Gaming The Sky belongs to No Man

Damn, got a load of very cool components that on their own were worth a fair bit. Combined the lot with other stuff and whacked the value way up. Sold the two lots of items and the result was? About 11m units.

 

So just wasted a load of time trying to do a load of quests in No Man’s Sky where every single one was bugged as ****. It was beyond a joke, get location, warp to system - when you can select it because NMS’ 3d galaxy map is crap - no location indicator. Tried different quests, same result.

So, I’ve gone with the ‘screw you all’ and abandoned all the missions. Missing person? They can stay missing. Raid depot? **** off, you don’t count it if it’s by starship. Bounty? **** off, you don’t pay me for them. Haulage? More often total crap.

So, with NMS’ having gone and razed a good amount of my interest to the ground, all that’s left is base building, getting new craft products and racking up the cash. That’s OK I suppose, but would be better if its missions were actually reliable and not buggy crap.

 

So, after the crappiness of Tuesday, I've focused on grabbing product recipes, base building and slagging the odd pirate here and there:

• The second base now covers a good part of the beach while being a two-level complex with landing pad, roamer exobay and an initial biodome, plus circular room. The tech outfitting is mostly done with the large refiner and trade terminal active.
• Got tired of having to go from the main base to the automining devices, then realised I could establish a mini base around the resource, add in a stargate, hook that up to the network and just warp to collect the mined resources. Built that today.
• Raided a few factories, got 5-6 crafting recipes, including a couple of quite major ones.
• Think it'll be time to start building up one of the new ships as successor to the initial craft. Something that I can really whack up the shields and guns on, which I can't do with the initial craft.
• Up to 41m, so slowly closing in on the funds to get one of the big super freighters.
• Also found two planets in one system that are very nice, both are perfect for bases - just have to decide what kind - haven't yet done a mountaintop set-up.

 

It was time, I swapped out the starship, grabbed one of the C-class ships I had, went to a station, bought a B-class by exchange then nabbed an A-class fighter! I then spent some time tracking down 3 S-class shield and 2 S-class cannon upgrades. Plus an S-class engine upgrade too. With the lot installed, I then tested out the new ship on a pirate. Damn, it was fast and it really packed - and could take - a punch.

Did a load of missions to restock the nanite supply, continued to expand base 2, Ankh-Morpork, while I created and deleted a base elsewhere. Strangely, even if you delete a base, it still remains as a teleport location.

Went from about 38m to almost 46m, still some way off the 85m I'm after to get a really flash freighter, but getting closer. If I cashed in some of the stockpiles I probably have that, but each of those stockpiles can become x10 in value if I nab the right crafting recipes.

Talking of crafting, managed to do a couple of high level refiner recipes - which in turn opened the door to the Plasma Grenades weaponry. To understand the sweetness of the sentinel vengeance I enacted, you must understand the quadruped sentinels are a pain in the arse. They get healed by the flying ones, they have a bloody great laser, thus they truly deserved what they received. Granted, it had had 2 S-class upgrades added, but I still didn't expect it. I sent a plasma grenade at the sentinel dog, it exploded - and so did the Sentinel! One shot, one kill - time to jump back in the starship and leg it out of there.

By doing this and a number of delivery quests I had the items already farmed for, I racked up 1000+ nanites and a couple of million units in payment.

Also did a long, multi-stage jump sequence of about 7-8 warps. So that's given lots of systems to explore, some good new planets and missions, plus the main storyline Final POrtal mission has come up.

 

So, turns out that, in No Man’s Sky, you can only have the one freighter. You can up to 50 frigates, but not multiple freighters. This actually gives me a more discernible end point, in that when you offer to buy a freighter it’s always as part exchange. The biggest I’ve seen go for 85m units and I had 46m as of last night. Then I flogged a load of stuff and got it up to 52m, after today’s session it hit 65m, so getting much, much closer.

Partly due to flogging some high-value items, as despite raiding manufacturing facilities and operations centres, the game has become stingy on its crafting recipes. Since I have about 30m worth of stashed goods, I may flog the generated high-value goods from the farming, which regenerates daily, and can nabs me 4-5m a time.

