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No Man's Sky "Path Finder" Content Update announced

Fedele

Member
With 1.23 out, can anyone say (who plays on a PS4 Pro) that the game no longer sends the Pros fans into meltdown mode whenever you go into the menus or navigate the game in general?

I'm wondering if the new fps unlock switch, or lock at 30 fps switch helps or makes it worse?

Hm I've never experienced this issue to be honest. Playing on Pro, video output scaled down to 1080p so the game is locked on 60fps most of the time - that's an awesome tradeoff for skipping (not so) 4k textures.
 
Yeah and I need them badly. My farmer and technician are busting my balls about resources only found in red/green systems :-(
Can't even remember how I got them pre-update(s) on my normal save.

You used to get them from factories and from Polo. I think the only way post-Foundation might be to get them from Polo.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
Yeah and I need them badly. My farmer and technician are busting my balls about resources only found in red/green systems :-(
Can't even remember how I got them pre-update(s) on my normal save.

Yeah, I got the Sigma pre-pathfinder so I could get Rubeum. But the Tau I need for viridium i cant find now.

I guess i could find a ship with it already installed.
 
That's as I expected from the patch notes. They aren't targeting 60fps, they're optimising 30fps. It just isn't worth a 15fps boost when they need to solve other performance issues.
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
When you use 1080p on the Pro, do you need to put your PS4 in 1080p? I'm watching a streamer and he seems to have a lot of pixel crawl on the lettering in the menu.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Are Atlas v3 cards really just a blueprint to be "discovered"? I've been to 70 different systems at this point and I've seen neither hide nor hair of either the v3 or the v2 card.
 

NotSelf

Member
Are Atlas v3 cards really just a blueprint to be "discovered"? I've been to 70 different systems at this point and I've seen neither hide nor hair of either the v3 or the v2 card.

I found both in the Operations Centre last year I think v3 took me one or two weeks to find.
 
Are Atlas v3 cards really just a blueprint to be "discovered"? I've been to 70 different systems at this point and I've seen neither hide nor hair of either the v3 or the v2 card.

I got my v2 just recently from Polo. I read that you have to complete all of his quests before he'll give you the v3. They're hardly worth all the work though.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Thanks. I'm not too concerned about it, just struck me that I've seen just about every other blueprint at least a dozen times over by now, that maybe I might be doing something wrong.
 
Is there any way to shut off the quest notifications for building a base? I built my whole base after the last patch but I keep getting popups saying 'build a straight corridor!' etc.
 

Nerix

Member
You used to get them from factories and from Polo. I think the only way post-Foundation might be to get them from Polo.
I would like to know why they changed that. Would be better if you could get them also from factories. Now I only get useless stuff from factories, most of the time I don't bother visiting them anymore. Is it possible to get blueprints you already have?

If this list is accurate (http://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Polo#Rewards) you get the Theta drive as the last reward from Polo. I have everything on that list, except Planet Zoology Scanned... I have ZERO planets, and it is the most annoying thing ever. It takes hours and to find the last species is a pain in the ass... I doubt that I am going to get that to Lvl 10.

Is there really no other way to get the Theta warp drive?
 

OmegaDL50

Member
So I just started a new game...again.

I wasn't satisfied with my recent save and started over.

My old save from launch was pretty far into the game. I did the full Atlas quest line and at a 24 Slot Multi-tool, a full 48 slot exosuit. Basically almost max everything.

But with the recent inclusion of base building and ground vehicles I wanted to clean the slate more or less.

My starting planet is high vegetation. Green grass, blue skies, very little hostile alien creatures, which would make it an ideal home planet to build a base on.

How is it determined if a planet is suitable for habitation to build a base?

Is it entirely random. Because the last planet I ran into that had a Base was a dead rock which didn't look very appealing.

Do I just keep wandering to Green Question Mark points until one of them is an actual Base?
 
So I just started a new game...again.

I wasn't satisfied with my recent save and started over.

