14 replies to this topic

[BrewerGeorge]

I've had this for several years on Steam, but had previously only played it for about an hour and didn't think much of it.

 

After I finished Indiana Jones in mid-January, I saw that it had received another update - it's 35th major since launch - that everyone was raving about.  So I installed it and tried again.

 

It's a much more complete game than the one I played 3 or 4 years ago, and it's pretty fun.  I've spent about 80 hours now playing around in my little corner of the galaxy, and I'm having fun.

 

That said, it is almost the polar opposite of titles like Indiana Jones.  It has no plot to speak of, no voice actors at all, no story arcs.  You just fly around and do whatever you want in its procedurally generated universe.

 

A couple days ago, the game got it's 36th major update since it was released 9 years ago.

[Stains_not_here_man]

I actually just downloaded this on my steam deck last night but haven't fired it up yet because it was late. I also bought it when it first came out and haven't really played it since.

[BrewerGeorge]

If you try it, watch a 'Getting Started' video (one that was made in the last year) because there is very little to tell you what to do.  On a similar vein, don't put off the "Apollo" missions because they are the game's version of a tutorial.  They give you a lot of the things you need, like equipment and recipes.  You CAN skip them and grind out stuff, but you'll pay units or nanites (the game's currencies) for stuff that the missions will give you for free.

[Vagus]

I've been tempted, but never pulled

[Vagus]

eff you guys. Im downloading it. 

[BrewerGeorge]

eff you guys. Im downloading it. 

We can play together.  I'm not 100% sure how but I know we can invite each other to our own little universes.  If you're interested once you get going we can look into how to do it.

[Vagus]

Definitely. Imma get some time in to do those tutorials a little later while the wife obediently cleans the house, cooks dinner, and raises our kids. 

 

But maybe at some point this weekend.

[Vagus]

Working the tutorial. I made a base computer

[BrewerGeorge]

Still playing, Vagus?

 

I just captured my first Sentinel ship last night. It's a weak thing (C class), nowhere near remotely close to my S-class fighter, but it's mine - and now I know how to get more. Since I've stuck with mostly the same stuff from early on and upgraded it as I've gone along I've built up a really high bar to replace.  I'm farming stuff worth about 10 Million units every four hours, which translates to 20 Million per day if I log in at lunch and harvest.  I can kill anything flying pretty easily, including capital ships, and things on the ground aren't a challenge unless I get swarmed - in which case I run and circle around to start picking them off from the outskirts.  Max Rep with the V'ykeen, and something like 6 of 9 with Korvax and Gek. Similarly high Reps with the guilds. I'm honestly sort of running out of things to do; I could finish the main quest probably any time I want.

 

We can still play together, but I've realized that if we do that it would sort of obviate the point of the game for you.  For instance, just a single days sac venom harvest from my farms and freighter would set you up for quite a while if you're just starting, and I'm selling ships and multi-tools that are useless to me but would be a huge leg-up if you're just starting.  Problem is, of course, that if you get that kind of boost from me then you're going to run out of things to do that much quicker.  IDK, you're still welcome if you want, just let me know.

[Vagus]

Still at it, but stringing together more than 20 minutes at a time is tough. Just got my second ship and working on some black hole quest
Definitely want to earn my way to taking on freighters

[BrewerGeorge]

I'm finding it pretty difficult to upgrade my freighter. It seems some of the things that used to be in the game for freighters have been removed.  There is no place I can find which sells freighter upgrades; you have to find them, but many of the opportunities to find them are no longer in the game.  It's not a huge deal because freighters are nothing more than a mobile base, and considering that you can warp to anywhere you've been before you can always go back to your original ground base - or any base.  So far, the ONLY thing that freighters alone can do is scan the whole system at once to lock the planet characteristics, which you can't normally do without landing on the planet.  You can scan planets in a regular ship, but they remain undiscovered unless you land.  A freighter can discover a whole system from space.

 

Here's an incredibly basic tip that took me 120 hours to figure out:  When you find a crashed pod or a damaged green container on a planet, after you remove the slime or the rusted metal, you can go back into it to find the real treasure! I must have touched thousands of those and only took the slime or rust, leaving the nanites or convergence cube or some other component behind. I don't know how I missed this.

[Vagus]

Yeah, unlocking is a weird mechanic but I got it after a few. Weird how they dropped the ball with capital ships. I feel like that's where these games usually shine

[BrewerGeorge]

This is an interesting game.  It's more like a simulation than a game.  There really is no goal to speak of.  I could keep playing it for years, but I'd be doing the same things over and over in new places.  I could acquire Sentinel, exotic or living ships and boost them up, but kind of "Why?"  Enemies don't get harder and I can already walk all over almost anything I'll encounter.  I can deck out my freighter, but again I gain no tangible benefits from doing that. Build new bases, sure, but they won't provide me much I don't already have. Further play is just kind of pointless because there's just not much more reason to progress.

 

I went to the center and I did the thing - the story such as it is.  The only things left are novelty for novelty's sake, and I'm going to spend my playing time on another game (KCD2) where novelty is automatic rather than a grind.

 

This should not be considered a complaint about NMS. I played it more than 100 hours to get to this point and that's a good game, IMO.  I'm just done with it.

[Vagus]

Im close to finishing BG3. After that, imma max out my feels from nms. I like it and am not put off by the lack of purpose. 99% of my life lacks purpose. 1% porpoise

[Stains_not_here_man]

This is an interesting game. It's more like a simulation than a game. There really is no goal to speak of. I could keep playing it for years, but I'd be doing the same things over and over in new places. I could acquire Sentinel, exotic or living ships and boost them up, but kind of "Why?" Enemies don't get harder and I can already walk all over almost anything I'll encounter. I can deck out my freighter, but again I gain no tangible benefits from doing that. Build new bases, sure, but they won't provide me much I don't already have. Further play is just kind of pointless because there's just not much more reason to progress.

I went to the center and I did the thing - the story such as it is. The only things left are novelty for novelty's sake, and I'm going to spend my playing time on another game (KCD2) where novelty is automatic rather than a grind.

This should not be considered a complaint about NMS. I played it more than 100 hours to get to this point and that's a good game, IMO. I'm just done with it.

I'm with you. I redownloaded it and played it for about three days and pretty much came to the same conclusion. Parts of it remind me a lot of the old Tradewars BBS game, flying from system to system buying low and selling high, etc. And I generally enjoy the gameplay loop of "harvest resources, use them to build cooler stuff, including things to harvest better resources" but it's SO grindy. I spend more time gathering the materials just to launch and fly my starship than anything else...

Edited by Stains_not_here_man, 25 February 2025 - 12:47 PM.