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No Man's Sky |OT2| Maths Effect

Yup it's annoying. Guess the people who like it, aren't nearly as vocal

Probably or they're playing other things until new content drops. I still play for an hour or so most nights as i like wandering about exploring while my mind unwinds from work. I've over a hundred hours in the game and i can't see myself stopping any time soon. NMS will be my go-to unwind game for a long while i reckon. I just hope any new stuff like base building is optional.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Overwhelmingly negative? Jeez, I completely get why people are disappointed but you can't deny that it's not a great achievement, it's rare to find a game that does something that's never been done before.
Conversely, I think many games that make it to market do something or another in some unique way, and if that's sufficient to make something a "great achievement" while everything else goes by the wayside or comes off as an underdeveloped afterthought, then so be it, but these people are reviewing the game as a whole, as I imagine they should be.
 
Probably or they're playing other things until new content drops. I still play for an hour or so most nights as i like wandering about exploring while my mind unwinds from work. I've over a hundred hours in the game and i can't see myself stopping any time soon. NMS will be my go-to unwind game for a long while i reckon. I just hope any new stuff like base building is optional.

As someone who liked the game enough, there's really nothing left in it for me until new content comes along, and even then I might not return. 60 hours is plenty to get out of a game, and I have other things I want to play. Right now my mindless timekiller of choice is The Tomorrow Children, and even then I'm kind of thinking I should get on with the rest of my backlog.
 
Nothing new left but I still play 30 min to an hour here and there because this game is relaxing.

I play it every morning. I still find it stunning to look at. I also like the fact it's pretty aimless. It's like life, you just give it your own meaning.

One more warping Trophy, then onto the Centre, and then I will see if I can make myself retire for a bit and make room for other games.
 

Unicorn

Member
has it gotten better since launch week? I haven't played it since then.
Theyve finished their patches for fixes and are hopefully working on a content update that should include base building and freighters. Who knows if that will deliver what players want.
 

Spyware

Member
I haven't started it in two weeks so I have nothing new to write about it. I don't like it less or anything, I just need to spend time on my other games and my life in general too. Nothing different from any other game really. I play it a lot for a while and then more sporadically.

It annoys me that people make such a big thing about people "dropping off" when this is just normal behaviour. Who keeps playing the same game for ages?
 

Chitown B

Member
I haven't started it in two weeks so I have nothing new to write about it. I don't like it less or anything, I just need to spend time on my other games and my life in general too. Nothing different from any other game really. I play it a lot for a while and then more sporadically.

It annoys me that people make such a big thing about people "dropping off" when this is just normal behaviour. Who keeps playing the same game for ages?

online games I usually play for maybe 6 months (not every day). Some MP shooters I play for 2-3 years (Halo 3)
 
Thankfully the drive by shitposting is still rare, and the shitposters themselves aren't sticking around for followup. Just don't feed the trolls everybody. :)
 
Probably or they're playing other things until new content drops. I still play for an hour or so most nights as i like wandering about exploring while my mind unwinds from work. I've over a hundred hours in the game and i can't see myself stopping any time soon. NMS will be my go-to unwind game for a long while i reckon. I just hope any new stuff like base building is optional.
I platinumed it and put it away. Didn't even complete the Atlas or Galactic center paths.

Enjoy it, but it doesn't have legs.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
I haven't started it in two weeks so I have nothing new to write about it. I don't like it less or anything, I just need to spend time on my other games and my life in general too. Nothing different from any other game really. I play it a lot for a while and then more sporadically.

It annoys me that people make such a big thing about people "dropping off" when this is just normal behaviour. Who keeps playing the same game for ages?

Yeah, I mean I'm quite a fan of the game but I'm not playing it tons every day. To be honest I'm not playing anything much else either, so I don't know if that says much.

Most of my 'gaming' at the moment involves loading up either NMS or Driveclub, putting some music on Spotify and flying/walking/driving around for the sake of it. Who needs goals? Driveclub's come back into rotation since I discovered how good the motion controls are. Manual gears, hardcore handling, hot lap, tunes. Terrible lap times.
 

jkanownik

Member
I'm on board with the graphics and worlds being good enough (and amazing at times), but all of the game design elements ruin this for me. From a game design perspective it shares a lot of the same flaws as Pokemon Go. I could go on and on with a list of 100 game design decisions that are all terrible.

