Starbound Flies to Early Access on Steam

Post by Eorl @ 10:27am 05/12/13 | 113 Comments

Indie studio Chucklefish Games has gone ahead and greenlit the Early Access program for their procedurally-generated sci-fi sandbox title Starbound, putting the game up for the public to scrutinise on Steam for PC.

n Starbound, you take on the role of a character who’s just fled from their home planet, only to crash-land on another. From there you'll embark on a quest to survive, discover, explore and fight your way across an infinite universe.

You'll encounter procedurally generated creatures and weapons, discover populated villages and abandoned temples. Explore planets dotted with dungeons, eyeball trees and treasure. Make use of over a hundred materials and over one thousand in-game objects to build a sprawling modern metropolis or a sleepy secluded cabin in the woods, and do all of it alone or with friends!

Other features besides the exploring and building include spaceships, mech suits (yes, mech suits) and a whole variety of enemies to gnaw at your virtual pixel bones. Of course there is also PvP against your fellow planetary survivors, one which you can choose to participate in or not depending on if you are feeling lucky.

Check out the Steam launch trailer below and hit up the official Steam page for more. Starbound is currently available only on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux or through their website, with a base price of $15 or a four pack for $44.99 ($11.25 each).

starbound early access steam indie sandbox

Latest Comments

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Trauma
Posted 10:46am 05/12/13

Starbound is currently available only on Steam for PC...

Actually a Steamplay title, so available on PC, Mac & Linux.

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Eorl
Posted 11:07am 05/12/13

Ah true Trauma, I knew that they were planning on doing Mac and Linux but wasn't sure if it was actually available day one, thanks!

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WirlWind
Posted 12:54pm 05/12/13

Yeah, they've said "It can run 60fps on a Macbook AIR!".

Kinda nice to see more and more games coming out for *nix based OS's

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Eorl
Posted 09:34pm 05/12/13

This game is awesome. Its Terraria but 10x better which is just great to see. I'll get an AusGamers server running up soon for you peeps.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:59am 06/12/13

Well snap to it son.

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ph33x
Posted 09:03am 06/12/13

Does it have some kind of coop mode?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:20am 06/12/13

Of course it does.

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Eorl
Posted 11:27am 06/12/13

Does it have some kind of coop mode?

Sure does. You can have "local" co-op in the sense of a LAN server running, or you can have online server for co-op adventures. Players can choose to party up as well, giving them access to your ship and whichever planet its parked at.

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Eorl
Posted 04:13pm 06/12/13

Alright we've got a server running up for testing purpose, just connect to 203.46.105.56:21000 and the password is test. Enjoy and let me know how things go.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 06:01pm 06/12/13

Had a few quick check to see if it works Eorl, mantarock was on there. It works btw. yay.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 07:40pm 06/12/13

Who dug down so deep? there are torches everywhere. Mantarock and I tunneled down deeper.. Got to magmarock layer.

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Mantorok
Posted 09:04pm 06/12/13

First patch is now live, I'm guessing the server needs to update as well.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:06pm 06/12/13

It does, just play without the patch. I added to your house Mantorok, it's 3 stories with a Balcony overlooking your farm. A bed, a chair, I moved my statue. It's pretty sweet.

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Mantorok
Posted 09:27pm 06/12/13

Steam auto-updated the game while I was eating dinner, so that's not an option.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:37pm 06/12/13

O crap.

I had it turned off for that reason.

O well. Hope the upgrade doesn't destroy the server, found a great planet.

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Mantorok
Posted 10:16pm 06/12/13

The update shouldn't wipe out anything, it didn't erase my SP save.

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Eorl
Posted 10:35pm 06/12/13

Yeah will get to updating when I get home. Update shouldn't ruin any saves, I expect those type of updates to come later with bigger game - changing updates.

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Boxhead
Posted 11:13pm 06/12/13

That was me with the deep initial deep tunneling :) kinda got lost and popped up allover the place

Fun little game!

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:26pm 06/12/13

You bastard I was playing!

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Eorl
Posted 11:47pm 06/12/13

Haha sorry Toll, no way of sending a message across server at the moment so had to just kill it. ~~Should be back up now with the new update.~~ Scratch that, something went wrong and doesn't want to launch, looking into it.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:54pm 06/12/13

Ahh you good, was about to let you know. In the morning I shall try. The whips will be out if it doesn't work Eorl.

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Eorl
Posted 12:32am 07/12/13

Should be good now, the update seemed to have screwed up a certain line in the config file, stopped it from going past on load.

