Hellion. Anyone still playing?

Mole HD

Mole HD
I've just started playing again after a year break. Must admit (bugs aside) it's got me hooked. Myself and a couple of mates are playing on one of the community servers, which is less brutal than the official servers by a long chalk. As you own kit, the server discord has it's own insurance for your assets in game...believe me, replacing your stuff to save a fresh start is a godsend... the amount of times I've been wiped out during the very steep learning curve is beyond belief [where is it]

Getting used to plotting manual or custom orbits...managing and building parts, upgrades and resources, scavenging, mining...Wondering if that ship on the scanner is a human controlled ship or just another derelict...Are they armed, are they going to rob me or kill me..will they trade for stuff?

Enjoyable few days getting to grips with the game again with a few new features. It's still very early in development but definitely shows much promise. It's the kind of game where docking a couple of modules together is fraught with danger. Going EVA in the middle of a debris storm with a welder to frantically repair ship damage so you can jump to a custom orbit away from it...

My base built out of scavenged bits over 4 days...

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(It was supposed to look like this...but I was short of a few bits and not that great at docking them together)

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My copilot and mining buddy and a view of the cargo bay inside my mining ship, since I'm a miner as my preferred occupation, same as in E-D...except you cling to giant asteroids with a drill in your hand in Hellion whilst running out of suit air digging for Nitrates for the all important Nitrogen, Ice rocks for the other base element for making air and Regolith for the Helium 3 to power your ship. It's not about making credits...it's about survival.

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NMS

NMS
Originally Posted by Hellion blog
But Hellion is a game, not a novel and having to browse the internet for lore elements or read through several pages of text is not a very immersive way to tell the story about the largest disaster in human history.

singleplayer
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It seems that some developers learn......unfortunately others do not.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
Necronaught said:
I just looked at Hellion but the reviews are scathing. Just got into NMS for now.
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The reviewers tend to ignore that Hellion is an early alpha release. Of course there's bugs, there's also stuff that doesn't quite work as it should...but believe me, what is there is very good indeed. It can be brutal at times and very unforgiving as a game but playing on a good community server more than makes up for that side.

Zero Gravity are going in the right direction with the development of Hellion, they listen to their player base and action on issues ...It also has everything that was on my E-D wish list. Space legs, EVA, visible ship damage and repair, salvaging, station building and resource management, comprehensive orbital mechanics including setting custom orbits, wreck exploration, Newtonian flight model physics and a sensible crafting and item upgrade process.

Hellion also does everything that CiG can't get right with SC or is ever likely to.... even in it's early alpha state. I've never glitched through the hull of my ship, for instance... even when walking around and stowing or shifting cargo whilst in warp. I can also repair my ship whilst in warp or manage resources like air and HE3 for the fusion reactor.

What it doesn't have is ship to ship combat...although ship and station boarding is a gameplay feature as well as the resulting FPS PvP that contains... should you wish it. Resources can be scarce and other players resource stashes are fair game. You can of course hide your base from player scans in a high custom orbit and fit defences like automatic turrets in your ship interior or base or fit security locks in case of unwanted callers. You can also trade peacefully if that's your thing.

It also isn't as beautiful or as polished graphically as E-D or even SC (at a stretch).

My one wish for Hellion is planetary landings...you never know, it might happen some day :)
 
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Jaiotu

Jaiotu
Mole HD said:
The reviewers tend to ignore that Hellion is an early alpha release. Of course there's bugs, there's also stuff that doesn't quite work as it should...
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Good point. There are other space games that have been out of beta for years that still have bugs and stuff that doesn't quite work as it should ...
 

Skizomeuh

Skizomeuh
Sure there's many bugs, though I assume most are because of the online structure. Hopefully the singleplayer mode (I hoped for but didn't expect) will help making the experience better.

And I assure Hellion is very enjoyable as a solo game. Core loops are fun and challenging and well thought. It reminds me a lot of Subnautica's first hours of gameplay. And I guess their last devblog regarding story, quest ans solo mode are somewhat linked to Subnautica.

As I said elsewhere, I really hope FDEV will take Hellion in consideration regarding spacelegs if/when they come.
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
I see no point putting in hours of time only to have the things I've created wasted by some rando player. I guess this is why they now consider SP? Until then the whole concept doesn't resonate with me.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
Navigare Necesse Est said:
I see no point putting in hours of time only to have the things I've created wasted by some rando player. I guess this is why they now consider SP? Until then the whole concept doesn't resonate with me.
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Some of the official servers go for that kinda thing...but to be honest, it's so easy to avoid that side of the game it's really not an issue. I play on a community server that isn't so adversarial biased...there's lots of community servers and official servers out there so you can pick where you play and who you play with. You can even rent your own private server for £4 per month if you want to go that route.

The server I play on has an insurance scheme for everything you own, so should you lose your stuff or your entire base and hours and hours worth of scavenging...you get it back free of charge after a time penalty. Even choosing a fresh start from a death rather than a respawn...your old stuff is still insured and back where it was when you died. All you have to do is go pick it up.

Loss of equipment is in the main due to plotting a dodgy warp course through a planet from not checking your route properly in the 3D orrery map to a custom orbit, not checking planetary orbits when plotting a long jump to another planetary group or crashing into stuff by stamping too much pedal on the RCS and not being able to stop or avoid derelicts or outposts in time or spending too long in a large debris field looking for interesting stuff and having your ship destroyed by part of a station travelling at a gazzilion miles per hour (I take it you've seen that movie, Gravity?)...you don't need other players to nick it to lose it.

Most of the folks on the server I play on are very helpful and they expect the same in return. They'll come and rescue you, pick you up and drop you off at your base, lend or trade equipment or just team up to scavenge a base to share the proceeds. If there are any pirate types on there, I've certainly never met them.
 
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Skizomeuh

Skizomeuh
Yep, actually the main multiplayer negative impacts for me are that it tends to plummet fps counter and desyncs/lags were responsible of struggles or mistakes doing things breaking my game.

Can't wait for the SP! And can't wait for the devs to expand the game with content.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
Skizomeuh said:
Yep, actually the main multiplayer negative impacts for me are that it tends to plummet fps counter and desyncs/lags were responsible of struggles or mistakes doing things breaking my game.

Can't wait for the SP! And can't wait for the devs to expand the game with content.
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Can't rep, but have a virtual.

I can't imagine Hellion without the desync...I'd be lost without the jerky mouse input and warping stations as you're on final docking approach [where is it]

Can't wait to see the difference single player makes without the net connection issues forced on the game by multiplayer.
 

Faybs

Faybs
Is it sad that I'm way more excited by this patch than I am about Elite's 3.1?

Also, have some virtual rep. Apparently I can't give you more for now.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
Faybs said:
And it's out!
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Liking most of the QOL stuff so far...haven't tried the single player mode since I play on what is essentially a coop based server. The smoothing of the mouse input is a much needed fix...graphics get a minor buff to look prettier...no more delay between spawning in and being able to interact with the world...

All looks like still moving in the right direction. Zero G have said there's more content arriving soon, this patch was simply to bring in the single player mode and quite a few bug fixes.
 

OldWanderer

OldWanderer
Single mode is useful for beginners, and for me it's comfortable on ordinary servers.
The graphics became more attractive, after the latest news I was afraid that there would be a downgrade.
 
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