No Man's Sky - Too good to be true?

Started by Jarhead0331, June 17, 2015, 09:12:54 AM

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Jarhead0331

#150
Quote from: sandman2575 on August 12, 2016, 10:44:11 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 12, 2016, 09:41:39 PM
Like Mike, I have just over an hour so far. It was a killer day and I'm exhausted.

First and most importantly, I'm not having any lag, no CTDs and no obvious technical issues. So, I don't know if the server population has settled down/stabilized, or they released some hotfix patch before I even got home and installed. The point is, it runs fine on my rig with good fps.

In the hour I played, I seem to have accomplished almost exactly what Mike did. I repaired my ship, took off into space, flew around a bit and landed at a space station. To get there, I used my boosters and something called a "pulse jump" which isn't quite a hyper jump, but it gets you to a far off destination in a reasonable amount of time. I interacted with one alien NPC, learned a few words of its language and got some upgraded tech.

It seems like it is going to be a good game, but am I blown away? Honestly? After Elite Dangerous and now after what I've seen in Star Citizen, no way. I am not blown away. I think ultimately, ED and SC will be vastly superior games. This could be a subjective opinion, but I'm inclined to believe it will be the majority opinion. When I first bought the ED alpha build, I was captivated. I was literally blown away and my mouth was agape. I don't recall ever having such a visceral reaction to a game based on the visual/audio experience before or since (except maybe the first time I watched the intro video to Homeworld). I have had some of those moments in SC, as well. Although I've only been on one planet in NMS, I did not get the same sensation of awe and wonderment. 

Its still very early on and I believe my enjoyment will continue to increase as I become more familiar with the UI, make new discoveries and upgrade my gear and ship. Still, with all the hype being what it was and 5 years of mystique and suspense built up, the game, as I suspected it would, is definitely falling short of expectation. That doesn't mean its not good, or not worth a buy. I love these space exploration games, so for me NMS is a no brainer, but if you're strapped for cash, not a devoted fan of the genre, or just have too much on your gaming plate, I wouldn't think you're a fool for holding off.

I'll continue to post impressions as I play more.


Informative write-up, JH -- thanks.  I'm still on the fence myself -- and comparison you make with ED is very interesting. I'm also completely blown away by ED from the standpoint of graphics and atmosphere.  It really does have that wow factor. First time you dock in a Coriolis station, yeah, tough to top that. Out of curiosity just checked my Steam stats: 61 hours, but last played in November, which kind of sums up where I am with ED -- enormously impressed by it as a technical achievement, but also can't help but feel that the game is a little lifeless and repetitive.

Sounds like some of the performance issues have been cleared up, which is great news.

Also, 17,000+ Steam reviews for NMS, only 12 hours after launch. Wow.

I think a game on a truly intergalactic scale must, by necessity, be a little lifeless. Now, obviously, there must be concessions made for the sake of the game, but really I would expect space to have limited areas near stations or ports heavily populated surrounded by vast distances of mostly nothing,

Now, NMS on the per hand, so far, has been teaming with life. I started the game on a toxic hell hole of a rock, but it was still covered in beasts. I looked to the sky and saw frequent craft flying by. Once I made it into space, I saw ships in orbit and traveling all over....but you know what? It still felt pretty lifeless. I have no idea who these ships belonged to, why they were there, or why there was no interaction between them and me. This brings me to Probably the most annoying thing about NMS...

It's a game about discovery...in fact, when I lifted off of that first world and entered the void for the first time a big message splashed across the screen that I had just discovered this star system and that there was a nearby undiscovered system, as well. How the hell is it undiscovered if there are literally space ships and space stations everywhere. How are planets undiscovered if there are structures and npcs on every planet? It really makes no sense. By simply ignoring the fact that there are ships everywhere in so called undiscovered space, it furthers the sensation of lifelessness. Those ships might as well be floating rocks. The fact that they are just there, but not really doing much in a meaningful way, and without any real way to interact with them, defies any sensation of authenticity. Now, I do think it will turn out that these craft have agenda, and I do think the player probably can interact through trade and combat, but this early in the game, it's just not readily apparent.

