Support NeoGAF

[UCBooties]

I've never seen evidence of this, though. It was just something talked about, never seen in footage.

I see no reason to assume that the game once actually contained more content that was cut, vs. comments just being made about things they intended to be in that were never actually implemented in anyway.

Well, they actually showed a fair ammount of content that isn't in the final game. So the question then becomes whether or not that content existed in an actual build of the game or if it was just mocked up entirely for demos.

The more generous assumption is that a lot of what they showed was in the game at one point but couldn't be made to work, didn't scale, or couldn't be completed in time for release.

The more cynical assumption is that none of that stuff ever existed in any sort of working build and all those demos were created using pre-rendered footage and other trickery.

Because things like the portals still exist in the game but have no function I am inclined to believe that there was a develpment build that had things working, at least partially, more in line with what they were describing. That seems more likely to me than the idea that they were pushing features that they knew could never work in the game.

 

[UncleSporky]

Well, they actually showed a fair ammount of content that isn't in the final game.

Right, but by its very nature as a "surprise" the closer you get toward the center, we were never shown any of these more crazy/weird/alien environments that develop the further you get. That's what I question existing at all.

 

[eyeball_kid]

I've never seen evidence of this, though. It was just something talked about, never seen in footage.

I see no reason to assume that the game once actually contained more content that was cut, vs. comments just being made about things they intended to be in that were never actually implemented in anyway.

Well, it was alluded that the floating islands for instance wouldn't be seen at the beginning, because Sean was saying that as you get towards the center the physics of everything start to break down a la Interstellar. That's pretty much the only "weird" thing that was shown.

My personal opinion is that at some point late in development Sean changed the procedural algorithms so that instead of difficulty and weirdness increasing towards as a player journeyed towards the center, everything shows up everywhere, with difficulty and planetary features showing up randomly. Portals were deactivated, and the observatories that pointed to other planets/systems were instead hastily recoded to point to POIs on the same planet (which never made sense). It's possible that portals were left in because Hello hopes to reactivate them at some point, and that way they wouldn't have to change the procedural algorithms later on to add them back in.

As UCBooties was saying, it all comes down to whether you want to think Hello lied about features that never existed, or choose to believe that they ran out of time/money and had to try to piece together something that they could ship, so they cut features that weren't quite working or changed due to tester feedback.

 

[Shaneus]

I was pretty happy with how my ship and MT stacks were setup (given I only have 39 slots on the ship), so figured I'd power through and finish the Atlas portion of the game. Surprised how quick it was to collect Atlas stones if you have the resources to build warp fuel.

Think I actually spent more time walking around and learning the languages at the Atlas interfaces than I did between them collecting all the stones.

But yikes at the end of that run, though. Not sad I avoided spoilers for that part of the game, but it is pretty weak endgame. Thankfully I still actually like the game in general.

So what's left to do now? Work on getting a 48 slot ship, obviously. Getting a cooler looking multitool (still spewing about that organic looking 24-slot MT I passed up, not knowing 24 slots was the max),

Spoiler

follow the paths through the black holes, though I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to do... get me to the center of the galaxy?

, reach the center of the galaxy, get rich, work on the achievements like finding all the flora/fauna on certain planets... and that's about it? Other than just fuck around and have fun, obviously.


Really wish there was a way to set waypoints for awesome planets/systems though. There's a couple I'd like to be able to revisit regardless of how far away they are, but I doubt there's any chance of that happening soon. At least most of the bugs people are reporting seem to be ironed out now.

 

[putermcgee]

A few days after decking out a cool ship (only 28 slots, though), I stumbled upon a crashed ship as I was landing on a new planet. For whatever reason, that sparked me to trade up, and I spent the last few sessions trading up one ship slot at a time across two planets. I now have a 45-slot ship, which I'm planning to trade up to 48 next time I play. After that, I guess it's a matter of searching for a design/color scheme I like, whether or not that means putting down money.

I noticed one silver lining to finding a ship that isn't one slot above what you already have. Switch to that new ship without transferring anything over, deconstruct all of the upgrades (the plasma cannon itself too!), then go back to your old ship and transfer all those new parts to it, keeping all the materials you left behind.

