No Man's Sky

[GreenGoo]

Maybe 60 Minutes will look into it.

Maybe it's on the gaming news sites because it's gaming news.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I didn't say it wasn't.

[Lee]

Maybe 60 Minutes will look into it.

Maybe it's on the gaming news sites because it's gaming news.

Well one site, and they got what they were hoping for, lots of hits, probably thanks to Reddit. The hot thing is talking shit about NMS right now. (Which maybe it deserves, but it's funny how much people want to talk about the game.)

[GreenGoo]

Google's news app tells me at least two, which is how I found out about it.

I assume there will be more by tomorrow.

[GreenGoo]

I didn't say it wasn't.

Oh, so it was an honest thought that 60 minutes will pick it up? My bad. I gotta tell ya though, that's unlikely.

[Lee]

Google's news app tells me at least two, which is how I found out about it.

I assume there will be more by tomorrow.

Well if there is, hopefully they will act like real journalists and actually cite facts, research it, and ask Steam for comments.

[GreenGoo]

Uh...they don't do that when hyping games, why would they do that when crapping on them?

[rshetts2]

In the early stages buying a ship to upgrade is a good way to go. They get insanely expensive later on though. The last ship I bothered to check was a 43 slot ship and that cost over 110 million units. Ship swapping can be a bit time consuming since you can only jump one slot at a time but grinding enough cash to upgrade to a 48 slot would be insane. Also ship swapping can make you a decent amount of money. Since you only need to fix the jump and pulse engines, you can dismantle the rest of the upgrades for materials. Since you need open slots in order to transfer to new ships I ended up selling most of what I dismantled until I swapped out for my last ship. Dismantling gives you a lot of high value items, so if you limit your repairs to the basics you will make money with every swap.

I found that if I dismantle the whole ship (or what you can dismantle) I typically have enough supplies to get a lot of the stuff fixed on the ship swap to not only get me up and running but also get a few guns slots repaired. OTOH, unlike my starter planet, now I just am not finding that many ships to swap out. I can accidently find tons of pods to update my suit but I have yet to bump into a crashed ship. Right now my main track to a crashed ship is Settlement to Transmission signal then hopefully to Beacon and then hopefully to crashed ship. But of course the referral to a beacon or to a crashed ship is not a certainty. My suit I believe is now full at 48, but my ship is only 24 and my "gun" is only 24.

Heres a bit of a tip for you. Find a Gek system. Once you get to a Gek planet and find a transmission tower, you can repeat the puzzle in the tower multiple times, marking as many crash sites as you want. Also, your Multi tool/Gun is maxed out at 24 slots.

[GreenGoo]

My first contact and language was with the Vy'keen. Do you know if the multi-shipwreck trick works with anyone or just the Gek (who I've only recently come across and only know like 5 words)?

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I didn't say it wasn't.

Oh, so it was an honest thought that 60 minutes will pick it up? My bad. I gotta tell ya though, that's unlikely.

It may merit a blurb on a few sites, so it is, technically, news. You seem to be taking this game's disappointment a wee bit personally, ergo, the 60 Minutes crack.

[GreenGoo]

I didn't say it wasn't.

Oh, so it was an honest thought that 60 minutes will pick it up? My bad. I gotta tell ya though, that's unlikely.

It may merit a blurb on a few sites, so it is, technically, news. You seem to be taking this game's disappointment a wee bit personally, ergo, the 60 Minutes crack.

I think you've got it backwards.

[Victoria Raverna]

From the store page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850

"The standard Steam refund policy applies to No Man's Sky. There are no special exemptions available. Click here for more detail on the Steam refund policy."


I guess too many people asking for refund that they have to put that on the store page.

[Smoove_B]

I guess too many people asking for refund that they have to put that on the store page.

I'm betting there's some wiggle room over the 5 hour mark based on what I've read here, but I can't imagine it's widespread or that someone with 10+ hours is going to be able to get a refund.

[coopasonic]

My first contact and language was with the Vy'keen. Do you know if the multi-shipwreck trick works with anyone or just the Gek (who I've only recently come across and only know like 5 words)?

It's a numeric sequence puzzle. You don't need to know any words.

[rshetts2]

As far as I know, it only works with a Gek transmission tower. I tried with the Vykeen and it was no go. As mentioned above the transmission tower puzzles are all numerical sequences so the language barrier is not an issue.

[Victoria Raverna]

Another strange thing with Steam and this game, the game is now not in the top sellers at all (checked to the 10th pages and can't find NMS). A few days ago, it was still on the first or second page.

Is it because it is no longer on steam's home page? Maybe publishers have to pay Steam to be on the home page and that have great effect on sales, NMS's Steam ads contract expired?

[GreenGoo]

As far as I know, it only works with a Gek transmission tower. I tried with the Vykeen and it was no go. As mentioned above the transmission tower puzzles are all numerical sequences so the language barrier is not an issue.

