As someone who last tried No Man’s Sky out about 5 years ago, it looks like it’s time to give it another shot.
NMS is the only game for I’m crying about to I want pay money.
can you rephrase this sentence
I appreciate that the devs keep updating the game, but honestly I don’t get it. Sure, there are a lot of planets. There’s not any reason to one over another though. They’re all procedurally generated with the same general stuff (yeah, you’ll need to travel for specific resources). For me, it just feels like I’m wasting time, because it doesn’t make you feel like you’re doing anything meaningful. I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
While I wouldn’t quite call it a Journey Game (a la Elite Dangerous), it is very much not about The Destination.
People play it because they like to play it. The idea isn’t to build an endgame character who can do anything and everything. The idea is to build a lot of different characters that do a lot of different things and so forth.
And, grain of salt, but based on my own personal experience and non-rigorous polling of the discord and reddit, the vast majority of regulars are just playing it seasonally. A new update/season drops and a lot of folk hop on to play it.
But it speaks to the fundamental nature of live games/MMOs/whatevers. Some (probably most…) people want to work towards goals and check boxes off. Every single thing they do is a pop-up saying how amazing they are. Call of Duty is the most well known example but it is also very much why games like (ugh) Kingdom Come Deliverance do so well. Number go up and everything you do Matters because the game told you it does.
But there are the weirdos (yo) who… kind of just like playing games? We don’t need a pop-up saying we are a good boy because we either make our own goals or… we just like the way it feels to play a game. The Elite Game genre (not to be confused with the Elite series… which are Elite Games) tends to be emblematic of this but it is also what made Arena Shooters so popular in the day.
I play a lot of Squad, which has no progression or anything that’s tracked from match to match. I’ve also played a good bit of X4, which is a space sandbox game, where you mostly set your own goals. Factorio is also one of my favorite games. I’m fine with games where you set your own goals. I just don’t get NMS.
I think part of it is that there’s absolutely no friction when saying. For example, flying makes it impossible to crash. There’s just nothing at stake and progression feels mostly pointless. If there was danger or a threat to defend against, I think that’d go a long way to making it feel like there’s a reason to do what you’re doing. As it is, it just feels like chores.
I don’t get how/why it’s still profitable for them to keep working on it - but I’m in full support.
It’s not to dissimilar to Minecraft in a number of ways, in a sense - there’s not really any drive to do anything in particular, it’s ultimately up to the player to do what they feel like.
It’s a literal sandbox, rather than a narrative experience. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, that’s perfectly fine!
But in MC there is a drive. It’s not an extrinsic goal though, rather entrinsic needs. You need better gear, you need food (and maybe you don’t want to spend time doing it so you automate it), etc. NMS has a notion of this, but barely. It’s enough to say there is progression, but it doesn’t feel like you’re progressing.
That said, I barely got into base building. Maybe that’s where things get good, but it takes far to long to get to that point that I’m bored by the time it’s a real option.
I’m glad people like it. I just don’t understand why.
I played about 75 hours of it back in 2019. Most of the time I was driven by the same thing that drives me to spend dozens of hours in open world RPGs wandering and finding stuff before doing the main quest. It also helped that it had good VR support, and I had just played a ton of Skyrim VR that same year.
But of course in NMS, there is no main quest to return to when things on the open road get slow. And you do not have the same had designed locations and loot to stumble across.
In retrospect I can see parallels with f2p games that are just an infinite numbers-go-up grind. The game is designed such that you do the same shit forever. (If my info is out of date though, I welcome corrections)
From the trailer I get the sense that it’s not so much just for NMS players but pushing the engine forward with meaningful changes. Sounds like this update especially benefited from improving the engine that has the work of benefiting this game and the game they are releasing next.
Elite Dangerous:
I fell off E:D a couple years back because of a lack of progress and how FDev treats the suckers who bought the lifetime expansion pass (also I am not entirely sure if my VKB+Thrustmaster mess will work in Linux and am procrastinating…). But apparently space legs are still restricted to basically the tie-in FPS from EVE?
