Sign in to follow this  
Bjorn

Starbound

Recommended Posts

Depth in what respect?

 

There's really only one set of armor that you upgrade up to different levels as you go (unless you count some of the cold weather clothes options.) There are a lot of different weapons, but after you've crafted a few they aren't different enough to really set them apart. Crafting house items is demphasized in trade for getting you to search out other settlements and swipe components from them. Finding those other settlements is cool, but there isn't a whole lot to do there. In general it felt like I had less options for my character and my home area, more things to find and explore elsewhere, but still not quite enough cool things to find to make exploring really fun.

 

I like it though, it just feels like I need some more variety.

 

Edit: Also, the ballance is really off once you start getting to the Beta and Gamma areas.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

despite never playing terraria or liking minecraft i picked this up today and played for about 4 hours. had a decent time, the game hasn't opened up for me yet though i had fun digging out my own cave system and making it look all nice. terraria never really interested me at all but the idea of space exploration is cool to me

 

any chance of idle thumbs server? none of my friends really play video games so i figure it'd be a good way to explore multiplayer

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As someone who loved Terraria, Starbound is very much my cup of tea. I just got it yesterday and played pretty much continuously from 8pm to 1am with my girlfriend. In many ways in this early stage of the game, it feels like a more refined version of Terraria - your character automatically mounts one-block inclines (like stairs), you can swim, pickaxes affect a much larger area, and the matter manipulator reduces the amount of wiggling your character has to do in the world to do things like place objects. Essentially every minor point of friction that made Terraria unnecessarily user-unfriendly has been removed, so I have to say that if you liked it for the exploration and pure OCD building aspects you'll probably enjoy Starbound for at least a handful of hours.

 

I'm looking forward to the space features of the game though I'm really keeping my expectations in check. At this point, being Terraria+ is more than enough for my tastes.

 

Also, the server stuff is so bad. I wish that the developers didn't jump behind stuff like "we wanted to make an open game that anyone can create any multiplayer solution for", because I'm not really the "anyone" they're talking about so multiplayer is a huge hassle for me. That said, I think I have the wherewithal to transfer the server files to my HTPC and run that as a personal server for me and my friends, granted that works without me being logged into Steam. Even still, I've already had a couple instances of my girlfriend being unceremoniously disconnected from the server running on my computer even though we connected over wired LAN.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The space features of the game more or less just give you different planet pallets and difficulties, with the added feature of not having to dig too much, as you can grab all the surface minerals and other special features, then zap on to the next planet rather than digging down. The only bummer is that it de-insentifies building an awesome base, as it won't be long until you're ready to move on to the next difficulty level.

 

I had a problem running a server because it doesn't seem to respect UPnP and I don't have access to my router to manually forward ports. Server software definitely needs some work.

 

Edit: I should mention, it only requires a few coal to be able to fly around to planets in the same system. Not only that but, if you're playing multiplayer, you can leave one ship back home and park the other ship at a nearby planet and have easy access to both.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I had to spend a lot of time figuring out port forwarding. I wish they had updated that aspect of terraria's awkward multiplayer. What they say about it on the cast is totally true though, it's awesome how easily you can move from your single player experience to a multiplayer one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm running a 24/7 dedicated server for me and my friends. I don't really want it to be a public server, because we've built some cool shit already and don't want griefers to fuck it up, but if you're a reputable Thumb with a decent number of posts here, feel free to PM me for server credentials.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So we played for about 4 hours at the office last night on a shared server. It's definitely a little beta-ey, but there was some really good stuff. Our first plan, Minecraft-style, was to dig a hole for shelter. Which worked okay, but then one of us went exploring to the east and found a top secret research facility guarded by monkey guards. Basically this, but it's not my screenshot. So we seized it and made it our new home. Only trouble is, you can't change your beam-down location as far as I can tell, so it's a little bit of a hike.

 

But still, pretty great.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, that was a massive pain in the arse but I got it running on a Linux server (then deleted it because I was just messing around for now, this shit is buggy).

 

Those who've actually been running servers, have you gleaned anything in terms of how much RAM and such you need to accommodate whatever many players?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's actually hilarious how quickly I got completely overwhelmed to the point of running out of the game screaming last night. I was on my little ship thinking that this all seems quite straightforward, but the moment I beamed down onto a planet I was immediately ravaged by a mob of horrifying creatures. I ran like shit, only to end up stumbling into like three different types of flying/jumping fucks, so I legged it in the opposite direction with all of the aforementioned chasing me. I jumped into some cavern opening, but I was in too much of a panic to figure out how to use the light source that I so obviously needed and just went increasingly deep into a dark abyss until eventually I ended up in water and drowned.

 

:tup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Continuing to play around and I've left a UK-based server running on 178.79.176.222.