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ph33x
Posted 01:08am 07/12/13

Yeah I had the same problem just then with default_configuration.config, even the client wasn't working.

Not a bad game though.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:39am 07/12/13

Found a planet in Beta sector that had some Glitch living there. Looted and nabed a nice shield.

The Ausgamers HAUS on the starting planet is getting decked out. It needs expanding...

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Eorl
Posted 09:52am 07/12/13

I've figured out what the planet level's mean. Basically armour and weapons have a "level" attached to them, so if you want to survive on a level 10 planet you'll need gear close to or higher than that level.

Also, this game is addictive.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:59am 07/12/13

It is a bit.

Yeah Planet level reflects monster level which is also weapon level and armour level.

Makes it kind of easy to figure out.

Night time monsters tend to be a little higher in level.

Village/Dungeon guards tend to drop weapons or pixels or sometimes other stuff of near their level sometimes a little above sometimes lower.

Can we make a little bit of fun. When you land on a planet, quickly build a little dirt tower with an arrow pointing in the direction you are going to go/have been. That way we can see if the planet has been explored at all.

I've just started building Scout armour (Steel level). Armour value is about 15ish. Shields are AWESOME, except you can't really tell what level they are.
If they match the level of planet they will block all or mots of the damage of a monster, makes combat heaps easier.

PLEASE DONT SUMMON the boss near our Ausgamers HAUS, it will knock it down hehe.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 10:00am 07/12/13

It is a bit crap you can't tell who is on the server or anything :(

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 10:57am 07/12/13

OMG You can duel wield!...

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Mantorok
Posted 11:50am 07/12/13

You didn't notice I was holding a flashlight and a weapon at the same time?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:52am 07/12/13

Yeah, I just didn't extend that to think you could duel wield. And use both weapons at the same time.

Shields are pretty good though.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:29pm 07/12/13

Comon guys, who else is playing this lovely game.

Here is something some people did with the instruments.

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carson
Posted 08:42pm 07/12/13

So is it worth getting? I wasn't a huge terraririairia fan.

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konstie
Posted 03:01am 08/12/13

yeah just had a bash on eorl's server. lots of chimps on the planet? did someone do that?

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Tyoson
Posted 03:33am 08/12/13

I got really really bored and I've been sick as a dog. So I made a lets play before I really even knew what I was doing and just did the commentary and let whatever happen happen. So if you get bored. Here ya go :P

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ph33x
Posted 12:52pm 08/12/13

Eorl, what OS are you running on the host for the SB server?

Also, have you had any access violation errors - seems to be a fairly common problem.

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Eorl
Posted 02:26pm 08/12/13

Server is just running on Server 2008, haven't seen any access violation errors though the second server I have running for some friends just had a massive loop error. Caused players to be stuck on their ship with no way to beam down.

Edit: You can have custom music files for instruments. Heck yes. Go here: http://www.thefatlute.eu/

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Tyoson
Posted 02:40pm 08/12/13

Oh man. Spent all this time making the beacon. I wasn't strong enough, in the slightest. I got slaughtered, and lost my beacon. Now I need a new one :(

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 02:44pm 08/12/13

Tyoson, are you playing on the Ausgamers server? If not you should be.

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Tyoson
Posted 04:10pm 08/12/13

Tyoson, are you playing on the Ausgamers server? If not you should be.

Not yet, I'm still playing single player because I'm learning the game and don't want everyone to throw tomatoes at me. Do many of you play on it?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 04:21pm 08/12/13

Not many it seems. I've only found Mantarock.

There is no notification of players joining/leaving so you just have to join and so 'anyone here'..

We don't care if you can/can't play. Just jump in, you can use your SP character at the moment. The Ausgamers HAUS is pretty decked out at the moment with equipment and weapons if you want.

Characters are going to be wiped next patch (within a few days).

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Eorl
Posted 04:31pm 08/12/13

Yeah hope they add a leaderboard or something to see if players are on, can feel barren if you aren't on a TeamSpeak or something.

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Tyoson
Posted 04:46pm 08/12/13

Oh if my characters going to be wiped, I may as well check it out now.

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Mantorok
Posted 06:52pm 08/12/13

I finally found uranium on that planet with the prison. Got a bunch of good weapons too (armor penetration of 30 or higher). Still haven't found a single gun though.

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ph33x
Posted 07:33pm 08/12/13

Characters are going to be wiped next patch (within a few days).

Is that an AusGamers thing or a game-wide thing?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 07:56pm 08/12/13

Game-wide. They stated when they released the beta that things were going to move fast and character wipes are going to happen. The first is this next patch.

