Octopus Overlords

Yeah, I agree. They turned it into the game it was supposed to be ages ago, and then they kept going. Given the cult-level rage that had built up against them a few years ago, it's remarkable and an example of how to do it right.

I had the same thought this morning when I first saw the new trailer. Awesome work by Hello.

On a side note, The Last Campfire was a surprise release by Hello last summer. Also highly recommended, though totally different from NMS.

So i've been playing a good bit since the patch and the patch makes almost no different to how I play the game. I started a new character and am mostly doing the same things I always did. I've yet to stop to feed a creature. I likely won't bother with that until I find a more permanent home.

I will say that I was in the nexus while somebody was giving away billions of units of goods. I went on down to the main area and ended up with ~940 million units worth of goods popping into my inventory. If I'm being 100% honest, it kind of took the fun away for a bit, making me wonder what the point of continuing to play was... then I saw a cool player ship and decided I needed a cool ship and continued my journey.

I finally picked this up. I'd been looking for a crafting survival game for a while and nothing in my backlog jumped out at me (space called!)

First thought - did anyone else play Noctis? I played 10's of hours of that even though it had no plot, less variety, and no crafting to drive the exploration. I guess I simply like chill games when I get off work.

Which leads to the thought that I must play this differently from other people. Online people seem to think you will breeze quickly through the intro missions but it took me 10 hours to leave my first system. Some of that time was because I had found a local trader so I was took off to do some astroid mining and visit a moon. Even after I did the first hyperspace jump I went right back to the first system because it has a base with a landing pad which feels appropriate to park my trashed Hauler that I found at the end of the Awakening mission chain.

I don't see the 3 hours standing on a hill shooting rocks complaint as it is much more of a walking simulator to me. It almost hits the same itch as Skyrim with mining and crafting instead of combat after you walk to the next interesting thing you spot ahead of you. It has lead to some slightly dull treks back to my starship with a full inventory but sort of like the runs back to Whiterun it doesn't seem that bad. I have seen a mention of a building limit (per planet? overall? how strict is it?) and some mention of underground bases vanishing when you leave a system but I'm feeling the base building pull.

My one complaint is the janky spaceflight. I've only had one space fight but it was a painful twisting mess. Which might be for the best because if you could merge the planetary crafting and base building with the space combat of Rebel Galaxy I might never buy another space game.

Madmarcus wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 7:24 pm My one complaint is the janky spaceflight. I've only had one space fight but it was a painful twisting mess. Which might be for the best because if you could merge the planetary crafting and base building with the space combat of Rebel Galaxy I might never buy another space game.

I will note that different ship types and different classes have different handling so it that might be impacting your experience.

I don't know about any build limits. I never hit anything but I never really went crazy with base building.

Underground used to be more of a problem because there was a very limited amount of terrain deformation that was remembered by the game and it was FIFO so if you built underground and then did a bunch of mining your base could get buried. That limit still exists I think but was expanded significantly so most people wouldn't notice it. I don't see much point to underground building except maybe for style points.

I had some thoughts about underground for style points. Basically digging out a rough cave under my base and then putting a nice finished basement in. Like Minecraft building back in the day I find it sort of chill to build a base if I don't have to worry about build limits. Luckily it looks like the snap in place feature is better then FO4 once you put a decent floor down.

I really need a good long term storage solution so that I can take things out of my ships. I'd like to trade in my very damaged large hauler for something cooler and less damaged but even damaged I've managed to fill it with 15 slots worth of stuff I want to save.

Even though I had only landed on fewer then 10 planets I decided to install a couple of well regarded visual mods for planet generation and colors. Overall I like it but when I went back to visit my first base I found that all of the vegetation and minerals had changed! Fauna was still the same though. I think the new version of the planet is perhaps a little too lush in plant life (big lumpy plants that are getting in my way) but ok.

36+ hours and I'm still enjoying myself.

I did start to wonder about ethics though. I don't play too many of the destroy the terrain to gain materials type of game. Mostly Minecraft and no NMS. Minecraft got a pass because of silly block terrain but NMS gives me twinges of guilt as I strip mine and depopulate entire regions of valuable fauna.

The other thought that NMS inspires is why? Why is NMS able to pull me away from games. How does it draw me in even though I can see the limited palette of planets types and situations? The only answer I can come up with is that they have managed to make the game feel more living because it has organically grown. It is an MMO without all the pesky other people; I can raise pets, farm, command a space fleet, go dogfighting, build, search for rare materials, and even fish for interesting ships.

New Frontiers Update - alien settlements plus build/manage your own:

Looking forward to it.

That's... big.

Slight correction. You don't build your own town from scratch - you take over pre-existing settlement and start to manage/improve it.

I've started this game at least three times and have about twenty seven hours in it, but each time it just fails to grab me. Maybe after this update? Who knows. This new Frontiers update is free, right?

They've all been free. I don't think anything here is going to grab you. This looks like mid-late game stuff.

I would have preferred something that leaned into the space exploration side of things but a town is a nice thought for when I want to settle down. I suppose what this really does is make the hunt for pretty planets with good resources and interesting wildlife even harder as now you have to think about whether it has a good town.

Now you're not thinking with portals!

Nope; I haven't gotten into the Stargate portals yet.

Across the universe, planets have been blighted by the activity of Titan Worms. These colossal sandworms plough through the desert sands, blacking out the sun as they arc overhead, and defiling the very terrain with their cursed dust.

What a coincidence.

