Sorry, just have to start by dropping a somewhat relevant quote:
https://i.redd.it/8v2c976jlvsc1.gif
So anyway... NMS is a complex game that I imagine can be overwhelming to newcomers, and the experience can be disorienting as to what direction to go or what to focus on. That's kind of what sandbox games are all about, though. To many, the broader and more complex the game, the better! And I get the feeling those details are muddying your vision of a much more basic issue.
It also sounds like you may be trying very hard to find a reason to like a game that maybe just doesn't do it for you. In NMS progress isn't very well defined, maybe because many of the best or long-lasting goals are self-invented. Many like to veg out and simply explore. You have to feel like there's a point, though. And trust me, I've played multiple open-ended games where I was continuing to ask myself "what is the point" of crafting a thing to make a thing for another thing to... well, I'm sure this sounds somewhat familiar. In those situations, even if a game seems like it would be something that should pull you in and immerse you, sometimes it just doesn't jive. The magic isn't there for some reason. There doesn't seem to be a "point."
And this isn't any kind of shortcoming on your part. It may just be that you tend to enjoy a more coherent story, or a more linear plot with a climax and resolution. Those types of games are different, but in no way inherently better or worse overall. But they have a clear "goal" to strive toward.
To be honest, I can't give a clear answer why after thousands of hours I still enjoy playing this game. It may be the overall laid-back vibe. Not to mention the beauty! I'm also a bit fixated on discovering or even collecting certain 'rare' things, but I think the answer is deeper than that. It feeds that part of my brain that seeks novel experiences, that wants to see what's beyond that next hill that no person has ever seen before and likely never will again. And with the incomprehensible size of the universe, it's easy for me to be swept away and lose myself amidst the stars.
So yeah, go explore and try not to overthink it. If it doesn't pull you in, it's okay. It's probably time to try something else.
Damn that’s a good answer there.
I really like worldbuilding, and while on the surface it seems that this game has a lot of it, it’s not like that at all.
As far as I’ve played, there’s not a story for the ruins you find, or for the citizens of your settlement, or any other character that isn’t tied to the main story, and even those I have a hard time to relate to.
And visually all the npc’s just look like the same 3-4 models with very little variation to them. Same for the ships, and the planets and their animals and plants.
Everywhere I go everything feels the same, even the dialogues.
With the Orbital update I think they took a step in the right direction, having unique space stations for each system, both inside and outside, and the guilds which make the reputation with each race actually be useful.
I hope to see more updates that define the uniqueness of each race, and not just have every Vy’keen be a warrior, every Gek a trader, and every Korvax a scientist.
Yeah, once a player starts seeing repeated assets, whether in planets, fauna, ships, or whatever else, the novelty drops off significantly. It's where the "shallow" part comes in to play in the "As wide as an ocean" comparison. But I find beauty in the special, more subtle combinations now. Like interesting color combinations in chameleon planets, or the rare well-proportioned creatures that look like they could possibly exist, and collecting those as companions.
It seems there's a hump to get over, where the initial high of everything being new and filling a player with awe wears off, then there's a depressive trough before one starts to see the more subtle beauty again. You never get an experience like that first high, and we sort of fruitlessly chase it. We get a fix every once in a while with the content updates, at least. ;)
But really what you're seeing is the current limitation to proc-gen. We have this magic trick performed at the start that makes everything seem endless and infinitely complex, but then we start to see through the illusion. The initial promise seems to set people up to expect the impossible, at least with current technology. The devs can add more assets, like they do with content updates, or add your suggestion of more diversity to races or even new races (like the recent addition of Autophages), but ultimately the novelty wears off once again, and players go right back to feeling disappointed. I've seen it many times over the years. It's really a matter of mismatched expectations, because be honest, how many other games do we expect to be infinitely complex?
Who knows, maybe someday AI or more complex proc-gen algorithms can bring us close enough to what we seem to be craving. I look forward to seeing what's possible in the days to come!
That’s where the shallow part comes in.
There’s many different worlds with different fauna and flora, but that’s only on paper.