Ok thanks. I just mentioned the number of words I know to illustrate how new my contact with the Gek was. I've found a number of wrecked ships and recovered one of them in Vy'keen space.

Thanks for the info!

[GreenGoo]

From the store page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850

"The standard Steam refund policy applies to No Man's Sky. There are no special exemptions available. Click here for more detail on the Steam refund policy."


I guess too many people asking for refund that they have to put that on the store page.

That answers that question. Looks like Lee was correct.

Presumably rumours (including those being reported by website(s)) have pushed enough people to try to get a refund past the 2 hour timeframe that Steam has felt the need to clarify in no uncertain terms that NMS has the standard refund policy.

I also read (in the reddit thread Lee posted) that the EU may have a different return policy available to it based on EU consumer laws. I have no idea if that is correct or not, but perhaps this has helped push return policy exemption rumour.

[GreenGoo]

Another strange thing with Steam and this game, the game is now not in the top sellers at all (checked to the 10th pages and can't find NMS). A few days ago, it was still on the first or second page.

Is it because it is no longer on steam's home page? Maybe publishers have to pay Steam to be on the home page and that have great effect on sales, NMS's Steam ads contract expired?

Beats me. I don't look at that stuff except rarely out of interest. It's not part of my shopping anyway.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I didn't say it wasn't.

Oh, so it was an honest thought that 60 minutes will pick it up? My bad. I gotta tell ya though, that's unlikely.

It may merit a blurb on a few sites, so it is, technically, news. You seem to be taking this game's disappointment a wee bit personally, ergo, the 60 Minutes crack.

I think you've got it backwards.

Sure, okay.

[Lee]

Another strange thing with Steam and this game, the game is now not in the top sellers at all (checked to the 10th pages and can't find NMS). A few days ago, it was still on the first or second page.

Is it because it is no longer on steam's home page? Maybe publishers have to pay Steam to be on the home page and that have great effect on sales, NMS's Steam ads contract expired?

Steam Spy still has it in 18th under trending, but I don't know if that means sales or what?

[Victoria Raverna]

Another strange thing with Steam and this game, the game is now not in the top sellers at all (checked to the 10th pages and can't find NMS). A few days ago, it was still on the first or second page.

Is it because it is no longer on steam's home page? Maybe publishers have to pay Steam to be on the home page and that have great effect on sales, NMS's Steam ads contract expired?

Steam Spy still has it in 18th under trending, but I don't know if that means sales or what?

Probably based on concurrrent players that are playing the game or the day's peak. The game is still on the top 20 based on that.

But it is real strange that the game is missing from the top sellers list. It fell to second page but got back to first page just two days ago. It is real strange that in two days, the sales number drop that much that it is now out of the first 10 pages.

Steam top sellers page is probably not 100% based on sales. For example, CS:GO seem to be always on the first two pages. Did Valve manipulate the list to sell more CS:GO?

[GreenGoo]

Sure, okay.

I think you'll find there is significant resistance any time someone posts criticism of the game.

[GreenGoo]

Zero Punctuation review

Just watched this.

Ouch.

[Victoria Raverna]

Another strange thing with Steam and this game, the game is now not in the top sellers at all (checked to the 10th pages and can't find NMS). A few days ago, it was still on the first or second page.

Is it because it is no longer on steam's home page? Maybe publishers have to pay Steam to be on the home page and that have great effect on sales, NMS's Steam ads contract expired?

Beats me. I don't look at that stuff except rarely out of interest. It's not part of my shopping anyway.

I use top sellers list to find good games that are on sale. Usually the Special list has too many games to go through so I just use top sellers page instead because good games that are on sales are usually at the first and second page of top sellers.

[D.A.Lewis]

As far as I know, it only works with a Gek transmission tower. I tried with the Vykeen and it was no go. As mentioned above the transmission tower puzzles are all numerical sequences so the language barrier is not an issue.

Very cool. Thanks. Just left a couple Korfax systems and just landed in a Gex system. I need a bigger ship so I don't mind grinding for a bit.

Sadly, the game lumps all my words learned in the single achievement. So while I currently have a total is 370 words learned, (babbledish achievement) only about 20 of them are Gex.


Note: This particular Gex world is a battleing world because when they say aggressive sentinels they mean it in the planetary description. They are continuously in red alert mode. I attacked one little tree in the jingle for some carbon and they went right to battle mode, even alerting their buddies. Oh well, there is an achievement for killing a bunch of sentinels, I'll probably get it on this planet.

[Newcastle]

As far as I know, it only works with a Gek transmission tower. I tried with the Vykeen and it was no go. As mentioned above the transmission tower puzzles are all numerical sequences so the language barrier is not an issue.

Very cool. Thanks. Just left a couple Korfax systems and just landed in a Gex system. I need a bigger ship so I don't mind grinding for a bit.

