Game Discussions The No Man's Sky Thread

[Krash]

I'm guessing that there's only so much automation available. For example, is there a way to feed ores from my "drill" (the one that grabs minerals from the ground on its own) to a refinery to process it automatically? I don't see a way to do this without actively moving inventory from one to the other. What can I say, Space Engineers has spoiled me

You connect the drill to a storage unit or an array of storage units with the pipes, but there's no automated processing AFAIK. You have to manually drop that stuff into a refinery. Space Engineers is another one on my wish list.

 

[Old Duck]

You connect the drill to a storage unit or an array of storage units with the pipes, but there's no automated processing AFAIK. You have to manually drop that stuff into a refinery. Space Engineers is another one on my wish list.

If Space Engineers and No Man's Sky had a baby, my oh my, when she grows up,

In the meantime I can only hope one company A steals all the good ideas from company B that are currently missing in company A's game.

 

[Krash]

What's one thing you want SE to steal from NMS?

 

[Old Duck]

What's one thing you want SE to steal from NMS?

LIFE!

I'm not talking stupid packs of dogs or spiders either. I'm talking about proper NPCs, including cool buildings that hold mysteries, ships with CREW, etc. Also throw in non-aggressive animals like deer, birds, etc. The only way to experience any sort of "life" in SE is to play online with others, which is actually great, but it comes with its own set of problems (like when the Internet hiccups or the server goes down).

If I could have my SE tools in NMS' universe, that would be beyond amazing

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I've got both games, but I feel like playing NMS as a change from Elite.

Re- Old Saves: I'm more and more thinking that I'll play one creative save, and one normal save. Five saves is great, but losing things isn't, even if you can recycle stuff. So, playing through one slot (creative or normal) may be what I might want to do.

 

[Space Menace]

I must admit I see Empyrion as the go to game for space sci-fi sim if a living environment is what your looking for.

I placed my ship down in a clearing on a temperate planet. Trees surrounded the area and it was lightly snowing, although that turned to thunder 20-30mins later.
I ventured out of the ship and the sounds of the wind, rustling of the trees, also howling of, well not sure really, make for an immersive feel.
Strange other eerie/scary sounds gave me the idea to go back in.. However I carried on into the tree line, down a small enbankment was a pond, I walked down very nervously as the sounds grew stronger. The water gently lapped up against the shore, it was a lovely place (other than the sounds of nasties).
Back to the ship, rifle in hand, just in case.
Some screenies:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWOOIYP4Nbw


It's hard to portray how immersive EGS is, it's a sim in many ways but also carries its sci-fi theme with style.
Lots of factions to make friends or enemies, ship weight taken into account when flying, various weather changes to each planet and area of planet, even the temperature is modelled really well. It will be cold at altitude and gently warms as you descend, everything is modelled in a 'sim' way.

I love NMS too, particularly for the art style. But moving from say ED and still wanting that sim style but better, then Empyrion is the game I have to go to. NMS is fun, it's pretty and it a great game to play, but from the sim angle Empyrion beats out many games.

 

[Mengy]

I've got both games, but I feel like playing NMS as a change from Elite.

I've pretty much abandoned Elite for NMS now. I was hoping EDO would add some content for non-combat players but alas I was very wrong.

NMS has kept me captivated for over a year now and I haven't really played any Elite at all since then. Exploring, base building, ship collecting, freighter managing, it's all just so much fun and entertaining for me in NMS. I'm constantly amazed by the fantastic worlds NMS continues to throw at me.

 

[Old Duck]

I must admit I see Empyrion as the go to game for space sci-fi sim if a living environment is what your looking for.

My problem is that I'm a graphics snob, and Empyrion is just too "primitive" for me in graphics and sound. I'm not talking "cartoon" graphics, like some call NMS (though it can be downright photorealistic in places) or even Overwatch, as these are artistic choices. I'm talking about dated year 2000 graphics. Even Space Engineers with its Lego blocks looks so much better IMO.

