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[mokeyjoe]

Thing is, Survival mode isn't just "hard" difficulty, it's basically a different gametype. It turns NMS into a roguelike. Some may like that intense challenge, and some may not. It sounds to me that you should just try Normal mode.

Yeah, life support drains mercilessly, resources are cut in half, storms will destroy you in seconds, pirates are relentless - and if you ever find a decent planet then sentinels will be all over you if you so much as look at a rock.

I mean if cowering in a cave for minutes at a time while a radioactive storm rages outside, or skulking around planets waiting for a pirate scan to pass sounds tedious, then yes, it's tedious. You can spend a lot of time just waiting for danger to pass.

With all that said, after a couple of jumps and some upgrades it gets markedly easier - if you've got off the planet then you may as well continue. You can always play a Normal game in parallel - they are different save files.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Just saw there's a new Experimental update, which means that if all goes well we should see this as an official release in a few days:

changelog:


Looks like they've removed the cheap freighters as a bug

Nice! Thanks for posting

Colossus camera is now slightly further back when moving at speed
Exocraft mining lasers are now easier to aim up

Much needed. What's 'HBAO'?

 

[mokeyjoe]

changelog:


Exocraft mining laser uses less fuel but is less effective in combat

Fixed a bug causing poor performace when in a vehicle near predator creatures

These two are very welcome.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Also interesting that they upped the amount collected by the Automated Mining Units to 99. Might start to be worth using for resource collection, though without some way to teleport them directly into storage I'm not sure they're worth the busywork.

I just hope they fixed all the crashes introduced in the last update..

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

changelog:


Added an option to lock framerate on PS4 to 30 fps to keep the frame rate stable



I wonder if that will stop my PS4 Pro from constantly being in super high fan mode whenever I play this game....

 

[eyeball_kid]

Much needed. What's 'HBAO'?

Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/hbao-plus/technology

It's what added all the nice (and not so nice) shadows in Path Finder. I hope in addition to optimizing it they fixed the rendering issues, especially on grass.

 

[Oozer3993]

Just saw there's a new Experimental update, which means that if all goes well we should see this as an official release in a few days:

changelog:


Looks like they've removed the cheap freighters as a bug
edit: interesting, looks like they're adding a frame lock toggle on PS4 which will be available on both models.

HDR fix! Frame rate lock! Awesome! I need to hurry up and finish Dishonored 2 so I can get back into this.

 

[rocksteady1983]

So I just got the game and played it last night for about 3 hours and still didnt get my damn ship fixed. Just wandering around trying to stay alive and trying to figure out how to create stuff. Can't say I was enjoying myself too much. Traveled all over the planet on foot and found a few things that I thought would be cool but we're just abandoned sites that didn't really offer much of anything. Was getting frustrated being so slow and underpowered. I'll keep at it some more cause I know there is a lot more to experience but first impressions aren't good.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/hbao-plus/technology

It's what added all the nice (and not so nice) shadows in Path Finder. I hope in addition to optimizing it they fixed the rendering issues, especially on grass.

Would it affect water too? Right now small amounts of water look like either blue or white paint.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Would it affect water too? Right now small amounts of water look like either blue or white paint.

afaik the water surface is just a texture(s). I imagine what's going on with shallow water is that when "painting" the surface of water, the code looks at the depth of each area, and if the depth is shallow, it applies a "foam" texture to create the appearance of a shoreline. But when the entire pool of water is shallow, it ends up looking white because it paints the whole thing with that shoreline texture.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

afaik the water surface is just a texture(s). I imagine what's going on with shallow water is that when "painting" the surface of water, the code looks at the depth of each area, and if the depth is shallow, it applies a "foam" texture to create the appearance of a shoreline. But when the entire pool of water is shallow, it ends up looking white because it paints the whole thing with that shoreline texture.

I'm not technically minded but I kind of assumed that too. I hope they clear it up though because it's ugly as hell and looks out of place when you fly around planets. It never used to be like that.

 

[eyeball_kid]

I'm not technically minded but I kind of assumed that too. I hope they clear it up though because it's ugly as hell and looks out of place when you fly around planets. It never used to be like that.

