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Starbound Beta Thread - Begins December 4th!

SO, I spent over a dozen hours with the game this weekend exploring and trying out the crafting, combat, and building and such, all in single player, but I haven't yet tried multiplayer at all. After the patch hits I'll probably hop onto the GAF server to see what multi is like in this game, but I have a question: all players don't have to be on the same planet, do they? And if not, then does the server bog down if everyone is scattered across the galaxy on different planets? I can imagine the server map file size increasing very fast with this game, especially with people warping all over the billions of planets to explore. Or are the data files fairly small? I've not had the time to delve into the game files yet and see how it's structured.
 
Achtius said:
it's so hard to find silver and iron to make the distress beacon. Is there any way to go back to previously visited planet without making it home planet?
Click to expand...

Yes, write down its x,y coordinates in your navigation and punch them in. Hopefully they'll implement a Navbook that records your previously visited planets, but until then it's good old pen and paper time.
 
I already backed up my player and universe folders (located in Steam\steamapps\common\Starbound) - although I'm fine with starting all over again, too. Might go with the apex master race this time around; kinda annoying they're the only ones to get beards, would be fine with human otherwise.
 
Achtius said:
it's so hard to find silver and iron to make the distress beacon. Is there any way to go back to previously visited planet without making it home planet?
Click to expand...

You gotta go deeper for them ores.

You could just put the coordinates in for the planet or right click on the star map and choose which planet you want to go to.
 
Mengy said:
SO, I spent over a dozen hours with the game this weekend exploring and trying out the crafting, combat, and building and such, all in single player, but I haven't yet tried multiplayer at all. After the patch hits I'll probably hop onto the GAF server to see what multi is like in this game, but I have a question: all players don't have to be on the same planet, do they? And if not, then does the server bog down if everyone is scattered across the galaxy on different planets? I can imagine the server map file size increasing very fast with this game, especially with people warping all over the billions of planets to explore. Or are the data files fairly small? I've not had the time to delve into the game files yet and see how it's structured.
Click to expand...
Any number of players can be distributed onto any number of planets. It's actually better for everyone not to be on one planet at once, as that seems to cause huge lag. As for map file size, my universe folder has accumulated up to 52.3mb with about 30 hours of solo play. It helps that the game only saves changes that were made to planets and not every small detail about every planet you visit. Maybe HaRyu will chime in about what the universe file size looks like.
 
Drazgul said:
I already backed up my player and universe folders (located in Steam\steamapps\common\Starbound) - although I'm fine with starting all over again, too. Might go with the apex master race this time around; kinda annoying they're the only ones to get beards, would be fine with human otherwise.
Click to expand...

Could you use the hair mods to create beards as they sit over the face?
 
woolley said:
You gotta go deeper for them ores.

You could just put the coordinates in for the planet or right click on the star map and choose which planet you want to go to.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I think there needs to be a better system for logging planet locations in-game. Yes I could use notepad, but why can't I add it to a favourites list on my nav computer?
 
Sir Fragula said:
Hmm, I think there needs to be a better system for logging planet locations in-game. Yes I could use notepad, but why can't I add it to a favourites list on my nav computer?
Click to expand...

That is a great idea, I am sure they will add it. Right now I have a .txt file but its annoying alt tabbing and writing down coordinates.
 
Chezzymann said:
Is the character wipe mandatory? Or could i just not update?
Click to expand...

You could just not update, but you'd have to make sure to turn off auto updates for Starbound.

Personally I would back up my Starbound folder so I could restore it if I wanted to see my old character/world, because the new update adds a lot and sounds like it will really improve the game, and eventually the updates are going to add so much you'd be crazy to stay on beta version 2 or whatever we're at.
 
Maybe the patch will go live when I wake up.

One question on about the Gaf server, is there a dedicated Gaf homeworld or are you all just scattered into the solar winds?
 
RaySpencer said:
Sure, but I just found out about this game like a week ago, and I knew what it was about so I didn't need to come into the thread. Haha


A character wipe in a game like this is worse than a character wipe in an MMO! And I don't really see why it needs to happen anyway. I'm just bummed out is all. Haha.
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I'm bummed too and I've been expecting it since before I bought the game :(

I actually stopped playing it once they announced an update with a probable character wipe was coming. Even though I knew it was going to happen, I still got too attached to the game lol
 
demidar said:
Maybe the patch will go live when I wake up.