BTW, I actually own EGS, so I'm basing this on my own experience on hardware that can easily handle ultra settings in such a game. I just rather play SE and NMS (and X4) instead.

 

[bradLP560]

I'm still dying all the time. Would like to play this game but I cant get passed the opening planets. Are they all so bloody poisonous?

 

[Space Menace]

My problem is that I'm a graphics snob, and Empyrion is just too "primitive" for me in graphics and sound. I'm not talking "cartoon" graphics, like some call NMS (though it can be downright photorealistic in places) or even Overwatch, as these are artistic choices. I'm talking about dated year 2000 graphics. Even Space Engineers with its Lego blocks looks so much better IMO.

BTW, I actually own EGS, so I'm basing this on my own experience on hardware that can easily handle ultra settings in such a game. I just rather play SE and NMS (and X4) instead.

I agree regards graphics, but I'm more for gameplay.

I have around 2400hrs in SE, I love the game.
NMS over 1500 planets visited (from day one). It is a very good game.
X4 tried it, no planets means a no go really.

Empyrion graphics are a step up from Evochron, but even Evochron has the gameplay some of the other titles lack.

SE is by far my favourite space game, building, travelling and indeed scale are second to none, no other space game comes close for those things. However unless your running an ai mod, it's pretty lonely out there (but I must try the new ai mod out now). Even if you do run an ai mod, it's still lonely with no npc's to make fun of.

With NMS I sort of run out of things to do, or it seems like that. But I'll go back, I always do, for a while at least. Some of it's planets are fantastic.

SC is beautiful really, but empty, it suffers from what ED did, pretty shallow, gameplay wise.

I have to be in a game where I can build my own ship now. When I got SE in early 2014 it gave me the bug (pun intended), I just had to build my own ship.

So it's either SE, Empyrion, or I guess Starbase (I'll pass on that, no planets again). SE for building without a doubt, but Empyrion for a rounded game. For me anyway. The building isn't bad either.

All the games mentioned (other than starbase not played that), are great in their own way. But if a space sim is what your after, few fit the bill, Empyrion (if you can get over the lower graphics) is a very rounded space 'sci-fi' sim, imho.

 

[Juniper]

I'm still dying all the time. Would like to play this game but I cant get passed the opening planets. Are they all so bloody poisonous?

Tips for starting out:

1) Scan everything (F). Every plant, mineral, animal, or whatever you can see from near your ship. Upload everything, and get nanites. If you stay near your ship, you can hop straight back in without recharging your hazard protection, then get out again when it's recharged, and carry on. The analysis visor has three zoom levels, so use them.

2) Buy 'S' class (if you can) protections for each of the four environment types (toxic, frost, heat & radioactive) at the suit vendor in stations. He's on the right platform, at the far end. You can also buy an inventory slot here (1 per station). You will have to go to a few stations to get all of them, and they need about 650 nanites each.

3) If you get 3 'S' class scanner upgrades and put them next to the scanner in your inventory, you'll make serious money in step 1.

Some planets are just not practical to explore at the start, so just do step 1, and move on to the next planet.

Once you've done step 2, you'll be able to last longer.

 

[Juniper]

All the games mentioned (other than starbase not played that), are great in their own way. But if a space sim is what your after, few fit the bill, Empyrion (if you can get over the lower graphics) is a very rounded space 'sci-fi' sim, imho.

I played it for a couple of hours this afternoon. It didn't take very long before I had no idea what to do next, and even after completing all the steps in the tutorial, it still didn't register that I had & move me onto the next step. Very frustrating.

For me, the best pure space game now is X4. NMS scratches a different itch, and I don't really consider it a space game.

 

[RooksBailey]

Oh, one other question - where does NMS store screenshots taken with the in-game camera app?

If you're using Steam and use F12 to take a screenshot, it should appear in your Steam gallery. On GeForce Now, it appears in your gallery too (Cntr-1 to save a screenshot). Both galleries provide links to the relevant folder on your HDD (I think NMS creates a separate folder in your "photos" folder IIRC). On PS4 ...no idea. Sorry.