This game goes on my list with LA Noire of awesome worlds to explore and experience that are ruined by their terrible gameplay. I would play full price for a remix of both game where another design team just reworked the existing content.
 

Handy Fake

Member
I'm on board with the graphics and worlds being good enough (and amazing at times), but all of the game design elements ruin this for me. From a game design perspective it shares a lot of the same flaws as Pokemon Go. I could go on and on with a list of 100 game design decisions that are all terrible.

This game goes on my list with LA Noire of awesome worlds to explore and experience that are ruined by their terrible gameplay. I would play full price for a remix of both game where another design team just reworked the existing content.

I think a lot of it is simple to fix in honesty. They obviously thought it was too complicated and took a lot of stuff out, maybe they'll just decide to chuck it all back in again. As it is, I love it, but I'm more excited about it as a "base" game for them to build on. Like Path of Exile.

EDIT:

Furthermore, I really do hope that the backlash against the studio doesn't dampen their enthusiasm in developing the game further. That's worrying me a lot. Criticism of the game, while some of it is warranted, has really gone above and beyond what you'd expect.
 

OuterLimits

Member
I think a lot of it is simple to fix in honesty. They obviously thought it was too complicated and took a lot of stuff out, maybe they'll just decide to chuck it all back in again. As it is, I love it, but I'm more excited about it as a "base" game for them to build on. Like Path of Exile.

It's rather amazing the amount of stuff they left on the cutting room floor.

Portals: In the game but not working.

Planet Rotation: Was apparently in the game if you believe Sean. Patch notes said he slowed down planet rotation even more after play testers got lost. I guess by slowed down he means got rid of it completely since planets don't rotate.

Orbiting planets: Not included. The stars are a skybox which is interesting since Sean was somewhat condescending towards games that use a skybox.

Factions: While still barely in the game they serve no purpose. You can be friendly with all three aliens despite the Gek and Vykeen clearly hating each other. Big space battles are actually in the game but it's always pirates attacking big ships and not the different factions fighting each other.

Planets: They were supposed to get more bizarre and challenging towards the center but that was changed for some reason. Plus sand planets don't seem to be in the game despite being in footage before release. The infamous giant worm creature has not been seen by a single player either.

It is rather frustrating that so much got cut from the game. I still play it some and enjoy certain aspects, but whenever I find a not working portal in the game, it reminds me again how much was never finished or not implemented.

Perhaps future updates can make it a better game. However, I'm not sure they will really bother with so much negative press and the huge amount of players that stopped playing.
 
Furthermore, I really do hope that the backlash against the studio doesn't dampen their enthusiasm in developing the game further. That's worrying me a lot. Criticism of the game, while some of it is warranted, has really gone above and beyond what you'd expect.

I don't think you need to worry about that. Hello, for their own self-preservation, pretty much have to develop NMS into something that most people can say is a good game. Because otherwise whatever they decide to make next will be doomed before they even start. They'll never convince the frothing anti-Murray people out there, but if they can turn it around for the majority of people that bought the game, they can move forward onto something else.
 

Handy Fake

Member
It's rather amazing the amount of stuff they left on the cutting room floor.

Portals: In the game but not working.

Planet Rotation: Was apparently in the game if you believe Sean. Patch notes said he slowed down planet rotation even more after play testers got lost. I guess by slowed down he means got rid of it completely since planets don't rotate.

Orbiting planets: Not included. The stars are a skybox which is interesting since Sean was somewhat condescending towards games that use a skybox.

Factions: While still barely in the game they serve no purpose. You can be friendly with all three aliens despite the Gek and Vykeen clearly hating each other. Big space battles are actually in the game but it's always pirates attacking big ships and not the different factions fighting each other.

Planets: They were supposed to get more bizarre and challenging towards the center but that was changed for some reason. Plus sand planets don't seem to be in the game despite being in footage before release. The infamous giant worm creature has not been seen by a single player either.