The other satisfaction has been in kitting out the new starship. There is a limit of no more than three upgrades per device, but, if you have a separate section, like say Technology, the rule does not apply. I’ve used this to seriously amp up the shielding and cannons and it’s really paying off. So, current activity is doing missions to get the nanites to buy the S-class upgrades for cannon, shield, pulse engine and hyperdrive - not to forget, plasma grenades upgrade for the multitool - still one to go.

Reached the top rank for Vy’Keen standing, reaching the higher tiers of the guilds, which open the door to more lucrative missions.

I’ve also got to the end of the story missions, well, it sounds like it - haven’t yet gone there.

Started a new base on a side of a mountaintop on a, no joke, Paradise Planet - it could only have one fitting name, Bond Villain HQ, thus it was so. I’ve also added storage to Base 2, plus a couple of landing pads, suspended above a lake no less - landing a ship on one of them looks damn cool. Probably be only exceeded by the ones I’m going to stick on base 3. (And, of course, the entire are linked up to the stargate network),

It is quite satisfying doing stuff on a planet that you have a base on, then flying back to it and as you descend, you can see the full extent of what you’ve built. Clearly, in this respect, bigger is better.

 

The quest for the elusive S-class continues, but I did upgrade my A-class fighter to a far better A-class, with 38 slots! And it only cost me about 45m units, but the amount of stuff I can do with this new one is through the roof - the old one was as developed as it could go, this one is probably never going to use all its potential. I also upgraded my B-class Battlestar to an A-Class Star Destroyer Freighter - and for only 30m, still in search of that S-Class Dreadnaught, but that may not be a bad thing as I need to rebuild my funds after tonight’s spending spree. Which included initial cannon, shield and hyperdrive S-class upgrades and other tech additions for the new fighter.

If I find a station that has good fighters turn up regularly, I’ll bring in the freighter and try and upgrade the other four C-class ships I still have.

 

Quite a run tonight:

• Got the Quantum Processor crafting formula, which in turn allowed me to craft two Stasis Device and flog them for 32m! Still need the formulas for Iridesite and Geidesite before I can start mass producing Stasis Device or Fusion Igniter. Crafting this level of product demonstrates the thought that went into this crafting system - at the start, it sounds insane that you could craft something worth 15-16m on its own, but by the time you can do it, it makes sense.
  
• Got access to some Rank 8 missions - did a Freighter defence, went out, found it, killed three pirates with my Deathmobile of a starfighter - although given it's bastard disposition towards pirates, maybe Starr-fighter would be more fitting - got paid 441k.
  
• Still need to get some upgrades, but the ones I've got are proving excellent - don't think I'll be trading this fighter unless something spectacular turns up.

 

Wow, hell of a good run tonight.

First, I did some serious building on Ankh-Morpork (base 2), really like how it turned out.

Next, having spent ages trying to find a tech merchant that sells S-class pulse engine upgrades, I hit two systems in sequence that do! So I bought three of the things, the ship is boosted and I can still get three more! Not only that but cannon and shield is maxed - it's a great little ship.

The one negative was trying an 'assault the freighter' mission, as it doesn't tell you which one to hit. Plus the game throws sentinels at you! Which is practically a death sentence. In contrast I'm far better at freighter defence.

Finally, I found the crafting formula for Iridesite. This is a big deal as it was the last piece of one of the big, super-cash devices so tomorrow I can start mass-producing the things and then flog them for a crazy amount of cash!

 

Finally worked out how the Freighter Rescue missions work: Each system spawns one unique type of Capital Freighter, you fly in, kill the pirates, but the ship class can vary. So, I did it a couple of times - first one gave me a B-class vessel, the second time it was A-Class. By the same mechanism you can run the dice rolls until the you get S-Class and the number of slots wanted, but it’s still partly luck.

