No Man's Sky - Interceptor

[Stanley]

I was trying to walk before I could run it seems. I knew the recipe for antimatter, I had all the ingredients, but the game wouldn't allow me to make it until I progressed the story a bit. Quite weird. I even made a new warp cell but it was still directing me to source all the ingredients to make another before the story would progress.

 

Anyway I've jumped a couple of systems now. Just sussing out how galactic travel works. I need to unlearn Elite a bit! 

 

Just discovered how to use a signal booster. Makes planetary exploration a hell of a lot easier. 

 

Is it OK just to leave the story for a bit now and go back to my home planet? I just want to build my base up there for a while.

[SpagMasterSwift]

Moved my base to a more friendly planet, now need a Kovax Casing to help find a portal here..getting everything but from the green boxes

 

[Uncle Nasty]

10 hours ago, macosx said:

What do you reckon they will do next?

 

Joe Danger 3?

[Mogster]

I'm surprised to say I'm quite enjoying this now. The story's been doing a good job of introducing the various elements, and I've just made a start on my first base. My home planet is rather hot and not particularly interesting, but I'm looking forward to exploring it with vehicles. Most importantly it now feels like there's a point to everything, instead of just flying from sector to sector and repeating the same actions.

 

The missions are a good addition, but they seem a bit janky at the moment. I took a mission to hunt down a bounty for instance, which simply told me to fly to the mission marker and take him out. The problem was there was no marker! I spent a good half hour flying around trying to figure out if I simply had to find it, but no luck. I quit the game and came back later, and surprise surprise the marker had magically appeared. 

 

Other missions behave strangely too. The most recent was a delivery mission I decided I didn't want to do, but as you can't discard missions I thought I'd try and fail it by selling the cargo. Instead of failing it, this actually triggered a success state and I was able to claim my reward.

 

 

[Stanley]

Yeah the various markers and waypoints seem a bit sketchy and inconsistent. I don't understand why it still displays the question mark ones after you've discovered them. Also when you use your visor scanner on distant waypoints, such as the larger white dots, it's supposed to tell you what they are according to the guide, yet all it does for me is give me planetary info. And markers seem to appear and disappear at will.

[BruceBruce]

7 hours ago, Mike1812 said:

Iirc, you need the recipe from somewhere. Is it abandoned buildings? It's been a year since I did any of that

 

8 hours ago, Stanley said:

I neeeeed antimatter, or a warp cell 

 

Should be able to leave whatever planet you're on, and go into space, then do a scan. It will find a distress signal and you go there for the antimatter.

[Stanley]

22 minutes ago, BruceBruce said:

 

 

Should be able to leave whatever planet you're on, and go into space, then do a scan. It will find a distress signal and you go there for the antimatter.

Thanks, I'd already done that it's just that I found a new ship very early on which needed fixing up and equipping with one. All good now.

[Davros sock drawer]

Noticed that some plants now give primary and secondary materials (Carbon, and a Gas, at least on the one I found). Wonder if that's to do with the new Gas mining thing?

[Stanley]

My home planet has so much gold on it. I'm like fucking Smaug. 

[Stanley]

Yeah you can't compare it with Elite, it's like comparing a Ferrari LaFerrari with a Robin Reliant. 

[MK-1601]

10 hours ago, SpagMasterSwift said:

Moved my base to a more friendly planet, now need a Kovax Casing to help find a portal here..getting everything but from the green boxes

 

 

Try monoliths and ruins in a Korvax system.

 

...

 

It feels like there are a ton of bugs in this update :<

 

As well as the issue with the alien dialect dictionaries I found last night, I'm also missing some quite fundamental crafting recipes (for instance Voltaic Cells, so I can't make beacons or exocraft, which is a bit of a massive problem). The 'revised' Atlas path seems shonky as well. Plus today I fell through the level once and got stuck in a portal conversation screen with no controls requiring a reload from last save, whereas I'd previously gone months without seeing game breaking bugs.

