Starbound V8 - "Nobody cares about the -collect the 6 things- storyline."

[Vagak]

The Starbound Thread. Header image coming whenever.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O6PUh3reG0

What is Starbound?
Starbound is a 2D sandbox game much like Terraria, except it's not really comparable to Terraria in terms of gameplay at all. Starbound is focused on exploration, building, and collection of items moreso than combat, but combat plays a significant role nonetheless. Also, you're in space, and you get to fly a ship around. Depending on what difficulty you select, you'll also need to keep yourself fed by sustaining yourself off of a planet's vegetation and beasts.

The depths of what you can explore in the vast universe of Starbound and what it has in store for you involves various planet themes of a barren wasteland, a scorched former civilization, soft forests and lush terrains, a mysterious mutated alien-like world full of weird things, and unforgiving volcanic planets full of lava and fire.

Like Terraria, you'll need to burrow yourself down into the grounds of planets to go mining for minerals to advance in equipment and building capabilities. You'll find useful supplies like new weapons, modules to upgrade your standard mining tool - the useful Matter Manipulator, among other things that will aid in your survival.

Here's what the steam page says about Starbound.
Choose from one of 7 playable races and customize your character
Save the universe in a story campaign featuring unique characters, bosses, dungeons and quests!
You're the captain of your very own starship! Decorate it, expand it and use it to explore a procedurally generated universe
Colonize uncharted planets and collect gifts from your tenants - if they like you, they may even ask to join your ship crew!
Three game modes - Casual (no need to eat), Survival (eat to survive/drop items on death) and Hardcore (permadeath)
Craft thousands of objects - building materials, armor, weapons, furniture and more
Capture unique monsters to fight alongside you
All content is available in online drop-in/drop-out co-op
Built from the ground up to be easily moddable. You have the tools to make the universe your own - add new races, biomes, dungeons, and quests

That's cool. What's this about seven races to play from?
All seven of the races have their own unique ship design as you expand to larger ship sizes, their own set of armor and attire appearance, and even their own dialog when you go around to scan and inspect things in the universe. They'll otherwise not have much difference between eachother stat wise when it comes to their armor, or species wise - except the novakids, who can craft simple guns at their anvils instead of simple melee weapons. Pick who you find is the most cool out of all of them.

Here's what they are! (as taken from the website)
(this probably looks ugly if you're using a dark theme for FP. Too lazy to fix it. Sorry.)

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/4a893ed5-2446-440b-ae6f-eebb03bf241b/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/41f4780e-d719-4f72-a19d-722a995497ef/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/ef89a31d-0f83-4bcc-8ae8-8f63650e72c0/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/66fe2923-a49f-4d2f-8df8-22c6e80d4eb3/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/3e87cb1f-8ec9-486a-a598-d9b828a3aa9a/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/2cfbd992-d7da-4795-aacb-44b80495fdd1/image.png

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/110422/ff3ecc5c-0b94-4f85-b3a0-c9f7c963e6d5/image.png

They say this game is moddable?
Extremely so. If you extracted the contents of the game at all, you'd find that a great amount of objects involved are either JSON or LUA. This makes it easy to add in new objects and items to the game, or modify existing objects if you so desired, to alter the gameplay of the game, among other things - all as long as you're savvy with JSON or LUA.

Starbound is workshop-supported, meaning you can easily just add new mods that are available on there with a click of a button, and a restart of Starbound.
If you don't like the workshop, you can otherwise download mods from wherever and extract their folders or .paks into Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\mods.

Here's a few good mods that I feel are worth mentioning. If anyone has any mods they'd like to recommend, I'll try and keep this OP updated for such.

Frackin' Universe (and some other mods by the same author)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729480149

A complete, massive addition to Starbound that adds all sorts of things like new planet types, new quests, new things to craft, a power system, an overhaul of the starter planet, changes to many existing systems, among other crazy things.

It's not recommended for players starting out with the game on account of how complicated some of the things are in the mod, but for those looking for a new experience who had played Starbound before, this is strongly recommended.

There's also a few bugs that still need to be ironed out here and there as a result of the changes they've made to the systems.

Frackin' Races
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=763259329

The additional mod followed up called "Frackin' Races" will actually give various species, including a multitude of custom species racial advantages, abilities, and disadvantages, giving an incentive to try out some of the custom races modders have put into Starbound, and making it matter more of what species you pick out. While it does mention a few Frackin' Universe related things like Cosmic and Shadow elements, FU is not required for this mod.

You can find all the races Frackin' Races supports and the advantages and disadvantages they get here!

Frackin' Music
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729492703
This simply adds more (royalty-free) music to play as you explore the various planets of Starbound, in case you're tired of what you're given. Frackin' Universe isn't required, but it does add more music to Frackin' Universe planets just as well as it does vanilla planets.

