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[Moghjubar]

In other news...

I'm actually surprised No Man's Sky didn't just shut the door, stop updating and move on to a new game altogether. I've seen so many early access games (and yeah, No man's sky wasn't early access I know) either get abandoned, or released to negative reviews and never updated again. I actually really thought NMS, because how much a disaster it was and how much bad press there was; would see maybe one or two updates at most and never again to see another update.

Instead they kept working on the game and made something "great" (if its the persons type of game that is). They really turned things around. Didn't even charge for DLC, microtransactions, loot boxes or anything else that almost every other game company does. Granted still probably won't be liked by everyone, and I have encountered stuttering (but performs well overall) but wow its so different than at launch.

Publishers often come with contractual obligations for game support for however many years. This may be one of those events where it was better to keep working on it in order to avoid contract breach, plus however much background negotiation and time table there was with features that were still in development at launch that were axed.

[Flying Dice]

What really turns me off on going back is the way Sean talked in the big recent interview he did where he totally abandoned any pretense of him or the studio taking responsibility for the fuckups leading up to and immediately after launch, essentially just shrugging and saying "lol people are always angry on the internet and it was just a product of bad circumstances".

[Lich180]

I think no matter how Sean Murray approached the subject people were going to throw hate his way. Better to say "yeah it happened, here's what we've done anyways". He could try to apologize, and risk the internet hate machine ramping up again, or let the past stay in the past and talk about the future.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[LoSboccacc]

Well Murray just came out claiming to be the victim, so there’s that.

He got lot of vitriol and abuse from the people he pissed, to be fair to him many crossed the line.

Anyway yeah having overpromised about everythin everyone just projected his idea of gameplay on it.

But still, the concept of a chill game is still interesting, nothing wrong with that. My real issue with NMS is that all the generated content is still extremely shallow. Sure the vista and the creature are magnificent, but having nothing under the veil just makes it a sort of slow incremental game.

This game really need a plot generator to drag me in. The lone explorer narrative can only keep me interested so far.

[etgfrog]

but having nothing under the veil just makes it a sort of slow incremental game.

From the looks of it, that has changed. There is a limit to sizes of ships and the sizes that shows up depends on the wealth of that system. Old ships that players have will still be there. So the only thing that is forever upgradable now is the exosuit.

[LoSboccacc]

well, the core gameplay is still that, find one more species, one more system, that's pretty incremental-y. you even have a prestige mechanic!

[etgfrog]

All games that have a near infinite "content" are that way. I guess I really cant see it being an incremental game because I don't pay attention to counting stats that much unless there something to be gained other then bragging rights.

[Flying Dice]

I think no matter how Sean Murray approached the subject people were going to throw hate his way. Better to say "yeah it happened, here's what we've done anyways". He could try to apologize, and risk the internet hate machine ramping up again, or let the past stay in the past and talk about the future.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Which is fair, but I think that trying to play the victim and act like they did nothing wrong is one of the most likely approaches to get people riled up again. It's certainly one of the least honest. If he'd actually apologized that'd have been less slimy and more defensible if people did get mad. "I'm not very good with media and got too excited, sorry guys, I messed up and we took on more work than we could manage," sets a very different tone compared to "I'm not very good with media and got too excited, but y'all are a bunch of mean hypersensitive spastics who should have known that when I said things were going to be in the game I didn't actually mean that they would be in the game."

 

As for the update itself, I'll test when I get a chance. The others didn't really do anything for the core shallowness of the gameplay loop. Still very much a puddle. If this new update had been the launch state I probably would have been okay with it and played for a good while, but the whole thing just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth at this point. As much as I hate to say it, this is the sort of situation where extended early access development can be beneficial.

[marples]

I've not spent too much time with the NEXT update, but the major changes I can see are a balance check and rebranding of all the basic crafting items, fleet operations, and more base building flexibility.

There are also changes to terrain generation, and general engine optimizations. Gone are the floating mineral deposits and extreme pop-in. Flora and mineral distribution feels a lot more natural.

The changes to crafting take a bit of getting used to, but mostly boils down to unfamiliarity with the changed recipes. The basic ingredients can also be condensed or diffused in quality.

Fleet operations are very similar to the fleets in Start Trek Online. You can now purchase frigate class ships, which you can send out on lengthy duration missions. Missions will have an overall theme such as combat or exploration, and the different types of frigate you can purchase will have qualities that are more or less useful for particular mission types. Once the particular mission is decided, you can choose which frigates to send on the mission, and then through the duration of the mission you will get updates on progress. It is possible a frigate will be damaged, and you get a choice to recall it or remain on task to risk more extreme damage or destruction. Damaged frigates need resources to repair, and you actually need to board the frigate to accomplish the repairs.
Frigates I've seen vary in cost from around 1 million for a C class, to 12 million for an S class. Mission rewards seem varied enough to cover most currencies, items and blueprints available through other means.