Also I kept going up Mantorock .. Asteroids ;)

I died of cold before I could do anything though, only just glimpsed it and starbound forums confirmed it.

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Eorl
Posted 10:53pm 08/12/13

Found a mech tech upgrade, suit is sweet but damage is pitiful. Also went up into space with my bubble tech, I hear you can get a spacesuit to survive up there but never found any parts.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:05am 09/12/13

You need a space heater, the best insulated armour and lots of bandages and red stims for regen to counter the freezing damage long enough to dig into the asteroid and lay down some camp fires. Lots of ore.

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Deviouz
Posted 01:27am 09/12/13

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d^
Posted 07:10pm 09/12/13

Yo guys, I bought the game tonight, looking to play. Server address the same lads?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 07:20pm 09/12/13

It is indeed the same. Make sure to mark the starting planet as home just before you go to another planet.

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d^
Posted 08:41pm 09/12/13

So just played some single player, I did connect to the server but nobody is on there? I saw some monkeys in chairs. Big props to the music, it's awesome!

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Eorl
Posted 12:31pm 10/12/13

Yeah currently no way of knowing someone is online unless you type in chat and they respond. Hopefully they'll add something soon but a big patch is coming tonight hopefully that will be re-balancing the entire combat system including armour and weapons. Also they are adding in pet catching so that'll be sweet.

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ph33x
Posted 02:25pm 10/12/13

If people thought Minecraft griefing was bad, wait till this gets big.

In this one, your s*** will have an actual value to them, besides the lolz.

I forecast many tears will be shed over this game.

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Eorl
Posted 04:30pm 10/12/13

That's why you put traps around like electric wire and saw blades. Also I feel like it will be really hard to find people's home planets when there is basically an unlimited amount.

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Trauma
Posted 06:30pm 10/12/13

Grabbing 750mb patch now. Only showed up when I tried to launch game, despite auto-update being on.

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Eorl
Posted 07:01pm 10/12/13

Just updating server now, will also be removing the password now that I know it works :P

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carson
Posted 07:22pm 10/12/13

Well I like it more than Terraria. Though it's still a bit clunky. There needs to be a way to rebind your keys and stuff.

I like planets having NPCs and stuff like that. Would be cool if when you go to a different planet it scans for life? Maybe it's a tech upgrade? I've only been playing for a couple hours.

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Tyoson
Posted 08:29pm 10/12/13

So I tried attempting Part 2 of my Lets Play :(

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DeadlyDav0
Posted 09:01pm 10/12/13

No key rebinds?

F*** that, ill wait til thats patched.

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Eorl
Posted 10:31pm 10/12/13

Alright server is back up, sorry for the long downtime as it was reporting some severe errors that left me scratching my head. Same IP, though port is 21025 and no password now.

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carson
Posted 08:02am 11/12/13

Alright server is back up, sorry for the long downtime as it was reporting some severe errors that left me scratching my head. Same IP, though port is 21025 and no password now.

I can't connect :(

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:43am 11/12/13

Yup, server is broke this morning.

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Mantorok
Posted 09:04am 11/12/13

There's another patch and progress wipe coming anyway. They borked the weapon damage (you can craft steel weapons that do 5000 DPS).

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ph33x
Posted 09:19am 11/12/13

Eorl. It's trying to pull the server config from starbound.config instead of default_Configuration.config.

Delete(rename) your Starbound.config file and start the server again, it'll create a freshy. Be sure there aren't any old instances of the server running as we had that issue and it screwed us for a good 30 minutes.

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Eorl
Posted 10:06am 11/12/13

Ah cheers Pheex, should be good now.

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Eorl
Posted 12:25pm 11/12/13

Just updating server with new patch.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:25pm 11/12/13

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Eorl
Posted 12:27pm 11/12/13

Heh sorry, saw you guys on but can't communicate due to no real admin commands :(

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Mantorok
Posted 12:29pm 11/12/13

Looks like they don't have to wipe progress again though, so you can get straight back to it once the update is done.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:33pm 11/12/13

Yeah, probably a good time to do other things for a bit ;D

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Eorl
Posted 12:50pm 11/12/13

Back up now :) Go forth and conquer.

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Tyoson
Posted 08:14pm 11/12/13

With all the character wiping I'm not really motivated to play anymore :/

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:20pm 11/12/13

It didn't wipe with latest patch. There maybe 1 more wipe l8r.

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Tyoson
Posted 12:20am 12/12/13

God this is risky.