With NMS they've created quite a big populated sandbox. The question remains, what will there be to do in it and will it be enjoyable? So far it is enjoyable, but that could be because it's shiny and new. It's way too early to tell in a game like this. It's ridiculous that there are so many negative user reviews on steam. Most of them are from people who played for maybe 12 minutes, and had a CTD, or some lag and instantly, in a fit of rage, concluded the game is crap...yeah, not very useful. Of the 17,000 reviews on steam, 16,962 of them can be safely ignored.

Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


jomni

#151
Well you can't blame them for raging on a game that does not work out of the box.

Yeah.  The space police are everywhere and they are watching you.  So someone actually owns the universe and was there before anyone else.

Jarhead0331

I got in another half hour this morning and I am really enjoying it. Part of the draw for me is finding new planets and just looking around. It sounds boring, but there is a lot of technology out there at hidden outposts and stations that you can use to enhance your multi-tool, weapons, exosuit, etc. It has that addictive quality that makes you want to keep playing to find better loot and make new discoveries. Every planet, star sysem, station and waypoint you discover, you can upload to the server. You are rewarded with credits for this and you will go down in the history of the game as having discovered the item. Pretty cool.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


jomni

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 13, 2016, 09:03:41 AM
I got in another half hour this morning and I am really enjoying it. Part of the draw for me is finding new planets and just looking around. It sounds boring, but there is a lot of technology out there at hidden outposts and stations that you can use to enhance your multi-tool, weapons, exosuit, etc. It has that addictive quality that makes you want to keep playing to find better loot and make new discoveries. Every planet, star sysem, station and waypoint you discover, you can upload to the server. You are rewarded with credits for this and you will go down in the history of the game as having discovered the item. Pretty cool.

Thanks.  Makes me want to try it out too.

Ian C

#154
I've not had any issues running it with my AMD 8350, GTX 760, Win 10 64-bit PC.

I didn't want to get it but thought I'd try it for under 2 hours then refund it, just to check it out (is this how demos work these days?).

I was going to refund it this morning then got in another four hours today. It is HIGHLY addictive. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but its a time vampire.
After about three or four hours of play, you 'get it'. The game is basically an Exploration / Trading game with bells & whistles.

I've explored the second planet I landed on quite thoroughly (not the first, which was a toxic hellhole) and there are many ways to gain wealth.

You roam about, in your ship or foot. Press C to scan, which does a sensor sweep of the area and reveals resources or places of interest. You have a rocket backpack thruster that recharges, and can get you out of water, up mountains and out of caves. There's stuff to see and collect everywhere. You have to keep an eye on resource management to keep your ship and exosuit topped up with consumables and you fly, explore and trade.

There are mild survival elements too, and you have to be constantly aware of hostile environments. I liked the fact that hot hostile or corrosive worlds can slowly cook your exosuit, but if you take shelter or find caves, you can cool off -or go out at night instead. Also, different creatures come out at night or day. This is important if you survey stuff (scan animals, things, explore places, upload them, rename them) because once you survey a planet, there's a huge bonus (my current one is about 300,000 credits, which is huge).

You can upgrade or craft stuff. You start with 3 things: your ship, your exosuit and your multi-tool (which functions as a scanner, weapon and mining device). Each have a limited number of slots, in which to store cargo or hold a modification. Slots can be increased by finding better equipment or upgrading.

Once you get into the exploration feel of it, it becomes addictive. Some elements are very valuable and rare. I found a caveload of gold and harvested over 100,000 credit's worth before those floating robots turned up and started blasting me.

