Thoughts on how to better Starbound

Discussion in 'Other' started by Zeffia, Feb 4, 2018.

  1. Zeffia

    Zeffia Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    If honesty is the best policy, then this game sucks, and I fail to understand how people can enjoy it as much as they do.

    Firstly, performance needs to be improved. You can't expect to have a very good experience when objects on screen lag and jitter all the time--especially in a combat situation where you're trying to avoid getting hit with projectiles. It is probably the most obvious flaw in the game, just because of how badly it can screw you over.
    Pro-tip: Make generated settlements smaller so that there aren't so many NPC's and small decorative objects taking up computing power. Most npc's and settlement objects are useless to the player anyway. ​

    Habitable planets need to be more than a single biome salted with generated structures. Coming across "a Tatooine" every once in a while isn't so bad, but I imagine we can all agree that it shouldn't be the standard. The rock you're on right now has oceans, deserts, tundras, forests, jungles, plains, hills, valleys, canyons, grasslands, etc, etc, etc, and the variety can be quite exciting and beautiful. Compare that to basically any kind of world you'll find in Starbound. You can't expect a player to be excited to explore a planet just because "oh look, the dirt is purple." Seriously guys.
    A single planet could also have multiple threat levels, generated lifeforms, and resource tables to further differentiate the areas.
    Also, there is too much dirt and such underground. Having planets that transition into harder layers of earth as you mine deeper makes way more sense than all this soft stuff.​

    Combat feels like the devs didn't commit.
    • You can aim Melee weapons, except the ones you can't. Pick one or the other. Melee weapons have combos, except the ones that don't. Pick one. The inconsistency screams of a lack of vision. After these things are decided upon, the combat and iffy movement could be tuned to compliment each other better than their current state. Right now it is all rather floaty.
    • In the case of ranged weapons, I suggest to ditch the energy bar and get into ammunition and gun clips (batteries, rockets, grenades, shells, etc). Maybe I'm mistaken, but I figure the reason the energy bar was decided upon for ranged weapons was to make guns not be a constant overpowered spray like in, say, Terraria. This is why I suggest clips and batteries. Force the player to reload, and limit how many clips/batteries/shells they can carry around. Done... Theoretically, at least. A gun could either have its own limited number of clips, or the player could have an ammo belt with slots for reloading. Say, a slot carries a stack of 10 small pistol clips, for example, but would only be able to carry 5 large machine gun clips, 2 rockets, etc, or whatever. I feel either of the two would be better than dealing with the current system, and guns could have better, more fulfilling damage output without necessarily becoming op. Similarly, it may be appropriate to give a range limit to guns. Nothing too extreme, but something to think about for balance.
    • Give players better iframes when taking small amounts of damage. We take too much dps when there are five enemies with machine guns shooting at us. It's not fun. I once got destroyed so quick by a group of penguins, which I didn't even notice, that I was hardly able to understand what had just happened before the respawn scene began.
    Weapons are currently terrible.
    • Make some 2-handed gun special attacks into their own weapon types, like the orb launcher. It's cooler than always getting shotguns and machine guns. Also, consider redesigning the magic wands, they aren't very thematically appropriate. They shouldn't be done away with or anything, just be made to make more sense. Think about how the staves in Stargate fired lasers, for example. Not everything needs to be a traditional gun, right? But the current staves are a bit much. Being able to create fields without staves could be nice too.
    • Relying solely on weapons we find is restrictive and annoying, and there is no real variety. Instead, let us customize weapons. Aside from being fun for the player (a good thing), it would lend greatly to weapon crafting (as in make it viable to craft them from scratch). Players could reverse-engineer parts from found weapons (or just find sole parts), or get/buy blueprints for new parts in order to balance it out, if necessary. This would also mean that any gun could have a flashlight attachment, which would be greatly appreciated. It would also mean that some guns would have less to them than others, especially near the beginning of the game, which would lend to player progression.
    • For ranged weapons, secondary fire would be decided by attachments, kind of like in FPS games that allow you to add a grenade launcher to your assault rifle. Consider adding energy projectors that drop onto the ground in front of you, deploying a shield that can be ducked by to provide cover from enemy fire. This would be good both as a standalone item, and an attachment.
    • Similarly, players should also be able to customize melee weapons' special attacks.
    • Weapon elements could also be changed.
    • Weapons could be put together with better parts (like iron < durasteel or something) for higher stats as opposed to relying on armor to boost the damage and dealing with terrible base stats. Players shouldn't be required to have armor to do more damage. That's just silly.
    Unique weapons might be immune to customization, but they could still upgraded to do more damage, since armor would no longer affect said damage.​

    The matter manipulator.
    • Building is great, but could use some sounds to make it satisfying.
    • Mining could be made better by placing the objects directly into your inventory instead of dropping on the floor. If the manipulator can place the blocks directly, I don't see why it couldn't pick them up too, but it's really just a matter of convenience because of just how far the beam can reach. Alternatively, the mining beam could be shorter. Most players probably wouldn't like that, though.
    • Painting needs to be changed so that you can paint the foreground and background independently of each other. Right clicking for the background would be fine, just create a UI for changing the color (and add a wider spectrum).
    • Effect size should be able to be increased and decreased by the player. Right now you can go from the current size to 1 block, but being able to change between the effect sizes of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (or whatever the highest upgrade gives) at will would be a nice addition, and could also be utilized in building mode.
    • The manipulator should always project a light when it's being used. This would make building, mining, and PLACING LIGHT SOURCES way easier when in the dark. It cannot be stressed enough just how convenient this would be when trying to light someplace up.
    PS-Add rewards for random encounters
     
    Armorine1983 likes this.
  2. Armorine1983

    Armorine1983 Phantasmal Quasar

    I would like to see events added to the game like Terraria has.
     

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