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Reddit Compiles Definitive List of All NMS Missing Features/False Marketing +Sources

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
If I'm paying $60 for a game, does it really matter if 15 people or 500 people worked on it?

No it doesn't, the game should be judged on its merits.
 

DataGhost

Member
Games change in the course of development. Most of their bullshit "GOTCHA!" moments are from interviews where someone was talking to a developer, on a small team, about a game he was in the process of making.

I guess some people only want AAA titles that run through a huge corporate PR machine to filter out what information is released via some suit who's not actually involved in the game's production.

Ugh all this entitled whining, vitriol, and internet detective bullshit is one tiny whiff away from some GG style, "Actually, it's about ethics in gaming advertisement" bullshit.

Alright then. Let's throw out everything from the years past about NO Man's Sky. What are we left with this year?

We're left with four trailers and scant interviews about what you actually do in NMS. The trailers only showed short clips of gameplay but never told us of the features. What do you want us to assume then? That the gameplay from the trailers is the definitive product? It's part of the reddit poster's argument that the game from the trailers may actually not be the game that's at release.

Seriously what does this have to do with GG and why are you even bringing that up?
 

Jigorath

Banned
"Defense force" is such a worthless label to put on people enjoying a game

The missing features suck, but that doesn't mean that the game we got is bad. That's some narrow minded thinking

I was obviously not using it as a label for everyone who enjoys the game.

It's for the people who wave away all valid criticisms with comments like the one I quoted earlier.
 
For a game thats essentially in a similar genre as Minecraft im kind of thrown back at how little breathing room they are getting

Is it because its a 60 dollar retail game? Lol
 

Purkake4

Banned
Games change in the course of development. Most of their bullshit "GOTCHA!" moments are from interviews where someone was talking to a developer, on a small team, about a game he was in the process of making.

I guess some people only want AAA titles that run through a huge corporate PR machine to filter out what information is released via some suit who's not actually involved in the game's production.

Ugh all this entitled whining, vitriol, and internet detective bullshit is one tiny whiff away from some GG style, "Actually, it's about ethics in gaming advertisement" bullshit.
Just saying "we're thinking about adding feature X" instead of saying it's in would have made a huge difference. There's plenty of small developers with a good connection to their communities. If you actually explain things, people will understand and adjust their expectations.
 

Jimm

Member
I like the game...but damn.
It's really disappointing seeing all this footage in hindsight. It was a totally different game.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
How did this game get so much hype anyway?

sony.png
 
If I'm paying $60 for a game, does it really matter if 15 people or 500 people worked on it?

No it doesn't, the game should be judged on its merits.

That's exactly what's not happening here. The game's critical reception is being based on what the game could have been, not its own merits.
 
Pretty sure the sand worm was found in the files in the dataminig thread.

Doesn't mean it's present anywhere in the game. There are also Half Life 2 decal textures and a player model.

I think there's some confusion about worms. Some people have encountered small flying ones and assume that's what people are talking about, and don't realize the massive Dune-style trailer ones are what they're looking for.
 

Kacho

Member
It's not the size of the team, it's the breadth of the promises. If their team isn't big enough to deliver, they have two options:

1. Enlarge the team

2. Don't make promises they can't keep

Or 3. Communicate with your audience if things change.
 

Maximo

Member
Being a person with no investment or hype into No Man's Sky this game has been a great source of entertainment.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
People just posting what they experience no real list.
Would be nice to see a such list as well.


The lesson is not use unimplemented or removed features as part of the marketing of your game leading up to release. Trying to pull a fast one so you can squeeze out some extra sales from day one hype just leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
Which of those removed things were touted close to the release as marketing? But its important to mention if things changes of course, but if you simply dont talk about the game that early in detail, those things (if something is removed) doesnt have to be mentioned in the first place, and thats better.


The takeaway here is that if you say certain features are going to be in the game, you tell people before release when your plans change and you have to take those things out.

It's that easy. "Sorry, multiplayer didn't make it in. Maybe in a couple patches!" To this day he hasn't said a word about it.

Hey here's a famous apology that had to happen after a game released because its famous dev couldn't take five minutes to explain those reductions in features before it came out:
Thats true too, but if you dont talk about those things at all, those things could be avoided. And people reading about things being removed before the release is not a good thing either. Not good as in bad PR.

That's the weird thing though, they made sure not to talk about certain things before they were actually in the game. One example is NPCs. They said there were none then when they were complete they announced them. Going from that, people believed the things they talked about and showed multiple times were a given to be in the game.
I see. Curious to why NPCs were removed in that case.
 
That's exactly what's not happening here. The game's critical reception is being based on what the game could have been, not its own merits.
Give me a break. The game is being judged on what was promised and demonstrated in very well documented interviews, showcases and trailers.