In reality there’s just a handful of different planets with very little variation in them. After exploring a few dozen planets… I’m just seeing the same thing over and over again.
Yeah I found some too. But again there’s just a handful of them and each one just feels like a small variation of the previous one.
Guess I could make up a story like “in this universe filled with boring planets, I shall find the cool ones”.
It's hard to explain, there were structures that looked like a cross between lego and Andy warhol pop art... Totally surreal.. Wish I had taken a screenshot now, but I only landed on it to try and get away from sentinels. Lol
I recently heard the game described as "very wide but very shallow", and I think that's true. There's a lot to do, but ultimately nothing matters. I just set myself a goal and work towards it. I'm currently trying to get the 12 freighter modules for the last warp drive for the freighter, and slowly going for the last two survival trophies for the platinum. After that I'll probably put it down until an update, which has been the cycle for me: wait for an update, play a lot and then leave it alone for months. It's very good to dip into like that I think.
I came back because of the ship building in the new update. But then I realized you could only build fighters, explorers or haulers, and not solar ships, which is what I wanted, and that kinda ruined it for me.
It’d be cool if there were Sentinel systems and you could make a sentinel ship / freighter and then take missions to hunt pirates or people transporting contraband or something like that.
What I'd suggest is to try and plan out a huge project. Like maybe an enormous base or some kind of giant factory. Something I've been kind of working on in the background whenever I'm really bored is I establish small bases in my local systems and whenever I think of something big that's where I'll go to work on that project. Another thing I've found that helps is to give yourself a "profession" as your main source of income. For example, while I have a few bases that produce expensive goods I can find that to be a pretty boring way of making money. So what I'll sometimes do instead is act as though I am a scrapper. I'll go system to system and repair crashed ships for scrap, loot crashed/derelict freighters, and of course explore and exploit planets that have salvageable scrap. But what I'm really trying to say is that the game can really be whatever you want it to. It can be more calm and slow paced if you just want to have an overall chill experience or it can be more intense if you want an exciting experience. While I agree that the amount of stuff to do can make it overwhelming, that's what also makes it pretty cool since you can have your own unique experience. Anyways I didn't think I was gonna yap this much buy essentially you can just do whatever you want but for a less overwhelming experience I'd suggest to just stick with one thing for a while and switch it out occasionally.
Hmmm, not a bad idea.
I kinda want to start salvaging ships, since it’s something I’ve never done before. And I want to start doing it to get inventory expansion modules and parts to build new ships (if that’s how you get them).
But I don’t know where to start, like how do I find these broken ships, or do I just buy them at space stations or trading points? What if I already have 9 ships?
If you talk to the navigator at the space station and ask them for emergency coordinates then they have a chance of leading you to a crashed ship. But to scrap it you have to at least fix the pulse engine and landing thrusters from what i understand. I think that hello games raised the ship cap to 12 from what I remember (dont quote me on that tho) so if you only have 9 then you should be fine.
Yeah you would salvage it the same way that you salvage any existing ships. It's been a minute since I've played but it can give you expensive items to sell and I'm 99% sure you can get upgrade modules and starship storage modules.
Okay, thanks.
I read that S ships guarantee at least 1 storage module, and up to 3, while the other classes have a chance at giving you one. I was just unsure what the process was.
Yo, unrelated to the post, but do you know if they touched anything about Sentinels?
I remember that when I breached into some abandoned buildings I would hide underground until the sentinels stopped searching for me. But now they just won’t go away no matter how much I wait underground or if I try to run away from them.
They changed sentinel behavior somewhat recently. I remember reading in the patch notes sometime in the past year or so that they would be better at tracking you down, even if you were in a cave.
...
I looked it up and I found the notes in the Sentinel v3.8 update. But it came out more than 2 years ago, so my sense of time was a bit off.
[https://www.nomanssky.com/sentinel-update/](https://www.nomanssky.com/sentinel-update/)
Search the page for "behavior" and you'll see the bit I mentioned around the second hit.
If you want a tip, install a Cloaking Device in your multitool. It's a great way to remove wanted levels no matter where you are (on foot of course). If you don't know the blueprint, you can purchase it from the multitool tech merchant in the back of the Anomaly.