Yeah it's not great. I didn't even realize it was water at first. Innes in his GDC talk said they were hoping to get rid of the current polygonal water system (where they generate the terrain, then apply a polygonal shape on top of that which defines a water zone) and move to using shaders. That would give us much more realistic water, with terrain reflections and waves.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Yeah it's not great. I didn't even realize it was water at first. Innes in his GDC talk said they were hoping to get rid of the current polygonal water system (where they generate the terrain, then apply a polygonal shape on top of that which defines a water zone) and move to using shaders. That would give us much more realistic water, with terrain reflections and waves.

Yeah, I was interested in that. I'm assuming (again remember I'm not technically minded) the more they push onto the shaders, the better the performance of the game and the more they can add? Everything used to run on the CPU because it was easier to compile but now they seem to be doubling down on the GPU and what it can bring to the game.

Another 'little' gripe I've got is the move to 'fading in'. You used to be able to see Heridium from quite a long way away but now it fades in when you're flying across the planet.

 

[mokeyjoe]

So I just got the game and played it last night for about 3 hours and still didnt get my damn ship fixed. Just wandering around trying to stay alive and trying to figure out how to create stuff. Can't say I was enjoying myself too much. Traveled all over the planet on foot and found a few things that I thought would be cool but we're just abandoned sites that didn't really offer much of anything. Was getting frustrated being so slow and underpowered. I'll keep at it some more cause I know there is a lot more to experience but first impressions aren't good.

Playing survival or normal?

 

[Ballistics]

On Reddit, someone has extracted the language file(s) and posted it in a public Google Drive document, which is cool and there's a lot of references to some potential upcoming (or even working features).

One that the game was heavily criticised was

Spoiler

___Portals___

, and their lacking functionality but in the language file indicates there are a lot of references to them being operational and being based on certain criteria being met as indicated by a lot of <if> comments within the text files.

Comment that goes in-depth: Link

Some other stuff that's mentioned;

[B]CREATURE HOLOGRAM[/B] Creature Hologram A decorative holographic representation of wildlife captured in the user's discovery log.
Race Part RACE OBSTACLE Race Obstacle Provides extra challenge for Exocraft races. Race Part RACE FORCE AMPLIFIER Race Force Amplifier Provides a boost to your Exocraft during races. Race Part
[B]EXOCRAFT ANTI-AIR DEFENCE[/B] Exocraft Anti-Air Defence Exocraft Weapon Attachment The recoil of this anti-air defence weapon requires that it be mounted to an Exocraft.<lf><lf>Specifically calibrated for combat against airbourne adversaries. [B]EXOCRAFT ANTI-AIR DFFENCE UPGRADE SIGMA[/B] Exocraft Anti-Air Defence Upgrade Sigma Exocraft Weapon Upgrade Increases the power of the Exocraft Anti-Air Defence module. EXOCRAFT TRACTION ENHANCER Exocraft Traction Enhancer Exocraft Traction Upgrade Allows for increased grip and handling of an Exocraft.
[B]SHIELDING DOME[/B] Shielding Dome A temporary buildable shield which protects the user from harsh environmental damage.

[B]Storm interference[/B] - Launch procedures unavailable
[B]EXTREME CAVE TEMPERATURE[/B] %LEVEL%°C
[B]EXTREME CAVE RADIATION[/B] %LEVEL% Sv
[B]EXTREME CAVE TOXICITY[/B] %LEVEL%
[B]HIGH ALTITUDE TEMPERATURE[/B] %LEVEL%°C
[B]Death from deadly plant toxins
SUBTERRESTRIAL SURVEYOR[/B] Scanner Companion Unit Underground element detection system.<lf><lf>Shows user mining resource locations via a holographic cuboid visual feedback relay. <lf> <lf>Press <IMG>SCAN<> to activate alongside planetary surface scan.
[B]BLACK HOLE SHIELDING[/B] Black Hole Shielding Starship Protection Field Starship is shielded from the gravitational intensity endured when passing through a Black Hole.<lf><lf>Operates automatically once user's starship passes through the event horizon. Starship is shielded from the gravitational intensity endured when passing through a Black Hole.<lf><lf>Operates automatically once user's starship passes through the event horizon. Shielding is damaged and consumed by each Black Hole transit, and must be replaced. Black Hole Shielding destroyed
[B]DANGER: TOXIC RAIN BREACH
DANGER: RADIATION BREACH[/B]


(Emphasis mine)

Coming back to this post some way back now.

