[Khellendros]

Malankazooie, on 07 August 2018 - 06:58 PM, said:

A reviewer that I trust said that with the latest update to No Man's Sky (is it called the NEXT update?), that the game is so much better that if it was coming out, as it is now, it would be in the GOTY discussion. She recommends playing on survival mode.

Her initial experience with the launch of NMS, was liking it, but that she lost interest quickly and stopped playing. I would like to play this eventually, but too many pending games about ready to drop and too little time to play them all. So this will probably have to wait until I play it.

Alanah Pearce? I'd definitely start on Normal if you have never played before. And the criticism she made about mining constantly is very much exacerbated by playing on Survival, where your support systems degrade much quicker. I tried playing on Survival but don't think it's for me - I like exploring and cataloguing all the wildlife, and there's just no time to do while you're fighting to stay alive every few minutes.

[Malankazooie]

Yeah, that's the one. She said normal mode is a more chill experience. Which aligns with what you said about having time to do cataloging. I think the survival mode recommendation is for players who initially tried it out but didn't get hooked in and subsequently quickly stopped playing.

My de facto game play is usually playing on the second hardest setting, because the hardest (usually called something like "Survival" or "Nightmare") is too frustrating, and is, imo, set aside for players who are doing a second or third play through and want more of a challenge. When I play NMS, I definitely will start on normal or whatever the second hardest setting is.

[Traveller]

(just sticking this in the right thread)

Thing is, once you have enough slots in your ship, you can fly around picking up the exosuit upgrades. Then you have your base, cargo storage, and ground vehicles to stuff things in, like all the basic fuel requirements. The suit hazard upgrades, and the mining tool upgrades use less fuel amd work at a higher % the more you upgrade, so the grinding aspect isn't so much of a problem after you get through the initial stages.

I like the balance - I harvest my farmed materials, manufacture the expensive components, and while they regrow I head out and sell them, check my fleet missions, see what new ships are about (as you never know when an exotic or S-class will appear) then head down to neighbouring planet to explore. Either on foot or in ship.
Sure, I'm collecting all the way, but there are so many weapon/ship/tool/base upgrades to get, depending on what you're doing, that there's always something to be busy with. Remodelling freighter interior.
Building massive new base. It reminds me of Minecraft in the way I'm losing time playing. And, also like Minecraft, I'm spending time when I'm not playing planning what to do next.
If there's one thing I'm not, it's bored. Depends on what you're after I suppose.

* I'll also add, once you jump a system or two from the start, you get to intervene in a battle. The commander of the freighter you save gives it to you for free. Once you have a freighter, you can start buying frigates. The different ships collect stuff for you - if you land on your trade ship, you get chromatic metal. If you own a support ship, it gives you condensed carbon (free fuel forever).
The missions you send them on also net you materials and units - while you're off exploring, building or whatever.

[Traveller]

Never spent so much time just taking photos in a game.

Last night I realised I still had a mission marker to activate a portal - about 5 systems back where I'd travelled from ages ago. And since they nerfed the farming somewhat, I fuelled up, and warped all the way back to see if I could progress the storyline. So glad that I did, as since Next, the universe has reset, so it's all new again.

Along the way, I found my first 'doomed' planet - made up of glassy hexagons, with weird geometric tree like structures.

The next system had the battle set piece, so I saved the freighter, and was offered it for free - but since I had already bought a freighter for 6 million or so, I was unable to take this A-class destroyer type for free! (I could have bought it for a mere 130 million, if I'd had the units, but it sucks a bit that I would have got it for free if it was my first one, and now I can't afford it). They'll be more anyway.

Onto next system. Found the planet with the mission portal. Its basically a Stargate; so I geared up and went through. To the most beautiful, mountainous landscape, with giant megafauna, dragonlike creatures circling above; just breathtaking. Up until now I was naming planets on an Iain Banks theme, but now I think I'll start naming planets after Warrens, beginning with Starvald Demelain.

I'd been totally happy messing about in my own system, with a base and familiarity, but a few jumps and you realise again how fun exploration is, and how vast the universe. This planet alone was worth the trip, it's like nowhere I've visited before. The updated scanner picks out every point of interest in the landscape too, from buried tech to monuments, so just running and jetpacking across the landscape is absorbing. The wildlife is so much better now too - beetles, giant crabs, the weirdest flying monsters, and 'sentient flora'. The descriptions on the scanner are all worth reading too as there are some great trait combos.

I feel like spaceman spiff.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 August 2018 - 08:54 AM

[Khellendros]

YES to the photos thing. It's something I hardly ever do in games, and yet I find myself taking a pic every ten minutes or so in NMS.

I'm in my second system now. The second planet I landed on was my first low atmosphere planet. Completely empty - lots of mineral resources, but no buildings, plants, animals of any kind. No clouds, it felt like being on the moon. And then I discovered that using the jetpack sends you rocketing upwards, and it really was like being on the moon

[Traveller]

Yeah I found a dead planet - I didn't land but it was creepy skimming across the barren surface.

Just fyi, don't go buying a freighter yet if you don't have one - you'll get a free one if you jump a couple more systems! (You can also reload and do the jump again to maybe get a better one) You might be able to get an S or A class if you're lucky, and save yourself millions down the line.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 August 2018 - 03:12 PM

[Khellendros]

Traveller, on 14 August 2018 - 02:50 PM, said:

Yeah I found a dead planet - I didn't land but it was creepy skimming across the barren surface.

Just fyi, don't go buying a freighter yet if you don't have one - you'll get a free one if you jump a couple more systems! (You can also reload and do the jump again to maybe get a better one) You might be able to get an S or A class if you're lucky, and save yourself millions down the line.

