Neat. I still need to cacthup on so many older update thingies, but new expeditions are usually fun.
I might finally be clicking with this game. I can’t stand the survival and crafting stuff, so someone suggested creative mode, which has all the story and mission stuff but is much lighter on the resource gathering. So far I’m digging it.
I also didn’t know space stations had a mission guy! I love mission guys! Give me all the missions!
new update (finally) adds ship customization:
I’m REALLY tempted to jump back in to No Man’s Sky seeing that trailer. I feel like it’d be worth trying to learn what the heck I was doing and where I was going.
I’m REALLY tempted to jump back in to No Man’s Sky seeing that trailer. I feel like it’d be worth trying to learn what the heck I was doing and where I was going.
I tried this with the last update and gave up - I think I need to commit to starting again from scratch. I'll give it to Hello Games so much has changed since I last played it felt like a genuinely new experience
I’m REALLY tempted to jump back in to No Man’s Sky seeing that trailer. I feel like it’d be worth trying to learn what the heck I was doing and where I was going.
Currently on sale on Steam for 50% off!
That looks really good.
I have been playing again since Orbital and it's still the same game, just with some more things to do.
Probably the best open world / space exploration game out there. It has absolutely not structure though whatsoever
New update, including Expedition 13, Adrift. Sizable update.
Further update today, hopefully to remove some of the suck.
New update, including Expedition 13, Adrift. Sizable update.
Further update today, hopefully to remove some of the suck.
Started this before ive gone off for a long weekend break. Its OK.
H.P. Lovesauce wrote:New update, including Expedition 13, Adrift. Sizable update.
Further update today, hopefully to remove some of the suck.
Started this before ive gone off for a long weekend break. Its OK.
Concur. The suck abated, as the front-loaded suck of any new NMS game does, but I'm still happy to see it in my rear-view.
Gotta love the community. Adrift is all about the old-school experience of "being alone--aloooooone!--in the galaxy (although spawning on the same planet with dozens of other players ruins the effect). Much of the frustration of the expedition, however, is eased by those same players. End up in a ruined space station, with an operable old teleporter, and among your destination options will be many player bases that satisfy the requirements of numerous expedition goals. Suck mitigated by the kindness of strangers.
I admit I ended up using someone’s staircase to nowhere to complete at least one of the expedition objectives.
I also learned that you can use the log mission to help find what it is you are looking for. I didn’t realise it was that versatile until I needed to look for the synthetic lifeforms, and you set it up and it will tell you where to go in the Galaxy Map.
I also learned that you can use the log mission to help find what it is you are looking for. I didn’t realise it was that versatile until I needed to look for the synthetic lifeforms, and you set it up and it will tell you where to go in the Galaxy Map.
Orrr to look at it another way, if you don't have a mission specifically selected in the Log, you will never get any guidance (or sometimes credit).
I must give another go.
I started this on Saturday afternoon.
I initially launched it in VR, but realised quickly that this was a mistake. The game has too many systems, and it's User Interface is to complicated, for this to be a comfortable way to start one's first game. To be honest, I'm not sure it's every going to quite work, even when I understand the game more fully. The control scheme they've implemented is just too fiddly.
So I restarted using a standard controller, which was easier, but the game still feels very systems-heavy and complicated. Also, is it my imagination or age or ineptness, but does the game throw a lot of things at the player while do a poor job of explaining things? I found myself having to look up how to make things like 'pure ferrite' and 'di-hydrogen jelly'. And I'm still no clear on why I can just turn 'ferrite dust' into 'metal plate' without having to refine it like other materials.
I've not really felt "the grind" yet... though I can see how it will come about. There are an awful lot of materials and potentially an awful lot of 'recipes' for things. I can imagine the requirements for individuals becoming steep as the game progresses.
A quick question for more experienced players: Is there any benefit in me scouring my starting planet for resources to stockpile? If so, what should I be focusing on? I'm assuming that some materials (such as, copper and ferrite dust) will be absolutely everywhere in the universe, while other things will be rare.
One thing is annoying me: base construction. I made my first wooden shelter, but - for the life of me - I could not put the roof on properly. It always ended up only half-covering the room beneath. And my walls were never properly square. What am I missing? And can I avoid having to do too much of this?