"Exocraft Anti-Air Defence Exocraft Weapon Attachment". That sounds really promising. What do we need anti-air defense for? If not for being attacked by someone or something else. We all know what I mean...SPACE WHALES!!!

And why do we need dangerous animals in caves? Make the caves the danger. Maybe we'll see toxic liquid dripping from the ceiling? Or maybe the dangerous animals will seek out that liquid?

Also, the part about "a holographic cuboid visual feedback relay" is intriguing.

 

[dreamstation]

Just saw there's a new Experimental update, which means that if all goes well we should see this as an official release in a few days

No mention of a fov slider for the console version makes me sad. They gave the PC players one but seem reluctant to offer the same customisation to the console players. Now that we have pro support with almost 60 FPS performance I would have thought it wouldn't be an issue. Have they ever said why they haven't/won't? I've been playing around with photo mode the last couple of days and changing the field of view in there to 90 is such a massive improvement but of course it doesn't carry over once you exit photo mode.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Storm interference - Launch procedures unavailable
EXTREME CAVE TEMPERATURE %LEVEL%°C
EXTREME CAVE RADIATION %LEVEL% Sv
EXTREME CAVE TOXICITY %LEVEL%
HIGH ALTITUDE TEMPERATURE %LEVEL%°C

Oh, I like the sound of this. Things are going to get a little tougher.

 

[rocksteady1983]

Playing survival or normal?

Normal.

 

[mokeyjoe]

Normal.

Just curious, as I haven't started a normal game since the last two updates. Took me about 10 mins to get off the planet back in August.

 

[Ballistics]

How did I miss "HIGH ALTITUDE TEMPERATURE"? Snowy peaks

 

[eyeball_kid]

Yeah, I was interested in that. I'm assuming (again remember I'm not technically minded) the more they push onto the shaders, the better the performance of the game and the more they can add? Everything used to run on the CPU because it was easier to compile but now they seem to be doubling down on the GPU and what it can bring to the game.

It's not a straight 1:1 performance gain by moving stuff to GPU, but it certainly sounds like they think there can be serious performance improvements there. It's really important on the PS4 because its CPU is so lackluster. AI is CPU-intensive, so hopefully by moving some of the terrain gen to the GPU they can improve in other areas like creature behavior.

No mention of a fov slider for the console version makes me sad. They gave the PC players one but seem reluctant to offer the same customisation to the console players. Now that we have pro support with almost 60 FPS performance I would have thought it wouldn't be an issue. Have they ever said why they haven't/won't? I've been playing around with photo mode the last couple of days and changing the field of view in there to 90 is such a massive improvement but of course it doesn't carry over once you exit photo mode.

Yeah..it was a big tease for PS4 players when they put in that FOV slider for photo mode. You can change the FOV while you're in a vehicle due to a bug though -- while you're in a vehicle, go into photo mode and change the FOV, then when you back out the FOV will stick. I don't think it lasts when you get out on foot though.

Just curious, as I haven't started a normal game since the last two updates. Took me about 10 mins to get off the planet back in August.

Took me a couple hours to leave my first planet (which was a hellscape with aggressive sentinels) back at launch. As with everything in this game, it totally depends on what planet you're on.

 

[GribbleGrunger]

Just curious, as I haven't started a normal game since the last two updates. Took me about 10 mins to get off the planet back in August.

Normal is extremely easy, even after the update. There are variations of difficulty depending on what planets you start on but they're not that impactful. I Know this because I've watch 'literally' hundreds of NMS vids since launch. If there's someone who's streamed NMS, I've watched it.

 

[Minamu]

Oh HEY, that vehicle performance drop mentioned at the end is peobably what I've been experiencing. Pretty sure I've seen it on foot too though :/ Hope it gets fixed, 60 fps ia great when it stays there.

 

[Unicorn]

Ugh my freighter base is fucked. cuboid flat floor keeps vanishing and making my unoccupied planters useless until I build the floor again. but on save reload it vanishes again. So much iron wasted.

Uuuugh


Also screen tearing still bad. I'm at 60 fps with in game vsync on, but I'm starting to get really bothered by the tearing.

