Feedback I can't enjoy Starbound, too many quality-of-life features are missing.

• Chest sorting (deposit all, quick stack)
• Sorting to nearby chests
• A hotkey for healing
• A hotkey for placing a torch
• A hotkey for throwing a flare
• A hotkey for switching to and from the pickaxe
• Ability to bind mouse buttons
• Pickaxes being 3x3 and the character being 4 blocks in height
• Pickaxes and torches being two handed taking up space in the already limited space of the hotbar
• Scrolling through the hotbar having to go through the Wire, Paint and Inspect modes which I never use.

I have barely played to the point of finding tungsten and already I've made a list this long, there may be more issues later in the game. For all of these reasons, the flow of the controls is far too stiff in my opinion.

I've been wracking my brain trying to streamline the controls through control remapping and complex AutoHotKey scripts, but it's all just far too frustrating. If we compare Starbound's controls and quality-of-life features to Terraria (a game which truly spoils the user in this sense), Starbound seems very primitive. There are many mods attempting to improve the ease of play and the community is doing a great job with this mods, but it's not nearly enough.

I want to say though, if we disregard these issues, I really enjoy Starbound. It's a fantastic title in the sandbox/adventure genre and (in my personal opinion) would surpass Terraria in enjoyment, were all these issues listed above to be addressed... Which would be incredible because I have 1800 hours in that damn game, maybe that's why I miss all those QoL features so much.

 

List of issues with your suggested "features":

• Okay, this one is fair, but given that this game is built from the ground up to be moddable (as in, the game's basic content is written the same way mods are), you should try one of the mods that adds this. Enhanced Storage or Improved Containers (more lightweight, fewer "cheaty" things) come to mind.
• How would you prevent people from depositing into nearby chests owned by others in multiplayer? And without getting into the absolute mess of trying to explicitly designate the ownership of a given chest.
• How would this work in a game with a variety of different types and ways to heal? Off the top of my head, some food types, eating until food, and the three or so "basic" healing items, which all have wildly different properties and rarities that mean you might want to conserve the use of one particular type. Just put the type of basic healing item you want to use on your hotbar and switch to it if you need to heal. Outside of the first 2 tiers or so, you really don't need to heal ever if you're playing properly, and can just coast by on the full stomach regen.
• Doesn't really make sense in a game where you have a ton of different lighting options with a variety of costs and a variety of lighting types.
• How often are you actually going to have a flare on you? Not often.
• That already exists (r key).
• Okay, that's one I don't understand either. May have something to do with the way some parts of the game were implemented.
• You do realize you can upgrade your Matter Manipulator, right? Upgrading to 4x4 is always the first one I go for.
• Okay, fair point, again, there are mods to solve this. Also, you do realize you can use the x key to switch to and from a second set of hotbar slots, right?
• Why are you scrolling through them? Just use the number keys.

As for controls feeling stiff, I always recommend getting the No Double Tap To Dash mod and then trying to take on a prison using Air Dash, armor 2 tiers below that of the planet and weapons 1 tier below. I see so many people complaining about this game being unwieldy while trying to play with completely the wrong rhythm, but if there's anything that can get someone to learn how to actually use Starbound's controls properly, that challenge is probably it.
Two more things regarding controls feeling stiff that a lot of people don't seem to realize: a: there's actually an explicit timer on switching between two weapons, equal to half the fire time of the weapon switched to. So switching back between two weapons will result in you never being able to fire and b: you can drag items outside of your inventory window to use them and don't explicitly need to put them on your hotbar (useful for eating food or quickly placing something while building).

 

Isn't "deposit all/quick stack" done with a shift-click? Or am I not understanding what exactly you're after with that one?

 

He is talking about a button that would would either attempt to dump all of an item tab into the open chest (deposit all) or stack all of the items already in the chest with more from inventory (stack all) and yeah as far as I know enhanced storage adds a quick stack button but doesnt have a deposit all feature.

 

I tried to play the game today after few years of waiting if it'll get better... nope. User interface has gazillion issues, where the ones mentioned in the opening post are just a drop in the bucket.

If client has to be modded to be decent, then it's not well designed in the first place.
Terraria has an awesome user interface, it's easy to use, intuitive, fast... why Starbound has this clunky thing where just crafting something is such a chore or finding an item you just picked up a lenghty and slow process... I'll never know.
The hotbar is a mess to use and in general switching between tools and items and building material is slow and cumbersome.

I wish nothing else to the default experience than a deep and proper look at how this interface and overall feel of the game comes across on blind auditioning new players.

Currently it's a mess.

We need some big clues from Terraria automatic tool selection and how there's a single big space for the inventory, how healing item you're going to use is the first in line in your inventory from up left towards bottom right, how you're able to "favorite" items to lock them in place, where this overly complex notion of 2 hands isn't there to make everything feel clunky, where the organization and functions of the hot-bar are simple and straight forward..

It's not realistic, but it doesn't have to be. The game needs to be fun and feel natural. I've never had the feeling of utter anger at the controls or user interface on Terraria, and even then they've introduced so many QOL improvements in patches that it's just perfect.

Etc... could write a damn book about it.

 

Would love to have Quick Heal and Quick Buff button like Terraria, hey Tiy just do it already!!

 

terraria's inventory UI is good I agree, SB should also have these functions.