If anyone wants to join it and mess around feel free, although I can't guarantee it won't vanish/crash because it looks like dedicated servers currently have memory leaks and shit. I'm mainly leaving it up to monitor what happens.

If anyone does join it, let me know if you have performance issues or shitty ping (not that I can even figure out how to view pings and such in-game). I'd be very appreciative! :tup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How would you compare this to Terraria?

Is it a step ahead or am i better to continue with Terraria?

 

It's different.You do a lot less digging in Starbound. Instead you go to a planet, strip the surface minerals, then leave for the next. It also discourages building any really cool buildings, as you tend to fly off for more difficult environs every hour or so. At the moment, I'd say play Terraria and wait for Starbound to flesh out a bit more.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know if I agree with that. I would say that the systems in Starbound discourage the same amount of digging as Terraria, but you're certainly able to do just as much and explore a planet just as much as you did in Terraria. Similarly, you can build really cool buildings though you'd only want to on whatever planet you decide to designate as your "home planet" for easy return.

 

Terraria-like gameplay is more encouraged in co-op gameplay, in my mind, where digging into the depths is much more rapid with multiple players and shared discoveries in the depths are a lot more exciting than the more spartan planet-to-planet surface resource stripping that Starbound encourages in single-player.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe I've just had bad luck, but in all that my friends and I have played, we've only found one thing of real intrest underground and it's been easier to jump to a more difficult planet to find surface minerals (and also cool surface buildings, by far the best feature of the game) rather than digging deep to get them.

 

Home planets end up being kind of a waste once you start heading to beta and gamma sectors. You don't want to have to spend the extra fuel to jump back to alpha every single time, so you end up creating a home planet in each sector, which you rarely visit anyway. *shrug* I ended up living a nomadic existance with the few crafting things I needed sitting on my ship.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I do think I'm only ankle deep in the game as compared to you, Dewar, so I might reach the same conclusions eventually. So far, I've found a fair amount of satisfaction just staying in a system and trying out each planet for a little while. Thus far, no boredom has taken me and I haven't felt the need to go much farther.

 

I should also say that the only really big things I built in Terraria were elevators and skybridges, so maybe my idea of building is different from you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've beaten the first boss and traveled to the beta sector, my friends are the ones who have made it all the way to delta I believe. Getting that far in the game reveals some pretty serious ballance problems, so it's probably for the best to stay dabbling in the early game for a while. Once you're able to regularly and easily tackle level 5 planets, you'll start to wonder why you waste fuel hopping back to your level 1 home planet every time you want to craft something. I'm hoping they put something in the game that either gives real value to having a solid home planet, or the ability to build out your ship as a moving base. Also, having a list of favorited planets would be nice.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This looks a lot like Terraria. Is it by the same devs? I also recently saw a trailer for a game that seemed to be a cross between Terraria and Capsized, but forgot the name. Anyone know that one?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've beaten the first boss and traveled to the beta sector, my friends are the ones who have made it all the way to delta I believe. Getting that far in the game reveals some pretty serious ballance problems, so it's probably for the best to stay dabbling in the early game for a while. Once you're able to regularly and easily tackle level 5 planets, you'll start to wonder why you waste fuel hopping back to your level 1 home planet every time you want to craft something. I'm hoping they put something in the game that either gives real value to having a solid home planet, or the ability to build out your ship as a moving base. Also, having a list of favorited planets would be nice.

 

That long term balance has been one of my concerns about getting deep into the game, or feeling that you need to rebuild your base on a semi-regular basis for ease of access.  I put a ridiculous ton of work into my original house in Terraria and loved it.  I'd hate to feel that I have to abandon a base for no other reason than it is inconvenient.

 

This looks a lot like Terraria. Is it by the same devs? I also recently saw a trailer for a game that seemed to be a cross between Terraria and Capsized, but forgot the name. Anyone know that one?

 

Are you thinking of Edge of Space?  Seems to match that description.  And Starbound's lead dev was the main artist on Terraria.  The main programmer of Terraria is working on T2.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Ermahgawd!  How had I missed the existence of this.  The PixelJunk series has been one of the real highlights of the last few years for me.  I've played through Monsters multiple times now.  Eden is the only one that didn't do a lot for me.  It was pretty, and neat, but didn't manage to capture my attention.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There was a list of planned features on the Starbound blog, and freely teleporting back to your home planet was on there I believe.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Been running the server for a few days now and my god does this thing eat RAM. I can't seem to stop it from just madly chewing it up until it hits the limit of 1.5GB and crashes — even if it never exceeds, like, two players.

Has anyone else hosting servers observed some kind of point where RAM usage levels out or is the game just that bad right now when it comes to permanently gobbling up memory? Hosting on 32-bit or 64-bit seems to make no difference and my CPU is coping just fine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this