I'm a few warps away from the platinum trophy too, so that's exciting. I spent so much time trying to scan 100% of 10 planets, but I've since done it on two or three since, while fiddling around getting new ships.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Yeah, i was "salvaging" smaller ships for their rare commodities for ages even after i had my 48 slot ship. Now that they've dropped stacking and force you to press the button for each slot on the ship to dismantle and transfer rather than hovering over it i can't be arsed unless i'm low on rare stuff that isn't on the planet i'm on.

I've been playing Colour Splash lately but i fancy a bit of NMS tonight as i've only 1 more planet to get the Bestiary 'chievo and i have some podcasts to listen to and an Atlas path to continue. A nice relaxing evening ahead for me.

 

[TheMan]

Man, I remember Sean saying this game would be perfect for psvr, and I agree. I'm hoping against hope that the next update adds support, but with how things turned out, that's a long-shot at best.

 

[putermcgee]

Wait a sec... can you not find crashed ships with 48 slots if your current ship is also 48 slots? After trading up to 48, the last five crash sites have either been ships with 47 slots, or no ship at all. Do I need to drop down to 47 if I want to find another 48-slot ship?

I think I know all Korvax vocabulary now:

Also, I saw this room for the first time:

 

[Number45]

Wait a sec... can you not find crashed ships with 48 slots if your current ship is also 48 slots? After trading up to 48, the last five crash sites have either been ships with 47 slots, or no ship at all. Do I need to drop down to 47 if I want to find another 48-slot ship?

You definitely can. I had the same question and exactly the same experience and, just after asking in here, my next ship was 48 slots (and a design I really like too).

 

[SomTervo]

Yeah, clearly they ran up against some kind of hard stop, whether it was technical ability or fiscal reality and had to make some drastic changes. It would be fascinating to know just how much was working at least close to intended before they had to start pulling things out. We know that their demos were smoke and mirrors but I'd love to know if there was a build that was at least close, maybe on a smaller scale.

I don't have a lot of hope for post release patches and updates but I'm still curious about if the game will ever get close to the build they were using before release.

There were rumours late 2015 that the game was really struggling on PS4.

Personally I think it all comes down to that. Especially as the game is so CPU-bound.

I've never seen evidence of this, though. It was just something talked about, never seen in footage.

I see no reason to assume that the game once actually contained more content that was cut, vs. comments just being made about things they intended to be in that were never actually implemented in anyway.

It was said verbatim by multiple members of Hello Games in interviews. Like "Art Director XOX said 'The galaxy gets crazier the closer you are to the center'".

They even explicitly described how it gets crazier, in terms of algorithms, animations, modelling, etc. Several of us were using these exact quotes to describe to people 'what you do' in the game before release.

Le sigh.

 

[putermcgee]

You definitely can. I had the same question and exactly the same experience and, just after asking in here, my next ship was 48 slots (and a design I really like too).

Ah cool, thanks. I saw a ship I liked at a trading post, so I've been flying around the same planet in the hopes of finding it crashed.

 

[Slay]

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/786663989283610624

... and people wondering, why they are still silent. IMO they'll stay that way, until they have something really cool released via an update.

 

[Shaneus]

What's the quickest way to get to the centre of the galaxy? Is it always

Spoiler

black holes

? Or do I travel there manually?

One tip my brother showed me was to go into free roam mode, aim the camera towards the galaxy and move forward, and find a system that's within your range. But again, no idea if that's quicker than

Spoiler

black holes[/url] or not.

 

[legacyzero]

What's the quickest way to get to the centre of the galaxy? Is it always

Spoiler

black holes

? Or do I travel there manually?

One tip my brother showed me was to go into free roam mode, aim the camera towards the galaxy and move forward, and find a system that's within your range. But again, no idea if that's quicker than

Spoiler

black holes[/url] or not.

Spoiler

Manually. I really think Black Holes are borked. Upgrade your drive to the fullest, and just manually guide.

 

[OuterLimits]

Before getting the Theta upgrade, Black Holes are definitely a good way to make some good headway towards the center. Once you have all three warp drives though, the risk of one of them breaking in a black hole really makes it less productive in my opinion.

Been a few weeks since the last patch. Has there been any news on another patch or a future update?

