Where can I preorder this, or is that option not available yet?
Not available. So far the Developer is just testing the water on twitter to find out if people would be interested in a pre-order option with no release date given, and possibly receiving Beta access when it becomes available.
Stephen Alexander @WorldOfSven said:Working on some caves.
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From Twitter:
Love the little tents, the variety of crates... putting together a little camp like this is cool, though I wonder if the gameplay requires you to actually set up base camps or if this is entirely for looks.
Either way, it's pretty cool.
I hope so, but if it was required for a temporary sleep or something similar a pretty world would be needed. I'm perfectly fine with that, but I haven't really been expecting very large worlds since we're able to travel to different worlds.
Apparently some worlds are infinite in size, so...
Personally, I'm thinking tents will function like beds in Terraria, without the need to build a structure around them before they become functional. If you're exploring the world, you just drop a tent and bam; instant save spot.
It might be useful if you're just exploring a planet and don't really want to build anything permanent but still want a save point.
Then again, it might just be really cool decoration, or even something they just plop down in the world to discover ("Oh, I'm not the first person to land here, let's see what they left in their chest...")
Either one would be great. I thought the infinite worlds just looped back around like a planet? If that's changed even more great news.
According to the list of announced game info, "Worlds that are not infinite in size will loop around, so if you travel far enough you will end up back at your start area, as if the planet is a real sphere."
However, things may have changed since that detail was leaked / announced / discovered, so who knows. Infinite worlds seems a little wonky, I'd prefer to have planets I can fully explore and 'finish'.
I'd agree with this. I'd prefer to be able to explore a section of the galaxy/universe fully, and then move on. Even if the planets can be completely random, I still prefer being able to explore it all. That was one of the big draws for me in Terraria, you have a finite world you can explore and find interesting things in and 'conquer' by having a decent base/town with your NPCs.
Obviously I wouldn't feel the need to conquer the whole galaxy in Starbound but it'd be nice to be able to explore it all and build cities or towns or even just a landing base on various planets that you've visited.
Planets aren't entirely random; they're generated based on coordinates, so if you and I both visit, say "125, 871", we'll both have the same planet to explore (at least in theory; I don't know if coordinates determine the actual landscape or just the plant/background/color style).
But I definitely hope for contained worlds.
Yeah, I read about that and thought it was a pretty cool idea, because if I'm exploring in a solo game and find an interesting world, I could tell a friend the co-ordinates and they could check it out too.
I'll be interested to see how multi-player works. Any chance we could reserve planets for a GAF server once we start playing? Like, have a set of co-ordinates to a planet we like and that person can build whatever they want on that planet? Might allow for a bit more creativity with planets and building.
From what I've read, players on the same server do not need to be on the same planet, so in theory every player could theoretically have their own 'homeworld'. I see no reason why we couldn't scout for a good sized planet and make that the "GAF Planet" where people congregate.
Multiplayer is definitely going to be a strong point though; each race has their own armor style (including armor set bonuses) that can be traded, so we'll want lots of players to be working together so everyone can have access to that kinda cool stuff.
I honestly can't wait to try out the multiplayer in this game. I spent a lot of time in single-player in Terraria before I played it with friends. I made a giant castle that had boss rooms and 2 PvP arenas, plus a giant treasure room with approx 100 chests in a gold brick vault. All my NPCs in the castle with their own apartments, decorated to what they sold. And a greenhouse on top of it for my plants.
I'll be interested in trying this out, and seeing how the decorations work and interact. Trading with other races will be awesome, and I'd love to contribute to a hub planet that everyone could go to for trading and general conversation. That's another thing, can players on one planet talk to players on another planet?
According to the list of announced game info, "Worlds that are not infinite in size will loop around, so if you travel far enough you will end up back at your start area, as if the planet is a real sphere."
That's quite a nice idea. This is probably beyond their engine capacities and I am a bit of a jerk for asking this, but I would be mega mega impressed if they implemented a feature that if you dig down enough you eventually get gravity reversing then (if you keep going) you come out the other side of the planet. Or if they go the route if you get down to the lava layer the gravity greatly increases and the looping circle on the planets decreases.
Actually, this line of thinking just gave me another thought, did they say that they are doing any kind of variation on planetary condition in regards to things like gravity and day night cycles? Could be interesting landing on a new planet finding that its days only last 15 seconds, or 6 hours. A little more useable then my crazy dig through the entire planet idea.
From a coding perspective, and a square-based building perspective, this would be insane to try and do. You'd have to make the blocks not quite square in order to actually have a circular planet. It shouldn't be amazingly difficult to code for an experienced coder(though I'm not sure), but the only way that it would work would be not using square blocks for everything.
As a gamer, I would like to see something like this implemented into a game at some point. Spherical/circular planets that you can entirely explore and colonise. Would make for an awesome MMO.
