Octopus Overlords

GOG

I am totally lost and befuddled. I have all of the items required to build a Neural Stimulator but but I can’t figure out how to create it. I have the ingredients - condensed carbon, and chromatic metal. The instructions say pick an inventory slot and craft it using E but the item doesn’t show up for me to craft. There are a number of different items that I can build - metal plating, carbon nanotubes, etc, but no Neural Stimulator. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? I’m lost.

Grifman wrote: ↑Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:39 pm I am totally lost and befuddled. I have all of the items required to build a Neural Stimulator but but I can’t figure out how to create it. I have the ingredients - condensed carbon, and chromatic metal. The instructions say pick an inventory slot and craft it using E but the item doesn’t show up for me to craft. There are a number of different items that I can build - metal plating, carbon nanotubes, etc, but no Neural Stimulator. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? I’m lost.

My son tells me: "He needs to have a Scientist in a specialist's terminal… "

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:58 pm

Grifman wrote: ↑Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:39 pm I am totally lost and befuddled. I have all of the items required to build a Neural Stimulator but but I can’t figure out how to create it. I have the ingredients - condensed carbon, and chromatic metal. The instructions say pick an inventory slot and craft it using E but the item doesn’t show up for me to craft. There are a number of different items that I can build - metal plating, carbon nanotubes, etc, but no Neural Stimulator. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? I’m lost.

My son tells me: "He needs to have a Scientist in a specialist's terminal… "

I don't think that's it unfortunately.

I had not played since about a year ago, and I'm loving it. I don't know how much of the improvement is NEXT and how much is simply a year's worth of updates I didn't see, but it feels so much more polished and enjoyable now.

I tried NMS on PS4 about a year ago, and came away mostly just annoyed and unimpressed. Figured I'd give it another shot since they've been making so many improvements...and getting it for $30 didn't hurt.

Played for a couple hours last night, and had a ton of fun. Felt like it was structured much better, providing info on how to do things instead of making me figure out everything on my own. The third person view makes a huge difference as well. I got off my starter planet and have had fun exploring a new world. Little B 9.5 spent about an hour watching me play and was absolutely enthralled by it, which was fun to see. (Side note: Is there a way to have multiple save games, so I can play one and she can have her own?)

The only thing I really don't like is those stupid gorram sentinels. I don't see any purpose to them, other than to just be annoying as hell. I'm also disappointed that it doesn't play nice with SteamLink, so I can't play it on the big TV. Something to do with the way it's procedurally generated causes streaming issues, apparently.

On PC you're presented with a save list at startup and can easily have multiple games going. Are you not getting that?

Finally got a chance to fire this up last night and got to play for a couple hours. My starter planet was . . . Difficult. There was severely toxic rain which forced me to constantly scavenge for plants yielding sodium. And when a storm rolled in, it pretty much wiped me out. But following the steps laid out in the log, I eventually got my ship repaired and made it off planet. I was glad to leave!

Followed the coordinates given for my next stop, and it was a much more habitable planet (“blissful” in fact). Explored a bit and discovered a base occupied by an alien warrior who was “aggressive” and demanded I give him my multi-tool. I declined, expecting it would start a fight, but, instead, I was told he “respected my decision.” Interesting, but I decided I should probably get out of there.

So, now I’m exploring this planet and trying to figure out where I should build my first base computer.

Overall, I felt a little bit lost at times, but the game did a pretty good job at guiding me along and teaching some intro mechanics. Looking forward to jumping back into it tonight!

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:04 am On PC you're presented with a save list at startup and can easily have multiple games going. Are you not getting that?

Saw that, but thought it was just separate save slots for the same game. Didn't realize you could do separate games...will let Little B give it a shot tonight.

Apparently there are issues where save files aren't actually keeping your progress,but there's a hotfix coming for people on PC. Taking longer for consoles.

For someone that has never played the game before, does the new patch make it worth picking up? I think I can get it pretty cheap on the PS4.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:52 am For someone that has never played the game before, does the new patch make it worth picking up? I think I can get it pretty cheap on the PS4.

I think it's objectively better than it was at launch. There are missions and quests you can do, but the vast majority of the gameplay is simply just exploring and getting more resources to build up your base, your ships, your multitool, etc.

If that core gameplay loop sounds fun, then you'll probably enjoy it.