But nah. Hello Games did a HORRIBLE job of marketing this but the game that should REALLY be angry is Starfield. Because the Corvette system is just their ship builder but in a game where you can actually fly them.
I started playing NMS a while back, but I had zero clue what I needed to do. I guess I need to go back and check if I skipped a tutorial.
I played it until I had a star destroyer thing and then I stepped away and now I come back and I don’t even know how to fly my ship or do anything I don’t know what’s going on I’m in Old Man
Might just be a bit burnt out on games like NMS and Elite. A whole universe of unique but equally irrelevant rocks.
What fun stuff is there to do at essentially an end game status? NMS probably does manage better than Elite though, at least you can build a house or something. Or make your freighter hangar pretty.
I gave up on Elite shortly after launch. However, I do keep tabs on it on occasion. The end game of Elite is basically choosing factions to support and helping them take over star systems. Honestly, it seems at least intriguing. I can’t say the same for NMS.
My biggest comfort game that just keeps getting more comfy! Been holding out on VR experience for Valve’s VR device but it seems like it’ll be far off - might as well jump back in.
ITT: people vaguely complaining about NMS but not pointing to anything that’s wrong with it.
Y’all know you can not like a product without something being fundamentally and at-its-core wrong with it, right? It could just be not your cup of tea?
I personally have been having a blast making my Corvette and am excited for the new expedition. The fact that I got all this stuff for no added cost makes me feel even better about the time I’ll have.
I love NMS for what it is. A sandbox. Some people don’t like playing in one. That’s fine.
Totally! Not for everyone and certainly doesn’t have to be.
But I did hope that people who are making the leap from “I don’t like NMS” to “NMS isn’t good” would offer more to consider than the vibes not being there.
People on here crying, meanwhile I’m flying around the galaxy in my Eagle 5 Winnebago
You got hyper-jets on that thing?
Did you include the fuel port in the glovebox in case you need to install any Liquid Schwartz?
Does it have raspberry jamming capabilities?
👀 slay, how are the interiors?
Haven’t had the time to check out the insides yet
My wife bought me the game and for years I didn’t pick it up. Couple years ago I decided to finally give it a try.
I’m on my third playthrough and am making a sea base for fishing and deep sea exploration. All commanded from the bridge of my dreadnought. I haven’t played in a couple months but am glad I get new things to do again. The amount of updates and changes absolutely amaze me.
I’ll be honest with you for me personally I just don’t have the patience for the game. I just want to build my ship with whatever parts are in the game and explore. that’s it. I don’t want to mine resources, I don’t want to wait in some random station for some random ship to show up that MIGHT have the part I want. I don’t want to do any of that.
I barely made it out of the tutorial and forced my way through it.
Nothing wrong with NMS but I didn’t want to play it the way it made me play it. I just want to build in peace and explore.
Fair enough. The creative modes are definitely worth considering, you can set build cost to zero, eliminating the waiting and farming. Survival aspects can also be tuned, so you can stand in storms and feel like a god.
That’s fair! And for what it’s worth, the game now offers a creative mode that alleviates the need to mine resources if that’s not what you’re looking for. That might be what you want out of it?
Yeah I know but you still have to wait for ships to show up to get their parts right? unless they changed it you don’t have access to ALL ship parts right off the bat in creative mode do you?
Mile wide, inch deep. I’ve no doubt (as excited for this update as I am) that this will be the same.
Basically they just add a framework for new features and then leaves it there without building it out.
I’ve read “Mile wide, inch deep” often enough in this thread that feels less like a problem and more like a thought-terminating cliche to me.
Is it a flaw to have a lot of smaller things you can do without them needing to be complete experiences themselves? They’re not trying to make a different game out of these expansions (except Light no Fire I guess lol), it’s still going to be NMS at the end of the day
Yes, it is a flaw. Because those “smaller things” are little more than virtual fidget spinners.
They offer a few fleeting moments of novelty and thats pretty much it. They have little to no relevance to the gameplay loop or are opposed to the gameplay loop.
I can “build” a settlement that does next to nothing and I can’t even design it the way I want.
I can build a base that is practically lifeless, but I have to be carefull because terrain will respawn. Or base foundations float on top of terrain.
