No Man's Sky Catch-All 2.0

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This is the catch-all for No Man's Sky to discuss the game itself. Discussions about the developers of the game or controversies surrounding them can go to their own thread.

Personally, I've shelved playing it for the foreseeable future. I have a feeling the game in six months is going to be fairly different from the game we're playing today or at least we'll see deeper mods. I'm not really feeling the tug to get back in there right now.

If they can give me a draw distance slider and Ansel support I'll be a happy camper.

I'll just repost my screenshots here...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/dYn7Zu8.jpg)
This rocky table-land...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/D8LcW2a.jpg)
...is actually floating high above a dense jungle.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/YTTxCjd.jpg)
This is my current ship. I want one with more inventory slots, but I'll hate to give up it's looks.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/6TL5G2l.jpg)
Most dangerous planet I've found. I never got close to that pyramid because the Sentinels were set to shoot on sight.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/anCro7E.jpg)
From the most recent play session. I like how I can dip in for thirty minute and not feel too pressured if I have to leave and do something else. This planet has vortex cubes underground, so I may be here a while, even if the frequent rainstorms are highly dangerous. It's a nice planet in the rare sunny moments, though.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/96wG94q.jpg)
I believe the next patch is supposed to make scanning flying creatures easier, which is nice because I'd rather feel quietly joyful rather than annoyed when I see rather majestic flocks of bat-winged-dog-headed-bird-things

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/FIeMrNz.jpg)
This planet had ridiculously tall, spindly spires of Aluminum everywhere.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/OXmjwEc.jpg)
I've seen floating islands occasionally, but this ringed one with a hole in the middle was new to me.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/AbafYu0.jpg)
I do like the selection of plants. There's a lot of nicely alien weirdness that still feels plausible.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/PXFODw2.jpg)
This should really have been a photography game.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/tgXBt2x.jpg)
I decided what I wanted to say to Atlas after I read a log in an abandoned building that described what someone saw when they dissected an active Sentinel.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/R1ZpyIx.jpg)
The Vy'keen were the last of the three sentient species that I encountered. They taught me their word for "death".

I haven't been able to get back to it since the week it was released. Keep meaning to, but life gets in the way...

Seems like every time I start up the PS4 though, there's an update for it.

I've taken a break from this too, but it's not the game's fault. It was what I needed during those few weeks with the baby where I was too tired to concentrate on Witcher 3. Now that I've gotten more used to the sleep deprivation, I'm back to Witcher 3 because I like me some story. I'll definitely keep this around to pop into off and on, and eventually I'll probably focus on it and try and get to the middle just to see what happens. I'll probably be disappointed.

Certis wrote:

Discussions about the developers of the game or controversies surrounding them can go to their own thread.

Oh sure, you say that now, but we start one haterade thread, and it's all nuns with rulers up in here.

Chaz wrote:

I've taken a break from this too, but it's not the game's fault. It was what I needed during those few weeks with the baby where I was too tired to concentrate on Witcher 3. Now that I've gotten more used to the sleep deprivation, I'm back to Witcher 3 because I like me some story. I'll definitely keep this around to pop into off and on, and eventually I'll probably focus on it and try and get to the middle just to see what happens. I'll probably be disappointed.

I do think the game is pitched at a more casual pacing than what some of us are used to. With the gentle penalties for inattention, it's probably a good game to play while holding a baby. (As long as you can work out how to control it with one hand.) As opposed to, say, Elite Dangerous, which is much more intrusive about demanding your attention.

(Protip: Civ V works out great for holding a baby. Turn-based and can be entirely mouse-driven.)

I've avoided a ton of forums for this game and even though I've put maybe 50 hrs in, I'm still not entirely sure what the procedural generation is capable of.
I know often times it leads to very similar type stuff but has anyone found anything really unique creature wise? Giants or anything bigger then the usual 6 meters? Or has it been said that it's not capable of doing this yet? Other then a pure water planet I kind of figured I'd seen most of the variations that are capable. Looking at Gremlins screens though I'm seeing a sky colour that I've never seen, a floating island that's not shaped anything like I've seen. I am assuming the pyramid is story related but maybe not? Kind of makes me want to poke around tonight just thinking that there may be a chance to see stuff that might be unexpected. Anyone seen anything that actually shocked you that you haven't seen anything similar to since?

Also curious if there is a limit to the extreme planets for temperature/radiation/shield damage. I've never landed on one that could kill my shields in seconds I usually have 10-15 minutes which is always more then enough time to survive. Anyone been to anything that harsh? I know the sentinels can make planets hell to visit but I wonder about environments.

I don't know about seconds, but I've definitely been in storms that reduce survival time to under a minute. The 75% warning was actually helpful for once.