One question on about the Gaf server, is there a dedicated Gaf homeworld or are you all just scattered into the solar winds?
Click to expand...
Some folks are on...

Alpha Ant Minoris I, Alpha Sector (-47078397, 38152688)

While other folks have been on...

Alpha Delta Cep 20 II a, Alpha Sector (-89271849, 14590399)

HaRyu made a twitter account for the GAF server, just to remind everyone. Let him know your server issues or questions there, as I believe he indicated he'll be more responsive to tweets there than posts here about that.
 
VandalD said:
Some folks are on...

Alpha Ant Minoris I, Alpha Sector (-47078397, 38152688)

While other folks have been on...

Alpha Delta Cep 20 II a, Alpha Sector (-89271849, 14590399)

HaRyu made a twitter account for the GAF server, just to remind everyone. Let him know your server issues or questions there, as I believe he indicated he'll be more responsive to tweets there than posts here about that.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll hit up those planets when I get the time.
 
VandalD said:
While other folks have been on...

Alpha Delta Cep 20 II a, Alpha Sector (-89271849, 14590399)
Click to expand...

I'm flying around in this area and found an Avian pirate ship

oggDSYu.png
Click to expand...

They sold me this huge sniper for 630 pixel, but still nothing beats the iron bow...hmpf

aEH6OW5.png
Click to expand...
 
VandalD said:
Some folks are on...

Alpha Ant Minoris I, Alpha Sector (-47078397, 38152688)

While other folks have been on...

Alpha Delta Cep 20 II a, Alpha Sector (-89271849, 14590399)

HaRyu made a twitter account for the GAF server, just to remind everyone. Let him know your server issues or questions there, as I believe he indicated he'll be more responsive to tweets there than posts here about that.
Click to expand...

Ant Minoris seems like it's GAF Prime with all the building and action there. Be sure to visit Frog Merchant deep below Believe Manor (and slightly to the right) to get your gold pickaxe.
 
VandalD said:
Any number of players can be distributed onto any number of planets. It's actually better for everyone not to be on one planet at once, as that seems to cause huge lag. As for map file size, my universe folder has accumulated up to 52.3mb with about 30 hours of solo play. It helps that the game only saves changes that were made to planets and not every small detail about every planet you visit. Maybe HaRyu will chime in about what the universe file size looks like.
Click to expand...

Okay, that's exactly what I was wondering. From a programming perspective, do they save an entire planet map upon generation or do they just save the changed block data and use the procedural generator to fill in the map on each visit? Sound like they only save the changes, which was very, very smart on their part. That will go a very long way towards keeping server file sizes down to minimal levels. I've done that before while messing around with world generator code and it makes an immense difference in file sizes and disk access.

I wonder if they also only load the local planet map onto the player's PC and not on the server at all, loading only the changed map data server side, that would offload a lot of server work too.


Bah, the programmer in me is over thinking this, I should simply log on to the GAF server and enjoy myself, LOL.
 
Mengy said:
Okay, that's exactly what I was wondering. From a programming perspective, do they save an entire planet map upon generation or do they just save the changed block data and use the procedural generator to fill in the map on each visit? Sound like they only save the changes, which was very, very smart on their part. That will go a very long way towards keeping server file sizes down to minimal levels. I've done that before while messing around with world generator code and it makes an immense difference in file sizes and disk access.

I wonder if they also only load the local planet map onto the player's PC and not on the server at all, loading only the changed map data server side, that would offload a lot of server work too.


Bah, the programmer in me is over thinking this, I should simply log on to the GAF server and enjoy myself, LOL.
Click to expand...

I was actually looking at this yesterday. It appears that the seed is used to first generate a planet, but then further subsequent changes will be saved locally. I'm pretty sure a delta of the changes after that aren't done since all of the world files seem to be fairly consistent in their file sizes so it's just static worlds after generation.
 
I notice on the Twitter StarboundGAF account it states that if you want to save any gear, to store it on a planet. Any care to expand on this? When our characters get wiped, I assume the planet exploration, etc. would get wiped as well. Is that not correct? If that's not the case, do I simply log the coordinates of my current planet to then get back at some time in the future?

Thanks!
 