 

[Galactic Fork]

The visuals seem so fuzzy now. I'm on a grassy planet and the way it renders them at a distance is off. Like they are cartoon clouds... I have noticed trees and plants seem to be bigger. And the 6ish meter limit on animal height is changed. Saw one that was over 8 meters. Odd height doesn't show up on scans. You have to go into discovery details. Hopefully that's just a bug, and they'll fix it.

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

You're about to get repeatedly wrecked by pirates every time you try to go anywhere.

Have fun

Yeah so it seems. Not fun, the space controls don't lend themselves too well for intense combat.

Thing is, Survival mode isn't just "hard" difficulty, it's basically a different gametype. It turns NMS into a roguelike. Some may like that intense challenge, and some may not. It sounds to me that you should just try Normal mode.

I don't think this game is for you. Having to rush to a cave and search for resources is what makes this game 'fun'. That's the heart of it. You could try normal mode. That's a more chilled experience.

Use photo made to scout your local area for resources.

So I tried normal mode, and that has basically no challenge at all! There has to be a middle ground between "staying in caves for 5 minutes every 1 minute and praying useful resources are around or your game is over" and 0 challenge. I like challenging games and roguelikes, but the mechanics aren't refined enough here.

But regardless the game is more fun now that I can see different worlds. There is actually a decent amount of variety in planets so far, although you can definitely see major similarities as well.

I found a deserted planet with no fauna, many resources and a really nice color palette and surface height variance. I believe that these types of worlds couldn't exist until the updates, right? I like it because it feels alien but not too alien like most planets.

 

[UltraJay]

Yeah so it seems. Not fun, the space controls don't lend themselves too well for intense combat.





So I tried normal mode, and that has basically no challenge at all! There has to be a middle ground between "staying in caves for 5 minutes every 1 minute and praying useful resources are around or your game is over" and 0 challenge. I like challenging games and roguelikes, but the mechanics aren't refined enough here.

But regardless the game is more fun now that I can see different worlds. There is actually a decent amount of variety in planets so far, although you can definitely see major similarities as well.

I found a deserted planet with no fauna, many resources and a really nice color palette and surface height variance. I believe that these types of worlds couldn't exist until the updates, right? I like it because it feels alien but not too alien like most planets.

I never wait in caves now as that takes too long. I always have power cells and shielding plates to recharge my stuff. Buildings are best to recharge environmental protection so I usually explore around them.

Establishing a base and building exocrafts gives you mobile protection without needing so much plutonium for landing and taking off in a ship. You need to do builder quests until you unlock the voltaic cell recipe.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Has anyone ever seen Rubeum as a wanted resource (the star next to it)? I have a ton of it and keep trying to find a trader that will buy for +100%, but the most I've ever seen is +4%. I'm wondering if the game prohibits certain resources from ever becoming wanted commodities.

Time go to hunting for one of those discounted freighters before the experimental update hits PS4. I've never been one to use exploits in this game, but those freighters are way too expensive for the amount of slots you get. And then maybe I'll be able to finish my broken pearl farming quest.

 

[mokeyjoe]

Yeah so it seems. Not fun, the space controls don't lend themselves too well for intense combat.





So I tried normal mode, and that has basically no challenge at all! There has to be a middle ground between "staying in caves for 5 minutes every 1 minute and praying useful resources are around or your game is over" and 0 challenge. I like challenging games and roguelikes, but the mechanics aren't refined enough here.

But regardless the game is more fun now that I can see different worlds. There is actually a decent amount of variety in planets so far, although you can definitely see major similarities as well.

I found a deserted planet with no fauna, many resources and a really nice color palette and surface height variance. I believe that these types of worlds couldn't exist until the updates, right? I like it because it feels alien but not too alien like most planets.

I know what you mean about that 'middle ground'. There are some things that are pretty irritating in survival, but many of the game mechanics seem kind of meaningless in normal.

However, survival does kind of reach that middle ground in the early mid-game. Once you've upgraded a your ship a bit, you can start taking down pirates pretty easily and eyeing the higher level bounties, and dogfighting can even be genuinely fun as you twist and turn to stay on their six. Also exovehicles have made a big difference to the flow of the game in survival, easing the grind a great deal, even before you've beefed up your hazard protection much. As someone said, getting a base down, if only a simple one, should be a priority, as it gives you access a to vehicles and the teleporter. After the initial hump (like the first 10 hours) things definitely smooth out a lot.

