You don't get to keep the stuff that you collected in the beta, right?
Not sure/ It depends, when exactly did you stop playing the beta?
If you stopped playing early on (withing the first year and a half), so much had changed, that when you update, your save data would be incompatible.
If you've only been playing recently (last 6 months?) your stuff "should" carry over, since they had updated the game so that future updates wouldnt kill anything. The drawback being that if they had added any stuff since you left, you'd miss out on it, since your character would technically be "ahead" in the game.
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So yeah, on another note, I'm chiming in here, I'm running the GAF server (which I always nickname the "unoffcial GAF server" for no real reason).
I'm currently trying to setup a separate computer to actually run the server, to free up my main. I'm also going to be at work when the update actually hits, so the server will definitely not be up today (I gave this warning back in the original Starbound thread, btw).
I did already setup a Discord, so all interested parties please join in with that. It would be great that any other GAFfers who are running servers, join the Discord too. The idea would be that if one server is full, you can easily find out if the others are running/full through the Discord. Would be awkward to actually use Discord chat in the actual game, but you can use Discord to voice chat, and we can create separate rooms for the various servers.
The other reason I'd like the various server admins to congregate there is that supposedly, there originally was talk of some sort of cross server functionality for the game (aka, easy jumping from one server to another while in-game).
Note: THEY HAVEN'T TALKED ABOUT THIS IN AGES THOUGH.
It could have been shelved, but it would be nice that if that was actually introduced into the game at some point, we would have already built up a network of GAF servers. Just thinking of doing a little future-proofing.
Anyway, when the server pops up, I'll make an announcement in this thread, Retro will update the info in the OP, and I'll make an announcement in the Discord. If you've played on the server before, you should aware of the house rules about it.
TLDR; server is mainly there so you can casually play with others -or- build stuff and show off to others. That last part, I might add, Retro will make you feel very, very insignificant. Seriously. He has a problem.
Soooo... until the server gets put up, in the meantime, play some single player, build up your character.
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Oh, about the Discord, quote this post to get the invite link, the link is valid for the next 24 hours, btw.