No Man's Sky

Tools    





Have access to a controller? I have the same issue when I game too much with a mouse, but the controller solves all that for me.
I have a USB X-Box controller, yeah. Good idea, if it's compatible I might give that a go.



A system of cells interlinked
I have a USB X-Box controller, yeah. Good idea, if it's compatible I might give that a go.
Mine works with Steam!

I tend to use my Dualshock 4 instead, but that is just personal preference. Both controllers work for me.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



there's a frog in my snake oil
Hot tip:

Exosuit storage expansions are currently bugged and completely free. (It'll say it's an escalating amount of creds over time, but will never actually charge you). This is very welcome. (And also makes that time I manfully repaired one using powdered stones even more masochistic...)

Just head to your friendly exosuit sales-creature (station and/or Nexus), and interact with the suit hologram. Or if you're in VR, accidentally punch it...
__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



The People's Republic of Clogher
Sure, I'm in.
__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



there's a frog in my snake oil
Woot

---

Trip Report:



Had a lovely set of binge sessions. Things I have learned:
  • Jump packing around a low-G 'terraforming catastrophe' planet in VR was as great as I hoped
  • I'm beginning to see the planetary variations loop already. But when the pineapple mutants have a crown of antlers and hop on glorious orange grass under giant red trees, it's still all good
  • Still finding additions that are new to me though, especially amongst the 'III' rares the scanners pick up (weird moveable bio-balls that you have to chase down hills etc).
  • Finding a beautiful azure grass planet with graviton balls everywhere, and feral sentinels hiding behind each hill, was a distracting combination
  • I'm making exo-vehicles purely for storage, as I still haven't unlocked the 2nd storage unit :/
  • Being able to tunnel through the earth to a destination when a storm hits is bizarrely satisfying. (I don't know if orange grass is supposed to grow like moss on the roof of some caves, but I like this too).
  • VR spaceflight is kinda fun, for all its simplicity. Performance is great up there, and I enjoyed twizzling around and tracking my foes to win the first capital ship clash. (Although I totally accidentally pirated the ship on my first go :/. I stopped close flying around them for cover after that...)
  • Picking things up in VR is still really hard. I'm still yet to grab a Whispering Egg while running around screaming. (Gonna try the dig underneath them technique next...)

I'm slightly at risk of 'busy work' bog-down now. The teleport load time is a bit of a downer if you try and min-max, or even just dump stuff at your home base. Do I really want to pimp out the carrier? Is my end game to shuttle huge amounts of tat in a giant trader ship? Is what I really want to do just to bounce across different planetary surfaces with an increasing array of abilities? Oh yes, it's that, it's the last one

It's all cool though, I've got a project: Finally find a decent multi-tool. And I need to find me a couple of planets that really beg to have a base set up on them... Those are pastimes that seem to favour random exploration



A system of cells interlinked
Hoping to get some time in soon, but a couple of side jobs popped up, and these days, when any opportunity for extra cash arises, I have to jump on it. Heading out to a show this evening, as well. I will try to start up a normal mode game soon, though!



there's a frog in my snake oil
Real life first, space pineapple chasing second. Good rules to live by

Think you'll enjoy the luxury of infinite stacks if you get a normy run going though



there's a frog in my snake oil
I really shouldn't lurk the subreddit, because it's full of proc gen & easter egg spoilers, which would be way more fun to stumble on. But still









And honestly, what is up with those bubble planets...

(I do wish they could reskin the classic bio-predators a bit more though. It does get a bit silly seeing the same puffer-plant, venus-knee-trap, and whiplash-vine on every planet. I get that the animations limit what they can do a bit, but some kinda camouflage guessing game would help )



there's a frog in my snake oil
Trip Report:

Another great binge session (I'm still on the tail end of my hols ). Every time this game threatens to turn rote it keeps springing novel experiences or pathways to keep things fresh.

Having pledged not to, I naturally got totally lost customising my capital ship . I'm liking the frigate mechanic, even though it's just a daft mini-game. Receiving the captain's reports is a genuinely cool little touch, and flying amongst local ship flotillas to scout out new frigates is just all kinds of cartoon delicious in VR, weaving amongst them to check out the latest Korvax battle ship or whatever. I was also kinda giddy to discover I could park up on my existing battered frigate and repair it by hand...



Don't get me wrong. This is totally rote, simplistic and daft . And if I hadn't had the requisite mats it would have been a grind-noyance. But as it was clambering up ladders, seeing an airlock restored to working order, and taking in views of my capital ship & home planet strung out below was cartoon vibe central

And this game really does do vibe views which soften the blow of rote actions. I really couldn't complain when a trip to nab some basic ferrite (for further star hopping, which I was doing totally on an explo kick, ignoring all other requirements), waved me off with this scene...



