core mechanics can be fun, the main game progression with sectors seemed very arbitrary. I like the natural progression where you would need to get a breathing system to make it to a planet with no oxygen. I only hope that certain races wouldn't need that as the Glitch really don't need oxygen as they are robots.

I can't wait to see some of these changes make it to the core game and also have the game get way less buggy. I recently started my game and all my chests disappeared including my ship locker. I know it's still early beta, but it's still not great to have that happen. Hopefully things iron out a bit more and we enter a pretty bug free part of the beta.

Curious how long it might be for them to hit 1.0. At this pace it seems like it might be end of 2014 or .. beyond?

http://playstarbound.com/23rd-february/

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 02/25/2014 at 01:21am

I really enjoyed seeing this post, as I keep imagining Starbound as Terraria 2, and I'm just not really a fan of Terraria. (I know, I know! BLASPHEMY!!!)

But this sounds like a cool game. I will look to pick it up when it finally comes out I think.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/25/2014 at 01:33am

> I really enjoyed seeing this post, as I keep imagining Starbound as Terraria 2, and I'm just not really a fan of Terraria. (I know, I know! BLASPHEMY!!!)

Please delete your account now..

> But this sounds like a cool game. I will look to pick it up when it finally comes out I think.

I think waiting is a good idea. I haven't played it much because you don't really ever "play a game for the first time" again.

Travis Admin wrote on 02/25/2014 at 03:55am

This all sounds good. The massiveness of the galaxy was a little unnecessary really, and while it was awesome seeing what the random number generator could come up with, it felt a little empty. A smaller galaxy with more activity is very welcome.

hardeyez wrote on 02/28/2014 at 02:20am

Ah you got hit by the chests disappearing bug also... It was only there for like a day, but I got hit also (popped on to see the new update and blammo). As a programmer the bug was interesting (non-programmers skip this: they had a issue going to and from lua data structures coupled with the way lua treats nils and silently ignoring objects not loading, this caused storage items to get truncated, then not loaded, and thus disappeared when the world saved). However, a minimal amount of testing should've exposed it before it hit people... I mean I lost my ship's locker.... so I have to wipe my ship to get it back. I also need to wipe the worlds that loaded at that time as they also deleted chests/etc...

hardeyez wrote on 02/28/2014 at 02:21am

oops posted before I meant to...

But, this is the first unexpected loss I've had in the game and it's still early beta...

hardeyez wrote on 02/28/2014 at 02:23am

Also, I'm finding the game quite enjoyable as is. And it will only get better with those listed updates. I'm not as worried about the "play a game for the first time" issue with this one, it's not that kind of an experience. Just like I don't mine that minecraft is constantly updating, (and really changed along the course from alpha).

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The Future of Chucklefish and Starbound

Like many Starbound players, I have been curious how the game will evolve during the beta. Recently Tiy posted a pretty large update post describing what we can all expect. I found a few bits noteworthy, such as how progression will be handled:

"As it stands, almost the entirety of the progression in Starbound is temporary. Built quickly to enable some basic gameplay during beta.

The final game will be structured differently.

The current 10 tiers of gameplay will all play out on the same Starmap, with each tier introducing hazards that can only be overcome by progressing through the previous tier and completing a mission at the end of each tier.

To access a mission at the... Read All

Upcoming Starbound Patch Will Be Final Character Wipe

http://playstarbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screenshot-2014-01-13-21.13.23.png

"Of course, there’s also the highly anticipated/possibly feared final character wipe– this patch contains a fix for save files so after this, you won’t need to worry about our patches destroying your characters or ships. This patch will wipe everything– characters, ships and worlds. It will definitely be the last time we’ll need to wipe characters or ships, and will hopefully be the last time we’ll need to wipe worlds."

Awesome bit of news. I really enjoy Starbound but don't like to have my character or ship wiped. That said this will be the last character wipe but there is also a possibility this will be the last planet wipe.

After the update are you going to dive in... Read All

Starbound: My Thoughts on The Angry Koala Beta

When the Starbound beta launched I decided I would limit my time with the game due to the frequent game wipes. I have been interesting in checking out the game since I played it last and decided to try the latest Beta, Angry Koala. After tinkering around with the game for a few hours I found out nearly everything has been changed and for the most part, I like all the changes.

