Planet Explorers

[MrPwner]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to bring this game to your attention.

Planet Explorers is a game where you're a stranded survivor of a human colonization effort on the planet Maria.

To survive the many hostile and very deadly animals on the planet you have to mine, create and build, not unlike you would in Minecraft. Except the world doesn't consist of blocks, but is a regular 3D terrain.

The Storymode is the 'campaign' of the game and follows the stranded survivor storyline on a pretty big gameworld with different biomes. Through the storyline you're eased into the game, learing it's aspects as you go along. It features NPC's that give you quests and from whom you can buy/receive the scripts to replicate items like food, medical items, tools, weapons (swords, bows and guns) and even automated turrets to defend from the animals.

You can even freely design your own swords, guns and even vehicles with the editor. Those designs can then be crafted in the game. Many awesome designs have been created by the community (Like Zelda swords, real world weapons and cars etc).

And the latest version is completely free!

Closed alpha testing will start soon, though, and you'll have to pay to gain access to it ($10 minimum, $20 minimum for multiplayer alpha too). That will also be the first version with Multiplayer if I understand correctly.

So if you liked minecraft, are into space exploration (if you're not, what are you doing here?!) and open sandbox games, I'd definitely recommend you try this game. The animals can be very tough, though. The only way to deal with those is to use technology to your advantage. Expect a fairly hard time fighting the larger animals (large can mean up to 30 meters high)

[The Destroyer]

Scott manley brought this too us. Not bad game

[chobit-389]

I'd probably enjoy it if my controls weren't all messed up, I think it's because I have multiple input systems (technically have two keyboards and two mice), the character keeps wanting to move in a random direction or spin while the mouse view either is constantly tracking up or down.

Any advice aside from unplug everything?

[MrPwner]

I don't, Chobit, but maybe the PE forum can help you out.

[The Destroyer]

I actually got bored of it when I tried to place a door and couldn't remove it.

Good potental, but I need more.

[Lohan2008]

Is it worth buying PE ? Looks very "buggy"

[Motokid600]

Can you get off the planet?

[Lohan2008]

Do not bother to buy PE as the controls are too SLOPPY, Panthea should not be selling this rubbish to the public.

The free demo will take 5 hrs + to download.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/planet-explorers/downloads/planet-explorers-072-demo

[vger]

I heard about this, but from what I was able to gather, it's only a local server game, and has no large-scale MMO-style server, is that right?

I'd much rather have something like this if I can watch factions rise and fall over the years.

[Godot]

Just tested it

The controsl definitely are extremly "non standard" (at least according to the demo)

Turning is only possible with the Q and E-Keys, not with the mouse, even in First Person View

(in addition to this, in first person view your field of view doesn´t synchronize with any turning movements you make, meaning that you have no way of recognizing how much you turned, if you use Q and E).

Also, drawing a ranged weapon messes with your viewing direction ... which can be very bad if, for example, you looked directly at a dangerous animal before you drw the weapon and then, suddenly, upon drawing the weapon your field of view points sideways

similar if your avatar puts his/her weapon back (which s/he automatically does after not shooting with the weapon for a short while) ... if you are hunting and pursuing a fleeing animal, it can happen that your char puts his/her weapon away, changing your viewing direction and as a result you lose track of the prey.

Similarly, if you killed an animal in high gras, the change in viewing direction might mean that you don´t find its corpse (in oder to get the meat and other goodies it contains)

Also, the building manager seems to be somehow strange in some occasions.

I tried to make a mixed material shield ... with one layer wood and one layer iron (i.e. 1 cube thick layer of iron + 1 cube thick layer of wood)

The resulting shield was (according to the building manager) weaker than a pure 1 cube thick iron shield .

(both, in defensive value, as well as in hitpoints of the shield).

I don´t expect that the creation manager takes into account synergistic effects between wood and iron (the flexibility of the wood combined with the hardness of the iron) ...

but having a 2 layer shiekd of 2 materials get less durability than a 1 layer thick shield of one of these materials seems to be a little bit ridiculous to me

Aside from this the game seems to be well done.

It reminds me of Entropia Universe ... but without the money grabbing that takes place there (EU is F2P ... with lots of possible costs for the player due to the insane wear and tear on the equipment [meaning that a unsuccessful hunt/prospecting tour might require you to either grind lots of hours to gain money for new equipment, or to put RL money into it).

Actually, if the 2 points of criticism I mentioned (with regards to controls and creation manager) will get fixed in Planet Explorer (or maybe even already are fixed in the current version) I´d think of buying it