Even so, by this method, I nabbed myself an A-Class Imperial-Class Capital Freighter for 13m units, as my existing freighter covered the 90m rest of the cost. Kind of a shame I can’t own multiple freighters and build a fleet of Star Destroyers - then again, this is damn cool:

 

So, I was wrong about my freighter - it was not the Imperial-class aka medium-size, nope, it’s a Dreadnaught-class super monster, different colour but same type as this:



The one potential problem this gives rise to is: Do I stick with, as it’s an A-class ship, or continue chancing for the very elusive S-class? Thing is, freighters overwrite each other when bought, so there’s no point building an elaborate freighter base until I have one that I won’t change.

EDIT: A short while after typing the above, I rolled the dice a couple more times and, on the ‘last try before I give up’, I found what I was after. Not only was it an S-Class dreadnaught, but it was a 34-slot version, the max number they get. It cost me, even on a part-exchange basis, 106m units.

In response to that, there was only one thing to do - I offloaded 5 stasis devices and 7 fusion igniters (I still have 30 in storage to crash the galactic economy with) for about 212m units.

What does this open up in the game? Building up the ships, building a freighter base properly, building the fleet - I have 3 frigates, I can recruit up to 50.

 

Well, with just under 200 hours, I'm around the 190 mark, on the clock and a moderate Freighter base built, 5 planetary bases of varying nature, all Exocraft got and fully kitted out, nabbed my first S-class ship earlier, a S-Class, max 34 slot, max size Capital Freighter, a fully kitted out pirate-killing A-class fighter Darth Vader would be envious off, a kitted out S-class Multitool and the crafting recipes to enable 15m value items to be crafted, but I already have 313m in the bank and the 30 odd of these items would give me that 2-3 times over... I think it's finally time to pause playing this.

Sadly, there are no Freighter Hyperdrive upgrades yet. The Freighter base building is too restrictive compared to the planetary options. And missing the opportunity to place large windows or forcefields in the Freighter base so you can see the stars is just criminal but, who's knows? In time that may well happen as Hello Games keep adding stuff on, week by week, month by month.

So, the new stuff I finally saw as worth doing wasn't quite what I hoped. At the same time I've visited or warped to about 80-90 systems. The main plots of the game are done, save for the 'get to the centre of the galaxy' but I'm sceptical as to how worthwhile that is.

The frigates? You send on expeditions, they bring stuff back - probably of greater use and value when you don't have 300m in the bank. For all that building that fleet sounds good - and it's apparently 30, not 50 frigates - again, it's limited.

The new stuff they've done on the Exocraft is excellent - you build them all on one planetary base, you build summonng station elsewhere, base or no and you can warp any of the vehicles when you want to. That will change the game in a positive way for a lot of people, much as the Next update did. Another small but excellent change is if your base has a landing pad, your ship gets placed there automatically. Doesn't sound much but landing pads launch your ship for you so saving thruster fuel.

So yeah, there's a huge amount to explore, but I don't think I'll be getting much out of it because I've pretty much done it all. At least for now. And I do have a few other games I either need to return to or start.

It is going to be interesting to see what else Hello Games adds on to ths over time.

Stuff that's left? Well, there's building a racetrack for exocraft, but that can wait. I did have another unrealised base design, that can wait too. Would be good to build a cuboid base, but don't feel any pressing urge to do so. No, it's definitely time to put this one on pause.

 

I almost finished with No Man’s Sky. Had found a booming system, had found a station that had a semi-regular supply of S-class ships, even bagged my first Exotic ship - flying that back to the freighter was hilarious because there’s way it’d ever get through the door!

Cracking the secret of how to find S-class starships and exotics was the last real thing left.

Then, they dropped version 1.70: No Man’s Sky - The Abyss. Which is? Ocean exploration and construction! Yes, I have a base with an aquatic section but it’s imperfect and, with all the new stuff they’ve added, it’s going to now get a severe remodeling. It looks a huge amount of fun, haven’t yet tried the new swimming controls as it only installed about 20mins ago - I’ve unlocked some base parts, that’s it.


And the entire thing, like the other pieces, is free.