Do you really want us to tear down the game on its own merits? Because that can pretty easily be done too.
 
This was already debunked, thanks for the post though:

Which is why I later edited my post to more explicitly highlight that I said SOME are blatantly false. I agree there are features that were discussed that didn't make it into the final game, which is sad.

I'm just one guy playing the game sharing the results of my experiences. I've been playing 30 hours, and I'm still finding new things so don't crucify me if my post on a forum has a few errors.
 

ironcreed

Banned
How did this game get so much hype anyway?

Dude was on Colbert too.

Because it looked amazing and has a great concept. It's just too bad none of the types of worlds we saw are in the game, although I did see some early on that filled me with wonder. Only later did I realize how dull it becomes and how shit starts being regurgitated, with mainly just differences in color.
 

inky

Member
My sympathy for small developers stops when they start charging $60 for their games. Not because they shouldn't be allowed to, charge $100 if you think you can get away with it, but you got to justify the price tag because at that level you are competing with games developed by 500 people too. Heck, there are bunch of those that hardly justify their own prices.

How did this game get so much hype anyway?

Dude was on Colbert too.

Sony.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
I mean, again: benefit of the doubt. You're Sean. You've just seen the internet dig up every single interview you've ever done for every single quote that could possibly be construed as a lie. What are you going to do?

Having been in a producer/project manager type of role for the majority of my career, I would've handled all the PR stuff completely differently from the start to avoid this very situation. But if I was in this specific situation for some reason? Tell the truth and eat the consequences, unless whatever publishing deal I have in place prevents me from doing so.
 

DataGhost

Member
That's exactly what's not happening here. The game's critical reception is being based on what the game could have been, not its own merits.

The game was also judged for it's performance issues.

If people bought the game for what it was, then that would mean they knew EXACTLY what the game was like. But they don't, because they don't know. This is why hype-trains are generated.

The game was really kept under wraps. The game significantly changed so there's not much to go on other than expectation. If the interviews can't be taken at face value, what can we take at face value?
 
Since we saw some things in trailers and previews not in the final release I can only assuming 1 thing:

--Sony forced them to meet a stricter deadline than "whenever it's done" and they had to cut out unfinished features in order to get the game stable enough for release.

Sony probably got tired of waiting for a release date (like everyone else in the world), forced Hello Games to give a ballpark date, and from that point on Hello Games probably started cutting unfinished features from the game they may have shown off or talked about in previews and interviews.

They probably even cut MORE stuff out that wasn't ready yet during the 2 month delay from June right up until August 9.

I think Sean and Hello Games would have taken their sweet time getting everything stable and implemented if Sony hadn't told them to get it finished faster. So, thanks to Sony, the game is now out, but it's missing a ton of shit that they didn't have enough time to finish.

Sean and Sony will NEVER admit this due to money and contracts.

But that's what I believe.

Yeah, I feel like this is exactly what happened. I really hope they continue to work on the game and add these features through updates.

I also really like the UI/HUD elements seen in preview videos way more than what the game launched with.
 

Kacho

Member
People crave that perfect space game. Just look at Star Citizen raking in millions.

Exactly. This game is going to sell insane amounts just because it offers something truly unique and wanted. I'm excited to see how this inspires other developers.
 
Having been in a producer/project manager type of role for the majority of my career, I would've handled all the PR stuff completely differently from the start to avoid this very situation. But if I was in this specific situation for some reason? Tell the truth and eat the consequences, unless whatever publishing deal I have in place prevents me from doing so.

And they only have a marketing deal in place, not a publishing one, with Sony, so the only thing holding them back from correcting themselves are...themselves.
 
This is less false advertising and more an unfiltered view of game development. Rather than only talking about what they got 100% done in time for release Murray talked about what was either in the pipeline or what he hoped to do for the game. A developer working under a publisher would typically have a PR filter from the publisher. That's why devs can be annoying tight lipped about certain aspects of their games. Part of this is Sony's fault for not sending a PR guy down to control the message early on, part of it is Murray's fault for not controlling his enthusiasm, part of it is the fault of the press and public for running away with the hype.


I still am really enthralled with the game, I lose more hours into it than I do with Civ. Considering the speed at which HG gets out patches I expect to see this game change a lot over the next few months.

The absolute vile I see thrown around about the game by people at the other end of the curve (Murray was right about it being a very divisive game) is pretty disgusting though.
 

David___

Banned
Yea, but so was the E3 files, PS3, and Xbox360 stuff too

Doesn't mean it's present anywhere in the game. There are also Half Life 2 decal textures and a player model.

