No Man's Sky: Peter Molyneux Edition

[chronovore]

People will write mountains of procedural code to create mathematically derived music which is all rather impressive when you see the effort they put into it, but terrible to listen to. And when you ask why it's compelling they say it's interesting to them. That's all well and good for them. But when was the last time you saw a procedurally generated piece of music place well on any chart?

I can't find the article, but there's one out there about a guy writing procedural music and turning Spotify's own search/preference/curation engine on itself so his horrible music would be found, prioritized, and played; it acted as a virtuous cycle for his work, charting it. But you're right: no-one is chasing after composer-less music.

[I'm a Puppy!]

I thing the main thing about No Man's Sky is that it quickly loses any sense of mystery, discovering the unknown, after the first few planets. They're all just palette swaps with the same minerals, the same kinds of creature parts [just swapped around a bit], and the same boring alien structures. When you pull up the star map and choose your next destination, there's absolutely no reason to pick one system over another. There's no "I could go over here and get X, but if I went here I might be able to find Y instead". Nope. Just pick a new location at random. Not that it matters, because you already know what you're going to find there.

They should have made some unique planets with really cool stuff, then scattered then around the galaxy and given you clues to find them. That would at least be something.

really, I think they should have just forced everyone at Hello Games to play Minecraft for 4 hours without being able to fight or build anything and be like "This is what you're asking people to do. Sure, it'll be prettier, but is this something you'd want to play?"

[Rufus]

Anything at all to use those gazillion assets as more than pretty backdrops.

Then again, it seems to click with some people:

Many more of these kinds of videos on Youtube. People scyring random textures for cut features.

[Great Rumbler]

I thing the main thing about No Man's Sky is that it quickly loses any sense of mystery, discovering the unknown, after the first few planets. They're all just palette swaps with the same minerals, the same kinds of creature parts [just swapped around a bit], and the same boring alien structures. When you pull up the star map and choose your next destination, there's absolutely no reason to pick one system over another. There's no "I could go over here and get X, but if I went here I might be able to find Y instead". Nope. Just pick a new location at random. Not that it matters, because you already know what you're going to find there.

They should have made some unique planets with really cool stuff, then scattered then around the galaxy and given you clues to find them. That would at least be something.

really, I think they should have just forced everyone at Hello Games to play Minecraft for 4 hours without being able to fight or build anything and be like "This is what you're asking people to do. Sure, it'll be prettier, but is this something you'd want to play?"

Except in Minecraft you can actually use the materials you mine to build all kinds of stuff.

[Rufus]

I thing the main thing about No Man's Sky is that it quickly loses any sense of mystery, discovering the unknown, after the first few planets. They're all just palette swaps with the same minerals, the same kinds of creature parts [just swapped around a bit], and the same boring alien structures. When you pull up the star map and choose your next destination, there's absolutely no reason to pick one system over another. There's no "I could go over here and get X, but if I went here I might be able to find Y instead". Nope. Just pick a new location at random. Not that it matters, because you already know what you're going to find there.

They should have made some unique planets with really cool stuff, then scattered then around the galaxy and given you clues to find them. That would at least be something.

really, I think they should have just forced everyone at Hello Games to play Minecraft for 4 hours without being able to fight or build anything and be like "This is what you're asking people to do. Sure, it'll be prettier, but is this something you'd want to play?"

Except in Minecraft you can actually use the materials you mine to build all kinds of stuff.

Nah. Here, pop this bubble wrap instead.

[Great Rumbler]

Not really defending Minecraft here, just pointing at that NMS is Minecraft with even less gameplay.

[Rufus]

I was thinking of NMS there.

Minecraft actually lets you express yourself and really is what they should have been looking at a lot more intently. Or Terraria. Or Starbound. Or any other successful game with algorithmically created content. Any single one of them.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Ergo, why I said make them play minecraft without building or fighting anything

[CatsCatsCats]

if NMS was just minecraft Galaxy mmo, people wouldn't be bitchin

[Let's Cyber]

Booted NMS up for the first time in over a week and after 5 minutes it froze and I had to hard reboot my PS4. 

