Starbound: An Action Adventure Exploration Sandbox Game

The creative mode is called Director Mode, thats what I know.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

For the mission editor?

Who watches the watchmen?

I read that the coordinates system works like the seeds in minecraft, that they can make the same world across two games, but many random codes will not work, like real space.

I am seeing some sort of competition where two players measure how far they can get on a death planet in a certain time.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

So you CAN build you own Space Station to specs? Awesome! Now, if only they'd allow us to build permanent outposts on the planets, possibly even design our own units... ooooh, yeah. This thing has potential, that's for sure.

I don't know if you can build your space station to specs. You are however supposed to be able to do that to your home world right down to terraforming it. You might be able to build little outposts on worlds but not a whole has been said about that sort of thing. The best part about it is the game design team is in touch with the community and plan to update the game with help from the fans.

Ninja: Where you seeing that?

Saw mention of a new estimated release time frame. Their earliest release date was End of Summer they needed more time so it is looking like the end of the year for the release.

edited 4th Sep '12 12:23:48 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Somewhere on the forums, think it was the Known Info topic.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Gold mine of Q&A stuff.

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Community and Development

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• Contests will be held on the forum, and Tiy is open to many ideas for prizes. There was already a contest for player designed enemies. And all of the winners got theirs into the game!
• The game will be for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• While no Beta test is running at the moment, a public test is possible in the future, but not absolute.
• Chucklefish is aiming for a steam release. With all the steam features, like server lists and achievements. But nothing concrete has been announced as official yet.
• Modding has been discussed and will be available if the team has time. (see also Director Mode)
• Tiy plans to have a dedicated team to add updates to the game post-release.
• Updates to the core game will come in both big and small packages on a weekly basis after release. After a year of the whole team working on updates, a smaller team will take over to continue the updates even after the bulk of the team moves on to any other projects.

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Multiplayer, PVP and Servers -

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• Server owners will be able to limit joining players to using new characters and/or can also allow existing characters to join as well. How they are being limited (Either tracking minimum Item Levels, or simply having brand-new chars with a flag in their save file, for example) is still being discussed.
• PVP will be in the game, and there will most likely be pre-generated Arena Asteroids for organized game modes which will automatically keep score for you, etc.
• The entire universe of experiences will be available in both Single player and Multi-player.
• Servers will be able to hold as many players as it can based on its power, and internet speed.
• Character saves that are transferable from "local to server" and visa-versa are planned and will be limited only by the choice of the server host. "Think, Neverwinter nights" - Tiy
• While the feature will not be available at release, the goal is for servers is to be able to run a MOD and have all clients who join it automatically have the added content from the MOD sent to them. And Servers themselves are planned to also be able to toggle a players use of custom config files to prevent them if so desired.
• Server-side characters can be "exported" to local characters so that they can be used elsewhere.
• Servers can be launched from a dedicated server executable, but there may also be the option to launch the server from within the game client itself.
• The games current netcode is already working, being called "smooth and seemless." - Rho
• Server to Server portals to allow players to server hop mid-play are planned, but not set in stone.
• Launching and joining LAN games will be reletively easy.
• Players on a server are not required to be on the same planet at the same time, and may go off and explore different planets.

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Controls and Players -

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• Left and Right Mouse Buttons will allow simultanious dual wield weapon/item use.
• What the Death Penalty will be has not been set in stone at this time. Possibly a monetary loss.
• Weapons can also be one handed or two handed.
• Some items require Battery Power. (This games MP equivalent from what it seems.)
• If the player is attacked while blocking with a shield they will take a small percentage (depending on the level of the shield) of regular damage that’s applied to the players health bar as white “recoverable” health (images). This white health will automatically regenerate at end of battle if you do not take a direct hit.
• After successfully blocking, the player has a chance to counter attack the enemy to do a guaranteed critical hit. Blocking multiple attacks in a row will increase your counter attacks crit damage. There will be enemy attacks that are unblockable.
• Shield stats and appearance will also be procedurally generated.
• Players can crouch (unknown control) and "walk" by holding shift and go into 'sneak mode' and walk by enemies without being seen.
• 'Sneak items' are in the game, and add to your chances of successfully sneaking. Sneaking in PVP is still being discussed.
• 0-9 will quick switch left hand item, and Shift+0-9 will switch out right hand.
• The view area can be increased and decreased using the arrow keys to give yourself a better idea of your surroundings. Possible zoom minimum's and max's will be limited in final game.
• Holding "LEFT CTRL" allows you to pan your current veiw around with the mouse a certain distance. Tiy states that it is possible items will increase your pan range. He says this will be important for sniper rifles so you can see further to find your targets.
• Controller support MIGHT be added after release.
• The game window can be resized freely by simply resizing the client's window.