As far as planets go, the terrain was tweaked in the first update but not a great deal since then, and then it was more of a rebalancing- it's always been pretty strong imo. The flora and fauna are where the game needs the most work imo - although I believe that must be coming soon.

It's definitely a odd game in many ways, but it's also one I keep coming back to, as regardless of any comparisons to other titles, there isn't anything quite like it. Also, every update has brought huge positive changes, so it's always moving in the right direction. I don't want to start a debate, but I think even it's most ardent fans recognise it remains a game in active development, not the finished article. But that's ok for me, as long as the updates keep coming I remain intrigued.

 

[Unicorn]

I really hope they take note of how Elite: Dangerous handles space gameplay and how Breath of the Wild handles sandbox planet-play for future updates.

I initially thought waypoints would be set by our binoculars like in BotW or other sandbox games, placing markers ourselves.

Their mapping UI and features set is such trash. Galaxy map is just fucking nothing. Fuck trying to find anything you want. Even Elite is cumbersome but at least useable. They have the overview land perspective on planets on certain bases, but that should be available for you for marking or planning a trek.

blech. Just a bad night since I'm still bummed about my freighter. Tried rolling off experimental build and using freighter exploit, but didn't work. All I need to do is fight pirates to rescue the freighter?

 

[GribbleGrunger]

I know what you mean about that 'middle ground'. There are some things that are pretty irritating in survival, but many of the game mechanics seem kind of meaningless in normal.

However, survival does kind of reach that middle ground in the early mid-game. Once you've upgraded a your ship a bit, you can start taking down pirates pretty easily and eyeing the higher level bounties, and dogfighting can even be genuinely fun as you twist and turn to stay on their six. Also exovehicles have made a big difference to the flow of the game in survival, easing the grind a great deal, even before you've beefed up your hazard protection a great deal. After the initial hump (like the first 10 hours) things definitely smooth out a lot.

As far as planets go, the terrain was tweaked in the first update but not a great deal since then, and then it was more of a rebalancing- it's always been pretty strong imo. The flora and fauna are where the game needs the most work imo - although I believe that must be coming soon.

It's definitely a odd game in many ways, but it's also one I keep coming back to, as regardless of any comparisons to other titles, there isn't anything quite like it. Also, every update has brought huge positive changes, so it's always moving in the right direction. I don't want to start a debate, but I think even it's most ardent fans recognise it remains a game in active development, not the finished article. But that's ok for me, as long as the updates keep coming I remain intrigued.

Yeah, it's the major reason why you always get a sense of 'similarity' even when things look slightly differently, have different textures or colours. The topography and flora distributions still needs a lot of work. Apart from the occasional variation of 'noise' everything from mountains to ravines follow a general shape and you never ever get a stand out feature you've never seen before.

Flora needs to be less evenly spread and something more diverse than your typical 'artistic' approach of tree/cactus with smaller bushes plants next to that, and rocks around those, needs to be replaced with something that offers this and many other configurations. Less is more as they say and NMS proves this clearly, the caves being the perfect example. I'm not saying there shouldn't be this type of distribution but we need features in the landscape that only appear rarely (to surprise us) and some caves should be empty of all but the rarest features, some just pitch black to give our torches a reason to exist.

 

[eyeball_kid]

I really hope they take note of how Elite: Dangerous handles space gameplay and how Breath of the Wild handles sandbox planet-play for future updates.

I initially thought waypoints would be set by our binoculars like in BotW or other sandbox games, placing markers ourselves.

Their mapping UI and features set is such trash. Galaxy map is just fucking nothing. Fuck trying to find anything you want. Even Elite is cumbersome but at least useable. They have the overview land perspective on planets on certain bases, but that should be available for you for marking or planning a trek.

blech. Just a bad night since I'm still bummed about my freighter. Tried rolling off experimental build and using freighter exploit, but didn't work. All I need to do is fight pirates to rescue the freighter?

No, it's not as simple as fighting pirates = free freighter, as I've helped out twice now and didn't even get any meaningful discount. I saw someone on reddit say that you only get the free/super cheap freighters if you a space battle is already happening when you warp into a system. But I haven't been able to test that yet.

re: your other complaints, they're certainly valid. But you should also keep in mind those other dev teams are an order of magnitude larger.

