No Man's Sky

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:43 am

I don't understand the foreboding.

Why bother having a sense of failure or saying it can't do this or that.

Society today seems to take great pleasure in assuming stuff is crap, will be crap, hope it's crap must be crap. It's all so pessimistic.

The game will come out, it will be reviewed, if it's good people will say, if it's bad people will say. If you like it you can buy it if not you don't need to.

Why the hell worry about stuff that hasn't even happened yet, woe is us crap all of it. There is so much to do and be doing without worrying if something may not live up to the hype or be any good I feel it's all just angst that you would get as a teenager. Move on beyond that, hope it's good and if not move on to the next good thing.

Heck if I worried about stuff that might turn out crap I may as well give up the will to live, however maybe I will worry that won't work out well either....

As you can gather this teen ridden angst over a bloody game that is permeating most forums really is annoying as hell and if it is crap the verbal diarrhea over it on forums is going to be never ending with I told you so and woe is us...

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:03 am

Been waiting on this game for years. Can't wait!

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 9:48 am

Society today seems to take great pleasure in assuming stuff is crap, will be crap, hope it's crap must be crap. It's all so pessimistic.

You have just defined 90% of the internet.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 11:45 am

Reemul wrote:I don't understand the foreboding.

Because years of marketing has taught us that reality is never as good as the fantasy being sold to us. Often times it's worse. Much, much worse.

I don't think it's much more complicated than that.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 11:54 am

This thread needs more marketing hype and less pessimism.

Explore. Fight. Trade. Survive.

AjD · Post by **AjD** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 12:22 pm

Reemul wrote:Why the hell worry about stuff that hasn't even happened yet, woe is us crap all of it. There is so much to do and be doing without worrying if something may not live up to the hype or be any good I feel it's all just angst that you would get as a teenager.

Maybe here's a reason:

If Only No Man’s Sky Could Go Unreleased Forever

I’m a little sad that No Man’s Sky is being released.

This is surely not an uncommon feeling: sometimes the the long weeks of anticipation leading up to Christmas are more fun than the day itself, which has the weight of expectation placed upon it and is, in any case, quickly devoured. With enough experience, you learn to savour the anticipation for its own sake.

No Man’s Sky’s procedural universe will not be as easily chewed through as a Christmas turkey Quorn log, but its release still marks the end of No Man’s Sky as a horizon-dwelling object of pure imagination and the beginning of its life as something more real and undoubtedly more finite.

blackjack · Post by **blackjack** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:09 pm

As a PC-only gamer, my main concern is the developer's zero presence on Steam's forum (afik). I've seen no dev-created threads, no stickied threads, the forum appears to have no moderator at all. I realize maybe they have a forum on their own web site, or maybe they just use social media, but I would've recommended doing something at the Steam forum because that's where the PC players are mainly going to go for information or to ask questions.

I do have the game on my Steam wish list. I hope it's fun. Would just have liked to have seen more interest by the dev or its publisher in having any sort of community rep type presence at Steam forums at all.

I'll look forward to reading first impressions - regardless of platform. Though I don't tend to jump in on these $59.99 multi-platform titles until a PC-version sale (Shadows of Mordor et al).

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 9:14 pm

Reemul wrote:I don't understand the foreboding.

Why bother having a sense of failure or saying it can't do this or that.

Society today seems to take great pleasure in assuming stuff is crap, will be crap, hope it's crap must be crap. It's all so pessimistic.

The game will come out, it will be reviewed, if it's good people will say, if it's bad people will say. If you like it you can buy it if not you don't need to.

Why the hell worry about stuff that hasn't even happened yet, woe is us crap all of it. There is so much to do and be doing without worrying if something may not live up to the hype or be any good I feel it's all just angst that you would get as a teenager. Move on beyond that, hope it's good and if not move on to the next good thing.

Heck if I worried about stuff that might turn out crap I may as well give up the will to live, however maybe I will worry that won't work out well either....

As you can gather this teen ridden angst over a bloody game that is permeating most forums really is annoying as hell and if it is crap the verbal diarrhea over it on forums is going to be never ending with I told you so and woe is us...