As for creature variation, I've seen some fairly big ones. Not as big as some other people's screenshots, and maybe under what you're thinking of as 6m, but quite large. Due to the way the creature generator works, all the creatures you see are going to follow the same general rules of construction, though there's quite a lot of variation in how it applies those rules. I saw a sunfish-like creature underwater that took me by surprise, last time I played. Also, I'm willing to bet you haven't seen all of the base patterns yet. The hopping pineapples are usually pretty memorable. The giant hopping pineapples even more so.

I think if people are looking for big, game-play-affecting differences they'll be disappointed; the relatively gentle nature of the mechanics and the way important resources are distributed in a way that you can ignore other parts of the terrain means that the differences aren't as in-your-face as they could be. (The high-end materials are only found on some planets, which helps differentiate the planets but does make the empty spaces between them feel less significant.) I've been using it as a photography simulator, which makes each dip in the terrain potentially have significance, if only for how I'm going to line up my next shot.

The story/lore stuff is surprisingly well done, though it's just about all background stuff rather than an active quest thing.

...I want the ship from the hero image.

52 hours. I got my fill. I had a great time

Rat Boy wrote:

...I want the ship from the hero image.

I think that was my starting ship. Maybe.

Certis wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

...I want the ship from the hero image.

I think that was my starting ship. Maybe.

Pre-order ship?

My starting ship looks like a geo metro with stubby wings.

Mine doesn't necessarily look like a Geo Metro, but it does look like the spaceship equivalent of a Geo Metro.

I started the "no complaints" thread, and later asked to have it removed in favor of something like this new catch-all thread. I am perfectly happy about all this. To those who thought I might feel bad about suggestions that my thread was unnecessary, let me say I am perfectly happy with this resolution and am not feeling hurt. Thank you. On the one hand, I enjoy "a certain toughening of the mental hide" which that thug Justice Holmes recommended; on the other hand, there is not so much niceness in the world already that we can't use a bit more. And thanks, Sean.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

Mine doesn't necessarily look like a Geo Metro, but it does look like the spaceship equivalent of a Geo Metro.

Mine looked like a Viper from BSG with most of the nose removed.

Rave wrote:

Curious if there is a limit to the extreme planets for temperature/radiation/shield damage. I've never landed on one that could kill my shields in seconds I usually have 10-15 minutes which is always more then enough time to survive. Anyone been to anything that harsh?

I've found a couple of really hostile planets. They won't kill you in seconds, but will kill you in 10 minutes, which isn't really enough to do anything except leave. I had to mine 300 nickel on one, and doing that was a real PiTA. So, no instant kills, but some pain.

[EDIT:] Problems now include vicious, very fast, beasts.

On the whole, I'm enjoying this game. It certainly is s*l*o*w, though. On the podcast, that Londoner who seemed to have played quite a bit more than I said that the game "opens up", i.e. becomes less of an enigma, after 30 to 40 hours play. Now that I've heard that, I can probably wait for that to happen.

I wish this game had a f***ing manual. Why is your shielding different from the shielding your exosuit gives you. It seems to be that bar at the upper left of the screen, that shows vulnerability of you in your exosuit and you in your ship. When you refuel your exosuit and ship shields, it doesn't seem to change. It grows back, apparently.

And what's the "health" statistics that some machines and plants refill. How do you know what your health is? Is there a bar on the screen for it.

These are elementary questions and probably many of you know the answers. But I've played about 30 hours and I don't.

Okay, so here we go:

1. Your life support bar is the thing that generally keeps you alive. Think of it as like an oxygen tank. It's the white bar in the lower left of the screen.

2. Then there is radiation protection, and that's handled by the bar above the white one in the lower left. This bar can change color based on the type of harmful environment. Green is radiation, blue is cold, etc.

3. That bar in the upper left is the shield level for your exosuit. It is separate from your shield on your ship. When you get shot by sentinals or attacked, that bar goes down. It will automatically regenerate after time has passed without taking damage. If that bar is depleted, we move to...

4. Health. Health is represented by the symbols below the shield bar in the upper left (the boxes with the + in them). If you take damage after the shield bar is depleted, you lose one health.

From what I've found the machines/aliens that refill either shields or health are pretty useless, since you can avoid most battles before you really injure yourself. This is especially true for the shield machines, because as stated previously, the shields automatically recharge.

Hope this helped answered your questions!

I still dont understand what the '+1' or '+2' symbols mean on the tech.

Are there different variants out there with better stats or something?

I also found a fairly good explanation of the HUD at http://www.polygon.com/no-mans-sky/2....

Jacknine wrote:

I still dont understand what the '+1' or '+2' symbols mean on the tech.

Are there different variants out there with better stats or something?

Just means a stronger version of that tech, right? I'm not sure anyone has dug up the underneath numbers, but if your mining beam +1 collects 1 gold/sec the +2 now collects 2 gold/sec, etc.