It is rather frustrating that so much got cut from the game. I still play it some and enjoy certain aspects, but whenever I find a not working portal in the game, it reminds me again how much was never finished or not implemented.

Perhaps future updates can make it a better game. However, I'm not sure they will really bother with so much negative press and the huge amount of players that stopped playing.

That's worrying. I'd rather let them get on with it. I just hope they realise that they have a staunch fanbase who love the game.

I don't think you need to worry about that. Hello, for their own self-preservation, pretty much have to develop NMS into something that most people can say is a good game. Because otherwise whatever they decide to make next will be doomed before they even start. They'll never convince the frothing anti-Murray people out there, but if they can turn it around for the majority of people that bought the game, they can move forward onto something else.

I hope so man. Onwards and upwards.
 
Can't believe this has been pretty much the only game I've been playing for 1.5 months.
It's just a very easy go-to game, streaming some music/podcasts and off you go exploring a couple of planets each evening.

The Platinum trophy will still take a while though as I will need some more warps. As I never warp into a system without exploring and categorizing each planet, my path to the center is quite slow haha
I'm speeding it up now by only picking (non-yellow) systems with less than 4 planets/moons in them. I also could start using wormholes.



Found my first planet with 15 different species today, also included high frequency and full flora. Very lively. I found all species rather quickly (I'm long past the trophy but I still 100% planets from time to time).
 

somme

Member
Well I still love it.

Not much more to add but thought it best not to let all the negative nancys be the only ones talking.
 

NotSelf

Member
I'm also still enjoying it but performance is not great on PS4 the framerate and popin take you out of the experience will try the pc ver once it's on sale on steam.

One complaint I have about NMS is that there's not any thick dense jungles or forests like minecraft has. Instead all the trees are very separated and not very tall planets look very bald.
 
I still enjoy it. I just haven't played in the last week or two because of the overwhelming content drops from other games: The Tomorrow Children, Battlefront Death Star DLC, Destiny: Rise of Iron, Street Fighter V dailies and now LEGO Dimensions Year 2.
 

Shaneus

Member
Yup it's annoying. Guess the people who like it, aren't nearly as vocal
It's because you won't find out-and-out hardcore fans of this game. The sort of people who enjoy this game are the people who will write a long article about how enveloping NMS is, not respond to shitposts.


No, I had a run of bad luck where I found 3 or 4 ships in a row that were all fewer slots than my current ship. Everything on that planet was terrible though, so maybe it was just part of the game telling me to move on.
Yeah, I kind of found that now. On a REALLY pretty, serene planet (so much so I don't actually want to leave, despite it not being exactly resource-heavy) with lots of floating-in-the-sky islands (are they common?) and have been doing the transmission tower-crashed ship-minimal repairs-transmission tower runs, upgraded my previously purchased 33-slot ship to about 36 or 37 I think and found a couple of -1 ships along the way.

It's a fun journey though, and I've never been bored. I just love fucking around in this game, and it really scratches my ADD itch in that if I get distracted from a task and decide to do something else, it doesn't really matter.



On that Minter article, it really just enforces my own personal parallels I draw between NMS and Proteus. I need to track down that other game he talked about in that piece he wrote... Rescue?
 
Last night I found myself on a planet where as soon as I got out of my ship I started getting predator blips all around me. Suddenly I had four meat-eating crabs and two carnivorous space rams bearing down on me. While initially shocking, the simplistic behavior of the animals all rushing to eat me felt silly.

Considering most of our time in the game is spent on land, the experience made me wish that planet habitats were more complex and logical. I wouldn't even really consider what we have right now as proper ecosystems. There's no real food chain. I have seen bigger animals attack and kill smaller animals, but they don't seem to discriminate. Predators also don't seem to ever be frightened; they just immediately attack anything and keep attacking unless they're severely wounded. And those crabs and rams weren't using group hunting tactics; they were coming at me from all directions. It's so simplistic and non-threatening and frankly boring that it probably would've been better for Hello to not attempt a food chain at all.

It's hard to know what priorities I'd pick for Hello to improve because there's so many poorly implemented or paper-thin features in NMS, but I'd much rather Hello work on improving ecosystems first, both in AI and biodiversity, than spend time on new features like base building.
 