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Items -

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• Items are procedurally generated not only in visual style but in stats, offering bountiful variations of just one weapon possible to be discovered, shared with friends and remembered. Procedurally-generated guns are one example. However some rare and unique static items will be in the game to be found.
• There will be vanity slots to alter your appearance, and many worn items will also be procedurally generated in appearance making sure most players will not look the same.
• Many strange and wonderful outfits will be available, ranging from a Knights armor to a space suit.
• Painting of weapons and armor for customization has been discussed/planned.
• Tech slots for items such as Jet Packs, Short Range Teleporters and Stomp Boots are available to the players.
• There will be many materials to mine. Including "...shiny things..." - Rho
• Some weapons will have charge times before firing, like a chargeable cannon.
• There will be tools that are useful in combat.
• The game currency is called Pixels.
• Your role in a party/team will be determined by what items you have and gear you wear and will require so much different gear to offer any specific gain as that role that it cant be changed on the fly, instead you will change at your starbase/homeworld where its all stored.
• Healing items, tools (like a placeable/toss-able field generator that increases damage of all weapon fire that passes through it.) and gear will be available so you can be in a support role such as a healer.
• A Flashlight you can aim with your mouse.
• Many items will be placeable directly ON the background so you wont have to always attach a torch to the "player layer" walls.
• "There will be Flashlight mods for some weapons." - Rho_
• Items will have an outline color in the UI to show their rarity. If you look in the lighting demo video you will see 3 items are in green hot-bar boxes.
• Background Objects, such as furniture and boxes are drawn/styled in a way to give them an appearance of depth, as they sit at an angle making them look 3D on a 2D plane.
• Chairs, Tables, Stairs and Background Windows are already in the game. Stairs have been verified to be fully interactable in the current build of the game.
• Background computer screens are animated adding a lot of ambience to the game. They also give off a faint glow that flickers slightly if no other light is nearby.
• A lot of melee weapons are currently "swingable", but some "stabby" ones may be added as well. This is due to every new item needs to be animated independently for every move the player could make.
• Complete guns are found, not parts of guns.
• Items that let you "rip huge chunks out of terrain and hurl them around, which can be used for terra-forming or harassing enemies." will be available.
• Intelligent inventory managment features are planned to help players not spend to much time sorting things out.
• There are only a couple types of ammo, but most guns fire them differently.

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Enemies / Plants / Creatures -

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• Humanoid enemies will appear. Many will be grouped into teams to appear as if they are working together.
• Creatures can be cataloged by players so they can look back on the strange and wonderful things they have discovered.
• You can also click a plant (Using your Electronic Logbook) to find/store information about it as well to see if they have any use as materials.
• Creatures can be caught and trained to help you fight. These creatures will have stats such as defense, attack damage, speed, which will increase will kills. They can also be trained to fly or swim, etc. This will be able to be done when the creature is at low health. Three creatures may be taken with you at a time. Any "dead" monster on your team will automatically be sent to your monster slot and wait to be healed back at your station.
• There will be regular bosses and SUPER HARD bosses.
• Enemies can chuck dirt at you, displacing blocks.
• Enemy behavior will play an integral role in how you defeat them, much like in megaman/castlevania.
• Enemy Appearance, like weapons, will be highly variable and generated by the game randomly. However there are a lot of 'static' monsters [50 or so]. Some of the random generated appearances will be less common and offer players a different drop of rarer quality. Enemy appearance can and will effect their behavior. (if it spawns with wings, it may fly or hop higher)
• Touching (most) enemies in Starbound won’t damage the player directly, instead enemies must go through an attack animation to damage the player.
• Humanoid enemies will be able to use shields and many creatures may have natural shields.
• Enemies use line of sight (already confirmed in game at this stage.) If they see you they become aggressive and are no longer able to be "walked by". Unlike neutral/passive monsters that can be walked beside without the player being harmed or attacked.
• Later on, when modding is available, modding new creatures will be easier as each creature will have a config file where you can dictate all of its behaviors with tagwords like, "capturable" and "passive".
• Trees are going to procedurally generated so their appearance won't always be static sameness. Trees can also be replanted using a seed on other worlds that have a completely different eco system.
• Lots of cats and lots of penguins.

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Playable Races -

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The team has announced they plan on adding multiple playable races. The following races have been shown off as playable. The actual names of such races (aside from the Avians) has yet to be announced, so I will put the "earth version" names here.

• Humans
• Apes (Apparently they are called the 'Apex')
• Avians
• And 3 other unannounced races at release with more after.
• Using a race does not change your stats, however may change the appearance of items you craft/place.

