I have it
I WANT TO PLAY IT
But I refuse to play solo. I also can't set up my own server because there are no options to port forward with Optimum, and I refuse to use Hamachi.
If you are talking about your ISP, they wouldn't forward your ports, it'd be on your router in the web api.
Just talked to Lenin (as well as another friend). Neither could find out how to port forward with it.
What is the make and model of your router?
Issue we were running in to is that when you try to access the ip to configure the router settings, since it's a proprietary router, it just redirects you to their website. Maybe you'll know more about it than me.
As for gameplay, Starbound (so far) has a pretty similar progression system in terms of, you start out with X, then get the next basic tier so you can get the next tier and so on. It's a little different in that tiers are kind of explicitly broken up by planet difficulties/sectors, though. I will say that because the resolution is higher than Terraria, buildings can be more detailed, and the greater variety of materials and craftables means more customization (that actually makes sense).
I feel like Starbound is a little more realistic (for being a sci-fi, open world, survival crafting game) than Terraria. You've got to eat, you've got to stay warm, and crafting isn't instantaneous (not necessarily a good thing, though). I do feel like the UI needs a little more work and NPC recruitment could be a little easier, though.