You have made an extensive analysis for sentinels here, congrats. I still have to go through it, but I also notice that the game guide does NOT corrispond to what the game does regarding sentinels. The guide should not be followed for it atm.

Essentially the game has introduced this 'timer' that gives you the choice to some degree to avoid combat with sentinels as long as you keep out of side while the timer's counter goes down to zero. On hostile planets this timer may not appear and even going to space and return will not stop the alert, only if you go into the space station.

Combat with sentinels has been nerfed considerably from what I can see. Missions to destroy them are more challenging, but I imagine a lot of people won't like it.

I like the sentinels, now. Their behavior makes more sense than in Atlas Rises and prior. "Sentinel mining" was kind of dumb (but useful!). Running the alart level up to 4, killing the walker, and then having a sentinel-free planet was also kind of dumb (but useful!).

Now, you actually need to pay attention to them. They fight back! But even on hostile sentinel planets and that first drone has decided to initiate suppression messures, you can break contact and clear datum. End of encounter.

On higher levels, before reinforcements arrive just bug out and eventually the search timer will expire.

The exception, of course, is once you've worked up to an Alert 5 things get kind of hot. But fun! Best I've done so far is a Resource Depot raid that I had to break off after the fourth walker because a supercell radiation storm blew in.

The sentinel ships aren't that bad in the atmosphere and they drop goodies. When you tire of shooting them down, call in your freighter and hop aboard. End of encounter.

No, they're just infuriatingly annoying right now.
You know, there could be something in between how it was before, and how it is now?

It's just bad gameplay. See, you constantly have to wait for ages for them to GTFO, only to have the next one spawn right on your shoulder afterwards. So you waited to avoid it, then you have to run and hide and wait some more anyways.

Waiting does not hold any gameplay value. Waiting is what you do in many mobile games nowadays. "Come back in 4 hours to click this button, or pay to continue playing right now!" That waiting time is not entertaining, at all.

The incentive to avoid them has gameplay value though, right? No. Because, here's the issue.
You're still able to fight them for loot, no problem. Even on Survival, I managed to fight them off on 5 stars until I got bored of it. I had no more free slots in my inventory, not even half way through. It's super easy, and I just found the space anomaly station in my game. I don't even have any class S stuff yet. Second multitool. Barely upgraded.



My issue here is, that you are being forced to run as the only viable option, ever. So why have weapons, at all? You can't win, and fighting back actually makes your chances of escaping worse. They are just annoying, floating ressources to be mined when you need some.

And, one of these annoying things keeps bugging you at your base? Too bad, you better suck it up and let it bully you, running and hiding each time. Because if you don't, you'll have twice or more of them swarming around like wasps and annoying you even more, after you waited the mandatory boring timer inside to reset your stars.

If I'm fully decked out, I want to be able to fuck up one or two of these without having to run like a chicken afterwards anyways. You're never even running for your life, oh no - there's zero difficulty there. You just run to not be bothered and annoyed constantly, which is all they do currently. And that's your incentive to avoid them? Really? Avoiding annoyance? Or, "ending the encounter", as you call it?



Read my proposed alternative system up there. That would both allow for another option, while still making it difficult to achieve if you're not prepared for it or didn't pay attention. A solution to the boring, time wasting and mandatory waiting.

Make them actually hard and difficult to deal with, yes, but not without giving the player a satisfying chance.
They're just an annoyance that realistically, can't do shit to you but won't ever leave you alone anyways. Right now, they indeed could just be cut from the game as they don't offer any kind of actual gameplay value. They're not frightening, they're not dangerous, you avoid them (by waiting, and waiting some more) simply because they are straight up annoying. That's not how good antagonists work.



At the very least, make them behave differently depending on your selected difficulty. The old system for "Easy", the current one for the "Just annoy but don't actually hurt me please" setting, and my proposed system up there for the actual "Difficult" setting. "Hardcore" or "Survival" can then use the current system as well, just have the Sentinels actually be capable of biting, not just barking at you.

Actual good antagonists have to be difficult to survive, and more difficult to beat. These are easy to survive, and impossible to beat. No matter how powerful the enemy - while you couldn't win the war, you certainly need to be able to win one or two fights.

