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 Manchu wrote:
So that location I described as an example will still be there when I leave and come back?

I saw a bunch of the interviews / explanations of the game to wrap my brain around how it works.

They have some big algorithm for generating a universe that decides galaxy positioning, number of planets, type of planets, density and types of plants and animals and the formations of materials and structures on planets and space.

Reminds me a bit of messing around with Mandelbrot / Fractal geometry settings and getting huge strange structures depending on how you seeded the algorithm.
Try playing with this to get my point: http://www.easyfractalgenerator.com/Mandelbrot-Set-Generator.aspx?id=2225
Change the "seed" number then start zooming in... worlds within worlds.

Now the problem is, the universe cannot change.
It is all generated on the fly through a seed and a complex formula.
We unpack or render areas as we pass through each branch of the formula.
No user can change any of this.
All the developer can do is add new "rules" for certain intervals to generate a given item so content can be added but the structure cannot be messed with.
It is conceivable as the game gets updated, your "discovered" planets have "grown" new things due to developer changes.

Now I assume that the freighters and pirates are "encounters" generated... throw away details that will not be there for anyone else or when you come back.

For naming your discoveries, this is the reason for the online use: a separate database is updated when you tag a given element of the program and applies your name to it.
So as you travel along, the game checks to see if any given element has been tagged on the external database.

I know there are "language" tablets, it would be interesting if they are a "set" type consistently generated (I guess they should be!) because if they were randomized you could conceivably go back and find a different one (unless it is made static by your local save).

I suspect the game is not interesting enough for me gameplay wise but for an exercise in what I assume is a fractal universe creation, I am excited what this game brings to future "open world" games.

 Gamgee wrote:
Well this more or less sums up my opinion on the game. I don't even own the game and I'm sick of hearing about all the drama. I can only imagine how worse the devs and reviewers who didn't like it are feeling.

I'm inclined to agree with most of this, the rather fanatical responses from both sides seem to be getting rather out of hand. I didn't know there had been death threats; that's ridiculous over a game - but it may also explain a release that is probably too early and may have done with another couple of months to iron out the bugs. They may have pushed it out too early in fear of more negative responses.

As for me I'm quite happy with it; I find it relaxing after a stressful day at work in a way that other more active games just don't, I find it a decent change from a lot of games and the music is very apt.

Whirlwind wrote:
I'm inclined to agree with most of this, the rather fanatical responses from both sides seem to be getting rather out of hand. I didn't know there had been death threats; that's ridiculous over a game - but it may also explain a release that is probably too early and may have done with another couple of months to iron out the bugs. They may have pushed it out too early in fear of more negative responses.

This reminds me a bit like the Diablo 3 release.
The developer is surprised by the day 1 data traffic and things do not hold up.
Day 1 errors are found that prior testing did not touch-on.

I have the fancy box set for Diablo 3, I would have returned it if I could back then.

My game of NMS did not work out of the gate due a not well documented CPU "minimum requirement" which really translated on needing a certain protocol supported.
I hit the refund button regretfully.

I REALLY like Diablo 3 now.
Much more so than a couple years past.

I fully expect with a few tweaks, this game will knock it out of the park.
Anyone comparing these guys with Peter Molyneux had not followed Godus development properly: Hello Games has delivered pretty much what they said they would.

I would say "wait and see" how they support the game in the following months will show us what the developer is made of.
Lets hope any changes they make will not kill save games... people get so angry when that happens.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I had one of those encounters and accidentally hit a cargo pod on a capital ship, which then proceeded to engage me as well as the pirates.

Ooops...

That's rough - I'm not a good enough combat pilot to ensure I won't hit a freighter. I responded to a distress call once, blew up one of the pirates but hit the freighter. So then everyone was shooting me. It felt like they had decided to make an alliance against me all of the sudden (were they even shooting each other any more?) ... so needless to say, I don't respond to distress calls any more. Although I have become a lot more handy with the photon cannons!

 Talizvar wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
So that location I described as an example will still be there when I leave and come back?

I saw a bunch of the interviews / explanations of the game to wrap my brain around how it works.

Nice info thanks - but is the answer to my question yes or no?

 Talizvar wrote:
Hello Games has delivered pretty much what they said they would.

I agree. I think there are lot of people out there who expected some kind of almost religious experience out of this game and of course that was never going to happen. And then there are the folks with cheshire grins, lapping up the disappointed gamers' tears. (Not to mention passive aggressive types who refuse to call NMS a game.) I give the game 6/10 and I think it is exactly what was previewed.

Regarding space combat, I exclusively use the phase beam for engaging enemy fighters, as the beam locks on to them. I use the cannon for mining asteroids and attacking the cargo ships. The phase beam is really useful once you get a cooling upgrade for it.

For some reason in my mind "beam = mining" and "photon = combat" and I honestly did not even really think of using the beam in combat until someone (KingCracker?) brought it up ITT. But by that point, I had figured out how to more or less skillfully track the photon canon targeting reticule, making me 100% more dangerous to pirates (as opposed to about 9% dangerous previously). That said, I can see how the beam could be better for answering distress calls.