 

[Juniper]

If you're using Steam and use F12 to take a screenshot, it should appear in your Steam gallery. On GeForce Now, it appears in your gallery too (Cntr-1 to save a screenshot). Both galleries provide links to the relevant folder on your HDD (I think NMS creates a separate folder in your "photos" folder IIRC). On PS4 ...no idea. Sorry.

On Steam, the in-game camera app stores it in the same place that Steam would if you simply press F12.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I'm still dying all the time. Would like to play this game but I cant get passed the opening planets. Are they all so bloody poisonous?

No. Sometimes you fry, or die of radiation.

I feel your pain. Took me a little while to survive the first few minutes.

 

[Para Handy]

I'm still dying all the time. Would like to play this game but I cant get passed the opening planets. Are they all so bloody poisonous?

I think the planet you first start on is always a killer. The first thing I do is look for a cave and in any event pluck as much Na as I can find in a sweep around the area of the ship. As @Juniper says, you can always run to the crashed ship and enter it until your protection recovers and the current hazard - fire storm, superheated rain, etc passes.

When I first started some years ago I nearly always ended up being killed by some lifeforms in the caves. Not seen that in the few starts I have made this past month.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Just came back to say, no mans sky has completely filled the the hole that odysee created in elite. Its meets any hypothetical expectations i may have had for space legs so well.

Im deep into the unlocking everything and exploration stage now. What im really delighted with at the moment is:

• After a stack of scanner upgrades, i get 200+k every time i scan an animal. This has done it im convinced now to go to endless+1 planets to see what's there.
• I have a stack of each kind of geography map lead in my ship, and using up those when i feel like it makes great loops.
• From the distress signals, every time i find i ship i love repairing the minimum and taking it to the station to sell as scrap. Realised yesterday that i was living one of the dreams for elite.. the salvager roleplay... finally. I am kinda getting sick of whispering eggs though. But a million credits per building is worth it so...
• Its kinda fun if you dont want to walk somewhere to feed an animal pellets and ride it.

There will probably be an end to it at some point more than elite.. but just like elite, the exploration + tagging + seeing what the proc gen gives you to make another base might be worth it. Not in atmosphere, but in gameplay is better than elite.

Having said, there's nothing like elites spaceflight. Watching a body grow in your field of view as you move the joystick is definitely better in elite. I've stopped playing it though. Also for 2 reasons:

• In hindsight, accepting the rubbish quality and features that frontier have always delivered is being part of the problem. I understand now why DB could be confused. They build the same bare bones and only fix to the bad quality every patch, in the past everyone just loves it anyway yet with odysee its suddenly different. No wonder hes confused.
• I stopped playing the moment i realised that even if they did fix it, i wouldn't be interested in the first person shooter only content anyway. A much tougher issue to me and frontier to get heads around i think. The only thing to look forward to is worse changes overwriting horizons..

Anyway, hope you're all doing well.

 

[Juniper]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTyCaMYVkwo


I haven't seen this mentioned here yet, but if you are short on nanites and want a way to boost them massively with relatively little effort (be warned though, it's a bit grindy), this is a good way. The video explains it all in more detail, but fundamentally the process works like this:

1. Make sure multiplayer is enabled in your game.
2. Go to the space Anomaly with a completely empty Exosuit inventory. I put everything in storage containers at my base. The more slots you have, the better!
3. In your starship, pick a common resource that everyone will have. I used Tritium, but Sodium, Oxygen etc all work too.
4. Split them into several 1 unit stacks until your starship inventory is full (pick up your stack, hit 'C' until you have a stack of 1, then drop it on a free inventory slot.
5. Go see Ares. He's on the right hand side at the far end of the Anomaly. It helps if you can park your ship near it, but it's not a big deal if not.
6. Purchase as many of the most expensive module he sells as you can afford / fit into your cargo slots.
7. Find a player and give him that 1 unit of tritium stack you created in step 4.
8. Reload your previous autosave.
9. Go back to Ares and sell your modules back to him. Yes, they're still in your inventory, and your nanites haven't gone down from what you spent previously.
10. Go back to your ship, and enter & exit to autosave.
11. Repeat from step 5.