As far as planets go, the terrain was tweaked in the first update but not a great deal since then, and then it was more of a rebalancing- it's always been pretty strong imo.

Mm I don't agree with this. I felt the terrain gen was pretty weak pre-Foundation. I mean it was surprising at first, but after 80 hours everything looked the same. No real mountains, and everything just had that lumpy look of algorithms. Foundation really was a giant leap for planet gen. I just landed on a planet right now in fact whose geological features look unlike anything I've seen. That kind of experience just wasn't happening pre-Foundation.

edit: damn this is a cool planet. It's an Extreme Rainfall planet, with lush grass, diverse mountain ranges, lakes, and the first sand I've seen in the game after gods know how many hours I've played. It literally hasn't stopped raining in 15 minutes though. It's like the Seattle of NMS.

 

[SomTervo]

No mention of a fov slider for the console version makes me sad. They gave the PC players one but seem reluctant to offer the same customisation to the console players. Now that we have pro support with almost 60 FPS performance I would have thought it wouldn't be an issue. Have they ever said why they haven't/won't? I've been playing around with photo mode the last couple of days and changing the field of view in there to 90 is such a massive improvement but of course it doesn't carry over once you exit photo mode.

I don't think they can ever do that due to the PS4's cpu bottleneck

 

[foamdino]

Then you haven't warped enough, that's all. Once you get the warp milestone, then you're good to go, and you get that at 3 warps.

Brilliant, thanks so much! So I'll get the flash text/trophy announcement about "warping" and that will mean that I can then access the teleport terminals.

 

[ffvorax]

The only complain I have right now is the "pop-up" of animals and stuff...

When I land often looks like a desert, but after a minute animals starts to appear where there was nothing... :\

This is bad also to check things while flying... I never see animals, so I doubt how I can see also abandoned ships...

EDIT:
PS4 version here.

 

[Unicorn]

The only complain I have right now is the "pop-up" of animals and stuff...

When I land often looks like a desert, but after a minute animals starts to appear where there was nothing... :

This is bad also to check things while flying... I never see animals, so I doubt how I can see also abandoned ships...

Yeah, it definitely hurts.

 

[GodParticle]

Why not add a frame limit of 60 for the Pro since unlocked can supposedly make the fan go nuts?

 

[Darkstorne]

Oh, I like the sound of this. Things are going to get a little tougher.

Yeah, I'm especially curious about extreme cave temperatures. I always thought there was a missed opportunity for ice caves on freezing planets and lava caves on extreme heat planets. And with toxic/radiation added to the mix we should be seeing a lot more underground variety soon.

Hopefully this all coincides with an update to creature behaviours and more overworld additions like functioning portals and explorable ruins. Pathfinder seemed to massively improve our ability to explore planets, but I still think we need more reasons to explore planets.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I don't think they can ever do that due to the PS4's cpu bottleneck

but but in The Order 1886 threads the very wide FOV was a cheap way to justify black bars ...

Seriously though, I think at least the Pro version could handle a slightly greater FOV value and the game would play a lot better for it.

 

[SomTervo]

I really hope they take note of how Elite: Dangerous handles space gameplay and how Breath of the Wild handles sandbox planet-play for future updates.

I initially thought waypoints would be set by our binoculars like in BotW or other sandbox games, placing markers ourselves.

Their mapping UI and features set is such trash. Galaxy map is just fucking nothing. Fuck trying to find anything you want. Even Elite is cumbersome but at least useable. They have the overview land perspective on planets on certain bases, but that should be available for you for marking or planning a trek.

blech. Just a bad night since I'm still bummed about my freighter. Tried rolling off experimental build and using freighter exploit, but didn't work. All I need to do is fight pirates to rescue the freighter?

It's worth watching Sean's GDC talk from this month about world generation and mapping.

The TL;DR is that mapping and providing information is insanely difficult when sometimes 100% of the data hasn't been read yet. A lot of the info you want to know basically doesn't exist in the computer's knowledge. That's the trade off for having procedural worlds of this size.

 

[Minamu]

Yeah, I'm especially curious about extreme cave temperatures. I always thought there was a missed opportunity for ice caves on freezing planets and lava caves on extreme heat planets. And with toxic/radiation added to the mix we should be seeing a lot more underground variety soon.