 

[SolidusDave]

For someone like me who fully explores each star system I arrive in, black holes are way faster


Still haven't been to a star system that was fully explored by another player
The most I got was someone naming at least the star system and some of the planets. But e.g none of the species apparently.

And now I'm too far from the starting "belt" and players can't even be arsed to name the star systems they fly through.


To be honest I don't even want to travel to the center

Spoiler

because i would guess only a tiny amount of players made it to the next galaxy and even less will explore the next. So i feel only the first galaxy is really relevant to play in

 

[exmachina64]

Been a few weeks since the last patch. Has there been any news on another patch or a future update?

Not to my knowledge.

 

[Prisoner]

And now I'm too far from the starting "belt" and players can't even be arsed to name the star systems they fly through.

Sorry!

 

[noonespecial]

And now I'm too far from the starting "belt" and players can't even be arsed to name the star systems they fly through.

I'm guilty as charged to be sure. I'd rather do more exploring than trying to think up an interesting name for the 100th variant of aggressive crabs I encounter. (I actually started naming them all "Crabbie" for a while but got bored of even bothering to do that).

 

[dubq]

I haven't touched this game in quite some time.. but I had to boot it up just to try it out in PSVR's Cinema mode.. pretty cool!

 

[Slay]

What's the quickest way to get to the centre of the galaxy? Is it always

Spoiler

black holes

? Or do I travel there manually?

Black hole jump = 3-5 Theta Reactor jumps, so do the math.

 

[Z3M0G]

When was the last patch released?

These guys are going to need a vacation period before they start hammering out new features. I'm also thinking it just won't happen. By the time they do I really don't think there will be anyone left to care.

I traded my copy in last week. It would be great if a year from now it is a much better game and worth picking up again for $20-30... but I simply don't see that being possible.

 

[Despera]

What would be the point? The likely plan is to push out the first big content update, then go on Geoff's show to publicly talk about the release.

Their silence spoke volumes, and anything they say at this point will be considered meaningless by the general gaming public.

 

[noonespecial]

Black hole jump = 3-5 Theta Reactor jumps, so do the math.

I haven't done this myself but I remember earlier in this thread (closer to when the game came out) that people discovered that using the black holes does move you a much greater distance (overall) than a single jump with the best possible hyperdrives; however, the problem is that the distance you are sent by a black hole isn't exactly all towards the center of the galaxy.

Someone wanting to test this can record their distance from the center before and after they go through a black hole versus using standard hyperdrive jumps towards the center.

Not to mention that black holes

Spoiler

break stuff which takes a lot more time to gather resources to fix than just making warp cells

.

Just saying this is what I remember...

 

[SolidusDave]

I haven't done this myself but I remember earlier in this thread (closer to when the game came out) that people discovered that using the black holes does move you a much greater distance (overall) than a single jump with the best possible hyperdrives; however, the problem is that the distance you are sent by a black hole isn't exactly all towards the center of the galaxy.

Someone wanting to test this can record their distance from the center before and after they go through a black hole versus using standard hyperdrive jumps towards the center.

Not to mention that black holes

Spoiler

break stuff which takes a lot more time to gather resources to fix than just making warp cells

.

Just saying this is what I remember...

It's true that black holes move you to a completely different spot in the galaxy (mark a solar system before you jump) so the distance they show you is super high, but in my experience they still move you ca. 4x closer to the center than the furthest warp jump when you compare the distance to the center before and after.
~1600 linear distance for max warp drive jumps which is ca. 400 on the scale for traveling to the center (for some reason they don't patch that distance indicator to fit with the distances that are used otherwise in the game).
The black hole does random linear distance (e.g. like 50.000) and moves you e.g. ca. 1600 closer to the center (vs. the 400 from the drive jump).


Btw I wonder if it's just a coincidence that in both cases there is a factor of ca. 4 or if the numbers are leftovers of their last minute adjustments.
I speculate that originally max warp drive and black hole moved you roughly the same distance to the center. Possibly with a balancing that made it harder to get the best warp drive in a short amount of time so in between you would use black holes. But by inflating the galaxy 4x they effectively reduced the warp drive distance by a factor of 4 while the black hole still works with the ~1600 unit.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Their silence spoke volumes, and anything they say at this point will be considered meaningless by the general gaming public.

