Octopus Overlords

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:54 am No challenge, no risk, no story. My complaint was repetitiveness (no idea how this is now), but the solution isn't god mode.

Now I'm confused.

I found the game repetitive. I didn't say I didn't want any challenge at all. I don't think that's being too picky...

What challenge does normal mode have that is removed with creative?

Alefroth wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2019 6:01 pm What challenge does normal mode have that is removed with creative?

Creative mode:

Death: Impossible
Starship Destruction: Impossible
Trophies: Not Available
Costs: None
Black Holes: No
Resources: N/A

Creative is a building set without a challenge. I like walking sims, but wouldn't play NMS as one.

All this started because I said that I disliked that before launching, I had to spend hours standing still, shooting rocks. I found that tedious rather than fun. That doesn't mean that I don't want any gameplay elements at all. It means that the resource gathering needs to be better designed for gameplay.

/edit - and here was the original quote, from over a year ago, in context:

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:45 pm I think I'm starting hit a wall for that very reason. There are just too many elements that feel like busy work, either because of the high amounts of resources (500 chromatic metal to fix one item on my ship, and there are three of them that need fixed, which means finding 3,000 copper...) or because the interface makes it so difficult to do things. Recharging is a pain. Inventory management is a pain. Trying to click on anything with a mouse is a pain. Navigating the galaxy map is an instant headache.

It comes down to this: I can't wait to explore. I want to see what's on the next planet, warp to the next star system, live an exciting sci-fi adventure.

But first I need to spend three hours shooting rocks.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:26 pm It comes down to this: I can't wait to explore. I want to see what's on the next planet, warp to the next star system, live an exciting sci-fi adventure.

But first I need to spend three hours shooting rocks.

Blackhawk, all the barriers you have to enjoying NMS have been addressed by either the Beyond update or modding.
For example, bored shooting rocks? Get the Mine It like you Stole It mod which includes:

Less Heat Buildup during mining
Instant Mining Speed
Bigger Grenade Radius
Faster Grenade Speed
+ 10000x warp distance

Also, the current beta has 212 items to remap in the key-binding options - 21 of them just for the galactic map.

And there is the 10-15x Smaller Ship Repair Requirements mod that has:

10-15x Smaller Ship Repair Requirements
10x more charge for terrain modificator + 10x lower cost of operation
Personal Shield 10x more effective
Laser 2 times more powerful and 2 times less overheat
10x lower requirements for multitool repair
10x bigger fuel tank
10 bigger boost 'tank'

My personal favorite mod so far is not having to wait for the circle to fill up every time I want to do something.

Dave Allen wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2019 10:39 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2019 7:26 pm It comes down to this: I can't wait to explore. I want to see what's on the next planet, warp to the next star system, live an exciting sci-fi adventure.

But first I need to spend three hours shooting rocks.

Blackhawk, all the barriers you have to enjoying NMS have been addressed by either the Beyond update or modding.
For example, bored shooting rocks? Get the Mine It like you Stole It mod which includes:

Less Heat Buildup during mining
Instant Mining Speed
Bigger Grenade Radius
Faster Grenade Speed
+ 10000x warp distance

Also, the current beta has 212 items to remap in the key-binding options - 21 of them just for the galactic map.

And there is the 10-15x Smaller Ship Repair Requirements mod that has:

10-15x Smaller Ship Repair Requirements
10x more charge for terrain modificator + 10x lower cost of operation
Personal Shield 10x more effective
Laser 2 times more powerful and 2 times less overheat
10x lower requirements for multitool repair
10x bigger fuel tank
10 bigger boost 'tank'

My personal favorite mod so far is not having to wait for the circle to fill up every time I want to do something.

I bought this game on the Steam sale. I've played only 12 minutes. Using survival mode, I died twice since I had no idea what was happening. Still not sure if I'm going to keep it or ask for a refund.

Are all of those cool things you just mentioned only available as mods? Many of them sound great based on my limited playtime. I'd like to have a game that doesn't need mods because they break as the game gets updated.

Check the tutorial in the corner. Scan for sodium. Recharge.

Fardaza wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:11 pm Using survival mode, I died twice since I had no idea what was happening.

You are thrown in the water and learn to swim. It is kinda brutal at first. Here are some beginner's tips:

Collect the supplies from around your crash site- When you first wake up, you'll find some supplies scattered around your ship. Don't leave them behind!

Your ship is a haven - Your ship is a handy-dandy save point. It also protects you against extreme temperatures and other hostilities. Retreat there for a safe place to think and craft.

Stay close to your ship until you're familiar with the game's controls - Hiding out in your ship for a short time restores your Hazard protection without needing to fill it with Sodium. Stay close to "home" for a bit until you get an idea of how to move. There should be plenty of useful resources within range.

