Why do the glitch need to eat like anybody else? Well, they're simulations of advancement, of course they would need to eat to simulate. If they just had oil to worry about, they would never properly simulate organic development because they have different needs than a flesh and blood, but by making them require food, they can easily simulate the advancement of technology of an organic race.
It's for the same reason that Glitch who become self-aware are seen as aberrant and branded as Outcasts. Glitch are programmed to simulate. Everything about the way they live is contained within the simulation. When a Glitch gains self-awareness, they disrupt the simulation and introduce conflict with the Glitch's programming. To maintain the simulation, the other Glitch fall back on simulating medieval superstition and persecution: the self-aware Glitch is a heretic, so therefore, we must Burn the Witch!
Also, banishing or otherwise persecuting self-aware Glitch may make in-universe sense, given that they are by definition a subset of rogue AIs and the remainder of that set could very well be largely criminally insane or otherwise dangerous.
And even then, the simulation appears to be slowly wearing away over time. The Glitch PC will occasionally take note of distinctly non-medieval objects found around Glitch villages and strongholds. For instance, inspecting a Glitch cash register will prompt the PC to remark that Glitch never had use for such a device, as Glitch didn't use forms of currency. They then wonder if Glitch had begun trading in pixels. Talking to the Glitch merchant standing next to the register confirms that indeed, they have.
Except that that is not evidence of the simulation wearing thin, it's evidence that Glitch are more medieval than you thought: Medieval Europeans were quite happy to trade in foreign currencies and buy exotic foreign stuff, and as far as they know, Pixels are just another foreign currency and a cash register is just a foreign artifact.
Except that it is, because it highlights why Glitch are breaking out of the simulation and becoming self-aware. The simulation is trying to adapt and filter the rest of the Starbound universe from the Glitch's perspective to keep them in Medieval Stasis. The problem is that the rest of the universe is bigger and more bizarre than the simulation can Hand Wave, and the Glitch aren't stupid. A Glitch can only swallow so many Acceptable Breaks from Reality before they realize their simulated "reality" no longer makes any sense.
The codexes show that the Glitch have internal engines that need to burn food in order to provide energy for them.
This also explains why they need air.
Why do the Hylotl have an air meter underwater despite being amphibious? Frogs in real life can't breathe underwater, but they can absorb oxygen through their skin. Hylotl are much bigger than frogs and thus the oxygen absorption probably wouldn't be enough to help them breathe.
Many amphibians in real life lose the ability to breath underwater once they have aged into adulthood.
It might seem a bit silly at first that the high-tech matter manipulator is worse at mining than a simple stone pickaxe, but then you realize that mining or woodcutting is probably not what it was designed for. It's more likely the manipulator was designed for construction and moving heavy objects - which is why it's how players place down any item that can be placed, and at reasonable distances.
It's also said to work on the nanometer level. Perfect for precise positions and sticking things together, but shaking things apart when you're working at that level is actually incredibly difficult. A nice big wedge-shaped hunk of metal is unspeakably more energy-efficient for splitting solid matter.
The Golden Pickaxe and Drills are stronger than their silver/copper variants, even though gold is one of the softest metals around. Then you realize that they both require a silver pick/drill to craft. You're not actually making tools out of gold, you're adding gold to them as an alloy, which is much stronger than the pure metal.
To make the Florans into a race of violently predatory savages is actually very fitting. As anyone who's ever studied botany knows, plants are actually viciously competitive with one another; a plant's entire existence is devoted to trying to steal away all the water and soil nutrients it can in order to crowd out other plants and prosper. Gardeners learn quite early, if they want to succeed, that certain plants can't be grown together or even near other plants at all, as they secrete chemicals to kill off other plants. It's only logical, then, that a plant that actually became a mobile sentient would be a rapacious predator that cannibalises its own kind and any other species it encounters; a plant's mindset is fundamentally totally self-centered and focused on its own survival. And, to a plant, the thing it depends on most is a source of nourishment.
At the same time, not only is there a natural evolutionary pressure for them to start growing out of this (lest they be driven into extinction by their own aggressiveness being combined with their primitive natures), but there are also reasons for them to develop non-hostile relations with other races. In the real world, many plants rely on symbiosis with animals, usually for protection or reproduction.