The "general gaming public", or the angry internet mob? I think most people who bought the game might be disappointed in one way or another, but are still far outside the vortex of embarrassing outrage seen in the YT/Reddit/GAF echo chambers.


I need to dip back into the game. I've been away from it for a couple weeks due to real life and Rez Infinite, but I want to finish up the Atlas path before any new content drops. I've got 10 of the stones and want to find a portal for the hell of it.

 

[noonespecial]

The "general gaming public", or the angry internet mob? I think most people who bought the game might be disappointed in one way or another, but are still far outside the vortex of embarrassing outrage seen in the YT/Reddit/GAF echo chambers.


I need to dip back into the game. I've been away from it for a couple weeks due to real life and Rez Infinite, but I want to finish up the Atlas path before any new content drops. I've got 10 of the stones and want to find a portal for the hell of it.

I've gotten hours and hours of enjoyment out of this game - even though I am a bit disappointed with it. But the core gameplay I was expecting - seamlessly exploring an entire universe (even if that universe is a bit underwhelming) was still what I expected.

So I feel that I got my money's worth more than a majority of games I have ever bought for full price (or even on sale). I wish I had an idea of how many hours I've played but I'm sure its easily 100 hours or more. And I'm still not done with it. The small install size helps but I find myself booting it up when I want a very stress-free game where I can relax, not have to think about anything in particular, have no goal in mind, do not want to have to fool with quests or a have a need to follow any breadcrumb trail to yet another objective. The freedom in the game to literally go anywhere is still mind boggling to me and I just like to see what the next planet or solar system holds - even if the universe in NMS is ultimately a bit of a let down I still enjoy playing in it.

 

[Shaneus]

Black hole jump = 3-5 Theta Reactor jumps, so do the math.

On a side note, I have three (I think) warp upgrades. Does it matter what order they're in? I have them stacked vertically, but I don't think they're in order from smallest to largest (or whatever the optimum is). Is there even an optimum placement?

 

[Jinfash]

When was the last patch released?

These guys are going to need a vacation period before they start hammering out new features. I'm also thinking it just won't happen. By the time they do I really don't think there will be anyone left to care.

I traded my copy in last week. It would be great if a year from now it is a much better game and worth picking up again for $20-30... but I simply don't see that being possible.

I personally think there won't be new, meaningful features. Anything that *might* make it out of the gate (e.g. base building) will still be based on the undercooked foundation we have today, and therefore inherently skin deep. I hope to be proven wrong, but pretty much learned my lesson and moved on.

 

[Slay]

On a side note, I have three (I think) warp upgrades. Does it matter what order they're in? I have them stacked vertically, but I don't think they're in order from smallest to largest (or whatever the optimum is). Is there even an optimum placement?

i've read somewhere that if you place the Tau or Theta first (in a line) it gives you around 1650LY range. I have them in order sigma,tau,theta and i get 1620LY, so it's only 30LY more, and if you divide this number by 4, then the real benefit is a little more than 7LY at best.

 

[Zombie James]

Their silence spoke volumes, and anything they say at this point will be considered meaningless by the general gaming public.

Anything they say at any point gets construed and twisted into the same old shit by the same old crowd. They can't even release patch notes without sparking a six-page thread of the exact same nonsense as every other NMS thread that isn't the OT.

They're doing what the need to do right now and that's working on the game. If having them make tweets and do interviews is more important to you, that speaks volumes.

 

[Jito]

Anything they say at any point gets construed and twisted into the same old shit by the same old crowd. They can't even release patch notes without sparking a six-page thread of the exact same nonsense as every other NMS thread that isn't the OT.

They're doing what the need to do right now and that's working on the game. If having them make tweets and do interviews is more important to you, that speaks volumes.

Hardly, it's the norm for creators to talk about their products after release, not just drop off the face of the earth.

 

[truly101]

Hardly, it's the norm for creators to talk about their products after release, not just drop off the face of the earth.

Not much about NMS and how it went down would be anything close to normal. If they are working on a content update, particularly one that addresses the missing features, if Murray is going to talk, it would be then, right when it comes out. Nobody wants to hear how sorry they are or how they are going to fix it unless they actually have something tangible to show.