Sadly, the game lumps all my words learned in the single achievement. So while I currently have a total is 370 words learned, (babbledish achievement) only about 20 of them are Gex.


Note: This particular Gex world is a battleing world because when they say aggressive sentinels they mean it in the planetary description. They are continuously in red alert mode. I attacked one little tree in the jingle for some carbon and they went right to battle mode, even alerting their buddies. Oh well, there is an achievement for killing a bunch of sentinels, I'll probably get it on this planet.

take a look around the planet. There might be some high valuable stuff there. I think i read somewhere that the more alert the sentinels are, chances are there is something of high value there.

[GreenGoo]

Google's news app tells me at least two, which is how I found out about it.

I assume there will be more by tomorrow.

Well if there is, hopefully they will act like real journalists and actually cite facts, research it, and ask Steam for comments.

More reports this morning. Google News just gives me stuff because I like Steam. No idea if the sites are reputable or not. Several mentioned the Steam notification about standard refund policy and then wildly speculated anyway, so I think we have the answer to the quality of journalism, although mainstream media is also suffering a loss in quality so I'm not surprised gaming is not leading the charge in journalistic integrity.

An interesting (well, I thought it was interesting) new wrinkle is that it is being reported that both Amazon and even more oddly, Sony have also been issuing refunds. I read that Sony's refund policy is up to two weeks after purchase, as long as you haven't started to download the game yet. I don't have a playstation and don't follow this side of the game industry myself, so I haven't a clue what the actual deal is.

[rshetts2]

As far as I know, it only works with a Gek transmission tower. I tried with the Vykeen and it was no go. As mentioned above the transmission tower puzzles are all numerical sequences so the language barrier is not an issue.

Very cool. Thanks. Just left a couple Korfax systems and just landed in a Gex system. I need a bigger ship so I don't mind grinding for a bit.

Sadly, the game lumps all my words learned in the single achievement. So while I currently have a total is 370 words learned, (babbledish achievement) only about 20 of them are Gex.


Note: This particular Gex world is a battleing world because when they say aggressive sentinels they mean it in the planetary description. They are continuously in red alert mode. I attacked one little tree in the jingle for some carbon and they went right to battle mode, even alerting their buddies. Oh well, there is an achievement for killing a bunch of sentinels, I'll probably get it on this planet.

take a look around the planet. There might be some high valuable stuff there. I think i read somewhere that the more alert the sentinels are, chances are there is something of high value there.

I think that this may be true. On the one High Alert planet I spent time on, graviton balls were laying around all over. Of course grabbing one would instantaneously summon 2 or more sentinels. On the plus side those graviton balls actually stacked in my inventory so I grabbed a ton of them and made a quick couple of million units. I still do not understand stacking rules, its seems totally arbitrary.

[Isgrimnur]

[GreenGoo]

I have never stacked anything that wasn't clearly a base element resource.

That said, I have not seen any of the higher value items yet. I do find the lack of stackability annoying, especially given the shortage of inventory space.

[coopasonic]

Since the entire game revolves around increasing inventory space, stackability on everything would trivialize things.

[GreenGoo]

Since the entire game revolves around increasing inventory space, stackability on everything would trivialize things.

I've written 4 responses but they all come across as critical of the game, so I removed them and I'm just gonna agree with you.

[Isgrimnur]

Stacks can have upper limits. Baldur's Gate limited you to 20 arrows per stack. Imoen was always my walking quiver.

[TiLT]

It's actually possible to stack some of the non-stackable resources like Graviton Balls, but this depends on where you got it from. If you dismantle certain hyperdrives you'll get a stack of Graviton Balls in return, and I believe you can keep stacking that one as long as you don't sell all of it.

[Newcastle]

so i got a minor complaint. When i am in the hyper space screen its so hard to look at the other systems and navigate around. I am using a gamepad...is it easier with the mouse? I was looking for a glaxy i had been in, but couldnt find it, and it was supposedly super close. Cant game atm, but any advice on that would be cool. Believe it or not, i just went to my 4th system. Still enjoying hte laid back aspect of it of just exploring and mining.

[Cylus Maxii]

I think in free-explore mode, you can push a button to select nearest and then again for next nearest. Try that to find your priors

[FishPants]

For what it's worth, I decided why sell it for half when Reddit says I can get a full refund? So I emailed Amazon.ca, and approved for return $90. Looks like the rumours are accurate!

[GreenGoo]

But...you liked it. Now you're just taking food out of the developers' mouths because you can.

tsk tsk.

[FishPants]

But...you liked it. Now you're just taking food out of the developers' mouths because you can.

tsk tsk.

I did enjoy it but $90 back > $40 and dealing with a weird Kijiji person. I was actually surprised they would let me return a disc, all I said was "Game wasn't as promised, reading that Amazon.com is taking returns/refunds -- if you are, I would like my money back".. and an hour later I had a return label available to print.