And equally, as I finally veered towards a mission marker, travelling down to a planet in the grip of a 'extreme wind blasting', and finding visibility insanely low until the last landing moments, was very cool...



Auto-land is pretty solid and all, but it was a hair-raising moment trying to find out what I was landing on

Mixing this freeform stuff up with 'chatting' to Artemis in holographic form at the top of a curvy Korvax holo-station (I think...), while nudging other sets of self-made plans forwards is all pleasingly distracting right now

Not that it's all plain sailing...



Sometimes the game looks like Elite 2 (1993). I have to rename things by blind-typing, and so have several star systems logged as 'Metsal Frngers', or whatever

But running towards a blue Korvax station over storm-lashed orange grass, was just striking and great. Having dino-birds swoop past my canopy as I side-glanced out of my cockpit. Just chilling out on giant oblong basalt mountains in a strange land, on a whim, because there was some tasty outcrop peaking over the top (damn I love my auto-refuelling B-class ). Glitches be damned, this is some glitter sprinkled gaming right now



there's a frog in my snake oil
I should totally buy a better multi-tool. I need a better multi-tool...

I'm going to buy a support frigate instead aren't I :/

E: I can't help it. The stories they come back with are just too cute...

Found verdant planet. Crew hypnotised by plants. Sent drones to collect plants, and crew. Sold plants for profit.
Additional notes: pantry haunted
I just want them to survive the whole trip so I get more debriefing notes

(Alright, and more loot )



there's a frog in my snake oil
Trip Report



I played this like a space game for a bit. Like just in space.

The story made me try out the missions, which were a touch underwhelming at the noob level (and also made me kill pineapples). But I'm liking the simple bounty hunting ones. So I chained them for a bit, between nosing up to potential Frigates and tooling around on my big ship.

You know what? This thing kinda works as a space game . Like a super shorn-back Elite, with (wayyyy) less ship-flipping combat nuance, but way more fluid transition between its fun bits, and aspects like capital ship tinkering, space balconies, and pleasing station bustle instead. (Seeing a ship's landing gear unfold above your head as you skitter underneath is grand, even in this comic book form )

I had to head back to the badlands again though. But only to earn more cash for a B-class support Frigate . There be bones in that there planet...

I kinda like that I was able to use my proto-game knowledge to freeform the story requirements too. Blew off the dregs left on the mission board and just worshipped at language globes and helped short-circuiting guys in observatories instead, ramping up my Korvax standing that way. Was pleased when everything went bing

---

Obligatory VR moan: You open doors by literally face-planting into them at speed. In VR this feels very very wrong

Obligatory mention of what VR adds: Blarrrrg, it's kinda amazing to be running around in all this

Dutiful VR performance note: I'm using some third party software to 'lock ASW to 45fps'. You do not want to know why. I'm not entirely sure if it's an improvement. The search for smooth VR living continues....

Bonus VR mini-game: You can dodge the irremovable nausea 'blackout' that happens on station arrival if you absolutely nail the approach. I have my hands in the air every time I pull it off



there's a frog in my snake oil
Voodoo Performance Spell of the Day:

The talk is that Tesselation is a right hog, in both classic & VR. Worth dialling it down if you're still chugging.

That is all



there's a frog in my snake oil
Trip Report:

Stumbled onto this pink tusked monstrosity



A 23 slot A-class. Best multitool I've seen so far by a mile. Reckon it'll do nicely for now.

And I only got it because I was scouting frigates near an unlovely fire storm planet. But needed some copper, so I got caught in a firestorm. And there wasn't much to do except convert a map thingy and search for cover... Wound up at a friendly outpost with this in it

I do have a soft spot for the little 'inhabited outpost' structures. They're one of the few places where the dial-a-dialogue actually has a decision at the end and a potential pay off. (I'm glad they added a selection tree for the blueprints more broadly, but having these still here as random treats is cool).




Still loving these walkway views . It's great how you can gather a little grouping of improbable things in a useful cluster. Planets, Freighter, Nexus, Station. Book cover convenience

Also digging the way the Freighter acts as a giant backpack of sorts. At least for dumping precious things somewhere safe (and emptying out your pockets for more )

Bones have been my beat for cash. Found a skull worth 1.5m. I will get that frigate

EDIT:

Gots it



I didn't realise they levelled up their actual rating as they went. My miner is a B now. Have gone for a solid C-class support with decent firepower. (I guess they don't have the perks of the B+ classes I saw for sale though, or at least this one doesn't. It also doesn't have any debuffs either, like messy paint that puts off traders )



A system of cells interlinked
Great stories!

So...I am terrible at starting a new game...I just haven't done it yet!

I keep getting sidetracked by tasks that I just must complete right now!