Hopefully this all coincides with an update to creature behaviours and more overworld additions like functioning portals and explorable ruins. Pathfinder seemed to massively improve our ability to explore planets, but I still think we need more reasons to explore planets.

Yeah this I agree with. There's simply not enough gameplay systems in play, on planets and in space. The game is technically impressive but it's severely lacking in the game aspect. I'm about 15 jumps from the platinum so I've given it its fair share of time but it all comes back to that infamous preview question imo, "what do you DO?"

The answer could be satisfying with more puzzle pieces that fit and depend on each other. Even though I know fully well what the game is currently about, I think that question above is kinda valid still. The game is fun and relaxing as it stands, but it's a ten thousand dollar answer to a million dollar question.

 

[Liabe Brave]

And the 6ish meter limit on animal height is changed. Saw one that was over 8 meters.

Pretty sure there was never any such limit. I recall someone in the launch thread posting a scan of a bigger animal, maybe 9 meters. And I've seen pictures of pre-update creatures that seem taller (though not their associated scans).

I found a deserted planet with no fauna, many resources and a really nice color palette and surface height variance. I believe that these types of worlds couldn't exist until the updates, right?

I believe lifeless worlds were always possible, they just became more common after Foundation.

I felt the terrain gen was pretty weak pre-Foundation. I mean it was surprising at first, but after 80 hours everything looked the same. No real mountains, and everything just had that lumpy look of algorithms.

Real mountains and completely flat plains were both in the game before the updates. Foundation increased topological variety, but did not introduce it.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

I THINK there's Heridium on every planet. It sure seems so when you scan planets at least. They're usually massive blue round rocks, fairly easy to spot. As for your ship, if you've turned off your console since you found the new one, the old one is probably long gone. That happened to me once. I don't know if it disappears with distance traveled once you have a new one too, but probably :/

Whack down a signal booster and ask it to find a resource deposit. One should spawn on the planet. Heridium is rather common at resource deposits.

If you get to it and it ain't heridium, just rinse repeat.

Thanks guys! I was able to find some Heridium last night and get my newly repaired ship off the planet. I tried out my new fighter on the pirates, and I definitely am doing more damage, but my shields are still like tissue paper. Is there a way to upgrade ship's shields to have a higher capacity or higher damage resistance?

 

[Ballistics]

Galaxy map is just fucking nothing. Fuck trying to find anything you want.

I am open mouthed and mystified by this. It was and still is the best thing about the game. I don't understand what else could make it better?

I've always felt Survival mode was perfectly balanced. The first planet is tough, but that's there to teach you what you must do to survive. For me the test is simple. If you can walk 5 minutes from your ship and back without recharging anything, the difficulty is failing. If you can't walk 5 minutes without using all your resources, the difficulty is failing. But if you can walk 5 minutes using good resource management and then be able to keep moving away from your ship, the difficulty is a success. I've been playing survival for over 50 hours (maybe, please can I have that data on PS4) and I am yet to use any upgrades (except for stamina) because I don't go anywhere without knowing I can get back. But it's never been too easy, I once found myself lost in a cave network running out of fuel and was all but dead, until I happened to blast a hole through the wall to find carbon and plutonium (I would have died just by moving slightly). Also, no amount of resource management can make up for pirates killing you if you don't upgrade.

I was 10 seconds away from my home planet and about to finally build my buggy, and two pirates blew me out of the sky, leaving me 10 minutes away from my ship. I can attest to how great the terrain is now. As I got 5 minutes away it looked like my ship was being marked right in front of me. This was not a glitch though, it was in fact because my ship was behind the mountain I was on. I hesitate to call it a mountain, it was more like an elevated piece of land or that my ship was in a massive canyon. I was then met by a massive slope, that you could have skied off. None of this could have been done before Foundation. I can't wait for a character model to add true scale to the world around us.

 

[Furyous]

I'm out exploring when I see a ship on a planet that is not a sentinel. I shot it down because it was too close to my base. Is this a new part of the update?

Is there a way to avoid updating the game on PS4? I'm in a system with a 11 million freighter and need to buy it before the update raises the price by 5 million.

See if you can find any of the planets I named like Generation X, Bomani is GOAT, and ESPN.