I played for a few more hours last night and am getting comfortable with my freighter now. It's pretty cool as I can use the freighter for a base of operations in a system, and when I'm ready for the next destination I can hop on board and jump the whole fleet to the next destination. There are also missions you can send your frigates on for various rewards like money and rare resources. As you fly around the galaxy and find other fleets you can also fly close to some of them and get an offer to buy the frigate to add to your fleet. The ones I'm seeing so far are in the 1 - 2 million range.

I also found a much nicer crashed starship on a planet that I've been refurbishing, but with the latest update finding crashed ships isn't the holy grail it used to be... now crashed ships will have a ton of their slots broken, and you have to use quite a number of various resources to repair each slot one by one. Should result in a much better ship when I get done, but for now I'm limping along with no weapon or shields and only a few open slots.

I also found out there hard way there are storms now and extreme storms. I was used to firestorms that raise the temperature by 100 degrees or so which is bad, but tolerable. Last night I found a planet with extreme storms that raised the temperature by about 500 degrees.

I started this up, and while it's not hitting the space fighter itch I've got, it's working as a survival builder.

I've recently found and am working on salvaging a 27 slot Hauler - a huge upgrade over the 15 slot fighter I started with. It's going to take something on the order of 2000 copper, 2000 ferrite, 200 sentinel goo, 500 platinum, 300 gold, 2400 paraffin, and some other goodies to get it in working order. Seems worth the trouble for a lowly guy just starting out. I'd probably have to spring 3,000,000 to buy this from someone.

I bumped into a 47 slot Hauler in the space station. Guy wanted 83,000,000 for it. I passed.

Amusingly, I started the game on Survival - but didn't realize that all my items evaporated when I died until I was much further in and lost a substantial amount of effort to falling over the edge of a cliff during a fight. After that I restarted on Casual, and now many hours in, I've yet to die.

The default space combat controls are amazingly sluggish. I had to pump the mouse responsiveness for ships to 100 to feel like I wasn't steering a whale.

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:27 pm Amusingly, I started the game on Survival - but didn't realize that all my items evaporated when I died until I was much further in and lost a substantial amount of effort to falling over the edge of a cliff during a fight. After that I restarted on Casual, and now many hours in, I've yet to die.

I was playing on Normal. How different is casual?

I had more fun puttering around in this last night. Mostly gathering resources to repair my new starship, and continuing the main storyline.

Only thing holding me back is I'm starting to run into bugs. I'm sure it will be fixed soon, but they apparently broke freighter warping... every time I tried to initiate a warp jump with my freighter it told me the it needed fuel even though the tanks were full. I didn't try it myself, but I read you could still move freighters by jumping to a new system in your starship, and then summoning your freighter to the new system. As long as it has fuel it will supposedly come to you.

I also ran into an issue repairing my starship... I had partially repaired a couple of the components, but when I looked at those components last night they seemed to be showing the wrong thing when I zoomed into repair them, and it wouldn't let me do the repairs. Hopefully something they can fix, or else I'll probably have to trade the ship in for a repaired one.

I’m making slow progress. I just built my first base, but I have a question: Once I deploy a base computer, is it stuck there? I put mine down but decided to construct my actual base a little ways away. I’d like to move the computer inside the structure now, but I can’t seem to pick it up. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, any tips on avoiding pissing off the sentinels?

Also also, any tips on navigating when flying my ship on planet? I’m playing on XBOX, and when I try to fly somewhere, it becomes really difficult to make out points of interest. As has been mentioned before, a map sure would be nice!

NMS seems to be scratching a gaming itch I didn't even know I had. I got to my first space station last night, build a hyper-drive, and jumped to my first new system. I'm still a little fuzzy on how I go about getting a new ship, but will keep puttering away and hope I figure it out.

The funnest part has been Little B's reaction. She sat and watched me for another couple hours yesterday, even forgoing her own gaming time before bed so she could watch. She's absolutely fascinated by the exploration aspect of it all, and was actively "helping" me figure things out. "Dad, go grab that plant". "Scan that animal". "You should go talk to that alien".

I know I could start her on her own game, but I kinda don't want to at this point, just because the bonding experience has been so much fun.

You've all made me go and reinstall it. I had about 21 hours in before, and quit when it became too repetitive.

I just need to decide between starting a new game or loading up my own save. It sounds like there are enough new things that I might be confused jumping into an existing game.