Kadin said:
I notice on the Twitter StarboundGAF account it states that if you want to save any gear, to store it on a planet. Any care to expand on this? When our characters get wiped, I assume the planet exploration, etc. would get wiped as well. Is that not correct? If that's not the case, do I simply log the coordinates of my current planet to then get back at some time in the future?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The universes and characters are two separate entities. Hence why you can take your character to multiple servers.
 
Mengy said:
Okay, that's exactly what I was wondering. From a programming perspective, do they save an entire planet map upon generation or do they just save the changed block data and use the procedural generator to fill in the map on each visit? Sound like they only save the changes, which was very, very smart on their part. That will go a very long way towards keeping server file sizes down to minimal levels. I've done that before while messing around with world generator code and it makes an immense difference in file sizes and disk access.

I wonder if they also only load the local planet map onto the player's PC and not on the server at all, loading only the changed map data server side, that would offload a lot of server work too.


Bah, the programmer in me is over thinking this, I should simply log on to the GAF server and enjoy myself, LOL.
Click to expand...
I'm glad they went with this method. Not only does it save on hard disk storage, but it's probably a big factor on how surprisingly stable the multiplayer has been. And yeah, you should hop on the GAF server sometime! I know I'll be on after HaRyu gets the server updated.
Shining Sunshine said:
Is it possible to start on the same planet as someone?
Click to expand...
A lot of us did on the GAF server, but not all of us. Not sure why it worked out that way, but it did. Could have to do with updates or just server changes.
Kadin said:
So I can just store my items in a chest on my planet and they'll still be there after a character wipe?
Click to expand...
Assuming the wipe doesn't extend to the universe, yes, anything you put on the planets should be intact, unless items are changed so much as to morph them into the placeholder generic item. I've had that happen while making a few dumb changes to the matter manipulator. Save some stuff if you want to, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work out.
 
mileS said:
Updated news from IRC chat
http://pastebin.com/f6YqE0GY

Weapons and a bit of the "creature capture/pets" Sounds freaking awesome.
Click to expand...
Does sound awesome. I expect a Pokemon mod within a month

How cool would it be to set up an actual Pokemon-style battle league in Starbound and then go out collect the best monsters and creatures and have them fight each other? Well hopefully creatures do fight each other, but still that would be really cool
 
Capturing monsters sounds like a lot of fun!

Really looking forward to this update, and it'd be great if it came out tonight. I know my wife is sitting on pins and needles waiting for it as well.

We've been having a blast with it so far.

Personally, I don't care about losing my character, as I plan on starting fresh anyway. Hopefully, though, the next time an update happens, it won't wipe the character or universe. I've invested a few hours into it (perhaps 8 at the most), so I won't lose too much. Pulse jump is awesome, though...
 
I am way more excited for indie games than major studio games. I seem to enjoy them more. Got about 60hours on Binding of issac and 60 hours on rogue legacy. God help me on this game.
 
More_Badass said:
Does sound awesome. I expect a Pokemon mod within a month

How cool would it be to set up an actual Pokemon-style battle league in Starbound and then go out collect the best monsters and creatures and have them fight each other? Well hopefully creatures do fight each other, but still that would be really cool
Click to expand...

Hah with Gym Leaders in each Sector! Eventually your travels brings you toe to toe with Glitch Ash.
 
VandalD said:
Assuming the wipe doesn't extend to the universe, yes, anything you put on the planets should be intact, unless items are changed so much as to morph them into the placeholder generic item. I've had that happen while making a few dumb changes to the matter manipulator. Save some stuff if you want to, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work out.
Click to expand...
Sounds good, thanks!
 
Hope their AI gets updated before then Or all battles would basically be two monsters using bodyslam and killing each other by just constantly rubbing against themselves.
 
So how would they expand the instrument system?
I mean will we get to the point of actually being able to have slightly less midi sounding stuff coming out? or would that be a completely different ballgame?
 
Twinduct said:
Hope their AI gets updated before then Or all battles would basically be two monsters using bodyslam and killing each other by just constantly rubbing against themselves.
Click to expand...

Yeah, npcs should attack from a certain distance, not just walk into the character and attack.
 
I'm anxious to see how the new balance works out. In messing around with the numbers for armor penetration, I don't think it was a bad system. It was just massively unbalanced. Numbers could have easily been changed to deflate the importance of armor penetration. I even did it myself.
 
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