Gaming The Sky belongs to No Man

Ok so the first game changing patch has been launched today

Base building etc...

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundation-update/

Awaiting the download and will try to run out with it later today. Hoping for the best.

 

"The original chilled exploration experience"? ****, they're on to me.

 

Wow, thanks for this - I think this has sold me it!

 

So Amazon decided to offer this new for £24.99, at which point I opted for the Foul Ole Ron consumer solution: Buggrit, buy.

 

This is a hard one to talk of. It really isn't anywhere near as smart as it thinks it is and it has two banes in it. One is combat, it's crap, you have no chance against anything - get hit by pirates and your best bet is to leg it. The other is the 'let's stop the player doing anything' aka the Sentinels system. These things react badly to my trying to blast a door down, so they turn up and move so damn fast and hit so hard, the only way to do the damn door is really..... really..... re-ally..... sl-ow-ly.

Nor can I say I'm a huge fan of crafting to the degree they take it, but it can be fun. I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time in creative mode instead, but on games like this, it gets easier as it goes on because you get more upgrades and space etc.

The wonder of the game remains in the way you can take off from one planet and go to another, then to other star systems. I'm favouring the trading route, far more fun and much easier to get the resources. I can't I was a fan of the radioactive ****hole the game decided to start off in but that's gone now. Bye, bye ****er. Which is also a strength once you're out in the galaxy, one planet's crap? No problem, there's quintillions of others.

For £25 it hasn't done too badly for itself and should only get better.

 

As a player since day one who still enjoys the game.

I feel a little ripped off at £50 but as I can afford it I'll survive but yes it is a £25 game.

The add ons do improve it. Survival mode is just beyond brutal though.


Take your time and let the game hit it's stride, it is rewarding once oyu get into it.


That being said I am currently playing FFXV though

 

The last 24 hours I have engaged in game overkill despite not being able to get away with it like I used to!

FF15, Steep, No Man's Sky

Oh and you'll like this FB:

My trading interactions with no common language basically go: You items, me loaded!

Once I realised I could blast a ton of asteroids and flog the stuff at the station my bank balance went through the roof.

I'm not touching Survival, that ain't for me.

 

Survival sounds like an aggravating way to play the game but there's got to be... someone who enjoys it. Theoretically. I guess.

You nailed it on the sentinels, though. I stay the **** away from high sentinel activity planets for a reason.

 

Yay, this time had two pirate attacks and instead of the group that attacked and killed me before, each of these was a lone ship - which I blew the crap out of. Only just, my shield was wrecked by the end but I was still standing and they were spaced.

 

It seems like the Foundation update has gone a long way toward fixing No Man's Sky, maybe enough to justify buying the game at some point, but I still believe Empyrion: Galactic Survival will be the better game in the long run, since the goal of finding Empyrion is much more focused and less of a gimmick than the journey to the center of the galaxy leading to a new galaxy nonsense.

 

OK, note to self: Don't play No Man's Sky in the week at night time, it's a time sink.

Despite this, had a very cool couple of experiences:

Went to help a freighter under attack from pirates, between the freighter's fighters, its defences and me 5 pirates died and I got a very neat reward. The one thing they could do to really improve space combat, well combat generally, is the ability to auto-charge, of you have the resources.

Then got myself a base, built a few new sections of it, went back to space station, hooked up the teleporter, recruited a builder and who's now given me the ability to build my own teleportation beacons!

Very, very smart.

 

Kind of irritating on NMS - twice went to answer a distress call, killed pirate ships, then they sicced Sentinels on me that killed me. So after that, when it did 'distress call' my response was: Fra-ack you.

Managed to pull off a bounty ship kill too, have racked up my first million in the bank.

 

Glad i did not buy it, repeative planets (nice generated planets) but ehh...

 

I think expectations do govern much of how people responded to it.

It's also interesting to note how once tech raises the possibilities for games expectations can easily out-strip the new tech.

How many console games allow you to take off from a planet, fly to another one, explore the land mass or not, go to another sstem, or drop by a space station, explore that one and so forth? It simply didn't happen before.

If they keep adding content on the scale of the most recent update, it could end up becoming something far more.

 

The limitations of the game became very obvious today.

Repair a starship - nice idea in theory, except you don't have the parts or inventory space to really repair it so it ends up being a tease.