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ph33x
Posted 08:47am 12/12/13

With all the character wiping I'm not really motivated to play anymore :/

Same. Stopped playing 2 days ago. No point building up all my s*** again, someone else can beta test it.

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Eorl
Posted 12:19pm 12/12/13

New patch fixes a heap of AI problems, as well as tweaking ore yay! Updating now :)

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:21pm 12/12/13

Hooray!

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:36pm 12/12/13

What gives Eorl, it isn't working. Indignant Koala yeah? port 21025 still?

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ph33x
Posted 12:39pm 12/12/13

What gives Eorl, it isn't working. Indignant Koala yeah? port 21025 still?

This happened when I had the old server still running.

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Eorl
Posted 12:39pm 12/12/13

All updated now, go forth and conquer more worlds.

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Mantorok
Posted 12:41pm 12/12/13

Remove the port number and it works.

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ph33x
Posted 10:47am 14/12/13

Heh, would have been nice knowing only coal can refuel your ship after I made 500 torches. :(

On a plus side we found lots of diamond.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:01am 14/12/13

You can use wood sorta. Smelt 10 unrefined wood for 1 coal.

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Tyoson
Posted 09:00pm 14/12/13

I keep trying to make nice videos for this game and it keeps s***ting on me :/ I quit.

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Eorl
Posted 09:20pm 14/12/13

I've found the opengl client to be really stable, and only uses 400mb~ instead of 1.3gb

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Trauma
Posted 09:19am 15/12/13

Just one word for ya Tyoson, I'm sure you can figure it out.

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Tyoson
Posted 07:42pm 15/12/13

Just one word for ya Tyoson, I'm sure you can figure it out.

I'm sure it's something like "balony" or "baseball"

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Ozzy
Posted 08:40pm 15/12/13

Can you update the server?

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Mantorok
Posted 08:53pm 15/12/13

I've found the opengl client to be really stable, and only uses 400mb~ instead of 1.3gb

That's because for some strange reason the normal executable is around 630MB, while the OpenGL executable is about 10MB. Everyone should use the OpenGL executable until they fix this.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:00pm 15/12/13

Having trouble playing this any further. Made some of that red armour. Everything feels very repetitive.

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Tyoson
Posted 09:04pm 15/12/13

Having trouble playing this any further. Made some of that red armour. Everything feels very repetitive.

I think I made a mistake playing too early while it's still in beta, because I feel the same way. Just doing that tutorial again had me almost falling asleep. I actually enjoy mining in minecraft, but for some reason, the gathering of resources in this game just feels really mind numbingly boring to me.

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ph33x
Posted 09:24am 16/12/13

We're up to durasteel armor and the level 4 threat area. We've spent much of our time working out the most efficient ways of doing things.

Protip: If you are looking for ore, get it from a desert planet. Dig down about 100-150 'tiles' then just go sideways through sand and gravel - watch the ore fall. Try not to follow chasms as they take you off course. I've mined for many hours and this is the fastest way. Big packs of sand can drop over 150-200 ore in a matter of seconds, pew pew.

Protip: If you need pixels, follow above instructions then place ore into refinery. We're sitting on over 40,000 pixels of ore.

I have some legendary weapon that 1 hits most mobs of level 3 and does mining as well. Keep an eye out for the double jump schematic because that s*** 'rocks'.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:26am 16/12/13

Pro-tip Level 3 is the same as Level 10. It doesn't f*****g change :(

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ph33x
Posted 11:58am 16/12/13

Pro-tip Level 3 is the same as Level 10. It doesn't f*****g change :(

When does it stop changing? Level 3 mobs hit way harder than level 1 mobs.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 01:25pm 16/12/13

OK, my bad. The numbers change and maybe the look of stuff.

The grappling hook was fun though.

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Eorl
Posted 02:56pm 16/12/13

Server getting updated now, was not actually aware they pushed one out.

Edit: Updated now.

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Ozzy
Posted 08:05pm 16/12/13

Cool, thanks.

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Tyoson
Posted 08:55pm 16/12/13

For some reason this is my most viewed video and it's my latest. Patch broke my game completely.

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fencer
Posted 04:08pm 19/12/13

Hey Eorl, is there a change to the server as I cant get in anymore? cheers dude.

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Eorl
Posted 04:11pm 19/12/13

Hmm, let me check.

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fencer
Posted 04:39pm 19/12/13

cheers, it dropped connection last night and its still saying down just before.

*update* cheers mate its working ;)

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ph33x
Posted 06:00pm 19/12/13

Hows the default spawn area going?