And all the things I can build I’m lucky if theres 3 different skins I can choose from to try and make something “my own”.
And then of course lets not forget about the near literal mile wide inch deep the games oceans are. Heres a submersible. We will force you to use it for a couple missions and then theres no real need or point to it. All the oceans are the same shallow boring experience.
Here im being slightly facetious but only slightly :
You’ve seen one ice planet? Guess what - you’ve seen them all.
One glitch planet- you guessed it youve seen them all.
Tropical planet - oh look this ones sky is a different color, but still the exact same type of tree as that other tropical planet 40k lightyears away.
I’m not gonna respond to all of that but I will say:
- I think there’s a fundamental difference between something not being to your taste and something being flawed. This kinda just reads like you didn’t enjoy your experience. That’s fine, but that doesn’t make the product flawed
- a lot of the problems you mentioned have been improved on over the past few expansions
- fidget spinners are fun, idk why you have beef with them lol
In regards to 1. I disagree - there are plenty of flawed things that are still my taste - just like this game is.
I can enjoy something and still admit the problems it has. I don’t need to ‘justify’ my enjoyment by pretending something is perfect or doesn’t need improvement.
That would be like saying a person I like has zero flaws or issues. Just patently untrue. EVERYBODY has something they need to work on themselves even if they can’t see it.
If you can’t tell the difference between constructive and destructive criticism that’s something you need to work on lol.
But you just don’t understand. Sean Murray personally lied to me nine years ago!!! Boycotted forevar!!!
(Edit: I thought the sarcasm in this was clear enough but maybe it’s tough to get through to some people.)
This game and the developers deserve credit and support for what they created. I need to spend more time in that sandbox universe, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.
I just wish there was more to it. Every update adds more to do, but no reason to do it. Now we have a puddle as wide as an ocean.
There are two types of gamers:
Some see an open world sandbox and say “Wow, I can do anything!” and pick their own goals.
The other type says “WHAT it’s pointless!” and wants some kind of arrow pointing at the next objective.
Cool false dilemma.
It’s one thing to be given a sandbox, and another thing to be given a toy box. Maybe your imagination lets you take it as far as you need, but some people need more of a purpose to justify putting time into it as opposed to something more productive.
What’s your opinion on Minecraft?
Minecraft is a great example of what the survival genre looks like at its peak. Everything you do serves to help you accomplish your next goal, all the way to the final goal of beating the Ender Dragon. And then there are optional sub-goals you can set for yourself, like doing alchemy, making a mob farm, getting a Heart of the Ocean, getting an Elytra, beating a raid, finding treasures, automating your own production. All contributes directly towards making you survive better.
In NMS you reach the goal of surviving when you first unlock your ship. Once it’s fully repaired you embark on a fetch quest to walk and fly around gathering materials to craft the mystical orbs that mark the completion of the story, stopping once in a while to gather fuel for your ship, materials to fly to new kinds of star systems, and to talk to NPCs for some lore. But it’s not like the gathering of these materials really takes effort. There’s no spelunking, or braving a netherworld, or fighting back poisonous spiders while charting out old ruins. The most you get is that you need to craft a more powerful laser, and a special glove to collect some special resources that are, in fact, so abundant as to make gathering them no challenge at all. And everything else that’s in the game just exists on the side, optional distractions that don’t feed into the core loop. The only things that really affect your main game loop would be freighters, because they give you a bigger inventory, and this most recent update that adds mobile bases.
Minecraft also has a benefit that, when you run out of things to do, when you’ve beaten the dragon, collected everything, built your monuments, and done all that over and over until you’re bored, the game enables limitless new experiences through being so very customizable. Mods that turn the game into Factorio, or Diablo, or DayZ, or change how the world generates or how it all functions on the most basic level. Or if mods aren’t your thing you can join a server, and play with other people in all kinds of minigames. Standard SMP, or PvP stuff, or custom-coded challenges, what have you. NMS doesn’t have any of that, and while it does have multiplayer that doesn’t really change anything of the core gameplay. It’s still just “fly around and gather things,” but this time with another person along for the ride.