My old save from launch was pretty far into the game. I did the full Atlas quest line and at a 24 Slot Multi-tool, a full 48 slot exosuit. Basically almost max everything.

But with the recent inclusion of base building and ground vehicles I wanted to clean the slate more or less.

My starting planet is high vegetation. Green grass, blue skies, very little hostile alien creatures, which would make it an ideal home planet to build a base on.

How is it determined if a planet is suitable for habitation to build a base?

Is it entirely random. Because the last planet I ran into that had a Base was a dead rock which didn't look very appealing.

Do I just keep wandering to Green Question Mark points until one of them is an actual Base?

It seems that scanning from space and finding a habitable base waypoint is as random as getting any of the other waypoint types (abandoned building, resources etc.), but I'm not sure.

However, you can build a signal booster on any planet and choose the option to show you a location to a habitable base, which will then basically spawn such a location on the planet you're on (pretty much like it spawns the other important structures). Although, I've seen people having problems with the signal booster spawning a waypoint on another planet in the system, so you can kinda get stuck with that waypoint even if you don't want it (for that particular star system).

I think you should be able to get a few habitable base waypoints spawned, but I've never tried it. I've seem people mention that you can sometimes exit the game, load it up again and try to get a new waypoint with the signal booster. Also I'm thinking that maybe you could even claim the base on the other planet (the one you don't want), then build a signal booster on that planet (or jump back to the one you want) and try your luck again, but that's just me thinking out loud. In any case, that's all related to running into trouble finding a base on the planet you want to settle in.

I actually jumped like a dozen or two star systems, scanning from space, hoping to get a nice planet with a habitable base before realizing you can pretty much do that on any planet with the signal booster (there may be exceptions, like dead planets, I don't know).
 
New experimental branch release, not a whole lot of fixes. Hopefully that "ship freeze" fix fixes the ship battle crashes. Sounds like this will probably be the next PC/PS4 release.

Patch notes:
- Fix for issue on upgrading save which can cause player bases to disappear
- Fixed soft lock when cancelling the profanity filter popup in the base upload screen
- Fixed a freeze that could happen when in your ship
- Improved and smoother frame rate when playing with unlocked frame rate or vsync disabled
- Fixed a rare crash
- Various optimisations

As soon as we're happy that these changes are stable, we'll go ahead and roll out to the live game.
 

Minamu

Member
Unlocked framerate issues, does that mean that the 60 fps mode truly has issues, like I've been experiencing for example? :O Vindicated!

Did they ever fix that new bug from last time (?) where you end up sitting on the floor at strange angles when entering space ships?
 
Unlocked framerate issues, does that mean that the 60 fps mode truly has issues, like I've been experiencing for example? :O Vindicated!

Did they ever fix that new bug from last time (?) where you end up sitting on the floor at strange angles when entering space ships?
By "60 fps mode", you mean "not 30fps" and by "issues", you mean "rarely 60fps" :D
 

Minamu

Member
I don't know why people seemed to think it was a 60fps mode? Because it never said that in the patch notes.
Well DF said it was a solid 60 for starters, with video to "prove" it. not sure how else it got started. Gaffers probably also confirmed it as 60 and dissenting views got pushed aside. I was genuinely thinking my game was broken, or stuck in some kind of 4k mode, for awhile for not having 60 fps :lol
 
Well DF said it was a solid 60 for starters, with video to "prove" it. not sure how else it got started. Gaffers probably also confirmed it as 60 and dissenting views got pushed aside. I was genuinely thinking my game was broken, or stuck in some kind of 4k mode, for awhile for not having 60 fps :lol
DF definitely didn't say it was a solid 60. It was shown to be around 45 most of the time. It was only 60 in the space station. And as GribbleGrunger said, it's really only there for PS4 Pro. It was worded, "Added an option to lock framerate on PS4 to 30 fps to keep the frame rate stable". Not "Added an option to unlock framerate on PS4 to 60 fps".
 
That's a shame. Only thing that fixes it is to reboot the game, yeah?

