Support NeoGAF

[Nivert]

I personally see 0 reason to contribute to this "Kickstarter" right now.

- No beta date or target date at all.
- They're already over $200k, so they have lots of money to pay their small development team for the next few months.

When they announce when we can expect the beta, I'll pay them.

If you're going to buy it anyways why does a date matter?

 

[nan0]

To be fair, Terraria was one guy (Redigit) who made one game previously (a Mario clone) and stopped development because his son was being born.

And rightfully so, but people were displeased when another 6 months later the PS360 versions were announced (even if it was done by an external studio). It looked as if he wanted to milk the game after giving up support for the PC version. Even though there will be a new patch now, the things before were not exactly a stellar PR move.

 

[duckroll]

If you're going to buy it anyways why does a date matter?

I'm only interested in getting the play the game early. So of course it matters. If they don't know when they want to make the game available, then I don't know when I want to give them money.

 

[Darklord]

Edit: actually misread, never mind.

 

[Wanace]

I preordered pixel tier.

One question I haven't seen an answer to: I know we can build on planets like we could in Terraria, but can we design our own spaceship?

 

[Retro]

I know that it comes with every tier. I meant that if I decided to pre order at all I wouldn't really be too bothered with the soundtrack.

Eh. It's just a bonus, might as well enjoy it. I'm just saying that the experimental soundtrack appears to just be a file dump.

I preordered pixel tier.

One question I haven't seen an answer to: I know we can build on planets like we could in Terraria, but can we design our own spaceship?

Yes. From the "List of announced Game Information";

Each Race's spaceship will have its own ship design.
As you progress you unlock additional space and the ships get a fair bit larger.
Post release functions for space (ship to ship) battles have been discussed and are eventually wanted by the team.

 

[Snuggles]

This game looks amazing so I'm down for at least $20 but I might wait for a beta announcement before I plop down money.

I require instant gratification.

 

[duckroll]

Eh. It's just a bonus, might as well enjoy it. I'm just saying that the experimental soundtrack appears to just be a file dump.



Yes. From the "List of announced Game Information";

It doesn't sound like you can design your own ships from scratch though. Maybe just customizing the rooms on the available ships?

 

[Wanace]

Yes. From the "List of announced Game Information";

Yeah I got that but I guess I mean like add statues and consoles and crap to the inside of our ship.

A combination of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU56Kh731Q0

With the ship from this silly vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPogONWFTfU

The ship looks empty in that second vid, It'd be a shame if we couldn't fill it with a comfortable captain's cabin or something.

 

[Retro]

It doesn't sound like you can design your own ships from scratch though. Maybe just customizing the rooms on the available ships?

Yeah, was looking for images to add to my response, but I'll just add 'em here;

"Tier 1" Ship (appears to be the size you start with)"

"Tier 3" Ship:

Yeah I got that but I guess I mean like add statues and consoles and crap to the inside of our ship.

Yes, from the first image there, you can definitely customize your ship's interior. Each race also has their own ship style. I'm not 100%, but I also seem to recall reading that you can decide the layout of the rooms on your ship.

It's kind of confusing because early on they had a Spacestation instead of a ship, but they've never really clarified if the station is gone and replaced by the ship, or if they're both still in but have different functions.

 

[duckroll]

Yeah, was looking for images to add to my response, but I'll just add 'em here;

"Tier 1" Ship (appears to be the size you start with)"


"Tier 3" Ship:

Tier 3 looks good. I'm already thinking of what I could fill those empty rooms with. LOL.

 

[Wanace]

Yeah, was looking for images to add to my response, but I'll just add 'em here;

"Tier 1" Ship (appears to be the size you start with)"


"Tier 3" Ship:

Ah, from that image it definitely looks to be customizable. Cheers!

 

[Twinduct]

Tier 3 looks good. I'm already thinking of what I could fill those empty rooms with. LOL.

Would be awesome if you could put these into a hanger

 

[Retro]

Would be awesome if you could put these into a hanger

Yep, that's an early screenshot from when they still had a "Station". Here's another;

But since they haven't shown off the Station in a while, put focus on customizing the ship, I think it's been removed.

