No Man's Sky - Interceptor

[Cyhwuhx]

I had hoped these 'types of persons' would've gone once they discovered how much NMS had 'swindled' them. Apparently, the patch also works to let people come in once again to shout how much the game is not what it should be. Well, it is what it is. Go back to GTA if you want GTA. Reminds me of all the WoW players back in the day wanting something else than WoW, playing other games, then complaining it isn't like WoW. Urgh.

 

Anyway, there's more game inserted now. It's slight but the rebalance makes me explore more and actually search for resources than tripping over ginormous quantities of, say, Plutonium and Thamium. A bit less walking simulator, a bit more Subnautica. Sadly, the one habitable base I found was in the middle of a constant 5 Rad planet, which chewed through my support systems like a knife through hot butter. Off to another base then.

 

Thing I still dislike a bit is trying to keep track of your journey throughout the system; a "simple" waypoint route from your starting planet to your current one would be very welcome. Especially now that you can claim a planet as your home.

 

Looking forward to further updates.

[Jarik]

 

32 minutes ago, Cyhwuhx said:

Sadly, the one habitable base I found was in the middle of a constant 5 Rad planet, which chewed through my support systems like a knife through hot butter. Off to another base then.

 

Do the bases you build provide protection from the planets atmospheric effects like the existing outposts/cave systems do?  I mean, sure you probably wouldn't want to stick around a burning/freezing/toxic/radioactive wasteland without a very good reason, but if your shields/life support are drained even inside your base then there would be no reason to build a base anywhere except 'calm' planets.

[Cyhwuhx]

Just now, Jarik said:

 

 

Do the bases you build provide protection from the planets atmospheric effects like the existing outposts/cave systems do?  I mean, sure you probably wouldn't want to stick around a burning/freezing/toxic/radioactive wasteland without a very good reason, but if your shields/life support are drained even inside your base then there would be no reason to build a base anywhere except 'calm' planets.

 

No, they shelter you alright. It's just that I could literally not stay outside for more than 30 seconds before I started dying. I don't mind survival in a hostile environment, but that one was taking the cake a bit.

[stan]

17 minutes ago, Jarik said:

Do the bases you build provide protection from the planets atmospheric effects like the existing outposts/cave systems do?  I mean, sure you probably wouldn't want to stick around a burning/freezing/toxic/radioactive wasteland without a very good reason, but if your shields/life support are drained even inside your base then there would be no reason to build a base anywhere except 'calm' planets.

 

You're right. It seems crazy but yeah, inside your base you still receive damage. It makes bases on hazardous planets kind of pointless. I just sit in my ship parked next to my base instead for protection.

 

Can you believe it?

[cowfields]

I can't even understand this swindling thing. If you feel cheated out of your money, that's only because you fell for marketing, and if you fall for marketing and believe hype it's surely a flaw of character. I dunno, maybe £40 is a lot to some people. 

 

On the other hand, £20 is half of that, and I'm already really loving the mood and style. I don't think I've experience such a sense of awe and wow in the first two hours of a game for a while, so it was really nice to have that back. I can tell it's gonna get boring and fizzle out, but I'll get £40 worth of fun. The art style is worth half of that, but I think good art style goes a long way for me.

 

ANYWAY

 

The Atlas stuff. I don't really understand if I want to follow the path or not. If it's a tutorial, I'm not sure I want that, as I think the lack of understanding and exploration and experimentation is part of the gameplay here. But it's ambiguous, is it some sort of story? Should I follow the atlas path? I don't really want to google too much and spoil anything.

 

I know it's not like I'm going to get some major plot spoiler as it's not that kind of game, but as I say, what *is* there is a sense of mystery and discovery, and I don't want to lose that by being hand held, even a little. Thanks.

 

 

[stan]

10 minutes ago, Captain LeChuck said:

Really? The can't be true, because that sounds like some very very special game design, if so. 

 

yeah I was joking. I thought it was the dumbest question

[Cyhwuhx]

24 minutes ago, stan said:

 

yeah I was joking. I thought it was the dumbest question

 

Years of building straw, wood and brick houses hasn't learned this little piggy anything.  

[Unofficial Who]

So this evening I warped into a new system....right into the middle of a space battle with some pritates trying to take down a frigate. I took down a couple of them got bored and docked in a nearby space station.

 

"1 attack ship remaining" blinked my HUD.

 

"That's new" I thought and so I immediately relaunched and took down the last attack ship to see if anything different would happen.

 

And all I got was a thanks text message. Which was a little underwhelming. However...this was followed by a request to meet with the captain of the freighter.

 

I was able to find the docking port easily enough (having watched the foundation videos) but I wasn't really prepared for the maze inside. Eventually I found the captain (a cute little Gek pilot) who offered me a reward plus the opportunity to buy the freighter. I didn't have enough money to do so but my partner and I laughed when looking at the specs. The game was telling us that this would be a good chance to increase our inventory. The grand freighter had all of 13 slots!