Might very well be the case, I'm not really sure because it feels like it happens sooner or later in almost every session, and oftentimes the camera changes position each time I enter the cockpit, so I've kinda gotten used to it. Which is sad, and kinda baffling really. My ship also regularly looses the cockpit glass when looked at from the outside (one of those Korvax explorer ships). Another baffling thing is that, as far as I know, there still isn't a way for keyboard+mouse players to look around while flying.

I mean, some of these things are pretty minor considering the game's larger issues, but it still kinda bums me out. :p
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Might very well be the case, I'm not really sure because it feels like it happens sooner or later in almost every session, and oftentimes the camera changes position each time I enter the cockpit, so I've kinda gotten used to it. Which is sad, and kinda baffling really. My ship also regularly looses the cockpit glass when looked at from the outside (one of those Korvax explorer ships). Another baffling thing is that, as far as I know, there still isn't a way for keyboard+mouse players to look around while flying.

I mean, some of these things are pretty minor considering the game's larger issues, but it still kinda bums me out. :p

Could the reason for not being able to look around from your cockpit be procedurally related? When we're on a planet, we move slower and so it procedurally creates a circle of detail around the player but when we're in the ship, and moving faster, perhaps it reduces it to a cone shape in order for it to better generate detail in front of us. Could that be it?
 

Minamu

Member
It's 60fps at 1080p on the Pro. This patch is to improve the 'unlocked' framerate for the PS4 and the 4K Pro mode. People are getting confused.

DF definitely didn't say it was a solid 60. It was shown to be around 45 most of the time. It was only 60 in the space station. And as GribbleGrunger said, it's really only there for PS4 Pro. It was worded, "Added an option to lock framerate on PS4 to 30 fps to keep the frame rate stable". Not "Added an option to unlock framerate on PS4 to 60 fps".

Ah well then I am confused again because 60 fps mode on the pro is far from 60 for me afaik. I guess we'll see what this presumable patch actually does.
 
Could the reason for not being able to look around from your cockpit be procedurally related? When we're on a planet, we move slower and so it procedurally creates a circle of detail around the player but when we're in the ship, and moving faster, perhaps it reduces it to a cone shape in order for it to better generate detail in front of us. Could that be it?

It's not that, because you can actually look around when using a controller (even on PC), it's just that it doesn't fit the overall control scheme (and using the mouse for flying the ship is not that great as it is) so I'm guessing it's a bit of a hassle for them to add an additional button to hold so you can switch mouse control from orienting the ship to looking around with the camera.

I mean even on the controller, you can't look around all that much, but it's still kinda crazy that you don't have that basic functionality when using KB+M.
 
Y'all seem to be talking around each other, so I'll reiterate what DF said so everyone's clear.

With 1.23 with the FPS unlocked:
- base PS4 sits at about 45fps average (60fps in stations)
- Pro hits a constant 60fps @ 1080p
- Pro @ 4k struggles to get much above 30.


Regarding the new patch, I'm assuming the "improved" framerate is due to optimizations, but I'm not sure what "smoother" means in the context of unlocked. How would they smooth out framerate dips unless they cap the framerate? Perhaps they mean that the average framerate on base PS4 is now higher, so the dips are no longer as severe.
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
I wonder if the 'resource analyst' is going to become important to the game in the next update? It seems strange he's actually got a title.

On another subject, I can't quite understand why Hello Games haven't just thrown in a couple of hundred new maths puzzles. I mean, why not? I know the answers to them all now and don't even have to do the maths.
 

Minamu

Member
I wonder if the 'resource analyst' is going to become important to the game in the next update? It seems strange he's actually got a title.

On another subject, I can't quite understand why Hello Games haven't just thrown in a couple of hundred new maths puzzles. I mean, why not? I know the answers to them all now and don't even have to do that maths.
Their priorities are probably on something else. But why they simply didn't create an algorithm for randomising the numbers, I have no idea. The number switching puzzle could easily involve any number and the same with the multiplication etc. It kinda seems like they hard coded specific numbers for them instead of making them general blueprints.
 