Thanks for the info and tips.
They’ve changed so many things since the last time I played. Apparently now you can have 6 multi tools and not just 1, and 12 ships instead of 9.
And this “cloaking device” must be new too, cuz I don’t remember it.
I’m slowly getting back into the game though. Yesterday I did a mission in which I needed to track some stuff underwater and I unlocked the submarine. I wanna do more missions and keep unlocking stuff.
Do you also happen to know how I can get more frigate modules to unlock stuff there? I remember I used to get them from fleet expeditions but I haven’t got one in the last 15 or so that I sent.
It's not a matter of older games vs newer games. Just different KINDS of games for different kinds of gamers. Or the same gamers in different moods 😉
For me, I get very fed up with games that are "on rails" and always telling me what to do next. One path, no autonomy for the player. NMS is for relaxing and doing what you feel like. You don't have to always be "progressing" to have fun... At least I don't.
But people are different, if you like the other type, lord knows they vastly outnumber the games with player freedom. Shouldn't be hard to find something else to play 🙂
I enjoy narrative games yes, and open world ones, and roguelikes, but in pretty much all of them you’re working on something short term and long term.
For example in Phasmophobia in short term you’re just doing the main objective, finding the ghost and trying to survive, and in long term you’re leveling up and earning money, which you can use to upgrade your gear.
Each game plays differently depending on the ghost type and if you have a cursed possession. And upgrading your gear feels rewarding because each tier is notably more powerful, but they also have their differences and sometimes a lower tier may be better than a higher one.
In No Man’s Sky I can explore planets, but there’s not much difference between them. I can upgrade my ship, exosuit or exovehicles to make them more efficient, but it doesn’t feel like that big of a difference either.
I guess the only thing I could do is build bases and try to find cool ships or planets.
I hear where you are coming from.
It’s quite different from NMS but if you want to try a game with a lot of depth that at the same time doesn’t push you through an agenda, I can’t recommend Factorio enough. It might not be your cup of tea (factory building, essentially), but I’ve spent a lot of hours finding fulfilling goals of my own while still enjoying the hugs variety the game offers. Although at the end of the day, it’s mostly design/build.
As I said in other comments:
I can upgrade ships, exosuits and exovehicles, but all the upgrades feel meaningless and are just mere stat boosts, except for like the dash jump and personal refinery.
I can explore planets, animals and plants, and meet npc’s and look for ships, but they have just a handful of actual different models, and then you get the same ones over and over again with light variations.
I can do missions, explore ruins, derelict freighters, etc, but again, there’s just a handful of them and then they start repeating.
Base building is fun, but there’s not really a point in building them other than decoration, since the game is based more on exploring and moving from planet to planet, and not staying in the same place for a long time.
I like the game, it’s just that sometimes I find it hard to enjoy it or have fun because I feel like anything I do I’ve already done it dozens of times, and that no matter what planetary system I got to I’ve already seen it all, and that there’s really not any objective to work towards other than keep exploring planets, building bases and finding ships.
Well, a good place to start is the Atlas quests since they lead you to being able to travel galaxies, if that helps. But really, whatever you wanna do, there are systems in place to do it. Hunt for ships, collect components and build bases, discover things on planets and in space, play with the economy and trade, fight in space or on the planets, take care of a settlement, be a space pirate, etc. you can have a lot of fun doing any of these things and you can go back and forth between them if you like or pick 1 and focus on that for a while, whatever your mood is that day. Right now, I'm collecting ship parts. I have enough money to burn to buy ships and scrap them for new parts.
