Starbound Dev Explains 3 Progression Paths: Farming, Adventuring, Building

[Steven Bogos]

Starbound Dev Explains 3 Progression Paths: Farming, Adventuring, Building

You'll be able to progress in Starbound by dungeon crawling, selling crops, or renting space in your settlements.

Those of you deep into the Starbound beta would have discovered that the game's progression is very bare bones at the moment, offering a single quest chain that is more of a jumping off point for exploring and testing the game's features than anything else. Lead designer Tiy has now spoken at length [http://playstarbound.com/23rd-february/] about how progression will work in the game's final build, explaining that there will be three different paths players will be able to take: farming, adventuring and building.

"Instead of progressing through the game sector by sector, you'll advance by upgrading your tech to allow you to visit planets that were otherwise inaccessible due to hazards," he explained. "Progression will be less linear and more akin to the kind of progression you find in modern metroidvanias."

He went on to further explain the "three paths of progression," saying that they will branch off as the game progresses (for example, animal farming for the farming progression) and all be as equally viable and satisfying as each other because "we want players to be able to advance through the game whilst doing whatever they enjoy most."

Farming will work by selling your crops to trading posts, adventuring will work the way your traditional dungeon delver does, by finding treasures hidden in dungeons, and building will allow you to progress by renting out rooms in dwellings and settlements you've constructed.

He says that a new planet type called an outpost will soon be added to the game - a small and safe planet populated by members of every race, where players can trade their wares and pick up quests for each progression path.

Source: Starbound Blog [http://playstarbound.com/23rd-february/]

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[VladG]

Well, I for one can't wait for the game to be finished. Having an actual progression, quests and so on is a big selling point for me (figuratively, since I already bought the game), and the lack thereof puts me off stuff like Minecraft.

I hope these systems are deep and meaningful, not just bare-bones "it's there so we can advertise we have it" kind of stuff.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Shoot. That means I'll have to have at minimum three different characters running at all times.

On the other hand, it's starting to sound a bit like Mount & Blade IN SPAAAAAAACCCEE!! which sounds like a fun concept. And now I feel retroactively less neurotic for <url=http://i.imgur.com/vrwncHT.jpg>starting that farm. I hope specific seeds and recipes become easier to find, too. I can't even begin to guess where in the vast quadrillions of star systems out there I'd be able to find sugar or red apples. And maybe they'll fix it so the chili grows faster...

 

[BoogieManFL]

Can we have a version that decreases the lag first? I don't know why, but I constantly get lagged down to 10 FPS max whenever I do anything in this game.

Must be some weird issue with what kind of a set up you have unless your system is barely capable of running it. You should inform them if you haven't. The game has so far ran perfectly smooth for me.

 

[DocImpossible452]

Shoot. That means I'll have to have at minimum three different characters running at all times.

On the other hand, it's starting to sound a bit like Mount & Blade IN SPAAAAAAACCCEE!! which sounds like a fun concept. And now I feel retroactively less neurotic for <url=http://i.imgur.com/vrwncHT.jpg>starting that farm. I hope specific seeds and recipes become easier to find, too. I can't even begin to guess where in the vast quadrillions of star systems out there I'd be able to find sugar or red apples. And maybe they'll fix it so the chili grows faster...

Well I imagine any single character could work all of the progression paths. I mean, there's no reason an adventurer can't raise wildlife and be a landlord in his spare time, eh?

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Can we have a version that decreases the lag first? I don't know why, but I constantly get lagged down to 10 FPS max whenever I do anything in this game.

Something's odd with mine as well. At random times, moving sprites will stop immediately for almost a second before moving again, like something is hanging that particular thread in code.

Either way, that sounds like something I would love to do, but right now there's just way too many planets to explore before the X Sector... Perhaps just one starmap that generates more systems as you update it, ending with the chip that allows access to the X sector would be enough if they plan to update it.

 

[Naqel]

Shoot. That means I'll have to have at minimum three different characters running at all times.

Or you can do all three things with the same character.

Those things are equally viable, but not exclusive(especially since early on you have to do a bit of all).

 

[NeutralDrow]

Well I imagine any single character could work all of the progression paths. I mean, there's no reason an adventurer can't raise wildlife and be a landlord in his spare time, eh?

