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Starbound Beta Thread - Begins December 4th!

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I really shouldn't have spent so much time getting it so accurate, but it's done, so I'm happy. Just a few more little buildings to add and I think another Monolith will be done.
 
Retro said:
I really shouldn't have spent so much time getting it so accurate, but it's done, so I'm happy. Just a few more little buildings to add and I think another Monolith will be done.
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I don't even know what the individual tiles are, I thought it was a huge single object at first. O_o
 
Wyndstryker said:
Stop hurting my brain with this crazy stuff lol.
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This Monolith started off as "Oh, let's make a cool hidden grove with a palace on top", then turned into "Well, palaces have giant libraries, right?" to "These fish tanks are kinda cool, let's make a whole aquarium!" to "Fuck it, this is officially a museum, let's make a wing for art." The fact that there's an astronomy section is just this thing following it's natural course...

Once fossils can be displayed, I'll need to figure out where I want to put them... I kind of built myself into a corner.

Weltall Zero said:
I don't even know what the individual tiles are, I thought it was a huge single object at first. O_o
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Custom signs. I reallllllly wish they had a portable version because going to the outpost every time I need to make a minor tweak sucks.

I couldn't just have the planets hanging around... I mean, I could, but.... you guys know me well enough at this point...
 
Retro said:
This Monolith started off as "Oh, let's make a cool hidden grove with a palace on top", then turned into "Well, palaces have giant libraries, right?" to "These fish tanks are kinda cool, let's make a whole aquarium!" to "Fuck it, this is officially a museum, let's make a wing for art." The fact that there's an astronomy section is just this thing following it's natural course...

Once fossils can be displayed, I'll need to figure out where I want to put them... I kind of built myself into a corner.



Custom signs. I reallllllly wish they had a portable version because going to the outpost every time I need to make a minor tweak sucks.

I couldn't just have the planets hanging around... I mean, I could, but.... you guys know me well enough at this point...
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Yep, we do. :) Is this all in the GAF server or local?
 
Alright, just finished the Astronomy section, except for a small outbuilding and a couple small rooms I haven't decided what to do with yet (probably little reading rooms, this Monolith is full of em);

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Weltall Zero said:
Yep, we do. :) Is this all in the GAF server or local?
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Local server. Started on a GAF server, but I didn't want to bug HaRyu every single time I was in the mood to work on it so I asked him to send me the planet file.

HaRyu said:
I believe that's not on the GAF server.

Can be imported though! :D
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I don't think it'll ever be "done" since I'm a perfectionist, but when I've got the subway systems connected that's good enough for people to jump around in it, I think.
 
I always seem to end up binge-playing this near the end of each year. Here are my thoughts on the new version.

They seem to want your matter manipulator to be the main digging tool now and pickaxes/drills as very temporary bonuses. I guess I'm okay with that.

The new missions and challenge areas where you can't destroy or place blocks are excellent and add some much needed variety to the game. The way encounters like that worked previously usually ended up with you cheesing through it by placing blocks strategically.

The new implant system I don't like. It's a very linear progression now where each tier has all the perks of the previous one, like breathing underwater and radiation protection. What's even the point of having selectable implants then? Having to choose what kind of protection you want depending on the planet I think was more interesting.

I also don't like how the music no longer fades off when you go deeper underground.
 
Update on 1.0's status
Tiy said:
Happy Halloween!

So here we are, only a few updates left before 1.0 and I wanted to give you a run down on what to expect.

There are 3 updates planned before 1.0. The combat update, the story update and a miscellaneous polish update.

Let’s start by talking about what’s coming up in the next patch, which isn’t far away now.

The Combat Update
We’ve been calling the next patch the combat update, and with good reason. The goal of this patch is to entirely revamp the combat and the moment to moment gameplay in Starbound by revamping weapons, monsters, quests, rewards, vehicles and more.