"Oh not again, another Sentinel... better walk that other way or take a potty break for 2 minutes to not be annoyed..." vs
"Oh shit a Sentinel, quick, run and hide, I don't want to lose my progress"

I've actually found a way to make them less annoying: you can 'lure' them out of your area of operation by mining a rock or plant a distance from them (further from you) but within their awareness range. They go to check out the rock or plant first. Stop as soon as they go. Then repeat the process to get it a little further away if necessary. If you stop mining immediately once the sentinel reaches there in the vast majority of cases where I've done this, it just starts doing its scanning/monitoring over there, nicely out of the way. I haven't found that new ones spawn as long as the original is still in the relative vicinity.

This has worked for me quite well and only takes a few seconds.

As well, there seems to be a fairly regular distance interval between spawns. I've noticed this when on foot. One spawns and you walk or run away. At a fairly specific interval a new one pops up in your general vicinity (usually right freaking beside you, but that's another complaint). In between those intervals you can mine, dig, shoot all you want and not be bothered.

Other than that, I do agree I'd like to see their behaviour overhauled somewhat.

Mods :)

We lucky PC players have a solution to most of NMS problems. With the constant updates and changes that IS NMS development (maybe forever?), mods can 'save' the game i find.

One other thing is that you don't NEED every single latest update to enjoy the game best. So don't get caught in that trap of feeling like you need all updates as soon as they drop. Build a good base game with some nice mods and enjoy that for a good few months while HG get on with fixing AND changing everything for you to try later :)

I am in agreement with Blacksun. I like your suggestions, also at repairing it.

Bring back the circular stopwatch that gave us an idea about reinforcements. It was strategic. The onfoot exploring gameplay, right now, sucks. Flee, take oxygen loss, health loss from hazard plant toxins, to spin and witness 'poof the magic dragon' reappear, with zero jeapardy involved. And what's up with that sentinel dog, breaking physical laws, is he Casper the Friendly ghost? He pounces right thru 20ft of solid terrain, but cannot find a blown open doorway, to follow my wounded butt indoors? Pisspoor hunt and track AI design, thats what I take away, from these changes, to sentinels.

I do like the armor flying off, but the strategy to melee the dog, is all gone now. Boo. I really enjoyed pistol whipping um, and avoiding their long accurate laser, by getting in close. Thats gone..

Hop in ship, carpet bomb them, on a slow throttle, fly elsewhere.. scum save and reload the wanted flag away, seems cheesie. But that dog is breaking the law.

I agree. The Timer on Sentinels isn`t very smart. far too predictable and far too close. It just isn`t fun.

I've been doing that myself =D
Doesn't always work, though. Perspective's a bitch, sometimes. Also, barren areas.
And, it's kind of the "gaming the game" / system. While you could argue that they are bots, it still feels meta and pulls you out of the game a bit.

- EX-ACTLY! That's what I mean, it's removal of gameplay elements, dumbing down the formula and setting in stone the one, singular outcome it all will inevitably have now. It's arguably, less of a "game" than it used to be after that's been ripped out without replacement.

Also, that dog likes to spawn underground, and attack through solid ground with the laser. Only shooting at the terrain stops it - not shooting out of it when already clipped inside. Also, the dog prevents the cooldown to start - and is, strangely enough, not attacking you on hostile planets when it's the only sentinel around, that's ( ! ) ing you. They just stare, whereas drones scan and attack. Super weird.

- No need to quote my whole long post for that, tho =V

And, the issue with the current system goes far deeper than just that timer. It's the mere fact that it will, inevitably always and always be the same, with no alternatives. It's a dumb, super simple and infinite system that doesn't account for anything you as the player do - it doesn't offer any options to interact in different ways.

Only option A, stay and kill more, which leads to A, which leads to A, which leads to A, which leads to A, which leads to ... boredom.

Or option B, high-tail it fast, dropping anything and everything you've been doing, which leads to disrupting your play, and boring hide-and-seek downtime while you wait for the cooldown. Over and over.

All I'm asking, basically, is for one more option that doesn't lead to death, and offers some form of individualism and interactivity with the universe around you. Being able to somehow put your foot down, if you're good enough to actually do that.

Right now, you're unable to do that, because it's been removed from the game. It's been ripped out without replacement, effectively dumbing down the game - instead of having been fixed with a more organic, nuanced, balanced yet risky and thus, fun and rewarding system.

- Any you could recommend, particularly in regards to those Annoyinels? Short of just cutting them entirely from the game. Which I have considered, and downloaded. Not used yet, though - for now.