I always WANT to like a game like this, but I have found that games that lack any structure I get lost as to what to do and then just get bored. I think I'm going to give it another shot anyway because I'm crazypants.

Octavious wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:01 pm I always WANT to like a game like this, but I have found that games that lack any structure I get lost as to what to do and then just get bored. I think I'm going to give it another shot anyway because I'm crazypants.

I'm the same way. Thankfully, NMS actually has a pretty decent structure, at least for the first few hours. Build this, now upgrade that, then create this, now fly here, etc. It's what made the game click with me, when these types typically don't.

I originally tried to play it before they adding any of that structure. I bounced around a few planets and then was like okay.... What next?

I'm much the same and there is much more guidance in the early game than there was on day one, but even on day one there was just enough to get me to continue the drive to the center of the universe. The loop of ship and multi-tool upgrades plus expanding my language understanding was enough to drive me forward. I'm still annoyed that I started a new game when I restart it last time. I hate losing all that vocabulary! I thought a clean start would be better. Fool!

I wonder if I have a backup of my save game from my old PC... hmmm...

The game went from "fun" to "I'm hooked" for me last night when I got caught a ways from my ship on flat ground with an approaching storm coming. Thinking quickly, I switched my multi-tool to terrain transform mode and dug a cave to shelter in until the storm blew over. My son thought that was the coolest thing ever.

My daughter had a similar "whoa" reaction when I allowed her to fly my ship off planet and into space. Even though she's too young to grasp the concept of "no loading screens," she instinctively realized how cool it was.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:52 pm The game went from "fun" to "I'm hooked" for me last night when I got caught a ways from my ship on flat ground with an approaching storm coming. Thinking quickly, I switched my multi-tool to terrain transform mode and dug a cave to shelter in until the storm blew over. My son thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't thought of doing that.

I would have never thought of it either had the storm not approached while I was digging up a Buried Relic.

That's like, Minecraft 101. It's night, no shelter.. dig a hole (and cover it).

For someone who bought Empyrion but has yet to play it, is NMS something worth investing in while it's on sale? Or just stick with what I have (and haven't played, but whatever).

Freyland wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:54 pm is NMS something worth investing in while it's on sale?

In its current state, I'd say yes, very much so as long as you like open sandbox type games with a few main quests and some side quests. It's kind of like a procedural Skyrim sandbox type game but in space (and less in-depth NPC interactions) with some survival and Minecraft elements. Some of the procedurally generated stuff in the game is really breathtaking so it's almost worth getting it just for the tourism aspect.

I was skeptical of the game on release and the big price so I waited until the 1.3 Atlas release and a good sale last year to get it and I am so glad I did. I really like it.

I restarted and just tooled around for about 30 minutes; it's like a different game (to me). The tool-tips, the menus/layout/crafting - it's all noticeably different. The improvements to the game world - the skies, the ground, the plants and animals, etc... (at least what I've seen so far), also quite noticeable. What a difference 2 years makes!

I loaded my old save, got in my ship and took off and got a message there was an incoming message... and no information on how to retrieve/accept that message. I looked through the controls in the menu and can't find anything there either.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 7:25 pm I loaded my old save, got in my ship and took off and got a message there was an incoming message... and no information on how to retrieve/accept that message. I looked through the controls in the menu and can't find anything there either.

X to open the quick menu, Q and E to cycle left and right, and F to select the communications option.

Thanks. It is coming back to me... slowly.

I only realized just now when I was trying to figure out how to repair my frigate that you can go aboard them.

I guess I’m in the minority. I find this game off putting for being too on the rails, and artificially limited in what you can accomplish before you do what they want you to. I doubt I’ll come back to it.

Fretmute wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:56 pm I guess I’m in the minority. I find this game off putting for being too on the rails, and artificially limited in what you can accomplish before you do what they want you to. I doubt I’ll come back to it.

I'm starting to feel the same way about the rails, but it's not bothering me so much. I've done two or three Warp jumps now - but spent a LOT of time harvesting resources to try and refurbish the ship I found. What's put me off is the repetitiveness. Usually I'm okay with it - but it's artificially bloated to make the game take longer than it really needs to. That's not a lot of fun. I'm like 9 hours in and still locked in a tutorial, but that may be entirely my fault for sandboxing more than chasing glowing dots.