Fess

Member
It's rather amazing the amount of stuff they left on the cutting room floor.

Portals: In the game but not working.

Planet Rotation: Was apparently in the game if you believe Sean. Patch notes said he slowed down planet rotation even more after play testers got lost. I guess by slowed down he means got rid of it completely since planets don't rotate.

Orbiting planets: Not included. The stars are a skybox which is interesting since Sean was somewhat condescending towards games that use a skybox.

Factions: While still barely in the game they serve no purpose. You can be friendly with all three aliens despite the Gek and Vykeen clearly hating each other. Big space battles are actually in the game but it's always pirates attacking big ships and not the different factions fighting each other.

Planets: They were supposed to get more bizarre and challenging towards the center but that was changed for some reason. Plus sand planets don't seem to be in the game despite being in footage before release. The infamous giant worm creature has not been seen by a single player either.

It is rather frustrating that so much got cut from the game. I still play it some and enjoy certain aspects, but whenever I find a not working portal in the game, it reminds me again how much was never finished or not implemented.

Perhaps future updates can make it a better game. However, I'm not sure they will really bother with so much negative press and the huge amount of players that stopped playing.
Do we know for sure that the portals are broken, is there an official word on this? Or could we've missed how they start up? I read a theory somewhere that we might have to light up every or a certain amount of monolith's on a planet start the portals, but I haven't verified it.

I'm at 100 hours now anyway, people can say what ever they want but this game is amazing imo, unless a better game arrives later it will be my GOTY.
 

vix

Member
I've apparently just found a planet of fossilized Gek. There's these chunks of iron that totally look like fossilized Gek. They're all over the place.

qDlS6uK.png


As7iduL.png


CQoqJLL.png


fg5kxQz.png
 

OuterLimits

Member
Do we know for sure that the portals are broken, is there an official word on this? Or could we've missed how they start up? I read a theory somewhere that we might have to light up every or a certain amount of monolith's on a planet start the portals, but I haven't verified it.

I'm at 100 hours now anyway, people can say what ever they want but this game is amazing imo, unless a better game arrives later it will be my GOTY.

Official word on this? I doubt it considering Hello Games and Sean have pretty much gone silent on everything except for patch notes. Plus I find it hard to believe portals have some big secret in a game that literally holds your hand the entire time. Surely someone would have figured it out by now anyway.

I'm guessing the observatory was originally supposed to guide you towards a portal but now it simply points you to a monolith. Which is redundant since the signal scanners will also show you monoliths.

I'm glad you like the game. I enjoy it as well. However, I do regret so much was left out and the game is fairly shallow and repetitive.
 
online games I usually play for maybe 6 months (not every day). Some MP shooters I play for 2-3 years (Halo 3)

And NMS is neither of those, it's a normal Single Player Game. So for most people, they'll complete the main campaign (in this case there are technically two), and then stop playing. It's not unique to No Man's Sky, I doubt people spend a lot of time fucking around in Mario or Zelda once they finish the story. Unless you strike gold like Minecraft, if there isn't an online/multiplayer component to your game most people will stop playing it once they beat it.

Hugely unfair to compare the drop off of players in NMS to games like bloody Halo.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
Since when was there ever shown/said to be flowing water in NMS? :D

There never was.

To be honest, I like the game, but I have no idea why they're still using the 2013 trailer on their Steam page. Use the 4 pillars trailer or something. Makes no sense.

It's not a lawsuit btw, it's just the ASA sending a letter based on some complaints from the public. There's no fine or anything.
 

Number45

Member
OK, it seems the most that they can expect is to have to replace the old reveal trailer with the newer ones - that's fair enough. Small reward for the vicious hate campaign people have been trying to wager.
 

Spyware

Member
I don't mind this ad investigation thing. What is shown on Steam certainly is not the game I've played and that's wrong whatever you think of the game (I love it, to be clear).