I really like the new tree planting system as the game didn't seem like a proper mining game without it. The first thing I did when I started my game was plant trees. They grow back rather quickly which allows for easy farming. You can also burn wood into Coal which seems to work pretty well. It... Read All When the Starbound beta launched I decided I would limit my time with the game due to the frequent game wipes. I have been interesting in checking out the game since I played it last and decided to try the latest Beta, Angry Koala. After tinkering around with the game for a few hours I found out nearly everything has been changed and for the most part, I like all the changes.

I really like the new tree planting system as the game didn't seem like a proper mining game without it. The first thing I did when I started my game was plant trees. They grow back rather quickly which allows for easy farming. You can also burn wood into Coal which seems to work pretty well. It takes 10 wood to make 1 coal and all told that isn't much.

There are more items available and since it's the holidays you can make a elf woodbench which allows you the ability to craft a lot of special Holiday items. You can see some of what I made in my screenshot above, but there are many more items available to craft. A new item resource called "Holiday Spirit" drops from enemy kills allowing you the ability to craft the Holiday items.

The game gives you WAY less pixels than when the beta initially hit but penalizes you less pixels for dying. That said, needing pixels to craft armor is annoying. Why do I need another resource to craft armor and weapons beyond ore? I get why you would need pixels for other kinds of stuff, but armor and weapons?

The ore placement and planet generation seem way better than when the game initially shipped. Things seem more organic and I am very happy with the amount of ore I found digging deep in my starting planet. I think they have things humming along here and I love the improvements.

I found many more bases and treasures chests than I did with previous betas. You don't seem to go too far without finding something interesting to explore. If I had one suggestion it would be to stock them with more interesting stuff. I love how the bases are generated and I find the enemies and NPC's they spawn interesting enough, they just seem.... kind of empty. That said, they are better than what I found in the early beta and I love the improvements.

I found a _TON_ more seeds and fruit to farm. The farming system seems largely untouched but if I had a recommendation it would be for something to farm that gives you plant fibers.

Overall I really think they are heading in the right direction with the game and am looking forward to more changes they make through the beta. If you are loving Starbound but getting tired of the constant game wipes, it seems Chucklefish will do one final character wipe in the new year. Unsure if this means they might do a world wipe, but it's something anyway.

"Final character wipe will be included with the next patch, for everyone asking! So…as soon as possible. In 2014. :D"

https://twitter.com/StarboundGame/status/416696077950390272

Travis Admin wrote on 12/28/2013 at 05:48am

I notice you aren't using your L/R spots on the hotbar. I didn't early on but that's something really convenient to get used to. Say your default is sword in L and shield in R. Whenever you hit 3 for your pickaxe it will just switch to that, and hitting 3 again will cancel it and go back to what's in your L/R. If you hit 4, though, since the flashlight only needs one hand, you'd use that in L and your shield in R. And you can hit ~ at any time to cancel out of any other active items and switch to L/R.

The downside is that while we were playing with the Terraria holiday stuff, I was so used to that it was hard to get out of the habit. I also tried using E to open doors and such quite a bit.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/28/2013 at 08:08pm

Wow, those trees can be packed close together can't they? That'll make farming wood easier.

Using the L/R slots is really useful. I like to keep a weapon in there so I can switch to it quickly whenever I'm in trouble.

Last character wipe soon? Oh man, the only thing keeping me from playing this obsessively is knowing that my progress would get wiped with the next update. Soon I'll be racking up the playtime!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/29/2013 at 12:30am

WELL, it seems that a universe and planet wipe may happen. From past wipes it seems that might also mean your ship too.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/29/2013 at 02:54am

Yeah that was a bummer. Oh hey my character is still there! Ship is empty. I'm parked at a planet that's really too difficult for my level, ship has no fuel. Never set a home planet. Might as well reroll!

hardeyez wrote on 12/31/2013 at 05:51pm

And don't forget 'x' that swaps between your current tool and L/R and back again... I run around a lot with the pickaxe/drill and hit x when enemies show up to whack 'em down, then x again to keep digging....

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/18/2014 at 01:19am

That looks like Terraria, which makes me interested in learning more about the game. =)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/18/2014 at 02:14am

It's very similar to Terraria but in space and still in development.

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Starbound shows tons of promise, room to grow

I've been, quite frankly, a bit obsessed with Starbound since it launched. I've been watching the progress for what seems like years now and was thrilled to see the beta launch.

For those who haven't kept up with the development, the beta cycle is going to be in three phases. We're currently very close to the beginning of the first phase. As you should expect, things are very incomplete, some stuff doesn't work, there are tons of bugs, and your character will get wiped a lot.