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Also - is it possible that some ships encourage you to use one or the other?

I have to recharge my ship's beam but the photon cannon never stops working, always registers at 0%, and has no option to recharge.

Yeah that was me, the beam is supreme when you upgrade it fully. I have 4 attack mods and 3 coolers on it and they are all linked together so everything is surrounded in green.

I will blow a pirate or sentinel ship up completely before they can pass over me. Sometimes if I catch them dropping out from warp I can smoke two before a fly over. Add to the fact I have 4 types of shields on my ship, is really not fair for them. Such a blast!


Also I went through a black hole for the first time. That was awesome and scary all at once.

I do wonder if cooperative and / or multiplayer may be in the works further down the road.

It would make the rumours of base building and whatnot a whole lot more attractive as well.

 Manchu wrote:

 Talizvar wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
So that location I described as an example will still be there when I leave and come back?

I saw a bunch of the interviews / explanations of the game to wrap my brain around how it works.

Nice info thanks - but is the answer to my question yes or no?

You are so difficult!
"Yes" the same planet features will be there for you and any other player that happens to manage to go there.

"Most of the universe in No Man's Sky is procedurally generated, including solar systems, planets, weather systems, flora and fauna on these planets, the behavior of these creatures, and artificial structures like buildings and spacecraft."

Anything you did or alterations you made on the surface is lost however.



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 BrookM wrote:
I do wonder if cooperative and / or multiplayer may be in the works further down the road.
It would make the rumours of base building and whatnot a whole lot more attractive as well.

The developers said not to think of it as a multiplayer game.
It has some multiplayer elements but seems to act more as a player-base "achievement" award system than anything else.
I did read that the server will update "significant events" like destroying a star-base (so the base is generated to be there but the online database says it is not...).
Our only shared interaction is a consistent generated universe and a shared database providing a full list of the explored elements of that universe.

I wonder what would happen if a person cannot access the servers?
I assume as a standalone game nothing would really break.

 Talizvar wrote:

I wonder what would happen if a person cannot access the servers?
I assume as a standalone game nothing would really break.

I read somewhere that, if you aren't online, it just means you don't any name changes other players have made, and your new names for stuff won't be uploaded for others to see, either.

Anyway, game is now broken for me. I can't leave the system I'm in. Every time I try to warp to another system, the game crashes. Yeah, I could continue to explore the system I'm in and make money, which I'll do off and on, but knowing I can't really advance kind of deflates the fun of that a bit. I know the next update is intended to fix problems that have been reported, so I'll look out for it.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Anyway, game is now broken for me. I can't leave the system I'm in. Every time I try to warp to another system, the game crashes. Yeah, I could continue to explore the system I'm in and make money, which I'll do off and on, but knowing I can't really advance kind of deflates the fun of that a bit. I know the next update is intended to fix problems that have been reported, so I'll look out for it.

Ouch.
That is unfortunate, I really want this game to do well, it scratches an itch few games have addressed.
I hope it gets sorted out for you soon.

I suddenly want to see this game licensed out to play like Star Trek Voyager.

 Talizvar wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Anyway, game is now broken for me. I can't leave the system I'm in. Every time I try to warp to another system, the game crashes. Yeah, I could continue to explore the system I'm in and make money, which I'll do off and on, but knowing I can't really advance kind of deflates the fun of that a bit. I know the next update is intended to fix problems that have been reported, so I'll look out for it.

Ouch.
That is unfortunate, I really want this game to do well, it scratches an itch few games have addressed.
I hope it gets sorted out for you soon.

I did send an email to the support team with my PC specs and the crash dump files, so maybe it'll help. At least I can feel good about myself for doing something productive like that to improve the game.

I had a crash while warping last evening - reloaded and no problem. I'm on PS4 btw.

Managed to find a planet covered in those urchins from which one harvests sac venom - and precious little else, besides the odd shard of plutonium.

After slaughtering all the sentinels present, I proceeded to make about 13 million units and bought a 33-slot ship (up from 26).

What is the largest animal any of you have come across?

I found some flying trilobites worms last night and the bigger ones are probably 30-40 feet long.

I always save before warp jumps. I get about 50% crash rate on PS4.

Manchu wrote:I had a crash while warping last evening - reloaded and no problem. I'm on PS4 btw.

Managed to find a planet covered in those urchins from which one harvests sac venom - and precious little else, besides the odd shard of plutonium.

After slaughtering all the sentinels present, I proceeded to make about 13 million units and bought a 33-slot ship (up from 26).

What is the largest animal any of you have come across?

I found some flying trilobites worms last night and the bigger ones are probably 30-40 feet long.

Mine was a literal dinosaur. Probably 30ish feet tall bi pedal. Weirdly enough the data said it only weighed 200kgs which was way off if you ask me, this dude would of weighed as much as a car.