The other ideas are certainly interesting. I would like to see varying day/night cycles and possibly even multiple suns/moons on planets. etc
It doesn't have building or anything yet I think, but it has a circular planet. If you fly high enough, the horizon starts to curve -- the game world is literally the size of a planet. You can fly from the ground and into space in real time. Made by 2 people with the help of the community I think.
http://outerra.com/wgallery.html
And then there's Evochron Mercenary -- it's a space sim, and it features seamless space to planet transitions with towns and such. It's all procedurally generated of course. And it's made by 1 person.
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/
As a gamer, I would like to see something like this implemented into a game at some point. Spherical/circular planets that you can entirely explore and colonise.
I would like to see varying day/night cycles and possibly even multiple suns/moons on planets. etc
"Round planets have a super-heated core at the centre that could melt the player. But not all planets will have molten at their core, some may have other impossible barriers."
and
"A planet may be generated as infinite in size, however, only left or right, as planet depth has been capped for obvious reasons."
"Planets day and night cycles will differ based on the planet, some may even be eternally dark or eternally light."
Awesome. I figured they'd do something with day/night cycles!
However, the planet thing, due to the square nature of the blocks, I would assume will make the maps end up looking like Terraria, except you can end up back where you started by heading in one direction or the other. I might be wrong, but just making observations based on the shape of building blocks. If they do turn out to be a circular planet somehow (and I mean you actually explore around it and the exploration distance becomes smaller at deeper levels) then...well...I'll be wrong, and happy about it!
I think it will just loop you back around to the opposite side of the map, rather than trying to do anything spherical. It's a 2-D game, after all.
They have said that we will visit more than planets during the course of the game, so perhaps asteroids, derelict ships/stations and, who knows, spherical bodies. I wouldn't get my hopes up though.
Nice.
I am a bit worried that the guns can lead to some serious trolling. We had a bad enough time with idiots lobbing TNT in Terraria.
Somehow I keep forgetting the improvements to building. Everytime I see it it makes me more excited for this game. I couldn't get into building that much in Terraria, definitely think this will change that.
Gah really hoped there would be a playable beta by now. I mean sure given the choice of getting a buggy beta and having them focus on bugs vs actually taking their time and getting everything right, I'd go for the latter. Just want to play it though.
My only real worry so has been that all footage shown of enemies so far just seems to be of the 'Ramming' kind ala terraria. Other than the first few screens showing enemies with weapons, which was shown at the start and the gif of the melee demo, there has been nothing since then :/
They asked if people would be interested in Pre-purchasing the game before a release date is announced, with pre-purchase granting access to a Beta (when it's ready). Response here seemed to be positive, but a cursory glance at the official forums has people whining that they want it 'for real' and that a beta will 'slow them down' (which is of course moronic).
As far as enemies go, most of the footage we've seen has enemies turned off. Hopefully there's more complex stuff waiting in the wings.
how dose a beta slow things down? lol
how dose a beta slow things down? lol
True, but the 'friday' monsters have not had one weapon. This could just be due to the way the generator works, but yeah all of them have been the ramming type.
Initially they did say that they'll do a beta and include people who are active in the community and stuff. So the paid for beta thing would just be an extension ... which would be stupid if not taken.
Another retro-looking-gameNot interested.
So I guess this game won't make its 2012 release date huh? Goddamn I want this game, stop teasing me!
Maintaining a beta does slow down development, there's overhead involved in pushing out builds that are expected to be stable and fun to play. The only value in it for the devs is driving pre-orders if they need money, and large scale testing(which can wait until the game is largely done).
Wow. Way to judge a book by its cover. Do you know anything about the game other than what it looks like?
I wasn't talking about the gameplay or the content. It's an easy cash-in, making a retro style game. Take Retro City Rampage - people went crazy about that game when it was announced and the following years it was in development. When it came out it was recieved as a poor, poor game with extremely cheap thrills. So, yeah, i'm pretty cynical when it comes to these "retro" games.
I wasn't talking about the gameplay or the content. It's an easy cash-in, making a retro style game. Take Retro City Rampage - people went crazy about that game when it was announced and the following years it was in development. When it came out it was recieved as a poor, poor game with extremely cheap thrills. So, yeah, i'm pretty cynical when it comes to these "retro" games.
It's an easy cash-in, making a retro style game.
I wasn't talking about the gameplay or the content. It's an easy cash-in, making a retro style game. Take Retro City Rampage - people went crazy about that game when it was announced and the following years it was in development. When it came out it was recieved as a poor, poor game with extremely cheap thrills. So, yeah, i'm pretty cynical when it comes to these "retro" games.
I wasn't talking about the gameplay or the content.
It's an easy cash-in, making a retro style game.
Take Retro City Rampage - people went crazy about that game when it was announced and the following years it was in development. When it came out it was recieved as a poor, poor game with extremely cheap thrills. So, yeah, i'm pretty cynical when it comes to these "retro" games.