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[Tarran]

I also encountered those people on all 4 Rainbow biomes I found on one planet, so I'm all but certain they're connected.

[WillowLuman]

And this is unmodded, right?

[Flying Dice]

And this is unmodded, right?

Yus. I've encountered them exclusively in rainbow biomes as well.

[WillowLuman]

Got any coords? I'd like to check this out.

[Tiruin]

Hm... There are some really lovely varieties of cobblestone in the game, yet when I mine them, they all transform into ugly boring light gray cobblestone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Beautiful dark cobblestone, below the obsidian, was mined and then placed on the ground next to me.

Is this a bug? Should I report it?

That's been in since the game came out.

...Sappho: Where did you get such a nice outfit? O_o

[Kaitol]

looks like regular old female glitch clothes and... some sort of vanity hat I haven't seen yet.

[Sappho]

That's been in since the game came out.

That doesn't mean it's not a bug. Stone shouldn't transform when you mine it. I reported it, fingers crossed that they get it fixed.

...Sappho: Where did you get such a nice outfit? O_o

Haha, thanks. Regular Glitch noble "pants" (skirt), pilot's jacket, and hat with ears (don't remember where I found that sorry, just randomly in a chest somewhere).

Interestingly, I only just recently figured out how to use vanity items. For my first 45 or so hours of gameplay I assumed that if I wanted to look cool, I had to give up my armor. Then I noticed in a screenshot someone posted that someone had both armor and vanity items on in their inventory and I felt oh-so-foolish.

I woke up this morning thinking about Starbound (I am officially quite seriously addicted again). I keep trying to think of a way to make meteor showers work better. Obviously the whole planet can't be loaded at once or most players' computers would explode. But what about a sort of map of the whole planet? What if the game kept *only the terrain* of the planet open at all times? No plants, no trees, no animals, none of that. Just the shape of the blocks and nothing more. Surely that wouldn't take up that much space, and it would allow the game to check to see if there is *any* terrain above the player before deciding to drop flaming space rocks on them. So if you're on the surface, you're at risk, but you could build a dome around your building area and you'd be safe because the game would consider you underground.

Thoughts? Would this be possible, or feasible? I imagine it could be useful in other ways as well. While the map is open, the game could mark certain areas for meteor strikes and other such events, and they could be calculated when the player arrives in that area. So it appears that the whole world is active all the time, even though the game only updates areas when the player arrives there. This would go hand in hand with the very obvious need to mark all crops with a timer and have their growth update when the player gets near them.

[Tiruin]

(can't give thoughts, only skimmed-lacking time)

ARGH. Human pants and clothes are so boring. Dx I throw my envies at that. :I

Anyway, I remember that someone (dunno who) said that weather effects are generated on-spot, as in near the area [off screen maybe?] you're in, so the dome wouldn't probably work. Unsure though, just forwarding it.

...
I still envy that outfit. Only thing I got for my 'Sky Pirate' one is a black vest, white t-shirt and some blue jeans. Blargh. Not that awesome.

[Sappho]

Yeah, weather effects are currently generated on the spot, at the edge of the screen, so you can get hit by meteors even underground, and building a protective roof is useless. That's why I suggest that the game keep a map of all the blocks on the planet, open whenever the player is there, so that it can check above the player (allll the way to the sky) and see if there is protection above their head before raining down flaming space rocks and ruining all their hard work.

[Darkmere]

I'd still be satisfied just with the ability to see if meteor showers will happen so I can avoid building on planets with them. I'd like for them to be in  because they're fun when exploring, and honestly there's so many planets finding one without a small subset of weather effects that I want to build on won't be a problem.

And then "keep all the planet loaded at once" thing is kinda how Terraria worked for its meteor drops. Let me get you a size comparison between Terraria's "full planet pixel by pixel" storage and Starbound's B-trees:

Terraria large world: 48 Mb
Starbound: barely under 2 Mb (largest file in my universe directory)

It was "okay" in Terraria because there's only one planet (and you could technically build meteor shields there, but they worked differently than SB's and spawn point was guaranteed meteor-safe), but consider a universe this size full of 20-50 mb planets, where everything you touch bloats the save folder that much more and 8 players on a server hog 400+ Mb just to land.

I completely agree that localized weather effects is annoying. I'd make it simpler though and just forbid the game from generating weather effects if you're below "sea level", or in the underground parallax layer. It may feel a little gamey, but I doubt the majority of players would notice unless it were pointed out to them.

[Sappho]

But that Terraria map must have contained all information, including objects, trees, monsters... I'm not talking about details like that. Just the blocks themselves. I can't imagine that a simple map of *only* the blocks (a grid with 1 for a block, 0 for no block, maybe an extra 2 for background block) would take up that much space. No need to record what type of terrain there is or anything like that. Just presence and absence. It could be a very simple data file. Just some way for the game to check whether there's terrain above the player, even off screen, and possibly to mark locations where weather effects will take place when the player arrives (such as the results of meteor strikes). Or even, if not the whole planet, then at least a slice of the planet around the player going from very top to very bottom.

I have no problem with the meteors per se. I would also like to be able to detect them before landing on the planet, but as it stands right now, it can take hours for the first one to hit, so even exploring the planet isn't enough to rule them out. It should be possible to build a big shield over your living area and be safe, even if the shield is off screen.

[Sean Mirrsen]

And it should perhaps be possible to get advance warning (i.e. by sound, music, and background change), and treat the asteroids as hostile entities, capable of being shot down. Just a thought. Or just beam off the planet and wait the event out.

[Reudh]

I'd like something like autocannons you could build that specifically target asteroids, vaguely like a SAM system. That way, you could define an area which needs protection from the meteors, all still within a given block.

[Sappho]

Whoa... Just started a new character for multiplayer and I got THE BEST starting planet ever.

It's massive. It took me about 15 in-game days to go all the way around (stopping to loot, obviously). There are two friendly Apex towns complete with a couple of thought reassignment beds each (the ones that heal you super fast). I lost count, but at least 10 of those little mini USMC labs - just one room with 2 robot guards inside and a chest on a shelf above them. In one of those chests, I found a legendary bonehammer. It's an alpha one, so it only does 11 damage, but it's still worth having. In chests here and there I found a playable piano and also an overdrive guitar. In tech chests sitting right at cave openings I found the pulse jump and energy dash techs. Finally, the minibiome is tentacles.

It's on Ibid's server, so I don't know if it will generate the same for everyone, but it was a hell of a start. Coordinates: -87882053, 16636607

[Flying Dice]

Oh yeah, legendary bonehammers are stupid-good. I managed to find a tier-10 one, and it mines through everything softer than cobble faster than a diamond drill. Two swings and all soft materials (plus the delicious ores) in a ~8 block radius from the impact point are broken. :3