GG, Hello Games.  GG

[bork]

Booted NMS up for the first time in over a week and after 5 minutes it froze and I had to hard reboot my PS4. 

GG, Hello Games.  GG

More like Goodbye Games lolamirite

[I'm a Puppy!]

Booted NMS up for the first time in over a week and after 5 minutes it froze and I had to hard reboot my PS4. 

GG, Hello Games.  GG

You complain about NMS? Those GGs must stand for Gamergate

[VomKriege]

Well actually it's about ethics in game de... Oh shit.

[Raist]

Anything at all to use those gazillion assets as more than pretty backdrops.

Then again, it seems to click with some people:

Many more of these kinds of videos on Youtube. People scyring random textures for cut features.

Yeah, it's hilarious. Like, let it go for now guys, it's likely cut. Doesn't help that dataminers found stuff related to activation I guess, but people keep saying "BUT WHY ARE THEY STILL IN THE GAME THO" and don't seem to understand the concept that it's easier to get rid of the one line of code (or whatever) allowing you to deactivate that stuff, rather than parse through the whole code and get rid of assets, text, audio, etc etc. Especially if it's temporary.

But then again, dozens of people clocked in thousands of hours combined to try to understand what the pendant in Dark Souls does, after Miyazaki just said "The Pendant" in reply to "which starting item do you usually pick?" in an interview. Turns out he was just trolling. It does fuck all. It was hilarious.

[Tasty]

But then again, dozens of people clocked in thousands of hours combined to try to understand what the pendant in Dark Souls does, after Miyazaki just said "The Pendant" in reply to "which starting item do you usually pick?" in an interview. Turns out he was just trolling. It does fuck all. It was hilarious.

Holy shit, is this real?

[chronovore]

But then again, dozens of people clocked in thousands of hours combined to try to understand what the pendant in Dark Souls does, after Miyazaki just said "The Pendant" in reply to "which starting item do you usually pick?" in an interview. Turns out he was just trolling. It does fuck all. It was hilarious.

Holy shit, is this real?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/02/dark-souls-miyazaki-talks-artorias-of-the-abyss

I ask Miyazaki whether Manus is a little dig at the series' more obsessive players. “That is a very interesting consideration,” says the devilish fox. “But I suppose I did not include the meaning.” And as for the original pendant speculation, brace yourselves Dark Soulers for Miyazaki's final word: “When it comes to the pendant, I actually had a little bit of an intention to play a prank.”

[thisismyusername]

But then again, dozens of people clocked in thousands of hours combined to try to understand what the pendant in Dark Souls does, after Miyazaki just said "The Pendant" in reply to "which starting item do you usually pick?" in an interview. Turns out he was just trolling. It does fuck all. It was hilarious.

Holy shit, is this real?

Yes. People seriously looked for a reason to choose the Pendant shortly after launch and Miyazaki played coy and made it seem like there was a reason to. There never was, and people datamined it and found out that yeah, there's no reason to.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Master Key is the best giftfu.

[close]

[Raist]

But then again, dozens of people clocked in thousands of hours combined to try to understand what the pendant in Dark Souls does, after Miyazaki just said "The Pendant" in reply to "which starting item do you usually pick?" in an interview. Turns out he was just trolling. It does fuck all. It was hilarious.

Holy shit, is this real?

It doesn't end there. He also basically (very likely) trolled these people again directly in DS III.

Based Miyazaki.


edit: the best part is the item's description.

"A simple pendant with no effect. Even so, pleasant memories are crucial to survival on arduous journeys."

It LITERALLY tells you it does fuck all. But some people wanted to belieeeeeeeeeeve~~~

[VomKriege]

British Advertising Standards Authority is investigating grievances of misleading advertisement

[Stoney Mason]

skip to 1 hour 47 minutes 45 seconds.

[a slime appears]

skip to 1 hour 47 minutes 45 seconds.

I guess he had to CYA but that was some straight "I told you so" type bullshit shade being thrown.

