Game Discussions The No Man's Sky Thread

I only bought NMS earlier this year, so missed all of the release drama.
I consider it to be a good 'arcade game' with spreadsheet management to the fore. ED has a far more complex system in place and the only similarity in both games are space/ships!
I like the 'simple' flight mechanics in NMS, no perma-boost jousting...
Fortunately, apart from space/ships the two games really are chalk & cheese and I'll play either according to their individual merits - but still looking forward to next week and seeing the result of their efforts in bringing VR to NMS :)


I don’t think chalk and cheese means what you think it means.
 
Although I’m loath to join in the “no U” conversation, I’d say that NMS has much more detailed textures but the “graphics” are a matter of taste and opinion.

Outside of Elite Dangerous’ ships bridges, the textures look like they’re from a game from the mid 2000’s, like Doom 3 era. I’ve spent a lot of time mooching around in VR, so I’ve got to see stuff on foot at the same ranges as NMS.

NMS is a lot more detailed up-close, and has fantastic looking tessellation for planetary surfaces (as opposed to Elite’s noticeably flat surface detail). The graphics today are much improved from the initial release, and it makes me wonder if people’s opinions on the textures are based on outmoded versions of the game. I run at maximum settings, and I think it looks fantastic.

Where Elite wins is in scale. The draw distance is much, much greater. Although the textures are fairly low resolution, we’re not supposed to be seeing them up close (yet, fingers crossed), we’re supposed to be seeing them for up to hundreds of kilometres away.

I love the look of both games for different reasons, like one is Kubrick’s 2001 and the other is the cover of a Yes album.

Spot on. Both NMS and ED have undergone large graphical improvements over the years, and both games have detractors arguing from the limited experience they had with either game years ago. The textures in NMS are absolutely fine. The planets of ED are not all the same at all in terms of astrophysics and geology, but are lacking very much in gameplay elements making them functionally near-identical. People arguing one or the other are simply talking about different things.

In any case: very interested in VR.
 
I still love ED too though I’m not playing it as much lately.

I think pretty much the same as you but reckon that the Micro transaction store is probably a big part of it. They probably found they can generate plenty of money from paint jobs and the like with far less development effort than creating real content to attract new players with premium expansions.

I guess that strategy can only last so long as eventually everyone will get bored and stop buying paint jobs etc.

For Hello games I expect they primarily wanted to rebuild their reputation. I think they have done a good job of that. Can’t wait to try NMS in VR :D
I agree with you. And I will go one step further as to why they’re pushing the transactions tour over actual development.
Yes the transaction store probably generates some reasonable amount of revenue for minimal possible effort. But as to why they’re not providing additional content, I’d say it’s because the number of people that paid for the life extension pass and alpha and beta access is possibly a very large proportion of the actual total player base.
Which means that if they even did develop decent DLC, it would mostly be played by people who had already paid for it, leaving them little incentive to do more than just fulfil their legal obligations when th an MVP.
 
I agree with you. And I will go one step further as to why they’re pushing the transactions tour over actual development.
Yes the transaction store probably generates some reasonable amount of revenue for minimal possible effort. But as to why they’re not providing additional content, I’d say it’s because the number of people that paid for the life extension pass and alpha and beta access is possibly a very large proportion of the actual total player base.
Which means that if they even did develop decent DLC, it would mostly be played by people who had already paid for it, leaving them little incentive to do more than just fulfil their legal obligations when th an MVP.

Lol, none of that post is even remotely sensible. ED has been a gold, silver or bronze selling game on steam every single year. ED sold millions of copies. There are no LEPs on xb1 or PS either. LEP/Alpha/beta is less than 2% of the playerbase. Calling that s 'very large proportion' is just mental . They are working on a large new expansion, which is no secret as its financials show.

