Like so many things in the Starbound, the current player progression system is a temporary measure. If the early access survival sandbox was a cyborg, its existing set of tiers and sectors would be a cardboard cut-out of an arm, with the words "add cool stuff here" written on in marker. In a new post on the Starbound blog, creator Finn "Tiy" Brice outlines what that cool stuff will eventually consist of.

One big change will be the removal of universe sectors as a obstacle for progression. In the finished game, three sectors are planned - all mapped to different game types. Players will be able to choose between the regular sector, the PvP sector, and the non-violent "creative" sector.

Rather than use tech to switch sectors, then, players will advance through upgrades that will allow them to visit more hazardous planets. Tiy uses the example of a planet with no breathable air, saying, "progression will be less linear and more akin to the kind of progression you find in modern metroidvanias."

Later in the game, three progression paths will be made available, allowing players to advance through farming, building or adventuring. "We want players to be able to advance through the game whilst doing whatever they enjoy most," writes Tiy.

To facilitate this change, a new planet type will be added. Known as an Outpost, this small planet will be populated by members of each species, and will act as a quest and trading hub.

For more on Starbound's eventual progression update, check out the full post on the official site.

There's a new Starbound patch, this one called "Enraged Koala". Rather than having anything to do with incandescent marsupials, though, this update comes with a hint of amour - bringing both Valentine's items and the a capella crooning of YouTube's Smooth McGroove. The update also improves the early access sandbox's patching system, allowing the Chucklefish team to push out new game content on an almost daily basis.

This update should also pave the way for a stable world system, allowing the developers to add biomes and make changes to worlds without the need for a wipe. Chucklefish admit that their will likely be one more world wipe before this system is finalised, but stress that characters and ships are still safe. And while an early issue with the patch did cause ship containers to be erased, the developers have since issued a hotfix.

You can find the full patch list below.


Valentine s Day items including swords, costumes, decorations, bow, etc
Engine feature, tech can now be granted by armors
Keybinding reconfiguration, minus the UI (you can reconfigure keys through a config file- check here for a tutorial)
Server stability fixes for servers with many players
New death animations
Engine feature, all objects are now scriptable and interactive
More Avian weaponry
Projectile changes
Dogs can now be captured (lots more pets coming soon)
A bunch of new items and smaller pieces of content
New (actually sounds good!) microphone instrument with sounds provided by Smooth McGroove!
Bug where warping to magma/volcano biomes caused crashing was fixed.

For a game still fresh into a beta launch, Starbound already rivals AAA releases thanks to the abundance of stuff you can do in it. It has aliens you can befriend or blow up. It has a grappling hook. It sold over a million copies in just a month. Developer Chucklefish is keeping its starry success going with frequent updates and content additions, but in a post today on the official website, creator Finn "Tiy" Brice outlines Chucklefish's broader plans to transition Starbound into a full release with more diverse progression pathways and an endgame focused on PVP and group activities.

"As it stands, almost the entirety of the progression in Starbound is temporary, built quickly to enable some basic gameplay during beta," Tiy writes. "The final game will be structured differently." All 10 tiers of ores, monsters, and structures will be housed in the same Starmap. Moving on will take the completion of a transitionary mission, the defeat of a final boss, and the collection of Pixels, Starbound's primary currency.

Pixels, Tiy explains, are crucial in forming a stronger progression structure for Starbound. "Currently, obtaining pixels in Starbound feels like a bit of a grind," he writes. "Particularly so given the Pixel death penalty and the high cost of various Pixel sinks. In large part, however, this is due to unimplemented features being missing."

Chucklefish's solution will be the addition of multiple methods and vocations for amassing Pixels, expanding the game's already impressive freedom into a truly customizable experience. Farmers can grow and sell crops and livestock without ever touching a raygun. Builders will be able to charge NPCs crafting fees and rent for shacking up in their constructions. Explorers will unearth and sell rare artifacts. Pirates will, er, pirate.

"There will be many different routes throughout the game, each just as deep and profitable as the last," Tiy says. "Each will branch out and become more complex as the player advances through tiers, unlocks new technology, and becomes more proficient in their chosen skills. Essentially, we re describing the gameplay equivalent of a tech/skill tree."

The key to Starbound's endgame will be the mysterious Sector X, home to the toughest of tiers and one of those names automatically pronounced with a sinister voice. Within that inky void, geared players will team up to build and maintain group space stations and vie for control of planets where PVP is enabled by default. The space stations can be piloted by guild leaders as a mobile launching point for planetary resource gathering. If you're more inclined to a peaceful coexistence, Tiy says that's entirely possible as well.