Quickbar Mini, Matter Manipulator Manipulator, and Player Dances and Emotes

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1088459034

Quickbar Mini will alter the "Matter Manipulator" Icon to be an expandable interface that will let you open interfaces made by other modders. 100% vanilla compatible. Included below are two examples of mods that use Quickbar Mini, though there are a few others out there besides what is mentioned.

Matter Manipulator Manipulator:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729427900

This allows you to configure your Matter Manipulator a bit more so you can adjust the radius and alt radius of the manipulator to make it easier to build for when you need to build. Also lets you adjust the paint size too. 100% vanilla compatible.

Player Dances and Emotes:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1253782150

If you ever wanted to dance like the NPCs in Starbound and goof off with your friends while they play instruments, this mod is pretty much for you. 100% vanilla compatible.

And here's a bunch of other mods that can be used to reduce the hassle of this game if you want to use them.

Faster Warp:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729726251
Improved Containers:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729427606
Skippable Cinematics:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729428037
Extended Songbook:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729427264
More Planet Info:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1117007107
Instant Crafting:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729427744

Does the Facepunch community anything for them in Starbound?

There currently is no active Facepunch server at this time. There isn't really much interest in this game at the time among Facepunchers. There is a discord server for Starbound Facepunchers, however.

https://discord.gg/TFhAp2r

I'm someone who hasn't played Starbound in a long while. Is there anything new since 1.0?

They added Terraforming in 1.2, but that's only accessible after you have completed the main storyline. You have to clear these vaults to get the materials required to terraform. Here's a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru5Mh7_IxuE

They added Mechs, Space Stations, and more space exploration in 1.3! Here's a video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX3Mvvm5vRI

They are currently working on a Bounty Hunter update for 1.4 which should add some more improved side quests to the game. Supposedly they're going to be making a whole lot of other changes to the game in the meanwhile, according to recent blog posts. They're currently working on Console ports otherwise, and they're putting the update on the sidelines for now, so we might not be getting the Bounty Hunter update for a while.

I'm new to Starbound. Give me some screenshots of the game.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_be52b84343853cd283115e5f2409a830d7640128.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_1557c841b958dd94b22691da58860f79e4424c6f.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_f8f3e96d97cbffb69783480c82bad92c52cd6b06.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_e7295cbcf271b14f863360399920f2f1eca400e6.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_0d1d010a7ce365dd72f75be9347cce89faeaa46e.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_d8b4161eb4e5499d2da25daf0a0978168e865f76.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_192bdfbf9a2c85f754d5fcaba7d093c79b1f04b2.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_52eec525eb618ff5b34cd3d0c0c388cb13772f73.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/211820/ss_e4ae2b0732fc6e278bce735e9689d0778cb64f72.1920x1080.jpg?t=1469208393

http://playstarbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/penguin1.gif

I'll try and keep this OP updated regarding any news, Facepunch related things, among other things.

Previous Threads:
Starbound - Terraria goes to space
Starbound V2 - Much more than Terraria in space
Starbound V3 - "A slightly more wet thud"
Starbound V4 - No, the beta isn't out yet
Starbound V5 - There's probably gonna be bloodshed
Starbound V6 - Birds with Cocks
Starbound V7 - This robot is trained to fuck your mouth

[Alice]

So has the game actually improved at all? Last time I played it was really just too boring and combat still sucked badly.

[Vagak]

"Improved" is probably dependent on when you last played Starbound. If it was during the beta, then sure, they've improved upon combat before 1.0 was reached. Swords, hammers, and spears all have their different playstyles - you can do combos using the sword, hammers hit hard but you have to charge your attack, spears will let you thrust in any direction and all that. Since 1.2 there was elemental damage added, which mattered when it came to fighting enemies. It also plays into Frackin' Universe as well.

Fighting against humanoid enemies still leaves a few things to be desired, but aside from that, combat is probably about as polished as it can be.

It otherwise has a full storyline that you can play through, though as I implied in the title of the thread, it's a pretty basic storyline. It has a few decent moments at the very least, like some of the bosses.

For the short term, it's probably worth replaying up to where you complete the game, but in the long term, you'll be doing various things like constructing things to your own desires, collecting stuff like bugs, fossils, among other things. There seems to be a lot of emphasis on collection, especially in the achievements. If that isn't your thing, play up to the storyline. You can use mods to otherwise change your experience. Again, Frackin' Universe comes to mind.

