No Man's Sky

Yeah, I'm gonna hold off because of the price tag. If it was $20 or maybe even 30$ I'd probably try it day one.

But $60 for an exploration game? That's AAA money right there, it better be one hell of a thing to warrant that price.

They're definitely hyping it as worth it. This isn't like Minecraft, a little procedural generation experiment that might explode into a phenomenon. They're putting everything they've got into this.

Whether it works, of course, remains to be seen.

The game looks amazing. But will it become boringly repetitive after a few weeks? Will the players build a cooperative community or will it all be griefing and gold farming, or the equivalent? How quickly will people find ways to cheat that will ruin the experience for others? Will casual players be shut out of whatever economy ends up developing by people who run bots 24/7 to farm the good stuff?

One of the reasons I don't play Minecraft on other people's servers is because I know I'll log in to see some massively developed projects and won't have nearly enough time to dedicate to being a part of the community. I'd feel left out building my wood shack on some isolated hilltop... only to log in after a few days and find that someone's taken TNT to it.

Edit: One of the nice things about No Man's Sky is that, apparently, you can warp to some random location a million light-years away and hopefully never run into another player unless you invite them. If that's true, then it might be possible to play as a hermit.

edited 10th Jul '16 4:32:42 PM by Fighteer

Will we even see any communities or other players? They made it sound like that's gonna be a really rare occurrence. The universe is vast.

Which also makes me wonder how long until procedural generation means that this planet has rocks that are green and this one has rocks that are red.

And even then, what is there to do besides explore? I absolutely adore exploration but I don't think you can squeeze AAA levels of content out of just exploration, no matter how big and diverse the universe is.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. As amazing (and slightly frightening) as a universe that's so big that our sun will burn out five times before you explore everywhere sounds, that may get very repetitive very fast.

Well, the game's previews have showcased combat and community "hubs" of various sorts, so either there will be lots of procedurally generated AI doing stuff to help/hinder you or it's possible to hang out with other players if you choose.

edited 10th Jul '16 4:35:14 PM by Fighteer

Hrm well that does make it sound a bit deeper.

Have they said much about customization? If I'm gonna travel the stars being a space hobo I wanna make my ship my ship.

The game's blurb says you can "upgrade your ship, your weapon, and your suit". It also says that sharing your discoveries with other players is voluntary, and there's an implication that multiplayer is via invitation.

There's also elements of "Community" with the AI races - learning their languages, gaining favour to unlock unique ship blueprints. Apparently some races will be at war and yo ucan get involved etc.

But without characters? Yes, Minecraft managed it, but even that had identifiable foes (Creepers, Zombies etc) I'm getting this day 1 (Tempted by the collectors edition... as it has some special fiction in there too)

I hope this does lead to a franchise though - one where maybe next time we get some crew or companions? Imagine a universe like this with a HK 47 esque tag-along (And then imagine how many ruddy lines you'd have to record to make it non-repetitive!)

Yeah, the price tag has spooked me right out of my body too. Because of my inflated economy, the game costs around R$200 for me. nty

I also agree about the content. Exploration is cool, but relying solely on it is risky at best imo. I hope they include other things in the game too.

The thing that both interests and worries me is the exploration. That's the reason I might be picking up this game. I've always wanted a huge, colorful world to be able to explore for days on end. The idea that I'll be exploring the same universe that thousands of others are exploring at the same time is awesome, even if I never find a single soul. But at the same time, will it become boring quickly? Will all the terrain and animal generation start to fall into stale, recognizable patterns? I really don't know, and I'm looking forward to the release in nervous anticipation.

The dogfighting looks good (And I've been after a simple space shooter for a while that isn't a shmup or at the X end of the spectrum) so something like this will be interesting.

Apparently they've only shown familiar sorts of creatures as well - there are, according to Sean Murray, a lot more alien looking monsters. Spore held my attention for quite a while but it too became rather repetitive and limiting (You couldn't actually have a realistic Space Empire, for example)

But that "ever forward" element of roguelikes is strong here - going deeper and deeper and always staying on the edge of things is something to be looked at. A lot of those games layer more complex systems, whereas this seems fairly straightforward with a complex WORLD. And a lot of us sometimes want the inventories, gear and systems to be the tricky thing with a nice, set series of encounters that are challenging.

I do hope some of the interactions are more in depth, but we can talk to the aliens and build that. If they iterate and support on it, adding more features, then it could be a brillaint ever growing world. But if it is a bit thin on gameplay I can see it becoming a thing that just produces interesting tumblr posts...

I'd imagine there could be a sizable community around the center of the universe since its everyone's goal to get there

Yeah, I'm hoping it's not the Spore level of homage... or a Molyneuxism.

But since EVERYONE will be getting there... that would be interesting; although apparently you can't identify player spaceships (They have no "names" above them) and lobby effects are local only (Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-10-burning-questions-answered/)

But if everyone's on a planet or station, then you can meet people.

Maybe the centre will become an Eve online sort of space?!

Man could you imagine if this was competitive - mining on planet, with the risk of being strafed by hostile other players? Running guns to massive player stations - eve but with scale.

And would probably promptly melt any server where you got more than 10 players....

The Grox are the players

Oh dear lord. WE'RE THE EVIL ONES!

I'm looking forward to seeing more Sentinels - apparently they've only shown the basic ones - the ground drones and two-legged walkers. Sean mentioned that there's bigger ones, 4 legged walkers, space fighters etc.

The wanted level thing looks interesting - and the fact you can go full pirate /by raiding ground installations for tech as well. Be interesting to see if the alien races have ground troops too.

I wonder if, also like Spore, planet destroying weaponry will be available, making it impossible for a player to ever reach a planet again?

If not, i can imagine it'll happen via update. And probably, as the difficulty spikes closer to the centre, enemies might turn up with that level of insane weaponry. I imagine we'll meet some form o Uber Sentinel. Or a planet of them.

They have said that, whilst things are procedural, that there is a central underlying "lore" with language etc - so I imagine there'll be plot hook type things for people to build out their experiences on.

But it is a fundamental shift in how we play - we're so used to being TOLD stories or directed to places, or even building something. This is progress but... with a very loose clothing draped over it. It's going to be interesting.

I am looking forward to meeting Cthulu (I hope I meet Cthulu!)

At the center of the universe you meet Yog-Sothoth itself and merge with all of your other selves

And then the game blurs as the mathematical algorithm completes and the barrier between worlds ends, ushering a new age of terror and enlightenment.

I just have a feeling that if planet-destroying stuff is available in late game there will be 0 planets left around the center of the universe

Apparently that "damage done" isn't permanent for other people - it's localised. So not sure whether it'd be planet deletion or just MASSIVE DAMAGE.

So, if you excavate a cave network on a planet then fly away and another player finds the planet, it won't record the alterations to said planet, only how it was generated when first found. So, that pristine state is how it is "made". And any part of the planet you didn't explore but another player does is generated for that player anew.

So, maybe if you blow up a planet it is blown up for you? But then not sure how that'd work if another player finds it....

that said, we've only had a broad overview of the procedural generation side, so they may not have wanted to give too much away. And considering the Sentinels go mental if you shoot a rock, I have no idea what'd happen if you blew up a planet....

The Sentinels wouldn't do anything because they'd be dead

What about the Sentinels IN SPAAAAACE. Cos apparently they exist there too.

Space debris moving at 0.6c hits them