Combat in space remains awful due to the game deciding that a stray shot or two deserves an instant and irreversible death sentence by sentinels. It did this to me even after I took out a pirate ship, after the game said I was under attack. The planet sentinels also irritate by going ape**** over 2-3 shots on a steel door. If GTA worked like this the cops would be shooting people for swearing. That you cannot apparently kill any creature, even an aggressive one that is hell-bent on attacking you? Doesn't help.

The 25% hit on landing thrusters each time you take off from a planet, combined with only one fuel source, irks.

The way the game does distances, especially on planets, really doesn't help either. All that's needed is a set time, not one that changes depending on altitude or if you're sub-orbital. Sure, no loading screens, yeah but that's because it takes ages to get anywhere and the game really likes slinging asteroids at you.

In terms of trade, explore, base develop - it's OK, but outside of that? It's nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is.

It also shows up that yes, games do need the structure of a plot, something to motivate the player.

Maybe if they keep bolting on new material the original game will become something more, but for now, it's fair to say creative mode beckons. (Survival mode? Seriously? You're asking me if I'm going to try that? Come on, be serious, there's no way I'd ever touch it.)

 

So I made one mistake last night....

I booted up the Creative mode of No Man's Sky.

2 hours later I'm wondering how the hell it's gone past midnight!

Creative mode is basically God mode. You can't die, all resources refill you can even use what you don't have to build anything. So, boring right?

Well, it should be except in removing all the massive limitations of NMS' regular mode, this one is far more fun. For instance, planet exploration you can land and take off anywhere, but, in most cases, your landing thrusters will decrease 25% each time and only Plutonium refuels them. This tends to put a massive brake on your exploration but not in Creative mode. Which means, in that mode, you can really appreciate the scale and design of the planets - which is massive. With environmental considerations suspended, you can also look around without having to refill your hazard protection meter.

In short, it renders it perfect, chilled out fun - I went and blasted a gold mountain to ash, legged it with the gold to the nearest space station and flogged the lot for 440k units! Nor was that all got sold, racked about 600k profit from that trip.

 

So it's been a while since this has surfaced, but the update of "Next" has been released over the last few days and after the failed and simply dismal FFXV that I had been playing (since returned to FM2018 and GW2) I thought I'd give NMS another go as although foundation improved things it was still not quite there and was missing a lot from what was originally promised.



From what I've seen in the 10 hours I've played since the patch hit, the update seems to add in those remaining bits.

I have missions. Stand alone and procedurally generated ones at that.

I also have 3 possible story options open to me currently and I'm currently heavily into base building which is very unusual for me.
The Atlas and Artemis story are briefly on hold as a result.


The game is harder but also easier in some respects.



My eldest has watched me play for a lump of time on Tuesday and as it's now summer holidays, I can guarantee, that the missus whi is working from home tomorrow will have to deal with a 14 year old and 11 year old fighting over the same game as the youngest has been playing since day 1 and is far ahead of me on the run to the galaxy centre quest. ( the update has thrown her sideways a little though)



If you have it, but haven't played for a while I suggest you boot up and give it another go
If you don't have it, then it's well worth it as a discount purchase. PC is obviously far superior to PS4 but the PS4 version is OK as far as consoles go.



In a nutshell, its fun, harmless but makes you think and have to plan.






Oh, Portals now work. You have to find glyphs but they work.
Thankfully your ship follows you as after I went through my first and ended in a NIGHTMARE world of pain and death, I thought I was doomed and in a game over state until I saw my little ship icon.



I then legged it.

 

No Man’s Sky Next

Is this better? Yes. Does that make it the stunning, excellent game everyone wanted? No. It may get there, but this big step on the road is still a step on the road.

There are improvements like it gives me a distance to this abandoned building, but the size was nuts. The distance was 220,000km! In comparison, the circumference of Earth - thanks to Google - is just over 45,000km. So, it generated this massive planet but not to good effect - bigger was not better.

Combat was better - I somehow took out all three pirate ships that picked a fight, what also was quite cool was Vy’Keen ships also engaged on my behalf, so it wasn’t as one-sided as it could have been. They have removed the insane go to menu that covers screen, hit this to recharge whatever, but it’s still not as easy as it should be. What’s needed is a one-button ‘recharge’, not go into this menu, which while you’re in it, you can’t fire! It needs to allow the player to fly, shoot and recharge on the fly.

Did find the crafting aspect not as good as it could be in terms of what equals what and after touchdown and take off, launch thrusters are at 50% - the stuff to refuel them? I don’t have, so that immediately blocks the exploration aspect.