With 1.23 with the FPS unlocked:
- Pro hits a constant 60fps @ 1080p

This is how I've been playing and to be honest I'm not sure it's a constant 60 FPS either. Flying around in space, in the space station and even walking around planets on foot feel close enough to 60 FPS but when I'm flying my ship across the surface of a planet it certainly feels to me like it slows down to somewhere in the 40-50 FPS range. Unless it's just my eyes playing tricks on me with all that pop in.

Just to be sure, I'm assuming that if I'm playing the game on a PS4 Pro on a 1080P display that the frame rate should already be unlocked? I don't have to unlock it somewhere do I?

Edit - Seems I'm still running the 1.22 update as I was hunting cheap freighters. Did 1.23 improve frame rate for the Pro even further than the 1.20 update? I've been missing out!
 

Handy Fake

Member
Their priorities are probably on something else. But why they simply didn't create an algorithm for randomising the numbers, I have no idea. The number switching puzzle could easily involve any number and the same with the multiplication etc. It kinda seems like they hard coded specific numbers for them instead of making them general blueprints.

To be fair, some people are terrible at seeing patterns (and maths).
 

Minamu

Member
This is how I've been playing and to be honest I'm not sure it's a constant 60 FPS either. Flying around in space, in the space station and even walking around planets on foot feel close enough to 60 FPS but when I'm flying my ship across the surface of a planet it certainly feels to me like it slows down to somewhere in the 40-50 FPS range. Unless it's just my eyes playing tricks on me with all that pop in.

Just to be sure, I'm assuming that if I'm playing the game on a PS4 Pro on a 1080P display that the frame rate should already be unlocked? I don't have to unlock it somewhere do I?

Edit - Seems I'm still running the 1.22 update as I was hunting cheap freighters. Did 1.23 improve frame rate for the Pro even further than the 1.20 update? I've been missing out!
It should be unlocked afaik. I'm in the same situation, just looking and turning the camera near store cliffs can make my fps stutter a lot. They fixed a fps bug near hostile creatures while in the land vehicles in 1.23 men nothing else iirc. 1.24 or whatever may or may not bring further improvements.

To be fair, some people are terrible at seeing patterns (and maths).
Yeah that's true, I'm just saying that the same puzzles could have random numbers assigned to them but keep the same algorithm solution (like the X*Y+1 puzzle for instance).
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Their priorities are probably on something else. But why they simply didn't create an algorithm for randomising the numbers, I have no idea. The number switching puzzle could easily involve any number and the same with the multiplication etc. It kinda seems like they hard coded specific numbers for them instead of making them general blueprints.

How difficult would it be though? Clearly it's just a simple matter of 'randomisation' because the maths problem are not 'procedural'. I'd assume there's a pool of maths Q/As which are drawn upon when accessing a terminal. Wouldn't it be a matter of just adding to that pool? It just seems a simple thing to do, although, to be fair, I'm not technically minded. One thing is for sure though, Hello Games needs to now start focusing on the 'reasons' we want to land on planets and investigate.
 

Minamu

Member
How difficult would it be though? Clearly it's just a simple matter of 'randomisation' because the maths problem are not 'procedural'. I'd assume there's a pool of maths Q/As which are drawn upon when accessing a terminal. Wouldn't it be a matter of just adding to that pool? It just seems a simple thing to do, although, to be fair, I'm not technically minded. One thing is for sure though, Hello Games needs to now start focusing on the 'reasons' we want to land on planets and investigate.
Yes, that's the point I wanted to make as well. It sounds very easy to add but what do I know. Not that it's a very engaging puzzle to begin with. Some aspects sure could use a major overhaul. The sad thing is, the procedural generation of terrain etc, and the lack of interesting stuff to do, is precisely why the game feels kinda bland. When everything's unique, it becomes generic, strangely enough.
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Yes, that's the point I wanted to make as well. It sounds very easy to add but what do I know. Not that it's a very engaging puzzle to begin with. Some aspects sure could use a major overhaul. The sad thing is, the procedural generation of terrain etc, and the lack of interesting stuff to do, is precisely why the game feels kinda bland. When everything's unique, it becomes generic, strangely enough.

