Starbound - adventure, terraria graphics designer ( INDIE )

[Warbie]

Out on 1.0 release tomorrow.

I've been keeping an eye on the updates, sound like quite a lot of changes and improvements from the earlier stable pre-releases

Combat and weapons have been changed
Crafting has been changed
Ship crews
Story mode and NPC quests
More biomes and better transitions

I've been waiting, waiting and waiting Tomorrow I'll be jumping in for the first time. I've learnt my lesson with other early access games - they may be fun at the time, but I'm convinced you will always have a better experience if you can hold off. Rimworld is testing me tho!

 

[Shamikebab]

This game actually feels worse than the last time I played. It feels very beta if not alpha.

I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing, my mission is go to the Erchius mining facility and get some fuel or something....only the things there 2 shot me. I still only have an iron sword and the first armour set. Despite mining loads of gold, silver and copper I can't craft anything with any of it. The crafting tables all seem to require tungsten ore to upgrade which I haven't seen any of. How am I supposed to get better weapons/armour? I've walked over my entire planet and been down to the lava and it just seems to be completely empty. I've found some bombs but not much else.

I have another mission against some penguins with machine guns, I managed to kill one but it didn't drop the gun. Next one had a tank....I still have a sword.

Even mining was slow, the manipulator is soooo slow to mine and the upgrades all seem to be crazy expensive.

This actually feels like less of a complete game than Crea and that is made by one guy, this has been in development for flipping ages :/

 

[FrenchTart]

I've played a bit of this in the last couple of days and tbh I have found it hard going. It really isn't grabbing me in the same way as Terraria (though I did originally find that a bit tough to get into at first too if I'm honest).

The missions I've found to be more interesting than they were and I've just got dash and double-jump (not enough gold for the morph ball). There's also a little story thrown in there now but it still all feels a bit..blah.

I actually think I'll enjoy this more once there are decent guides available. I just don't have the patience to stab in the dark constantly.

Absolutely agree with Shamikebab regarding how slow the matter manipulator is and from memory in older versions you'd be able to build a pickaxe/whatever. In this version you seem to be required to upgrade your matter manipulator. I actually kind of like that idea as a mechanic but dear lord the slowness annoys me right now. I'm sure starting equipment in Terraria would do the same but there was a lot more interesting stuff to find just blahing around the surface/caves in that. The sense of exploration is definitely lost at the moment - and on that note I'm strongly considering switching to casual mode so I can teleport home when I want and not drop items. Such a poor mechanic (item drop is really terrible..teleport home is less bad but still makes exploring underground more tedious rather than more interesting).

I really think this game would benefit from some kind of home planet "hub" or something. As it is the starting planet feels so transitory that I really don't care about building up a house or anything. I started work on a farm but quickly became bored of that.

Oh..final thing...the hunger mechanic feels really tacked on and pointless.

I really want to like this game and I do think it has improved a lot but it's just so..blah.

 

[Warbie]

I'm loving this. Perhaps because I never tried Terraria some of the changes aren't as annoying, but I'm enjoying the cave exploring, hunting and growing crops. At first going into depths was an exercise in panic - stumbling around in the dark, getting lost and starving to death - but now I've conquered it. Tooled up with ropes, lights and supplies, there's little to fear. Now the ship has been repaired and the universe it there to explore!

 

[Mercutio]

I've been waiting, waiting and waiting Tomorrow I'll be jumping in for the first time. I've learnt my lesson with other early access games - they may be fun at the time, but I'm convinced you will always have a better experience if you can hold off. Rimworld is testing me tho!

I took the plunge with Rimworld. It's... nice enough. I'd have much preferred to spend a tenner on it tbh though. There's.... some form of depth but it's a bit... empty feeling atm. I don't feel conned at all, just not really worth it's current asking (imo).

 

[dirtybeatfreak]

I have been enjoying this but do prefer Terraria. Not played for ages but thought would give 1.0 a try to see what has changed. Started off on beginner planet, found quite a few chests with some loot so maybe you guys have been unlucky?? Then took on the Mining Facility, cleared that and am now finishing quests off from the Outpost. I too am not sure on the item drop mechanic but I do like that it makes me be a lot more careful about dying.

