Starbound to give you buyer's remorse.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Starbound to give you buyer's remorse.

Abandoned Toaster: Jun 4, 2008

steinrokkan posted:

So I bought this on a whim couple days ago because I thought it was made by the Stardew Valley guy. Apparently it was not. So far I'm not very impressed, not a big fan of being forced into a basically linear play style under the guise of story progression. I guess I should have looked up the thread title ahead of time.

I bought this during the summer sale because I had a number of friends who played and liked it (years ago mind you) and I'd been looking for another sandbox game and played the poo poo out of Terraria, so I figured this might be a good bet. I hadn't read through this thread but looking back through the last 10 pages alone shows me it's pretty dismissed by this point.

I don't HATE it but I kept talking to one of my friends about certain gameplay aspects I wished the game had compared to Terraria (chest labeling, quicksort, hotkeys for healing and using hooks, instant transportation back to your base from anywhere, the fact this wonky hotbar key R+L system has gotten me killed a number of times; etc etc.). Other aspects seem frustrating like breaking everything when I try to move something because the game never explained thoroughly to press shift to adjust the size of my manipulator beam and even then it's only 1 tile when I'd like to adjust it to 2x2 or 3x3 again, or that there are no vehicles/mounts I've found other than hoverbikes and a boat to move quickly around the land and even then they can be damaged, destroyed, and just plain suck in the ever-present uneven, mountainous terrain. Oh yes and the fact that once you go past temperate stars you have to use the EPP at all times and why even have the backpack light if I can't merge them. EPP really needs to be its own slot.

Plus it seemed like once I endeavored to collect enough stuff to level my EPP to get durasteel I basically could just max upgrade every craft bench by hour 15 - 20 and now I'm usually putzing around growing crops and looking for merchants to buy furniture from most of the time because I don't have higher tiers of gear/weapons/bosses to clearly strive for (I've been using the same spear for the past 20 hours because I haven't found a better spear and there isn't one in my lists that I can craft).

Those are most of my problems but there are some things I like about the game, such as the Harvest Moon-esque features, the creature capture (except the healing station), some of the art style/animations, and the design of the various alien races and their cultural aesthetics, but those aren't going to be enough to keep me playing for a long time.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 09:19

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# ? Jun 2, 2024 08:50

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Abandoned Toaster posted:

I bought this during the summer sale because I had a number of friends who played and liked it (years ago mind you) and I'd been looking for another sandbox game and played the poo poo out of Terraria,

Have you tried the wonderful world of Terraria mods?

# ? Jul 9, 2019 09:21

Abandoned Toaster: Jun 4, 2008

Zereth posted:

Have you tried the wonderful world of Terraria mods?

Nope although I am aware of them and how Thorium and Cataclysm are two of the highest-regarded. I think I wanted to give this a shot to see if it would occupy me long enough for update 1.4 instead of going down the mod path but

Looks like I chose poorly.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 09:26

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Abandoned Toaster posted:

Nope although I am aware of them and how Thorium and Cataclysm are two of the highest-regarded. I think I wanted to give this a shot to see if it would occupy me long enough for update 1.4 instead of going down the mod path but

Looks like I chose poorly.

Once you have tmodloader it's almost as easy to get mods for Terraria as it is to use the Steam Workshop! :eng101:

# ? Jul 9, 2019 09:40

Quicksilver6: Mar 21, 2008

I know this game isn�t great but I�m strangely addicted to being a space 80�s lawman in a space Ferrari.

It really needs more blood dragon music and items modded in.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 10:44

Rhopunzel: Jan 6, 2006; Stroll together, win together

Quicksilver6 posted:

It really needs more blood dragon music and items modded in.

When I (somewhat naively) still thought I had a future there in the post-London move I wanted to make a licensed spinoff of Starbound called Hellbound that would have basically been Starbound + Heavy Metal + Blood Dragon

To be honest, with how flexible and open the engine is I'm really surprised they haven't given it to a B-team to make a spinoff with

# ? Jul 9, 2019 11:14

Malachite_Dragon: Mar 31, 2010; Weaving Merry Christmas magic

Because that sounds like it has the potential to be fun, and therefore Tiy is against it

# ? Jul 9, 2019 14:56

Clever Spambot: Sep 16, 2009; You've lost that lovin' feeling,
Now it's gone...gone...GONE....

Remember when dash was usable in air infinitely and you kept your momentum?

Rather than nerfing that they really shoulda buffed the other movement techs to be equally rad.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 15:14

Galaxander: Aug 12, 2009

Clever Spambot posted:

Remember when dash was usable in air infinitely and you kept your momentum?

Rather than nerfing that they really shoulda buffed the other movement techs to be equally rad.

It really was remarkable to see them start with a perfectly serviceable base and just whittle away every shred of fun.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 15:24

Shoehead: Sep 28, 2005; Wassup, Choom?
Ya need sumthin'?