I think this is comparing apples to oranges. NMS doesn’t place a lot of emphasis on its survival elements because it’s not trying to be a survival game, its emphasis is on exploration. The survival elements are there as constraints that let you differentiate your exploration experience (ex. Hey maybe put on some radiation shielding mods or else you’ll be constantly applying uranium and life support). Yeah, you can speedrun the main quest because the main quest isn’t really supposed to be a massive burden. You can land, collect all the Special Red Rock that you need, and then jet off. But why? You took the time to come out to this planet, why not explore it?
Odd to read your description of the side content as distractions. Beyond how there are systems acting as complements to exploration (exocraft for ex) or are there to explore themselves (ex fossils), which id say directly tie into the core loop, it’s just weird to me to view gameplay as distractions. Morrowind directly invited the player to go explore things besides the main quest, and it’s regarded as an excellent move for encouraging player freedom. This just seems like an analogue to that where the game is inviting you to explore other systems to see how you like their fit.
As for what is offered to you after the end game… You get to keep exploring, like you’ve been doing and the game has been encouraging you to do the whole time. I don’t know what else to say – you got a can of beans, why is it a problem that it didn’t come with any tomato and some salad at the bottom?
(Though I’ll grant you that NMS would be kick ass with some mods, id love to see that!)
But you end up “exploring” the same stuff over and over.
Theres no reason to actually explore a planet - pretty much everything you want to do/see is taken care of at any random spot you choose due to the single biome planets.
You’ve got like maybe 6 different versions of flora depending on the enviroment type. If your lucky they give you a color change too so instead of all green tree A you’ll get a red tree A .
Now I know it can be explained away by the games lore, but when the main goal of the game is to explore it doesnt really help.
It doesn’t even matter how many galaxies/universes you jump to - it’s all still the same limited number of assets with the same limited color wheel.
Good shot dude! I really want to like NMS, but it’s hard to go back to it. You’ve articulated the differences amazingly
false dilemma
This guy thinks lawyer talk works outside of court rooms lol
This guy thinks lawyer talk works outside of court rooms lol
This guy thinks logical fallacies only apply in court rooms lol
Hehe I showed your mom my fallacy
I was about to dispute this, but I think its essentially correct. I for sure fall into the second camp, and while I despise the minimap bloat of a lot of newer games, I do want something that is going to guide my actions a bit. I want to like No Man’s Sky so much, but playing it feels like work. Endless tasks with no satisfaction except whatever personal pride you happen to glean from a job well done.
There’s gotta be a sweet spot between “I dunno, do whatever” and “here’s a map of everything interesting, do it all”. I think Breath of the Wild had a okay balance, but still not great. Maybe something more like Morrowind’s “here’s verbal clues, now go figure it out” approach
I like wow classic without the questie add on.
Quest reads i need you to go north of place and find x and bring it back to me.
So and so in y is looking for 15 of this item, find 15 of them i heard they are seen around z sometirms. Take it to them and I’ll give you a cool stick when you’re back.
No map markers just a map that you have to explore to unlock location names and a massive world.
The downside is it can take a long time to know what is where and where you’re going for shit.
There’s two types of gamers.
People who like sandboxes with the understanding that there are some toys / structures to play with.
People who just like playing in sand and don’t care if a sandbox is literally just a box of sand.
Unfortunately the “anything” is limited by what the game allows. If “anything” isn’t what you find interesting, then you’re gonna drop the game pretty quick.
Agreed. While it’s still pretty cool and I definitely respect their continued updates, I really only play for a few days every update then move on to something else.
Aside from the creative aspect to it, there really isn’t much keeping me engaged for long
Me too, pretty much, but I’m fine with that. Every couple of months we get a new content drop (for free!) and I go experience the new stuff, max out everything new there is to be maxed out, and then I can put it down and play something else. I appreciate that NMS doesn’t try to make itself my full time job or require such an asinine time investment that it forces you not to play anything else.
I think the only FOMO aspect built in to NMS at all is the expeditions, and even then you can replay them any time you want with a third party tool (on PC, anyway).
