ichtyander
Member
Oh yeah, I agree completely, the racing tracks (and most of the updates' content really) are a relatively quick fixup on top of very flimsy foundations, and it makes the whole thing feel even more painful when you get a glimpse of the potential.
The game pretty much doesn't have the basic pillars they advertised, not in any meaningful way. The basic functionality is there, sure, but the systems are either completely barebones (to the point of being non-functional, like trading), not very engaging (combat in general) and often completely isolated from one another (almost no emergent gameplay situations, since everything is being generated and instanced in very specific ways and in very specific, small chunks, you can't really get situations where one system clashes with another to get interesting or even common results). And on top of that, there's a lot of RNG and aimlessness introduced, in the sense that you don't really have the tools and the means to utilize your own senses and skills to aid in orientation, discovery, exploration etc.
You wanna scan all fauna on a planet? Roam aimlessly for hours to find that few last creatures if you're lucky.
Want to find a new, better, or more adequate ship/omni-tool/freighter? Be prepared to make a lot of hyperspace jumps and spend hours looking through the random 5-6 ships per system etc.
Wanna be a trader, or a pirate for that matter? Nope, no real economy, vendors sell a ridiculously small amount of units per item, not lucrative at all expect for certain exploits and massive, dull farming operations.
And then, the creatures, the NPC ships etc. don't really have any behavioral patterns (expect for the rare carnivore attacking another creature), they're all instanced in very near and condensed groups/clusters/situations, so you can't really have an NPC trader traveling around, being attacked by a pirate, or escorting anyone anywhere, or having delivery, assassination or discovery missions since the infrastructure just isn't there (and I imagine would be difficult to implement in the game as it is now).
So the game was shipped in a very alpha/early access state, sure, but they really need to fix the basic gameplay and systems foundations before adding any more new content like base building and vehicles.
I haven't had the opportunity to play the new Zelda (and I know this will probably become the new Dark Souls in terms of comparisons and copying) but from what I've seen, they've approached the open world problem in a way that is more respectful to the player, in terms of giving the basic tools to the player at the very beginning, and then throwing them into the world which is full of challenge, cross-interacting systems and emergent gameplay opportunities.
You wanna find something? Climb a tall hill/mountain/tower and use your eyes/camera to tag things, orient yourself using your senses and map, which then helps you to memorize and grow fonder of your surroundings.
Want to tackle a combat situation? Numerous ways to do it, try throwing stuff at stuff, using physics and logic to clash various separate systems together for interesting results.
Even without playing it, just by watching playthroughs and reading comments, I can feel that sense of wonder and experimentation oozing from that game, precisely because the game doesn't hold your hand that much and gives you the tools to do things on your own, it's challenging, and most importantly, it has a lot of systems put in place that can interact with each other.
Interestingly enough, BotW also has a finicky inventory and resource system that frequently forces you to fumble through it, be frustrated about a lack of space and often recharge/swap stuff to keep going (things breaking very often as opposed to needing to be refueled, the inventory screen being open at least half your gameplay time etc).
So you wanna find stuff in the galaxy? Firstly, make the importance of what a system/planet/ecosystem is more coherent and consistent. I'm feeling like finding large diplos, so I'll search for blue or green stars of a certain subclass to drastically increase the probability. I'll look at star system data purchased directly from the galactic map (without the need to jump there) and look at hints for increased probabilities of large creatures for every specific planet. Found some candidates? Jump there, find the planet.
Man, that's a big planet, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack. Arrive in close proximity and orbit/circle around the planet for a while with a special scanner on. The scanner pings louder in this corner of the planet, so turn on a more advanced spectral scanner and see different circular regions on the landmass below you, indicating different probabilities for finding the target. Land in an area you think might have the diplo (again, weighing in based on the data gathered and your own knowledge).
Sure, I've narrowed it down, but man, that's a big block of land I need to cover. Better try a few different things. Craft bait, set a trap and wait from afar, looking through your binoculars, listening to your scanner for hints of a large incoming creature. Nothing? Try placing a high frequency thumper to attract/aggravate creatures large and small and hope for results. Got chased down by a pack of testicle squids? Use your scanner to search for tracks. Followed the wrong tracks, leading you to a bulb-headed rhino-tiger nest? Steal those eggs! Also, jump in your exocraft, ride to three corners of the region, craft and place three scanner nodes to triangulate/narrow down the location of that elusive diplo. Finally found it! And then use various tools to either capture or kill the creature etc. And also make accessing these technologies be gated/encouraged by your career of choice, so your ship, exosuit and omnitool will have these wonderful gadgets and modes, but almost no firepower.
Of course, I've mentioned a lot of different systems and tools working together in there, and it's unrealistic to think NMS will ever get to that point, but it's a direction to think about and work towards, so that following a career choice is challenging and sometimes arduous, but it's not that randomized and incoherent. Finding that diplo would be difficult either way, but you'd have various tools and systems at your disposal to try, and eventually even get proficient at it.
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