This is where I and others differ. It could be better, that's for certain, but there's a resurgence at the moment that proves to me the initial promotions rang true and that, even though the interpretations were objective, enough people understood NMS should be 'accepted' for the vision it promoted. I don't feel disappointed in the least at the moment, just a sense of happiness that a 'small team' could accomplish something on a a grand scale. I'm with Hello Games 100%.
 

Minamu

Member
This is where I and others differ. It could be better, that's for certain, but there's a resurgence at the moment that proves to me the initial promotions rang true and that, even though the interpretations were objective, enough people understood NMS should be 'accepted' for the vision it promoted. I don't feel disappointed in the least at the moment, just a sense of happiness that a 'small team' could accomplish something on a a grand scale. I'm with Hello Games 100%.
Sure, I can see that. I'm not disappointed with the game either, at least I don't think so. I've played it way too much to dislike it. It's got massive potential, definitely.

What I meant was that the environments and lack of gameplay makes much of the game feel empty and samey. To me, knowing that every square meter is unique and procedural, that removes most of the impact the environments could have. Oh, that hill over there? There's no other hill like it anywhere, just like every other hill. It's odd but that makes me not want to go explore that hill. I don't mind that the game has a procedural system for terrain, the tech is amazing in and of itself. But it's clear that they're just now discovering what kind of brushes they have, and the tech foundation is a practically empty canvas.
 
This is where I and others differ. It could be better, that's for certain, but there's a resurgence at the moment that proves to me the initial promotions rang true and that, even though the interpretations were objective, enough people understood NMS should be 'accepted' for the vision it promoted. I don't feel disappointed in the least at the moment, just a sense of happiness that a 'small team' could accomplish something on a a grand scale. I'm with Hello Games 100%.
And I'm with you 100%. Folks spun all of the early footage into some kind of narrative and objective based game and that was never meant to be the point or draw for the game. So when people I know say they should have delivered the game they advertised, I ask how rotating planets and dozens more elements would somehow change the game and they revert to it just being an overpriced, overhyped early access game. It was always advertised as an exploration game with little objective.
 

GribbleGrunger

Dreams in Digital
Sure, I can see that. I'm not disappointed with the game either, at least I don't think so. I've played it way too much to dislike it. It's got massive potential, definitely.

What I meant was that the environments and lack of gameplay makes much of the game feel empty and samey. To me, knowing that every square meter is unique and procedural, that removes most of the impact the environments could have. Oh, that hill over there? There's no other hill like it anywhere, just like every other hill. It's odd but that makes me not want to go explore that hill. I don't mind that the game has a procedural system for terrain, the tech is amazing in and of itself. But it's clear that they're just now discovering what kind of brushes they have, and the tech foundation is a practically empty canvas.

As much as that sounds 'simple', that's the essence of it. If only they could crack that and offer surprises on a topographical level, then it would be something truly remarkable, but, as of right now, I think it's almost there. Photo mode is made for moments when the player finds something no one else has EVER seen before, and I think they're close to accomplishing that.

And I'm with you 100%. Folks spun all of the early footage into some kind of narrative and objective based game and that was never meant to be the point or draw for the game. So when people I know say they should have delivered the game they advertised, I ask how rotating planets and dozens more elements would somehow change the game and they revert to it just being an overpriced, overhyped early access game. It was always advertised as an exploration game with little objective.

Absolutely. I've seen people complain about the lack of communication and I've always said they're approaching it in the right way. Don't say 'sorry', vindicate yourself with actual worthwhile content. I believe in Hello Games. And I also believe that NMS will one day be up there with Minecraft.
 

