Game Discussions The No Man's Sky Thread

One of three things has happened here:

1) The game has multiplayer support, but the two players encountered a bug. If this is the case HG will be quick to point it out.
2) The game never had multiplayer support and Sean's earlier statements were lies.
3) The game was planned to have multiplayer support but it was quietly dropped.

Given HG haven't jumped on this, I don't think it's 1). I really hope it's not 2) because that would be extremely poor form on behalf of both HG and Sean. I'm leaning toward 3) but if so it disappoints me that HG didn't have the collective cojones to own up to it. Having said that, implementing support for players to meet up in-game always struck me as being a lot of work for something that was always intended to be highly unlikely. Even getting to the point where you can see another player's avatar isn't straightforward, never mind the work involved in creating backend lobby/instance code that's robust.

Anyway, regardless of the multiplayer support, nothing I've seen so far really points to this being a £40 game. It's been hyped to oblivion so it'll sell well at that price point, but I think I'll be waiting until it's on sale.

What would be the point to build a "base" in a game that's main goal is to reach a distant point (the center of the infinite color cloud)?

The nesting instinct is strong in some!
 
True, but neither Minecraft nor Don't Starve did cost 60 € on release and where backed by so much marketing.

To be fair marketing has been mostly OK. What hasn't been is PR....HG and Sean didn't do reality check for fans regarding feature set and it shows.

As for price - it is valid criticism and it will be brought up against this game again and again. I don't think it is end of the world though - if you sink few hundred hours, I think 60 USD is fully justified. But I won't get it at that price, because only game I backed with so much - and more - money was and will stay ED.
 
So you will judge Horizons on only 20% of it released?

Yup - I now judge by what I can see, not what is promised. (talk is cheap you see - FD taught me that)

NMS is a refreshing twist on the space genre IMO.

ED went for semi-realism whilst NSM went for fun.

Different games .. different market.
 
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This one is not too bad. It's a playthrough of the first 16 minutes by IGN. The player is efficient but is doing pure sandbox stuff - gathering mats etc. - so there is no reveal of the alien species,texts, trading etc. Basically it's the "training scenario" that starts the game, so spoilage is minimal but it gives a feel for what the game is like in its basics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TKaVFxSIWQ
Thanks! That was just what I was looking for :) This game should suit me perfectly - I love crafting and survival games like MineCraft and Ark Survival. The same thing set in what looks like a great sci-fi universe can't be anything other than brilliant!

I can however see that it won't replace Elite for me like I had hoped a while ago. The flight aspects are just too simple to give that proper "space pilot" feeling which Elite, despite its faults, does incredibly well. It will however be a great supplement to my space-game diet ;)
 
What would be the point to build a "base" in a game that's main goal is to reach a distant point (the center of the infinite color cloud)?
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That was more or less Seans approach to the situation, but as i mentioned above he said he would not have a problem if players wanted to do that, and not 'get on' with the game to get to the centre. So adding in base building, just gives those players that might not want to do the 'main quest' something else. They might find their perfect planet and want to settle down on it for example.
 
Yup - I now judge by what I can see, not what is promised. (talk is cheap you see - FD taught me that)

NMS is a refreshing twist on the space genre IMO.

ED went for semi-realism whilst NSM went for fun.

Different games .. different market.

I find ED take relaxing and fun, while some people will find it frustrating. And some people will find constant survival nagging of NMS annoying, while some people will enjoy heck out of it.

But yeah, they are very different games.
 
I'll definitely be interested to start seeing screenshots of what (are I think are PG created?) creatures NMS throws out, but I don't think this one's for me. That's beyond driving my imagination of course, of what may or may not be inhabiting ED water worlds, and what "big game hunting" may or may not bring!
 
There's another important issue at play here, defining the way players approach games these days. Something we mention from time to time but don't really pay much attention to.

Many old gamers, especially those over 30 are familiar with video game advertisement tropes. We got used to it in a very natural way since late 80s to about 2005. Game marketing always hyped things up and we knew (and still know) exactly what to expect from a game after viewing its marketing campaign.