:)

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fencer
Posted 09:15pm 19/12/13

No idea now as I bailed with my two kids to another planet asap and we're on our fourth one atm. Its such a great game to play co-op with the kids and hopefully they have stopped the wipes now. Hopefully :)

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Tyoson
Posted 09:43pm 19/12/13

I liked this review.

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fencer
Posted 10:40pm 19/12/13

I liked this review.

Why? Did you play it and feel the same way? Just curious...

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Tyoson
Posted 07:16pm 20/12/13

Why? Did you play it and feel the same way? Just curious...

I played it, had several crashes, had my character deleted and then had to do that dumb mind numbingly boring tutorial again and quit after my mate told me progressing is not worth the time. It's a boring game. I don't feel drawn in. I don't like to rant and rave about graphics, but this game has boring game play and visuals. Even the sounds don't make sense. Giant bugs sound like cows.

For someone who has hours of spare time to hold down left click just to get slightly better equipment for no real purpose, this is the game for you.

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groganus
Posted 08:23pm 20/12/13

I'm going to assume you're an idiot.. because anyone with half a brain would of realised the game is in beta and that it came with the huge warning stating ....

“Starbound is already extremely playable and contains a vast amount of content, however we decided to release the game as a beta through early access to ensure the community gets a chance to help us shape the game. In this first stage of the beta process you may experience some bugs but updates will come thick and fast as we listen to your feedback and add new content.”

That is to say that specifically providing a review of any sort would be immature based on the games status.

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fencer
Posted 08:24pm 20/12/13

You know its in beta right? Its fun in co-op for us. We liked Teraria and I can see where this game is heading and its great if it pulls it off.

Still, its always cool and edgy to come on a thread and bag said game though...You can take the boy out of GA but ...

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Tyoson
Posted 09:06pm 20/12/13

I'm going to assume you're an idiot.. because anyone with half a brain would of realised the game is in beta and that it came with the huge warning stating ....

“Starbound is already extremely playable and contains a vast amount of content, however we decided to release the game as a beta through early access to ensure the community gets a chance to help us shape the game. In this first stage of the beta process you may experience some bugs but updates will come thick and fast as we listen to your feedback and add new content.”

That is to say that specifically providing a review of any sort would be immature based on the games status.

"You're an idiot because you don't share the exact same views on a game as me"

Trust me, I've done more than post about it...

Starbound is an extremely boring and dull game to me. That's how I feel. It feels unrewarding, the visuals are piss weak, the sound is piss weak. So what does that leave you with? An unbalanced game with graphics that predate to that of the super nintendo, with sound sometimes worse than the super nintendo and game play that will put you to sleep in your chair. Seriously, I fell asleep in my chair playing this game and woke up with a sore neck. Thanks for the sore neck Chucklefish.

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ph33x
Posted 12:25pm 26/12/13

I put 72 hours into it (says steam) and I thought it was quite good. Sure, it's lacking content, but the framework for the content is there. People on reddit are talking about how they'd like the logic gates to work so we can have switching, pressure pads, remote doors, the list will go on and on.

Rebumped thread to see if anyone knew about anything new headed into the game? I'm kinda waiting for the second character wipe. :/

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Eorl
Posted 01:07pm 26/12/13

Apparently a new update came in the past few days, though I haven't had time to update it :S

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groganus
Posted 04:43pm 26/12/13

Starbound is an extremely boring and dull game to me. That's how I feel. It feels unrewarding, the visuals are piss weak, the sound is piss weak. So what does that leave you with? An unbalanced game with graphics that predate to that of the super nintendo, with sound sometimes worse than the super nintendo and game play that will put you to sleep in your chair. Seriously, I fell asleep in my chair playing this game and woke up with a sore neck. Thanks for the sore neck Chucklefish.

That's wonderful, you are still forming an opinion on an incomplete game and your original post had a lot of focus on bugs and crashing. You can dislike the gameplay all you wan't, cry about bugs, crashes, balancing, sound and visuals during a beta though and you will just come across as a f*****. Additionally to this there are tons of game play videos kicking about which could of given you a pretty good idea of what the game was about and what to expect, It seems to me that you made a blind purchase got something you didn't like and now have a poor opinion of it. This is why you are an idiot.

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Eorl
Posted 12:55am 27/1/14

Server has been updated with the latest patch, which has now resulted in the last known wipe ever. Rejoice, and join up to craft some awesome new stuff! 203.46.105.56:21025

http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/starbound-changelogs-and-release-notes.46048/

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