 

[duckroll]

I'm not sure if they changed the design since, but I always thought that the "station" is something like a safe home base for the players, which can be customized, and where the NPCs and shopkeepers go when you recruit them, while the "space ship" is simply the vehicle you use to travel to other planets?

 

[Luminous_Reaver]

I tweeted @notch asking him to buy the $2000 Impervium pack because I really want to put a Notch statue in my space fortress.

...Who else do I want a statue of...?

 

[Twinduct]

Yep, that's an early screenshot from when they still had a "Station". Here's another;


But since they haven't shown off the Station in a while, put focus on customizing the ship, I think it's been removed.

I'm not sure if they changed the design since, but I always thought that the "station" is something like a safe home base for the players, which can be customized, and where the NPCs and shopkeepers go when you recruit them, while the "space ship" is simply the vehicle you use to travel to other planets?

Think the station might have been scratched for the home world. Essentially the home world was just seen as a place where you build stuff but the station was suppose to be your 'base'.

Personally I think they scratched the station idea and moved it's functions to the ship and the home world.

 

[Retro]

I'm not sure if they changed the design since, but I always thought that the "station" is something like a safe home base for the players, which can be customized, and where the NPCs and shopkeepers go when you recruit them, while the "space ship" is simply the vehicle you use to travel to other planets?

That's what I thought too, but they haven't mentioned the Station in so long and it seems to run counter to the idea of having a customizable ship... I dunno. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out, but right now I'm assuming the game has both.

For what it's worth though, that's a Tier 3 ship... I wonder if the later tiers get Star Trek-sized, so that you don't really NEED a station because you have this huge starship. Maybe that's their logic?

 

[publicpwnerer]

Indie games this generation have been phenomenal. I'm really looking forward to this project.

Love the style, particularly those gorgeous backgrounds.

 

[Twinduct]

9502 Backers ( $238159 )

Not Bad. Wonder where it will cap at.

 

[Taffer]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41200831&postcount=265

I got the impression that the station-as-a-home idea is correct, with the ship used to move to planets and act as a mini-base in orbit.

 

[Retro]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41200831&postcount=265

I got the impression that the station-as-a-home idea is correct, with the ship used to move to planets and act as a mini-base in orbit.

Yep, but they also say in that comment that it is "in flux" and "Still up in the air"... and that's from last August, so who knows how much has changed?

I think you're right though, the station exists as a home base, the ship as a mini-base, so you have room to bring equipment or building supplies, but not EVERYTHING.

Likewise, the Homeworld sounds like it will be the space for you to really build, and give your non-essential NPCs you rescue a home. I'm curious to see how having three distinct building spaces works. From the sound of things, the station is heavily pre-fabricated (but customizable), the ship is pre-fabricated modules you customize the layout of, and the homeworld is brick-by-brick anything goes.

 

[Kouriozan]

Yeah I understand people who don't want to pre-order without a release date for the beta.
If the beta is for May or even June, then that's fine I guess.

 

[Twinduct]

Yep, but they also say in that comment that it is "in flux" and "Still up in the air"... and that's from last August, so who knows how much has changed?

I think you're right though, the station exists as a home base, the ship as a mini-base, so you have room to bring equipment or building supplies, but not EVERYTHING.

Likewise, the Homeworld sounds like it will be the space for you to really build, and give your non-essential NPCs you rescue a home. I'm curious to see how having three distinct building spaces works. From the sound of things, the station is heavily pre-fabricated (but customizable), the ship is pre-fabricated modules you customize the layout of, and the homeworld is brick-by-brick anything goes.

Yeah I actually forgot that you don't start with a homeworld.

 

[Sullen]

I think I'm gonna hold off until there is a beta date.

 

[Drkirby]

Is there anything detailing how the Multiplayer stuff is going to work?

 

[duckroll]

Is there anything detailing how the Multiplayer stuff is going to work?

Same as Terraria.

 

[Drkirby]

The thing with Terraria is that it was a "Small" world, while Starbound sounds huge. I'm assuming servers are going to allow for dozens of players (Terraria did have a limit, right?)Also, I thought there was something about diffrent servers communicating with each other, but maybe that was anther game.