 

So, having started on glassing the tenth base I have on No Man’s Sky, having got a near-complete collection of S-Class ships, freighter and a now pretty decent fleet, I had mistakenly thought I was getting to the end of it all.

Granted, there are the other Exocraft to fully upgrade and there’s those last two S-class ships to get, but this is small stuff.

Then they dropped this update news today:



A pile of free, new stuff that sounds quite, quite excellent.

So, looks like I’m going to be sticking with it a bit longer - did I mention I’ve an idea for an 11th base on an overgrown planet? Idea is to do a pyramid above treetops, with a single glass tube access from the ground.

At this point, with the amount of stuff they’ve added, particularly since July 2018 - because that’s where the game really, finally came together, it’s beyond what they infamously claimed way back before launch. At the same time, their journey from sinner to saint has been marked by the major game industry companies engaging in ever more dodgy cash raking antics.

I first noticed it in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, right there on the options menu there’s this not at all subtle ‘buy XP for cash’ option. Entirely voluntary you understand, right? Jump forward to Origins and there’s a full in-game shop, jump to Odyssey and the shop has been expanded and now includes an XP booster! And I can’t help but look at all this and consider that my purchasing either, even on the cheap, would be endorsing these dodgy antics.

At the same time the random mechanics that made NMS seem weird two years ago have since become mainstream, with loot boxes taking that to new depths of infamy.

In this environment, Hello Games now looks far, far better than they were.

 

Going to get back into this in the next few months. My son is still curious about it from pre PS4 lightning fry back this past August descriptions.

I will have to start over though instead of getting back with original run. I have forgotten how to play.

 

Man this game at times(landscape) is just gorgeous. Other times(lifeforms) it’s just cringeworthy. I’m back playing and loving it. Restarted from scratch which I’m very happy with as I got a stable planet (minus the 2 super heated rainstorms I’ve had to duck) practically right off the bat so I wasn’t having to juggle environment protection systems on top of life support systems.

 

Almost 40 hours of gameplay and I still have very little clue what I’m doing but I’m loving doing it. I don’t like the controls changing on this Beyond update though. I keep messing up with old patterns.

 

Until they sort out the power bull**** NMS is dead and I can't recommend it to anyone.

The good news is that the last couple of patches have rendered the game far more stable.

The bad news is the increased stability only emphasises how badly Hello Games wrecked its 1.5 accomplishment with this 2.0 version. The primary problem? The power system. Opaque, counter-intuitive and farcical.

Why farce? You have spaceships capable of interstellar flight, instant base replication so of course the tech your base uses is a wired power grid! Not only that but the level of resources needed for fuelling just one biofuel reactor is sky high. It renders the entire game far more grinding than it was before. Nor does the system make sense - I go and access a set of 12 solar panels generating 600 energy units, it says it needs 130, but also says overloaded. **** knows why. I think you have also have sufficient back-up but it's not at all clear. You also have to manually run actual wires from point to point - it looks hugely ugly. You would think future energy tech would be both wireless and self-sustaining, but nope.

In addition to this, landing pads can no longer be attached to the side of buildings. Which removes a huge part of the fun of base building. Oh and the new sizes don't line up, so good luck adjusting your base after your landing pad got ripped out. And the one thing they should have fixed, the base building camera, they didn't. Oh, there's new options but whichever you choose will be crap. It does this thing now where, instead of green place lines, you get green and blue but it doesn't explain the point of the blue lines, which in turn muck up your vision. It's as if they saw too many people having fun.

For anyone coming into the game new, find electromagnetic hotspot - build your base there, as then you can use EM generators that don't need fueling. But again, this undermines the whole 'build anywhere' appeal of the base building v1.5 enabled.

 

I don't know what you're talking about with the power thing since I haven't played again. But my brother started a new game when Beyond came out and is playing it a ton and loving it. He's apparently set up an automated mine that's giving him tons of money every hour.

 

Which does sound kind of cool.... except I've 895m in the bank.

With a tutorial to guide you through it, maybe the power stuff can work - but grafting it onto a massive base, with power requirements to match ain't great.