@Shamikebab, you don't get Tungsten on the first planet mate. The penguin thing you mentioned is

Spoiler

the area for the second boss, you need a bit of gear to take him down.

A tip that isn't clear is that you can visit the other planets in the system without the need for fuel once you have repaired your ship.

 

[Mobius 1]

re-downloaded this again yesterday. seeing as it's now officially out of beta.

its pretty good. avoided most of the enemies by jumping over them. found some pretty sweet loot/weapons in a few chests in the mining facility on the first planet.

got an auto laser pistol which makes killing things sooooo much easier than using that cack two handed sword. found a load of throwing darts too.

prepare to die, A LOT. literally took me about 15 deaths to gather enough of those shards in the mine to be able to warp to the next part of the game.

and thats where i left off. i'll play a little more later today.

 

[Seanspeed]

I've only died I think 4 times so far at 16 hours in. Two of them were early on and I was simply panicking hitting the wrong buttons trying to switch between dirt, healing and weapons.

I did play Terraria before so I kind of have an idea how to handle staying alive. Creating your own cover or barriers using dirt helps a lot with enemies. And knowing how to be prepared when going cave diving is crucial as is knowing how to handle getting around in them. All very much similar to Terraria here but with extra tools like rope and flashlight.

It is very easy to die, though. Enemies hit hard and it's easy to be unprepared. Hunger nearly got me once, but I scraped by and then had to look up best way to get food because that whole aspect isn't explained to you at all. I think it's a bit of a 'take it or leave it' system, but now that I've got a little farm growing, a fridge and more recipes, I'm finding more satisfaction in managing this aspect.

The game is great so far. I bought this game back in 2014 but stayed away from the beta period cuz I wanted to go in fresh at 1.0. Glad I did.

 

[[YG]Bug-Eyed]

Just bought this through steam, and it will launch to the menu screen but after 10 seconds or so crashes with a Fatal Error: Access Violation message with a numbered list of codes / problems / etc.

Looking around there seems to be a lot with the same issue, but no recent solutions - similar errors in the past have been fixable with compatibility mode / etc - but no luck here.

First game in ages I can remember having an issue with

Anyone else had similar issues / fixed it somehow? - otherwise will refund it!

Gaming i7 laptop with 7970M graphics / 16gig and tried installing to different hhd without success

Edit - never-mind I'm a tool - as I typed 7970M I suddenly thought "switchable graphics" - forced it to AMD and seems stable now - must not like Intel integrated graphics!!

 

[FoxEye]

its pretty good. avoided most of the enemies by jumping over them. found some pretty sweet loot/weapons in a few chests in the mining facility on the first planet.

I haven't played since before 1.0.

I should start by saying that I'm a massive Terraria fan, and feel they really nailed the combat in that game.

In StarBound, I have to say, the combat was awful. The enemies would all one- or two-shot me, even with appropriate level gear.

But... with a ranged weapon I could use terrain and exploit the hell out of the AI, so I did.

Mine all the ore you need for progression, move up to the next tier, mine the ore... make your gear... avoid being hit at all costs. Play the game like a bullet hell game... shoot thinks and avoid things.

In the end there are problems that mean I'll never like the game like I liked Terraria.

1. Too many worlds, you run through each of them in 10 mins then on to the next. No incentive to build on any of them.
2. Combat is awful. "It's a crawly thing! Look at its- oh, I'm dead." Guess I'll use ranged weapons and nothing else from now until forever.
3. 100s of worlds sure.. but once you've seen 5 you've seen them all. Pallet swaps aren't impressing me!
4. Boredom sets in fast due to repetition. Like, after world 3.
5. Oh, is that a pallet swap of the same creature I've seen on the last four worlds? Pallet swaps are great, aren't they.
6. This world has pink tress instead of brown? And... that's it?
7. All this gear and I still get one-shot.
8. I can go back to the first planet and actually survive a few hits now! I'm only five tiers over-geared for it! So sadly there's nothing there worth gathering. Hmm.

I don't know why I numbered that list. That's just how it is tho.

StarBound is shallow, repetitive, doesn't draw me in, doesn't make my invest in it. The combat should be easy to get right, but they've had years and it always sucks each time I try it.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Yay or nay? Can’t decide!

 

[Amnesia]

tried it about 18 months ago and it was laggy in multiplayer.
if you dont have terraria then get that instead