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Movement and Physics -

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• Slopes have been implemented, and this allows much more free/fluid movement for players and things like vehicles.
• Aiming is handled with the mouse, with WASD being movement.
• Liquid physics beyond water have been planned. This includes acid, and oil which will be all 'goopy'.
• No falling damage is in the current Dev build, but they plan to add it. It wont be limited to just players suffering from it, enemies will also be hurt by it.
• Water can have 'pressure' via the engine chucklefish has designed, and causes presurized water to burst forth. However it is unlikely this feature will be used in normal NON-DEV gameplay.
• Water will equalize. (VIDEO - Water physics demonstration)
• If there isn't a block behind water, it will drain out.
• Weather is atmospheric, and lightning is realtime and generated on the screen. Trees will sway in wind and more clouds will appear in rainstorms.

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Planets -

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• Created procedurally based on coordinates. Coordinates will always create the same world, so you can share with friends. Some coordinates will not actually have a planet like in real life. So there should be a lot of empty space between planets.
• Navigation between worlds will take place via a star map (non-graphical). You will then take a Dropship to the planet, and return to the station later via the same dropship.
• 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.
• Worlds could possibly become completely destroyable in time, but as of now plans are in place to make it possible to call orbital strikes upon the surface of a planet.
• Claimed Homeworlds can be renamed. And non-homeworld planets will most likely have 'bookmarks' you can set. Multiple homeworlds can be designated as homeworlds, but the cost is so high in resources that a single player may have trouble doing so.
• Some worlds will have pre-generated story elements, which have been hand crafted with gameplay in mind.
• Planet based random events will occur. Eventually, post release there will be the possibility of universe wide events.
• It has been stated by Tiy that it will not only be planets you will visit.
• Planets day and night cycles will differ based on the planet, some may even be eternally dark or eternally light.
• Acid rain has been mentioned, which may actually eat away at player constructions during certain quests to protect an injured npc.
• Homeworlds can be set to not allow explosions to prevent griefing. Regular planets you won't stay on long enough to care about.
• There will be mini-biomes inside the larger ones. Such as overgrown pools or mushroom/rose fields. This will add even more diversity to planets.
• Temples and Pyramids will be generated on some worlds.
• Planets will have varying levels of gravity.
• 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.
• Below the surface, ores will be part of the background as well. - Tiy
• A planet may be generated as infinite in size, however, only left or right, as planet depth has been capped for obvious reasons.
• Random events such as meteor showers may destroy "throw-away" planets, but not homeworlds of course.
• There are multiple planets per star.
• Mountains, Canyons, Hills, Flats, Chasms, etc are all generated on planets offering a wide variety of terrain possiblities, as well as random villages, dungeons and tunnel systems.

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Your Space Station -

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• Your station will have five decks, bridge being the top-most deck.
• Will contain a Research Lab.
• Will be anti-griefable.
• Slightly customizable but to a limited degree to offer all players a familiar place to call home on all servers.
• The spaceship used to travel to planets will act as a mini base while you explore.
• On fully PVP servers, stations are the only completely safe place.

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Building and Crafting -

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• Items will have blueprints that are discovered, or learned from npcs. Reverse engineering has been suggested by fans and the devs seemed interested, but nothing official has been set in stone.
• Fully alterable terrain, and mining will be in the game, and so will block-by-block construction.
• A player owned UFO that will allow large scale terrain manipulation/terraforming as been discussed.
• Many buildings and complex constructions will be placeable as pre-constructed objects, an example given was a weather station.
• Possibility of a wiring system, and an in game editor that will allow for custom created missions to have your friends play (Most likely a post release addition.).
• At this time, only basic ship customization has been mentioned. "..to a degree." - Tiy
• Some simple crafting will be done on person, and more complicated creations will require you be on the space station at the manufacturing station.
• Tech trees in the research lab on the space station will help you work toward building high end things, like vehicles, mechs, etc.
• Left clicking will place blocks it in the ground layer (the collision layer in which the player walks), and right clicking will place it in the background. Objects are placed 'in between' the background and ground layer.
• Blocks have variations in their appearance so they don't all look exactly the same. Especially noticeable in single blocks that are not touching others.
• Mousing-over a spot with an item will create a "ghost item" (faded-out object). "This can be used for entertainment by placing the cursor with a table selected behind the player and running along a flat surface." - Tiy
• Painting of 'pretty much everything' is being prepared/planned for, but is still up in the air for being ready at release or post-release.