It's all but stated that the Florans have a What Measure Is a Non-Floran mindset which helps to explain their viciousness.
Why do Florans love meat so much? Meat is rich in all sorts of elements and minerals, making it very good nutrition and very energy rich. Also, the structure of fleshy tissue makes it a lot easier to break down than, say, soil or vegetable matter. So, to Florans, meat is super-nutritious and super-easy to digest; no wonder they love it so much. Even in the real world, many plants grow better by feeding on decomposing animal matter.
Why the Floran's Torture Device, which seemingly is an innocuous small fountain, scare Glitches, Avians, and their own so much? Machines, obviously, suffer short-circuit when their chipboards are wet. Dipped feathers weigh down tremendously, or at least it feels so, for the aerodynamic, frailly-muscular bodies of birds. Carnivore plants, the origin of the Floran, thrive on poorly-hydrated soil, and get all they need from their victims. As a tradeoff for that evolution, they risk dying off when exposed to mild quantities of water. Of course, that's not the exact case with Florans, but some degree of Old Habits Die Hard may be the case.
The Novakids don't pass on any information directly, with the younger generations just learning through observation and tinkering. This could explain why they don't have much backstory In-Universe (Apart from being an added playable race).
Why do the Novakids have such bad attention span? They're the fragmented remains of the Cultivator. Having one's consciousness broken up into pieces isn't going to do good for one's mind.
The Mooks found within The Ruin are pretty weak and easy to kill for Tier 6 enemies, far weaker than regular monsters of the same level. In fact the monsters it portals from other biomes can put up a much better fight. Since the Ruin is a being of destruction and not of creation, creating lifeforms isn't really its thing, therefore those it creates end up flimsy and weak.
Why are Novakid, who are beings made of hot plasma vulnerable to radiation? Simple, their plasma is contained in a magnetic shell generated by their brand. Ionizing radiation likely disrupts this magnetic field by inducing electrical currents.
How can the Glitch get poisoned? The codexes reveal that their power source is a gas turbine engine powered by methane produced from bacterial fermentation. The Glitch themselves aren't poisoned but their bacteria are.
Why does Asra Nox have the same techs that you do but stronger? Simple, she's a Protector gone rogue and likely modified the techs for her own use.
You can clone people, but can't clone meat for food. As said by Scott Manley:
"We can replicate a person... but we can't apparently replicate meat."
Have you ever tasted cloned meat? It tastes horrible, because even if you clone the tissue, it's just that - stringy tissue, rather than juicy meat. You probably need to spend time stimulating the muscle before it's anywhere near edible. Of course, this raises the question as to why people are perfectly fine right after being cloned, but still.
...so, in other words, still completely unexplainable.
Your character will always pull out the matter manipulator if he/she is going to place an item down into/on the world. Even if he/she doesn't have it in their inventory or on their hotbar.
This has since been fixed, as the matter manipulator now shows up on its own slot and can't be unequipped. Could still be an issue if players get ahold of some blocks before retrieving it first, though.
It actually won't, thanks to the tutorial mission giving you one before you even reach the ship off-world, and if you skip it, you've already got it anyways.
To construct a Robotic Crafting Table, you must first get a Processor Board. To get the processor board, you must first construct a robot. There's a causality paradox somewhere in there.
Perhaps the Robot, commanded by the superior and enhanced brain, automatically regenerates its circuitry. The whole reason you're building and fighting it is to get a sturdy, battle-hardened chip which is suitable for robotic crafting.
Turns into a bit of Fridge Brilliance if you care to examine the robot before actually activating it. The PC states that he hopes/bets that it will be friendly, and let's be honest, having a robot friend around would be pretty sweet. Using the processor for the crafting table hadn't occured to your character at that point. But your character wasn't expecting it to be hostile when he or she activated the robot. After destroying it, all that's left is the processor. Oh well, might as well make a neat crafting table with it.
The Glitch PCs notice something a little off when inspecting it.
How does a Novakid burn or get hurt via heat, when they're made of star matter?
Two possibilities. One, it disrupts the thin "shell" that contains the actual star matter (after all, they're not setting everything they touch on fire, are they?), and two, it might damage the metal brand in their faces that generates the aforementioned shell.