[Alice]

I can't say for certain exactly when the last time I played through it was but it was definitely after it left beta. I think it may have been 1.2 because I'm fairly certain there was elemental damage. If that's the case though then it sounds like combat probably hasn't improved. I don't recall my exact issues because it's been awhile but I think it was largely an issue with grindiness or something like that. Getting actually decent equipment that made combat less grindy (aka weapons that deal actually worthwhile damage) were uncommon to the point where I could commonly go through an entire area of progression without getting a worthwhile weapon.

[Vagak]

I just realized that I made a goof in typing my post and should emphasize that elemental damage was a thing for a while - it was when they gave enemies certain resistances and weaknesses to elemental damage around 1.2. Before that it was just "fire can set things on fire", "poison will poison."

I'll have to agree with you regarding the grindiness though. I actually used a mod to fix that for my further playthroughs of the game whenever I was playing with someone who wanted to play it - which certainly made things less tedious.

[StrawberryClock]

Man, I was SO MUCH on the hype train back then.

[angrytoadnoises]

Cool timing to see a thread of this pop up, I had just finished up a revisit. I ditched this game after I jumped off the high train soon after beta, but coming back to it now - and running it with FU and a few other QoL mods - provided a super engaging experience. It's almost nothing like it used to be imo. If the game originally launched resembling anything like this final product, I actually think it would have given Terraria a run for it's money.

Strongly encourage anyone who hasn't checked it out in awhile to give it a look.

[Vagak]

I'm gonna go ahead and repost some content from the previous thread because I feel that I need to make sure you all witness this absolute garbage that is known as public VANILLA Starbound servers.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/1e09a6a21562615238be0f856f118cb1/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro4_1280.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/8ff97f9de474f12e7decec174410d4d4/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro5_1280.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/abeb7ec0148d887f03bb54b0b4a89a59/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro6_1280.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/880435c87511fcf9cc9b49f07fb47511/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro8_1280.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/127aedb804bd788f9ac527de49704d23/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro9_1280.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/279aef029a51cb6302a7278e2fb2a202/tumblr_p412v1T33M1qmc4vro10_640.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/5c0d6075287f3c356d0f0b46d1750252/tumblr_inline_p412uamSrI1qkdwis_640.png

https://78.media.tumblr.com/6665f3137029bb872c6343f1def3f21f/tumblr_inline_p412palZsx1qkdwis_500.png

[Alice]

Decided to give this a shot but it really didn't help. Starbound was laggy to the point I couldn't play it and nothing helped. (Not a resource issue since I'm using a 3.8ghz quad core with 16gb of ram and a GTX970 graphics card.) Someone elsewhere recommended trying the 32-bit version but that didn't load mods at all then I tried verifying the file integrity through Steam which broke mod loading altogether and I can't figure out how to fix it so I guess I'm just simply done with Starbound altogether.

[Vagak]

Strange, I'm able to load my mods in the 32 bit version just fine. Those are definitely stronger computer specs than I have though, so maybe you have certain settings that just conflicts with Starbound.

By laggy though, do you mean you have awful framerate, or the enemies were acting extremely slow and/or chunks of the planets were loading very slowly?

One thing that I had done to improve the framerate of the game was using the NVIDIA Control Panel to disable V-Sync on Starbound. I also believe there is a setting in Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\storage\starbound.config that also lets you change the vsync to 'false' - this might be the preferable option, actually. I don't know if that will help at all, but it might be worth a shot. It could potentially be some other settings you have set otherwise.

There are also mods that let you use more threads for starbound by one author which can perhaps make chunks load quicker, among other things. I should probably add that to the OP if it helps at all.

[Alice]

I was getting nearly constant hitching. At least every second or two the framerate would drop heavily and if there were any enemies around it was more of a slideshow than anything remotely animated. This happened no matter where I was at though, even on my ship.
I'd tried both of those options as well as some others such as running Starbound as an admin and disabling DPI scaling (though that shouldn't have been an issue for me regardless) but none of those options seemed to help at all. I also had the game zoomed in as far as possible and tried changing the window resolution but neither option seemed to have any effect at all.

Yup, tried that as well. Also tried the various performance mods that compress different images in the game's files, the one that disabled point shadows, and tried the /fullbright admin command as well.

None of it seemed to help performance at all and by the time I started having issues with mods simply not working at all, I'd already sunk about three hours into trying to figure it out then spent around forty minutes trying various things up to and including manually unsubscribing from and resubscribing to all my mods and that still didn't fix mods breaking so I just gave up.

I really just have no idea what the performance problem could even stem from at this point and don't have enough patience remaining to try and figure it out.

[Vagak]

Well, guess I'm pretty much out of ideas then. Dunno what to say to you other than hope a miracle comes out to tell you why you had that problem, or that someone here has some input that can solve your problem.