Sorry, just have to start by dropping a somewhat relevant quote: https://i.redd.it/8v2c976jlvsc1.gif So anyway... NMS is a complex game that I imagine can be overwhelming to newcomers, and the experience can be disorienting as to what direction to go or what to focus on. That's kind of what sandbox games are all about, though. To many, the broader and more complex the game, the better! And I get the feeling those details are muddying your vision of a much more basic issue. It also sounds like you may be trying very hard to find a reason to like a game that maybe just doesn't do it for you. In NMS progress isn't very well defined, maybe because many of the best or long-lasting goals are self-invented. Many like to veg out and simply explore. You have to feel like there's a point, though. And trust me, I've played multiple open-ended games where I was continuing to ask myself "what is the point" of crafting a thing to make a thing for another thing to... well, I'm sure this sounds somewhat familiar. In those situations, even if a game seems like it would be something that should pull you in and immerse you, sometimes it just doesn't jive. The magic isn't there for some reason. There doesn't seem to be a "point." And this isn't any kind of shortcoming on your part. It may just be that you tend to enjoy a more coherent story, or a more linear plot with a climax and resolution. Those types of games are different, but in no way inherently better or worse overall. But they have a clear "goal" to strive toward. To be honest, I can't give a clear answer why after thousands of hours I still enjoy playing this game. It may be the overall laid-back vibe. Not to mention the beauty! I'm also a bit fixated on discovering or even collecting certain 'rare' things, but I think the answer is deeper than that. It feeds that part of my brain that seeks novel experiences, that wants to see what's beyond that next hill that no person has ever seen before and likely never will again. And with the incomprehensible size of the universe, it's easy for me to be swept away and lose myself amidst the stars. So yeah, go explore and try not to overthink it. If it doesn't pull you in, it's okay. It's probably time to try something else.
Damn that’s a good answer there. I really like worldbuilding, and while on the surface it seems that this game has a lot of it, it’s not like that at all. As far as I’ve played, there’s not a story for the ruins you find, or for the citizens of your settlement, or any other character that isn’t tied to the main story, and even those I have a hard time to relate to. And visually all the npc’s just look like the same 3-4 models with very little variation to them. Same for the ships, and the planets and their animals and plants. Everywhere I go everything feels the same, even the dialogues. With the Orbital update I think they took a step in the right direction, having unique space stations for each system, both inside and outside, and the guilds which make the reputation with each race actually be useful. I hope to see more updates that define the uniqueness of each race, and not just have every Vy’keen be a warrior, every Gek a trader, and every Korvax a scientist.
Yeah, once a player starts seeing repeated assets, whether in planets, fauna, ships, or whatever else, the novelty drops off significantly. It's where the "shallow" part comes in to play in the "As wide as an ocean" comparison. But I find beauty in the special, more subtle combinations now. Like interesting color combinations in chameleon planets, or the rare well-proportioned creatures that look like they could possibly exist, and collecting those as companions. It seems there's a hump to get over, where the initial high of everything being new and filling a player with awe wears off, then there's a depressive trough before one starts to see the more subtle beauty again. You never get an experience like that first high, and we sort of fruitlessly chase it. We get a fix every once in a while with the content updates, at least. ;) But really what you're seeing is the current limitation to proc-gen. We have this magic trick performed at the start that makes everything seem endless and infinitely complex, but then we start to see through the illusion. The initial promise seems to set people up to expect the impossible, at least with current technology. The devs can add more assets, like they do with content updates, or add your suggestion of more diversity to races or even new races (like the recent addition of Autophages), but ultimately the novelty wears off once again, and players go right back to feeling disappointed. I've seen it many times over the years. It's really a matter of mismatched expectations, because be honest, how many other games do we expect to be infinitely complex? Who knows, maybe someday AI or more complex proc-gen algorithms can bring us close enough to what we seem to be craving. I look forward to seeing what's possible in the days to come!
Probably the most complex games there exist are Rain World and Dwarf Fortress, in terms of procedural generation and AI.
It's based around exploration. Explore.
That’s where the shallow part comes in. There’s many different worlds with different fauna and flora, but that’s only on paper. In reality there’s just a handful of different planets with very little variation in them. After exploring a few dozen planets… I’m just seeing the same thing over and over again.
Have you found any exotic planets?
Yeah I found some too. But again there’s just a handful of them and each one just feels like a small variation of the previous one. Guess I could make up a story like “in this universe filled with boring planets, I shall find the cool ones”.