That said, Steam reports that I've spent 21 glorious hours playing this game, and I could just keep going. Even this early, there's a lot of fun to be had. There are literally millions of planets... Read All

My Starbound Beta First Thoughts & Let's Play

Starbound Beta dropped today and I wanted to post a bit about it. First off, the game is quite good for a beta, very well polished and lots of fun. The game isn't perfect though and I have ran into a few bugs already, but for such an early beta, the game is incredible.

Starbound take the formula we all love that was popularized by Minecraft and Terraria and spins it up such that what you are left with is a pretty unique blend of awesome. If you have been following the site for the last few days you have seen me post about the early game and how to start things out. I followed that closely and was able to get started pretty quickly. The game isn't easy to start and I... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 12/05/2013 at 04:14am

Yeah there are a few bugs. I'm now getting the one where the loading sequence hangs for about a minute on the Chucklefish logo. I had one earlier where I couldn't select anything in my inventory until I quit and came back in.

Overall, though, this is amazing. There has to be a better way to find coal, perhaps it comes later in the game, or they haven't added it yet.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 06:03am

Travis, I just found out you can use both wood AND coal to fuel your ship. I edited my post, I have no more issues with ship fuel :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 06:04am

That said, replanting trees would still be awesome. :D

hardeyez wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:16am

I think if you use an axe they regrow... could just be hallucinating though... :)

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:23pm

My favorite part of the Lets play: When Panicked Thumb messaged you about losing all of his pixels right at the end there. :P

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:43pm

@hardeyez: I haven't seen that using an axe allows them to regrow. As far as it seems now, trees don't come back. Not that it's a huge issue as random planets are plentiful BUT if you wanted to stick to a planet, it might be nice.

I actually wanted to see how much wood was on a normal level one planet and chopped down all the trees. Counting all the wood I used when I started, my estimation is that a typical level 1 forest planet has between 2.5-3k of unrefined wood. So yeah, that's a ton, but again, it would be nice to replant trees :D

@WhiteboySlim: Yeah, I did a take of the Let's Play where he messages me a few times and I am glad I scratched it because what he says at the end of this video is funny :D

Travis Admin wrote on 12/06/2013 at 02:00am

If I'd known you were doing an LP at the time I would have shut up, but I'm glad I didn't under the circumstances.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/07/2013 at 06:56am

Imminent character wipe! Sunday or Monday there's going to be a massive patch retooling a lot of the core mechanics of the game, so be prepared to lose all your progress!

http://playstarbound.com/coming-in-a-few-days-sorry-for-the-delay/

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/07/2013 at 07:15pm

Excellent, cleanse the universe with purifying fire!!! Err, sorry, got a little carried away there. I dunno how i feel about the whole reducing levels from 1-100 to 1-10. However, the whole damage penetration thing was pretty confusing, so I'm glad to see they're reworking that. Overall I look forward to the changes!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2013 at 05:29am

And this marks my end to playing the beta heavily. Now that I know my save is toast, I am out. It was a fun game for the bit I played it though but these changes are pretty big and knowing they will make them means they will make other huge changes through the beta again. Not that it's a bad change, I bet all the changes they implement will make it a great game, I just don't want to start over too many times.

I might write a few closing thoughts about the game in a day or so though as I wind down with the beta. It's a great game with a ton of promise and character. My only nagging feeling while playing the game was it was this limitless vast universe that was very empty. Pretty, fun, lots of exploration with little meat and potatoes. It's feels very "Minecrafty" in that regard, Minecraft always feels lonely when I play it. Starbound is the same feel right now.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2013 at 06:31am

I think the lack of meat and potatoes will be taken care of later on. It's still very early days and a ton of the content isn't done.

My big complaint at the moment is the pure randomness of it. My starter system, the one where I spent most of my time, barely had any activity in it beyond a couple of houses and a bandit camp. I went to a second system and found a planet with an Avian pirate ship, and that planet had a moon with an Egyptian-style temple. I created a new universe on my Mac to set up a test server and when I joined that, the starter planet had a full-on village where I found tons of interesting stuff and vendors for everything under the sun. This is the kind of thing that would have been really helpful in the early hours of the game but due to the randomness you may not get it.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/08/2013 at 07:39pm

The randomness is kind of rough. My starter world had very little in the way of anything. I only had one small avian temple with no chests :p. the next planet had a HUGE underground tomb filled with tons of stuff and I found more resources in half an hour on the new world than I did during the two hours or so I spent on my starting world. That said, this is still an early beta and I am pretty impressed with what is there already. Once they start to flesh out the quest system I think it is going to really shine. I also read something on the forums about being able to start your own village and populating it with NPCs that do different things, which sounds really cool.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2013 at 07:40pm

I'm actually a bit worried at how this is going to play out.