Remember to replenish your hazard protection and life support when you're far from "home" - Your life support and thermal protection drains when you're in hostile territory, but you can recharge it using easy-to-find resources like Sodium and Oxygen. You'll get warnings when your level drops, so heed them when you're on a long trip.

Caves offer environmental protection - If you need to warm up or cool off in a hurry, caves can give you respite from the cruel world.

Use your jetpack to save you from big falls - Long falls hurt! Use your jetpack to soften landings. In fact, early on, your jetpack is far better suited for assisting jumps than for rocketing around to and fro.

Do minor repair work as soon as possible - Whenever you're ready, enter your personal inventory and flip through the tabs to get a bead on what needs to be repaired. Your Scanner and Analysis Visor should be the first things you repair: They let you identify the species around you, and make it easier to zoom in on deposits of rare minerals.

Make a weapon! - Your spawn-planet may never put you face-to-face with hostile life forms. On the other hand, it might. It's not a bad idea to have a weapon on-hand. In your personal inventory, flip to the "Multi-tool" tab, place your cursor on an empty spot, and see what weapons you can craft. If you don't have the necessary elements, get them. You should at least make sure you have a simple bolt caster on you at all times.

Be wary around sentinels - Sentinels are robots that occupy some planets. They're more plentiful on some worlds than others. They'll leave you alone for the most part, but if you mine for resources while they're looking, they might disapprove and attack you. Sentinels are tough enemies early in the game; it's best to avoid provoking their wrath, period. If some are whizzing around, go mine somewhere else.

Enjoy, and take your time! - Ultimately, there's no wrong way to play No Man's Sky. Sit back, don't stress, and explore the vast, vast universe before you!

Get to the Base Building portion of the game as quickly as possible, it really speeds up gathering for certain blueprints, and you're given a load of free stuff just for trying it out.

As soon as you can, head to a space station and purchase a grade A Scanner Upgrade. This will drastically increase the credits you'll earn for scanning Flora and Fauna.

Follow the questlines! - these will often lead you through key mechanics within the game like warping and base building.

Save often - the easiest way to save is to enter and exit your ship. You can also build a Save Beacon to save manually.

Complete missions at Space Stations to earn credits and standing.

Fardaza wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:11 pm Are all of those cool things you just mentioned only available as mods? Many of them sound great based on my limited playtime. I'd like to have a game that doesn't need mods because they break as the game gets updated.

Yes. And popular mods are getting updated very quickly.

Just returning to NMS after the Beyond patch. Definitely appreciating some of the tweaks. I know this game has its issues, but it has always hit a sweet spot for me. Almost a zen-like gaming experience. Not like anything else I’ve played before. Anyway, with early 100 hours in, I’m pretty happy with my ROI on this one.

Fardaza wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:11 pm I bought this game on the Steam sale. I've played only 12 minutes. Using survival mode, I died twice since I had no idea what was happening. Still not sure if I'm going to keep it or ask for a refund.

Are all of those cool things you just mentioned only available as mods? Many of them sound great based on my limited playtime. I'd like to have a game that doesn't need mods because they break as the game gets updated.

Survival mode is asking to be punished. That isn't the default. Also, this game does not *need* mods. I've done the whole thing three times, once as it was released, once in Next and once more in Beyond. Beyond made a lot of QoL changes that make the game a lot more pleasant. Inventory isn't the hassle it used to be. It still requires managing. The only ship you have to repair is your first. The tutorial and tips/guidance is still a bit janky but it is far less buggy.

There are two reasons to mod a game:

The game needs mods (to fix bugs, fix broken gameplay, etc)
The player wants mods (to alter the game to better suit personal preferences)

I could certainly see some opportunities for improvement, but there is nothing that needs to be addressed.

To go the other way, I am starting to think I am done with this play-through. My played time isn't accurate because I assumed my mineral farm required the game to be running so there is some extra idle time in there. I would guess it nets out to about 40 hours played. I completed the Atlas Path, the Purge and 95% of the base building missions. I have the star seed and remebrance equipped. I hit the max milestone "level" and had 80 milestones last I looked. I have a 24 slot S class experimental multi-tool and a couple of max slot ships, A:38+12 fighter and S:38+12 explorer. I haven't really done anything with freighters and frigates because I don't find that particularly interesting. 200 million units in the virtual bank, but no real need for it. About the only thing left would be to build a pretty base, but I already have a functionally adequate base with all the necessities.

I guess I can finish up the armorer's quests. There may only be one left, but I need to gear that fancy multi-tool up to handle it and I'll probably need more nanites for that.

Maybe I can try a survival run, or a permadeath run!

