I just posted this to
reddit, and would like some opinions here, too.
I've been playing on PS4 for about 12 hours now, and I'm really enjoying the game on some levels. The feeling of flying down onto a planet, hopping out of the ship, and taking that first look around hasn't gotten stale yet, and I don't see it happening any time soon.
That said, my biggest complaint (and I think a lot of people's) is that the universe doesn't feel very 'alive'. Now, since it's such a vast universe, that might be the entire point. If that's the case, though, why are there several aliens on each planet, all chilling in their buildings? I don't have a problem with this, but I have few ideas to make it all feel a little more lively:
- Make the aliens hanging out in the buildings move around a bit. Nothing huge, just have them look at the plants around the room, or go outside and look at the other buildings on the site if there are any. Make it feel like a dude actually lives there.
- Have AI ships fly around planets and randomly land and mine some stuff, or just look around. All of the aliens that you can buy items off of have some sort of mineral in their inventories, so they got them somehow. It doesn't have to be every planet, but I think planets with a trading outpost could benefit from something like this, since those places already have ships landing there. I'm not sure if something like this is possible, but I think it would be cool on livelier planets. It would also make the emptier planets feel more isolated.
- Give the various buildings on planets varied architecture based on the type of alien that lives there. There only needs to be one type per race, even that would make it a little more exciting, I think. (I got this idea from this reddit thread where the user there has some excellent ideas.
And then to keep the gameplay loop fresh:
Implement a mini quest system similar to Skyim's 'radiant' quests. I know a lot of people found them boring, but for a game like NMS it would be nice, just so that we have a clear objective other than the huge task of getting to the center. I think I would really enjoy if I went to an outpost and the Gek inside gave me his tech or whatever like normal, and then gave me a secondary task of getting him a Gek charm, which he would pay me a bit above the going rate for. Or if an alien at a space station bar (which should be populated by at least a few aliens some of the time) gives me a stack of 500 platinum that he needs transported to a trading outpost on a planet a few systems over, all for a big reward and the risk of ships attacking me for my cargo.
There could also be some sort of bulletin board posted at space stations or trading outposts on planets. There's an unlimited amount of types of these quests. Give 5 neutrino modules to a Vy'keen warrior as proof of your combat prowess in exchange for a multitool with a sweet boltcaster with tons of upgrades. Scan all of the animal species on a nearby moon for a Korvax to receive an exosuit tech. Give me mundane tasks when I have low standing with the race, and give me more complicated and difficult ones as our relationship improves.
To end, my overall point is that this game doesn't need a huge questline or lengthy side quests. But it could use little flavor quests to help motivate players and make them feel like just another traveler in this huge universe filled with untold amounts of intelligent life. You aren't alone in the universe, and the game shouldn't pretend that you are.