[Davros sock drawer]

The recipes and quests for those types of crafted objects have changed - that's why my existing stuff has been renamed "obsolete technology" I think. I've only just been given the blueprints for the new versions of a couple of these items as part of the Artemis Quest.

 

I haven't come across anything so buggy it breaks my game yet, but it is a bit disconcerting and makes it feel like something could break at any time. They've changed so much I think it'd be a miracle if it didn't affect something, but it's a shame. I'm still toying with the notion of starting from scratch again - from the YouTube videos I've seen the initial gathering of items such as the Hyperdrive etc has been streamlined.

[macosx]

Definitely, I'm up to 24 slot ship in just over a day now. Horrible looking pink monstrosity though. 

 

Building my galactic power base now.

[footle]

Restarted, though I didn't get that far originally (15 hours played?) and didn't go back after they added base building.

• They spawn you next to a broken ship, which makes a massive difference.
• The initial quest line takes you through acquiring the hyperdrive etc. in a much more directed way: go there, do this.
• This occasionally breaks down; it took me a fair few forum searches to realise that a character will only react to their mission if the mission is selected - e.g. I could only drop off cave marrow to the scientist to get the voltaic cell blueprint if I'd got the research mission active. Otherwise I just got some drivel about how excited we both were to be working together.

There's certainly some performance setting I have turned on that craters frame rate, but I've not been able to work out what it is: overclocked 1080 and i7 with the 1080 maxed almost all the time and everything game related appears to be using half a single core. Dropping AA a bit didn't make two hoots of difference, so I've ended up accepting there will be some tearing.

 

[Stanley]

Really enjoyed my session on this again last night.

 

Absolutely shit myself when a massive fleet of freighters appeared out of hyperspace. The noise of it, and the size of them. I then took out a few pirates who started attacking the freighters, and the combat is really cool. Zippy and arcadey and great looking out there in an asteroid belt with those huge ships to weave in and out of as a backdrop . I also took a bounty for one flying around a planet, and that was excellent too with the new low flying. I intend to do much more bounty hunting.

 

It's incredible how compulsive the mining and crafting becomes. I'm like Captain Jack Sparrow when it comes to gold, can't resist. I found one massive amount of it in what can only be described as a huge gold Fabergé egg. I must have scooped at least 1000 units of it before I ran out of room, and there was still loads left. Which reminds me. Can you drop a marker on a planet and go back to that exact same spot? 

 

Adding missions was a good idea. It just gives a nice little focus and extra reward for doing what you do anyway in the game. Simple but effective.

 

Progressed the story a bit too which is shaping up pretty well. Very out there, very sci-fi and oblique. 

 

I can't get over how seamless it all is. Going from space to a planet, entering buildings and so on. The amount of stuff going on. I only just realised you can swim, in fact I upgraded my suit to do so. There's whole oceans to explore, and creatures within. Big creatures.

 

I'm scanning the shit out of everything now. Uploading the data, renaming stuff. The planets just look fantastic, and I generally don't leave until I've explored a fair amount, just soaking up that unique atmosphere, that thing this game does that no other I've played before has. Actually it reminds me of Koronis Rift, LucasFilm Games' long forgotten classic. In fact it embodies the very spirit of that game.

 

I could honestly just play this all day, but I have other shit to do, more's the pity.

 

Oh I found a planet another player had already discovered. I was quite surprised. Does that happen often?

[Pob]

I started a permadeath save for a laugh on Saturday, expecting to last about 20 minutes, much like on my disastrous attempt at Survival. But, thanks to @Davros sock drawer' "don't run" tip, which was rinsing my life support quicker than I could find resources to top it up, I'm now about 8 hours deep into a Permadeath save and have done several warps using it.

 

I'm now terrified about the fragility of my little astronaut and his shoebox starting ship. I've got the basics of survival down but I shit myself as soon as any hostile ships appear, boosting the fuck out of there without looking back.

