No Man's Sky [PS4, PS5, XO, XBSX|S, PC, NX, XGP]

[MrFox]

That's what we were experiencing. You'd activate a beacon that'd identify a new point of interest, but it was hard to find it and you could encounter POI you'd already discovered.

Also the naming of the discoveries could get old real fast. I imagine most gamers will give up once the novelty's worn of and we'll be looking at the procedural names aplenty.

Every POI have a save point device. When you use the save point it then makes that location greyed out (like 50% alpha?) to show the places you already visited. Unvisited places have a solid icon.

The ones that you think are really important and you want to remember to go back... just name them accordingly?

 

[RenegadeRocks]

My son went from "this game is the definition of boring" when playing it on day one to loving it on day two. He figured out how to make tons of cash with the trading system and has bought several new ships. I'm still limping along in my starter ship

Does anyone know how to deal with the pirates? They basically killed me and took my stuff. I could not really fight back or run.

Kill them ! How dare they !

Me is flying around with tons of riches on my suit and ship and them scums show up....I run ...LOL ! I just run right back into th eplanet 's atmosphere to escape them. Thats the easiet. But when I has the sold my cargo I turn FEARLESS ! Pirate scum come, pirate scum DIE like rats !

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Every POI have a save point device. When you use the save point it then makes that location greyed out (like 50% alpha?) to show the places you already visited. Unvisited places have a solid icon.

The ones that you think are really important and you want to remember to go back... just name them accordingly?

Yea I use the naming to identify places/planets that have valuables or specific resources. If a planet is too good looking , its gets a fantasy name ! If you ever run into a planet named HellKnight or LaputaRed100 ....know that Renegade has been there !

he he, enjoying it too much to stay serious ! I was afraid it would get boring. The initial hours make u feel so, but no sire, the game just keeps getting more engrossing. I think the most important part is to not KNOW anything about it. The lesser you know, the more awe and wonder and exhilliration you feel upon discovering a new aspect, mechanic or place.

 

[orangpelupa]

how about the inconsistencies?
is there a alot? is it blatantly in your face? its no problem?

example of

blatantly in your face and annoying
- Destiny invisible wall and death barriers

in your face but bearable
- cannot jump grass in pokemon games (need to use "cut" skill)

lots of limitation but no problem at all
- uncharted 4 that feels huge and can do anything despite its a canned experience in a corridor

too accomodating
- MGSV that allows you to shortcut missions, throw enemies to hill, etc etc.

 

[Kyyla]

Looks a lot like Eliteangerous in terms of depth. That game was fantastic at first as well but boring really fast. Maybe I'll try this at 10€.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The ones that you think are really important and you want to remember to go back... just name them accordingly?

But the names don't appear on the icons, do they? We renamed all the outposts encountered but in orbit I didn't see any of our custom names on the icons.

 

[Clukos]

Game unlocks in 9 hours on Steam, i'll post some initial impressions here. I think i'll like it because i was never over hyped about it, having worked with procedural algorithms before i kinda know what to expect, i just hope it isn't too buggy

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Game unlocks in 9 hours on Steam, i'll post some initial impressions here. I think i'll like it because i was never over hyped about it, having worked with procedural algorithms before i kinda know what to expect, i just hope it isn't too buggy

The procedural algorithms are producing the environments and music, not the gameplay. Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, Rimworld, Sunless Sea, FTL, Space Engineers, Terraria and Torchlight all use procedural algorithms for environmental generation but none of them play alike. But I share your hope for it being a good port!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Gameplay is tied to levels which tends to be limited in what experiences can be provided. Procedural levels tend to get samey real fast, unless there are gameplay affecting elements to the levels which in this case would be environments, gravity, type of terrain and creatures (eg. cave-type worlds with fast creepers). Things like some very dangerous creatures avoid some types of features, and you learn to use these for cover. So on each planet, assign randomised behavioural relationships between features. Otherwise the levels/worlds are just skins. In a hand-designed game, each level can be structured around a different experience and balanced for variety and pacing.

It's not impossible for procedural content to create varied experiences, but it is rare, and NMS looks to be basically changing colours and shapes only (?).

 

[rabidrabbit]

Spent most of my second night with NMS searching for settlements with upgrade pods and upgrading my exo suits inventory blocks. They get more expensive the more you upgrade and soon I ran out of money.
Also jumped to another solar system for the first time. When I got out of the space station there, was attacked by two pirate ships. Panicked, tried to shoot them but they're too fast, tried boosting in to the nearest planet but they got me and all my valuables in ship inventory were lost. Did some quick explorng of the three new planets. One of them a greener planet with grasslands, lakes, but not much trees or any forests. Also poisonous rain. Another two were more rocky planets like the one I started from but also with some water, one had also poison rain. There were some small ruins underwater on one of them, but there didn't seem to be anything interesting there even though my HUD had a marking there.
I understand reading somewhere that as you get closer to the centre of the galaxy, the fauna will be more different. Now in these six planets I've visited, those that had animals, they all look kind of similar - all mammal type, not any giant creatures but like some crazy paleogene period animals.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The planet I saw had three base creature designs with the specific animals being variations.