Reemul, did you just take a pessimistic dump over me taking a pessimistic dump? Think about it, you wrote an annoying and angsty rant about annoying angtsy rants...

But take it down a notch. I was just expressing balanced worry that a game I am looking forward to will not live up to the frankly ridiculous level of hype. I'm not pulling out my hair over it - mostly because I have hair like Patrick Stewart - but you can't read tone over the internet. I mean, if you can't have some good-natured moaning in a game forum, then what are they for!

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 9:41 pm

I will do what I have done since my second was born. Swear not to buy a game until the forum effect takes hold and makes me want to get it.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:05 am

baelthazar wrote:
Reemul wrote:I don't understand the foreboding.

Why bother having a sense of failure or saying it can't do this or that.

Society today seems to take great pleasure in assuming stuff is crap, will be crap, hope it's crap must be crap. It's all so pessimistic.

The game will come out, it will be reviewed, if it's good people will say, if it's bad people will say. If you like it you can buy it if not you don't need to.

Why the hell worry about stuff that hasn't even happened yet, woe is us crap all of it. There is so much to do and be doing without worrying if something may not live up to the hype or be any good I feel it's all just angst that you would get as a teenager. Move on beyond that, hope it's good and if not move on to the next good thing.

Heck if I worried about stuff that might turn out crap I may as well give up the will to live, however maybe I will worry that won't work out well either....

As you can gather this teen ridden angst over a bloody game that is permeating most forums really is annoying as hell and if it is crap the verbal diarrhea over it on forums is going to be never ending with I told you so and woe is us...
Reemul, did you just take a pessimistic dump over me taking a pessimistic dump? Think about it, you wrote an annoying and angsty rant about annoying angtsy rants...

But take it down a notch. I was just expressing balanced worry that a game I am looking forward to will not live up to the frankly ridiculous level of hype. I'm not pulling out my hair over it - mostly because I have hair like Patrick Stewart - but you can't read tone over the internet. I mean, if you can't have some good-natured moaning in a game forum, then what are they for!

Yep and that's fine. but it is all over the place, most of the forums I visit have it and by multiple posters.

It would be nice to visit the topic and find people hoping it's good and putting up the positive and interesting stuff they are seeing but oh no, woe is me crap seems to be far more post worthy for some reason and not just you but by everyone. It just seems like a general waste of time worrying about a thing you have no control over when the solution is to wait for reviews.

Personally I just don't get invested in games before I actually buy and play them and not just games but movies too.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 1:59 pm

It is largely due to the hype train. Think about it, for several years now we have been hearing things about the "revolutionary" huge galaxy, the exploration, the procedurally generated ships, animals, empires, and worlds. Yet only a handful of people have ever played the game, which has been delayed. Most of us ARE invested in a game before it comes out, because we read previews, watch videos, or - heck - see the game played by Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. So I think most of us just want perception to live up to reality. It may sound negative, but actually it is not "woe is me" it is a hope that things will be good.

Personally, I love the anticipation of a game, movie, book, or album coming out that I have been following and looking forward to releasing.

And I am saying this in a totally friendly manner, but I am not buying your disengagement (lack of investment) - given you have spent several paragraphs here hoping for people to be positive!

But to be positive, I can tell you this, at the very least the game will be a fun way to explore and see new things. If games like Endless Ocean, Minecraft, and Journey can be fun simply for the visual aspect of seeing new and crazy stuff, then I have hope that - even if the other parts of gameplay are weaker - NMS will still be awesome. Going back to my Spore discussion, even if the 4X stuff was kinda weak, I still spent tons of hours playing the game to find odd planets, new items, and cultivate weird new aliens races.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:43 pm

Saw on Reddit that some guy apparently somehow got a copy of the PS4 version of the game early and posted some videos of gameplay on his first planet. I think they got taken down when Sean at Hello Games begged him not to spoil the game for people. I watched about half of one of them someone had copied over to youtube and it was enough for me to really want the game. From what I can tell, it looks like maybe they haven't been showing a lot of the game because they wanted to surprise people, not because there wasn't any gameplay. It sure looks fun to me.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:49 pm

ColdSteel wrote:From what I can tell, it looks like maybe they haven't been showing a lot of the game because they wanted to surprise people, not because there wasn't any gameplay.