I don't know what else this game is about or how far character and ship progression goes, but I've had fun so far. Is it worth it if you're on the fence?  If you're a fan of old school space trader games / exploration, you will probably like it. If it's a venture into something new for you: my advice is to buy, play for under 2 hours then refund if it doesn't work out.

mikeck

I think it sounds like something I would like. Honestly though, I scratched my "land on stuff" itch with ED:horizons even though that's limited to moons. I'm not sure anything could match the enormity and exploration of ED for me. Discovering planets around stars that no one playing the game had found yet. Recently I saw that over 3/4 of the Galaxy still had not been entered. 400,000,000,000 stars is a lot

I think I will let NMS get more fleshed out and then jump in but thanks for the take on it JH! Very helpful 
"A government large enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson

Tuna

Quote from: MetalDog on August 12, 2016, 06:38:22 PM
Quote from: WYBaugh on August 12, 2016, 02:22:17 PM
Quote from: MetalDog on August 11, 2016, 08:52:17 PM


Too funny, I'm sitting here at work listening to Book 1.  You are da man MetalDog!!


Thank you, sir!  It's really panzerde's fault for mentioning Cygnus ;)

My first Rush concert "Farewell to Kings" tour!

Jarhead0331

I agree with Ian C. I stole another two hours this morning and am thoroughly hooked. The game so far is like crack. It's all I'm thinking about at the moment...where to go next, what to upgrade and how to make more money.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


glen55

#158
It hooked me about 2 hours in, too.  There is lots of loot and ways to make your spaceship, spacesuit and multi-tool (apparently the only 3 items you will ever have) better, lots of ways to make money and find crafting materials. But to me, the main attraction is just cruising around in your spaceship. I really like the way it does space travel - I'm nowhere close to being able to go interstellar yet, but I love the in-solar system travel: no seams or loading screens, you see a planet, point your nose at it, and eventually you will be penetrating its atmosphere in a semi-realistic-feeling fashion, and then I like the on-planet flying, too, cruising low and slow looking for things worth landing and checking out. And, of course, there are many, many, many solar systems to do this in.

To be sure, this is a chillaxed game - if you're looking for an adrenaline rush, look elsewhere. There is certainly a large, fairly complex survival/loot/powering up game, but I think this game is mainly about being an interstellar tourist, cruising around in a leisurely fashion and taking in the sights, and it works really well for me as that. Given that, it is very, very odd that you have zero ability to look around while you are in your space craft: you can only change your viewpoint by pointing your ship in a different direction. I mean really, you could look around in frickin' Wing Commander, guys, please patch this in to your interstellar tourism game. And how about having separate volume controls for ambient noise vs event-related sounds, please, please, PLEASE? My idea of cruising through the universe is that space is SILENT, maybe a low hum or a whisper of air, but I put on some spacey music and actually HEAR IT - I don't want to listen to a LOUD spaceship engine that sounds like trying to pull a hill in an 18-wheeler for hours on end, I mean really now, HUNDREDS of hours if you succeed in selling me on this thing, are you kidding with the annoying engine noise? But sounds signal too many important things to just cut the volume off so I really have no choice.

I wish the game were a little longer on realism. As others have pointed out, the animals are pretty cartoonish, and their behavior is very odd: very, very few of them are aggressive, although many of them are larger than you, sometimes MUCH larger. They're so little of a threat, that I didn't even worry about the 50' tall T Rex thing standing over by the artifacts site I wanted to check out. And . . . I've been to all 5 planets in this solar system and HAVE NOT SEEN AN OCEAN although all 5 planets are teeming with life! Que? Then - there are "outposts" everywhere, usually with like one alien in them, just chilling. And you see other craft flying around sometimes, yet you are "discovering" this planet? These aliens in their outposts just stay inside all the time and once you are 10 yards away from their little building, it's as if they aren't even there: they never mold the surrounding landscape in any way. There is apparently no government, no politics, except for these odd little sentinel drones that fly around and occasionally attack you because . . . you are mining. You need to stop mining when they show up and wait for them to go away.

But still, there is so much variety, flying is cool, you're always getting stronger and wealthier, and I just have a feeling I am going to play a long time because I am often in the mood for a chillaxed type of game. Especially if they do a good job implementing base-building, which is another thing that I'm missing almost as much as the ability to frickin' look around while you're flying.

Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.
  - Dwight D. Eisenhower

undercovergeek

I don't think the animals do much - a reviewer put his jet pack on and flew up to ride a brontosaurus type creature and just fell straight through it - it wasn't a solid object

Jarhead0331

#160
Quote from: glen55 on August 13, 2016, 01:23:24 PM
It hooked me about 2 hours in, too.  There is lots of loot and ways to make your spaceship, spacesuit and multi-tool (apparently the only 3 items you will ever have) better, lots of ways to make money and find crafting materials. But to me, the main attraction is just cruising around in your spaceship. I really like the way it does space travel - I'm nowhere close to being able to go interstellar yet, but I love the in-solar system travel: no seams or loading screens, you see a planet, point your nose at it, and eventually you will be penetrating its atmosphere in a semi-realistic-feeling fashion, and then I like the on-planet flying, too, cruising low and slow looking for things worth landing and checking out. And, of course, there are many, many, many solar systems to do this in.

To be sure, this is a chillaxed game - if you're looking for an adrenaline rush, look elsewhere. There is certainly a large, fairly complex survival/loot/powering up game, but I think this game is mainly about being an interstellar tourist, cruising around in a leisurely fashion and taking in the sights, and it works really well for me as that. Given that, it is very, very odd that you have zero ability to look around while you are in your space craft: you can only change your viewpoint by pointing your ship in a different direction. I mean really, you could look around in frickin' Wing Commander, guys, please patch this in to your interstellar tourism game. And how about having separate volume controls for ambient noise vs event-related sounds, please, please, PLEASE? My idea of cruising through the universe is that space is SILENT, maybe a low hum or a whisper of air, but I put on some spacey music and actually HEAR IT - I don't want to listen to a LOUD spaceship engine that sounds like trying to pull a hill in an 18-wheeler for hours on end, I mean really now, HUNDREDS of hours if you succeed in selling me on this thing, are you kidding with the annoying engine noise? But sounds signal too many important things to just cut the volume off so I really have no choice.

I wish the game were a little longer on realism. As others have pointed out, the animals are pretty cartoonish, and their behavior is very odd: very, very few of them are aggressive, although many of them are larger than you, sometimes MUCH larger. They're so little of a threat, that I didn't even worry about the 50' tall T Rex thing standing over by the artifacts site I wanted to check out. And . . . I've been to all 5 planets in this solar system and HAVE NOT SEEN AN OCEAN although all 5 planets are teeming with life! Que? Then - there are "outposts" everywhere, usually with like one alien in them, just chilling. And you see other craft flying around sometimes, yet you are "discovering" this planet? These aliens in their outposts just stay inside all the time and once you are 10 yards away from their little building, it's as if they aren't even there: they never mold the surrounding landscape in any way. There is apparently no government, no politics, except for these odd little sentinel drones that fly around and occasionally attack you because . . . you are mining. You need to stop mining when they show up and wait for them to go away.

But still, there is so much variety, flying is cool, you're always getting stronger and wealthier, and I just have a feeling I am going to play a long time because I am often in the mood for a chillaxed type of game. Especially if they do a good job implementing base-building, which is another thing that I'm missing almost as much as the ability to frickin' look around while you're flying.

You can change your  view in ship. With a gamepad, you use the right thumbstick.

Something else you have to understand is how vast and varied the universe is. Just because you have not come across hostile creatures in your first 2 hours of play, does not mean they do not exist in the universe. I have been unfortunate enough to run into several species of aggressive creatures. When you land on a planet, it will even tell you what kind of flora and fauna to expect.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


glen55

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 13, 2016, 03:16:53 PM
Quote from: glen55 on August 13, 2016, 01:23:24 PM
It hooked me about 2 hours in, too.  There is lots of loot and ways to make your spaceship, spacesuit and multi-tool (apparently the only 3 items you will ever have) better, lots of ways to make money and find crafting materials. But to me, the main attraction is just cruising around in your spaceship. I really like the way it does space travel - I'm nowhere close to being able to go interstellar yet, but I love the in-solar system travel: no seams or loading screens, you see a planet, point your nose at it, and eventually you will be penetrating its atmosphere in a semi-realistic-feeling fashion, and then I like the on-planet flying, too, cruising low and slow looking for things worth landing and checking out. And, of course, there are many, many, many solar systems to do this in.