BTW you can throw time stamps on videos like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1ylWxKJjA&t=107m48s

[thisismyusername]

Found this on /v/:

[Great Rumbler]

NMS has dropped to just above 1,000 hourly players on Steam [it peaked at 212k hourly players just after release].

[VomKriege]

Geoff deemed too "negative" for Hello Games in the final stretch of development ? 

[benjipwns]

I wonder what being in the same room as a negative Geoff Keighley is like.

Even the insufferable Angry Joe couldn't faze him.

[seagrams hotsauce]

NMS has dropped to just above 1,000 hourly players on Steam [it peaked at 212k hourly players just after release].

I dunno if this is really that surprising or damning though. A lot of single player games have a huge amount of players drop it a few months out by steamcharts numbers, most of them just don't sell as well.

I do think the idea of Hello getting investigated for 'false advertising' is hilarious and about as dumb as suing WB for the Suicide Squad trailer tbh. People really work themselves into hysteria over some bullshit.

[VomKriege]

I dunno if this is really that surprising or damning though. A lot of single player games have a huge amount of players drop it a few months out by steamcharts numbers, most of them just don't sell as well.

Last time it was brought up, I think the graph showed that the cratering of that number was unusually steep for NMS. Elite, Rimworld, Prison Architect, Farming Simulator and Eurotrucks... are all doing way better. For a game sold on pseudo infinite & always fresh content (which is exactly the type to chart on Steam stats, along with popular multiplayer experiences, The Sims 3 and old Total War games are all doing well for instance), that's not too good.

They still made a ton of bank and maybe that's all that counts. DLC, expansions and keeping the buyers engaged wasn't -as far as I can tell- essential to the business plan.

[Stoney Mason]

[Stoney Mason]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-10-05-no-mans-sky-subreddit-shut-down

The game that keeps giving.

[thisismyusername]

[VomKriege]

Free patch update incoming this week, if someone is still into that.

Hello,

This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.

(...)

Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.

This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.

Good on them.

[Great Rumbler]

Maybe in a couple more years the game will actually be good.

[Raist]

Dat update tho (PS4 only for now).

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundation-update/

[MMaRsu]

K..u can build a b ase? Who cares -_-

[Stoney Mason]

Good on them for continuing to try to improve the game, but they have a good long time ahead of them before what I tried is actually a fun or meaningful experience.

[Phoenix Dark]

Wow we're still talking about this game in late November, who would have guessed. GOTY

[Let's Cyber]

I'll try this out tomorrow when I get some free time. They already have my money and I was dumb enough to drink the kool-aid to begin with. What could another glass hurt? 

I will say I never understood the point of base building in a game like this but since they added a way to teleport back, I think it could work. TBH the base building looks way more in depth than I would have thought.

[Trent Dole]

Gonna say this will never be an actual finished game like SFV.

[Let's Cyber]

Spent a few hours with it.

-Lots of QoL additions which are really nice. Quick menu is appreciated.
-Looks/runs better. The terrain also seems to be more varied, also less samey looking brown planets.   
-Base building is fun but you need to earn/learn the blueprints for most of the pieces in the normal game.  Creative mode gives you access to everything right off the bat.
-Base building is a fundamental change to the game for the better.  Vanilla had me getting rid of resources a lot of the time just to make room in my inventory; you could only carry essential stuff. Now I can teleport back and use the resources to invest in a greater goal. And being able to transport back to your base from any space station is great. Allows you to explore as far out as you want without being stranded or needing to backtrack. Still haven't unlocked base storage but that will be a game changer for a hoarder like me. 
-I like the idea of recruiting aliens to my base. Only have 2 now but I hope I can have a lot more.
-Freighters look are neat but it's mostly just mobile storage.

Overall, this isn't a superficial change at all.  There is definitely a brand new layer to the game even though gameplay loop is mostly the same. I'm interested to see the best way to juggle money and resources on a fresh run.  With vanilla, there was jackshit to do outside of getting more inventory slots.  It was just a grind for money to buy new ships/suit slots. Now you could theoretically neglect the ship upgrades and focus on the base if you want, so it can be a much different experience from those who played in August.