Fardaza wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:11 pm ...I bought this game on the Steam sale. I've played only 12 minutes. Using survival mode, I died twice since I had no idea what was happening. Still not sure if I'm going to keep it or ask for a refund...

As another noob, I strongly suggest avoiding survival mode and going with the default mode. The game is challenging enough for new players without having to struggle just to stay alive.

That galaxy map is indeed maddening. I made a warp jump in the tutorial and now that I want to go back on my own, I can't even find the system that was one jump away.

Apollo wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2019 2:32 pm

Fardaza wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:11 pm ...I bought this game on the Steam sale. I've played only 12 minutes. Using survival mode, I died twice since I had no idea what was happening. Still not sure if I'm going to keep it or ask for a refund...

As another noob, I strongly suggest avoiding survival mode and going with the default mode. The game is challenging enough for new players without having to struggle just to stay alive.

When I get the urge to play again, I'll definitely not be doing survival.

I wanted to check out the new Beyond update. My PC version kept randomly locking up, so I grabbed it yesterday on PS4 instead.

I think 8 hours is about my tolerance for this one. Tried it about a year ago, and got about that far in before wandering off. I've hit about the same spot now, and can already feel myself losing interest.

While I love the exploration and discovery of the early game and it certainly has some "wow" moments when visiting new planets, the core gameplay loop got very tedious very quickly for me. As someone else mentioned, I find that I don't particularly enjoy spending 3 hours shooting rocks.

anyone gone back to this with the new, new updates?

Now with mechs:

That just might get me to check it out yet again... I've spent a crazy amount of time on the game. The biggest missing piece for me at this point is the lack of some serious customization, like ship design along the lines of Empyrion.

I posted this in the Video Games Randomness thread, but decided I'm doing everyone looking for NMS info in the future a disservice by not putting it in the thread dedicated to the game where it is easy to find.


I'm still having fun, probably 30 hours in. I'm about halfway through the main quest. The only complaint I really have about it is that it ties me down to just a few systems rather than allowing me to explore ever onward.

I have my base (last time I played the base building was quirky as hell), but I am going to need to relocate soon. I set it up on a Lush planet near a settlement with a trader, which works great. Unfortunately, this was long before they explained how hotspots worked and why they were important. As it stands right now, I've got a whole row of solar panels and a whole row of batteries, but I still run out of juice halfway through the night. I am also, honestly, running out of physical space to build in, as I share my area with the settlement building, two hangar type outbuildings, and a pile of broken machinery. I may just need to go on an exploration binge and see what I can find, planet-wise. I'm trying to finish up the base building questline first, though.

I got lucky on my ship and found a crashed Exotic (mosquito style) very early on. I was able to repair it and have been flying happy ever since. I also found a crashed living ship, but I have no idea what to do with it. I could repair it, but it looks like it's going to require a crap-ton of obscure materials. I might be better off just scrapping it and buying on from some wandering NPC. I think I'll have to repair a few systems to do that, though.

My freighter... I've got a capital ship (I knew to turn down the first freighter I was offered), but I've yet to really build much in it. It's confusing to build in, and everything requires significant amounts of silver, which tends to trickle in a few at a time from asteroid mining.

Having not played, why do you not take the first freighter offered?

Freyland wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:36 pm Having not played, why do you not take the first freighter offered?

Very mild non-story spoiler:

So I've been scouring the cosmos looking for the perfect spot to place my permanent base. My criteria were steep: "Lush" biome planet, no deadly storms, minimal sentinels, at least some water. I finally found exactly that, then realized that I should be more specific when making wishes.

The planet has bright yellow grass, purple trees, an orange sky, and bright red water. It looks like the clown homeworld. Well, except that the rocks look like giant turds. No, really.

Click for bigger optical pain.

Watch out for the Lorax.

I think I'm nearing the end of my run. Unlike the last few times I played it isn't because of frustration with the design this time, or with horrible bugs. It isn't perfect, but it absolutely is a good game. I have 53 hours in, which isn't too shabby for me these days.

I finally found a place to put my base, and it's a good spot. A minor settlement within a 150 units or so, a flat plateau with a view, and all three types of hotspot (mining, gas, and power) within a couple of hundred units, plus a cave nearby. The world isn't my ideal, but it's as close as I'm likely to get. Lush biome, not technicolor (the grass is light blue, but not garish), low sentinels, no storms. I have a high-end A Class freighter and six frigates in my fleet, all chosen to be able to max their stats by the time they hit their level cap. I have two exotic ships and two living ships (one is just there to trade off for a hauler when I get around to it.) I've very nearly gotten my exosuit inventory fully upgraded (I think I need two more slots), and have my tech slots maxed. I have two A Class multi-tools, one optimized for combat, the other for mining. I've done missions from the Anomaly, and I've visited every exotic planet type.

