No Man’s Sky update adds ‘trillions’ of planets
No Man’s Sky update adds ‘trillions’ of planets
The Worlds II update expands the scale of Hello Games’ already-sprawling space sim with deeper oceans and gas giants.
I wonder how many trillions of floors Diablo 1 had if they had used this weird way of marketing No Man's Sky uses.
Why is trillions in quotes? Did they add them or not?
I write a planet generator. All of the planets are the same to begin with, so realistically I can only generate "1" planet. Then I add one toggle which is random, if it's on the planet will be completely water. I now have "2" planets. Now I add another toggle for one huge mountain, I can now generate "4" planets (dry,water,dry-mountain,water-mountain). Keep adding toggles, sliders and parameters until you have "trillions" of possible planets and you're done.
The funny thing is that the changes are cumulative, so if I release a game that can generate X planets and I add a binary toggle I can now claim I added X planets to the game. If I add a slider from 0-9 then I added 10X planets. So since No Man's Sky already had a giant number of planets, adding trillions of them could mean something as stupid as they added a new resource to the game so now every planet can have that resource in different amounts.
It’s a procedurally generated universe(s). These systems haven’t all been pre-generated, but will rather be generated to explore when a player visits a system for the first time.
I'd trade that update for one that fixed the jank combat. I will continue to complain about the gun being auto-holstered after 2 seconds without firing as one of the worst parts of combat, so "line your shot" is a terrible strategy because by the time it's lined, you'll miss due to the animation creating a 1s lag between click and shot.
The almost random targeting of what you'll interact with when holding E is another big annoyance.
Capital ships are a total letdown, too. All they do is sit around motionless in space. Can't destroy anything bigger than a fighter.
When they say “trillions of new planets” they mean one new biome with the plants and rocks in a trillion different places.
Just more procedurally generated and boring as fuck “new planets”
To be fair, what this really means is that it adds more options for proc-gen. This means planets will be more diverse, which is good. The actual number of them is totally pointless, but it's easier to report in than the tangible effect.
I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, as the review scores keep improving so obviously folks are liking it, but you’re not alone if it still doesn’t click. They keep polishing it and piling on more stuff, but the base game is still rather disjointed and in my opinion, easy to burn out on. Procedural generation doesn’t mean any of the procedurally generated things are going to be interesting.
I like to pop in every time they drop an expedition. Those let you speedrun the game and get reacquainted with it with not much effort. You also get introduced to whatever new thing they added. It's a bit like playing ARK on a 20x resources 20x taming server so you can just play the game without so much grind.
True, i put something between 100 - 200 hours into it and while they repeatedly add "special stuff" i cant really motivate myself to go back, exploring feels boring after some time and the pve is ok but not good enough to be a motivation in it self, but to be fair im also not the collector type of guy and there may be a dedicated fanbase who enjoys this.
On the other hand not every game has to life for ever and if the average player has 50-100 hour of fun and than never again touches the game than that is also totally fine.
Yeah seriously, no matter how much they tack on, it still doesn't make the base game fun to play. Nothing more boring than a game that feels like a job.
I love Factorio, and many other games some call "job simulators." Done well, games can feel like jobs and be good. The difference is when it feels grindy, or if it feels like you're doing novel things and actually accomishing things. NMS just feels grindy, and like you're doing the same thing over-and-over, without any reason to continue.
I confess I haven't popped back in for a few updates now but it still was missing the slick/dynamic animal behaviour that even the very first trailers had, which I was most interested in.
It seems like the kind of game that sort of requires a lot of time to make it really click, but I wasn't having fun within the first 2 hours, so it got refunded.
I had a blast starting out and discovering new materials and what I could do with them, upgrading my ship and guns, building bases, etc. I hit a wall when I unlocked most of what I wanted and was just logging on every few hours to check my settlement and send my fleet out. The quests are repetitive, exploring planets isn't really exciting, and the combat system is honestly not great. There's like 2 viable weapon attachments and the only hostile things are critters and robots, the latter of which are basically the cops so the more you kill the more come to kick your ass so you either have to fight wave after wave or run for your life.
Oh and the planetary vehicles are pretty cool but I think you have to have them on your capital ship to use them elsewhere, but I don't have the upgraded drive to be able to actually take it to the places I would really like to have them. So I just move my ship around the surface instead, and that takes fuel just to launch it which is a hassle.
