Starbound (Last Wipe Plans)

[Trippy]

DigitalOcean's SF facilities are having networking issues >.>

Edit: and it's back (for now)

[apocrypha]

I was just in the middle of putting some stuff in crates near the spawn point when I got disconnected and can't get back in. I'll let it settle and try again later :)

There should be a bunch of weapons in one of the crates in the little room I dug under the floating lake, take what you need anyone!

Edit: Lots of weapons, melee & ranged, in the crates to the right of spawn point on home planet. Also some armour, couple of blueprints and some other assorted stuff.

[brellium]

I should really log in with you guys and see what you're doing.

[Falconeer]

I found and empty old chest and took it up with me. Then I realized some of you might have made it and left it there. I really have no idea how the multiplayer works here. I assume we all start on the same planet and can, theoretically, do things together. Then we leave for different planets and unless we make an effort to plunder one together our paths are never gonna cross again? And is there any way to see if anybody else is on (the server)?

EDIT: One more question: we all spawn on the same planet at first, but not on the same location, right?

[schild]

The multiplayer in the game is... not well thought out. Things it needs:

1. Notes for the Planet and Galaxy screens that we can leave for eachother.
2. A way to warp to players anywhere.
3. Planets should automatically have information for has been visited, who has visited it, who is on it, etc.
4. A planet overview to say how much that planet has been plundered. Resource % remaining. Treasure % remaining. Etc.

I can think of a million things, but those quality of life things would go so, so, so far.

[Quinton]

You can hack around #2 if you're in a party -- you can beam up to any party-member's ship and then beam down to the planet it's orbiting.  Clunky, but better than nothing.

[Khaldun]

The quality of some of that information even for single player should be better--some of the repeated uniques (towns, etc.) should trigger automatic notations of some kind. Maybe they do? I'm still learning, so maybe I've missed a place where that kind of info is auto-logged?

Anybody know what happens if you mess with the two guys carrying swords who always spawn with a statue and a broken cage? I've seen them on a couple of planets now.

[schild]

You can hack around #2 if you're in a party -- you can beam up to any party-member's ship and then beam down to the planet it's orbiting.  Clunky, but better than nothing.

Grouping isn't in the game right now.

[Quinton]

Wait, what?  Did they remove it?

It worked last time I played a couple weeks ago -- click the + by your avatar, type in somebody else's name, and they get a party invite...

[Yegolev]

Multiplayer wasn't working for me in a general way when I last tried it.  Sometime in late Dec or early Jan I think.

[Trippy]

Hopefully now that they've stabilized the character file format they can spend some time working on the server-side of things. Even the minimal server commands that used to be available are no longer working in the last few versions. Basically to do anything useful through the server you have to use a wrapper and the one that most people are apparently using is this bloated monstrosity that only works under Windows. I did see a wrapper written in Go that might work for basic stuff that I'll look into this weekend.

[brellium]

Multiplayer wasn't working for me in a general way when I last tried it.  Sometime in late Dec or early Jan I think.

Odd, it was working for me in the releases prior to this one.

[Kail]

Wait, what?  Did they remove it?

It worked last time I played a couple weeks ago -- click the + by your avatar, type in somebody else's name, and they get a party invite...

Yeah, grouping worked for me yesterday, too.

It would be nice to have a "warp to party leader" button or something in the space ship, having to recite coordinates to other people is tedious.  Other than that, though, I can wait a bit for other multiplayer features.  The game's got a fine line to walk between giving players enough information to help each other, and not enough to grief each other on public servers.

[apocrypha]

I never see anyone else on when I log onto the f13 server, but I'm not sure if that's because a) I'm a Euro and you're all in bed or b) there's other people on but I just don't know how to tell.

Currently this feels like it needs a reason to settle on a planet and build bases. The way it is now there's no reason to stay put for long. Your ship can hold all the crafting stations and storage you need, and warping from planet to planet exploring is about all there is to do once you complete the gear tiers.

[Falconeer]

I feel the same way. Not that I have been putting too much time into it, but it feels like building doesn't have a point at the moment, other than a personal feeling of accomplishment for creating houses that you will leave behind anyway when you'll warp to a different planet. Am I missing something?


EDIT: On the f13 server, the hole I dug in the ground close to where I spawn is still there and has been there for 24 hours. All my items are gone though. My backpack is empty and all the things I built on my ship (table, furnace, chest...) are gone. Is this a known issue, a server issue, just my bad luck? Any idea?

[Sky]

This is why I tend to stay away from this kind of game in multiplayer. You motherfuckers burn through content too fast. I like to take it nice and easy.

As far as content, http://playstarbound.com/how-the-beta-is-going-to-work/ I'm sure you will burn through whatever story they put in and quickly distill the quests down to the core you need to gain the best power curve and then get bored and quit. But they're not in yet.

 

[Trippy]

I feel the same way. Not that I have been putting too much time into it, but it feels like building doesn't have a point at the moment, other than a personal feeling of accomplishment for creating houses that you will leave behind anyway when you'll warp to a different planet. Am I missing something?


EDIT: On the f13 server, the hole I dug in the ground close to where I spawn is still there and has been there for 24 hours. All my items are gone though. My backpack is empty and all the things I built on my ship (table, furnace, chest...) are gone. Is this a known issue, a server issue, just my bad luck? Any idea?

Your backpack items are saved with your character, not on the server. The same may be true with your ship items (haven't tested that). For your missing backpack items the possibilities include:

* Your character's stuff was wiped with the latest hotfix for some reason
* You are playing on hardcore mode and you died
* You are playing a different character/account >.>

[Falconeer]

I feel the same way. Not that I have been putting too much time into it, but it feels like building doesn't have a point at the moment, other than a personal feeling of accomplishment for creating houses that you will leave behind anyway when you'll warp to a different planet. Am I missing something?