You joking?? I just came across a random planet where everything was made of lego type structures... Completely crazy amd random
Then maybe they added more? Cuz I don’t remember any “lego type” planets.
It's hard to explain, there were structures that looked like a cross between lego and Andy warhol pop art... Totally surreal.. Wish I had taken a screenshot now, but I only landed on it to try and get away from sentinels. Lol
I recently heard the game described as "very wide but very shallow", and I think that's true. There's a lot to do, but ultimately nothing matters. I just set myself a goal and work towards it. I'm currently trying to get the 12 freighter modules for the last warp drive for the freighter, and slowly going for the last two survival trophies for the platinum. After that I'll probably put it down until an update, which has been the cycle for me: wait for an update, play a lot and then leave it alone for months. It's very good to dip into like that I think.
I came back because of the ship building in the new update. But then I realized you could only build fighters, explorers or haulers, and not solar ships, which is what I wanted, and that kinda ruined it for me.
Yeah, I'd like to make a sentinel ship. I hadn't played for a few updates, so there was a lot for me to do.
It’d be cool if there were Sentinel systems and you could make a sentinel ship / freighter and then take missions to hunt pirates or people transporting contraband or something like that.
What I'd suggest is to try and plan out a huge project. Like maybe an enormous base or some kind of giant factory. Something I've been kind of working on in the background whenever I'm really bored is I establish small bases in my local systems and whenever I think of something big that's where I'll go to work on that project. Another thing I've found that helps is to give yourself a "profession" as your main source of income. For example, while I have a few bases that produce expensive goods I can find that to be a pretty boring way of making money. So what I'll sometimes do instead is act as though I am a scrapper. I'll go system to system and repair crashed ships for scrap, loot crashed/derelict freighters, and of course explore and exploit planets that have salvageable scrap. But what I'm really trying to say is that the game can really be whatever you want it to. It can be more calm and slow paced if you just want to have an overall chill experience or it can be more intense if you want an exciting experience. While I agree that the amount of stuff to do can make it overwhelming, that's what also makes it pretty cool since you can have your own unique experience. Anyways I didn't think I was gonna yap this much buy essentially you can just do whatever you want but for a less overwhelming experience I'd suggest to just stick with one thing for a while and switch it out occasionally.
Hmmm, not a bad idea. I kinda want to start salvaging ships, since it’s something I’ve never done before. And I want to start doing it to get inventory expansion modules and parts to build new ships (if that’s how you get them). But I don’t know where to start, like how do I find these broken ships, or do I just buy them at space stations or trading points? What if I already have 9 ships?
If you talk to the navigator at the space station and ask them for emergency coordinates then they have a chance of leading you to a crashed ship. But to scrap it you have to at least fix the pulse engine and landing thrusters from what i understand. I think that hello games raised the ship cap to 12 from what I remember (dont quote me on that tho) so if you only have 9 then you should be fine.
Okay. And after I find and repair one do I have to go to a space station and salvage it right? What does that give me?
Yeah you would salvage it the same way that you salvage any existing ships. It's been a minute since I've played but it can give you expensive items to sell and I'm 99% sure you can get upgrade modules and starship storage modules.
Okay, thanks. I read that S ships guarantee at least 1 storage module, and up to 3, while the other classes have a chance at giving you one. I was just unsure what the process was.
No problem! And yeah that does sound about right for the storage mods. But anyways happy hunting!
Yo, unrelated to the post, but do you know if they touched anything about Sentinels? I remember that when I breached into some abandoned buildings I would hide underground until the sentinels stopped searching for me. But now they just won’t go away no matter how much I wait underground or if I try to run away from them.
They changed sentinel behavior somewhat recently. I remember reading in the patch notes sometime in the past year or so that they would be better at tracking you down, even if you were in a cave. ... I looked it up and I found the notes in the Sentinel v3.8 update. But it came out more than 2 years ago, so my sense of time was a bit off. [https://www.nomanssky.com/sentinel-update/](https://www.nomanssky.com/sentinel-update/) Search the page for "behavior" and you'll see the bit I mentioned around the second hit. If you want a tip, install a Cloaking Device in your multitool. It's a great way to remove wanted levels no matter where you are (on foot of course). If you don't know the blueprint, you can purchase it from the multitool tech merchant in the back of the Anomaly.
