Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Culise]

I have no idea what you mean about sectors

Odd... given that the game is put into "sectors" that separate the stages of the game. Sectors that you need to unlock.

I don't remember hearing anything about that. Source?

I think I recall something like that, too.  In one of the play-through videos, if I recall it properly, they talked about how the tutorial quests would lead up to building a beacon that would call a larger ship to rescue you, which would let you go to different sectors.  I don't think you need to unlock each sector individually, though; it's just getting a bigger engine to go to more places.  I don't think it has much to do with the tiers, either.  I think the devs mentioned also that there are players already talking about starting off by grabbing just enough fuel to get to a Tier 10 world and set up camp there, just to see how long they can survive, and the devs didn't shoot that idea down. 

[Sean Mirrsen]

I think it's less about the "tier" sectors, and more about the, y'know, actual sectors. As in, of the galaxy. The basic ship is probably free to move within the Alpha sector, which is considered the Tutorial sector, but might still include planets all over the difficulty spectrum.

edit: i.e.:

Red underline.

Notice the buttons for Alpha, Beta and Gamma sectors in the corner of the window there, also.
So I think it's just map expansion.

[Darkmere]

Yeah, I'd like a source for sectors being progression or difficulty-oriented. All I've seen this far implies they're basically map coordinates, though I could see filtering out high-level planets based on map location. It'd be a fair bit annoying to search through 90% untenable planets at every single stage of the game.

[Neonivek]

Yeah, I'd like a source for sectors being progression or difficulty-oriented. All I've seen this far implies they're basically map coordinates, though I could see filtering out high-level planets based on map location. It'd be a fair bit annoying to search through 90% untenable planets at every single stage of the game.

What would you use them for? and why would you use an unlocking mechanism for?

Unfortunately I could only find proof that the "starting sector" is easy.

[Darkmere]

Yeah, I'd like a source for sectors being progression or difficulty-oriented. All I've seen this far implies they're basically map coordinates, though I could see filtering out high-level planets based on map location. It'd be a fair bit annoying to search through 90% untenable planets at every single stage of the game.

What would you use them for? and why would you use an unlocking mechanism for?

Unfortunately I could only find proof that the "starting sector" is easy.

Eh, I could see certain sectors having unlock requirements for ship upgrades and the like. Sector gamma is covered in nebulae so you need unobtainium-based sensor arrays to make sense of it, sector delta is irradiated by (choose a stellar phenomenon) so you need better plating and armor for your ship and yourself, but the planets are higher in heavy metals and have more dangerous pokemans. I have no idea what ship upgrades actually do, all I recall seeing so far has been "more space" but it seems odd to have so much variation in everything else and just leaving the ship as a portable house and nothing more. (There was something about gathering resources from orbit for un-visitable planets, I think?)

Otherwise, it would be more convenient to have a sector of a certain level spread and limit it that way. If the universe were truly random 9 out of 10 visible planets would be useless (out of your level/gear range) at any given time.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, I'd like a source for sectors being progression or difficulty-oriented. All I've seen this far implies they're basically map coordinates, though I could see filtering out high-level planets based on map location. It'd be a fair bit annoying to search through 90% untenable planets at every single stage of the game.

What would you use them for? and why would you use an unlocking mechanism for?

Unfortunately I could only find proof that the "starting sector" is easy.

As Darkmere said, sectoring the map would allow for things like specialized sectors that require and provide specific sorts of upgrades. There's also the possibility of Alpha Sector being largely uninhabited, while each of the others would have a burgeoning NPC empire within it.

[Wolf Tengu]

It's probably either already been  thought of or discarded, but warring NPC factions might be cool. Maybe even interplanetary war.

Oh, and is there a limit to how tall you could build something?

[Neonivek]

It's probably either already been  thought of or discarded, but warring NPC factions might be cool. Maybe even interplanetary war.

Oh, and is there a limit to how tall you could build something?

Honestly while I have not heard of a height limit. It is one of those things that you kind of know have to exist.

Mind you... that limit is extremely loose given that you can actually make it into orbit.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yeah, it's one of those cases where "the sky is the limit" is actually understating things a little. The real limit is probably somewhere near the altitude at which your spaceship is hanging.

[Chattox]

So who else is going to build an escalator leading from the floor to the door of their ship?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Assuming that's even going to be possible, of course. I don't think the spaceship actually has doors. Though I'm sure that it'll be one of the top suggested items.

[Frumple]

Yeah... yeah. To hell with teleportation. I'mma' jump. Throw pet out first to cushion landing. Then build space elevator to get back to ship. This is righteous path.

