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Planet Explorer on Steam
This game has taken over all my gaming time. It's still in alpha and multiplayer maps are just now being tested, but its more than playable. It's like minecraft, but with much better graphics. I can't speak about the actual game so much as I can game asset design. I can't stop making stuff!
The editor is so easy to use and you can make all kinds of stuff to use ingame. Shields, swords, guns, helicopters, land vehicles, mechs, tanks, battleships, and soon we can build and save buildings outside of the game. Gonna save so much time when starting a new map.
Speaking of maps, they are HUGE. 40 square miles of randomly generated map. And entirely terraform-able. I've built cities in the sky, under a deep ocean and in the bottom of mountains. I've found extensive underground caverns and underground rivers that seemed to go on forever. The maps are based on 4 archtypes.
In multiplayer we are trying out different things. Tower defense via NPC's or other players. A sort of a seige. Dogfighting, dueling, stealth. It just goes on and on. An amazing sandbox game.
The more creative you are, the more things you find to make and do. I like tower defense, so I made a huge labyrinth riddled with lazer towers, rocker towers, machine gun towers etc. Dropped a "Monster Box" ( 3 types of boxes, easy, normal, hard) they attract (summon, basically) mobs to it. Pew Pew Pew. its a blast. Tho you have to build the maze well, as they can destroy any structure in the game. Yours or otherwise. Given enough time and depending on their strength.
I dunno. I love the game and just spreading the word. I want the game to do well so I can keep making stuff.
There is a great singleplayer storymap as well. Tho I play mostly on multiplayer and adventure mode maps.
I post my player made assets on www.isoplanetexploer.com under the name Bishop. (I'm so not pro, but its fun!) Come check out what we and other players are making.
I forgot to mention one of the games core elements. Derp. Colonies. A RTS type system where you build and develop your colony. Power stations, repair stations, farms, defense structures, etc. All ran by your colonists that you command. Like I have said earlier, I'm waiting for more polish on the singleplayer story line before diving into it, so I don't know much about it firsthand. Maybe someone else who plays the game can post here with more detail.
Comments
a game of creativity, oh boy
game kinda reminds me of gary's mod and robocraft, sure would like to try this out, nice mention.
I only tried the free demo so far some time ago and while it was fun while it worked it never worked very long for me. I could never get past the first day before it would crash on me. Is the real, current version much better (demo version was like .5 or something)?
Either way it IS a game that looks very fun and I'm looking forward to it.
I'm using version 0.764 available via Steam client. Very stable for me. I think I have only crashed 2 times in the past 2 weeks. I didn't play it back in 0.5, but it has come a long way. The client is still not optimized, so it can be unpredictable I guess. Alpha phase, what can you do? Good time to get into it though, the next patch is going to have some great features added. I'm so pumped about making ships! I guess I should say boats. UPDATE!! Submarines! Yay!
I would honestly think this game was the final version if it wasn't for stuff like the main story line not being finished and some animation issues. But if this is what they have for just the alpha phase, man, I can't imagine what final release will be like.
I made half of them. The black wings, the steampunk wings, the sword, couple of the ships and yeah, the Tron Recognizer. lol. Couldn't help myself. I made a Tron themed car as well. It's on the website. If you are playing the game, you HAVE to go to the iso website and download other people's stuff. Some amazing stuff there.
Even if you only want to use your own stuff, getting other players ISO's means you get the textures and decals they used to add to your own library. Invaluable and a timesaver.
Just a added tidbit about the Recognizer photo. I put a tank made by another player near it to perspective. It is HUGE. Big as a building. And yes, it flies. So great you can make stuff tricycle sized and mega-big.
A lot of freedom, which has been sorely lacking lately in other games, it seems to me.
Some more cool pics of player made stuff.
Some new info (to me) about the game and future updates.
"The randomization in this mode (adventure) will eventually pull in player made objects and locations so that a world will always feature something new and unique. "
So the game will access all your designs when generating the map. How freaking cool is that?
They also plan to make it possible for players to create scenarios. Called the Story Editor. From what I read it will be similar to the Foundry in Star Trek Online. Using player made stories and assets to make a map is going to be something.
They are going to have a pet system. No specifics here. For combat? Cosmetic?
They currently have a follower system in the game that allows for you to have 2 npc characters under your command. Think Swtor companions. They are.....not that responsive atm. They have some cool stuff planned for fleshing out the follower concept.
There is also stuff like herding, fishing and moon missions. Not a lot of info on that just yet.
Man, as much effort as I have put into posting about this game, you would think I was getting paid. I guess I get tired of a good game getting no attention and losing all developer support.
Kinda like some TV series I like. Take Firefly for example. Was so amazing, and no one watched it. Gone. Same thing happens to games I like. Not this time!
Posting a video of someone else playing the game. It starts off with a funny bit over having trouble talking to a mission npc in a tent. I had the same issue!
Had a similar issue later with a mission npc. First he was there, then later, gone. I looked everywhere. Then I happen to go into a mine I dugout nearby to get some coal or something and there he was. Stuck near the bottom of it. Moron. And of course it was a follow mission, so I needed the idiot. I had to dig a sloping up path out of there to get him out.