 

I even kept waking up last night worrying about whether he was still alive, thinking he'd somehow expired due to some bug while the PS4 was on standby, and I should rush downstairs and do a USB backup as @Darwock suggests.

 

To be honest, though, it makes all the difference in giving the universe meaning, and making it terrifying as well as beautiful. I love how the superb engine and the wondrous environments are now the backdrop to my own personal story of survival, discovery and progression. Before it felt as though the universe itself was the be-all and end-all and I was just sort of knocking about in it looking at the lovely colours.

 

I'm feeling much more impetus this time round. I want a ship that can hold its own in a space battle so I can enjoy the space combat without fear of instant death. I want to try out the ground vehicles, so I'll need to find a suitable planet for a base. I want to get into the new story stuff. All these things require blueprints, money, resources, inventory space, reputation, luck, exploration. I now need to investigate question marks on planets to progress these goals. There are short term and long term things to aim for.

 

Everything feels like it has value. Stuff like stumbling across a military deserter who gave me his knackered yet massively-expandable rifle feels really rewarding. I really want credits, nanites and precious metals because there's so much I want to do with those things.

 

Due to the Survival settings most places now pose some level of threat. I need to plan before I head out on an expedition to make sure I don't get caught short. Stumbling off a cliff and fudging the jetpack landing would mean it's all over. Mining asteroids initially felt safe until I realised pirates can detect previous cargo in your hold. The fragility of life isn't something games are very good at conveying but this really does.

 

Of course, if I do die and lose everything I'll probably never play the game again.

[Davros sock drawer]

42 minutes ago, Stanley said:

 

 

Oh I found a planet another player had already discovered. I was quite surprised. Does that happen often?

 

Surprisingly yes, although I haven't seen it for a while.

 

Glad you're enjoying it Stanley. I too find it incredibly moreish. I think I've said before, but I play it largely for relaxation. The micro management of resources is something a lot of people regard as a chore, but I can get lost in it for hours. 

[Pob]

Does this new story stuff occur naturally as you explore, or on the Atlas path or what?

[metallicfrodo]

Decided to start this again as I'd only played about 3 hours of it when I first got it anyway so wasn't losing much. It spawned me inside the geometry of a tree, after desperately trying to jump out of it I remembered about my mining laser and was able to cut myself out of it but it doesn't fill me with confidence especially considering the amount of other bugs that people are reporting. I'm tempted to wait until they drop another patch, however I'm inclined to think if I do I may never go back to it.

[Davros sock drawer]

15 minutes ago, Pob said:

Does this new story stuff occur naturally as you explore, or on the Atlas path or what?

 

It's hard for me to say what point it kicks in when you start from scratch, as in my save I'd already finished all the Atlas path stuff ages ago. But yes, it just started at the first crashed Freighter I found.

[Trigg]

Are they planets out there which aren't freezing, scorching, radioactive or toxic?! 

 

I just want a nice planet to settle down on for a bit

[Davros sock drawer]

6 minutes ago, metallicfrodo said:

Decided to start this again as I'd only played about 3 hours of it when I first got it anyway so wasn't losing much. It spawned me inside the geometry of a tree, after desperately trying to jump out of it I remembered about my mining laser and was able to cut myself out of it but it doesn't fill me with confidence especially considering the amount of other bugs that people are reporting. I'm tempted to wait until they drop another patch, however I'm inclined to think if I do I may never go back to it.

 

Something I've never, ever seen. I know what you mean about the confidence thing, but that's such a weird bug I can't imagine you'll get it twice.

[SteveH]

Is it a bug, or have they changed the percentage complete list for planets? The first one I have visited since this latest patch lets me know how many waypoints the planet has, but it doesn't let me know how much plant life there is, so I have no idea how many there are left to discover. In fact I haven't noticed a percent counter at all?

[Davros sock drawer]

7 minutes ago, Trigg said:

Are they planets out there which aren't freezing, scorching, radioactive or toxic?! 