Hah. Same complaint I had about Elite:Dangerous. Lightyears wide, one inch deep. Gotta hand it to FDev, though, they really try to keep community goals happening.
The combat and ship customization (parts, not cosmetics) keep me coming back to ED over NMS. The core gameplay is somewhat samey with your options being combat, mining, trading, or exploration, but there is a bit more incentive. Players can now colonize their own systems, and powerplay is some complex bullshit that I occasionally participate in.
NMS is kind of a chill vibe, which I don’t mind, but I’m not creative enough to build ambitions bases so once I collected everything I was kinda burnt out. Also fuck fleet stuff.
My exact feeling!
Okay but is the game fun yet? I hate all the procedurally generated bullshit. If you’ve seen one planet in this game, you’ve seen them all. NMS is somehow even more boring than Starfield. At least that game gives you something to do. A boring story is better than no story.
Roomscale VR when?
One of the best redemption arcs in recent video game story.
Maybe the only game that actually has a redemption arc?
I can’t think of any other game that was so panned for so many things that turned it around like Hello Games did.
The only other games I can think of with any sort of redemption arc the main issues were because of bugs not swaths of missing features.
Cyberpunk 2077 would be another big one. A lot of the issue was bugs, but also a lot of missing content.
Have they changed up the flight physics in that game at all since like 3-4 years ago? Combat always felt like it was on rails compared to like Elite or x4. I like that there was a lot of other stuff you can do but that really took me out of it.
It doesn’t really help, but I find NMS space combat feels a lot better to me in VR.
The added immersion really covers up the “on rails” feeling for me.
Nope, still the same as it always was. Still has the “easy mode” targeting where if you reverse the ship it will keep itself pointed at the baddies for you.
It reminds me a lot of Wing Commander: Privateer from back in the day. Games where your guns only point forward just devolve into spinning fights.
This game has added so many systems over the years, but it still just hasn’t really grown into anything of substance. It’s a game where the only real “thing to do” is mindless busywork. 200 new systems, all created to a standard of absolute minimum viability, none of them are very rewarding on their own, and none of them really create interesting interactions with each other. It’s like they every system was added with the idea that they’re optional, which makes them all feel unnecessary.
You can build bases now, but there’s no real reason to other than to do so. There are settlements you can become the leader of? But what that entails is essentially nothing. The game is designed from the ground up for you to move from planet to planet without lingering too long on any particular one, and yet they added a bunch of mechanics based around specific planets.
It’s a really bizarre product.
It isn’t a game I play. It’s a universe I visit from time to time. I fucking love it
To me, it’s a similar game to animal crossing. Lots of things to do and customize, not alot of depth. But, some people enjoy that, and that’s okay. And I gotta give them credit for adding so many updates over the years.
thats the perfect game for some people.
would have liked to play this, but its just too much to jump into now. would have been nice if it was functional from the get go.
ill probably end up giving light no fire a try as theyre probably more in their element as developers in regards to a game of that scale
Eh, I picked it up last year and had no trouble hitting the ground running. I did make it harder on myself by skipping the storyline and just figured things out as I went, though.
My dude, you sound like a south park character. I’m not even kidding. Just dont play the game if you dont understand how to create your own fun.
I don’t play the game, I prefer games that are fun on their own without me having to create my own.
This describes literally every single video game ever, though - there’s never a reason to do literally anything beyond “I want to” because it’s almost entirely time wasting entertainment anyway.
Now, these procedural games often fail to create much of a reason to ‘want to’. But sometimes I prefer that to the transparent, skinner-box optimal game design in many other genres.
I don’t agree with that at all. Giving your players a rewarding reason to interact with the games systems is a foundational pillar of game design.
Have you ever thought that people may find that rewarding reason in an endless exploration itself?
In the endless exploration, yes. In the myriad of other slapped together mechanics that don’t really tie into the exploration at all, no.
The exploration of new planets is well implemented, but that’s existed since the game launched. If you were happy with that then, you’ll be happy with it now. But the game was panned due to there not really being anything else to it. And after all these years and added mechanics there still sort of isn’t.
Cool, when are they gonna patch all their bugs or is that just never gonna happen?
