A long way down Yup, if you go high enough you'll now climb out of the planet's atmosphere and find asteroids to explore. The terrain here is COMPLETELY temporary. So don't worry about that. We simply spawned a random jumble of dirt to test this out. It's going to get far more asteroidy very soon. Sorry about the poor video, just a quick one recorded for the daily update before I head to sleep. I'll put up a high quality video when we've finished the asteroid 'biome'. Also I do have admin on, that's why I didn't go splat!
Starbound Biome Diversity Demo A demonstration of the variety of biome you're able to find in Starbound. This is just a small selection of the kind of worlds you'll encounter.
Tiy is doing an IAMA on Reddit. Go ask him stuff now!
Read more to view question and answers here.
Spaceships, Next Game, Spriting
okipii
Well, will you actually control and fly spaceships in Starbound? And what is your motivation for making games? Have you started thinking of your next project? Any idea on the genre it would be? What indie project are you following right now? What's the most complex spriting work you've ever done?
Tiyuri
Right now spaceships are more of a planet link, though you will be able to get inside them and play with the controls. A lot of people are saying they desire actual space travel gameplay, so we're looking at adding it to our post release update schedule. But right now we're focusing on the planet driven gameplay.
We've not really discussed a next project yet but I've wanted to do a multiplayer harvest moon/rune factory style game for a while.
I'm following secrets of grindea a lot at the moment, the game seems really tight. Also under the ocean looks really pretty, but I haven't actually had a chance to play it yet. Finally I'm eagerly awaiting the multiplayer update on tower climb.
The hardest spriting I've done has probably been anything that requires 4 legged animation. It makes my brain hurt. Luckily Starbound has much better artists than me working on it!
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Release Date, Server, and Environmental Effects
wilsonbaker360
is there even the slightest hint on when the game will be out? Also i love you.
Tiyuri
We're aiming for the end of the year. I love you too
yodawgiherd
what year though? D:
my question(s) though
what is the planned/estimated amount of players per server? is it going to be like terraria where it's individual servers (and with plans for an actual server browser? I loved terraria but multiplayer was obnoxious as connecting to a new server every time was so bothersome) or an actual persistant server type deal?
AND with weather, any plans on having different types of rain? IE lava rain or acid rain, poison, toxic depending on game effects/procedural generation? I feel like a lava planet or fire planet would have some not so friendly weather to go with it, plus fog types, almost like being underwater, you need a rebreather for some fog/smog/smoke
Tiyuri
This year ;)
Players will be able to host their own servers but joining them will be very very easy.
Definitely plans for different kinds of environmental effects that actually affect the player.
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Taming
Can_Confirm_This
Also on the Terraria website you once mentioned that pets may be coming soon. Do you think pets will be added to Starbound?
Tiyuri
It's going to be possible to capture almost any monster in Starbound and have them fight by your side.
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Tiy in Real life
Mavee
What do you look like in real life? I like to think of you as a slimmer, younger version of Malcolm Reynolds , with or without the coat.
That, and I really enjoyed Terraria, and can't wait for Starbound!
Tiyuri
This is a picture I sent in response to a magazine asking for a photo of me.
They printed it unedited >:D
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Space Station
hatersbehatin007
How will the main space station in Starbound work?
Tiyuri
The space station is still heavily under development, so a lot is in flux there. That said I'll tell you where it sits right now.
The space station is the games hub, it serves as a meeting point, a place to conduct research, a cooperative building and management activity and more.
In servers with open PVP enabled, it serves as the only place in the universe that's completely safe. There are no hostile monsters and players can't damage each other. But outside of the station the games takes on a bit of a DayZ feel. With players forming groups, building their own homeworlds and making up the rules as they go. Other players could become valuable allies or dreaded space pirates, it's up to the players.
Everything I've said so far is up in the air, but that's it's current purpose.
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Server Capcity
MrsBeefy
How many players could be on a server at a given time? If your server could handle anything, what would the max be?
Tiyuri
It's entirely down to the server specs, there's no real built in max right now. Although the game runs well on low spec machines presently (60fps on a basic macbook air), it's actually completely unoptimised at the moment, so we haven't done any stress testing yet.