The biggest improvement is the ability to switch to 3rd person view, even with them burying it in options in a really odd spot. With that, the game plays far, far better - the dogfights I had were far easier with this view, similarly being on planets and in space stations.

I haven’t yet tried building stuff and may go back to Creative, as it avoids all the crafting crap the game gets hooked.

I still think they need to refine their engine further and I’m certain they know that too, but yes,this is a step forward.

 

So, turns out No Man’s Sky’s sentinels are still a gigantic pain in the arse.

However…

Having got near killed by a bunch that went full psycho in seconds because I shot a door, I legged it for my ship and then realised it might be worth trying something. Namely, taking off and strafing the base and that door until it blew in! And the game let me do this! Fecking excellent.

After that, I put down a base computer, worked out how to use the Refiner - not bad, bit odd but a good addition I think. The crafting is also easier - once you have one, you can easily generate more if you have the materials.

I then got a new base site and legged it over there. Cue my spending the next two hours doing various versions of a base, whacking up a pair of wood and metal structures and then realising I can actually combine the two into one super-structure! That’s for tomorrow.

What made it so addictive is they’ve made damn certain you can get the building materials easily, the same applies on the bane of the original game - launch thrusters. It’s far easier to refuel those damn things now.
So, you experiment, work out what you want to do, run out of material, get more and keep building.

At the same time I’ve a raft of missions that should allow me to get ship and suit upgrades - got a couple of tonight for the ship, but they remain untested.

It is quite the combination of features, which makes for a much better game though I’m convinced they’re not done.

 

Agreed, the new updates make the game so much smoother



I do really hate sentinals though. I've found a toxic planet as in extreme damage all the time outside with frenzied sentinals. I run the risk of getting killed within 2 mins of leaving my ship as either the weather or sentinals will swarm and the resources on the planet are worth bank.

so I've left and I'm mining chlorine

 

After this weekend I'm ready to declare Sean Murray an irredeemable crapbag, as is his game.

Why?

Incredibly **** communication and explanation in-game for one. It's beyond vile. Total inability to actually make clear what a manual save is versus autosave, as there is no manual menu save option in it. Then they throw in random crap to kill you twice in 5 minutes without warning, structure or reason. So, yeah, **** Sean Murray.

But today's session took the prize for taking the piss.

I've got this Hire an Overseer quest. It tells me to go the space station, when I land, it then switches to saying 'on planet'. I fly out, it's back in the space station. This is the unlock quest for the next phase of base building, one of the big things that drew me back to the game and it's completely ****ed.

The solution? Apparently, restarting from scratch might fix it. Why? Why would I be willing to trust a game that is so incredibly ****ed? I no longer have confidence in it. I'll keep it because it's worth **** all to sell, but ****ing up a quest of this nature is unforgiveable.

Apparently, it might be that you have to build the Terminal first but guess what? I have the materials but it still doesn't allow me to build it. One solution was to have a base of foundation, room and door. What difference does foundation make? **** knows because it didn't work. So, yeah, **** Sean Murray.

It's a damn shame, as I went to another system thinking that'd reset the quest - no such luck. In the process I defended a freighter under attack and it got given to me! And I can store items in it. Great eh? Except, the game doesn't tell this until you try to retrieve items, it's a one-way flow. You can teleport to, but not teleport from. So, yeah, **** Sean Murray.

I can't even be bothered to go to Creative mode because all bets are off, the game will doubtless **** up any quest at random, blocking me from the benefits. Why would anyone wish to play such a game?

 

I've never had any issues with any of those things


dunno, just lucky maybe

 

Well, that's nice for you but it should be uniform - and given the amount of posts about the overseer, it ain't just me.

Yeah, be suitably appreciative of your luck.

Apparently, if you progress the main story, it covers base-building, so maybe that'll fix but I shouldn't have to rely on that.

 

I agree it should be uniform, totally.


I'm not playing creative and I'll be honest that the issues you've raised I've read loads of times and it only ever appears to happen in creative.

I've not bothered with a creative game yet until I'm certain it's fixed though


It should work though It should totally work 100%

 

I haven't gone back to Creative, this is in the Normal game.

What's infuriating is I've actually got somewhere this time, now got a Freighter, base is quite nice but it's limited and it's blocking this big unlock.

I'm looking at this and wondering how they expect to win people back with the game doing this on starter quests.