 

[BeesEight]

Ok, see, the fact that you could tell me this in like three sentences, and I couldn't get jack shit from their website, means they've failed horribly with it.

This all sounds fairly neat.

You know, I'm all for calling out uninformative websites, but I have to wonder if you even bothered reading theirs:

Starbound begins with you fleeing your homeworld in a space shuttle, just as it’s destroyed by an unknown enemy. With nothing to guide it, the escape pod shoots into space without direction, becoming hopelessly lost in a sea of stars. As luck would have it, the space shuttle makes contact with an abandoned space station and an adventure begins that will take you hurtling across the universe. Starbound contains both quests and story driven missions, buried inside its vast sandbox universe.

You’ll need to find a crew, conduct research, catch rare creatures, and unlock its multitude of facilities.

http://playstarbound.com/about/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU56Kh731Q0&feature=player_embedded

Planets in Starbound are entirely procedurally generated and filled to the brim with unique content. We went into the planet generation with one simple goal: no two planets should be the same. By procedurally generating even the smallest details, we’re doing just that. Not only is the terrain of the planet procedurally generated, but the weather, the gravity, the difficulty level, the plant life, the behaviour and appearance of alien creatures, and much more all contain random or procedurally generated elements.

Every aspect of the planet is under your control. Once you’re happy with it, start populating it with characters you’ve met in your travels and take care of them!

I think they only thing they haven't done is called it 'Terraria in space.'

 

[AstroZombie]

They are going to make so much money.

Good call

 

[EdgeXL]

I threw down $20.

 

[Mr. F]

Super dumb question but there's no reason to believe you wouldn't get a steam code for the final game as well right?

 

[Grimm Fandango]

Super dumb question but there's no reason to believe you wouldn't get a steam code for the final game as well right?

99.9% positive.

 

[Neverfade]

Same as Terraria.

Please tell me they're going to put a proper damn lobby/invites in at least?

 

[Giolon]

You know, I'm all for calling out uninformative websites, but I have to wonder if you even bothered reading theirs:

http://playstarbound.com/about/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU56Kh731Q0&feature=player_embedded

I think they only thing they haven't done is called it 'Terraria in space.'

I read their entire FAQ and the About page and none of it told me what kind of game it was. Those generic-sounding features could be in anything from an action platformer to a text adventure.

At least calling it Terraria in space puts down some context and comparison to what actual gameplay mechanics and goals will be like. I don't expect them to say that exactly but at least give a basic genre on there.

 

[Arksy]

Same as Terraria.

So badly?

Terraria was a bit of a pain to set up.

 

[PaineReign]

Put down $15, I always enjoyed the music in their trailers and the free soundtrack was enough to entice me to purchase it. I really enjoyed the 15 hours or so I played of Terraria, and this looks to be that and more.

 

[VandalD]

No one linked the roadmap? Roadmap to the Stars

I'm not normally a pre-order person at all. I can't remember the last thing I pre-ordered besides Minecraft way back when it was in alpha. This feels so low risk to me, I got Pixel tier as soon as I saw it up.

Please tell me they're going to put a proper damn lobby/invites in at least?

I don't think they've said what they're doing as far as that goes. I would expect it to be better than Terraria's very basic internet support though.

 

[El Sloth]

Is there anything detailing how the Multiplayer stuff is going to work?

From the roadmap linked above under Server Stuff, Party Mechanics(20%):

Allows party formation, party chat, invitations to other players ships, PVP, mission instances and more.

Some of the base work on 'teams' is done, including teams for NPCs, allowing for NPCs to fight amongst themselves.

However most of the work here is interface work that has yet to begin.​

 

[Genji]

Picked up the pixel tier for $15. It is a bit of a bummer that they don't have any news on the release outside of "sometime in 2013". Hoping the beta is sooner than later as it would be nice to get a couple months of pre-release play time as a reward for pre-ordering.