 

I just want a nice planet to settle down on for a bit

 

Absolutely, although in Survival mode the pleasant, grassy planets all seem to have Frenzied Sentinels. 

 

I still remember certain planets fondly, having probably visited over a thousand. Ah Planet McPlanetface...

 

 

 

That was pre-release by the way - a few of us got the game early, so this is even before the Day 1 patch.

[macosx]

Supposedlythere's some rare exotic planets now.

Much prefer the more ambient soundtrack which feels less repetetive.

[Stanley]

I love how the sentinels come and inspect your work sometimes after you've been mining or whatever. I'll often have a shifty look around to make sure there's none around. Some of them are right psychos.

 

Had a big aggressive vicious looking dinosaur attack me whilst I was on foot, so I hopped back in my ship and he's still there, fronting, face right up against the cockpit. So I took off, circled around and then showed him what a truly evolved species is capable of 

[Stanley]

56 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

 

Glad you're enjoying it Stanley. I too find it incredibly moreish. I think I've said before, but I play it largely for relaxation. The micro management of resources is something a lot of people regard as a chore, but I can get lost in it for hours. 

Thought I'd go back and reply to this seeing as Davros had so kindly replied to my post.

 

I mentioned Koronis Rift earlier, and I'm old enough to have played that game when it was released. Back then that game blew my mind. The technology itself was amazing in the way it uses fractals, but it was the vision that struck a chord with me. 

 

I mean, no one has ever really attempted a game like No Man's Sky before, but it's been the dream since I was a child; fly around in your ship exploring space, land on planets, meet strange and exotic creatures, attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

 

It's attracted a lot of criticism this game, and Sean Murray. And sure enough I've criticised it myself, but hopefully all the feedback they've received has counted towards making it into what is now starting to resemble the game he first talked about. Because what they've achieved is nothing short of astonishing, and he's a true auteur. Yeah it's not perfect but then who has ever attempted anything like this before?

 

I just wish I could back in time and show the ten year old me this. We take so much for granted these days, and us gamers are such an entitled lot. But who of us who ever dreamed about playing a game with this sort of vision could claim to have actually tried to make one?

[Davros sock drawer]

Hear, hear! I've waxed lyrical about this before, but to me this is the game I dreamed of when I was playing Mercenary and Tau Ceti on my Amstrad as a kid. I don't know Koronis Rift as I never had a C64, but looking at screenshots I can understand why you feel the same way.

 

I think that's partly why I've been so happy with the game, even in what some people would call its "unfinished" state - it fulfils a specific wish I've always had, even without any of the stuff that was missing. So I already had my ideal game, and now they keep adding to it. Which is pretty much a perfect scenario for me.

 

As for predatory dinosaurs hanging around your cockpit, I had a couple of doozies when I was last playing a few months ago. My Photobucket links are all broken now I think, so I'll re-post them here:

 

 

 

 

I'd love to see your pix by the way. When the game was released we all shared our starting planets at least. Just been flicking back through the thousands of screenshots I've taken and I'm excited about all your reactions when you find your first truly stunning planets. 

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

I love how the sentinels come and inspect your work sometimes after you've been mining or whatever. I'll often have a shifty look around to make sure there's none around. Some of them are right psychos.

 

 

 

Oh yes, and regarding this - if you want to see things escalate, get a Sentinel on your tail and lead it a merry dance around a small building or something. So long as you keep one Sentinel alive, the 'Wanted' meter will keep filling up. Keep doing that for a bit and see what happens...

[Pob]

8 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

 

Oh yes, and regarding this - if you want to see things escalate, get a Sentinel on your tail and lead it a merry dance around a small building or something. So long as you keep one Sentinel alive, the 'Wanted' meter will keep filling up. Keep doing that for a bit and see what happens...

Oh so it's best to obliterate the sentinels that are bothering you, rather than leg it? I thought it was like GTA and you get in more and more trouble.