Weapons
Until now, weapons in Starbound were a combination of hard coded engine features and the configuration files that controlled them. This has changed drastically in the combat update with the engine now allowing for scripted weapons. Creating entirely unique weapons has become massively easier and as a result from this point forwards Starbound patches will include wonderful new items far outside the scope of the previous item engine.

Modders will also be able to take advantage of this system to create incredible new things. The sky’s the limit on this one.

Weapons in vanilla Starbound now fall into two categories, generated and unique. Generated weapons have been converted to the new scripted weapons system and we’ve given them awesome special moves as a result. The general weapon classes have also been revamped in their primary fires. Hammers require a charge up, spears can be held out defensively and so on. We’ve worked hard to give each type of weapon it’s own identity and have built the special attacks around this identity.

Weapons also have elemental types and in future patches we’ll be using those to give damage bonuses and reductions on certain enemies.

Unique weapons are hard to find, will require multiple steps to obtain and will do entirely unique things. I don’t want to spoil too much, but this is the kind of thing you can expect.

[webm of what looks like giant armored robot gloves punching the shit out of a sandbag -Retro]​

We’ve worked really hard on ensuring all of the feedback and damage responses from these weapons is satisfying and spot on. Knockback has been massively tweaked, hitboxes, hit sparks, sounds, you name it. Combat ‘feels’ so much better.

Monsters
Monsters in Starbound have been a mixed bag. We’ve worked hard on the procedural monster generation system and whilst it achieves a lot of things, we felt that the game was missing recognisable monsters with truly unique hand crafted behaviour. That’s where these hand crafted monsters come in.

In a similar manner to the weapons (though not quite to the same extent) we’ve built a system to allow us to add unique monsters efficiently and easily. This also extends to modders.

The addition of these monsters will allow us to use them in quests, provides hand crafted challenges for missions and gives us a good way have monster drops make sense. There are unique monsters for each sub biome and a large pool of general unique monsters that will pop up from time to time.

We’re making sure there’s incentive to catch every unique monster and put together a complete menagerie.

Quests
All of the current Starbound quests are going to be replaced by 1.0. We’ve been building out the quest system and we’re finally at a point where we can replace some of the placeholder quests. Many of the new quests will appear in the story update but the combat update will contain procedurally generated colony quests.

From time to time your colonists will have errands they’d like you to run. These quests form a quest line with an overall goal that may have a small, permanent effect on your colony as well as your colonists relationships. Quests are varied, you might be delivering secret notes between colonists or protecting your colony from bandit attacks. The generated quest system is something with the potential to expand into something huge in the future.

Vehicles
Up until this point vehicles in Starbound have been using the tech system. That means vehicles were merely extensions of the player, with their movement entirely being controlled server side. This system had a great number of limitations. With the combat update we’re introducing true vehicles into Starbound. Much like the weapon system, vehicles are scriptable, they also exist server side as a separate entity separate to, but controlled by players. This means multiple players can enter the same vehicle, players can leave their vehicles to sit in a garage persistently and vehicles can have their own health, collisions and so on.

To start with we’ll be adding a handful of finely tweaked vehicles. But again we haven’t just built some vehicles, we’ve built an entire system so both the developers and modders can add new, completely unique vehicles quickly and easily.

Besides these features, the combat update contains a great deal of miscellaneous additions and fixes. More than I can list here.

The Story Update + The Polish Update
So what about after the combat update?

We’re planning to put out 2 more patches before 1.0 (and many afterwards).

So what will these updates contain? There are a great number of additions planned. Highlights include an entire set of missions, an opening mission that will explain your role in the world, a great deal of new quests that tie the world together, a cast of wonderful unique characters and a huge amount of new content. It’ll also include a much improved pet system, a new means of scanning and examining the world, the much improved reimplementation of survival mechanics like hunger and more.

We’re also planning to revamp how mods are applied and managed, add steam workshop support and simplify multiplayer, with the ability to join games via the steam friends list.

There’s a great deal more to these two patches, but we’ll be talking more about them closer to their release.

Post 1.0 and Beyond
We plan to support Starbound far beyond the 1.0 release. We’re building a universe that’s capable of being taken in a great number of different directions and we’d like to start polling the community to find out where you’d like it to go next.