See, I was all ready to fire up that normal mode game, but I happened to detect a crashed ship on a random planet. Oh my, it's an S Class Shuttle! Obviously, I had to get it immediately! Drat...it needs a **** ton of repairs. Now I just had to get all those mats to fix the damned thing. Once fixed (which took quite a while to do), well...I just had to get all my upgrades that I had on my b-class shuttle, because what good is the S Class if I can't fly it to blue systems etc.

Sigh...well, the shuttle is awesome, anyway!



there's a frog in my snake oil
Haha damn, I'm jealous . My B-class is already filling up with tat. It's more augmentation than ship now. I think there are 3 storage spaces left...

It's cool man, I reckon when we meet up it'll be for hijinks rather than profit . I'd be fine with knocking up a noob build just to mess about. Going into danger as asymmetric teams can be amusing anyway. (With the noob build's main weapons being running around as a distraction and, um, dying distractingly )



there's a frog in my snake oil
Squeezed some more binge in. Late shifts work well for gaming. Less well for sleep

Trip Report:

I'm on the lookout for a Korvax to staff my science desk. I've kinda left him on the back-burner for a while, as I'm more into nosing around than settling down at the moment. Plus almost every step of the base mission has been glitched to date . (I had to walk away from the Overseer several times, and come back when he was making more sense...)

But it was time. I started star skipping again...



Jumped straight into the biggest star wars scenario to date. I'm sure this is all scripted to amp up as you go, but the combo of the giant blue behemoth, and some surviving pirates hiding amongst its prongs, was a grand entry to the system

I hung out with the Vykeen for a bit, and realised I definitely can't afford a B-class freighter right now. Chatted to my first Travellers (they really have added loads of colour since launch ). Who led me down to this lush environ...



Loads of animal-dappled shore lines here, and at least one giant wolf-deer herbivore grazing relentlessly. A bipedal slug stalked me by night, but aside from that, all very pleasant

Next I stumbled onto my first red star system...



Loved this monochromatic world of flying dragon-worms. Ridiculous amounts of fauna here including disturbing giant snails and a tiny goat that headbutted me into a hole.

Performance still not quite good enough to chain long flight sessions through the hoops, but I had some fun barrel-rolling through them anyway

Snagged the phosphorus I needed, jangled some rares out of some crystals, and then went to check on the gold ore one planet over...

But the way these purple things just hung there unscannably, (while other purple things moved with camouflaged menace) meant I just named the planet, grabbed some rares, and scrammed...

---

I'm actually pretty sure the Korvax scientist is right back at my base system, going by the galaxy map. Even though I checked all the cupboards for him there previously. But honestly I don't care, I'm just enjoying taking in the sights

---

Things I Have Learned:
  • Frigates are definitely a pain in the bum to repair. The views are still vertiginous and grand, but the actions are dull & daft. I'm only sending them on missions that are 1 star below their pay grade from now on :/
  • That stuff is exactly the sort of hermetically sealed busy-work loop that I'm trying to avoid. No chance of stumbling onto a fun side distractions or layering up activities.
  • The corridor clank on the Freighter is also grinding a bit too. I do like checking out my fleet around the spacy round table, with a bit of base-y multi-tasking on the side. But the process of getting in and out is a bit meh. And bases with a view are more fun
  • Compounding the above is the storage. The '5 things only' containers have always been daft. Having them unstackably arrayed across a huge volume of space, with no hint as to which is which, makes the cap ship variant one of the daftest storage system I've ever encountered . (Are there signs at least? There need to be signs. I'm gonna have to set up light-based semaphore signage aren't I...)
  • VR grumble: I have literally no idea how to switch to the plasma launcher. I really want to raid bases and be baffled by cryptic conundrums. Boo. (Might just blast my way in with my ship )



there's a frog in my snake oil
Oooo, some cool stuff in the experimental branch. Looks like they're going for 'chunky but less often' patches...

Wooo!
  • Introduced a number of PC VR and PSVR rendering optimisations.
  • Significantly improved image quality in PSVR: reduced blurriness caused by TAA jitter and fixed low-quality terrain/atmosphere jaggies.
  • Introduced a number of general PC optimisations.
  • Introduced an optimisation to region decoration.

Intriguing...
  • Occasionally, 'Encrypted Missions' will appear on the Nexus mission list. The objectives for these missions are hidden until the mission is in progress, but the rewards are far higher.

Booo!
  • Fixed an issue that caused incorrect unit costs to be used when purchasing Exosuit slot upgrades.

EDIT: Feedback is good in the thread on performance improvements (VR & classic)

NB there's talk of a nasty bug that's still unfixed: portal saves getting wiped if you return from another galaxy :/



there's a frog in my snake oil


maniacs

EDIT: Oh this guy's on a roll...




A system of cells interlinked
Booo!
  • Fixed an issue that caused incorrect unit costs to be used when purchasing Exosuit slot upgrades.

/
Wait...didn't everyone stock up on warp cores and blast from system to system unlocking all their slots for free? I sure did!