I don't know if it is enough to recommend the game to new players but it is a step in the right direction.  If they can manage a few more big content drops like this, I'll feel less ripped off.   

[Raist]

There are 4 specialists you can hire max, AFAIK.

[VomKriege]

Rumors of new DLC coming up (land vehicles, etc...) and possibly of a future Xbox release ?

http://en.yibada.com/articles/187870/20170120/no-mans-sky-rumors.htm

I know it's easier than done, but maybe the game should have been left 6 months more in the oven (and / or marketed on its actual features) ?
I had a lot of good laughs with the marketing trainwreck, but really most people will be content if they continue upgrading the game for free (first DLC was, right ?), at least for the time being. But down the line they could release an expansion pack to keep the revenue going.

[Let's Cyber]

Any new content would be appreciated.   Hopefully we get a submarine or some way to take the ship underwater.  I really like some of the oceans in the game but they're a pain to explore with the current options.

NMS is still a punchline but I enjoyed my time with the Foundation update.

[Raist]

Any new content would be appreciated.   Hopefully we get a submarine or some way to take the ship underwater.  I really like some of the oceans in the game but they're a pain to explore with the current options.

NMS is still a punchline but I enjoyed my time with the Foundation update.

There you go




Full details
http://no-mans-sky.com/pathfinder-update/

[etiolate]

So how decent is the game now?

[Stoney Mason]

The core loop of the game is the same as it always ways. To make the game "good" you need fundamentally to re-imagine that.

[Raist]

If you don't like survival game, don't even bother, since that's what it is at its core.

Always had a blast with it, and played some more with the last update. Will wait a bit for that one, because HZD.

[Let's Cyber]

Put around 3 hours in. Driving around in the rover is fun. 

I have no idea what kind of value the game now holds for new players. It was just a grind for ship and exosuit slots in August. Someone buying the game now will have a lot more stuff to do and things to invest resources into.  That is obviously good. At the same time, there still isn't a greater goal. Getting better ships (now you can have multiple) or driving around your home planet is great but what should the player be working toward after they have the best stuff?

They could take a page out of BotW handbook and make some kind of boss at the center that you need to build yourself up to eventually fight.   Or maybe a new type of high difficulty star system with a new enemy type that requires high level ships to access and also has unique rewards.  The game needs an extra layer and purpose before I could recommend it to new players.

[Let's Cyber]

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/6j3jlt/waking_titan_megathread/

They've been doing a pretty elaborate ARG for the next update. Website is up, they're supposedly sending out "Atlas pass v. 4" cards to 10,000 people who sign up.

http://csd.atlas-65.com/

I'd think it is a big mistake to having this kind of marketing build up given the backlash to the initial release. They're setting up unreasonable expectations again. At the same time a vast majority of the gaming community doesn't give a shit about NMS anymore so not as many people will be as disappointed this time...

[VomKriege]

I think at this point the community are mostly people who are onboard with the game anyway. Though I believe I've read a couple of annoyed reactions with how long they're dragging that "ARG" (Maybe "viral marketing campaign" is more fitting ?) and you still have some fans falling a bit too hard for the hype.

2 cents hot take here, because those three games are only connected a space exploration theme and the promise of system-driven / emergent gameplay but compared to FTL or Rimworld you get the feeling that Hello Games has a tendency to navel-gaze (or be a bit too engrossed by their cleverness / cute visual identity) and talk taller than they have the right to ? It does read a bit like the marketing campaign is a more exciting mystery and a better lure at exploration than what you'll find in the actual game...

EDIT : It's probably unfair as they released two free patches who improved the game with little hype before.

[VomKriege]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?52157-No-Man-s-Sky-gameplay&p=1037491&viewfull=1#post1037491

Well right from the games first reveal, Sean hinted that NMS was the game he wanted to carry on working on for the rest of his career, so this always was a game about feature creep in many ways. I suspect the NMS we end up with in a decade will be pretty different from what we have now.

He upgraded to the ultimate lie : wedding.