One thing we’ll be looking into soon after release is director mode. Something you’re able to find information on here.

In the mean time, follow us on twitter, check out our daily blog updates and we’ll keep you informed.

Thank you for supporting Starbound guys, we’re almost there!
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Some webm's tucked into this article I can't directly link, so you can check 'em put here; http://playstarbound.com/what-to-expect-from-the-next-update-1-0-and-beyond/
 
I'm still super hopeful that this game will make it on to Xbox by the end of the year. Seems like the PC is getting the final updates to 1.0 soon?
 
End of the year is probably optimistic at best, and it seems Vita and PS4 are the main priorities in terms of console release right now.

Also, I can't imagine why anyone would think this sort of game would be remotely playable on a console, but apparently people play Terraria on non-PC systems, so what do I know.
 
ValeYard said:
I'm still super hopeful that this game will make it on to Xbox by the end of the year. Seems like the PC is getting the final updates to 1.0 soon?
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Define soon. 1.0 is still a few updates away they said, so middle of 2016 at the earliest?

I've put the game on the backburner for now until we hit release at 1.0. Then I'll be playing the living hell out of it for a long time. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly though. Can't wait to sink my teeth into it for a nice good long game.
 
Stable build is out, the combat update is live! :) List of changes and trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waZGJjJLFps

WEAPONS:

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- Generated and tiered two-handed weapons now have special abilities that can be activated using right click. Many (45+) possible abilities are available for various classes of ranged and melee weapons!
(Yes, some guns now have flashlights)
- Change to hammer mechanics: hold left click to wind up, release to fire
- Change to spear mechanics: continue holding left click after a swing to keep the spear out to fend off enemies
- Several new classes of hard-to-find unique weapons: boomerangs, chakrams and fist weapons
- Find blueprints to upgrade these weapons into even more powerful and specialized versions at higher tiers
- Dual wield fist weapons to enable powerful combo finishers
- A few miscellaneous unique weapons and items such as flamethrowers and remote-detonated grenade launchers

MONSTER + NPC COMBAT:


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- Lots of new unique monsters found throughout the galaxy, each with their own special abilities and behaviors
- Knockback is more powerful and reliable
- Monsters have clearer ‘telegraphing’ to indicate when they are about to attack
- Remade shields and improved blocking mechanics
- Replaced electric stun status effect with Electrified, which periodically damages other nearby enemies
- Hostile monsters now damage the player on touch

VEHICLES:

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- New system for player-controlled vehicles which can be spawned and despawned using Vehicle Controllers (acquired at the Outpost)
- Hoverbikes!
- Great for travelling across planet surfaces quickly!
- They include a passenger seat so you can transport your friends!
- Come in several attractive colors!
- Drive carefully to avoid blowing yourself up!
- Boats!
- Similar to the previous boat tech, useful for crossing large bodies of water
- Your friends can ride on deck or pose dramatically in the bow
- Visit Rob Repairo in the Outpost shipyard area to repair your vehicles using auto chips, which can be found in the world or purchased at the Outpost

QUEST:

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- Quest givers’ portraits are shown on quest dialogs and in the log
- Colonists now occasionally give players new procedural quests to help improve their house or social standing
- The abandon button can be used on procedural quests and the same quests can now be declined

BIOMES:

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- New ‘Midnight’ planets
- New ‘Frozen’ planets (replaces Tundra)
- Prism, Steam Spring, and Hive sub biomes
- Over 300 new microdungeons and other improvements to all underground biomes, including background caves and parallaxes

OTHER:

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- Craftable elevator objects, because stairs are so last millennium
- Consumable dyes to change the color of armor and clothing
- Capture pods are (for now) used to capture and relocate critters, with a more complete pet system returning in a future patch
- Loads of item descriptions have been fixed/replaced/added, including lots of Novakid ones!
- Too many new objects, items, costumes, colony tenants, etc. to list
- Too many bug fixes, item tweaks, and balance changes to list
- Improved support for Tiled map and tileset format for modders

ISSUES:

- Some one-handed, unique and biome weapons which still use the old system will be replaced in a future patch
 
Ah crap, I hope this update didn't muck up my giant build-planet too much, I was hoping there'd be an announcement a few days in advance so I could grab some video footage (it's too big for screenshots).

