The patch that many players watching Chucklefish and Starbound had been waiting for has released. Furious Koala is the patch that finally brought "massive changes to disk serialization". In other words – no more character wipes.
While this comes as a relief to most players, those who still want to play characters they will lose can choose to play in the new 'permadeath' mode. Other big changes include dropped items no longer despawning, saving many a player from rushing headlong into caves and breaking their necks in long drops trying to retrieve a treasured weapon before it vanishes, more move sets for the randomly generated beasts you find wandering planets, the removal of all Christmassy elements that the last patch brought in and a line that worryingly just says “Watch out for landmines”...
We'll be diving into the game soon with some friends to show off the gameplay of Starbound soon, so keep watching. It should be good.
Patch notes are here.