I just started the game, and have a few simple questions. Hopefully someone can answer them.

1) Is the game 'timed' in any way? Can I ignore the main plotline (saving the universe from the Ruin) forever? Is there some point in the game (other than perhaps at the end) where that is no longer possible?

For instance, if I just wanted to farm forever, could I? Can I roam from planet to planet forever, and just never collect the (shards? was it).

2) Is the world effectively infinite? I've only been to the first planet I drop on so far, but have started the game over a couple of times. Seems the start planet is different each time, but if I wander far enough in one direction does the world end? Or does it keep going. It seems, there might also be a lot (probably not infinite, though) of other planets to visit.

Is there (effectively) and inifinite amount of terrain (and thus minerals) to harvest?

3) Is the game 'over' when/if I defeat the big end boss (I'm guessing Ruin at this point)? or can I keep playing?


Hopefully, this game is as open-ended as it seems and I've found a new game to craft-mod to my hearts content. Whilst I don't mind saving the universe, I mostly just want to build a giant base with my family. Looks like with the addition of a couple mods, there will be lots to do.


Thanks.
Schemm

They are adding a new stuff after the Ruin, the Bounty Hunting. Well atleast I think they are. I am not so sure now. Hopefully they will announce something soon.

Planets are, shall we say, circumferential ... meaning, if you start off headed in one direction (east or west) and keep going that way, you will eventually circle back to your original starting point. Spend enough time on a planet, and yes, in theory you could see all there is to see. Fortunately, you can travel to other planets in your starting system and do the same. Your choice of seeds for farming may be limited unless you explore other planets with varying biomes. And you'll need to harvest some of the higher tier ores to make upgrades for your EPP, which will allow you to explore environmentally more hostile star systems (where even higher tier materials await).

Do you have to do the main quest line? Not that I recall. But if you don't, you'll get locked out of some side quests, and not gain access to some additional NPC vendors. Main quests will not fail or expire if you don't do them; they'll wait until you're ready. You should go far enough down the main quest line to repair your ship enough to fly to different planets and, eventually, different star systems. After that, whether you decide to do the scan quests is completely up to you.

The game ends or is over when you get tired of playing. It is a sandbox game where you decide what to do and when.

Thanks for the info. I hadn't seen anything on the circular planets. That's handy to note.

I (we) don't mind exploring, but we mostly just want to do our thing at our own speed (we kept a Minecraft 1.6.4 world for over 2 years). So, this sounds like exactly what I am looking for to use as our new weekend playtime.

I see that there are lots of mods and even some mod guides, so we'll probably get a lot of mileage out of this. (And I'm supposed to teach Lua later this semester in the languages course, so I can count playing Starbound as work-time. :)

Schemm