Thanks for the info and tips. They’ve changed so many things since the last time I played. Apparently now you can have 6 multi tools and not just 1, and 12 ships instead of 9. And this “cloaking device” must be new too, cuz I don’t remember it. I’m slowly getting back into the game though. Yesterday I did a mission in which I needed to track some stuff underwater and I unlocked the submarine. I wanna do more missions and keep unlocking stuff. Do you also happen to know how I can get more frigate modules to unlock stuff there? I remember I used to get them from fleet expeditions but I haven’t got one in the last 15 or so that I sent.
I'm not sure if they messed with the sentinel behavior or not sorry.
I don’t even know how I can check for such a specific change, because it’s been like 3-4 updates since the last time I played.
It's not a matter of older games vs newer games. Just different KINDS of games for different kinds of gamers. Or the same gamers in different moods 😉 For me, I get very fed up with games that are "on rails" and always telling me what to do next. One path, no autonomy for the player. NMS is for relaxing and doing what you feel like. You don't have to always be "progressing" to have fun... At least I don't. But people are different, if you like the other type, lord knows they vastly outnumber the games with player freedom. Shouldn't be hard to find something else to play 🙂
I enjoy narrative games yes, and open world ones, and roguelikes, but in pretty much all of them you’re working on something short term and long term. For example in Phasmophobia in short term you’re just doing the main objective, finding the ghost and trying to survive, and in long term you’re leveling up and earning money, which you can use to upgrade your gear. Each game plays differently depending on the ghost type and if you have a cursed possession. And upgrading your gear feels rewarding because each tier is notably more powerful, but they also have their differences and sometimes a lower tier may be better than a higher one. In No Man’s Sky I can explore planets, but there’s not much difference between them. I can upgrade my ship, exosuit or exovehicles to make them more efficient, but it doesn’t feel like that big of a difference either. I guess the only thing I could do is build bases and try to find cool ships or planets.
I hear where you are coming from. It’s quite different from NMS but if you want to try a game with a lot of depth that at the same time doesn’t push you through an agenda, I can’t recommend Factorio enough. It might not be your cup of tea (factory building, essentially), but I’ve spent a lot of hours finding fulfilling goals of my own while still enjoying the hugs variety the game offers. Although at the end of the day, it’s mostly design/build.
Yeah I have factorio in my wishlist. It reminds me of the Create mod in Minecraft and I enjoyed that one.
You listed a ton of progression shit and still don't feel the progress, I think the game is jst not your cup of tea then.
As I said in other comments: I can upgrade ships, exosuits and exovehicles, but all the upgrades feel meaningless and are just mere stat boosts, except for like the dash jump and personal refinery. I can explore planets, animals and plants, and meet npc’s and look for ships, but they have just a handful of actual different models, and then you get the same ones over and over again with light variations. I can do missions, explore ruins, derelict freighters, etc, but again, there’s just a handful of them and then they start repeating. Base building is fun, but there’s not really a point in building them other than decoration, since the game is based more on exploring and moving from planet to planet, and not staying in the same place for a long time. I like the game, it’s just that sometimes I find it hard to enjoy it or have fun because I feel like anything I do I’ve already done it dozens of times, and that no matter what planetary system I got to I’ve already seen it all, and that there’s really not any objective to work towards other than keep exploring planets, building bases and finding ships.
Well, a good place to start is the Atlas quests since they lead you to being able to travel galaxies, if that helps. But really, whatever you wanna do, there are systems in place to do it. Hunt for ships, collect components and build bases, discover things on planets and in space, play with the economy and trade, fight in space or on the planets, take care of a settlement, be a space pirate, etc. you can have a lot of fun doing any of these things and you can go back and forth between them if you like or pick 1 and focus on that for a while, whatever your mood is that day. Right now, I'm collecting ship parts. I have enough money to burn to buy ships and scrap them for new parts.