 

[Killthee]

The Soundtrack is kind of butchered as far as track names go, it's loaded with stuff like "Constellation 1", but there's actually like 5 of them with the same name. Likewise, there's two tracks with the file name "Arctic Battle 2", but one of them has the track name "Arctic Battle 1"... Would have liked them to... I dunno... organize them a little.

They also said there are 24 tracks in the soundtrack, but there's 24 ITEMS; two covers and 22 tracks. Hmm.

To be fair the experimental soundtrack is the one with butchered names, but you're right they should have given them more descriptive track names if they were gonna release them.

Hopefully when the game is closer to launch they revisit the soundtracks to clean them up and add track numbers to the whole thing so it feels less like a work in progress.

 

[BeesEight]

I read their entire FAQ and the About page and none of it told me what kind of game it was. Those generic-sounding features could be in anything from an action platformer to a text adventure.

At least calling it Terraria in space puts down some context and comparison to what actual gameplay mechanics and goals will be like. I don't expect them to say that exactly but at least give a basic genre on there.

Which is fine but they have videos and screenshots to give context. I just can't go and say their website is a failure or that it gives jack shit with what they have provided so far. Even the roadmap has a long list of features with screenshots to give an idea of how they fit into the game.

 

[Anno]

So is this an MMO of sorts? Or just locally hosted like Minecraft/Terraria?

 

[mileS]

From the roadmap linked above under Server Stuff, Party Mechanics(20%):

Allows party formation, party chat, invitations to other players ships, PVP, mission instances and more.

Some of the base work on 'teams' is done, including teams for NPCs, allowing for NPCs to fight amongst themselves.

However most of the work here is interface work that has yet to begin.​

this.

saying its the same as terraria is going to scare people off and misinform them.

 

[VandalD]

So is this an MMO of sorts? Or just locally hosted like Minecraft/Terraria?

It's similar to Minecraft/Terraria.

 

[Atomski]

I played Terraria all the time online.. what was so bad about it?

 

[duckroll]

I played Terraria all the time online.. what was so bad about it?

Nothing really. As long as someone sets up a dedicated server on a stable connection, it's great for everyone.

 

[finley83]

I'd love to pick this up, but Terraria completely took over my life for a week until I got to the end game (this was before the gigantic patch that added loads of new stuff).

Really not sure if I want to get into that again...

 

[anddo0]

In for Pixel Tier. I hope we get more news soon.

 

[Killthee]

LOL. They have a stretch goal now and more are planned by the look of it.

Stretch Goal 1 – The Novakids

Introducing the Novakids

Forged aeons ago in the fusion furnaces of a now-dead star, the Novakids are a perfect example of nature’s emergent beauty. These creatures, described by a human astronomer as “interstellar gas-bag people”, have no known single origin point: that information is long lost, as the Novakids have little to no desire to record their history, or even pass it on to their offspring. Though they are (generally) more intelligent and intuitive than the “fleshy” races, their attention spans are lacking – this does not make them any less effective in combat, but has the effect of restricting their technology research (and any groundbreaking research is forgotten within a few generations).

The force that drives the Novakids is contained within the brand on their faces. Charged with huge amounts of energy, these pieces of metal generate the hard plasma “shells” which stop their constituent gases from leaking – if a Novakid is depleted of his or her vital gases, the energy contained within their brand is instantly vented into the very fabric of spacetime, leaving only a twisted metal symbol and a nearly undetectable warping of light around the area of death.

Since the Novakids have a short memory (and attention span), diplomatic relations can be strained at times; because of their completely different composition to other lifeforms, Novakids are sometimes unable to grasp the nuances of interracial social interactions, and have thus attained a slightly dubious reputation amongst other races. In particular, an Avian diplomat reportedly described a Novakid he met as “dense”, and elaborated upon his statement by mentioning that the Novakid in question had cheerily asked him if his god, Kluex, was real.

If we manage to hit $500,000 in pre-orders, this race will be added to the base game (NOT as a DLC), and will be playable upon release. They will also be fully integrated into the lore! We’ll be using the extra money to pay for an additional artist to create their assets, so their creation won’t delay development at all.

A special thanks to all the wonderful community members involved in the creation of the Novakids!