Or you can do all three things with the same character.

Those things are equally viable, but not exclusive(especially since early on you have to do a bit of all).

I'd be kinda disappointed if that's the case, since that doesn't sound especially deep. I'd have to wonder why they're called "progression paths" if it's easy to specialize in all of them, at least before endgame. I prefer the idea of having farmer, archaeologist, and slumlord characters separately.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Well I imagine any single character could work all of the progression paths. I mean, there's no reason an adventurer can't raise wildlife and be a landlord in his spare time, eh?

Or you can do all three things with the same character.

Those things are equally viable, but not exclusive(especially since early on you have to do a bit of all).

I'd be kinda disappointed if that's the case, since that doesn't sound especially deep. I'd have to wonder why they're called "progression paths" if it's easy to specialize in all of them, at least before endgame. I prefer the idea of having farmer, archaeologist, and slumlord characters separately.

but then that means people like me would have to create separate said characters and I don't feel like doing that and having to grind for it, so what do you have in mind for middle ground since I'd doubt everyone would be on board for creating 3 separate characters?.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Almost seems like we've gone full circle...
I've been following Starbound's development since its announcement, and I still remember back when the original premise was based on a central space station that would grow as you brought back new things and attracted people.

I approve of this change; as the pseuod-leveled loot progression was rather trite if not highly irregular. That, and the game seemed to actively punish the player for building a civilization; it was far more convenient to just keep all your stuff on your ship.

 

[lord.jeff]

Well I imagine any single character could work all of the progression paths. I mean, there's no reason an adventurer can't raise wildlife and be a landlord in his spare time, eh?

Or you can do all three things with the same character.

Those things are equally viable, but not exclusive(especially since early on you have to do a bit of all).

I'd be kinda disappointed if that's the case, since that doesn't sound especially deep. I'd have to wonder why they're called "progression paths" if it's easy to specialize in all of them, at least before endgame. I prefer the idea of having farmer, archaeologist, and slumlord characters separately.

It's still a progression path if you can get to the end game primarily by farming and games like Starbound aren't about locking a person into a choice forcing them to have to choose between solely farming or fighting would be against the nature of a game that's about doing whatever you want when you want.

 

[saito82]

Shoot. That means I'll have to have at minimum three different characters running at all times.

On the other hand, it's starting to sound a bit like Mount & Blade IN SPAAAAAAACCCEE!! which sounds like a fun concept. And now I feel retroactively less neurotic for <url=http://i.imgur.com/vrwncHT.jpg>starting that farm. I hope specific seeds and recipes become easier to find, too. I can't even begin to guess where in the vast quadrillions of star systems out there I'd be able to find sugar or red apples. And maybe they'll fix it so the chili grows faster...

Well if you would like to start a server to do a quick trade I have a sugar farm and I believe I have apples to but need to check. Send me a message if you want to trade.

 

[DocImpossible452]

I know essentially this has been said, but:

I liken it to the way I've seen minecraft played on servers. Different players like different things. One player may love building castles or farming while another likes spelunking and digging deep. A builder can get raw materials in exchange for supplying cool places to live or food to eat.

Since a lot of minecraft players also play Terraria/Starbound, it makes sense to cater to it. It's not to say someone can't build cool things AND go adventuring, just that it isn't necessarily required. It's all about allowing freedom in playstyle without punishing the player for choosing to focus on a certain aspect of the game.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Ooh, neat!

So building my own outposts and towns and stuff will be helpful to me? That's awesome to know.

I'm just hoping that I won't be forced to go into the PVP zone once I'm done with the base storyline progression.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

there needs to be some sort of craftable anti-meteorite device for civilizations. they are far too numerous and far too devastating. and far too frustrating.

 

[weirdee]

I look forward to the many penis shaped buildings that players will force NPCs to live in for their own amusement.

As for the lag, it's not as much the machine as it is something that was introduced in the previous engine update. They're patching as much as they can, but the big dealbreaker's still in there somewhere and they're gonna need some time to dig it out. It's taking big bites out of the CPU and memory, so it's probably something stupid.

In any case, I would avoid farming or buildings with tons of npcs until they actually do something about it...