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NP Cs and Quests -

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• NPC's will have needs, and offer you quests, some quests will always be difficult as the highest world danger level will always be tough to the most well geared players.
• No limit to npc/crew size, but space station has limited space, so you'll have to move people to planet bases too.
• Some NPC's will be rescuable. And some will literally need to be carried back to your base/station.
• NPC's will be able to be evicted in an, at this moment, unspecified way.
• Quests will also be procedurally generated.
• Speech bubbles from NPC's will be seen by all players.
• As of right now, Quests are assigned to whole parties, and rewards are given per player.
• When you talk to an NPC, you may hear them speak with a "Sims-like" made up language.
• The dev team is toying with the idea of "monster breeding" where the resulting monster will have a mix of the parents' attributes.
• Monster randomization "intelligently" puts arms/legs/chest/heads together, colours it, decides to give it wings or not, and then gives it unique behaviour.
• They are aiming to have a main plotline with its own lore and narative.

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Music, Audio and Sounds -

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• Curtis Schweitzer will be composing parts of Starbound's soundtrack. An incomplete version of the soundtrack can be found on his Sound Cloud.
• Homestuck Music Team's Radiation and Solatrus will also be producing music for Starbound.

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Modding -

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• Content-wise, basically nothing is "hard-coded" so the dev team is trying to make mods "modules" that can be pushed to the client easily.
• If someone makes a mod that makes player's lives easier, Tiy has stated that he feels like it should be in the default server and would want to either add it themselves or add the mod to the game.
• Starbound is structured in a way that modding could be really easy.
• More information on modding can be found here until a short version is added to this post.
• Texture pack support most likely wont be available at release, but they hope to have it post-release.

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Miscellaneous -

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• Drinking lava is fatal.
• Localization is planned, but may not happen until post-release. (Note)
• There currently are no underwater vehicles, but that could change easily.
• There will be "sci-fi style" sliding doors that slide upwards.
• An estimated price is "$9.99 - $14.99 max, probably" -Tiy
• Circuitry will be a big part of the game and will double as part of the level-editor.
• "Flying machines" are planned.

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Cameos -

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The following is a list of things from other (indie) video games that have been confirmed to make an appearance of some sort in Starbound.

• Creepers from Minecraft
• Monsters from Braid
• Fluros from Vessel
• Diggles from Dungeons of Dredmor ("hopefully")

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The Following has been stated as NOT being in the game -

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• Food Meter
• Micro-transactions
• Cooldowns (Unsure if this is just for weapons, or all items as well.)
• Item Durability
• Fog of war
• Foreground Layer that blocks player sight.
• XP and Attribute Stats (IE; Strength, Intelligence, Charisma)

edited 4th Sep '12 6:30:22 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Waaaa, Wall of Text. It seems really interesting though.

Yeah wall of text. But a good deal to read. Answers a lot of questions.

I cleaned up the post to be easier to read.

edited 4th Sep '12 6:31:16 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Thank you, that really helps

So you can crouch and walk at the same time? I wonder if they plan to include a Spycrab reference. Monsters from Braid and Diggles from Dredmor are awesome.

...Day one or preorder (depends on when it's put on Steam), that's all I can say.

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer. — Unknown

I don't think this will be a pre-order just a hey its going up for sale on x day.

edited 5th Sep '12 3:37:58 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Randomly generated dungeon, looks Avian. And, unlike Terraria dungeons! Has cool setpeices and makes sense.◊

edited 9th Sep '12 7:53:19 PM by Ninjaxenomorph

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Ninja: Nice Find. Where did you dig it up?

I like the themed dungeon look. It looks expansive and huge. For scale you can see an adventurer in the top most layer.

Who watches the watchmen?

I found it on the Starbound twitter, not Tiy's.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Of course, the goldmine I never visit, because I don't use twitter.

edited 9th Sep '12 8:21:14 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Wow. If that's supposed to be a random dungeon, I wonder what the creator-designed ones will look like!

For the interested

discussing starbound youtube series

similar stuff different guy

I'm reminded of the Ood from Dr. Who◊

Who watches the watchmen?

^Why you are reminded of them instead of every other tentacle mouth alien? .-.

I'll have to check those out. Me and my brother want to do a Let's Play/machinima, sort of like the Yogscasts' Tekkit LP, with them mostly playing themselves, but they are characters. Sorta. He wants to be an Avian security officer, I want to be an exiled Apex scientist.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Too early to tell. It's best if you wait and see how the game actually plays and then go through with it: you never know if that combination might completely suck balls or not.

The races the player can play as are not supposed to affect stats but that might change.

As for classes that is determined by the gear you have equipped.

Discussing Starbound #11 shows how the sloping and terrain movement in general works. Very smooth looking.

Personally the guy who does Discussing Starbound over analyses a bit too much.

edited 10th Sep '12 12:00:10 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

What he said. And actually my brother wants to play an avian pilot, so the theme fits better.

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Shameless bump, but has anybody listened to the WIP music for the game?

Me and my friend's collaborative webcomic: Forged Men

Not yet. I am hoping to see some actual game play vids soon. Optimistically I have heard mid november as a release date.

Who watches the watchmen?