[Great Rumbler]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?52157-No-Man-s-Sky-gameplay&p=1037491&viewfull=1#post1037491

Well right from the games first reveal, Sean hinted that NMS was the game he wanted to carry on working on for the rest of his career, so this always was a game about feature creep in many ways. I suspect the NMS we end up with in a decade will be pretty different from what we have now.

Ah, I see he now subscribes to the Chris Roberts school of game development.

[Let's Cyber]

2 cents hot take here, because those three games are only connected a space exploration theme and the promise of system-driven / emergent gameplay but compared to FTL or Rimworld you get the feeling that Hello Games has a tendency to navel-gaze (or be a bit too engrossed by their cleverness / cute visual identity) and talk taller than they have the right to ? It does read a bit like the marketing campaign is a more exciting mystery and a better lure at exploration than what you'll find in the actual game...

Agreed.

EDIT : It's probably unfair as they released two free patches who improved the game with little hype before.

It does sound like this will be bigger than the last two updates so I can see why they'd want to do something different, but at the same time I appreciated the way they handled the last two patches.

The problem still goes back to the game that was shipped last year and how many features were missing that had been alluded too. There is a long list of things players have been clamoring for so this is getting people's imaginations fired up again. You can see people excited about this potentially being a multiplayer update in the subreddit  The backlash will happen again.

[Let's Cyber]

I thought this was one of the better 1.3 vids, actually had some meat and not just speculation and fan wank about multiplayer.



tl:dr-there were unused audio files found back in May that hinted at Freighter combat and "missiles".  Also hints toward a 3rd person camera(s). Soundclips mentioned "hostile systems", perhaps meaning the cut factions system mentioned pre-release could be on the way, with some systems becoming more dangerous depending upon which group you're aligned with.  Hello Games hired a new writer way back in December and since we haven't gotten any new Atlus content since last August, it would make sense we'll get more narrative in 1.3.

Some speculation for stuff we'll see in the next update based on the above video-

• More story stuff, which what little there was hasn't be expanded upon since release
• Added Freighter functionality, possibly combat involving missiles.
• More interplay and substance revolving around the 3 different factions. Some systems could become more dangerous depending upon who you're aligned with.
• Changes/improvements to the procedural generation based on some of Hello Games' new hires 
• The rare Portals found on some planets finally having a purpose of some kind.
• This is more of a guess on my part, but I think starship customization.  They hinted at it in some of the Waking Titan content and we still don't have a use for Night Crystals (used in "starship manufacture.")

Phase 2 of Waking Titan starts the 21th, stay tuned. As the resident NMS chump I'll keep an eye on further developments for my Borian brothers and sisters.

[Great Rumbler]

Lemme know when this finally becomes an actual game.

[Let's Cyber]

Thank you for participating in the Waking Titan ARG! We hope you enjoyed it! We will release another patch, 1.3, across both PC and PS4 which will be available to download on both platforms in the near future!

Read on for full patch notes:

Improved Stability.
Added ladder climbing sounds.
Still not an actual game.

[Raist]

Phase 2 went live last night. GOt an Atlas pass v4 and entered my code .

Seems like we have to wait now.

[Let's Cyber]

The Waking Titan ARG officially ended last night.

They released 2 screenshots the last few days, one of the new ship type and the other of a functional Portal (Portals have always been in the game but haven't been operational up to this point)




The email sent out last night stated we'd hear more info in the next 24 hours. Speculation is a trailer.  The release date should be soonish, a week or two at the most. Tomorrow is the 1 year anniversary of the original shitshow release date.

[Raist]

Portals hype.

[Let's Cyber]

Do you have a base, Raist?

It is possible that if they change terrain generation again like in 1.2, your base could be erased and the resources sent to the cache. The problem is you'll only get some of the resources (like 50-60%) back in the cache instead of all of them, which is why it is better to deconstruct everything yourself.  I moved all of my farms to my freighter and deconstructed everything expensive (trade terminal, landing pads) just in case. Just something to think about before the update drops.

[Raist]

Huh not really. I've built a few, nomad-style. I'll probably restart from scratch, haven't played in a while.

Update is hitting this week. Check your emails if you signed up to WT.