EDIT: On the f13 server, the hole I dug in the ground close to where I spawn is still there and has been there for 24 hours. All my items are gone though. My backpack is empty and all the things I built on my ship (table, furnace, chest...) are gone. Is this a known issue, a server issue, just my bad luck? Any idea?

Your backpack items are saved with your character, not on the server. The same may be true with your ship items (haven't tested that). For your missing backpack items the possibilities include:

* Your character's stuff was wiped with the latest hotfix for some reason
* You are playing on hardcore mode and you died
* You are playing a different character/account >.>

It can only be the first: wiped because of hotfix since my char is not hardcore and I only created one char on that computer. Ah well, no biggie. It's beta.

[K9]

Is there any way to see who else is in the server when you're playing?

[Trippy]

Not at the moment. I have a server status Web page installed but the code hasn't been updated to support the latest version(s) of the server so it doesn't display player counts and active planets properly. That's something else on my todo list for this weekend.

If you are bored and want to read what schild and Triax are saying to each other, though, you can visit port 8080 with a Web browser

[K9]

Cool, I'll check that out!

[schild]

Not at the moment. I have a server status Web page installed but the code hasn't been updated to support the latest version(s) of the server so it doesn't display player counts and active planets properly. That's something else on my todo list for this weekend.

If you are bored and want to read what schild and Triax are saying to each other, though, you can visit port 8080 with a Web browser

 

[schild]

Can't connect to the server. I weep.

[Trippy]

Restarted.

[Trippy]

Not at the moment. I have a server status Web page installed but the code hasn't been updated to support the latest version(s) of the server so it doesn't display player counts and active planets properly. That's something else on my todo list for this weekend.

If you are bored and want to read what schild and Triax are saying to each other, though, you can visit port 8080 with a Web browser

I updated the server status page code[1] so player and system information[2] now displays properly. Status page is at:

http://starbound1.gamehost.me:8080/ [3][4]

[1] I'm using commandstar currently
[2] Starter planet is Alpha: -11834986, 20403905
[3] JavaScript required from gamehost.me and jquery.com to properly view information
[4] starbound1.gamehost.me also works as the server name when connecting with the client if you don't want to remember the IP

[brellium]

Interesting footnote, if you use your local machine as the host in MP it uses your universe from single player.

[Kail]

Update on their page today has some really interesting sounding stuff about their plans for the future.

The two big items for multiplayer I thought might be applicable to the F13 server:

Sector X

Sector X is a collection of planets in which PVP is enabled by default and players battle over controlling various planets. To take part in the battle you first have to form an organisation (in game), which gives you access to a space station shared by other members of your organisation.

Director Mode

Admins in director mode (there can be multiple), will be able to spawn blocks, items, monsters, npcs at will. Take direct control over them, have them speak and interact with players. Essentially director mode allows admins to take on a similar role to that of a dungeon master in D&D

Also stuff like server side characters and security checks for server admins.

There are tons of other proposed changes, and they all sound really great to me, but it's starting to feel like feature creep a bit... Here's hoping.

[Malakili]

As someone totally late to the party, I gather there is a F13 server running of this right now?  Are people actually playing/is this worth picking up?

[K9]

I really want to recommend this game, but in my heart I just don't find it as fun or addictive as Terraria was. There's a variety of reasons for this, but fundamentally I think the planet-hopping element of the game runs contrary to the construction part and the game, so rather than mine-build-grow, you just run from planet to planet, stripping whatever resources you can and moving on; which just isn't quite as satisfactory. That said, the game has a lot of polish and runs really well as a game, and there's definitely fun to be had there. It's just not as good as what I'd hoped for.

[Sky]

Have to agree. Though you can bring things back to your home planet and build there, it just seems like the ship has become the focus as it's the only real constant. And it's weird that it's easier to strip bases and use that stuff rather than trying to build stuff yourself.

I definitely got my money's worth and look forward to revisiting it at release.

[Yegolev]

My efforts to build a house in Terraria were simply embarrassing and I don't mind just exploring planets.  I only really worked on a house in Terraria for the NPCs, and creating a goblin-proof fortress on the surface appeared to be a huge waste of time.  In the large, I just used the NPC Hotel as a place to keep my boxes of stuff.  In Starbound I basically get a Super Piggy Bank and a limited Magic Mirror to start, so it works for me.

[Kail]

As someone totally late to the party, I gather there is a F13 server running of this right now?  Are people actually playing/is this worth picking up?

I'm not playing on the F13 server (it's password locked) and I don't know how much multiplayer really adds to the game (there's not much point in grouping up, except when you're killing bosses).  In general, though, I still find the game to be a ton of fun.

I can't disagree with people saying it's less cohesive than Terraria, and I think part of that is because a lot of the features that are supposed to connect the dots are missing, so hopefully it will get better with time as things are added.  But even if it died today, I'd say I definitely got my money's worth, and I find it a fun game.  It's definitely got some issues with tying the various systems together, but you can still do stuff like build a house or statue or whatever, you just aren't rewarded for doing so by anything other than having a big house to sit in.  Mostly, I think I just dig the setting more than Terraria, so I'm really liking it.

TLDR: I really like it, but if you're on the fence, I don't see any down side in waiting for some more content to be added before you buy it.

[Trippy]

Server restarted.

If anybody wants the password contact schild.

[apocrypha]

Quick bump for a PSA. Seems the latest patch ('Enraged Koala') is deleting and/or bugging lots of people's ship chests and storage.

I'd suggest not launching the game until you see if there's been a fix of some kind.

[Trippy]

Heh, and I was just about to update our server.