 

I also played about a bit with base building and employed someone to work the construction station. For those wondering, when you teleport between the base and the space station they bring your ship with you.

 

I'm still amazed at what they've managed to cram into this patch. I suspect that the game was released way too early after pressure from Sony (who basically threw Sean Murry to the wolves) and from some weird gamers who sent death threats when he said the game was going to be delayed and then when they launched early as requested got the response of "what is this shit? Why didn't you delay it?"

 

By the way, can anyone tell me what Sean Murray has done to attract all this vitriol? Is he an SJW? Because this is everywhere, no matter what forum, conversation thread or Facebook post. If you say you like NMS you're immediately told that you're wrong, that it's the worst game ever, that Sean Murray owes all gamers an apology and then needs to shup up and never make another game etc etc. I saw one guy going on about how Sean Murray was a liar and that there was never going to be a patch and then then next day when the patch was released it was "too little too late" and that he shouldn't have bothered. I haven't seen a group go after someone that hard for a couple of years.

[Sell73Out]

7 hours ago, Unofficial Who said:

I was able to find the docking port easily enough (having watched the foundation videos) but I wasn't really prepared for the maze inside. Eventually I found the captain (a cute little Gek pilot) who offered me a reward plus the opportunity to buy the freighter. I didn't have enough money to do so but my partner and I laughed when looking at the specs. The game was telling us that this would be a good chance to increase our inventory. The grand freighter had all of 13 slots!

 

Those 13 slots are twice the size of your standard ship slots (they should hold 1000 of each material).

[Danster]

Oh Fuck, you need a completely full tank for your launch thrusters to work. 

 

Managed to fix up my ship and took off, landed on a new planet with extreme guardians, went to get some bits nearby and came back to the ship after the guardians chased me for collecting plutonium... I've not got enough, the launch thrusters are empty, filled it to forty percent and it's not enough to take off, and the guardians are just sitting outside the ship, they're not going anywhere.

 

Shit.

[Pob]

Danster, your adventures on Survival mode are reading like the death passages in an Ian Livingston / Steve Jackson book. 

 

[Danster]

More death... trying to nick some emiril on this planet with nasty guardians, while trying to get my ship airborne again. Notice how much damage I take landing... ouch. Dunno what kills me either, there seems to be loads of those nasty plants around.

 

 

 

 and I've just noticed that you lose all your credits when you die  

 

[Mike1812]

I got stuck in a freighter earlier. It wouldn't let me take off so I had to reload. 

[Davros sock drawer]

I've still not found an uninhabited base on a planet I liked, so not dabbled in base building at all, but even so I'm finding lots to appreciate in this update.

 

The fleets and space combat have massively improved IMO. I've seen ship to ship combat going on (i.e. fighters against other fighters) and the movement of the ships is far more balletic. The fleet sizes are pretty much as per the pre-release demo videos, and nicer looking, as are the asteroid fields. The bounty missions actually seem to work, and enemy ships now have health bars. The "picking sides" feature is now much more clearly defined, with a clear reward from the freighter captain for assisting.

 

The freighter ownership is a fantastic addition to the game, giving things a much greater sense of continuity with the on-land portion of the game. This is helped by the increased number and variety of NPCs in every inhabited location, but at the same time they've dramatically reduced the number of habitations on planets, making it feel much less repetitive. They've also removed those Bypass Chip beacons that were everywhere before, so you can't just hop from one scanned location to the next.

 

The improvements to the UI are very welcome, making it much easier to recharge tech and to locate mineral types. Talking of which I've found lots of new ones (including one that is unique to Green Systems), and there are things I now can't mine until I've found new blueprints. It's nice to have something new to work towards. I've not yet got the Haz-Mat gauntlets, nor the Advanced Mining Laser, so I can't collect Titanium (which you can no longer get from Sentinels), nor some of the new mineral types I've found.

 

The upper limit on creature size also seems to have been increased, and animals generally seem to be more abundant. The terrain on planets seems more natural insofar as there are more plains/flat areas, or at least there have been on the planets I've visited.

 

There are loads of other little touches I've forgotten, but the overall impression is of a significant improvement to almost all areas of the game, and that's without even delving into the main USP of the update (the base building) , nor the two new gameplay modes.

 

Very impressed.

 

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

Some fantastic scenes in this video, especially from 2:05 onwards (not my video)

 

 

[pastry]

Well, I've still got my unused copy sitting here, waiting for the PS4 Pro I'm going to buy (probably at the start of the new year). I feel sort of lucky – I've jumped right over the negativity to this point and will benefit from playing the updated game from the get-go. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another update before Christmas, just to try and keep the goodwill going. And I'm expecting VR support some time next year, too. 