I think the reason I'm getting bored is that I really don't enjoy the story. At all. It's way too abstract and metaphysical, and feels like what would happen if Carlos Castaneda wrote sci-fi, then redacted every fifth word with static. And without a story to drive me and give me a goal, I'm not really motivated. I have a beautiful plateau to build a base on, and a huge freighter with space to build in, but I don't need to. The bases wouldn't serve any real purpose. All that's left is to follow the story (don't wanna) and push toward the center.

None of that takes away from more than 50 hours of fun I've had so far. And I will likely come back to it some day.

Hrothgar wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:29 pm Watch out for the Lorax.

I believe I found him.

Man, I haven't had the time or inclination to get back into NMS. But from an outsider's perspective, the way they continue to develop and expand it is pretty impressive.

Alternate source for the trailer (Twitter vids are always heavily compressed and full of artifacts for me.)

Blackhawk, thanks for posting that alternative source!

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:00 am Man, I haven't had the time or inclination to get back into NMS. But from an outsider's perspective, the way they continue to develop and expand it is pretty impressive.

Absolutely.

Is this DLC, a free update, or the next iteration of the game?

I've been out of the loop on this one. I tend to really enjoy survival games but after completing the gameplay loop a couple times on this one (get a new ship, fix it up, move on) I wandered away without feeling very compelled to get back in. I think I played for a couple hours when they introduced bases but still couldn't dig it.

It appears to be yet another free update.

I also bounced off of it several times at around that same time. I played it this summer and was hooked.

This is very cool, but it sounds like way too much work to grind out the prerequisites to unlock it before the end of the month.

No Man’s Sky confirms Mass Effect crossover, adds iconic Normandy SR-1 to fleet

The latest update to No Man's Sky, which goes live sometime today, unlocks a very familiar spaceship inside the nearly infinite universe of NMS: the SSV Normandy SR-1, lifted from the first Mass Effect game. Yes, that's the SR-1, not the eventual SR-2. (Tali would approve.) While Normandy doesn't come with a handy Mako for players to drop onto Hello Games' 18 quintillion planets, it does include an incredible S rating (seen in the above gallery). As far as No Man's Sky frigates go, the SR-1 is SR-number-one.

Hello Games has confirmed that the crossover event, timed alongside the launch of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition trilogy package on PC and consoles last week, is a limited-time affair that requires a few gameplay steps. It caps off a four-day mystery within the NMS universe, kicked off by a new dump of "Expeditions" mission content. Within this update, players found mention of a new item called the Historiographical Dosimeter, along with teases about "something stirring from across the universe."

Once players complete enough "milestones" in Expeditions mode, they'll receive the Dosimeter object in question, which, ahead of today's update, leads players to a few steps they can take to acquire some valuable "Quicksilver" currency. While Hello Games didn't immediately respond to questions about how to find the SR-1, the company's rep did make clear that the Dosimeter and its mission chain is involved. Complete that Expeditions content before May 31 and you'll permanently unlock the SR-1 as part of your save file's frigate fleet. I assume NMS goes no further with this promotion's quest content, though if Sean Murray and co. want to add some spicy Vy'keen-and-Kromax love triangles to the game for good measure, count me in.

It took about 11 hours over 2 days to complete the expedition, much of which was spent spinning my wheels and trying to remember how to play the game (it's been about a year and a half since the last time I took it out for a spin).

I guess the game continues to morph into the game it should have been originally?



Another free update - major visual overhaul.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:11 am I guess the game continues to morph into the game it should have been originally?

At this point I think they have exceeded the initial promises. damn it now I may have to reinstall (and possibly restart) to see all the pretties.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:11 am I guess the game continues to morph into the game it should have been originally?



Another free update - major visual overhaul.

I don't know that they could have done all of what they've done post launch at the launch. They certainly could have done a far better job at launch but like coop is saying, they are way past a 1.0 version at this point.

Yeah, I guess I came off a bit snarky. It's impressive that they keep updating stuff for free instead of abandoning the original title and then releasing a 2.0 version to sell with all this stuff. I'll try to be less cynical...but it's a struggle.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:23 am

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:11 am I guess the game continues to morph into the game it should have been originally?

At this point I think they have exceeded the initial promises. damn it now I may have to reinstall (and possibly restart) to see all the pretties.

Sounds like something I'm going to want to do too.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:28 am Yeah, I guess I came off a bit snarky. It's impressive that they keep updating stuff for free instead of abandoning the original title and then releasing a 2.0 version to sell with all this stuff. I'll try to be less cynical...but it's a struggle.

I can't think of a better example of reputation repair than what Hello has done.