Isn't the game's universe randomly generated and had nearly infinite worlds since launch? 🤨
Close, proceduraly generated so psuedo-randomly to ensure that no planets are exactly alike. If you spend enough time in game it does begin to feel a bit like more of the same. Within 24 hours of this update I had already found a few things I had never seen anything similar to in the game.
It adds more complexity and distinction between planets, at least.
Well that's good, I was just getting close to running out of the old planets.
Kind of wild they keep going.
To be fair, I think most of the more recent changes are just backporting engine upgrades and stuff from the new game they're working in. That's still a lot more effort than just saying that, but it's not like they're developing explicitly for NMS anymore.
It also let's them test the upgrades in a real environment before the new game launches, preventing another mess at launch. It's a smart use of resources, keeping people discussing how well you maintain the old game going into the new game. It's free press, along with probably more sales.
Thanks for explaining this! :)
if all it takes to keep a developer improving their game is to hype it to the moon and then turn it into a meme when it releases then maybe we should do that more often /s
forreal forreal though these game devs are the shit and I'm grateful for all the work they keep putting into this
Can anyone recommend a decent space sim? I’ve talked myself in and out of buying No Man’s Sky a dozen times, and all this shade will probably remove it from my wishlist.
I wouldn't base your decision on what Lemmy says. They're pretty unreasonably salty about the game. Reviews from players are very positive and the game's only $23 right now.
- Despite what they're saying,, there is actually a lot of legitimately interesting and sometimes fantastical biomes and this update has added even more.
- There are a lot of different parts of the game that you can pretty casually engage in. Various missions, settlements, settlement management, ship collecting, manufacturing, fleet management, trading, piracy, archeology, and more.
- It's a relaxation game for me. Just hop on, pick a direction, and go. Do whatever piques your interest in the moment.
If "casual" and "relaxing" are dirty words for you, then it probably isn't up your alley. It's certainly not going to be intense and action packed (though it does have its moments). But it's a good game if you, like me, sometimes get tired of the sweaty online shit, crunchy brain melting games, and the overall weight of life in the real.
I fucking love No Man's Sky. I play video games to relax. Most of the time I ignore objectives and find my own way around. I used to follow people and creatures around Skyrim. I had been playing a ton of Red Dead Redemption 2 just to go ride hourses and look at stuff. My friend Trudi had me play 20 minutes or so on her computer and I bought my copy that day. I have been playing it off and on for a few years now.
Just play NMS. Get it on sale if the price is a concern. It's neat.
There’s a lot of different types of space sims. What kind of gameplay are you looking for?
Depends on what you want out of the game. Freelancer is old, but it's still one of the best experiences you can get. If you really want to feel like a nobody pilot going from rags to riches, X4 or Elite: Dangerous can scratch itch, but both have considerable learning curves, with X4 allowing you to own space stations and pilot anything from fighters to frigates.
I'm enjoying x4. I also liked Elite Dangerous but that one was more limited in what you could do. They have added more in the years since I've played it though
Not really a sim, but def a fan of space games. Void Crew has been great.
Depending on what you want, Freespace 2 and all its mods/updates are still excellent. Wing Commander Saga is a standalone game based on it of remarkable quality.
Honestly I think it is time they put NMS to bed and focus on their upcoming title, LNF.
They have added so much over the years, and I understand as their first project they are probably incredibly attached to it, but lately it has been feeling like diminishing returns on updates.
What good are a bunch of new planets gonna do when they still all basically look and interact the same as every other planet?
They have added new planet types and civilisations. Indont play the game but its being heavily praised all day that theybhave greatly expanded with gas giants, full water planets and lost/failed civilisations. Sounds fairly impactful.
I do play the game and I can say from experience it isn't.
I still want my money back. I've tried all their updates and the game still feels bleh, underwhelming and just overall boring
I can only speak for myself but I didn't like it because it felt like the same experience over and over. I admit I haven't played since launch, but back then, i quickly realized all the planets had the same minerals. They had different randomized animals and colour's but they were generally just the same. And then I lost interest, because I was hoping to be able to find rare minerals, unique items, stuff that wouldn't exist in other parts of the universe, and perhaps he able to trade it with other players or npcs.
I guess I wanted a different game than what the makers wanted.
Looking at the video now, it still looks like the same basic experience with improved graphics.
I think of it like an oil slick on a pool of water. Very pretty, but absolutely zero depth. They indulge heavily in the aesthetic of a space sim, without actually having anything of substance tying it all together into something coherent.
Yeah, they overpromised and then didn't deliver on half of what they claimed. That they are applauded now for doing some of what they said they'd do is laughable to me.