What do I do after the main quest is done?

[Пустельга]

That ending was weak af, but that's just my opinion, probably.
Anyway, is there anything major to do apart from grinding vault essence (that would've been useful on mid-late stages of the main quest progression, but otherwise useless time waster, although the first boss I encountered was cool - even cooler than most of the main story bosses, especially the last one), explore same planets and doing NPC village quests?

[kbrayaquar7]

Whatever you WANT to do. The only limits are your own imagination. One might say the game only BEGINS once you've finished what there is of the story. No game has more tools to explore your own creativity (especially with all the furniture mods out there) than this one.

[MysticMalevolence]

Originally posted by Пустельга:

apart from grinding vault essence, explore same planets and doing NPC village quests?

That's about it.

Well, you could build, which is the single most fleshed out system Starbound has. Or you could start new characters, explore space in your mech (and take a million years to beat mech progression), or go on a collectathon and achievement hunt... but that's what it boils down to.

[kbrayaquar7]

Here.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/965355694145097786/A72098143BB8D3B928CCE12B3729CF47E0A12EC8/

Is an example of what you do after you finish the story.

In fact, here's a "guide" from the same author.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1573748718

Stuff like that.

In short Starbound isn't a game. It's a *toybox*. You don't "play" it, you play *with* it.

[Luco Eldritch]

sometimes I feel like you have too many options in Starbound, but all of them aren't that deep... I mean, Space Encounters are nice, but get repetitive pretty fast, creating your own Space Station is nice, but there isn't much to do there, and it isn't much different to creating a base in a barren planet...
my recommendation: play with some mods, more specifically, those that expand the areas which you found most interesting

it doesn't have to be a big overhaul mod... for example, I installed many mods that simply added more Collections to the game (not items to collect, but Collection catalogs, like, "Instruments Collection" and "Legendary Weapons Collection")
(edit: because something that I like a lot about the game is randomly exploring, I find it relaxing)

Originally posted by kbrayaquar7:

In short Starbound isn't a game. It's a *toybox*. You don't "play" it, you play *with* it.

and I agree with him, even because I think that what I said earlier was actually kinda intended, because the game actually was focused on modding since the early times... the game is more about the liberty of doing what you want (even to the level of changing the game to do so), than being a full experience by itself

[Ganzerberus]

emmm... play? if you bought it seeking a story, you got the wrong game.
Try mods, i, personally, cant play this game without Frakin Universe, it technically adds a whole new game to SB

[Пустельга]

Okay, let me try and sort comments out, but first of all -

Originally posted by kbrayaquar7:

* The only limits are your own imagination.

I got imagination, alright - I've put thousands of hours into sandbox games, it's just starbound that doesn't ring that bell to me.

Originally posted by kbrayaquar7:

* No game has more tools to explore your own creativity than this one.
(especially with all the furniture mods out there)

So, basically - game has tools, except it is mostly mods, that aren't in the base game.
(Also, hello Factorio, Terraria, Minecraft, Interstellar Rift, KSP (the list goes on so I won't bother making this post an encyclopedia of sandbox - you get the idea) fans out there who just happen to read this - your games are trash. No games other than Starbound has that many creativity tools (and I'm sure you've played them all)

Okay, now with this small hypocrisy aside, let's begin.

Originally posted by Luco Eldritch:

sometimes I feel like you have too many options in Starbound, but all of them aren't that deep...

Exactly - I've tried and explored everything that this game has to offer.
It was epic, enjoyable and entertaining, but the fun can only last that much.

And also, I do agree with this too. Sadly, in a bad way.

Originally posted by kbrayaquar7:

In short Starbound isn't a game. It's a *toybox*. You don't "play" it, you play *with* it.

I'll try to explain my point below.

Originally posted by Riganz:

If you bought it seeking a story, you got the wrong game.

Not entierly. You see - Starbound had a great potential in making either freeroam open world sandbox or fully pledged story driven survival adventure. Sadly, it did both.

I'm totally cool with exploring game on my own after you finish the game, I'm even alright with that comment saying "the game only begins when you finish the storyline", but what's there to begin with? I've built half hundred villages, I've got my ship\techs\armor, even weapons maxed out, not to mention a whole dedicated cargo hold for costumes... lots of planets\dungeons explored and I did all this stuff thanks to the quest progression - the game was leading me, trying to tell the story. It wasn't holding my hand - instead it showed me options and paths I could choose to explore. And after hitting the technical limit ceiling you see the ending while falling on the barren cold floor with crumbs of what's left to explore, what you call "only the beginning".

Sure, I can build another village, I guess. I can visit another planet. Build a dinosaur. Crash my game and burn my RAM with lots of mods, but that has no purpose - it feels like you're literally forcing enjoyment out of yourself.

Take Minecraft, for example, or Elite Dangerous (or any other sandbox) - you've given "tools" with goal set entierly by you. You can defeat the dragon and call it a day, you can grind credits in asteroid rings to afford A class Federal Corvette and spend the rest of your life bounty hunting. Those type of games has no physicall end. Starbound does.

All I was asking here is - are there any sort of unattended sidequests worth checking out?
Because I got lots of more entertaining sandboxes to play in and I played Starbound for progression that happen to come to an end, judging by all the replies.

Therefore:

Originally posted by Dylan the Cartographer:

Originally posted by Пустельга:

apart from grinding vault essence, explore same planets and doing NPC village quests?

That's about it.

Thanks for the reply.

[Пустельга]

Originally posted by kbrayaquar7:

Here.
Is an example of what you do after you finish the story.
Stuff like that.

P.S. - not to sound rude or anything, but holy hell.
7.5k hours in Starbound alone - you sure got a pooping hole in your chair.
And here I thought my 5k hours spent playing League of Legends in eight years span was way too much.

[Ickura]

Download mods and pretend that poor excuse of a main quest never happened.

[Argonai]

Downloading mods is the best thing you can do right now, frackin universe is a really good one if you're bored