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Races and How Will They Affect Gameplay
Barrowhoth
Hey Tiy! I know you can't give any details, but how many playable races can we expect? And will there be any racial bonuses that effect gameplay or will it be mostly an aesthetic choice?
Tiyuri
We're aiming for around 6 for release. Races are largely aesthetics only. Giving them bonuses isn't difficult, but I hate presenting a player that has never played the game before with an early choice that will affect the rest of the game for them.
One thing that is unique per race is the visuals used when they craft basic objects. So an Avian will craft an Avian chest whilst a human crafts a human chest.
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Improving from Terraria
TharpDaddy
What did you dislike most about Terraria, and how will you go about fixing that in Starbound?
Tiyuri
The games actually play very differently. I wouldn't say Starbound is a Terraria sequal, so it's difficult to say I'm going to improve on X Y Z.
That said, I think a problem with Sandbox games in general is that they become a little dull once you've experienced all the content. When you're discovering new things, new items or new recipes there's a thrill there that disappears eventually.
My goal with Starbound is to keep that thrill going indefinitely.
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System Platforms
mrfoof82
What platforms are currently planned for the release of Starbound? Just Windows, or are you considering OS X and/or Linux?
Tiyuri
It already runs natively on OSX and Linux. Hell it runs at 60fps on a macbook air :) So, windows, osx and linux.
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Does the Community help?
lincoln127
Will the community be impacting much when it comes to the development of items, quests, creatures etc. for this game?
Tiyuri
Oh yes! I'm constantly reading the forums and I'm always available on our IRC channel to chat too (during working UK hours at least).
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Borderlands Inspired, Frequent Content Patches, Direct Mode, and Serverside Data
Sokina
Have you played Borderlands/have drawn inspiration from it? Are you a fan of large content patches or smaller, more frequent patches? How goes the work on this "Director Mode?"
And lastly: Serverside characters to prevent (A lot of) cheating/foul play?
Tiyuri
I have indeed played Borderlands and there is indeed some inspiration there.
I like both where appropriate, I don't think working on one has to exclude the other either. I think weekly or fortnightly updates really help keep a game flourishing. I'd like to put a team together to add cool little things every friday if I can.
I'd like to make server side characters a server setting. So server admins could require players to make characters on joining the server and store them server side. Or allow players to bring their own characters over from local games/other servers. Of course if you're playing on a server side character you'll be able to export it to a local character too. Think neverwinter nights.
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Unique Weapons, Ammunition, Automining Machines
LeRoyBM
I know Starbound will have random weapons, But there will be also unique weapons? I think the charm of Terraria was that every weapon was different and had its own characteristics.
Are there different types of ammunition besides "energy" and "normal"? If yes, can you give examples?
How mining will work in Starbound? Can we make machines / robots to mine automatically ?
Tiyuri
We're drawing a bunch of unique special weapons too :)
We've kept ammunition extremely simple so it doesn't turn into inventory management hell. However the way the gun FIRES that ammunition will differ per gun.
There are no automatic mining machines in game at the moment, though vehicles are on the table, so it's entirely possible we could add a mining vehicle.
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Capturing Creatures Mechanics
marsgreekgod
So you can train monsters. There are creeper in this game. Can you train an army of creepers and drop them down on a planet you don't like?
Tiyuri
To ensure that capturing monsters doesn't completely destroy the gameplay, players will have 3 special inventory slots in which to carry monsters. Once a monster loses all of it's health it's returned to one of those slots and can't be called again until the player heals it at the space station. Monsters can only be swapped out and replaced at the space station.
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Duration of Updates
B00MHEADSHOT
I honestly think that this will be the greatest game of all time. I really honestly do. What I want to know is, do you plan on adding new game features after release, or just new variants of random weapons/enemies/terrain? Also, how do you plan on letting add-ons be used in multiplayer? Thanks.
Tiyuri
I plan for the core development team to continue to update the game for at least a year or so. Once we're ready to move onto another project I'm going to put together a second team solely to continue updating the game indefinitely.
We've got a ton of features planned for post release, the most exciting of which for me is director mode. Which you can read about here: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/director-mode.5522/ excuse my IRC channel spamming.
At some point I want to release the engine for free non commercial use. It's incredibly modular and things like weapons, characters, weather, biomes, particles, enemies and so on can be added in just a couple of minutes through adding some art and writing a config file.