I think there's some confusion about worms. Some people have encountered small flying ones and assume that's what people are talking about, and don't realize the massive Dune-style trailer ones are what they're looking for.

Good points.
 
Feature creep is when the CUSTOMER is wanting to add features in and it's up to the SUPPLIER to manage the shit out of that. The onus of feature creep (or scope creep) is entirely on the project team. Apparently they kept saying 'Yeah' instead of saying 'We want to look into that' or 'Maybe in a future update'. It's really basic and they got it so wrong.

That's not what feature creep is

Nah, just a customer who would prefer to receive all the features of a product that are advertised for it if they're going to be paying money for it. If a feature can't make it, I'd like for it to be told CLEARLY and ahead of time.

If that makes me entitled then so be it.

No, that's fair, and I wish that stuff would have been more clearly stated as well. I don't want to seem like I'm hand waving omissions, because I'm not and think it sucks that a lot of that stuff isn't there, it's just people use such... vitriolic language

There's also a poster claiming that animals eat other animals.

Unfortunately it's unfounded and relatively suspicious.

The Sand planet with a giant worm is specifically from a trailer clip IIRC.

Really? What, do you expect people to record their entire gameplay sessions or something just to quell your suspicions
 

Ryuuga

Banned

I think it got a lot of hype at it's revealed before Sony's involvement. Also If I had to pinpoint what built the hype to this degree I'd say it's none other than Mr. Murray. I mean I guess we could still say Sony if they made him say all those things.
 

hesido

Member
Planets do not rotate on their axis, moons do not orbit their planets, and planets do not orbit a sun. There isn't even a sun, it's just decoration on the sky box.

Wow, this makes it worse than Frontier: Elite II on the good old Amiga, because I definitely remember that the solar systems work, and indeed planters rotate on their axis and rotate around their sun.
 
Wait, so you know this is true? What an amazing way to brush aside the issues with it.

Man, if only all the people wanting to play the game had just told Hello Games too take their time, the game would've ended up better. Good job internet!

Are you saying that you have inside information that Hello Games wanted to delay the game yet more to add the missing features, but failed to do so because of community pressure? That's an extraordinary claim that requires evidence.

You're telling me it's not obvious how much the delay angered both fans, and fueled detractors? Could you imagine the chaos if they had delayed it another year after the august delay? If the climate surrounding delays was more passive, I'm sure both dev and publishers would be willing to give the game the extra time it needed, budget willing.

Now we have the opposite situation, where they will hopefully work in their lofty goals on the base game that was released via patches and updates.
 

Loudninja

Member
Reposting from the OT, some stuff is false. Also, a game in development can change over the course of 3+ years and some of these differences I attribute to that, rather than deceit. Some people don't realise that.


At least a couple are wrong. Coincidentally one just posted above shows there are butterflies;

Just now in the thread;


I can attest to one above that mentions animals eating others. I shot down a bird to scan it and before I could get to it, one of the big creatures on the planet ate it. I didn't save any video and I've long gone that system to try repeat but it is 100% there.

Another thing I can prove, rivers. This is my own screenshot.



Not to outdo a lot of stuff that's right, though with the Portals I think they do work but aren't easily usable, I encountered one and didn't work but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a way to make it work, we just haven't figured it out yet.
But you can engage in space battles between two factions. I did it yesterday.
Wow. I am going through that list and there are a few bullshit items.

You can scan planets from orbit yet this list says you can't. What you don't get is the same number of waypoints that pop up. It's usually just one.

One of them complains that the ships don't fly like ships. They fly like ships to me.
Some of the things on this list are blatantly false, others are clear design optimizations here are my thoughts going through each section with some refutations, and some general comments

1
- Yes every planet has some amount of plutonium, zinc or titanium, and platinum, but this is probably just because they don't want anyone getting stranded on a planet with no plutonium from which they can never take off. Also there are some extremely rare elements which I've only found on one planet in my entire time playing (~30 hours). It's kind of like in Minecraft, anywhere you dig you're going to find Iron and dirt, but you might not necessarily find Diamonds or Redstone.

2
- You can totally blow up freighters and I've seen some big fleets of them all locked in combat with pirates. I was able to join either side, and fight. The space combat is pretty lacking admittedly, but this is totally feasible and LOOKS super cool even if it isn't that satisfying to play with my base ship.
- NPCS run on trade routes and you can follow one down all the way to the surface, admittedly it doesn't look like they can land anywhere, but does that really add anything? They're not getting out of their ship anyways, so having a concrete place to find them makes more sense anyways.

3
- I've seen desert planets, though mine was red

-Planets do rotate, and they explicitly said they toned it down, because people were getting disoriented.
- Flying between star systems manually sounds like a great way to kill myself out of boredom, though admittedly it would be cool to find random stuff floating out in space, I'd much rather they focus their effort on the core gameplay, which as is evident still has more higher priorities than this to address.