It's like if Bioshock Infinite's store page would have those early trailers where everything looked completely different. Or if Borderlands was sold with those screenshots where it's not cel shaded. :p
 

Dredd97

Member
I've put it on hold for a while, I like the game, but seeing what the mod community is doing with it makes me wish some of that would come to the ps4 version...

but I'll agree with what others have said.. I'd like the actual planetary mechanics bought back, actual asteroid fields..and better planetary graphics (I know shaun has hinted at a new procedural cloud generator, but the bug fixes have really taken all their time atm)

I know it's not going to be elite dangerous, but it could be much more than that game if it wanted to be.. lets just hope the hate they are getting doesn't force them to jack the game in..
 
That ASA thing annoyed me, until I read what it actually was. I think it's totally fair to have them replace the trailer on Steam. But, you'd never know that's what the whole thing is about if you only read the posts in the official ASA NMS topic here on GAF. You'd think the FTC broke down their front door in a huge sting operation and Sean Murray was still at large, wanted dead or alive for crimes against humanity.
 

Number45

Member
That ASA thing annoyed me, until I read what it actually was. I think it's totally fair to have them replace the trailer on Steam. But, you'd never know that's what the whole thing is about if you only read the posts in the official ASA NMS topic here on GAF. You'd think the FTC broke down their front door in a huge sting operation and Sean Murray was still at large, wanted dead or alive for crimes against humanity.
I can't comprehend the way people have reacted to the games shortcomings in general - they will take any and every opportunity to pour scorn on the game and anyone involved with it.
 

Seiniyta

Member
The way people reacted didn't really surprise me. This is what happens when you literally don't try to do damage control at all. The game also had a lot of detractors even before it's release.

There is a lot of outrage over the missing features. But truth to be told. Most people didn't even knew those features were ever promised in the first place until they played the game and didn't end up enjoying and/or it didn't meet their expectations.

For me I already would have been happy if it had been a walking simulator with a lot of variety on the planets. But as I played and explored and then read about all the missing features, even though I was enjoying my time. I couldn't help but feel deeply dissapointed of what could have been. The content update has to be rather substantial for people to regain some trust.

the ASA thing is totally fair and to me just feels like neglect on HG's part rather then malice. They never ever were timely with their online stuff. Even after the date had passed the game's PC release date was still unchanged on their own site I believe.
 

Number45

Member
Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the disappointment many felt after playing the game. I went in with no real pre-conceptions, and it scratches what I need it to scratch though I acknowledge it's far from perfect.

What I don't understand is how vehemently people have reacted. Frankly it's the sort of reaction I would expect to be reserved for Valve after releasing Half-Life 3 as a runner... and even in that scenario it would in no way be justified.
 

Spyware

Member
I love that I can completely separate what we get from what we could have gotten.
And with that I mean that when I'm playing I don't compare a game to it's early trailers or screenshots. I only judge what's in front of me.
But I can also look at those early screens and think about how that would have been to play. But it's like it's a different game. The "feature rich NMS" longing isn't any different from longing after a completely unreleased game like City of Metronome.
 

mokeyjoe

Member
I love that I can completely separate what we get from what we could have gotten.
And with that I mean that when I'm playing I don't compare a game to it's early trailers or screenshots. I only judge what's in front of me.
But I can also look at those early screens and think about how that would have been to play. But it's like it's a different game. The "feature rich NMS" longing isn't any different from longing after a completely unreleased game like City of Metronome.

My purchase was based almost entirely on watching streams, and many of them before the Day 0 patch, so my expectations were realistic. My only concern is anything happening that might jeopardise continued development of the game, which clearly has potential. Perversely, I think this ongoing attention, although mostly negative, is probably helping to keep people curious about the game. Updates for most indie games don't make headlines, a reasonable content update for NMS probably would, especially should they reinstate any 'missing features', which, taken individually, are pretty minor. Even those dissatisfied with the game may check it out. Although it was a bland public statement I think it's true when they said what they do matters more than what they say.
 

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
I haven't gotten a chance to play NMS lately, mainly because of work, and because I'm chipping away at my backlog. I'm looking forward to diving back into it once I put Dark Souls 3 to bed. I'm really bad when it comes to my backlog. I even hooked up my PS3 to my TV in the bedroom so I can start beating all of the PS3 games I abandoned (sorry Ni No Kuni! I'll play you this weekend!)
 
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