No Man's Sky - Interceptor

[Stanley]

The white ones? They're waypoints you've discovered.

[TehStu]

Is there anything more enjoyable than falling in love with this game all over again? This is the third time now (second after the pathfinder update), and I don't have any other games nagging for my attention to distract me. But I really didn't want to start over, particularly as the kids put in so much time helping me build a base with a lovely greenhouse to grow gravitino balls. In fact, my lad says "daddy, grabatino balls" whenever we see bright white round objects anywhere, now.

 

Anyway, started over in survival mode. I can see this being desperately frustrating if you're brand new to the game, but once I'd died, chilled a bit and had the presence of mind to science the shit out of it, you realize all of the things you can't do from normal mode, like running, jet/run bunny hoping, etc. Those first 3 hours while I repaired my ship were so tense I barely breathed, but god damn was it fun. It was a toxic starting planet, and I eventually cottoned on to short bursts of a minute outside looking for thanium for life support. And then my next task was walk 11 minutes to find some Heridium. It's incredible - you know you've got maybe a minute or two at most on your hazard shield, but too many burst runs to the nearest cave (if there is one! big plants don't seem to count) and you're screwed on life support, too. Once I'd got the Hr, I was then 9 minutes from my ship. I thought yeah, got the hang of this now, and set out... barren, now a bloody cave in sight en route. I made tiny detours here and there for Plutonium, but it was basically straight through. On the last couple of minutes, I found a green ?. I decided to go to that instead of the ship, hoping for a save point at least. You have no idea how relieved I was to see it was a base I could enter, just as my environmental shield and lifesupport were about to give up. I thought I was going to well up.

 

On planet 2 now, with the freighter, and it's so much more chilled. Plutonium is more abundant (although you get much less of mining it), and while the night time kills you, I'm happy just to hide in a cave for the night. Or a drop pod. Good time to check space twitter or something.

 

Here's the funny thing though - if you're not careful, death is just around the corner in survival mode, and I have a much greater respect for the environment. Before, it was just something to whizz by and kinda forget. Now, I'm checking every plutonium can, watching every animal (who interact with each other a lot more, I've noticed) and just soaking it all in. And is it me, or have the textures improved? Standard PS4 version. Oh, and mineral deposits are much improved, I found this lovely cave/sink hole thing with a metallic coating around the entrance, which turned out to be the start of an aluminium seam. 

 

I think I'll continue with this version, because once you're adept enough, it really is how you should play the game. I appreciate it's kinda Elite Lite, which itself is arguably Action EVE Online Lite, but you should consider them separate. I'll get into Elite one day, but it has a much steeper learning curve (for dad gamers) and NMS has this just right.

 

PS4 back to being a NMS machine.

 

edit - oh, my second time in space, while following the tutorial after leaving the station, some bloody bandits came after me. I'm a total wuss so paid the 16k, should I have bartered for 3.4k? Or shot at them? My ship is obviously still weak as Miller Lite, so I really didn't fancy another death where I lose everything I'm carrying.

[Stanley]

Great post @TehStu

 

I remember when NMS first came out, and I wanted to get it, but it was getting a few bad reviews. So I thought about getting Elite Dangerous instead, and people warned me back then that they're very different games, so don't expect Elite to be a more serious version of NMS, things like that. And it's true. Although they share many similarities, and have an awful lot in common, even more so now with this latest NMS update, they're very different to actually sit down and play. But at the same time they probably both appeal to the same kind of person. The dad gamers you mentioned earlier. The ones prepared to take their time and chill with a game, not rush things. 

 

But don't be put off by the steep learning curve of Elite. It's really not that bad once you learn the basics, because you're constantly improving your skills as you play, even veteran players are still learning such is the depth of the simulation. But NMS has a learning curve too. It's not the casual game some might expect in comparison. There's a lot to learn about mining and crafting, and basically just staying alive. 

 

Tldr don't be put off by Elite, these two games complement each other really well imo.

[TehStu]

Absolutely, I backed the kickstarter and keep up with DLC on the xbox version too, and if I don't end up with an S or an X downstairs to drive a 4k telly eventually (so I can move the old XB1 upstairs), I'll just fetch it for my PS4 as well. I want to get into it because it's much more me (EVE veteran), but it's just giving it that initial commitment to get over the hump. 

[Jimmy Shedders]

So I've landed on a planet which on a quick scan beforehand said was desolate but full of gold.

