Sophia: - Is it me, or is the space map a convoluted mess? I have just about finished the Artemis quests and gotten to the point where I'm told to "make my way to the center of the galaxy". Sure, fine, but it isn't at all clear how to actually get there. Do you keep jumping from the furthest point you have reached and having to keep notes where that is? Or is there an easier way to keep track?
If you have the relative mission selected, you should get way points and lines on the galaxy map leading the way.
The filters are useful too, especially if you want to find race specific starships and linger (reload multiple times) around a Trade center until an S Class of the starship design you want shows up. I just got an S Class Heavy Fighter from a Vykeen yesterday with 38+12 slots, good damage and range .. Took me about 34 reloads of the same autosave to get it. But finding all Vykeen Opulent / Wealthy systems would have been a pain without those filters for Lifeforms.
Sophia: - Related, so far I'm not seeing many benefits of travelling further and further. The space stations remain EXACTLY the same, the 3 galactic species don't change, the planets don't vary as you make your way "in". I was very excited to get to a "red sun" system, only to find out it was exactly the same as the "yellow" systems. What's the point?
- Related to THAT, the planets really don't change much, do they? I mean I understand that certain materials have to be readily found on each one so you won't find yourself stuck anyway, but oh boy. On EVERY planet I see those "puffer" plants, venus fly traps, ferns and bulby trees. The only thing different is the name, when you scan them. Same with landscapes, after about 5 "ahs and ohs", they start to repeat themselves from planet to planet. Same with the environment: hot, cold, toxic and radioactive, and the lucky "just right" one to build a base on.
- As a result, you can recognise a mile away which plant will give you oxygen, or carbon, or which minerals will give you ferrite dust or di-hydrogen. I would have liked it better if we were "forced" to scan the surroundings in order to find which plant/mineral offers the wanted material rather than just look around and mindlessly start mining the stuff you need. It would make much better use of the visor and scanner we all received on our first landing planet and make life a little more interesting at the same time.
- Lore: following the missions I have been visiting ancient ruins, crashed freighters, and other abandoned places on occasion. It would be much more fun if they actually added to the story, rather than a generic "your knowledge of the fill-in-the-blanks has been increased".
I think HG are trying to keep the whole thing family friendly too - I think its a PEGI 7 rating if you buy it in a PS4 box off the shelf - So it has to be not so complicated / adult for all players down to that age group ..
.. But even then, I agree it needs work. It may be a procedural generation technical issue that limits HG with these things, or it may be simply they haven't enough lifetime / development time / economical time to implement everything NMS fans want. But I remember the original Elite back in the 80's which had two simple mechanisms that kept me going for about five years (well, 3D vector graphics in a space game in those days was so new that was also a big draw for me). 1. The achievement of getting to Elite status took years. And 2. Along the way there were special missions, the first took a long time to trigger, the second was double the time of the first, the third was double the time of the second .. Play time to do all 4 missions was quite a long time. We have missions and achievements in NMS, but they dont take long enough to get them all done imho. I would like some to be hinted at at some point in the future, which don't occur until way after reaching the Centre
Sophia: - Freighter: I'm really enjoying the missions! But as for the freighter itself, what's the point of having this GIGANTIC beast in space and it only has 32 slots? I have been experimenting a little with creating rooms and corridors, which is fun, but it's also mostly pointless since it doesn't give you more slots to store stuff. I mean I put in a large refiner and a few other items, but all that fits easily in the one holding area behind the bridge. I really wish there was a better use for freighters!
I don't like being shackled to a planet base, so once all the planet base missions are done, I make specialist terminals onboard the Freighter, then click it and your planet bound vendor (Farmer / Armourer / Scientist etc) will come onboard.
Now you can use a lot of the space to farm whatever, and your base becomes the Freighter to "Go where no one has gone before" ..
.. But even then, I agree this also needs work.
Sophia: Oh and I meant to say I'm really enjoying the roamer! I wish I could take it with me to all planets... it makes traveling places so much more convenient.
Precisely. Carrying the Exxocraft in some way on the Freighter, to be beamed down to any planet you are exploring / want to have a bit of driving fun on would be good. I want the Freighter to be more like Star Trek Voyager, and keep on exploring :)
The game needs more long term pull, after you reach the centre and .. best not spoiler it .. There still needs to be more to tweak your curiosity and fuel the need to explore. Its a lot less samey than it was 3 years ago, but its still not feeding the explorer which is what the game is all about.
My biggest wish is to improve longevity with hints of things to come, carrot on a stick which takes years of playing to get there, improving the hook to keep exploring.
And for Hellogames to once and for all squish all the long term bugs and stop expanding the features which just generate new bugs (and resurrect some old ones which have been previously squished in updates to older major overhauls). I think though that old bugs coming back is due to the nature of the game engine and procedural generation.
I still keep playing it though, dont quite understand why, its remarkable in that playing it is relaxing like no other game has ever achieved for me.