4
No comment, I agree ship customization and flight controls feel underbaked, I hope they address this in the future.

5
- You could technically play solely in space, I've found all the components I need to upgrade my ship from mining asteroids as well as valuable minerals depending on the system. You could totally walk around and talk to creatures/find everything you need from loot boxes. I wouldn't want to do it but it is technically possible, and pretty damn good if you find a planet that has lots of high valuable items to find.

- Crafting is guided by blueprints, but I know I for sure haven't found all the materials or recipes to construct. I've found TWO compound elements so far and found evidence of at least 4 more, so I think the crafting system is deeper than it appears at first glance. I'm guessing there's stuff hidden no one has seen yet (Atlas Pass V3/Portals anyone?)

6
I've seen animals eat animals, I've seen animals knocking down trees (not sure if this was a bug though), and I've seen low flying giant eels. These things are pretty rare though, so it's not surprising that people think it's not there. I've spent 30 hours playing and I've seen maybe 1 really large scale creature, and even that was the size of a modest dinosaur.

7
- There are rivers, I've seen them on a few ocean planets.
- I haven't seen any truly large structures except a giant piece of road that was stuck in the middle of a desert (still only 1 ruin location though), but I also wonder if these might exist around more exotic stars, I've only been to F Class systems so far. For example I saw a picture of a new type of large scale monolith I've never seen on Reddit just today.

8
Yeah sentinel combat seems to be something you have to opt into except on graviton/venom sac planets, I'm not that upset since the gunplay feels more like a gear check than actually skill based, but I can see why this would disappoint some people. Then again I haven't landed on any high security planets and actually tried to do anything with this.

9
- I already hate how noisy the system for waypoints is to the point I will never ever scan from my ship, please don't add giant beacons of light.
- Binoculars marking buildings seems to flakily work, very occassionally it will mark what I'm looking at with its actual purpose, but it seems to be very finicky.
- Radio chatter in space in alien languages would be a great addition, seems pretty easy to do too, hope this comes later.

People can add to it or correct something.
 

brau

Member
Having been in a producer/project manager type of role for the majority of my career, I would've handled all the PR stuff completely differently from the start to avoid this very situation. But if I was in this specific situation for some reason? Tell the truth and eat the consequences, unless whatever publishing deal I have in place prevents me from doing so.

As soon as there was an outburst about the MP he should've been upfront about it. "Hey guys, MP fell through but will be coming as an update in the next couple of months" or. give some sort of explanation for it. I don't think people would've made a big fuss about it either. The more people dig, the more they find, and without a PR talking about what to expect people will assume and things get out of hand. SPECIALLY, when caught lying.

Sean did do that tho. Whether intentionally or not. He lied, and i don't think people should get away with it. Because the title has a high price tag, and because this is a title that gathered a lot of following.
 
The scrutiny only really occured because of a lack of clarity on a couple of higher profile issues, leading people to dig deeper. More of a "well if this doesn't seem to be here and they're being quiet on the issue, what else are we not being told" sort of thing.

I think he really mishandled being coy about the ability to see someone else in the game. I also think they poorly marketed and explained the game. So I get people being confused about what the game is, what the game isn't, and what the game longer has.

Then what do you do when before the game is released when hardly any information of the game is let out. You have to admit, other than a scant few trailers (from years past) they haven't let what the game is about or what you can do be known other than the four trailers a few months back.

What can we expect from a game if the developer doesn't say any concrete, definitive features and we get short clips of gameplay? We have some assume there's going to be everything ( hype-trainers). We have some who assume there's going to be nothing ( cautious people )

If you followed the game, then when we finally got the four trailers last month that didn't really explain it's features, what do you expect? People are going to go into interviews and the like to listen to hear from the developer himself.

I think if you're unsure, you don't buy the game at launch or at the bare minimum wait for a few reviews. I still think it's unrealistic to hold every thing said even if it was two years ago as concrete let alone to say they lied. I don't think they're blameless, but enthusiasts should know that games change during the course of development.
 
Really? What, do you expect people to record their entire gameplay sessions or something just to quell your suspicions

Considering it's just as easy to say "I saw that", in addition to other people not being able to see it, yeah, it's a bit suspicious. And I'm not accusing that one guy of lying, or being truthful, but after thousands of people got their hands on the game I'd like a few more accounts of dino dining than one dude saying he saw it.

It could be that the AI reached down in a way to make it look like it was eating the carcass. It could be that it actually did. Without confirmation, it's unfortunately hearsay, but it shouldn't take too long to confirm with the vastness of the internet.
 
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