 

I absolutely think this is a game that will grow better and better, and have done from the off – it's seemed clear they didn't release quite what they wanted. I paid full price and haven't even played it, and I don't feel cheated! The hype simply caused people who would never normally buy this sort of game to go out and put down cash. And surprise surprise, it wasn't for (most of) them. 

 

Looking at the above video it's still amazing to see what they've pulled off, technically at least. The art style is just utterly stunning.

[TehStu]

We'll call skipping the launch and diving in when it's working really well the Driveclub Gambit.

 

So, not a great return to the game after two months since my last save. Freighter turns up, can't afford it. Hostile ships turn up, I can't quite kill them all and die. When I finally figure out the new quick menu, I warp and find a planet that's toxic and sentinels who chase me off planet. I get through 3 ships before I'm toast, can't figure out the quick menu to recharge shields. Can't return to get my stuff, sodding sentinels. Am two ship parts down and minus loads of minerals. Warp again, find a planet with a base I can build. Of course, it's -36C during the day and while base building looks fun, I haven't even got and iron. Also, I'm sick of cold and toxic planets. Warp again hoping for a warmer base planet, nothing in this next system. Out of warp fuel and pretty much everything. Balls.

 

A bit of a depressing gaming hour, but I actually like all the new game mechanics I've seen. Just have to mentally get back into it, I guess. At least I'm not dying every 45 second, unlike Danster.

[JPickford]

I like big bases and I cannot lie.

 

https://giant.gfycat.com/TidyCooperativeKillifish.webm

[Uncle Mike]

The ASA rules in favour of Hello Games.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-30-advertising-standards-rules-no-mans-sky-steam-page-did-not-mislead-consumers

[Thread Astaire]

Personally I think it's a good thing that they ruled against misleading consumers as i personally feel it would have opened up a wider issue with showing target footage, etc. The manchild's on Reddit must be seething. 

[Davros sock drawer]

I only just watched to the very end of that video I posted. Didn't realise you could establish scientific posts etc on your Freighter.

[Guest]

What's interesting about the statement is that the ASA were placated by Hello Games showing them footage similar to that on the promo vid.

 

Where/what is the context for that video? They have no way of knowing that it wasn't specifically created for the defence. Seems likely they pulled out the stops to defend themselves, it would be interesting to see the footage provided.

 

It is a bit off - people know what they are doing and what they are promising. Hello knew it wasn't quite good enough. That is, however, how the cookie crumbles in games. You like it or lump it and the bigger companies/games that are pushed/etc will continue to do what they want.

 

That many people were upset about the game - are they all wrong? I've never seen anything like it to be honest.

[Davros sock drawer]

They showed them footage from the game which was deemed similar enough to the promotional footage to constitute not being misleading. 

 

Which is what I've been saying all along. No, the specific things shown in certain trailers can't be found in the game. But broadly similar things can be seen, and in some cases the game is more impressive than the footage shown at E3 etc.

 

Also the ASA played the game themselves.

 

 

[Uncle Nasty]

3 minutes ago, Dinobot said:

That many people were upset about the game - are they all wrong? I've never seen anything like it to be honest.

 

Most games have things that you're not keen on or don't live up to expectations, this just turned into a massive internet pile-on and witch hunt driven by the three most toxic cess pools on the internet - NeoGaf, Reddit and the Steam forums. Totally unjustified and psychotic behaviour by over-privileged man-children. A large proportion of those people seemingly wanted the game to fail and enjoyed kicking Hello Games whilst they were down.

 

Just the behaviour of cunts, really.

 

Anyway, the game continues to amaze and delight me and with the new patch I'm thinking GOTY material. It's just magic to me.

 

 

 

 

[Not Thread Owner]

2 hours ago, Uncle Mike said:

The ASA rules in favour of Hello Games.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-30-advertising-standards-rules-no-mans-sky-steam-page-did-not-mislead-consumers

 

Good. Fucking whining bellends.

[Not Thread Owner]

1 hour ago, Captain LeChuck said:

The only real issue is where they previously mentioned the game would feature multiplayer, then went quiet about it, before finally fessing up that it's not in the game.

 

Didn't they say "multiplayer of a sort"? Which is what we got.

[Uncle Mike]

They definitely lied/were evasive/misrepresented the truth about multiplayer. It would have been entirely reasonable to believe that two people could, although apparently unlikely due to scale, meet up. This is not possible. They didn't tell the truth on that.

[SpagMasterSwift]

Meeting people online is overrated tho.

[JPickford]

24 minutes ago, SpagMasterSwift said:

Meeting people online is overrated tho.

 

No longer a lie then.

[Distinct muttering]

Cant wait to read in a few months how Davros built a base, which in many ways felt more like his real home than the one which he lives.  He has made a lovely garden outside it, and he likes to sit out there and look towards the stars, wondering if someone somewhere is sat on a deckchair looking back at him.  It is doubtful he will ever need to buy another game, as he has found his inner peace.