No Man's Sky Stories and Tips

[Gunstar Green]

Looking forward to jumping back in. While I felt the game didn't really deliver on what was promised and I grew bored of it once my ship and suit were completely maxed out and the aliens and planets were repeating themselves ad infinitum, I did enjoy my time with it (despite some enraging progression glitches and corrupt save files which is what really soured my opinion on the game) and am happy to have an excuse to play it again.

[Ziggy]

A couple of videos showing some of the new stuff the update brought...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-XutZe_Jvc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKytd1CLqPk

[Gunstar Green]

I'm impressed with the improvements made in only three months of work. Some first impressions:

- Survival mode is intense... just getting off of the first planet is a massive accomplishment. If you were looking for a hardcore survival experience with the original game, it's there now.

- Base building is pretty cool, and the addition of quests gives me a lot of hope for things to come. They followed people's advice and allow you to continue to explore and portal back to your base when you need to. Building and improving at least gives crafting a sense of purpose.

- Major improvements to the procedural generation. Terrain generation is a lot more impressive as is the placement of flora. The actual plants and animals still need some work though some diversity has been added there as well. As for the planets themselves I don't get the same intense sense of deja vu as I used to.

- Freighters are awesome. I hope they do more in the future because it's really cool having a mothership that you can also customize.

- Space battles have been improved in small ways. When pirates attack freighter convoys they actually fight back now and the radio chatter adds some much needed atmosphere. The pirates also fly in formations now. The combat still isn't quite as exciting as it should be but it's definitely more fun and you get rewarded by the freighter captains which makes the universe feel more alive.

- Speaking of the universe feeling alive, no more sad empty bars at the space stations.

- Planets feel more solitary, many of them aren't quite as littered with buildings and some are completely devoid of them. Completely dead rocks have no music now which makes them feel even more eerie.

- Giving specific biome worlds and color coded star worlds exclusive resources gives you more reason to explore different planets.

There's lots of little technical fixes and UI improvements here and there as well as little polishes that all make the game feel more... well... like a finished game.

It's not quite there yet, but as a "foundation" as intended it's definitely a huge improvement. I've gone from never planning on touching the game again to jumping in and having a lot of fun.

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm thrilled at your stamp of approval. I'll probably jump back in, at least briefly, once I finish Rise of the Tomb Raider. I hope that they continue to improve it. Starting to look like a Star Trek Online sort of situation - the game is shit at launch, but I was too enamored by the concept to notice at the time, and over time, they start fixing the issues and making it an actual finished game. Hopefully they won't finish pulling a Star Trek Online and proceed to ruin their newly-fixed game is pay-to-win microtransactions.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I'm thrilled at your stamp of approval. I'll probably jump back in, at least briefly, once I finish Rise of the Tomb Raider. I hope that they continue to improve it. Starting to look like a Star Trek Online sort of situation - the game is shit at launch, but I was too enamored by the concept to notice at the time, and over time, they start fixing the issues and making it an actual finished game. Hopefully they won't finish pulling a Star Trek Online and proceed to ruin their newly-fixed game is pay-to-win microtransactions.

I don't know how a single player space exploration game could possibly be pay to win with micro transactions

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm thrilled at your stamp of approval. I'll probably jump back in, at least briefly, once I finish Rise of the Tomb Raider. I hope that they continue to improve it. Starting to look like a Star Trek Online sort of situation - the game is shit at launch, but I was too enamored by the concept to notice at the time, and over time, they start fixing the issues and making it an actual finished game. Hopefully they won't finish pulling a Star Trek Online and proceed to ruin their newly-fixed game is pay-to-win microtransactions.

I don't know how a single player space exploration game could possibly be pay to win with micro transactions

I've learned never to underestimate developers' ability to find ways to fuck a game up with microtransactions.

[Tanooki]

You're right it's possible, but I think how this one has been setup it's too late to pull that. While you don't get out of the ship, there is some level of overlap with the Galaxy on Fire1/2 titles on Android with mining, development, trading, space pirates and other enemies but it is more combat in ship centric while also having a solid plot (not really so open world.) That one is free but not as it encourages the micro spending a lot.

[retrosportsgamer]

I jumped in on this one at $19.99 on Black Friday - I know it does the publisher little good profit-wise, but it intrigued me and great to see even more stuff still being added.

[Ziggy]

GoG users just got an update today. Bug fixes for the Foundation Update.

[BogusMeatFactory]

The game is finally coming to fruition. The update that dropped yesterday may just have made it a viable game to play and enjoy thoroughly.

The big update is being able to see up to 16 players in an area and voice chat with them. There is no direct interactions you can do with them and you do not see changes they make in the world, they are simply a glowing orb you can talk to.

Outside of that, the entire story has been overhauled, with new quest lines that add unique and new story elements that are actually coherent. Now the characters you come across feel more real and substantial versus odd and aloof. The new quest line hints at the true multiplayer that is coming and it is exciting!

These new plot elements and story presentation make the vague detached storyline so much more firm and engaging. No longer are you this odd visitor, you are an active participant.

The update also added randomly generated missions you can sign up to do at the space stations. While this may seem like a snooze, they give purpose for doing the menial tasks and the rewards are substantial and worth doing. This encourages you to discover species, engage in combat and do trade missions. This gives it a privateer feel and just gives you more and more purpose, which the game dramatically needed.

This biggest change and improvement, in my opinion, are the menus. That sounds silly, but you wouldn't believe how much of an impact it has on the gameplay experience. They have added a very clean menu system that is separated by your mission log, which makes focusing on different missions easy and very coherent,

They also added a compendium with info separated by categories that are based on objectives. Want to know how to improve faction status? Play the economics game? The compendium is laid out in a way that you can easily look that up.

Also, the discovery menu is a lot more coherent and easy to navigate, with information that is pertinent and isn't nearly as cryptic.

The biggest menu change is.... the galactic map. Navigating this enormous beast is a breeze now, with the paths laid out quite clearly and your ability to move around in it is fluid and easy. They allow you to set up paths and routes for yourself, or to follow the preset ones for the atlas paths, the journey to the center of the universe and various mission based ones. The big thing is that you can put out a search for players and it will show you the closest ones and how to get there, making it super easy to meet.

All of this, added with new planetary activities and discoveries, new ship weapon types and a revamped ship combat system makes this feel like a fully fledged game... I would say it is complete if not for the still developing multiplayer. When that is done... the game will be spectacular.