To be sure, this is a chillaxed game - if you're looking for an adrenaline rush, look elsewhere. There is certainly a large, fairly complex survival/loot/powering up game, but I think this game is mainly about being an interstellar tourist, cruising around in a leisurely fashion and taking in the sights, and it works really well for me as that. Given that, it is very, very odd that you have zero ability to look around while you are in your space craft: you can only change your viewpoint by pointing your ship in a different direction. I mean really, you could look around in frickin' Wing Commander, guys, please patch this in to your interstellar tourism game. And how about having separate volume controls for ambient noise vs event-related sounds, please, please, PLEASE? My idea of cruising through the universe is that space is SILENT, maybe a low hum or a whisper of air, but I put on some spacey music and actually HEAR IT - I don't want to listen to a LOUD spaceship engine that sounds like trying to pull a hill in an 18-wheeler for hours on end, I mean really now, HUNDREDS of hours if you succeed in selling me on this thing, are you kidding with the annoying engine noise? But sounds signal too many important things to just cut the volume off so I really have no choice.

I wish the game were a little longer on realism. As others have pointed out, the animals are pretty cartoonish, and their behavior is very odd: very, very few of them are aggressive, although many of them are larger than you, sometimes MUCH larger. They're so little of a threat, that I didn't even worry about the 50' tall T Rex thing standing over by the artifacts site I wanted to check out. And . . . I've been to all 5 planets in this solar system and HAVE NOT SEEN AN OCEAN although all 5 planets are teeming with life! Que? Then - there are "outposts" everywhere, usually with like one alien in them, just chilling. And you see other craft flying around sometimes, yet you are "discovering" this planet? These aliens in their outposts just stay inside all the time and once you are 10 yards away from their little building, it's as if they aren't even there: they never mold the surrounding landscape in any way. There is apparently no government, no politics, except for these odd little sentinel drones that fly around and occasionally attack you because . . . you are mining. You need to stop mining when they show up and wait for them to go away.

But still, there is so much variety, flying is cool, you're always getting stronger and wealthier, and I just have a feeling I am going to play a long time because I am often in the mood for a chillaxed type of game. Especially if they do a good job implementing base-building, which is another thing that I'm missing almost as much as the ability to frickin' look around while you're flying.

You can change your  view in ship. With a gamepad, you use the right thumbstick.

Yeah? I use keyboard and mouse - I didn't see anything under controls in the escape menu, but I'll look again. That's really one of my biggest gripes with the game. I think this game is not for everybody but it is for me.
Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.
  - Dwight D. Eisenhower

DoctorQuest

I just wanted to verify what platforms you guys are using? There is a hate-fest over at GOG on the PC performance. They make it sound like part of the issue is the PC port was just poorly done from a technical standpoint.
"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.

Capn Darwin

I am enjoying the game. Played some on my old box with some under min spec GPU and such and got 15 FPS. On the gaming beast it would crash after the white screen. Thanks to a post on steam, some Reddit user found a work around for AMD cards and OpenGL 4.5 that got it working. Also read a post the stated better frame fate could be obtained by going into the settings file and setting GSync to false. Also setting min frames to 60 or greater (some folks say go 90 or higher to get more than 60 for fast cards).

http://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/1/360672304897920381/

http://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/1/360672137538014101/
Rocket Scientist by day, Game Designer by night.

glen55

Quote from: DoctorQuest on August 13, 2016, 04:52:37 PM
I just wanted to verify what platforms you guys are using? There is a hate-fest over at GOG on the PC performance. They make it sound like part of the issue is the PC port was just poorly done from a technical standpoint.

I'm playing on the PC. I have a relatively powerful rig - it was pretty much top of the line when I bought it about 2 years ago.  It is running fine for me, except the only time that I ran from backup without dying it was quite laggy after I loaded. But I just quit out and started over and it ran fine.
Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before.
  - Dwight D. Eisenhower