I wouldn’t worry too much about stockpiling, although maintaining a level around 1000 for what I think as the ‘basic’ resources - ferrite, oxygen, carbon, sodium & copper isn’t rhe worst idea. By the time you unlock things like freighters then you’ll probably be either buying the resources you use, or earning them from guild rewards and things like that. You’ll have built most of what you need in any case and you’ll have less reason to stockpile resources in any case.
One thing I would say is that you reach a point where you will need to keep stocked up on Di-Hydrogen and Tritrium to keep your freighters and starship(s) warping. They seem to be the two resources the game just doesn’t dish out that regularly, although they are easy enough to ‘mine’.
I’m a little underwhelmed by the current Helldive… Liquidators expedition. The combat is this game isn’t really strong enough to hang an entire expedition from.
Is there any benefit in me scouring my starting planet for resources to stockpile?
No benefit. You should get off the first planet ASAP and find one more hospitable.
Did you ignore the tutorial at the start of the game? The tutorial guides you through getting off the starting planet, because that planet is always a hazardous one. I always found that an ingenious way to start, dropping you on a rough planet and teaching you how to survive them. In the course of your travels, you are gonna kiss a lot of frog planets before finding a prince planet.
I ask because the other stuff you mentioned about fabricating things is covered in the tutorial as well.
Yeah, the tutorial is somewhat harder than most planets, I guess based on the idea that you need to be able to do a few things well under pressure, and practice them (by dying a few times, not too bad) until you get comfortable with the basic mechanics. Then you can, should, must leave that planet behind and go somewhere better to actually make your first base and settle into things.
Thing is, if you don't have the experience of sorting out important things to collect for your immediate safety from just grabbing whatever is out there, and then doing simple things to stay alive, you'll get caught out in early game regular and think "Oh, this game is just too finicky, too hard", when in fact the tutorial is really the "git gud" part of the equation, and does not last that long. The skills you build there will help you when things go sideways on a planet because you run out of the mineral to make the batteries that cool you during a heat wave, stuff like that.
My issue with the game was more motion sickness. 
If you can, skip the normal tutorial and go with an expedition start. You’ll still learn enough to get going without all the annoying parts of the normal character start.
Thanks for the advice, everyone!
I thought I'd completed the tutorial after reaching the space station, but - after it sent me straight back to my starting planet to find a crashed freighter - I realised that I probably hadn't quite finished it yet. I'm now busy trying to create a hyperdrive unit.
A few further thoughts:
In terms of the crafting bit, what I want 'in-game' is an easily accessible recipes page like nomanskyrecipes.com. My character doesn't appear to have a record of what I know how to make, and - crucially - how to make it. Whenever I I need to craft something I go to the in-game menus... and don't find it. And then I go to the 'Pause' menu... and don't find it. It's may well be there, but I just don't see it.
As part of my jaunt to the space station, I was told to visit a particular vendor and increase the Inventory of my ExoSuit. So I went to the vendor... and it didn't have any upgrades related to my Inventory.
Finally, I've just seen the outline of 'The Grind'. I need to buy 5 microprocessors for my Hyperdrive. Cost? 110,000 units. I have 20,000. I can see where this is heading...
I can help you with ‘inventory space’ - in every space station next to the exosuit module vendor is a blue pillar with a hologram backpack in it. You can buy one slot increase to you exosuit - you can choose to add it to the technology section or the storage section - per space station by interacting with that pillar
You can also - assuming you’ve got that far - call in the anomaly to every new system you visit and buy one there too.
There are also ‘drop pods’ on every planet were you can spend a few resources and components to get an extra slot.
I can’t stress enough you will want to do this every time you visit a new system in the early game. Unlocking new storage space is very important.
Getting more slots for spacecraft and freighters is considerably more ‘Grindy’.
I'm pretty sure that if you hover over an item box of something you want to craft one of the interface options is "Pin this Recipe." This essentially adds a temporary quest to your quest log. When you switch to tracking that quest you'll get quest dialogs telling you what you need to make it.
If you click an empty space in your inventory and hover over a craftable item blueprint, it should show you what items you need in the info box, and let you pin its recipe.
Also, in my experience the "difficulty" of the starting planet is pretty random, and some are milder than others.
Re: base building: In theory the roof pieces should snap to the walls when you point at the green balls. Either your snap to grid function is off, or maybe you need to rotate the roof piece to get it to align correctly.
As part of my jaunt to the space station, I was told to visit a particular vendor and increase the Inventory of my ExoSuit. So I went to the vendor... and it didn't have any upgrades related to my Inventory.