 

[vix]

Just got my plat during an epic space battle with over 30 pirates. I still have a few things I'd like to do, like find an atlas pass v2 and v3 and maybe get to the center of the first galaxy.

Also, to wait and see if they come through with new content. I want to have faith. I still personally enjoy the game despite it's flaws.

 

[BizzyBum]

Is this ever getting an update?

 

[davepoobond]

Is this ever getting an update?

Pretty much all of the relevant twitter feeds seem to have gone dark, so I think not at this point.

There wasn't even a time frame for the first content update, so who the hell knows really.

 

[DukeLongfellow]

There seems to be two possible answers for the silence.

1. They know it's too late to fix the game's image by simply speaking so they might be content to ride it 'till no one pays attention anymore and silently pull everything. Possibly even reorganize/close the studio as it exists now.

2. They are working on a concrete and reasonably hefty update that they want to really deliver before saying a (very carefully monitored) word. That way they can restore some good will before slowly opening up again (or that's the hope).

With the declining playerbase I am leaning on #1 far more.

Whatever happens though (and no matter how critical I get of the situation), I still fire up the game as a background activity for podcasts/music and relax. I can't explain it.

 

[Burny]

They're doing what the need to do right now and that's working on the game. If having them make tweets and do interviews is more important to you, that speaks volumes.

Yeah, that's a hopeful assumption at this point. If you stop about any interaction after release while talking to the community beforehand, that's suspicious. What's the harm in a confirmation saying essentially "We're alive, we're aware of the criticism, we're working on updates".

If they can't give their community even this much, something is wrong. At best it's just their communicaiton with the community having gone to s***, but at worst, they're in the process of breaking apart. Which would be a pity, but really, there isn't much reason to not even send a sign of life via twitter. If you're alive and being under fire, then you'll have to face it anyway sooner or later, so hiding won't work in the long run. Delaying any kind of response only serves to fuel uncertainty about the status of Hello Games and that's really not what they want if they are alive and kicking, I imagine.

 

[JoeNut]

I thought they'd already confirmed first update was a base builder thing?

I am holding onto hope that this is actually released, if it's not that's just another case of false advertising, as i only kept the game in hope of the future update adding some more content.

 

[eyeball_kid]

If they are working on a content update, particularly one that addresses the missing features, if Murray is going to talk, it would be then, right when it comes out. Nobody wants to hear how sorry they are or how they are going to fix it unless they actually have something tangible to show.

Yup. Do people really think Sean is going to pre-announce features for the next update if there's any chance they might not get completed? I don't think he's taking any chances. Better to work quietly, let the internet outrage die down, and drop a big content update. Then talk.

We also don't know if they're going to release new content or are going back and trying to finish features that were left out, or both. But I do believe they're working on it. Paul Weir (sound lead) confirmed that.

 

[Z3M0G]

I personally think there won't be new, meaningful features. Anything that *might* make it out of the gate (e.g. base building) will still be based on the undercooked foundation we have today, and therefore inherently skin deep. I hope to be proven wrong, but pretty much learned my lesson and moved on.

Exactly my thinking as well.

Say they implemented Base Building... I would see that as:

- Go to a system
- Build a base (somehow... whatever that will look like)
- Leave system
- Return to system to find base is gone

This wouldn't surprise me in the slightest... though they really shouldn't bother unless your base can move with you from system to system... or you can instantly travel to it at any time. OR, at the very least, have a waypoint to it at all times so you can travel all the way back to it...

But this game is not designed for you to stay in one location and do anything meaningful... unless base building becomes that meaning and is an entire game in itself... the resources required enormous, requiring you to travel to the surrounding star systems to find them, etc.

Yah... I have no hope for this feature at all. It would be an entire game in itself build upon this game.

But that's kinda what this game's problem has been from day 1... there was never a game on top of the base foundation in the first place... If they added Base Building, that would be the first time there is a "Game" to find here.

At least it would feel something kinda like Minecraft... as long as you have some freedom in how you design and shape your base. But the foundation for that doesn't exist, even in the slightest!, in the game as it exists today. So it would be the equivalent of building an entirely new game engine from scratch...

Not happening. Simply not happening... at least not in any meaningful form.