I don't think it's terribly complicated, really, higher numbers = better. Unless there's something I've missed in all the text descriptions.

garion333 wrote:
Jacknine wrote:

I still dont understand what the '+1' or '+2' symbols mean on the tech.

Are there different variants out there with better stats or something?

Just means a stronger version of that tech, right? I'm not sure anyone has dug up the underneath numbers, but if your mining beam +1 collects 1 gold/sec the +2 now collects 2 gold/sec, etc.

I don't think it's terribly complicated, really, higher numbers = better. Unless there's something I've missed in all the text descriptions.

That's pretty much it. The tech comes in a simple progression of +1, +2, +3, with each level increasing whatever stat the thing affects. This is clearest on the multitool upgrades, which come in enough variety that you'll see things for making the beam better for mining, recharge time, etc.

There's two twists here:

- First, the upgrades stack. But only with different levels. So having a +1 and a +1 only gets you +1. Having +1 and +2 gets you better than +2. (I'm not sure if it's equal to +3, but it's definitely better than just +2.)

- Second, placing related upgrades next to each other increases their strength. They'll have a colored outline to indicate this. So putting a +1 jetpack boost next to a +2 jetpack boost gets you better than +1,+2 in distant slots.

Certis wrote:

This is the catch-all for No Man's Sky to discuss the game itself. Discussions about the developers of the game or controversies surrounding them can go to their own thread.

Is this the go forward rule from here on out for all games? For example some controversy springs up around the new DX for their "All Aug Lives Matter"

Come to think of it, maybe a list of the obscure bits of the game would come in handy?

- Upgrades stack, but only if the numbers are different. (+1, +2, +3 stacks; +3, +3 does not.)
- Upgrades get a bonus if they're next to each other. You know it's working if there's a colored outline.
- On the PC, the galactic map scan for discoveries key is actually "X", not "TAB".
- If you're pushing into a wall, you can use the jetpack to climb indefinitely without running out of fuel
- When changing ships make sure you transfer your inventory items to the new ship, it doesn't do it automatically
- The mining laser only affects valuable minerals. The grenades let you tunnel into any terrain.
- The tunnels you dig can become populated by the local flora

Some screenshots:

Spoiler:

IMAGE(http://wallpapercave.com/wp/IVRxE8o.jpg)
IMAGE(http://www.glidemagazine.com/glide/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Tales-Yes-Cover.jpg)
IMAGE(http://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/relayer-wide.jpg)
IMAGE(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4100/4760775321_631938c213_b.jpg)
IMAGE(http://classicyes.net/images/unionfront.jpg)
IMAGE(http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/105/cover_95181642016_r.jpg)
IMAGE(http://www.dementia5.com/ezine/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Yes.jpg)
:-)

I decided to push through the Atlas quest line the other day. I really enjoyed the vague nature of the story and the mystery it created... that was awesome and totally scratched my sci-fi itch. Unfortunately the completion of the quest was a big missed opportunity on their part.

Next I'll be journeying to the center of the galaxy. I've heard questionable things about that as well, but I'm still going to do it "for something to do". It's funny because there is a level of sameness to the planets that is clearly in place to keep the game from getting too frustrating, but I still find myself enjoying running around trying to identify a whole slew of new flora and fauna. There's not much of a point to doing it but it's usually relaxing, sometimes a little challenging and every now and then you come across something really cool. I need to get the screenshots off of my PS4, I know I've come across some really neat stuff!

I've read others mention they wish this was just a photo collection game and kind of agree. For example, I could imagine getting "quests" where you were asked to go take photos of animals with certain features (height, diet, living condition, whatever). That would give you a bit more reason to run around trying to collect all these different animals. Some sort of random quest system that played off of the highly random nature of the planet generation would be really fun.

Right now one of my biggest driving factors is learning the languages. Not to help solve any riddles or anything, I just want to see more of the words filled in

My wife asked me last night, "Why do you love this game?" I said, "It's my zen space."

When I play NMS, I'm there. I am that explorer, crash landed on a strange alien world, finding my way forward. I have about 35 hours in so far, and I have not yet left my initial star system. I've only explored 2 of the 3 planets there, both of which I hit 100% in flora/fauna scans. I still can't speak Korvax fluently, the native language of this system, and love finding the language stones and monoliths scattered across the globes. I only have 2.7 million units in the bank, mostly from harvesting large obelisk columns of aluminum, copper and heridium that are scattered about.

I'm happily addicted because No Man's Sky is the perfect stress release for me. Tonight, I can't wait to move on to that 3rd planet and see what I can find there!

Kudos to you, I put in about 5 hours on my starter and couldn't wait to leave! I was so tired of seeing the same things over and over again.

I played a bit this afternoon and underwater stuff for some reason feels more exciting than stuff on land. Probably because it looks like there's more going on with things swimming and plants swaying.

I get the zen space comment, because that's what driving through California in American Truck Sim is for me.

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