I'd say generally people who preordered understand what's going on. They had the email they sent out a while back detailing the different phases of the beta and that in the early days, character wipes would be common.,

And, for rapid development like this, Steam makes a ton of sense for getting updates out. Having people manually download new clients would get annoying fast.

But just putting the game up as Early Access might burn them a bit. There are a ton of people buying this that may not have any idea they'll be losing their saves soon. Early Access means what it says it means, but I'm not sure what kind of precedent there is for losing everything. It would have been nice if they could have given Steam access to people who preordered and nobody else until stage 2 or 3 of the beta.

hardeyez wrote on 12/08/2013 at 10:36pm

Yeah, I don't like character wipes as I'm having lots of fun with this... each world is so different and you find fun stuff on it. So it's really check it out and bounce if it's not fun on that world (you just need a few trees to move along, unless you've got a full tank).

But I've been playing a lot, and probably will keep doing so. It'll be much faster to recover after a wipe, but I'll miss the blueprints I've found for the weird stuff. But I basically hit the end of the tech for now (I think, could be missing something)... 3 sectors, 2 bosses down. Just need to find the more exotic ores to build stuff... Fun.

I will miss my ship also, found fun stuff in some USMC bases (i.e. I have an arcade machine and a fun sofa you can sit on in my ship).

So the discovery is fun. I wish they would just convert the chars instead of a wipe. However, when changing the whole weapon system, the old weapons might need to go... I'm more fine with obsolete weapons disappearing (or breaking down to base resources) than loosing everything. But yeah, your character is mainly what you've found/crafted.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/09/2013 at 07:46pm

Hmmmm... I checked the steam page and I didn't see anything on there warning about potential character wipes. They probably should put something on there just as a heads up for anyone who doesn't read the forums or subscribe to the newsletter.

I cut off my playing once they announced the incoming character wipe, but I will jump back in after the update. I'm intentionally limiting how much I play/progress in the game so I don't get burned out until the game gets closer to completion. :)

On a side note, we briefly talked about a group multiplayer map just to screw around in for a night or two. Is that anything you guys are still interested in? I think that'd be good to do after the update hits.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2013 at 08:54pm

Travis is working with getting a server going, but yeah, I am open to trying it out after this next patch.

Traveeto?

Travis Admin wrote on 12/09/2013 at 10:13pm

Yeah, there's very little that you can configure at this point so I'm a little wary of keeping it up for long, but I'll host for a couple of days.

Also, Traveeto?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2013 at 10:27pm

Nice, hit us up with the server details when you have it.

> Also, Traveeto?

Travington!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/09/2013 at 11:19pm

Yeah, I'm not talking about running a full on server for any length of time. I was thinking something just to screw around for a night or two and see how multiplayer works/holds up.

The Travster? Travisty? Traverino? Grand-Master Trav?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2013 at 01:22am

Travisty?

/grin

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/23/2013 at 09:05pm

Recent patch:

http://pastebin.com/qJXf3LSE

"Trees can now be planted"

Yay.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/23/2013 at 09:08pm

"You can no longer breath on moons or asteroid fields without the proper equipment"

Even the Glitch? Hmmmm.

"More random encounters"

Awesome.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:02am

I think race-specific traits are coming in a future update. Hopefully that's one of them, because seriously, the glitch shouldn't need to breathe.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:05am

- You must now be orbiting a planet to set it as your home
- Free teleportation to home planet from ships teleporter

I now have a reason to actually build a home base.

- NPCs will now switch to melee weapons up close

Oh this is awesome. Trying to fight all those guys with guns was terrible. Now at least you can shield rush them and then have a fair fight up close.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:46am

Teleportation to home planet for free really does give you a reason for a home planet. And a reason to have a house. Plus now you can re-plant trees so even better.

hardeyez wrote on 12/24/2013 at 02:39am

Yes!!! I hit Tier10 equipment and was kinda sad, but now new stuff to play with :)

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New Starbound Trailer Showcases Dungeons & Advanced Weaponry

The Starbound Trailer just dropped and is pretty awesome. The trailer shows off some early game, building and some other stuff we haven't seen before like mechs, random dungeons and later game tech weapons and gear.

Starbound beta drops tomorrow at 10am PST. Join the Cheerful Ghost event and take part in the discussion about the game and chime in with your thoughts.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/45