Hello, people =) I've been taking a look at many threads in the forums and I'll try to both summarize some of the keypoints players would like to see as well as personal suggestions to the game. Please keep in mind the following are just opinions so let's all discuss this in a civilized fashion. I'll try to be as brief as possible. 1 - General Game Progression Since the main quest has not yet been fully developed, some of the elements are in standby, too. The main aspects tied to it are: - Tech; - Equipment; - Exploration; In short, we are able to upgrade our ships and characters, to some degree. However, when that is over (and it happens fast) players are left with little more to do than creating collonies and having fun going dungeon diving. The sense of purpose quickly dissipates as we have no more quests or challenges to complete. That could be fixed, possibly, by: 1.1 - Randomly Generated Bosses Starbound lacks a real, big boss fight. The bosses in the main storyline are really cool, but except for the first one, they lack strategy. The devs already have one incredibly powerful feature in the game: galaxy exploring. I think implementing gigantic, tough bosses which require some thinking and wits to defeat (as well as numbers) in the adequate biomes would be very interesting. Difficulty could scale related to solar system/planet/biome/daytime/temperature etc. 1.2 - Hybridization of Tech System Tech should be found as a reward from challenge doors or even craftable, besides quests. It should also have deeper interaction with the environment (for instance, some sort of mechanism that could only be ativated by tech, metroid much). I personnaly feel that widening the variety of tech is needed. 1.3 - Loot drops Even though SB has got such an incredible diversity to monsters, they usually drop the same items, over and over. I think loot tables should be updated to be more fitting of the creature we defeat, and more items should be created to make use of these resources. Also, maybe make monsters drop unique weapons. That goes without saying for bosses. 1.4 - Equipment Revamp Since the main plot is short, so are our possibilities when it comes to equipment. Even though there's somewhat a fair variety of weapons and armour, it all feels preety much repetitive. With the recent updates, we can craft staves based off the races and almost all of them have preety interesting powers. I think the devs should follow in that direction to create more equipment. Also, special abilities for one handed weapons would be neat. For example: since Grenade launchers don't really pay off with very slow fire rate and somewhat high damage, maybe we could cycle between ammo type (proximity mines, bouncing, sticky, timed grenades, etc), it would add some versatilty. Shortswords could employ series of quick slashes, long range attacks, etc. Remembering, these are just suggestions. 1.5 - Racial bonuses and skills; Preety much what is written. Maybe passive abilities, or even active, but something to further distinguish races apart from appearance and dialogues. Florans could go berserk, Glitches could have extra armor, Novakids could generate light, etc. 1.6 - Leveling System Honestly, I don't intend for Starbound to be RPG orientated. As such, when I say "leveling system", I mean for the game to have a way to somehow track youre rewards and punishments. It could also be via armor quality. But that way, we wouldn't be rellying only on planet risk level to grab the good stuff. It could work through both methods, honestly. 2 - Collonization System The last, big change I think should be made, for now, is related to tenant managing and rewards. 2.1 - Managing I think it would be interesting if tenants could be "employed" to relief some time consuming activities for the action orientated players. For instance, in exchange for a place to stay, instead of paying rent the tenant could be, via a Colony Deed interface option, commanded to work on crops, mine, hunt, etc. After gathering/crafting resources, the player would need only click the gift icon to receive them. Maybe their efficiency could be tied to the leveling system aforementioned, or the amount/quality of furniture. 2.2 - Rewards There is a huge discrepancy between the gifts offered by tenants and the actual point the player is situated in the game. For example, even though I have huge farms and highest tier armor, tenants still give me early game seeds/food (pearlpeas) and low dps weapons. This would be another good tandem with the leveling system. By using player level as a reference, tenants would give increasingly better gifts. As it stands to be a auxiliary reward system, not core, it could be capped (tenants oferring pixels up to 2000, high level cooked food, or decent weapons). Also, as to not make it entirely random, players would be able to set, via Colony Deed, the type of reward they'd want from each tenant: ingredients, money, equipment, etc. But then, the gift itself would be randomly choosen from the set category. Those are all the main points from what I could see in the forums and that I think should be noted. Once again, these are only suggestions keeping in mind the fun and depth of the game. I am sorry for any mistakes, I'm brazilian and my english is not very good. Please comment!