"The PVP in this sector is entirely optional," he writes. "Players choose whether or not to attack each other or work together. Monsters, quests, and events will be strong enough to be challenging even with the best tools in the game, and in-game events, invasions, and so on will keep the experience fresh."

Player-to-player interactions seem to form the primary focus for Starbound's future, as Tiy also revealed an upcoming director mode feature for server admins. Using a separate client, server owners will be able to plug into Starbound and wield a high degree of control over monsters, item spawns, and even chat with players using NPCs. "Essentially, director mode allows admins to take on a similar role to that of a dungeon master in D&D, creating scenarios and stories on the fly to ensure players never have the same experience twice," Tiy summarizes.

I'm pretty enthusiastic about Chucklefish's plans here. Sandbox games take on an entirely different nature when played with friends, and the social aspect of a game where nearly anything is possible is compounded by how many activities I'm able to share with my buddies. It'll be interesting to see the various shapes and sizes of a collaborative space station or witness the resource wars of Sector X. Well, witness them from afar, I mean I'll be pretty content as a space seaweed farmer on Weedius Prime XV.

Check out the rest of Tiy's post on Starbound's future, and if you have any thoughts or plans on what you'll do in Starbound's expanded horizons, stick 'em in the comments.

With early access becoming more and more popular, you don't need to wait for games to be complete to start playing them. And, with mods, you don't need to wait for games to be complete before you start changing them, either. The Mass Effect Edition mod for Starbound (which is currently in early access beta) lets you play as a Turian or an Asari, gives you control of the Normandy SR-1, lets you craft some of Mass Effect's guns and armor, and even includes biotic powers.

You can start by creating a little Mass Effect alien: build yourself a miniature Garrus or tiny Tali, or, I guess, a boring human like Shepard or Kaidan or Vega. Once done, you'll find yourself aboard your new ship: The Normandy SR-1 in just about all of its original glory.

That's my Garrus! Now where's the button to install his dry wit?

The detail of the SR-1 is great. There's the cockpit (sadly Joker-less), the engine room, the CIC, and a couple of empty chambers to fill with your belongings (or maybe just in case an alien assassin, a scarred mercenary, or an ancient Prothean is added later by DLC and needs a place to hang out). Even the navigation console is one of those swirly galaxy maps that Shepard has in the CIC. Only this is a tiny blocky Starbound version. IT'S SO DARN CUTE.

SO. CUTE.

Once you've explored the Normandy, blip down to the planet below and start playing as usual, though bring along your omni-tool, that glowing wrist-mounted hologram Shepard uses when she wants to hack or decrypt something, or when she needs to dispense medi-gel, or when she decides to violently ram a glowing blade through someone's torso.

Eviscerating someone with a hologram? There's an app for that.

While it's fun attacking everything that moves with a giant orange omni-blade, you might want to avail yourself of Mass Effect's biotic powers, which include Lift -- to levitate your enemies and hold them in place -- and Slow, which will slow you down if you're falling.

Will I use my new powers for Paragon or Renegade...

I found Lift to be especially useful, mostly because I've never played Starbound before, and it turns out I'm really horrible at it, particularly in the way I charge my enemies and then they jump on my face and murder me. Now, though, I can keep them at arm's length without actually touching them.

Lookit me, levitating whatever the hell these things are! Take that, THINGS!

You can even use Lift on vendors, thus making this mod a realistic recreation of Mass Effect, because man, was I a dick to shopkeepers in that game, and I've got the deep orange glowing scars to prove it.

Just sell me a toy model of my ship so I can go look at it in my ship, willya?

Though I personally did not progress particularly far with the gathering of materials and the crafting of useful items, diligent players can also build themselves a set of Mass Effect Phoenix armor, and a bunch of guns from the game, including the Mantis and Viper sniper rifles, the Revenant and Avenger assault rifles, a Geth pulse rifle, and pistols like the Carnifex, Phalanx, or Predator. You know, the Predator pistol, the one Shepard insisted on having in her hands in every cutscene despite you NEVER EVER ONCE USING IT ARRRRGGGH.

Attaches comfortably to your back to allow for awkward hands-free nightclub dancing.

Anyway! This mod is adorable and charming and even includes a little custom Mass Effect music for the full experience. If you're whisking around the universe in Starbound, you might as well do it in the Normandy, no?