 

Took quite a bit of doing - a whole lot of blasting trees and rocks, blew about 8 million, but do now have all 10 of my current bases - from dedicated compact mining resource ones to full on cities you can almost see from orbit - fully powered up.

Turns out you can place solar panels inside prefab rooms - a large circular or square will take eight, but circular is best because you glass panel the walls to max the available light. After that, you stack the panels in, hook them up to each other and to one of the room power points. You can then repeat this with another floor - on the big bases there is a tower of about 4-5 floors of these.

Combine this with a couple of ground floors of batteries, with everything linked up and you'll be generating power enough to cover day but also night via the batteries.

What's particularly good about this method is it has few wires. It looks suitably futuristic.

 

Time to return to this as they've done a major space update - story missions, living ships added:

https://www.nomanssky.com/living-ship-update/

 

I have

Spoiler

the Normandy

in No Man's Sky!

Now, the road to getting it, for which you have seven days left to grab it is, frankly, a total mess. If you trust the game to tell you what you need to do and the order to do it, you will not complete this in time. There are a few random, luck-based quests that are utterly abominable and should not be in this expedition quest line. So, check out speed run videos, use the internet and you have a better chance of success.

My tips:

• Look ahead at the other pieces and claim as you go, for it is not strictly linear.
  
• The first rendezvous point is confusing and hard to understand how it works. You can fly to them, you don't have to go by foot - you're looking for a portal. This trick is particularly good for the very crappily designed Rendezvous 3 - after doing that one you'll be thinking the next two are much harder, but they're not.
  
• The interstellar rescue mission in Phase 2 is rubbish. Go to the Nexus and pick up a multiplayer mission, you'll need to be able to kill 8 corrupted sentinels at the end and remember to use the data decryption in mid-air, off planet, or it won't work. The game will not tell you this. Doing it this way will stop you going through the navigation data like I did, which you need later.
  
• The find 10 uncharted systems bit in Phase 4 is utter bollocks and is very much luck-based - as the map does not indicate dioscovered / undiscovered systems.
  
• Getting the Myth Beacon in Phase 5 requires 80 quicksilver, the game gives you 45! Try doing more readings at ruin sites, probably be easier than the Nexus missions I went and coasted on, with the other players doing the work.

Is it worth it?

Spoiler

If you're a Mass Effect fan, then yes, the finale is very, very smart. The line "the call was given, the call was answered" is very Shepherd. And then heading over to my main save and adding the Normandy to my fleet is very satisfying.

But the road to it is frustrating and unclear and I can see a lot of players wanting to try this, being entirely new to the game, thus they trust it and get screwed over. Making it time limited isn't very cool either. I think Hello Games have seriously misjudged it.

In narrative terms, much of the gameplay asks do not work. If you are doing a rendezvous you don't tell people to manually search for it and you wouldn't do one on a world of hostile sentinels. Similarly, if you have the interstellar rescue selected the crash site spawned should always have a pilot, not be RNG luck based, while using finite resources for each roll around. Save scumming? Very much required, especially on getting those 10 uncharted systems, which'll get harder and harder to do the more people complete this.

Oh and switch off multiplayer, it makes the game more stable but not completely stable. Over the last 1.5 days I had four game crashes - which is more than a little high.

 

Booted this up once more as the Prisms update not only had its announcement trailer a few hours but that update has also released.

Visually, it is pretty damn smart. It is a major change, especially for playing on the new consoles.

They have also altered one of their best sounding but worst to play quests - that for the organic ship.. It was this dumb set-up of you having to manually find the coordinates, but they would only display in first person view and were incredibly unstable. It was awful. Now? Now they've done what they should have done, set it as a fixed location, with you tracking down the exact spot once you're in the general area. That works - I have the first part, might have a chance of actually being able to access the one bit of content I wanted to, but couldn't.

 

What a huge difference going up into space is now. I loaded up while updating just to see some of stuff and yeah when I got done I booted up Prisms. Very apparent change.