Then after about 2004-2005 something happened and people apparently lost that intuition. They nowadays seem to believe even more than the advertisement claims. Back in the 90s, a game advertisement said "an unprecedented adventure that will take you to the heart of vast jungle teeming with life" and you knew you'd get a maze of trees with walls of impassable shrubbery, filled with scripted animals attacking you in predictable intervals for an on rails experience. We still had fun with it. Now the same thing happens but the animations and the way scripting works has advanced a little so you get a greater suspension of disbelief and have a richer experience.

Now, somehow people understand and expect things either as literally written in the ad or they expect even more. ED's 'blaze your own trail' becomes 'I'll be able to found my own little empire and then should be able to conquer my corner o f the galaxy' instead of the 'the game won't tell you what to do in any given time and you'll have to choose from what's available'.

The same thing is true for NMS. They said 'a PG universe with quintillion planets to visit and you'll get to see what the generation algorithm throws at you as interesting combinations of colours and movement. Someday after release you'll even be able to meet and interact with other players but don't expect multiplayer at launch. It'll come later when the game matures and lot's of people get through the single player experience'. It somehow became 'I'll be a space pirate and blow up half of my planet and build my base in the resulting asteroid field and I'll launch the photon torpedoes I'll invent using the technology I'll steal from aliens'.
 
That was more or less Seans approach to the situation, but as i mentioned above he said he would not have a problem if players wanted to do that, and not 'get on' with the game to get to the centre. So adding in base building, just gives those players that might not want to do the 'main quest' something else. They might find their perfect planet and want to settle down on it for example.
Base building is definitely coming

Next up we’re adding the ability to build bases and own giant space freighters. Temporal AA and my new cloud rendering tech should be coming soon too. It will really change the game again, and enhance it visually.


http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/08/update-1-03/
 
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I'll definitely be interested to start seeing screenshots of what (are I think are PG created?) creatures NMS throws out, but I don't think this one's for me. That's beyond driving my imagination of course, of what may or may not be inhabiting ED water worlds, and what "big game hunting" may or may not bring!
What I have seen in LP and reviews creatures look good, they reuse body parts, but when they are meshed together works. I personally feel that there are too many animals...they could have decreased number of species and make them more meaningful.

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Now, somehow people understand and expect things either as literally written in the ad or they expect even more. ED's 'blaze your own trail' becomes 'I'll be able to found my own little empire and then should be able to conquer my corner o f the galaxy' instead of the 'the game won't tell you what to do in any given time and you'll have to choose from what's available'.

The same thing is true for NMS. They said 'a PG universe with quintillion planets to visit and you'll get to see what the generation algorithm throws at you as interesting combinations of colours and movement. Someday after release you'll even be able to meet and interact with other players but don't expect multiplayer at launch. It'll come later when the game matures and lot's of people get through the single player experience'. It somehow became 'I'll be a space pirate and blow up half of my planet and build my base in the resulting asteroid field and I'll launch the photon torpedoes I'll invent using the technology I'll steal from aliens'.

Excellent argument there, repped +1.
 
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That was more or less Seans approach to the situation, but as i mentioned above he said he would not have a problem if players wanted to do that, and not 'get on' with the game to get to the centre. So adding in base building, just gives those players that might not want to do the 'main quest' something else. They might find their perfect planet and want to settle down on it for example.

Yeah, but that sounds weird, doesn't it. Getting to the center was the main design for the last five years. And now suddenly they want to add stuff that works against this design. I cannot imagine how a good game can come out of this. You cannot make everyone happy. I'd rather have they focus on making the trip to the center more exciting. A good/meaningful base building game is not something you come up with in a "patch". There need to be a lot systems that interact with bases, there needs to be diversity, a reason. With that fidelity it will never be as flexible as Minecraft. So what will it be?
 