- find "base" recipe
- collect resources
- "craft base" from inventory
- base magically appears next to your ship in space
- maybe different recipes with different base layouts
- entering your base feels much like entering the stations that currently exist today

That's the extent of what I feel they could deliver with a few months work...

 

[davepoobond]

My guess is that your base will be like a space station. There's one in each system no matter what, so your base will travel with you regardless, and you aren't going to be actually "flying" or controlling the thing.

You're probably only going to develop it similar to your spaceship or whatever and probably just have a ton of inventory slot development, cause really that's like the only real progression the game offers.

 

[Shaneus]

Well, had a very interesting glitch last night.

On first entry to a planet, happened to find a decent looking vein of gold that seemed to run pretty deep. So deep that by the time I got to the bottom, the range on the multi-tool couldn't even reach the top.

So I started mining from the bottom up, and for some reason a texture on the earth/dirt wall disappeared. Figured I'd take a look at it, thinking it was just a missing texture but then I walked through it fell down into some invisible water and could see the planet from underneath.

Jetpack couldn't get me back to where I fell out, so had to restore my save. Shame, because I had so much gold already, was easily the biggest chunk I'd seen in the game thus far.




Also, trying to get to the center of the first galaxy... is the best way to just mine a heap of minerals (heredium, plutonium, thamium etc.) and make as many warp cells as possible, and keep going? Feels like it'll take forever. I think I'm still ~150,000ly away :/

 

[jambo]

Also, trying to get to the center of the first galaxy... is the best way to just mine a heap of minerals (heredium, plutonium, thamium etc.) and make as many warp cells as possible, and keep going? Feels like it'll take forever. I think I'm still ~150,000ly away :/

I think black holes are normally the best bet, although I had one send me tens of thousands of light years sideways =\

 

[E92 M3]

I wonder if we'll ever get the promised updates.

 

[xCaptainCanadax]

Well, had a very interesting glitch last night.

On first entry to a planet, happened to find a decent looking vein of gold that seemed to run pretty deep. So deep that by the time I got to the bottom, the range on the multi-tool couldn't even reach the top.

So I started mining from the bottom up, and for some reason a texture on the earth/dirt wall disappeared. Figured I'd take a look at it, thinking it was just a missing texture but then I walked through it fell down into some invisible water and could see the planet from underneath.

Jetpack couldn't get me back to where I fell out, so had to restore my save. Shame, because I had so much gold already, was easily the biggest chunk I'd seen in the game thus far.




Also, trying to get to the center of the first galaxy... is the best way to just mine a heap of minerals (heredium, plutonium, thamium etc.) and make as many warp cells as possible, and keep going? Feels like it'll take forever. I think I'm still ~150,000ly away :/

I haven't played this since around launch but the exact same bug happened to me but it was with a different element.Curiosity of the missing texture also got me but it was too late by the time I started falling into glitch land.

 

[Jobbs]

I wonder if we'll ever get the promised updates.

Why would they?

Are they still selling copies? I have to wonder if they are. Who on earth would see this then drop $60?

They already got their payday. What's their incentive to update?

I know that's me being very cynical but they've shown absolutely nothing but extreme cynicism through the life of this game so why stop now

 

[Number45]

Their reputation as a studio is at stake (if you're willing to accept that they haven't just said fuck it and walked off with the cash, which makes no sense at all). I'm pretty damn sure they've got their heads down and are trying to deliver something that will appease the many people disappointed with the game (and hopefully reward those that enjoy it too).

They're going to be terrified of showing, or talking, about anything too much. Personally I would like just a few lines letting us know that they're hard at work on updates for the game, but I also completely understand why they're reluctant. Nobody deserves the vicious backlash that they've had to deal with.

 

[Jinfash]

At this point, and barring a crazy update that would restore all lost goodwill and then some, I think it would be better for their career to disband the studio, form or join new ones, and keep a low-profile as far as "previous projects" credit go.

Maybe it's my perception, but for anyone following gaming news "Seam Murray, No Man's Sky, and Hello Games" are toxic labels at this point, and instantly trigger trolling.

 

[TheMan]

This game's saga is kind of depressing to me, but there's one thing that could save it, and I think you'd all agree. Maybe it's why the first update is taking so long; after all, Murray hinted at this (not that his hints hold a lot of water around here.


VR.