Yeah I haven't done anything barring what the game has told me to do so far - still rocking the original multitool, ship, etc. The only thing I've done is add a couple of extra slots to my exosuit and a bit of base decorating. I've just been taking my time exploring each planet, finding all the animal species and doing various side missions I come across. I've earned a couple of million units just by doing that (though I assume I'll need a lot more for the real good stuff).

Oh, speaking of side missions! I got one which was a bounty on a pirate. Our fight started in space and descended into a planet's atmosphere. We were dogfighting while low-level flying, and I was zig-zagging between giant rock pillars. It was fucking awesome!

[Traveller]

I played this from the beginning, seems like a long time ago now! Get scanner upgrades early - then everything you scan will give you units. On the discovery screen, upload all your finds, planets, flora and fauna etc for nanites which you need to buy upgrades.

(Put the upgrades in slots directly next to the tech they boost - a coloured border appears to show they are linked - you get higher bonuses that way rather than having them scattered)

The upgraded scanner will also help you find mineral deposits, buried tech etc.

[Obdigore]

Traveller, on 14 August 2018 - 07:41 PM, said:

I played this from the beginning, seems like a long time ago now! Get scanner upgrades early - then everything you scan will give you units. On the discovery screen, upload all your finds, planets, flora and fauna etc for nanites which you need to buy upgrades.

(Put the upgrades in slots directly next to the tech they boost - a coloured border appears to show they are linked - you get higher bonuses that way rather than having them scattered)

The upgraded scanner will also help you find mineral deposits, buried tech etc.

So on your ships and exosuit, you have general cargo and tech spaces to put stuff in. Right now all your stuff can have 3 upgrade modules on each screen, so you can actually upgrade stuff 6 times.

I just got my S Class 48+8 Hauler - Here is me happily returning to my freighter with it:

[Traveller]

Obdigore, on 15 August 2018 - 02:11 AM, said:

Traveller, on 14 August 2018 - 07:41 PM, said:

I played this from the beginning, seems like a long time ago now! Get scanner upgrades early - then everything you scan will give you units. On the discovery screen, upload all your finds, planets, flora and fauna etc for nanites which you need to buy upgrades.

(Put the upgrades in slots directly next to the tech they boost - a coloured border appears to show they are linked - you get higher bonuses that way rather than having them scattered)

The upgraded scanner will also help you find mineral deposits, buried tech etc.

So on your ships and exosuit, you have general cargo and tech spaces to put stuff in. Right now all your stuff can have 3 upgrade modules on each screen, so you can actually upgrade stuff 6 times.

I just got my S Class 48+8 Hauler - Here is me happily returning to my freighter with it:

Nice! You got the freighter I had to turn down too, but I'll find one yet - part of the fun. My A-class fighter has about 37 slots which is plenty for the moment. Still on the lookout for an S class or exotic, only seen a couple so far, back when I had no units to buy and you could only own one ship.

[Obdigore]

Yea my Fighter is only 20-something, but it looks awesome and came with an awesome name so I couldn't turn it down.

Honestly, with 6 shield mods and 6 phase beam mods, everything dies instantly.

I made a mistake with the Artemis Quest Line - SPOILERS FOR THE PURGE AND MISSIONS AFTER

Spoiler

I finished the quest and it moved me to a different universe, so I have to rebuild my base

I did have a stasis device farm for a while, so I made a metric boatload of credits, but after the freighter and the hauler, I'm down under 100mil, so I'll have to do some farming again. Still on the lookout for an S class Alien or Experimental Multi-Tool as well

[Traveller]

So at the end of the Artemis quest, do you have all the glyphs? And can you use portals?

I've only been through one but my home base is still on the teleporter list at the space station so looks like I can go back.

[Khellendros]

Traveller, on 14 August 2018 - 07:41 PM, said:

I played this from the beginning, seems like a long time ago now! Get scanner upgrades early - then everything you scan will give you units. On the discovery screen, upload all your finds, planets, flora and fauna etc for nanites which you need to buy upgrades.

(Put the upgrades in slots directly next to the tech they boost - a coloured border appears to show they are linked - you get higher bonuses that way rather than having them scattered)

The upgraded scanner will also help you find mineral deposits, buried tech etc.

Yeah, I played from Day 1 too, I know how scanning and uploading works I stopped playing before Atlas Rises came out, and have hopped back in with a new save with Next.

At the moment I'm just happy exploring planets, finding tech modules and expanding my base options (though I can't as yet afford/haven't spent time gathering many of the massive amounts of materials a lot of them need). I do want some kind of storage containers at the base to stash my stuff, but I can't seem to see any? Maybe just haven't unlocked them yet. There was one container that was labelled as storage, but turned out to just be decoration when I built it.

[Khellendros]

Have you guys also found that the network connection is almost always red? Although I only upload when I do have green, I'm kinda doubting that anything makes it, because it changes to red so often.

[Khellendros]

@Obdi: That is a beautiful shot!

[Obdigore]

Traveller, on 15 August 2018 - 06:16 AM, said:

So at the end of the Artemis quest, do you have all the glyphs? And can you use portals?

I've only been through one but my home base is still on the teleporter list at the space station so looks like I can go back.

Yes.

Planet portals are different than the space station / base portals.

You need the glyphs for the planet portals, which let you go anywhere.

Space Station / Base portals let you portal to any base you have or any space station you've visited.

[Traveller]

 IMG_20180815_211708.jpg (200.81K)
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[D'rek]

Post a picture of the space dragons circling overhead!

[Traveller]

New planet now; these are more like bugs than dragons but the effect is similar!

 IMG_20180815_222124.jpg (107.99K)
Number of downloads: 0

This post has been edited by Traveller: 15 August 2018 - 09:40 PM

[D'rek]

Cooooooooooooooooooooooool