Since I got it on GOG, I think I have 30 days to return it. I may keep it just because I got it on sale and the mindless cycle of build/harvest/build/harvest/build/harvest is kind of Zen. I've put it down for now because it's not what I was looking for right now.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:34 am I had more fun puttering around in this last night. Mostly gathering resources to repair my new starship, and continuing the main storyline.

Only thing holding me back is I'm starting to run into bugs. I'm sure it will be fixed soon, but they apparently broke freighter warping... every time I tried to initiate a warp jump with my freighter it told me the it needed fuel even though the tanks were full. I didn't try it myself, but I read you could still move freighters by jumping to a new system in your starship, and then summoning your freighter to the new system. As long as it has fuel it will supposedly come to you.

I also ran into an issue repairing my starship... I had partially repaired a couple of the components, but when I looked at those components last night they seemed to be showing the wrong thing when I zoomed into repair them, and it wouldn't let me do the repairs. Hopefully something they can fix, or else I'll probably have to trade the ship in for a repaired one.

Fixes posted, PC only so far though:

Bug fixes:
Fixed an issue that will restore more savegames for players who saved with partially repaired tech.
Fixed an issue where players who had partially repaired a piece of broken technology would have an incorrect item in the repair interaction
Fixed an issue where players in underwater bases played the wrong animations
Fixed an issue where freighters incorrectly reported they did not have enough fuel to warp
Fixed a crash in the base-building system
Improved garbage collection and reduced memory footprint of physics
Prevented occasional crash in animation
Reduce memory footprint of planetary textures from space

Paingod wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:05 am I've done two or three Warp jumps now - but spent a LOT of time harvesting resources to try and refurbish the ship I found.

Where/how are you guys finding ships? I’ve seen other ships in spaceports that I could potentially buy (once I actually figure out how to make money), but are there random ship lying around that you can just pick up and repair?

Also, do you have to be a certain level for the mission boards to become active in space stations? I’ve found a couple, but they don’t let me interact with them...just tells me “this person has nothing for you to do”.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:53 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:05 am I've done two or three Warp jumps now - but spent a LOT of time harvesting resources to try and refurbish the ship I found.

Where/how are you guys finding ships? I’ve seen other ships in spaceports that I could potentially buy (once I actually figure out how to make money), but are there random ship lying around that you can just pick up and repair?

You'll find them rarely crashed on any planet. If you find navigation data and build a signal booster to use it with I think one of the things you can look for will show you crashed ships.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:53 am Also, do you have to be a certain level for the mission boards to become active in space stations? I’ve found a couple, but they don’t let me interact with them...just tells me “this person has nothing for you to do”.

From what I've read each individual mission has a rating requirement with that faction. It might be that if you're too low for all of the missions it doesn't let you talk to them. Pretty sure I've seen plenty of missions with no or low requirements though, so keep checking.

Dang, forgot how long it takes... Loading... Shaders...

MonkeyFinger wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:26 pm Dang, forgot how long it takes... Loading... Shaders...

Reticulating splines...

MonkeyFinger wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:26 pm Dang, forgot how long it takes... Loading... Shaders...

My first Loading Shaders was so bad I had time to Google that the game was basically building itself for that first launch, populating INI files or something - not just Shaders. After that, my loads have been 15, 20 seconds.

Sepiche wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 1:15 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:53 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:05 am I've done two or three Warp jumps now - but spent a LOT of time harvesting resources to try and refurbish the ship I found.

Where/how are you guys finding ships? I’ve seen other ships in spaceports that I could potentially buy (once I actually figure out how to make money), but are there random ship lying around that you can just pick up and repair?

You'll find them rarely crashed on any planet. If you find navigation data and build a signal booster to use it with I think one of the things you can look for will show you crashed ships.

I randomly discovered a building with a navigation console in it. I had to "decrypt" it with a math puzzle, and then it told me where the ship was. A substantial upgrade over my starter ship, but I've spent literally hours trying to piece it together. If it was an even bigger one, it might be a 12 hour project.

That artificial grind in a single player game is kind of a turn off. I don't mind working for something, but I do get worn down by hours of repetition to accomplish what should be a modest goal.

Between this game and Empyrion: Galactic Survival, I think I prefer Empyrion. NMS has better visuals and dog fighting, but everything else is weighted in favor for Empyrion. I'm not sure I need two games so closely related when I've sunk 100's of hours into Empyrion and am already feeling the grind with NMS after 10 hours.