Which is pretty much what Sean has been saying all along, but I guess it's hard to blame people for not trusting developers with some of the scams that have been run in the past.

AjD · Post by **AjD** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:51 pm

ColdSteel wrote:Saw on Reddit that some guy apparently somehow got a copy of the PS4 version of the game early and posted some videos of gameplay on his first planet. I think they got taken down when Sean at Hello Games begged him not to spoil the game for people. I watched about half of one of them someone had copied over to youtube and it was enough for me to really want the game. From what I can tell, it looks like maybe they haven't been showing a lot of the game because they wanted to surprise people, not because there wasn't any gameplay. It sure looks fun to me.

I just watched the first video.

It looks terrific, especially if you like to explore. It's amazing to watch the player run around on foot, exploring the planet and the world looks just huge. I keep wondering what's over the next hill (I'm that kind of player; it's like dopamine).

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 8:02 pm

I watched some of what I guess was the live stream before it was taken down. To be fair I am only mildly interested in the game in the first place, but what I saw didn't make me want to rush out to buy it. Just looked like a typical survival game. I know that's not fair, there is more to the game, but I am not seeing what the hype is about so far.

What struck me as cheesy was, as he was digging out a rock formation, there was no gravity acting on the upper rocks. They just stayed in the air like in Minecraft or Terraria. Not a big deal by any means, it just looked strange in a game with good graphics.

AjD · Post by **AjD** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 8:33 pm

Lee wrote:What struck me as cheesy was, as he was digging out a rock formation, there was no gravity acting on the upper rocks. They just stayed in the air like in Minecraft or Terraria. Not a big deal by any means, it just looked strange in a game with good graphics.

I also noticed that. Gravity would be very cool, and it looks a little Minecraft-y without it.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:58 pm

It's interesting to me that this game seems to have some of the features that Everquest Next was supposed to have from an exploration standpoint. That MMO was going to have destructible voxel terrain and if you tunneled down, there were layers of underground and caves you were supposed to be able to explore to find all kinds of cool things. It seems that NMS has this feature but not for just one world but billions of them. Hopefully they have surprises and interesting things down there to discover to keep interest up. I suspect that there are and that those are the kinds of things the developer doesn't want spoiled.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:38 pm

AjD wrote:
ColdSteel wrote:Saw on Reddit that some guy apparently somehow got a copy of the PS4 version of the game early and posted some videos of gameplay on his first planet. I think they got taken down when Sean at Hello Games begged him not to spoil the game for people. I watched about half of one of them someone had copied over to youtube and it was enough for me to really want the game. From what I can tell, it looks like maybe they haven't been showing a lot of the game because they wanted to surprise people, not because there wasn't any gameplay. It sure looks fun to me.
I just watched the first video.

It looks terrific, especially if you like to explore. It's amazing to watch the player run around on foot, exploring the planet and the world looks just huge. I keep wondering what's over the next hill (I'm that kind of player; it's like dopamine).

If what is over the next hill keeps you going, then just imagine all the quintillions of planets! Does anyone remember what he said about the scaling of planets? I know they are not realistic scale (because then you would never be able to leave even the first one you land on if you want to explore extensively), but I remember them being big nonetheless.

AjD · Post by **AjD** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 1:01 am

baelthazar wrote:Does anyone remember what he said about the scaling of planets? I know they are not realistic scale (because then you would never be able to leave even the first one you land on if you want to explore extensively), but I remember them being big nonetheless.

There is a slight mystery still as far as the actual size of the planets. Sean Murray has said the planets are "planet-sized." He has even mentioned how hard it would be for multiple players to find each other in the game -- even if they were on the same planet (one player could be on a mountain; another in a canyonland somewhere).