I agree with much of everything you say. And it's good in my opinion that you condensed everything in this forum even though it feels like the suggestion forums is broken up in pieces where you have to put all your thoughts in several different forums which seems to be a bother. I like Starbound a lot and I always come back to check the updates but even though these updates seem massive, they don't seem to be giving much impact to the game in general. They just seem like extra DLC updates that just adds a bit of flavor to the game. This game has so much potential though. Anyway, I'll respond to your thoughts and my input on them. 1.1 - Randomly Generated Bosses The Erchius Horror boss & Mission was pretty fantastic. The Ixodoom & Mission was also spectacular. I enjoyed it a lot. A bit more update with the dialogue and how it connects with the grand scheme of things with be greatly appreciated. Wherever the devs want to take the story that is. I felt like the Erchius Horror and Ixodoom Bosses connected with the Human & Floran Races. Would be awesome if they can give us something that connects to the other races and I feel that there's already enough races. No need to make more. It offers nothing at this point. The Penguin Bosses should be separate. I wasn't impressed with the two that's there but it's a nice addition to the game. I wouldn't mind more penguin bosses but I feel that they aren't a priority to the story and doesn't seem to have much of a place in Starbound aside from simply being nice additions. 1.2 - Hybridization of Tech System Perhaps more tech would be appreciated but at the moment, they seem fine for the time being. I don't agree that they should be found since Starbound isn't about 1 planet but instead it's simply too vast. I honestly don't want to travel from planet to planet searching for a Tech. That would take forever. Instead, I feel they should be achieved after defeating a boss. Not the Penguin Bosses but Good Bosses like Ixodoom and Erchius Horror. I remember there being a chest or something after defeating those bosses and the chest should contain a Tech. 1.3 - Loot drops I accepted that Starbound isn't Terraria and we shouldn't expect the drop rates to be like Terraria. Frankly, I could care less about small monsters giving anything aside from pixels. But unique Mini-Bosses (the ones that I rarely encounter with red bubbles around it and are slightly bigger) should drop something unique. Something meaningful that can be traded in for a Weapon of some sort or whatever at the Outpost. And the Outpost should have an NPC that accepts these bounties of 'Mini-bosses' for trade in. Make it so the rewards for finding and killing 'Mini-Bosses' GOOD so the players actually care! 1.4 - Equipment Revamp There has already been a recent update on equipment and combat in general and I feel they shouldn't invest more time into this for the time being. It's fine for the time being. The weapons seem to be randomly generated so it's really all chance on finding a good one from a chest or something. I don't mind that. A shop @ the Outpost for End Game Weapons would be nice. Something associated with killing 'Mini-Bosses' or w/e. ------------------------------------------------------------------ As for the rest of the topics... I don't really care for. A Leveling system isn't needed in my opinion and perhaps the racials could be revamped but whatever. The BIGGEST update this game NEEDS are more Bosses like Erchius Horror and Ixodoom that somehow connects to the story and a FREAKEN STORY! You can argue that Terraria didn't have a story and is a good game but Terraria never gave us any story to begin with and is awesome because of the Boss Battles. I feel Starbound could be greater, but in a totally different way. It has sooooo much potential.
In general, I agree with what you say. However, I really feel that unique loot tables would make going to this or that biome so much more purposeful and fun. Kinda like a Monster Hunter feeling? It actually is because I feel that we have very few weapon recipes in the game but a fair amount of crafting materials... more of a balancing issue. But I totally stand for what you said about equipment and tech. It's kind of sad to have all that cerulium, ferozium and impervium forgotten in a chest.
The problem I see with unique loot tables I imagine is that it's going to be incredibly hard for the devs to figure out what each monsters drop. It depends on how many monsters we are talking about. If we are only talking about Mini-Bosses, then the job would be easier as there would be less monsters to be dealing with. A nice number would be around 20-25 Unique Mini-Bosses that drop something special at 100% droprate. Also Finding these Mini-Bosses should be an uncommon or rare occurrence to offset the 100% drop chance. So For Example, if I stumble upon a Mini-Boss I would be happy to kill it because I know it's rare and that it'll drop something worthwhile for me to trade in for something awesome. And Mini-Bosses should definitely be found only in their unique Biomes making going to this or that biome (like you said) more purposeful and fun... It'll definitely give some incentive to exploring each biome in hopes of encountering a Rare Mini-Boss. At the moment, with all these new updates... I'm still not thrilled at playing this game. There doesn't appear to be this incentive. The weapons update was cool but for the update to be more effective, there would have to be Major Bosses where I actually feel the need to use these weapons. At the moment, there are simply none. There really has got to be a Boss so hard that it becomes nearly impossible to defeat unless I have a really good weapon.
Indeed. The issue, imho, is that we've got all this firepower directed to common enemies that can't do anything against us... it's like there is no difficulty. The only reasons I die are thing like falling damage, environment hazards, etc
This is planned, actually. Expect to see it in the future. For now, the mod Racial Gameplay Variation adds interesting passive abilities to each species.