There is no evil conspiracy, you just can't wait till next year so you make weird stuff up. :ROFLMAO:
 
We'll find out tomorrow, will let you know. If it's done well I can see myself invest a bunch of time on it. Subnautica is a great example of how it can be in such a game, and I hope it works well. :)

Subnautica is certainly a great example of VR as a tacked-on afterthought. I had really high hopes for it, and it's sort of okay I guess, but the PDA / tablet thing is the size of a post-it note and about six inches from your eye, HUD elements at the bottom of the screen are connected to your eyeline so you can't actually look down to see them, tools you hold appear to come out of your face because they're positioned as if you're swimming flat instead of sitting / standing... gah. It could have been so good, but it just wasn't. Then they dropped it altogether for Below Zero.

I have high hopes for NMS VR, but I'm trying to be prepared for disappointment. :)
 
Subnautica is certainly a great example of VR as a tacked-on afterthought. I had really high hopes for it, and it's sort of okay I guess, but the PDA / tablet thing is the size of a post-it note and about six inches from your eye, HUD elements at the bottom of the screen are connected to your eyeline so you can't actually look down to see them, tools you hold appear to come out of your face because they're positioned as if you're swimming flat instead of sitting / standing... gah. It could have been so good, but it just wasn't. Then they dropped it altogether for Below Zero.

I have high hopes for NMS VR, but I'm trying to be prepared for disappointment. :)

Well, maybe I have just low expectations in general, but I thought Subnautica in VR was a blast. Not disagreeing with you on those technical issues, but it was very much worth it to me. :)
 
Would like to test out the VR experience as it drops today, but i doubt it changes my mindset with NMS.
Still probably too colorful, too cartoony, too arcadey and way too grindy. Especially the space flight being so arcade is one of the aspects i cant get over, i just hate it and since NMS is directed to masses, i doubt thats gonna change.
 
Subnautica is certainly a great example of VR as a tacked-on afterthought. I had really high hopes for it, and it's sort of okay I guess, but the PDA / tablet thing is the size of a post-it note and about six inches from your eye, HUD elements at the bottom of the screen are connected to your eyeline so you can't actually look down to see them, tools you hold appear to come out of your face because they're positioned as if you're swimming flat instead of sitting / standing... gah. It could have been so good, but it just wasn't. Then they dropped it altogether for Below Zero.

I have high hopes for NMS VR, but I'm trying to be prepared for disappointment. :)
This mod allowed me to play Subnautica VR after I had all the same issues as you listed above:

 
Patch Notes: https://www.nomanssky.com/beyond-update/
Couldn't resist this bit :)

Explorers can enjoy longer stretches of uninterrupted mining with less frequent and less aggressive sentinels, and a reworked overheat mechanic for the Mining Beam that rewards pushing heat to the limit.


Ship controls and space combat balance have been improved.


Inventory limitations have been relaxed, allowing explorers to carry near-unlimited quantities of mined substances. The inventory UI has been revised and improved.


A large number of quality of life issues have been addressed, and new recipes and technologies have been added to alleviate grinding.


Examples include: large specialist Warp Cells; being able to move installed technology; being able to install technology in stages, similar to repairs; adding additional ramps to the Space Station; adding Mining Beam upgrades that increase resources gained; adding starship technologies that automatically recharge the Launch Thrusters; and restoring Carbon Planters.
 
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This update is massive, the patch notes is incredible, it seems they really took any pieces of the game to make it better and I'm vrey curious to try the VR

...reworked overheat mechanic for the Mining Beam that rewards pushing heat to the limit...
...allowing explorers to carry near-unlimited quantities of mined substances....
...alleviate grinding...
...being able to move installed technology
...being able to install technology in stages, similar to repairs
...adding Mining Beam upgrades that increase resources gained

This is QoL improvement!
After NEXT I almost abandoned the game because of the mining grind and small things that ed me off. HG fixed them all!
 
Yes it's today. But "don't play on patch day" is still applicable!
Download size for PS4 is 11.011GB (ref)
For me, just downloading the patch is an achievement! I'll be bringing my PS4 to a proper internet connection tonight :D

There's also an update to Overwatch (Sigma). OOOOOHHHH Wooeyy HOOO!!! Looks like I got me some new and exciting games to play! I hope I don't lose all my hard BGS work (reminds me of Farmville) while I'm gone from Elite. :eek:
 
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