Starbound :: Beta set to start tomorrow

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for the update, Huw! Going to take a look.


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[BanzaiCat]

Huw, you mentioned pickaxes, but I think they did away with those in the update before this recent one. The matter manipulators can be upgraded, though you need precious metals to do so.

Speaking of "precious" metals...what's your experience with that, Huw? I'll be damned if I can find any metals. I can find PLENTY of coal but I've tried two games and in each one, I dig and dig and dig and frikkin' dig and find ONLY coal. No copper, no iron, nothing...  ???

[Jarhead0331]

Huw, you mentioned pickaxes, but I think they did away with those in the update before this recent one. The matter manipulators can be upgraded, though you need precious metals to do so.

Speaking of "precious" metals...what's your experience with that, Huw? I'll be damned if I can find any metals. I can find PLENTY of coal but I've tried two games and in each one, I dig and dig and dig and frikkin' dig and find ONLY coal. No copper, no iron, nothing...  ???

Big +1. Can't even find copper...

[BanzaiCat]

Kind of sucks since that's a quest early on, requiring loads of copper.

[Huw the Poo]

No, pickaxes are definitely in, I've crafted a few.  However I think they removed the copper tier of tools, so the first pickaxe you can craft is iron.

I haven't had a great deal of trouble finding ores but you do have to dig around a fair bit.  If all else fails, try digging around the perimeter of a cave; you nearly always find ores there in my experience.  And don't forget to plant torches as you go; their radius of light will show up ores in the rock/dirt that you haven't dug.

If that fails, try running across the surface of the planet until you (hopefully) find some kind of abandoned settlement.  They have all sorts of low-tier loot in their containers, so you may well find some copper there.

[Huw the Poo]

I've been playing this like a bugger.  Finished all the available NPC quests and have a full set of steel armour and some very decent weapons, and now I have my first "mission", which I know from reading forums involves a mini-dungeon run and a big ol' boss at the end.  There have been a lot of complaints that the boss is really tough to beat and there are no checkpoints so I'm a bit wary, but I shall be attempting it tonight!

[Yskonyn]

Cool stuff! I have updated the game as well, so I'll be taking a look as well over the coming days, but CMBS is a strong contender for grabbing my time atm. :D

[Huw the Poo]

Actually copper pickaxes are in - I know because I just found one. :)

Just had my first stab at the mini-dungeon.  The dungeon itself isn't difficult at all, at least with the weapons and armour I have, but unfortunately I died at the boss fight because I mistimed a jump and took too much fall damage.  I have the double-jump tech too; I should've tried using it just before I hit the ground.  Oh well.

it looks like most of the mobs in the dungeon can be bypassed so I'll have another crack at it soon.  People are complaining about having to run the whole thing again when they get killed by the boss, but I dunno, I reckon you can run the whole dungeon in two minutes if you bypass all the mobs.  I'm feeling pretty confident about my next attempt.  After this, I'm pretty sure I'll be free to visit other systems. :)

[Huw the Poo]

Another huge update!

This one adds some really nice stuff, like teleporters.  Handily, there's now a teleporter at each system's outpost for easy access, and also teleporters at the beginning of dungeons which should please a lot of people.  I'm going to have to play this again.

[Boggit]

My daughter is delighted at this news! O0

[Huw the Poo]

My daughter is delighted at this news! O0

I assume the addition of pets is the best part of it for her? :)

[Boggit]

My daughter is delighted at this news! O0

I assume the addition of pets is the best part of it for her? :)

Pets and the teleporters! ::)

[Huw the Poo]

The next stable update has arrived!