 

[Tigress]

No, it's not as simple as fighting pirates = free freighter, as I've helped out twice now and didn't even get any meaningful discount. I saw someone on reddit say that you only get the free/super cheap freighters if you a space battle is already happening when you warp into a system. But I haven't been able to test that yet.

My experience is every single freighter I've helped in a firefight has cost 15 million. After teh update I did leave a planet, see a bunch of freighters and saw one was open to enter so did so. They only wanted 1,500,000. I left them and was given some warning that a help signal was about... which turned out to be another freighter in a nearby (but not same) freighter cluster. I don't know how much that one would have cost me because the game crashed though (losing the one freighter I've found that isn't 15,000,000. They're all 15,000,000 in my game. before the patch even freighters I could enter that I didn't save).

 

[Baron Von Beans]

I am stuck at about 2.4 mil. Have been for a bit now, don't really know the best ways to make money. Farming I am doing is barely getting 300k. Do I need to farm plants in my base? I'm trying to complete those base missions, but I'm stuck on a "In order to do this, you should talk to XX first", then XX says "I want to help, but I need this. Go talk to YY first". When I finally get to, say, ZZ, I'pm doing missions that don't have anything to do with what the others wanted.

Still really enjoying the game, but it's getting a tad aggravating.

 

[Furyous]

I am stuck at about 2.4 mil. Have been for a bit now, don't really know the best ways to make money. Farming I am doing is barely getting 300k. Do I need to farm plants in my base? I'm trying to complete those base missions, but I'm stuck on a "In order to do this, you should talk to XX first", then XX says "I want to help, but I need this. Go talk to YY first". When I finally get to, say, ZZ, I'pm doing missions that don't have anything to do with what the others wanted.

Still really enjoying the game, but it's getting a tad aggravating.

Setup your base on a planet with lots of gold and consistently farm 3250 gold every 30 minutes. That's 745,000 an hour. Farming works as well but setting up your base the right way takes time.

 

[Unicorn]

I am open mouthed and mystified by this. It was and still is the best thing about the game. I don't understand what else could make it better?

For feeling insignificant and lost it is moving and awesome, but as soon as I want to return to someplace I've been before or tailor my exploration beyond just the straight line to the center it falls apart. Let me filter stars by color, by number of planets and moons, by control of race, by "current" trade market rates, by explored vs unexplored, etc. Even just fading other stars out or highlighting the ones I'm filtering for would be nice. Having a list of systems and planets I've visited with no simple way to plot a course back is insanely frustrating.

 

[magawolaz]

Patch 1.23 is up for PS4.

This is the changelog of yesterda's experimental branch, I guess it's mostly the same:

Optimised HBAO so that it runs faster
Added an option to lock framerate on PS4 to 30 fps to keep the frame rate stable
Sentinel drones now investigate correctly when in a vehicle
Fixed a rare bug that could cause players to fall through the floor when exiting a ship
Fixed texturing issue in freighter bases
Fixed and inventory exploit when purchasing multiple ships in a freighter that allows you to duplicate your ship's inventory
Fixed a bug that causes freighters to be too cheap
You can no longer build the Exocraft Terminal in freighter bases, this prevented players from being able to complete the vehicle missions
Fix for ships spawning on top of each other
Fixed a crash in physics
Fixed a crash resulting from running out of memory
Improved vehicle audio
Fix for certain UI elements having over-saturated colours in HDR
Fix for font anti-aliasing in HDR
Improved performance of UI rendering in HDR
Fix for HDR rendering being dark on some TV models
Fixed a visual issue with the T-shaped corridor
Added error messaging for failed uploads to Steam Workshop
Colossus camera is now slightly further back when moving at speed
Exocraft mining lasers are now easier to aim up
Increased yield from Autonomous Field Mining Units
Fixed issue with Colossus Exocraft's wheels sinking through the ground
Adjust colossus collision to make it harder to go underground
Enable Steam Controller in base reporting and Steam Workshop base upload
The animation when exiting the Colossus is improved
Exocraft mining laser uses less fuel but is less effective in combat
Fixes for the white sphere that shows when at the photo mode boundary
Fix for ladders vanishing in bases
Fixed a crash when uploading and downloading bases using Steam Workshop
Default to frame lock on for PS4 and off for PS4Pro
Fixed an issue caused when dying in permadeath with the inventory screen open
Fixed a bug causing poor performace when in a vehicle near predator creatures