However, the community has analyzed some of the gameplay footage to figure out the total area of one of the planet's shown. One persistent person calculated the planet size to be a diameter of about 40 miles. Which in cosmic terms would be a very small planet (the earth's diameter is about 8,000 miles).

However, from a video gaming standpoint, a 40 diameter planet would be just enormous. Way, way bigger than anything ever seen in any game. Forty miles diameter = about 5,000 square miles of surface area. That's just gigantic. You could spend weeks exploring it (probably longer).

So, I think from a player's experience viewpoint, the planet's will feel like entire planets. Who knows? Maybe some planets are even bigger too.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 1:17 am

I wonder if you'll be able to land Battlecruisers...

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:09 am

So early impressions by the guy that got the leaked copy indicates that he found life on every single planet. Every one. Some had fewer than others but they all had life.

This lowers my expectations for the game greatly. My "this is going to be cheesy like Spore" alarm bells are ringing all over the place.

Many think this might be a feature put in for early reviewers (to make it easier to explore) that will be patched through a day one patch. Thoughts about this?

Suitably Ironic Moniker · Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:45 pm

I don't really have any feelings one way or another until I see how it's implemented. Did he mention if it was sentient life, or just some random wild creatures? It would be a tad unrealistic on its face, but it could make sense within the universe, or it may just be there for reviewers, like you mentioned. Not too worried about it right now.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 11:26 am

When I hear "awesomeness that does everything awesomely" it just makes me think of Battlecruiser 3000 and then I don't think any more. That's where my pessimism comes from. Trying to do too much is biting off more than you can chew.

Rebel Galaxy was a decent arcade shooter with dynamic galaxy generation, but in the end it was just as generic as I would think a game of this scope would have to be.

Sure I hope it's as awesome as it's supposed to be, but I rarely expect it.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 10:51 am

And now delayed until the 12th for the PC version.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 11:53 am

ColdSteel wrote:And now delayed until the 12th for the PC version.

Been that on steam for a few weeks but maybe that was just the UK date and the US was earlier, normally a tuesday

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 11:57 am

Reemul wrote:
ColdSteel wrote:And now delayed until the 12th for the PC version.

Been that on steam for a few weeks but maybe that was just the UK date and the US was earlier, normally a tuesday

As of a couple of days ago Steam was still showing 9 Aug for me (Canada). I've seen the 12 Aug release date elsewhere, so I'd guess that they were just tardy in updating the Steam date.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 12:41 pm

Supposedly a bunch of stores broke street date, so people are playing it now. Sony says they are wiping servers on release day and the current game is not a good representation of the game without the day one patch. As made evident by the Kotaku initial play through where they get a crash 10 minutes in.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:37 pm

Yup, it was showing as the 9th for me until just the last few hours. Kind of annoying as I hadn't heard anything about the 12th, and I already put in for the 9th off, but at least I can just move it to the right day.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 3:28 pm

It looks like the decision to move to a global release date (12 Aug) was only announced yesterday.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 4:00 pm

Watching the Kotaku stream was pretty underwhelming for me. I might have had unrealistic expectations. I guess I'll wait and see what you guys think before I jump.

killbot737 · Post by **killbot737** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 4:38 pm

Well shit, now I have to work on Wed instead of calling in sick or taking pto. Although this does give me the weekend to burn out on the game instead.

It's definitely a BS move to change the release date 2 days before release. This is raising my ABORT ABORT! warnings.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 12:05 am

I still hope the game is good. Let's get that out of the way first.

Now then.... this has been the biggest clusterf*ck of a release by any company in recent memory. First, the game gets leaked and someone starts streaming and playing it 3 weeks early. Then reviewers run out and buy copies from stores breaking the release date and start streaming it early. Then further "civilian" streams start popping up all over the place like a leaky boat. To top that off they announce a global (delayed) release 2 f*cking days before the release.

Sony scrambles and tries to put the genie back into the bottle by saying the early copies are unfinished. So they went gold unfinished Sony? Actually based on how awful the control of this release has been it's pretty believable to think they just went gold and decided to fix stuff in a patch and hope they get it on time.