I spent half an hour doing this, and got 170,000 nanites during that time. I don't have 48x2 slots on this save, so if you have that & enough nanites to start with, you can get a lot more each time you do this. I was still making about 6000 nanites per cycle (each cycle took me about 2 minutes once I got into the swing of it).

It's also an exploit really, so treat it as such... up to you if you want to do it. It harms nobody though.

 

[Old Duck]

This ridiculous game is too darn addictive! Last time I played (a couple years ago), I would skip most planets after a quick peek because I found most of them too boring and samey. This time around, it's the opposite - I'm finding myself not progressing far in the story because every system has at least one planet that I want to thoroughly explore and classify. Not only that, I've found multiple planets that are base-worthy. So I'm populating space with a bunch of "camps" - summer camp, winter camp, mining camps, cool alien coolness camp, etc. That and I'm creating my own Stargate network so I can quickly revisit all these cool planets. I'm still multiple jumps from my first black hole, but at this rate it'll be Christmas before I make it there! Who knows if I'll ever make it to the center of the galaxy or not...

I guess someday I'll have exhausted all the novelty, but so far I continue to find new things to see and do with every jump. This game has come a LONG way since I last played!

I named this planet "Emil's Sorrow" (not my first planet like this, so I'll need a few more "Emil's [something]" names). Even so, each one is very unique despite each have Emils running rolling around.

 

[RooksBailey]

There will probably be an end to it at some point more than elite.. but just like elite, the exploration + tagging + seeing what the proc gen gives you to make another base might be worth it. Not in atmosphere, but in gameplay is better than elite.

I completely agree. I love Elite's noirish atmosphere and superb flight mechanics, as well as the much more fleshed-out space environment. But ED has been stuck in neutral when it comes to gameplay. The bulk of Elite's gameplay is "fetch and deliver"--go here, deliver this/retrieve that, rinse and repeat. There is no real sense of player agency where you can change the galaxy in a tangible way--no base building, or station building, or even creating mining outposts on rocky moons. Stuff like that. I've always felt that but for the superb realization of a procgen galaxy to explore, the core ED gameplay loop would have fallen flat with players long ago.

Also for 2 reasons:

• In hindsight, accepting the rubbish quality and features that frontier have always delivered is being part of the problem. I understand now why DB could be confused. They build the same bare bones and only fix to the bad quality every patch, in the past everyone just loves it anyway yet with odysee its suddenly different. No wonder hes confused.
• I stopped playing the moment i realised that even if they did fix it, i wouldn't be interested in the first person shooter only content anyway. A much tougher issue to me and frontier to get heads around i think. The only thing to look forward to is worse changes overwriting horizons..

I think you nailed it. Odyssey exploded in FDev's face not just because they released it unfinished, but also because of the long bubbling resentment for the way FDev has been bungling this franchise for years. I've always felt ED succeeded in growing a player base not because of the efforts of FDev as much as despite their efforts. The kick in the teeth that is Odyssey--both in terms of its full-price alpha release and its completely off-the-mark FPS content--was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. People just had enough of the Keystone Cops-styled tortured development of the game and the high-handed way FDev has been dealing with the community. And now Elite isn't the only space game in town, so...here we are.

Having said that, I remain cautiously optimistic that FDev will turn this gross misstep around given enough time--and it will take time and a lot more of it than most people suspect (i.e., this won't be properly fixed by autumn.) If they can fix the myriad technical issues of the expansion, then they just need to start adding content other than the FPS nonsense no one wanted. It is possible. Given any other dev, I would be confident that it would happen, too. But seeing that FDev's special ability is being able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...

(I can't overstate the special type of incompetence it takes to take a game at its peak popularity and blow it up almost overnight )

Anyway, hope you're all doing well.

Same to you!