Another update, this one be focused on combat:

https://www.ign.com/articles/no-mans-sk ... date?amp=1

More is coming:

https://www.pcgamer.com/No-Mans-Sky-not-done-yet/

Another update coming, focusing on space combat and piracy:

https://www.ign.com/articles/no-mans-sk ... underworld

I've not played NMS as of yet, but I'll admit the glowing articles about this newest patch have me tempted. Anyone dug deeply into this as of yet? Would you recommend?

I haven't played the last two big updates, but I played the hell out of it just before that. It's a great game now if you're into that style of (mostly) sandbox. I was going to play it in VR (it has native support) a few months ago, but I couldn't get it to run worth a damn on my 2060 (it runs fine in pancake mode.)

gbasden wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:57 pm I've not played NMS as of yet, but I'll admit the glowing articles about this newest patch have me tempted. Anyone dug deeply into this as of yet? Would you recommend?

I loved it at release and it is about 12x better now so play it already.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 9:18 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:57 pm I've not played NMS as of yet, but I'll admit the glowing articles about this newest patch have me tempted. Anyone dug deeply into this as of yet? Would you recommend?

I loved it at release and it is about 12x better now so play it already.

Dude, that was entirely too kind of you! Thank you very much!

coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 9:18 pm I loved it at release and it is about 12x better now so play it already.

Watch out if you start right now!

The latest update did a ton with pirates but included the fact that ground locations will get attacked fairly regularly. Once you have a decent ship that is no big deal. At worst it is bothersome but it also comes with free loot. But if you are just starting I think it might be painful to have to keep running away. If your starting system is low conflict it would be fine but I don't know if the starting system is always low conflict.

Great game otherwise.

Edited to add that there is an experimental branch on Steam (code 3xperimental) that should fix the problem and most people expect it will be fixed next week even on the main branch so it is mostly a bother.

$21.59 on Gamebillet

Best price on a known site, Steam, is $29.99

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace Whales

The 7th No Man's Sky expedition, "Leviathan", finds Travellers trapped in a time-loop curse suspected to trace back to a near-mythical space creature. Join the community effort to help recover memory fragments, lost remnants of previous loops, and liberate the universe in this unique rogue-like survival adventure. Jam-packed with rewards, including the WhaleStalker Cloak, Temporal Starship Trail and, the ultimate prize, the Leviathan itself, an imposing living frigate to add to your fleet.

kind of looks like a Subnautica crossover.

Living ships called Leviathans? My first thought on watching it was Farscape.

I have been thinking about getting back to this. It's been a couple of years.

I believe the last time I played much was during the expedition that unlocked the Normandy SR1. So a yearish ago?

Fired it up last night for the first time in like 6 years (!) and I was amazed at how much has changed from the last time I'd played. So if you have it sitting around and haven't touched it in a while, give it a whirl!

Meanwhile...

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 12:36 pm Fired it up last night for the first time in like 6 years (!) and I was amazed at how much has changed from the last time I'd played. So if you have it sitting around and haven't touched it in a while, give it a whirl!

I just started up again last week for the first time in two or three years, and even then it's a completely different experience.

They've changed a few things since my last game that I really like. Beware of patch-notes level spoilers.

~Combat, both ground and space, has been completely overhauled. Ground combat has more 'oomph'. I know that's vague, but it just feels like a general improvement. It feels more like I'm firing at my enemies than like I'm mining them. I won't say that space combat has been challenging yet, but it's actually requiring a bit more thought, mostly due to enemies getting recharging shields. You have to on an enemy or their shields will go back up to full very quickly and you'll find yourself back at square one. That also makes high-damage weapons like rocket launchers more valuable, as it lets you drop an enemy fast once you have his shields down. You actually need to think about taking that shot of opportunity now.

~Freighters bases. You may not know this, but I like building bases. There used to be an exploit in No Man's Sky to allow you to get outside of the build area to increase your workable space. I forget what I had to to - something about going to the edge, placing a chair, placing a room, switching something quickly, and bam! You're through the wall. Now that isn't necessary. The base floorplan is still 21x21 squares, but they increased it vertically to 14 decks. I'm a base builder, and I have plans, but I can't even begin to figure out what to do with half of them. I really wish they'd give you an external view window option, though!

~I found a trick with a save editor*. ) You can use the editor to alter the model of your starship, frigate, or freighter (or your multitool.) Each model in the game combines a number of random factors. Starships might include wing type, nose type, color pattern, colors, etc. Those factors are saved as a seed. The save editor lists - and allows you to edit - the seed for your ships and multitool. All you need is to find a seed you like and swap it in. It doesn't change the stats, or change the class, or anything else. It just changes the appearance. It allows you, for instance, to have all of your frigates match the color scheme of your freighter, or lets you change the appearance of your fighter if you have one that's just right as far as slots and stats go, but is stubby and hot pink.

The same editor will allow you to unlock the Twitch drops and items from previous Expeditions that are no longer available. There are some really powerful options there, so be careful - but you can also do what I did and just unlock the cosmetic stuff - appearances, decorations, decals, etc.

*Disclaimer - I don't use this sort of thing to cheat or to give myself goodies. It's a game about exploration and discovery, about the journey rather than the destination, and it's too easy to ruin the game. But I do love digging into the theming and aesthetics, and the RNG in NMS is just too unpredictable to make it practical otherwise.

Oh, and one handy tool for freighter bases: Freighter Base Floor Plan. This is a spreadsheet (Excel and Open Document formats) that gives you an editable floorplan for all 14 levels. It's really helpful, as the game has you building bases in your freighter 'backwards (It's all filled in and you're carving corridors out, which means you can't see where anything else is as you build - or where the edges are.)