Regards the poisonous rain, did it require you to act (take cover during shower) or is it just a constant shield drain requiring suit top ups?

 

[Sigfried1977]

how about the inconsistencies?
is there a alot? is it blatantly in your face? its no problem?

example of

blatantly in your face and annoying
- Destiny invisible wall and death barriers

in your face but bearable
- cannot jump grass in pokemon games (need to use "cut" skill)

lots of limitation but no problem at all
- uncharted 4 that feels huge and can do anything despite its a canned experience in a corridor

too accomodating
- MGSV that allows you to shortcut missions, throw enemies to hill, etc etc.

Have noticed none of the above. Your virtual alter ego is a little too slow unless running (thankfully I quickly found the neccessary blueprints to upgrade my stamina bar), but otherwise he's actually fairly maneuverable. You can just about walk across any surface that's not at a 90 degrees angle. As far as accomodation goes: I think it straddles a pretty good line there as well. You have to look for the right crafting materials, but mining them isn't anywhere near as excruciatingly slow as in your typical survival game. It also seems like the upgrade plans vital to make progress are doled out in non-random fashion. If it's hyperdrive plans you need, the next alien scientist is gonna have them for you.

 

[Sigfried1977]

The planet I saw had three base creature designs with the specific animals being variations.

Regards the poisonous rain, did it require you to act (take cover during shower) or is it just a constant shield drain requiring suit top ups?

It's most likely both. I haven't encountered poisonous rain yet (I did find an exosuit upgrade for that particular atmospheric condition though), but if it's anything like frost, or radiation, or heat, it's gonna take a toll on your shiedling systems unless you find appropriate shelter. In case of heat and frost, the day-night-cycle is also playing a major role. One of my starting planets was minus 70+ degrees centigrade during the night, but fine during the day. Caves will often shield you from radiation, and then there's all the man-made shelters which will do the same.

 

[rabidrabbit]

The planet I saw had three base creature designs with the specific animals being variations.

Regards the poisonous rain, did it require you to act (take cover during shower) or is it just a constant shield drain requiring suit top ups?

The rain gave my HUD a new constantly diminishing bar, I guess had I let it sink to zero my health would have started to drain.
I don't think the rain was constant, didn't really spend enough time outdoors on these planets so that I'd noticed any effect on my health.
There's an upgrade that you can build for your suit for better poison rain resistance, but didn't find it necessary at all. Maybe there are some places where the rain is more constant and/or poisonous where the suit upgrade would be needed.

 

[Clukos]

Yeah, i wasn't talking about gameplay. I think the biggest difference in the PC version favor will be the FOV slider, i think it is rather low in the Ps4 version from what I've seen so far.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Pop-in wasn't anything like as bad as seen in videos, although partially I think because they softened the transition as you can see the new detail being drawn dithered.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Gameplay is tied to levels which tends to be limited in what experiences can be provided. Procedural levels tend to get samey real fast, unless there are gameplay affecting elements to the levels which in this case would be environments, gravity, type of terrain and creatures (eg. cave-type worlds with fast creepers).

The variety of procedural generation will depend on the algorithm. Take Rimworld and Minecraft, both of which create terrestrial environments with distinct biomes. Rimworld plays safe in restricting the diversity, because it is a survival game, and Minecraft does not because survival is a mode you can disable or tune. Minecraft can throw out crazily weird environments or really dull ones. But in both, and NMS, the gameplay is centred in how and where you can go, how you interact with the environment and abstract mechanics like trading. What can and can't be traded, and the value of items, are derived from procedural algorithms.

Things like some very dangerous creatures avoid some types of features, and you learn to use these for cover. So on each planet, assign randomised behavioural relationships between features. Otherwise the levels/worlds are just skins. In a hand-designed game, each level can be structured around a different experience and balanced for variety and pacing. It's not impossible for procedural content to create varied experiences, but it is rare, and NMS looks to be basically changing colours and shapes only (?).

Hello Games have shown off great diversity in worlds and organisms but I doubt many people have had a chance to play the game long enough yet to experience more than a few degrees of the diversity that the game can produce. You're right in that a game where levels are designed can be more diverse but we rarely get that. Look at the GOTY open world environments we get in Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and GTA V. There's generally less variety in designed environments than what Hello Games have shown procedurally generated in NMS.

The issue is one of scale. Across 18 quintillion planets, and even planets within a star system with similar underlying evironmental/spacial features, you will get more real estate that feels similar than different compared to GTA V where you can drive from the city to the forest to the desert in 5 minutes. I would imagine this could be a hurdle for some (depending on where they start) early on but once you get your ship into a position where you can move around more freely (and further) and move around planets faster, it'll be easier to move through different environments quicker.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I also wanna stress just how determined and deliberate one apparently has to be in order to sabotage the game's performance. Despite blasting into orbit from outer space using the pulse thrusters many a time, I've never managed to make the framerate fall below its 30 fps target. Well, at least not in any way that was noticeable.

 

[SumoSaki]

Review of this game he hits the nail on the head.

Just watching the Angry Joe stream and game crashed 3 times.

 

[iroboto]

Review of this game he hits the nail on the head.

Just watching the Angry Joe stream and game crashed 3 times.

lol scan him for drugs.
haha.. oh man lol