They are accessed via the hologram in the tube *behind* the vendor. Or just the bare tube if the hologram doesn't show up.
And your financial situation will change radically once you get access to the gate system and can begin trading between stations. At that point, you'll be able to get money whenever you need it (and you'll spend it just as quickly).
Finally, I've just seen the outline of 'The Grind'. I need to buy 5 microprocessors for my Hyperdrive. Cost? 110,000 units. I have 20,000. I can see where this is heading...
Engage any money making scheme for a few minutes or just play casually with an upgraded scanner for a little while and you'll quickly find yourself with millions, maybe even billions more units than you know what to do with.
There's really very little grind in this game, unless you decide you're going to reload your game over and over until the perfect S-class freighter appears or something. But regular play is very relaxed. Hell, you can even just edit your save file if you want, the game won't stop you.
Thanks for the advice, everyone!
I thought I'd completed the tutorial after reaching the space station, but - after it sent me straight back to my starting planet to find a crashed freighter - I realised that I probably hadn't quite finished it yet. I'm now busy trying to create a hyperdrive unit.
Here is a place where the game is fiddly, and almost treacherous: To complete a quest, you must have it selected in your log in order to get credit for it. And to access the next step.
If you slavishly follow their chain(s) of quests, you get a hell of a lot farther faster than if you were to grind.
detroit20 wrote:Thanks for the advice, everyone!
I thought I'd completed the tutorial after reaching the space station, but - after it sent me straight back to my starting planet to find a crashed freighter - I realised that I probably hadn't quite finished it yet. I'm now busy trying to create a hyperdrive unit.
Here is a place where the game is fiddly, and almost treacherous: To complete a quest, you must have it selected in your log in order to get credit for it. And to access the next step.
If you slavishly follow their chain(s) of quests, you get a hell of a lot farther faster than if you were to grind.
Ha, I've probably missed some stuff because I tend to get distracted easily from main quests.
So after fighting off pirates attacking an imperiled freighter, I appear find myself the owner of capital freighter plus a smaller freighter that forms the basis of my nascent fleet. This delighted me for two reasons:
One, because it removed the frustrations of managing the relatively small inventories of my exosuit and my starting ship, and;
Two, because it also solved my worries about upgrading my ship to something larger with bigger range.
My only experience with a game (a little) like this is, of course, Elite: Dangerous, a game which I found incredibly parsimonious. Nothing was free... and everything that wasn't free was incredibly expensive. It took me weeks of play to work my way up from the starting Sidewinder to a modestly equipped Asp Explorer.
I think I'm going to like the fleet system. One of my main gripes about Elite: Dangerous was that the only business model available to the player was that of 'sole trader'. If I wanted, say, to expand my trading business, I couldn't buy another small ship and hire someone to fly it for me. I had to buy a bigger ship, and fly it myself.
I know much ink has been spilled about the foibles of the ED economy, but it is deeply strange that the only way for a small business (as I was) to expand was to earn and spend their own money. An entire galaxy to explore, but no potential investors with free capital, no banks willing to make business expansion loans, and no starship manufacturers willing to offer finance on ships sales and upgrades! And my business had a pretty good track record...
Playing NMS has me itching to give Elite Dangerous another whirl. The flying/ship systems management part was fantastic... but the rest of the game became a real drag after a while. so far, I think the reverse is true in NMS.
While you can land on, walk around, and repair your frigates, you can't actually directly fly them. But they will make you TONS of money and find fun resources as long as you keep sending them out on missions. You'll want to learn the di-hydrogen trick for keeping them going. Basically you keep your personal suit refiner, or one on the ground constantly churning between di-hydrogen crystals and jellies. I think it takes 30 crystals to make a jelly, but you get 50 crystals back when you convert a jelly. So you can go back and forth infinitely, building up your supply while your frigates are out, then craft some fuel for them, and then start the cycle again with your leftovers. And also mine the crystals on planet surfaces while you're out and about. Maxing out your frigate fleet with a variety of frigate types is a good way to bootstrap your income flow, although some players find fleet management tedious after a while, and only send out a few at a time.
Honestly it’s easier to occasionally land on a planet and just mine the Di-Hydrogen crystals, and then find an asteroid field and blast away for the Tritrium.
Once you have 4 fleets of 5 ships you’ll need to do that fairly often. Don’t rely on the refiners you can build on your freighter though - it’ll disappear when you warp to new systems. I can’t believe they still haven’t fixed that.
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