Fisty

Member
So has anyone that played extensively on vanilla PS4 noticed better draw distance or reduced pop-in on Pro? That was probably the main gripe i had with the visuals, especially when flying low over terrain. I wondered how boost mode would affect it, and if maybe adding more CPU juice would help in that area. How does the Pro patch work in this regard? I didnt really see much discussion of this in the DF video
 
Still playing permadeath mode---got warp drive sigma so it's a little better but fuck...man these trophies are a GRIND.
I can't wait to get the other warp drives from Polo to make this go by quicker.
 

Tigress

Member
And I'm with you 100%. Folks spun all of the early footage into some kind of narrative and objective based game and that was never meant to be the point or draw for the game. So when people I know say they should have delivered the game they advertised, I ask how rotating planets and dozens more elements would somehow change the game and they revert to it just being an overpriced, overhyped early access game. It was always advertised as an exploration game with little objective.

I agree with this. NMS. Was basically the game I expected. Everything that people pointed out was stuff that would make the game better but didn't change what the game was by having it/not having it. The game basically did what I got out of what they were saying about the game. It needed to be balanced better as it was way too easy/fast to get everything. That was my biggest disappointment, it wasn't as hard as i thought it would be (I wasn't constantly needing to find something to be continually exploring). They keep improving that aspect every major patch though (I love the change in how you get blueprints).

I personally think a lot of the backlash was people who wanted multiplayer and chose to believe it would be an mp game. The other stuff that got noticed only got noticed after the "mp aspect" was found not to be there. And it seemed like it was brought out to find other things not right about the game to pretend it wasn't about not having multiplayer that they were upset by (and to gather people who didn't care about mp to be upset with them). I also do think there were people who wanted the game to prove a disappointment cause that was what they predicted (and were sick of the overhype so wanted to see the hyped people disappointed) who also saw this and fanned the flames.

I mean the game was missing stuff at the start but it pretty much was what they said it was minus polish/features. But the backlash was disproportionate imho. People acting like HG killed their dog. Some still do (you still get bitter people in the subreddit who get pissed when people are happy about a patch and want us still to be raising pitchforks to them). I've seen AAA games miss out on just as much if more major features and not get as much hatred. GTA online didn't get heists for a year and people didn't throw as much hate (hey did but it was not near as pure hatred and bitterness as many did with NMS) and when they did it was not like the heists they originally promised at all and barely anyone even said anything about that.
 
It was always advertised as an exploration game with little objective.

The exploration and discovery aspects were the parts I was looking forward to the most. I think they've done a fair job and have a great starting platform so far but I do think those parts of the game still need the most work. Exploration doesn't need to have an objective but it does need to be rewarding. There needs to be a reason to land on a planet and spend an hour or ten exploring it. There needs to be something more, something unique and exciting to discover. Something unknown, something mysterious. That feeling that I had when I started out on my first planet needs to be there for every planet that I visit.

The only real reason right now is to collect resources for character progression but even that is pointless as the difficulty does not increase as our journey unfolds. Character progression to me is the process of upgrading and enhancing a character so that you can tackle increasingly difficult encounters and scenarios that would otherwise be insurmountable without an incredible amount of skill on behalf of the player. There needs to be more danger, more conflict, more challenge. And I don't just mean less plutonium on planets or more fuel required to take off... I think right now the game just feels a little dull as there's no satisfaction from overcoming a difficult encounter or challenge.

Character progression is a tool/process used to experience the gameplay of the game, not be the entirety of the gameplay itself. I think that is where NMS is falling short for me right now.
 
Today we’re releasing Patch 1.24, which addresses some remaining issues and bugs players have reported since the launch of the Path Finder Update. This update is live now on both PC and PS4, and the patch notes are as follows:

Fixed an issue that caused player’s bases not to appear
Optimised light shafts, allowing us to enable them on PS4
Fixed a game freeze/lock up that could occur when in space
Improved frame rate when playing with unlocked frame rate, or vsync disabled
Fixed some issues with Steam controller prompts
Various minor performance optimisations
Fixed some rare crashes & freezes

https://www.nomanssky.com/2017/03/4511/

Even more technical improvements. Not bad.
 