That sounds like a complaint, and it is, but its a minor one compared to "OMGALLTHENEWSTUFF!" I've been avoiding the unstable builds to keep things fresh, so I know what I'm gonna be doing all day (and all night, and all week, and all weekend...).

Edit: Looks like everything is good on my home planet, excellent.
 
Awesome! I'll hop into game to check stuff out a bit, but I'm still waiting until 1.0 to really sink my teeth in with a brand new save game.
 
That looks pretty sweet, but I'm still trying to wait for the non-early-access release. Any word on how many more updates are planned before then?
 
Wyndstryker said:
Once GAFserver is back up and running, I'll be making a new hellavator on my homeworld. Which is an actual elevator lol.
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Yeah, the elevators don't work like that. They're short, place-able objects that have a limited height and seem to just move up and down on their own. Really disappointed with them so far, I was hoping for something that used a track / stop / car system.
 
InfiniteBento said:
Just got a steam controller so I'm definitely hype to check out this update and try out Starbound with it.
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It works well! I've started a new file for this update, strictly using the Steam Controller, and it feels really natural. The only annoying part about it so far is having to open up a .pak file to up the HUD size (context being I play on a TV).
 
Spukc said:
this game and rust made me never buy any early access games again
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Starbound's a good game, but man do I wish they would finish it already so that I could actually play it. I want to start a new game and play it over a long time without fear of having it broken or wiped by beta patches, so I just don't play it at all. In the meantime, I wait......
 
Everything is so linear now... Every planets are 'the same', no surprises. An Ocean/Forest/Lush/Desert planet can't be dangerous or extreme, you know exactly what's gonna happen on them... I don't know... i preferred the crazyness (colors, biomes, difficulty...) on early builds.
There's something off now. I don't feel like an explorer, it's useless to visit another solar system for fun if you're done with the previous one. Just follow the road : Gentle ---> Fiery stars and you're done.
 
Saren is Bad said:
Gotcha. I'll wait for a realist to respond.
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I'm not going to reply to such rudeness as it deserves because it would get me banned. I'll just express disbelieving at such an offensive reply to a well-meaning, informative post. But apparently you're just waiting for is for someone to confirm your biased opinion, so here it is: "The game never updates and is never coming out". Now be on your way.
 
Hum, this little exchange [right above/in the previous page] put aside, may I inquire what have been the last updates of Starbound? How is underground exploration now (I found this aspect of the game to be somewhat lacking when I played it)? What are the current plans for the game?

Additionaly, while browsing their website, it seems their forums were compromised, and our usernames and emails have been exported. It is recommended to change our passwords (I've never been more happy to have completly different passwords for everything online).

Heh, at least they don't try to sweep that under the rug, like Steam. Formal apology and explanation of what happened, I like that. Credits to Mollygos.
 
Nohar said:
Hum, this little exchange [right above/in the previous page] put aside, may I inquire what have been the last updates of Starbound? How is underground exploration now (I found this aspect of the game to be somewhat lacking when I played it)? What are the current plans for the game?

Additionaly, while browsing their website, it seems their forums were compromised, and our usernames and emails have been exported. It is recommended to change our passwords (I've never been more happy to have completly different passwords for everything online).

Heh, at least they don't try to sweep that under the rug, like Steam. Formal apology and explanation of what happened, I like that. Credits to Mollygos.
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Uh, it's incredibly amateurish to store unencrypted passwords. It's like the very first thing everyone learns in IT. As they refer to "password information" I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were indeed encrypted and are just covering all bases. Not backing up the forums regularly is only slightly below that in the "what the fuck are they thinking" list, too. Frankly disappointing on both accounts.
 
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