My most played game on steam is Starbound (and Boundless on second place).
And it made me think “What is it about starbound that makes me hooked?”
And it is because I always have something to do. (untill i’ve done all the missions and quests)
This is probably pretty obvious, but devs, when you’re making the game, ask yourself “Is there always something for players to do?”. Remember, as a game developer your job is to ruin people’s social lives. If you manage to do that, it means you’ve done something right. Of course there will always be something to do, but players have to know what they can do at all times. What makes me super bored in games is when I have to walk around looking for things to do, often, in those situations, I end up quitting the game. I think the challenge will be to have players know things they can do without having stupid boring tutorials (please don’t have tutorials). You don’t want players to spawn in a world and be all like “wtf do I do”.
Back to starbound:
In starbound, one thing I really like is that you often come across interesting dungeons. These dungeons arent quests or anything, you just go in them, kill everything and take with you everything you can find there. Some dungeons are even high tech dungeons where you have to do “puzzles” to open up doors and stuff.
In Boundless, I really hope that you’ll often find interesting things in the wild, if it’s a dungeon or just a cool underground facility that you can explore. The challenge here is that there will (hopefully) be a lot of players that will look for these things. There has to be enough for everyone. I have a feeling you’re already planning something like this, and It will involve Oort technology?
I’m not sure what my overall point of this post is, but I hope it can somehow help you in development.
I think titans will fulfill the role of the dungeons/facilities you mentioned.
In my opinion this is the best a (sandbox) game can do. I love it when you just get thrown into the world and have to decide what to do (like it is done in Minecraft, Rust, EvE Online etc.).
I don´t think we need something like the mission/quest mechanic that you mentioned, I´d prefer it we would be forced to make our own “quests” meaning that you set your own goal (be it getting that perfect equipment, building that awesome fortress or being the most feared ganker) and try to reach it.
Player written books will hopefully be a thing^^ So players can help players by writting not so obvious stuff into books which you then can find all over the worlds (if it’s popular).
I really hope that the world builder evolves to the point where we can define not only sub-biomes, but also structures and their placement (in 3d space, not 2d like biomes). Temples, tombs, deserted towns, etc.
I.e., just like how you can declare biomes, have a structure generator as well. Maybe we can create prefab rooms, and tell the generator a # of rooms to connect together & whatnot. However, it very quickly gets into diablo-esque level generation (which is complicated as hell)…
Discretely place objects are on the roadmap, just not a priority at the moment. But when we last discussed it was in reference decorative elements not buildings. Ben is right we will need to wait and see how the code for titans works first. @James described it as a world with a world. Which opens up some interesting possibilities.
I’m sorry I have to agree with @Vastar on this one. I love figuring out what to do. Yes, a little help would be nice but more like a shinier block instead of an arrow pointing on the direction. What i mean is, I really like more a subliminar story line or guidance for a sandbox game even for an adventure or rpg game (Boundless is everything i just say it seems, which is really good) which makes you think, search and conclude rather than ask and know.
Other than that:
That is, maybe, one of the hardest questions the developers can ask. And this is a sandbox game, you will always have something to do, at least: building and exploring. That is for granted, but I know what you mean, about the quest/story/dungeon stuff related, yes it would be nice to always have something to do. Maybe they could add worlds dedicated for PvP Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Build-Fortress-around-an-objective-to-protect/capture-in-a-certain-amount-of-time-then-kill-each-other-and/or-capture-an-objective-kind-of-match among other types of match. Yes, nice question there Cirlex.
I think I know, you are worried about the success of this game because you’re imagining all the possibilities it has to offer and all its potential and you just want it to fail and you want it to be the best(i think), like a “fear”. I have that as well, I think we all have by being here on the forum helping, it’s fine. You sure will help with development by demonstrating AT LEAST dedication for helping the game, IMO.
P.S.: I don’t try to be rude but it may seem so, i’m sorry if that happens. Just trying to help
You will get forum/steam hub guides no matter what, that doesnt mean it would be less cool to have writeable books ingame, also worth mentioning that a certain type of gamers dont like using guides or wikis since it feels cheat, me included, i would rather find a book someone wrote ingame about the world hinting how certain things work.
Titans are an orgarnims or an ecosystem of their own, from what o’ve read. They have those big monsters defending them, they somehow are alive and have other stuff inside them. I love that the “end game” Boss is this Titan, love how we have to fight an ecosystem, really great feature.
That I don’t agree entirely. I’m sure there will be other dungeons. And as @Clexarews mentioned, the Oort Temples. But this is Pre-Alpha, a lot of dungeons will still be made i presume. And maybe the beggining of the PGW trailer is a dungeon? cave dungeon? no?