Tigress

Member
The exploration and discovery aspects were the parts I was looking forward to the most. I think they've done a fair job and have a great starting platform so far but I do think those parts of the game still need the most work. Exploration doesn't need to have an objective but it does need to be rewarding. There needs to be a reason to land on a planet and spend an hour or ten exploring it. There needs to be something more, something unique and exciting to discover. Something unknown, something mysterious. That feeling that I had when I started out on my first planet needs to be there for every planet that I visit.

The only real reason right now is to collect resources for character progression but even that is pointless as the difficulty does not increase as our journey unfolds. Character progression to me is the process of upgrading and enhancing a character so that you can tackle increasingly difficult encounters and scenarios that would otherwise be insurmountable without an incredible amount of skill on behalf of the player. There needs to be more danger, more conflict, more challenge. And I don't just mean less plutonium on planets or more fuel required to take off... I think right now the game just feels a little dull as there's no satisfaction from overcoming a difficult encounter or challenge.

Character progression is a tool/process used to experience the gameplay of the game, not be the entirety of the gameplay itself. I think that is where NMS is falling short for me right now.

I am enjoying the game as is but I have to say his assessment is very accurate. I think really these are the biggest problems with the game and its balance. It seems they are trying to put fixes in and are improving in the right direction (making it much harder to get blueprints was definitely a step in the right direction). But the planets could use some sort of thing to make you want to visit longer other than you need resources. What little I've explored (I tend to ignore going to the center and visit systems on what looks like it might be interesting do I never got deep in the game even if I explored a lot of systems) it does get harder but in a way I could see that it might get topped out quickly. There need to be storms that you need tougher shields or they'll make those shields go down quickly for example. Not just each shield protects no matter how bad the hazard but the better ones last longer. Stuff like that.

Also some dangers are more annoying and unfun then dangerous. For example aggressive sentinels on a planet. They're easy to shoot down so they're just a nuisance but with how often they pop up (once you start shooting them they respawn within a minute or less later and they instantly home in on you) they just make me avoid going to those planets cause it's not fun, it's just annoying. What would be fun is if they were very aggressive and they gave you a way to avoid them. Either a cloaking shield that you need to keep fueled up (and maybe make it so the further you go in the easier sentinels see through that shield and you have to upgrade it) or a way to stealth around them. Then it makes it fun cause they give you a way to avoid them rather than just having to shoot them every minute and making it so you can't really spend much time exploring the planet (and being able to explore the planet is the game's way of rewarding you for overcoming adversity. Except you really can't do that well on aggro planets cause you're constantly dealing with the sentinels).
 

SomTervo

Member
The exploration and discovery aspects were the parts I was looking forward to the most. I think they've done a fair job and have a great starting platform so far but I do think those parts of the game still need the most work. Exploration doesn't need to have an objective but it does need to be rewarding. There needs to be a reason to land on a planet and spend an hour or ten exploring it. There needs to be something more, something unique and exciting to discover. Something unknown, something mysterious. That feeling that I had when I started out on my first planet needs to be there for every planet that I visit.

The only real reason right now is to collect resources for character progression but even that is pointless as the difficulty does not increase as our journey unfolds. Character progression to me is the process of upgrading and enhancing a character so that you can tackle increasingly difficult encounters and scenarios that would otherwise be insurmountable without an incredible amount of skill on behalf of the player. There needs to be more danger, more conflict, more challenge. And I don't just mean less plutonium on planets or more fuel required to take off... I think right now the game just feels a little dull as there's no satisfaction from overcoming a difficult encounter or challenge.

Character progression is a tool/process used to experience the gameplay of the game, not be the entirety of the gameplay itself. I think that is where NMS is falling short for me right now.

It could be considered cheating and is probably far more technically challenging than we would assume, but I feel like 10-20 hand-crafted "levels" that were dropped onto various planets in a "narrative" order as the player discovered them would have been a really good solution to give the game some sense of drive or meaning. As it is, the exploration is basically just for exploration's sake, and gets dry fast.
 
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