Installation: Keep in mind, Starbound is still in beta, and I have to imagine that updates to the game will be breaking mods regularly. First, create an account at the Chucklefish forums (it only takes a second). Then, find your Starbound folder (on Steam, it's Steam > steamapps > common > Starbound > mods). Download the Mass Effect mod, as well as Kawa's xbawks-mode character creator and the Simple Extended Character Creation Mod (the ME mod requires them). Extract all three of those into your Starbound mod folder, and you're done.

Looking for evening of multiplayer gaming? Come and play with us. We've recently refreshed our UK server list, providing a space for readers to explore, build and... okay, mostly just kill. Whether you enjoy a friendly round of competitive brutality, or a collaborative place to create and share, our Multiplay hosted servers are waiting for you to join.

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If spawning unarmed in a brutal and hostile environment doesn't sound like your thing, Rust let's you start with a rock. Our 50-player server will give you plenty of chances to use that rock along the difficult road to survival.

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If you've a hankering for creative co-operation and expansive exploration, our Starbound server is for you. You can build, fight, find and live amongst the game's mushrooms, brains and bird people, all with your fellow readers.

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Team Fortress 2 is still brilliant, and for that reason it's the most enduring game on our server list. Thanks to its age there's a great map pool to pick from, and our 24-player server runs through eighteen of the best. No, that does not include Hydro.

Starbound's update naming scheme takes the form of increasingly agitated koalas. It started back in early December with version Perturbed Koala. Less than two months later and we're already at Furious Koala. This is escalating far too quickly. Sure, Chucklefish can still patch a Seething Koala, or an Incandescent Koala, but what happens after that? Throbbing Veins Koala? Murderous Rampage Koala? Emotional Equilibrium Through Extensive Counselling And A Treatment Of Mood-Altering Drugs Koala?

Whatever the state of the 2D sandbox's future koala's, yesterday's one brings a whole heap of changes and additions. One of the fixes may ensure that things are a lot calmer in future: thanks to "massive changes to disk serialization" (no, me neither), Chucklefish will no longer need to wipe characters or ships, and are confident that worlds are safe too. In addition, players get more efficient mod distribution, as well as new biomes, monster attacks, tech, and an enforced PvP zone.

Here are the patch notes:

Code changes


"Absolutely massive changes to disk serialization (sorry reversers), which will allow us to never need to wipe players or ships again, and hopefully never need to wipe worlds again.
"Related, we now have a proper versioning system for save files.
"Added difficulty levels and permadeath characters to the game.
"Packed assets into databases (speeds up startup significantly), and included asset packing and unpacking utilities with the distribution.
"This should also allow for easier distribution of mods, and easier construction and management of slimmed down distributions for dedicated servers (official server paks coming soon.)
"Fix some graphical glitches with the wire nodes.
"Fixed some pretty nasty deadlocking bugs with networking.
"Fixed some very strange memory leak bugs stemming from a gcc lambda capture bug.
"Fixed various crash bugs related to a number of different issues.
"Speed up improvements with falling sand and other projectiles.
"More efficient databases storage layout.
"Documentation for lua functions have been written, and we re going to release them soonish.
"Removed NaN floats from the code for performance reasons (reenabled -ffinite-math-only), we had been using them to signal that the float is disabled or in an invalid state, but we have a system for that now.
"Some internal changes that make maintaining code much happier for us, including better enum to string handling and much faster compiles.
"Other minor things, too numerous to list here."


"Fun" changes


"It s no longer the holiday, so we ve removed the holiday stuff for now, we ll put them back when we have a better way of enabling it for holiday time.
"PVP is now forced enabled within Sector X. If you re in a party there s no team damage though.
"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.
"Better, more featureful .abc file support, and we have Wanderlust music in the game now. (Thanks Leth and D2!)
"Made NPC chatter more configurable and slightly more varied.
"Added new objects (such as lava biome treasure chests).
"Added new items (like nightsticks and bonesaws).
"Sword swooshes are only active for 0.6 seconds instead of 0.9 seconds.
"Making cooldown times actually matter without slowing down combat. Also fine tuned their hitboxes.
"Viking helmet? Viking helmet.
"Watch out for landmines.
"Various changes to treasure drop pools (like Avian Guards actually dropping their guns )
"Minor tweaks to existing armors to make them look better.
"Medieval Furnace now actually acts like a Furnace. (Rejoice).
"Graphical upgrades to some existing plants, and new plants.
"Lots more secret stuff!"


Starbound's v. Furious Koala is out now.