[Traveller]

I'm back for more.

Checking out a reddish lava covered planet that has a lot of gold sticking out of it.
I've only got around 600k at the moment so another ship is out, but I found one with 21 slots for about that which I might go for. It looks a bit like a cross between an x-wing and Serenity.

Couple of things I'd like to know - how do you get the access card or whatever it is that is needed to open some crates and doors? And when I do get one, am I going to return to my start planet to open stuff when there's a whole galaxy out there?

Also, can you rename your ship? Just curious, I can't see an option.

I haven't played enough to make a judgement on it yet, but coming back to it after a week or so I'm liking the open exploration, and the relaxed gameplay. The inventory menus still suck though.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 03 September 2016 - 04:52 PM

[Aptorian]

You can't rename ships.

The 1st level pass card was given to me by the aliens in the anomaly space station. Supposedly you can randomly find or craft higher level access cards but I never found out where or how.

[Traveller]

Bah, I think I've had enough. I think I might have just wasted two hours of my life on this.

Am I playing it wrong or something? I'm mining minerals to sell, have bought a bigger ship to hold more, and am flying from base to base, landing at occasional monoliths, shelters, alien bases and such along the way.

So far... all the bases are the same. Like identical, with even the same lights/chairs knocked over. Different tech is there, but still, it's pretty repetive. Even the spaceships are only ever one of three types, and I own one of them now. I'm on a fertile planet, and I have scanned all but one animal. One left.. on a whole planet. I get 200k if I can find it, but I really can't be bothered, I can't find the fucker anywhere, just stuff I've scanned already.

I was mining gold and selling it, which is pretty dull, but flying over the landscape there is tons of the stuff - I could do this forever.

It just feels like too much material with no purpose. Like being dumped in an infinite minecraft landscape, with a pick and a shovel, and being told that you can go anywhere and everywhere and dig forever, but you can't make anything.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 06 September 2016 - 05:22 AM

[Aptorian]

The point of the game isn't actually to spend a lot of time on any given planet. Not unless you find some lucrative resource or you want to scan all lifeforms.

You're meant to get what you need to refuel or upgrade your equipment and then continue on your journey towards the Atlas or the centre of the Galaxy.

[Traveller]

I guess I need to keep moving, it's a bit annoying to have rewards so close and yet seemingly unobtainable without spending a considerable amount of time on one planet though.

Is there a scanner upgrade or something that gives you a map of the planet you're on or is it all about just finding random stuff?

This post has been edited by Traveller: 06 September 2016 - 05:26 AM

[Traveller]

That was better I guess. I left the system, found a giant, forested but cold planet, and immediately found the formula for antimatter.

I like the new environment, water included,and the freezing nighttime temperature change; but again I've travelled to a new system and there are the same base interiors, same knocked over furniture and specimens on the wall.

It's kind of at odds with all the effort that has gone into making these different planets, flora and fauna, when every question mark on the map is a cut and paste camp.

I'm still on the fence about this game.

[Aptorian]

I've deleted No Man's Sky.

I had a lot of fun with the game but I can't be arsed to try and reach the centre of the galaxy. I'll sit down and watch a youtube video instead.

[Traveller]

It's a nice idea. It just doesn't seem to have enough of a reward to make it worth the time it takes gathering things.

Inventory full.

Atlas pass required.

[Garak]

I've seen a video about what's at the center of the galaxy. Umh, yeah .... not worth the effort imho.

[Traveller]

Garak, on 08 September 2016 - 05:04 AM, said:

I've seen a video about what's at the center of the galaxy. Umh, yeah .... not worth the effort imho.

I don't mind what's at the centre if the game is good.

[Garak]

Center of the galaxy spoiler

Spoiler

there's nothing there. The game just pans out to the edge of the galaxy and you start a new game, your ship crashed on some planet or other.

[Traveller]

Seriously?

[Khellendros]

Considering I'm currently still in just my third system after some 30-40 hours of play, it's going to take me a loooooong time to get to the centre At the moment I'm still just doing whatever the Atlas wants me to do, there was one brief mention of a pair of aliens (whose names I've forgotten) but no follow-up on that as yet.

I've established a pattern in my planet exploring now:

- Initially land at large outpost.

- Travel from question mark to question mark by foot until I've found every animal species and think I've found every rock/plant type (seems impossible to know for certain). Take lots of pretty photos along the way. This part can take anywhere between 30 minutes if there are no animals, to a couple of hours if there are, to almost ten hours on one particular planet where I couldn't find a final animal for ages. Turned out to be something I called a Kangahalf - because that's what it was. The head, neck, chest, and legs of a kangaroo...and nothing else. It had no back half.

- Find outpost with a starship call post (as by this point I'm usually around a 45-minute walk from the ship).

- Travel using starship to all the identified locations I've found during my foot exploration (but didn't go to) using the orange beam transmitters and from solving various outpost terminal code puzzles.

- Leave planet and travel to next one.


I've noticed a couple of things with the latest patch. For example, there are some new simple math/number puzzles at the outpost terminals.