I haven't dabbled too much into the base building, but you are no longer shackled to particular plots, and can set up in much more appealing areas than in earlier versions of the game. Once a base beacon is placed, then all the familiar base items can be placed within its vicinity. You can even set up your base right next to an NPC structure. I'm pretty sure the available base space on freighters is way bigger now.

There isn't any major changes to the way the game actually plays other than multiplayer now being synchronous. You will still be doing the same tasks as previous iterations of the game.

[Folly]

Just over an hour into my first game, initial impressions are not great.

Like everyone else since the update, I spawned on a world with dangerous radiation immediately killing me. After scanning the GUI for tutorial instructions telling me to mine rocks, I began searched for rocks to mine, and did not find a single rock before I died to the environment. After respawning I began searching again and barely found enough ferrite to repair my scanner, scanned for materials, and got my radiation shield repaired just as I was about to die again. That mess could certainly use some tuning. But after that, and some awkwardness of getting used to the interface, I was able to finish the tutorial and get my ship repaired and fly to the next world without further gameplay issues. I've read that many other players are spawning on worlds with hostile robots; fortunately I did not encounter any.

My biggest gripe with NMS is that it is clearly designed for consoles, and got a sloppy port for PC's. Vertical mouse look is painfully slow, and there's no way to adjust it in-game. There is no push-to-talk option, and by default voice chat is turned on; I was talking to myself for about 10 minutes before someone else piped up and I realized that I had been broadcasting to everyone in my cluster. Many GUI elements can only be manipulated with the keyboard, where mouse would have been much more intuitive.

None of these issues are deal-breakers however. I enjoyed much of the exploration despite the awkwardness, and am looking forward to seeing more.

[Trolldefender99]

Just over an hour into my first game, initial impressions are not great.

Like everyone else since the update, I spawned on a world with dangerous radiation immediately killing me. After scanning the GUI for tutorial instructions telling me to mine rocks, I began searched for rocks to mine, and did not find a single rock before I died to the environment. After respawning I began searching again and barely found enough ferrite to repair my scanner, scanned for materials, and got my radiation shield repaired just as I was about to die again. That mess could certainly use some tuning. But after that, and some awkwardness of getting used to the interface, I was able to finish the tutorial and get my ship repaired and fly to the next world without further gameplay issues. I've read that many other players are spawning on worlds with hostile robots; fortunately I did not encounter any.

My biggest gripe with NMS is that it is clearly designed for consoles, and got a sloppy port for PC's. Vertical mouse look is painfully slow, and there's no way to adjust it in-game. There is no push-to-talk option, and by default voice chat is turned on; I was talking to myself for about 10 minutes before someone else piped up and I realized that I had been broadcasting to everyone in my cluster. Many GUI elements can only be manipulated with the keyboard, where mouse would have been much more intuitive.

None of these issues are deal-breakers however. I enjoyed much of the exploration despite the awkwardness, and am looking forward to seeing more.

Yeah, even on the normal difficulty it seems to set most if not all people on hostile worlds. I don't like that. I didn't choose normal to be on a hostile world (it was radiation or whatever toxic it was)

And my solar system I'm in literally has 0 planets+moons that don't have environmental planets. Maybe unlucky at that part...but tells me they may have greatly increased dangerous planets

That part is kinda ruining the game for me. I didn't choose survival, I chose normal which should be not survival lol

[IWishIWereSarah]

Yeah, No Man Sky still plays like a game in Beta, even though they upgraded the game content...

It lacks some basic things : you can only change your options when you are playing, with your character on a planet. so a friend who only plays with custom controls and joined my game to begin playing died 4 times (each time getting the "new game" animations while configuring his game...

[etgfrog]

That very long initial loading coupled with the 7 minute window to learn how to recharge hazard shield before you die...yes I can see how some people would have problems with that.

On a side note, I've been playing around with the large refinery. Some of the things you can do is a bit ridiculous like infinite chromatic metal.

[Finndibaenn]

related to this, any hint on how to obtain blueprint for the larger refinery ?

I've reached the point where i have created my first base, and wandering around quite a bit (trying to repair a crashed ship having 7 more slots than the basic one ... Not sure it was that wise, considering how many materials are required to repair).

From my understanding the larger refinery is required to manufacture a lot of the non basic materials (unstable plasma ?)

[Lich180]

Unstable Plasma you should be able to craft directly in your inventory. If I'm thinking of the right one, it's the item used to charge your Plasma Launcher.

The other blueprints for the base are from the Blueprint Analyser you build and place in your base. It then has you search out technology modules buried in the ground (that you can see with your analysis visor) and dig up with the terraforming beam on your multitool. The tech you salvage is used to unlock new base components and stuff.

Other craftable items (the ones you make directly in your inventory) are from manufacturing facilities. Those you find with a signal booster, or by asking for directions from an NPC.

Note, I'm going by what others are saying about the Blueprint Analyser, as I'm using a save from Atlas Rises and there's currently a bug that didn't give me the Blueprint for the Analyser. Should be fixed in the next patch though.