After more than two years in Steam Early Access, the folks behind Starbound are nearly ready to release version 1.0; a massive new update that will introduce massive changes to the intergalactic sandbox game. Fortunately, Chucklefish isn’t making us wait until launch day to get an idea of how Starbound will be changing in the upcoming weeks.
Big changes will be coming to Starbound in the coming weeks, when v1.0 is finally released by Chucklefish, and few aspects of the Starbound gameplay experience will remain untouched when the game’s next update goes live. The most obvious change will be the introduction of the game’s single-player campaign; an 8-mission quest chain that will begin on Earth and take player’s all over the galaxy. Each mission will end with a boss fight and expansion of the Outpost will now be tied to the player’s campaign progress. New quest generation systems will also ensure the player never runs out of side activities to complete during their journey.
The next Starbound patch will also change the game’s ship progression mechanics. Beginning in version 1.0, Starbound players will need to recruit crew members from the colonies they establish to expand their spaceship. Members of your crew can fill a variety of roles, from mechanic to team stylist, and those who don’t enjoy town-building can choose to fill their ship with mercenaries. If you’d prefer to be a lone wolf, you can also purchase ship expansions from the black market.
Starbound’s crafting progression has been overhauled again. Chucklefish says players can expect crafting recipes to be “more meaningful and interesting” in v1.0 and that player will have plenty of new stuff to build. That list of items includes a brand new fossil station that lets players collect and display a variety of fossilized skeletons. The patch also features a few changes for Starbound’s pet system, including new capture animations and new collars that give your pets special abilities.
For more information on the contents of Starbound v1.0, head over to the game’s official blog and check out the latest post from the Starbound dev team.
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