Like I said. I hope this game is good. However, if their skills at going through the release cycle has ANY indication at all about the quality of their work -- I'm having SERIOUS doubts.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 1:10 am

Release day patches have been the norm for years. Give it another decade or so, and the preload will be just the game engine, with all the assets to be downloaded on Day 1.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 10:46 am

I'm pretty sure the global release delay for the PC version is a Sony decision to give their PS4 a 3 day exclusive. I think once they saw how much people were willing to pay for early copies of the game they figured folks won't be able to contain themselves and wait 3 more days for the PC version and will run right out and buy the PS4 version instead. They smell pent up demand. Sean said there were some things they would like to talk about but can't regarding the delay. It boils down to that they made a deal with the devil to fund development and now they have to pay the price in butthurt fans.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 11:12 am

Sorry, disregard.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 11:14 am

OMG!!!! Delayed 6 days! Yay for first world problems. I get why it would bother some people but jeezus, its not the end of the world. I guess in my old age, Ive come to understand that release dates are very fluid and getting all nasty about it wont get the game to me any quicker. All it does is get my blood pressure up and a game aint worth that! Like CS said, its probably more a Sony marketing ploy than anything else, anyway. What I love is looking through all the forums and finding the people who are complaining about the content and how they will wait until the price drops and yet go ballistic about the release delay ( not saying that's happening here but I have seen it elsewhere ).

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 11:28 am

I can't talk, I have been so excited for a new game that 3 days would have drove me nuts. Been a long time since that happened though. Judging from Reddit, there are a lot of people who are really excited for this one. All this pre-release drama has only made it worse for them as well.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 1:19 pm

Well, now, they just posted the notes for the day one patch. It's massive. Of even more interest (to me anyway) is that it answers a lot of gameplay questions that I had. While there's really no release sale incentive for me to grab the game on day one, if the word of mouth is good on the patched game after a few days I might just grab this. It sure sounds like a game I want to play.

The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.

The Universe – we changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved. Environments have changed biomes. Galaxies have altered shape. All to create greater variety earlier. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.

Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.

Planets – we’ve added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms.

Atmosphere – space, night time and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets.

Planet rotation – play testing has made it obvious people are struggling to adjust to this during play so it’s effects have been reduced further…

Terrain generation – caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.

Ship diversity – a wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.

Inventory – ship inventories now store 5 times more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5 times more per slot. This encourages exploration and gives freedom from the beginning. We’re probably going to increase this even further in the next update, for people in the latter game phases, and will allow greater trading potential.

Trading – trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. Observing these is the key to successful trading. We still working on adjusting this based on how everyone plays, but all trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. A bunch of trade exploits were uncovered and have been removed

Feeding – creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species, such as mining for you, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting you to rare loot or pooping valuable resources.

Survival – recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous

Graphical effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled. Temporal AA didn’t make it in time, but it’s so close

Balancing – several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (mainly exo-suit and ship, but also weapon), new upgrades have been added.

Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.

Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.

Exploits – infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit among other removed. People using these cheats were ruining the game for themselves, but people are weird and can’t stop themselves ¯_(シ)_/¯

Stability – foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).

Space Stations – interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added

Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight

Ship scanning – scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans

Flying over terrain – pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update)

Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Dues Ex) and me. I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 1:25 pm

I don't buy many full priced games any more, so this is definitely one I'll wait on until I can read the reviews/impressions. I'm also a bit disappointed that the patch doesn't seem to do anything changing the likelihood of finding a life-supporting planet. I understand that it would be boring if only 0.001% of planets had life, but there seemingly could be a balance between that extreme and every planet having life. Maybe 1 out 10 or so? Of course, this is assuming the early impressions are accurate about all planets harboring life...

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Aug 07, 2016 1:30 pm

Pushing the game to the 12th means that no way I'll be getting it on release, since I'll be leaving on vacation that day. I'll be following the threads and seeing what people think of the game