After having put about 50 hours into a game with the NEXT 1.53 update, I updated to the latest 1.55c version and started again. I hadn't played for months and months before that, so decided to try again with NEXT and the release of a third person perspective (I hate FPP and have a real problem with it in most games). Since I didn't have a clue about much in the game due to only a few hours previously, I modded the 1.53 run to get a good grip on what to do, how to improve the exosuit, ships, multi tool, etc. After those 50 hours or so, I decided I had enough of a grip on it to start fresh.

So... fired up a new run, sans the 'cheat' mods. And yeah, the planet I started on has a crap ton of good resources and... a shit ton of sentient plants. I've got more gravitino balls than I know what to do with. Played for about 3 hours last night and have amassed just over 1 million units while just enjoying myself exploring this starting world. At some point I'll get my ass into space, but so far I'm having a blast just flying about poking around and finding some cool stuff. And with various stops yielding between 3 and 8 gravitino balls, I'm already well on my way to being able to afford a pretty decent upgrade on the ship too.

Good fun. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't run into some of the bugs I see being reported. So far, so good though.

You hate first person... Interesting. I love first person, won`t even buy games if they only have 3rd person unless they`re very special somehow, like the Witcher 1 and 2.

For me 1st person is just intuitive, I see life in 1st person in reality, why would I want to be behind myself blocking my own view? It also trains my situational awareness; I learn to think around me and extrapolate what`s to the rear sides or rear.

For me, I can't get used to it. It doesn't at all feel like reality to me, it feels more like I'm looking out through a window slit (similar to what I imagine it would be like looking through the driver's port of a WWII tank). The times I've tried to play FPP games, I've invariably stepped off ledges, run into objects on the ground, and have a real problem getting a feel for where exactly my character is standing. I'm the opposite of you: I almost never buy a game if it only offers FPP.

Sounds like a spatial awareness thing. You`re not able to imagine your self in that artificial 3D space that`s around the person you`re looking out of the eyes of (the monitor). You need a visual `anchor` (the avatar you see), to get about.

Oh well, everyone is different.

Oddly, in real life, my sense of direction, 3D visualization, and spatial awareness is excellent. Likely that's because I have more than the sense of sight to rely on, whereas in a game, I don't. But yeah, everyone's different. This NEXT update was a real gift for me, since it brought TPP so now I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Oh people are always fine in real life- you have to be.

It`s the projecting your 3D space into a flat 2D space that some people have difficulty getting past.

In my case, it will depend on the game. Usually I like fp better. I'm an Elder Scrolls fan since Daggerfall and I've come to love fp view a lot. But then there are games like Tomb Raider which I rather play it in 3rd person. I recall someone tried to do a fp view mod but it didn't feel right. It's very probable that it didn't look right because games like Tomb Raider or The Witcher 3 lend themselves better in 3rd person because, needless to say, everything has been done through the lens of 3rd person. However, NMS is one of those games that even though it was meant to be a fp game, it looks perfect in 3rd person, like it belongs there as much as fp. Since NEXT, I have played NMS in 3rd person only except for flying because it feels more immersive to me been inside the cockpit looking at the control panels and whatnot. ^^ But 3rd person flying does have its advantages:)

Sounds like a great start :)

Mine was a radiated spitball; but its neighbor is a pretty paradise (if not for the occasional firestorm; but thats really rare there).

Same here with the TPP/FPP. I found out the expensive way that I just do not finish FPP only games anymore and rarely go back to them unless; like with NMS; they add TPP.

But like Lorca13 I keep the cockpit view of the landing craft; only sometimes switching there to 3rd person when doing sightseeing flights over planets since I can see more of the planet.

Just thought I'd bump this up now that I've got a crapton more hours into the game and have jumped several times to different star systems.

So, I got really lucky with a crashed starship early on. At first I have a fighter C class with something like 21+5 (I'm at work and can't recall offhand). Anyway, found a crashed fighter that turned out to be an S class 38+6. Didn't really realize how lucky that was until I started reading some threads here and there when trying to find information on some things I didn't understand.

Picked up a few more crashed ships and repaired them to the point I could get them flying. Traded for something that wasn't full of broken tech, so now I've got a B class 38+6 hauler, a couple smaller C class haulers (slots in the mid to high 20s), a shuttle, and my original fighter. Probably a mistake to fill up all my personal starship slots right now, but I'll trade the latter two up later on. For now though, I've renamed my haulers to things like 'Tech Collector', 'Resource Storage', etc. Gathered a lot of what I believe are fairly uncommon resources (Destabilized Sodium, Solanium, Superoxide Crystal, etc.) and am amassing them in my freighters.

On the exploration side, I've found that while wondering the planet mining and scanning, I often find caves with some deposits of Humming Eggs. I've collected and sold a lot of albumen pearls while just doing my regular explorations. My habit now is to land, scan, then wander the area grabbing whatever resources I need/want. Then scan again and keep on walking. Many times I've found metal 'fingers' which net me lots of uranium to keep the launch thrusters fueled as well as gold to sell off. I've also run across other valuable resources such as poison sacs, sentient plants, and lots of floating crystals.

Oh, and Whispering Eggs. They're worth a lot of money and I've figured a way to harvest pretty much all of them at any particular abandoned station without getting killed. very lucrative (over 1 million units worth at each one so far).

I've gotten my suit upgraded with drop pods and buying slots so I have 30+ cargo slots, 8 or 9 tech slots, and am now working on adding to the regular slots. Got a bunch of S and A class upgrades for it as well. I've also got my multitool (C class with 21+6 slots) teched out with S class upgrades for mining, and for defense/offense.

Got my S class Fighter upgraded with weapons and defense S class mods as well. Pirates aren't that scary anymore, although I'm still cautious with them.

Things are going pretty well right now. Starting to build up a decent bank account too, with just over 90 million units at this point. One thing I've done is buy goods at a high discount in one system, then warp to a system where I can sell them at a huge profit (so buying something that High Tech systems want in a Manufacturing system, then warping to the High Tech system and offloading the goods there). This has netted me several million at a pop. It's not a trade route per se, as it's not intended for me to do regular runs, netting tens of millions at a time. It's just another way to get some more cash while exploring the nearby systems on my own.

Last night I found a Portal. Have it marked with a base (I don't have the Beacon tech yet). I've been poking along the Atlas/Artemis/Apollo quest lines and have also found a planet with 'blissful' conditions (no storms) and lots of resources. Think this will turn into my main base for now and I'll start doing the base quests. Have to get me a freighter as well. But one thing at a time...

So yeah, having a great time with this game to this point. Looking forward to more.

*edit* I may have the slot numbers of my ships slightly off. As noted, I'm at work and running from memory, which isn't the greatest at the best of times - and lack of sleep due to playing 'just a few more minutes' of this bloody game isn't helping. :P

My crazy start was very recent. It was right after an update and I am sure the update had something to do with it. Within 500 units of my start position I found two Glyph grave sites that worked properly and an unactivated base computer. The base computer appeared to be in the center of one of the Atlas Rises base locations. So it was large, round and flat. You know I took it. I thought it was funny that I had Glyphs and a base before even getting to my ship let alone fixing it. I was sure that this was all bugged so I abandoned that save but kept it . So far with the recent updates, that has been my craziest start.