Tiy would have patched bunny hopping out of Quake. He would have taken skiing out of Tribes. He would have nerfed combos in og Street Fighter. Ghandi would have not been a nuclear maniac under Tiy

# ? Jul 9, 2019 17:46

Mountaineer: Aug 29, 2008; Imagine a rod breaking on a robot face - forever

Rhopunzel posted:

question for you guys:

did you actually like the matter manipulator or would you prefer a Minecraft style thing where most tasks had a dedicated tool (i.e. laser miners, drills, chainsaws, etc)

on one hand, the MM was convenient but on the other, it didn't really feel like there was anything to discover when you only ever used one tool for everything no matter how productive you were being

currently in our design we're doing the dedicated tool approach because I really hated how the MM felt. when i think of sci fi mining i think of big laser miners and drills, not a magic handheld gun that makes pickaxe sounds

Late response to this, but like a lot of folks I also did not like the matter manipulator as a mining tool or other item destruction/removal tool. However, I very much did like it as an item placement tool. Whether it was building a house or just plopping down a slope of dirt to get up a cliff it was easy and convenient to use. I especially liked being able to use the left and right mouse buttons to smoothly switch between placing material in the foreground or background.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 18:39

Rhopunzel: Jan 6, 2006; Stroll together, win together

Mountaineer posted:

Late response to this, but like a lot of folks I also did not like the matter manipulator as a mining tool or other item destruction/removal tool. However, I very much did like it as an item placement tool. Whether it was building a house or just plopping down a slope of dirt to get up a cliff it was easy and convenient to use. I especially liked being able to use the left and right mouse buttons to smoothly switch between placing material in the foreground or background.

I'm considering having a generic "welder" tool that's not really an item but just appears instead of your player bashing their hands aimlessly when they construct or disassemble something.

Left and right click placing is already in.

We're currently working on prefab rooms. Think being able to drag out a shape and it places the blocks instead of constructing every tile manually

# ? Jul 9, 2019 20:03

Cat Mattress: Jul 14, 2012; by Cyrano4747

Rhopunzel posted:

We're currently working on prefab rooms. Think being able to drag out a shape and it places the blocks instead of constructing every tile manually

Great!

Something I'd like to see in this game genre is a kind of "creative mode" where you get to build virtual stuff with an unlimited quantity of everything (at least everything you've discovered so far). When you're satisfied, you save the blueprint. Nothing gets built in the game world, but you get a recipe for your creation with a list of all the elements you've virtually used, and if you do gather them all you can instabuild it.

# ? Jul 9, 2019 20:49

Galaxander: Aug 12, 2009

Rhopunzel posted:

We're currently working on prefab rooms. Think being able to drag out a shape and it places the blocks instead of constructing every tile manually

Every once in a blue moon the building bug will bite me, but most of the time I just want functional box rooms that I don't need to spend an hour making.

Worst thing about the manipulator (with regard to gathering) imo was its reach. Even the very basic gameplay of moving into your mine tunnel or building a little platform to get stuff out of the ceiling was wiped away and instead you just stand there holding down M1 for a bit.

# ? Jul 10, 2019 00:45

Zet: Aug 3, 2010

Cat Mattress posted:

Great!

Something I'd like to see in this game genre is a kind of "creative mode" where you get to build virtual stuff with an unlimited quantity of everything (at least everything you've discovered so far). When you're satisfied, you save the blueprint. Nothing gets built in the game world, but you get a recipe for your creation with a list of all the elements you've virtually used, and if you do gather them all you can instabuild it.

Yes, this. Along those lines, something like a more polished Base in a Box would be awesome, too. I'm a terrible builder so only having stuff to work off is cool (hell, if you want to scope creep this, have a Build Sharing System and exchange Build Codes between players).

I liked the MM for being sci-fi and not having extras of tools taking inventory space.

# ? Jul 10, 2019 00:59

steinrokkan: Apr 2, 2011; Soiled Meat

Galaxander posted:

Every once in a blue moon the building bug will bite me, but most of the time I just want functional box rooms that I don't need to spend an hour making.

Worst thing about the manipulator (with regard to gathering) imo was its reach. Even the very basic gameplay of moving into your mine tunnel or building a little platform to get stuff out of the ceiling was wiped away and instead you just stand there holding down M1 for a bit.

I mean, it made spelunking easier, but I don't think I ever wished building structures was more fiddly or bemoaned how rarely I feel through an unfinished floor while placing blocks. It works well for building stuff.

# ? Jul 10, 2019 07:15

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

deadly_pudding posted:

Zero percent surprised the Nodwick guy is massively out of touch and making hot takes about issues he doesn't understand.

That game devs will learn the worst possible lessons whenever possible is still pretty spot on though.

# ? Jul 10, 2019 11:07

Zereth: Jul 9, 2003

Can't quite blame the guy for not understanding how the sale event worked though as it was pretty confusing

# ? Jul 10, 2019 11:20

Galaxander: Aug 12, 2009

steinrokkan posted:

I mean, it made spelunking easier, but I don't think I ever wished building structures was more fiddly or bemoaned how rarely I feel through an unfinished floor while placing blocks. It works well for building stuff.

For sure having a long reach for placing blocks is good and great. I agree.

# ? Jul 10, 2019 13:47