Unless they let us build player launching cannons. In which case it's back to Seiken Densetsu and I start making potshots at my ship with me.

[Darkmere]

The ship is its own custom "planet" that works as a loading screen. It's not actually present on the planetary landing maps.

[Levi]

Apparently Starbound is featured in the October PC Gamer magazine.  Here is the interview(nicked from the starbound forums)

I've spoilered it, but it doesn't really have any spoilers in it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Is it actually like Terraria in space?”

I’m talking to Finn ‘Tiy’ Brice, lead developer on Starbound – a game habitually described as ‘Terraria in space’ and which shares some of the same development team.
“I guess that the description is a little misleading, because when you play the game it doesn’t feel at all like Terraria. There’s a massive emphasis on the atmosphere and the combat is very different and the building is entirely different.” says Brice. ‘Terraria in space’ is a handy basic level explanation but not an accurate description, he adds.
So that’s what Starbound isn’t. What it is is an ambitious 2D sandbox game set in a procedurally-generated universe. In addition to the sandbox elements, there will be a main storyline that will alter depending on which race you play, as well as a slew of side quests and the potential for co-operative multiplayer as well as PvP.

“[Starbound] starts with each of the races you can play as either fleeing or choosing to leave their home planet for some reason,” explains Brice of the main story. “Through the course of the story they’ll come together and I think all of their futures somewhat intertwine.” But the idea of being forced to leave your home world at the beginning of a game seems at adds with Brice;s insistence that Starbound be as lovable as possible.

“A lack of charm is one of the saddest thing playing videogame,” he says. As a result, the team are focusing on making Starbound as charming as humanly possible. “We’ve put a huge amount of effort into that. It tends to be the smallest things that create the most charm – smoke swirling off the top of teacups or leaves falling from trees.” So how does that marry up with the displaced people?

“Tonally there is actually quite a bit of contrast there. Obviously the art style is quite friendly to look at and a lot of the time while you’re playing its pretty friendly – especially in the peaceful parts of the game – but the story is quite dark and quite adult as well,” he says. “We didn’t want it to be something Mario-style, where its great in its own way but there’s not much depth. We wanted something people could rally sink their teeth into.”
Despite not having the main story full fleshed out yet (it won’t even be in the open beta when that launches later in 2013), the Starbound team are already thing about how to integrate DLC. One of the ideas is a paid-for season of content that operates like a television series. “Once you pay for it, you get a new episode every week on the same day at the same time," says Brice. “We want to turn say, Thursday nights at 6pm into Starbound night, and create cliff-hangers that people can discuss between episodes and the end of a season.”

As much as it will contain a narrative, a massive part of Starbound will be rooted in exploration and discovery. One result is that the developers are aiming to give the player an “almost unlimited” number of things to find. It’s the need for an abundance of objects that should also make the game mod-friendly.

“The amount of content had to be so high the relying on a small group of programmers to do it all was just not feasible. What we did set up the engine in such a way the even artists who had never touched code in their live could add new objects and new monsters or guns or armour in five minutes. It’s that simple. There are found to be different levels of modding [but] just adding content is absurdly easy. Anyone with Notepad and Paint can just draw a chair or something and add it to their game.“

As well as this vast, moddable object library, procedural generation is being used for content form guns to landscapes so new worlds and experiences should always be possible to find. The emphasis is on creating opportunities for the unexpected, although sometimes the actions of the dev team can save a similar effect.
“We have a physics system we can apply to blocks,” says Brice when asked whether anything unexpected has happened to him in the game. “Sand cascades and forms into big piles, and water react like a liquid. One of the guys on our beta team built a huge sandcastle fortress thing; I wasn’t aware, but after he’d built it I added the cascading physics to the sand block. He loaded up his and said to me ‘Come visit my big sand fortress thing!’
We joined his planet and the whole thing fell down.” A once-mighty fortress turned to sand soup. “I think it was sad for him and funny for me.”

The experience reminds Brice of playing Minecraft, accidentally setting parts of his home alight when building a fireplace. “I like seeing things like that happen, even if it happens to me – at least I didn’t expect it, and anything unexpected is great,” he says. “That’s what Starbound is about really.” He Pauses. “There probably won’t be experiences that burn the player’s house down though.”

-Philippa Warr, UK PCGamer

[Wolf Tengu]

Mind you... that limit is extremely loose given that you can actually make it into orbit.

Aww. I totally wanted to make a massive ladderbridge between planets.