I also seem to have an annoying glitch to do with temperature. On a couple of planets I've experienced higher levels of heat at nighttime instead of daytime, but at the same time my heat shield goes down during the day, but when it's nighttime and the temperature rises, it says temperature stabilising and my heat shield no longer needs to be used! On another planet it kept announcing 'extreme cold night temperature -75 Celsius', but the temperature was actually the same at night as it was during the day (-45C for both).

[D'rek]

Garak, on 08 September 2016 - 10:31 AM, said:

Center of the galaxy spoiler

Spoiler

there's nothing there. The game just pans out to the edge of the galaxy and you start a new game, your ship crashed on some planet or other.

A bit more elaboration, based on what I've read/seen around the web:

Spoiler

The centre of the galaxy has a giant black hole. When you warp to it, you get a cinematic of zooming out from that black hole all the way until you can see the whole galaxy, then the camera pans to the side to a new galaxy and zooms into a star there.

Then you "wake up" next to your crashed ship on a planet in this new galaxy. Everything on your ship is damaged, but you keep your inventory and upgrades.

There's no added difficulty or differences - as far as anyone can tell so far, everything is the same as the first galaxy. You can keep working towards the centre of each galaxy, and it's always the same thing once you get there.

The names of the first five galaxies are pre-programmed (Euclid -> Hilbert -> Calypso -> Hesperius -> Hyades) and everyone goes through them in the same order. After you go to the center of the Hyades Galaxy, the names start being randomly generated (usually gibberish like "knlusdnfsdbf").

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Glad I held off on this. Maybe someday will grab it for $15 or so.

[Malankazooie]

No matter how much hype a game generates (via E3 or some baddass trailer on YouTube or some gaming website), and no matter how much the visuals, game play, story, mechanics, et. al seem to be next level awesomeness; I always wait for reviews to come out.

I use a number of different reviews to make my decision. The reviews for No Man's Sky were all less then glowing. I've been burnt one too many times to purchase a title without checking my faithful reviews first.

I can see myself purchasing No Man's Sky when it drops in price, but probably not. It just seems like a glorified screen saver that has you grind for not a whole lot of payoff.

[Khellendros]

Malankazooie, on 08 September 2016 - 11:33 PM, said:

No matter how much hype a game generates (via E3 or some baddass trailer on YouTube or some gaming website), and no matter how much the visuals, game play, story, mechanics, et. al seem to be next level awesomeness; I always wait for reviews to come out.

I use a number of different reviews to make my decision. The reviews for No Man's Sky were all less then glowing. I've been burnt one too many times to purchase a title without checking my faithful reviews first.

I can see myself purchasing No Man's Sky when it drops in price, but probably not. It just seems like a glorified screen saver that has you grind for not a whole lot of payoff.

There is no payoff (unless you count the galaxy centre thing, which I don't know what it is, but I don't count it). There is no grinding either because there's no leveling up (other than getting more suit inventory slots).

It's just not that type of game. The 'payoff' as it were isn't something in the narrative, it's not an endgame goal to work towards either, it's the exploration of the game universe itself. What's the point of exploring? There is no point, at least no clear one. Unless you make your own objectives.

You either like that kind of game, or you don't. It happens that I do, and I'm hugely enjoying NMS (though of course it does still have a number of things I'd like to see improved/changed). And it also happens that there are huge numbers of people who won't enjoy this kind of game. That's fine too. But just because there's no end payoff doesn't mean there should have been one or indeed that there needs to be one.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 09 September 2016 - 09:41 AM

[Traveller]

A totally agree about not necessarily needing a strong narrative or even an end to work towards - but the game had to have a hook of some sort.

I'm happy collecting resources and upgrades when they open up new aspects of gameplay, and visually improve on equipment and ships etc - sometimes all a game needs is a good upgrade system to keep you playing.

I just haven't found that with NMS. The upgraded ship had a few more slots, which get instantly filled. Exploring away from the ship is fine until you get 'inventory full'. Exploration would be exciting if there was more than endless rolling landscapes with the same base/monument configurations in each system.

I just don't feel the urge to see what's round the next corner when it's all so similar.

[Morgoth]

I quite enjoyed NMS, but if there was one major lack (or two in combination really) it's interesting upgrades and actual rare metals. If some metals would only appear rarely, and only on certain planets, then I'd be much more likely to explore down those deep caves. The feeling of elation when you find something genuinely rare, like a major diamond vein in Minecraft (I dunno if that's even a thing anymore).

[Khellendros]

Morgoth, on 13 September 2016 - 10:32 AM, said:

I quite enjoyed NMS, but if there was one major lack (or two in combination really) it's interesting upgrades and actual rare metals. If some metals would only appear rarely, and only on certain planets, then I'd be much more likely to explore down those deep caves. The feeling of elation when you find something genuinely rare, like a major diamond vein in Minecraft (I dunno if that's even a thing anymore).

I agree, the crafting/mining system could be a lot deeper, and hopefully with updates it will be.

I was on a planet where I found some egg things, and as soon as I picked one up all hell broke loose as sentinels appeared from everywhere, including the giant bipedal ones that I hadn't seen before. It was the closest I have come so far to dying - I had to blast my way into a cave to escape them.

Some time after that I landed on a planet which experiences extreme toxic storms, which was quite a dramatic sight.