Major changes

    Colony System
        Colonize your worlds! Create a home, decorate it nicely, then place a Colony Deed to attract a tenant!
        The type of NPC who moves in will depend on the type and quality of the home's furniture and decorations. Decorating a room with several objects from the same theme (such as a biome or material tier) will attract a tenant themed to match!
        Keep your tenants happy and they'll periodically offer you gifts, some cosmetic and some very useful
    New Outpost Store: Frögg Furnishings
        Sells Colony Deeds as well as a variety of furniture in many themes
        The set of specialty furniture available will rotate each (out of game) day, so make sure you keep coming back to see the full selection
        Each furniture set can be used to attract a particular tenant that fits its theme
    Improvements to NPCs
        NPCs will now interact with each other and with many different objects in the world. Depending on their personalities they might get sad, excited, fall in love or do all kinds of different things in different situations!
        See who your tenants are and what they're thinking! (press Alt to activate)
        Added many unique NPC dialogue options and updated some old ones
        Further improved NPC movement and pathfinding
        NPCs now switch between ranged and melee weapons in combat depending on their available energy, range, and whether they can reach the player
        Groups of NPCs now coordinate in combat to attack from different positions and divide themselves between ranged and melee
    Surface Biomes and Sub-Biomes (Tiers 1 – 4)
        Major visual improvements to background parallaxes
        All biomes have several types of unique critters (60+)
        Added a huge number of biome-specific microdungeons (450+)
        Added many new biome-specific cosmetic armors and other items
        Randomly generated monsters will now have color palettes that generally match the biome they spawn in
    Universe and Planet Generation
        Redesigned terrain to be more interesting and varied across all world types
        Reduced the number of open caves on the surface, improved cave blending
        Greatly increased the number of dungeons that can spawn on worlds and prevented dungeons from overlapping each other
        Added ores in the background layer
        Improved the appearance of planets in the navigation screen to better indicate the biome and surface liquid, added some visual variety to gas giants
    Challenge Rooms
        You can now find portals underground that lead to small instanced challenges. Defeat enemies, navigate dangerous traps or solve puzzles to earn great rewards!
        Challenge portals disappear shortly after you enter, so you won't be able to enter through the same portal twice.
    Inventory and Merchants
        You can now sell items to most merchants for a portion of their value
        Added an ore merchant to the Outpost where you can purchase raw materials at an inflated price
        Added a third inventory tab for objects (similar to the materials tab)
        Added a sort button to the inventory window to sort items into their appropriate tabs
        Items will not be automatically picked up into the hotbar and materials and objects won't be automatically picked up when their respective tabs are full
        Added an indicator to inventory tabs when they contain new items
        Added an animation to highlight newly picked up items when switching to a tab
    Tools and Interface
        Wire and Paint tools are now unlockable modes for the Matter Manipulator and have clearer icons to indicate their functions
        Inspection tool can now examine liquids, indicates when something is too dark to inspect, and doesn't try to describe entities (such as monsters) that have no description set
        Targeting will now prioritize monsters and NPCs at the cursor position, and won't target passive monsters such as critters
    Combat Changes (WIP)
        Rebalanced all damage and armor values for players, NPCs and monsters
        Reduced the damage per level increase of weapons and added a bonus damage stat on all tiered armors, allowing weapons to stay viable for longer
        All randomly generated melee weapons have fancy new sprites
        Reworked monster skills and added a windup animation. These will be further expanded and rebalanced in the next update.
        Reworked weapon projectiles, increased bullet speed, added elemental damage types. These will be further expanded in the next update.
    Progression Changes
        Reworked the materials used for crafting progression, greatly reducing the total amount of ore required to advance through the game
        Added various upgrade items which can be found throughout the world or acquired from quests, either whole or in pieces
        Tech Card – can be crafted from Tech Chips, used to unlock new tech
        Manipulator Module – can be crafted from Matter Module Components, used to improve your Matter Manipulator
        Upgrade Module – used to improve utility items such as light packs
        Improved many progression quests, but these will change much more in the future
    Farming Changes
        Crops now require water to grow! Tilled soil will initially be dry and needs to be moistened by a watering can, rain, or by dropping water on it
        At each stage of a crop's growth, it will consume the soil's moisture and need to be watered again to progress further
        Keeping crops under too much water for too long will cause them to be washed away, so be gentle!
    And More!
        200+ new objects and materials that can be bought, crafted or found in the world
        Many changes to the Floran mission – Including a new boss
        Improved chest loot and added improved graphics for standard and weapon chests
        Added multiple upgrades for the lantern stick back item to improve its brightness
        Racial flags can now be bookmarked as teleport destinations (but won't enable you to teleport from underground)
        Added particles and sounds to smashable objects and made many more objects (such as bushes and spikes) smashable
        Reworked Status Pods to have more interesting and useful effects, including a chance to spawn ore or pixels
        Added underground vines and more underground variety to several surface biomes
        Experimental feature that shows NPC 'status' on occasion

    Minor changes

        New characters will once again start on randomized worlds instead of sharing a single starter world!
        Weather effects deposit snow and sand on tiles where appropriate
        Ocean liquids become finite when enclosed by background blocks, and removing background blocks under the ocean will let the liquid in
        Codexes will be automatically opened when learned
        Environmental protection techs include protection from lower tier hazards and will be automatically equipped when learned
        Flash breath bar when drowning
        Sort recipes in crafting interface
        Various performance improvements
        Renamed 'moon' biome to 'airless' to avoid confusion among the astronomically knowledgeable
        Added a shipyard to the Outpost, which will be used to purchase additional ship upgrades in the future
        Fixed a bug causing monsters to spawn in player-built structures underground
        Fixed several bugs related to weapons and monster attacks across the world wrap line
        Fixed a bug causing NPC weapons to be rerolled when unequipped
        Fixed a bug causing dungeon NPCs to spawn partially underground
        Fixed a bug causing players to be stuck firing after respawn
        Fixed a bug causing pets to eat whole stacks of food on the ground
        Fixed a bug causing UI sound volume to be reduced too far by SFX slider
        Lots of other balance and bug fixes

Phwoar, eh?

[BanzaiCat]

I was just playing this a week or so ago...the game intrigues me, but it is pretty boring after a while. I never run into people or structures in any of the games I've started so I keep thinking I'm doing it wrong.

[Rayfer]

Started watching the trailers on Steam when I saw this is a side-scrolling game. Unfortunately, I have a inexplicable dislike for those games, just can't get into any of them.