If we accept that the Cultivator built the Ark to contain the Ruin, and we also accept that the Novakid are the shattered remnants of the Cultivator following the sealing, then this logically means that the Novakid didn't exist at the time of the Ark's construction (which is also why they don't have their own Plot Coupon). So, how is it possible for there to be a Novakid's face on the Ark?
Some actual Novakid scrawled himself in with surprising skill, perhaps? The PC definitely noticed he's not in the holograms, and perhaps some other had the irreverence, for lack of a better word, to "correct" this mistake.
Supporting this is the fact that it's one of the two faces on the bottom. The other is the broken face representing a modded-in species. The other but have have originally been an extra space in case an eighth spacefaring species was discovered.
When exploring Avian tombs you can frequently find Raw Alien Meat ... in the coffins. Considering the other most common drop is Bones, this is clearly the meat of the inhabitant. Which can be cooked and eaten by any race, including Avians.
This also implies that the coffins were filled recently enough for the meat to still be fresh.
What's more, a few of the coffins are opened, and the only living thing with any interest in them are the Avian guards posted in the tombs. Flavor text indicates that these Avians are very much alive, and NOT ghosts or reanimated remains of those buried in the tomb. Well, those guards have to eat something, and sometimes the rations run a little short...
Similarly, the mutant humans in the Erchius Mining Facility can also drop Raw Alien Meat.
Before 1.0 update, the Humans left Earth because of a giant tentacle monster that was growing inside the planet started rampaging. Yeah, at first it seems like just one random outbreak, until you come across multiple planets, seemingly dead, covered in those same kinds of tentacles, which suggests that this has happened elsewhere. A lot. Who knows, your home planet might be next...
A codex by Greenfinger on the Beast reveals it was CREATED BY THE FLORANS and has indeed been used on other worlds. His notes also state that he didn't expect it to be able to become so powerful.
To hammer the nail even further, he expresses some fear of what may come if humans learn the truth. The most likely outcome? War. And given the Florans' racial fear of fire, one option in particular would seem exceptionally karmic.
Even though The Ruin gets destroyed, Asra Nox is still very much alive and kicking and very much racist against non-humans. Who knows what kind of plans she would do in the future? While there is closure due to the 1.4 update, who knows what she'll do if left undisturbed...
Rarely in Avian tombs and temples (and in one difficult-to-reach spot in the grand temple) you can find a sarcophagus depicting a human... making muffled cries. The Avians put some poor soul in there and they're still alive! And naturally you can't help them. If you're particularly sadistic, you might decide to take it home and decorate your settlement with.
It is possible to find a prison on a desert/post-apocalyptic planet, filled to the brim with convicts. And while some of them have a piece of dialogue, you'll have to kill them anyways. This brings up several questions: why are all of them humans? Where did the guards go? By killing them all, how much did we contribute to pushing humans into "endangered species"-territory? What would the Protectorate say about this?
Given that convicts in the prisons are hostile to you, one could plausibly argue that it would be justified self-defense (and, if one is willing to take a more broader scope, brigands like that would not exactly improve the reputation of humans as a whole on the galactic scale especially if they manage to get off world); by contrast, a convict summoned as a tenant would not benote I presume - the author has not yet done so in his game and in-story might be a prisoner who decided to go straight (and thus could reintegrate himself in the restarting galactic society). The prisons are stamped with the USCM logo, suggesting that they are the USCM's purview rather than the Protectorate's (they could be two separate entities associated with Humans with different roles, where one might be like the UN and the other more like, say, the United States military) and the USCM deals with Human inmates specifically. As for the Protectorate, it is doubtful they'd like what's going on, but given the current political situation (i.e., both the USCM and the Protectorate are in no position to enforce order and peace) there's a strong argument to be made that the alternative would be worse. And if one is most concerned about humanity's census numbers post-Ruin, why not leave the Prisons alone?
On the subject of ex-con Tenants: They are peaceful and will sometimes claim to have been incarcerated for "financial skulduggery" - i.e. they were never the violent "attack on sight" kind and have gone straight. They're still prone to malicious behavior (offering quests involving extortion and abuse of other tenants).
If you're playing a Floran, a Floran villager may casually mention that they are in trouble for eating an Apex. This suggests that any time you enter a Floran village as another race your life may very well be in danger, no matter how friendly they seem.