He was easy to find in there, as he had a miners light on his helm. So we was prepared for the chance of getting stuck in a mine, but no escape plan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6N6z3jbc2M
As a sidenote, this guy needs to upload some of his creations I saw in his builder editor in the video to the iso planet explorer website. So I can have them.
Yeah, I'm not so good at textures either. I'm glad there are others that are. They fuel my designs.lol.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Yeah, in its current form it is a resource hog. There are things you can do to help, but then the game just looks like crap.lol.
I have a pretty good computer that runs it easily, but I can tell the client hasn't been optimized by the sound the fans on my graphics card make. lol. They really get a workout.
Yeah, I've seen others in the same genre pop up all at the same time. Tried a couple, won't name them, but it was terrible. This is a different experience.
Let me use one of the tired catch phrases that we like to toss around on MMORPG.com. *ahem*
"I predict this will be the sandbox sleeper hit of 2014"
Couple of my newest creations.
Wolfwood's Punisher Cross from Trigun. My first texture wrap made from scratch!
Yeah, I wouldn't consider myself creative normally either. But you play with the editor enough, take apart other people's creations to learn the tricks, you start to get it. Then you find yourself searching for hours on the web for the perfect picture of a brown stick to use as a model for something you're making.lol.
If you ever get bored, go to isoplanetexplorer.com and use the search to look up anyone's collection (by inputing any of the names of people that have added anything to the site). and you'll see some of the terrible stuff people made at first, but they get better.
It's crazy how much ive learned about making textures, shading and modeling. Just have to practice.
And thanks for liking the mystery machine. haha. It was a rather hasty construction just for goofs. Working on updating it now. Making it slightly larger so more detail can be done, and making better blended art for the texture wrap. Things I didn't even know how to do a week ago. lol.
Take a look at the reflective texture on this clave made by Tahnour. Wish I could do that. Time to take it apart and see what he did!
Tried this demo a while back and it felt like a good game. Didn't have much time to spend with it though.
I have a couple of questions:
Are physics implemented in the game world? I honestly don't remember. I know player falling and gravity were there, but I don't remember if the building designs actually took into account things like engine power, material strength, etc.
Is there any kind of "survival" mode where you need to build things to defend yourself? Basically, when I play Minecraft, it's always set for Survival since I don't like building just for the sake of building.
Yes, physics are ingame. I know its not done being tuned yet. Wacky things happen sometimes. Engine type and material make a difference. Its not clear to me how, someone might know. For instance, using the wrong engine will keep my craft "overloaded" and can't move. And material matter for durability and strength. And speed. All my fast travel vehicles are made of wood for speed.lol.
As for a survival mode, there is the adventure mode. Limited story, much bigger map compared to the singlestory mode. Its you against the world. Aliens, creatures, everything is trying to kill you.
From the store page about it.
"Adventure Mode – This mode is based on a procedural map generated from a seed. Currently, it comes in a 40X40 kilometer map. Players will be able to complete random missions, defeat bosses, and explore different landscapes in the mode and eventually be able to setup conditions that they want to play (such as tower defense or attack an alien camp). This mode will also feature survival gameplay. The randomization in this mode will eventually pull in player made objects and locations so that a world will always feature something new and unique. "
They also are implementing a hardcore survival mode. Not sure of specifics.
Just remembered I purchased this a while ago, so I updated and started playing again. It reminds me a bit of the MInecraf Alpha. To be honest, I wasn't impressed with either Minecraft in that state or PE. In it's beta and current from, though, I love Minecraft, it was just the Alpha that I couldn't really stand.
The game is a really good concept, just as Minecraft was. It just plays too much like a tech demo and not enough like an actual game just yet. The physics I was talking about are only, sorta, kinda there. I built a vehicle using some simple parts, then got in and drove it straight up a vertical cliff without slowing down or flipping. For that matter, nothing I could do could flip the damn thing!
The sounds are hit or miss, some animations/actions have no sounds at all, others are about 1/2 step behind the actual animations; like a bad Kung Fun movie.
Combat is also clunky and difficult, suffering some of those same sound issues, with the addition of not actually tracking or targeting an enemy. And there's not really anything there to make you feel like you really made an impact when you swing and hit a monster, there's just a bar that goes down with each swing.
The whole Voxel thing is getting annoying as well. Lots of games have been using and started using this. There's a reason Minecraft uses cubes; they're easy to maneuver, position and control. Terraforming in PE is a pain; angles don't line up, camera angle gets weird and digging in a straight line is damn near impossible since there's no guarantee that any two holes will line up with one another. It's like Xsyon and suffers the same issues that game does.
It has potential, but there's really nothing to "play" at the moment.
There is no mistaking that the game is in the alpha phase. But there is still fun to be had.
But like someone posted earlier, this isn't a game for someone that expects a release quality game.
Terraforming is a pain, but it's more complex and gives alot more variety in terms of construction options. Worth the hassle. And yeah, the physics aren't complete. It's annoying. Not as annoying as having no real game sounds. Just generic stock sounds. All in due time.
There's lots to do now that makes it possible to avoid the aspects that are missing. Mainly in using the editor to create stuff for the game, adventure mode and multiplayer. I won't even bother with the singleplayer until everything needed is implemented. Physics, decent combat animation and a polished storyline.
Some new creations.
I put a rear gunnery in the back for one of your followers to man.
Some more pics of player creations.