Chucklefish's 2D space exploration sandbox title Starbound has been updated with the first of what will most likely be many updates in the new year, adding in the long awaited "final character wipe" that was previously teased.
In addition to "massive changes to disk serialization" that will help with nullifying character wipes, the patch also adds more efficient mod distribution, as well as new biomes, monster attacks, tech, and an enforced PvP zone in the X Sector. Here's a small snippet of what you may (or may not) find on your space pirate adventures:
Added difficulty levels and permadeath characters to the game.
All player drops are persistent now. So if you accidentally throw your diamond drill down a mineshaft, you don’t have to suicide trying to get it back before it disappears.
New Monster attacks (gravity slam! gust attacks! other stuff!)
Fixed Legendary Weapons damage (adjusted up to be more… well… Legendary.)
We’ve put in new Techs (such as a Glitch Mech).
New biome type enabled. Savannah.
Boss Lore!
No more eating bandages and stims, they have their own thing now.
You can find the new patch available now, dubbed Furious Koala, and the full patch notes
over here.