Yeah, but that sounds weird, doesn't it. Getting to the center was the main design for the last five years. And now suddenly they want to add stuff that works against this design. I cannot imagine how a good game can come out of this. You cannot make everyone happy. I'd rather have they focus on making the trip to the center more exciting. A good/meaningful base building game is not something you come up with in a "patch". There need to be a lot systems that interact with bases, there needs to be diversity, a reason. With that fidelity it will never be as flexible as Minecraft. So what will it be?

Sean has pointed out that No Man's Sky is a game that is being developed for years to come and it will consistently evolve. The game as it is now, is just a canvas.

And I can't stress enough that even when you reach the center - the game doesn't end. It goes on.
 
Sean has pointed out that No Man's Sky is a game that is being developed for years to come and it will consistently evolve. The game as it is now, is just a canvas.

And I can't stress enough that even when you reach the center - the game doesn't end. It goes on.

Yeah, and that's fine. But please don't make another "ED-style" game, where rather shallow gameplay is added before the gameplay that is already in the game receives the polish it needs.
 
People love being able to have their own homes in games, its got to be one of the most popular requests from playerbases.

I still remember my old house on Tatooine...oh the memories...
 
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Sean has pointed out that No Man's Sky is a game that is being developed for years to come and it will consistently evolve. The game as it is now, is just a canvas.
So does the £40 that I'm considering spending cover any and all updates to the game? Is there a roadmap for future releases? Or is this based on vague bits of information that Sean may or may not have said during interviews where he's trying to build hype and sell his game? Forgive me for being cynical, but I've been sold the moon on a stick before and been caught out *cough*Godus*cough*.

And I can't stress enough that even when you reach the center - the game doesn't end. It goes on.
Presumably it goes on in quite the same way though, which for some people will negate the endgame aspect of reaching the centre.
 
So does the £40 that I'm considering spending cover any and all updates to the game? Is there a roadmap for future releases? Or is this based on vague bits of information that Sean may or may not have said during interviews where he's trying to build hype and sell his game? Forgive me for being cynical, but I've been sold the moon on a stick before and been caught out *cough*Godus*cough*.
I've played the game for 5 hours and I can tell already that for myself, the game is well worth the asking price as it is. There is no roadmap or anything, all we know is that the game keeps evolving and in the near future we will get base building and freighters in a patch.
 
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I don't care either way, but when the founder and main developer of the company says it's there, then it really should be there. The majority of people complaining that there's no multiplayer are those who feel they've been duped.


"So far" is about all you can say for Horizons given we only have 40% of the content. There's a chance that come the release of ED 2.4 you'll feel it was the best gaming purchase you made. NMS is released as-is, and any future developments will depend solely on whether HG believe it's worth the effort.

I'd not read a thing that there would be meaningful player interactions from Sean's comments, the most I'd expect from what I read was the ability to "see" the other player and that's it. I just can't believe the angst over what could just be a tech glitch. It's like "daddy promised me a pony" tantrums going on!!

I naivly thought that there would be some "exploration" style updates to coincide with Horizons.....we got driving around on barren landscapes, shooting the occasional shootable rock when we found it.......and that's about it. I have no interest in the "bases", crashed ships are not that interesting, engineers had the same affect as powerplay on me...i.e. awful. I'm not saying the game is awful, just that FD are making decisions that don't interest me at all. Even the stuff planned for this season don't interest me much, I want interesting things to find and a MUCH better way of cashing in exploration data...I know the later has some reasons, but those reasons are pure tosh for me personally. I'm not going to invest days, weeks even MONTHS of gaming to have it all wiped out, that is just NOT my idea of fun (hence I've concluded Elite is not the game for me beyond an occasional pick up)

I believe that until all planets are landable (gas Giants notwithstanding) and there are INTERESTING things to find on the planets then I'm pretty much done with Elite aside from the odd play every couple months or so.


So you will judge Horizons on only 20% of it released?

See reasons above

TLDR, Elite not the game for explorers I thought it would be, NMS seems to fit that bill for me.
 
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