I've landed on a couple planets similar to that. I wonder if it's some kind of glitch or something. I've made a few million just hauling vortex cubes or gravatino balls and the like. I've ended up just boost running away from the sentinels and they leave me alone.

Nostromodamus wrote:I always save before warp jumps. I get about 50% crash rate on PS4.

That's crazy high! I've crashed once while warping (knocks on wood) most of my crashes have been doing random things. Though i did actually find a computer panel that was bugged and would crash my game any time I activated it. Tried it 3 times to be sure.

My play so far has been pretty interesting.

I saved up and bought a 30 slot ship and left station to head to a planet and fill it with loot. Pirates appear and blow my shiny ship up and now i have to fix it :(

So i get a beacon for a crashed ship and it happens to be a 31 slot version of a ship that looks really sweet. So i completely gut what was on the ship i JUST bought and start to repair the downed ship. One small problem, i need Zinc and i am on a barren planet with locations really spread out. So i set out on foot to find a spaceport or an outpost with a landing pad. 45 minutes later i realize i could just salvage one of my suit mods to get the Zinc and then buy the Zinc in space or go to a planet with actual stuff on it. The only up-side was there was so much gold i filled my 31 slot ship before i even fixed it.

Make sure you have as many shield mods as you can for pirates, I have 4 on my ship and its a bullet sponge. My son has you beat though. He lifted off and somehow glitched into a blob of copper and couldn't get his ship out. It blows up and kills him. He comes back and his ship is still stuck in the copper. So he spent an hour and a half wandering around to find a port or something to bring his ship back. Finally find one and didn't have the ingredients to make a bypass chip and so then walked around more getting what he needed. FINALLY gets it sorted and then had to work on repairing his ship

I can't seem to get an atlas pass. Left the first system too soon and now I'm a bit annoyed.
Still enjoying it though.

I have the same trouble, marv335. I have been to five Atlas nodes or whatever they are called and still don't have the recipe for the Atlas pass, which I understand you get at an anomalous space station from a couple of aliens.

I got the first version of the pass, but so far I've seen up to V3 of them. So I can only open a V1 and have to leave many doors unopened

KingCracker could you please describe in detail how you obtained the V1 recipe?

I just scored a v1 pass.
I visited an anomaly, then in the next system I warped to there was a space station wit the aliens in it.
I also got a very nice multi tool.
As I understand it v2 and 3 are found in colonial outposts at random, although I've not found one yet

Manchu wrote:KingCracker could you please describe in detail how you obtained the V1 recipe?

marv335 wrote:I just scored a v1 pass.
I visited an anomaly, then in the next system I warped to there was a space station wit the aliens in it.
I also got a very nice multi tool.
As I understand it v2 and 3 are found in colonial outposts at random, although I've not found one yet

Pretty much this. I just kept following the Atlas path and got the blueprint as a reward from an alien in a space station If I remember correctly.



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Or..... From the anomaly. It just kinda happened so I don't really remember now lol

Oh man, I maybe missed that - wonder if it is gone for good now.

There's a space anomoly which is a space station with a Korvax and Gek inside. The Gek will give you the V1 pass the first time you visit them. They keep showing up, so don't worry about missing them. Just pay attention to anomolies when you enter a new system.

I keep seeing "anomaly detected" in the galaxy map but it always seems to point to another Atlas node.

 Manchu wrote:
I keep seeing "anomaly detected" in the galaxy map but it always seems to point to another Atlas node.

Watch for anomolies upon entering a new star system, not the galaxy map. Always try scanning a new system upon entry too.

I will keep a look out. Hope I can find them ...

I've played this to a point where I have an atlas pass v1 and a ship with about 20 space and I gotta this game sure is boring.

The core mechanic of this game is just move from point A to point B and there is zero depth to it. All the relevant information is presented in your hud so you never need think where you are going and game gives you jetpack which pretty much negates all navigational puzzles. You are never in any real danger while travelling on foot. Environmental hazards are a joke because there is cover everywhere and you can't fall from too high because high drops just don't exist . The worst part is that walking is just really boring. It usually takes 2 mins to get to the next point and procedural terrain is more or less the same on each planet.

Travelling with a space ship is even more simplistic because you can't crash and the ship automatically performs "hard" maneuvers (like landing). So if it takes 5 mins to get to observatory #39475983475 you can just go take a gak or something.

Sense of discovery wanes off really fast when you realize that each place you discover each pretty much the same and activities performed in them are the same. There is very little variation.

Other mechanics are so shallow that they aren't even worth to mention. Super hot free version has more content and more engaging gameplay than No man's Sky.

Sounds like an interesting game, though can you build your own ship as well?
Keep seeing it described as a mile wide but an inch deep as well as various people waving around broken promises from mods. People mentioning poor PC optimisation which is fine (as well as seemingly common recently since it seems acceptable for PC games to function on the flip of a coin at launch anyway...) as I'd need to upgrade my PC to play this anyway.