 

Being the greedy bastard that I am I quickly got myself over there only to realise that once I landed I now have no fuel for the launch thrusters. With seemingly no resources in sight. And the planet's atmosphere is an extra strain on the life suppprt systems. And I can't find any gold.

 

Still, it's pretty peaceful here.

[BruceBruce]

Running into a ton of issues with 1.30 and 1.31.  Trying to upgrade the "cargo" inventory in my exosuit does absolutely nothing.  I pay 50k to try and get the first slot, and it takes my money but gives me absolutely nothing.

 

And the waypoints for saving.. the icons for these locations (green question marks) don't disappear after accessing them.  So they end up showing on the map well after I've left them. 

 

Scanning is also messed up.  Scanning the local area will show things like minerals nearby, but when looking for places of interest it ends up finding something 20-30 minutes away instead of locations maybe 30 seconds to a minute away.  Even though there are plenty.

 

Hopefully 1.32 fixes a lot of these issues.

[Stanley]

I noticed those things BruceBruce but didn't know if it was like that before. 

[TehStu]

Do they have a better public defect submission thing these days? I don't mind reporting these things if it's easy to do so.

[grounded_dreams]

6 hours ago, TehStu said:

Do they have a better public defect submission thing these days? I don't mind reporting these things if it's easy to do so.

 

You can report bugs, issues and provide feedback plus suggestions to them here

[grounded_dreams]

Finally activated my first portal last night, it was such a moody looking location:

Went through it and found myself in a location full of this weird multi coloured spinning cubes:



Also found my first crashed freighter, the thing is huge!

Really getting back into this game, even with all the bugs and glitches I'm having a wonderful time.

[Pob]

I found the first part of the new story thread last night on a fairly inhospitable planet - freezing and with not much in the way of vital life-supporting elements in the immediate vicinity of the crash site. There was also a knackered ship at the same site which I assume everyone gets, and is presumably intended to be fixed up to replace the starter ship. However, given the lack of resources around I had a feeling that if I made the decision to swap ships I'd die on this rock long before I repaired the new one. I was already scratching around for materials to unlock the ship's log for the story mission let alone all the stuff needed to repair a ship's systems. I also seem to remember that when you swap ships your old one is instantly gone, so you're stranded until you repair the new one.

 

I almost came a cropper twice on that planet (I'm on Permadeath, remember). A couple of times searching around at night looking for Thamium and Zinc I blundered into shallow ravines and lost my shield and some health. Got to watch where I'm going! I love the torch that's been added, though. Then later I couldn't have been more than 90 seconds away from my ship when a storm moved in (I'd forgotten about those) and I used up what little materials I had left repairing my hazard protection as I sprinted back. If I'd have run out of zinc and shielding plates I reckon I'd have died before it even occurred to me to shelter in a cave. I'd make a terrible astronaut in real life.

 

I saved the game sitting in my ship with very little in the way of life-supporting elements, but fully-fuelled engines and warp drive. I'm tempted to stock up on Emeril before I leave but I think it might be a suicidal decision.

[Floyd]

I thinking about picking this up again. I haven't played since the vanilla game last year. I do have a fair amount of progress.

 

Is it better to start again from scratch? Or carry on from were I left off? Or does it really not matter

[macosx]

14 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I thinking about picking this up again. I haven't played since the vanilla game last year. I do have a fair amount of progress.

 

Is it better to start again from scratch? Or carry on from were I left off? Or does it really not matter

 

I'd vote start again, I've enjoyed discovering the way the game has expanded and changed. I ditched a fully specc'd ship and suit and millions but I'm happy in my new improved galaxy.

[Davros sock drawer]

35 minutes ago, Pob said:

I love the torch that's been added, though. 

 

Been there since before Day 1!

 

Talking of Permadeath, how do the saves work? Do you only get one slot? Because in Survival Mode you can just roll back to a previous save if you mess up...

[Pob]

23 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

 

Been there since before Day 1!

 

Talking of Permadeath, how do the saves work? Do you only get one slot? Because in Survival Mode you can just roll back to a previous save if you mess up...

Really? How did you used to turn it on then?

 

Yes you get one slot I think so no rolling back. I've not actually died yet but I assume the save gets deleted when you die. Which is why I cheated a bit and copied the save onto a USB stick, but I only did that in case some stupid bug kills me.

 

[JPickford]

Stuck on the Ghosts in the Machine mission.

 

 

I'm on the "Locate Apollo's contact" bit.   The target thing lead me to a space station where there's a traveller alien but I can't get anything to happen.   I can talk to her/it but after the first time I just get to pay 20 carbon for directions and the mission doesn't move on.   

 

Any ideas?

 

[Starbreaker]

I picked this up after dropping it last year. Tbh I'm a bit nonplussed at the fresh love for it, still seems like the same things are wrong with it. 

 

On a similar note, does anyone have any idea how to get antimatter? I think the game should have sent me to an alien who gives me some, but it bugged out when I got there. I don't have the blueprint and the space station and traders aren't selling any; I'm itching to go and explore but I'm stranded in my starting system. 

[Davros sock drawer]

1 minute ago, Pob said:

Really? How did you used to turn it on then?

 

Yes you get one slot I think so no rolling back. I've not actually died yet but I assume the save gets deleted when you die. Which is why I cheated a bit and copied the save onto a USB stick, but I only did that in case some stupid bug kills me.

 

 

Sensible. 

 

It used to just be down on the d-pad as I recall. That was all that button did back then, there was no d-pad menu.

 

This was the very first video I captured, pre-release, mere moments after the start. You can see me turn the torch on at the 2:35 mark:

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

4 minutes ago, JPickford said:

Stuck on the Ghosts in the Machine mission.

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

I'm on the "Locate Apollo's contact" bit.   The target thing lead me to a space station where there's a traveller alien but I can't get anything to happen.   I can talk to her/it but after the first time I just get to pay 20 carbon for directions and the mission doesn't move on.   

 

Any ideas?

 
 

 

 

 

Have you got that mission selected in your log?

[JPickford]

Yep

 

[Davros sock drawer]

4 minutes ago, Starbreaker said:

I picked this up after dropping it last year. Tbh I'm a bit nonplussed at the fresh love for it, still seems like the same things are wrong with it. 

 

On a similar note, does anyone have any idea how to get antimatter? I think the game should have sent me to an alien who gives me some, but it bugged out when I got there. I don't have the blueprint and the space station and traders aren't selling any; I'm itching to go and explore but I'm stranded in my starting system. 

 

If you do a system scan while in space (L3) it should tell you where to go next. 

[Starbreaker]

Tried that. No dice. It's just telling me to craft a warp cell. 

[Mogster]

8 minutes ago, Starbreaker said:

I picked this up after dropping it last year. Tbh I'm a bit nonplussed at the fresh love for it, still seems like the same things are wrong with it. 

 

On a similar note, does anyone have any idea how to get antimatter? I think the game should have sent me to an alien who gives me some, but it bugged out when I got there. I don't have the blueprint and the space station and traders aren't selling any; I'm itching to go and explore but I'm stranded in my starting system. 

 

I didn't think much to start with either, but I love it now. It's worth sticking with for a few hours if it's not clicking yet.

 

You need a blueprint before you can craft that item, but I seem to recall that the story gifts you a warp cell before you need to craft one. Someone else mentioned that you sometimes need to have a corresponding mission selected for NPCs to actually respond correctly, which is probably a bug, but might help.

 

EDIT: Sorry, didn't notice that you were being told to craft one! 

[Davros sock drawer]

You sure you haven't already got the antimatter blueprint?

[Starbreaker]

Yeah. No option to craft it. 

[Davros sock drawer]

Out of ideas then, sorry. I'm continuing my old save. If I start again I might keep some notes on what happens, as it seems they've really changed how the initial quests work.

[Pob]

I just followed the breadcrumbs when I restarted at the weekend, doing what I was told. After a few steps I got given the antimatter blueprint. Could've been from the derelict hulk?

[Stanley]

The game should tell you what to do next. I had the same problem because I'd done all the first part of the game, found the antimatter and made a warp cell, but then I switched ships after finding a crashed one. 

[marcus]

I picked this up and am actually quite enjoying it so far, albeit I am only a few hours in.   Suppose I need a specific mineral, I know I can scan and it shows me the location of certain items, but what determines what shows up on the scan - is it only the rarer things, or can I choose what is shows so that I dont go wandering aimlessly at risk of death?

 

Lack of inventory is killing me at the moment, has to be one of the first things I work on before I go mad.

[Vimster]

Does this still go "OMG life support systems are low!!!" when it gets below 75% like in the original release. That used to get on my nerves.