'No Man's Sky' Releases Huge New 'Foundation' Update (thenextweb.com)

"No Man's Sky changed a great deal this morning, getting new modes and a ton of gameplay tweaks thanks to update 1.1, the largest one yet," reports Kotaku. Calling it "the first of many free updates," the game's developers introduced a new Minecraft-style Creative Mode which "allows players to explore the universe without limits, and build a huge base," plus a tougher Survival Mode, "creating a much more challenging endurance experience." The Next Web calls it "features that really should have been in the game from Day One." Now, when you stumble upon a desolate outpost, you can build your own base on it, which can be upgraded with new housing, hydroponics, research, and storage buildings. If all goes well, you'll start to attract alien settlers who bring their own skills to your new society. As your stockpiles of resources begin to swell, you'll want to schlep them across the galaxy to other bases and trade terminals. Which is where freighters come in... Oh, and did I mention you can now stack items five times per inventory slot, meaning you can carry more stuff? Handy. "The discussion around No Man's Sky since release has been intense and dramatic," Hello Games announced Friday, describing update 1.1 as "putting in place a foundation for things to come... the first small step in a longer journey." Hello Games founder Sean Murray tweeted "We're getting better as quickly as we can for the players who invested in us," adding "Thank you for sticking with us." At 2 a.m. this morning, he tweeted "If you could have lived our lives over the last months, you'd know how meaningful this is," adding "Here's the update..."

Comments

So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

The news here is that a minuscule percentage of the original supposed functionality is a "new" feature.

It sounded too good to be true. Guess what?

I kickstarted the game from the Space Quest guys and well, you know. Not even thinking about backing another game until that one actually exists.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

The news here is that a minuscule percentage of the original supposed functionality is a "new" feature.

It sounded too good to be true. Guess what?

I kickstarted the game from the Space Quest guys and well, you know. Not even thinking about backing another game until that one actually exists.

Space Quest guys? FFS, you should find the Starflight guys: Rod McConnell, Alec Kercso, T. C. Lee, Bob Gonsalves, Greg Johnson. They used fractal seeds to fit 800 planets and 250 stars onto a pair of 5 1/4 floppies.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[binarylarry]

At least they aren't like Stardock and are trying to SELL this update (to their customers who they screwed with a botched initial release).

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[binarylarry]

*aren't trying to SELL this update

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

Just tried it, doesn't even seem different. Survival mode is just a slightly harder difficulty of normal mode.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Dutch Gun]

Don't worry, it's not just you. Slashdot seems to be filled with mods anxious to silence those they disagree with.

For what it's worth, I do happen to agree with you about No Man's Sky. Too little, too late. Hello Games have already been exposed as liars. And the gameplay is still going to be shallow and repetitive. A few extra features won't make up for that. I was really excited about the game too, as I'm definitely an "explorer" type gamer.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

I was really excited about the game too, as I'm definitely an "explorer" type gamer.

Me too! That's my very favorite thing to do in a video game, explore space. But if it's only interesting once (and not all that interesting at that) then there are old games which accomplish that which I can play for five bucks.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Rei]

And that was the problem - they made there be absolutely no reason to explore. All resources were available everywhere, as were all types of buildings in the game. It takes away all incentive to explore, except for aesthetics. Which is great, except that since all of the creatures and plants are made of premade assets, and the terrain is just standard diamond-square fractal terrain with a handful of primitive generators / modifier functions, you run through all of the variation that the universe has to show you quickly as well.

They try to compensate for everything-being-everywhere with grind. Which is a terrible solution. People wanted NMS to explore, not to sit around waving a laser at a giant column of rock and stopping regularly to recharge the beam and shields.

And even if you did find some reason you wanted to stick around on a planet... well, you better literally never leave, because everything about the universe makes it incredibly difficult to ever get back to anywhere that you've been before. Their "goal" of getting to the center of the galaxy, that they deliberately slowed down to a painful grindy crawl and tried to prevent anything that might shortcut it, is the root of this (and of course, there's nothing at the center but a big F-U to players anyway)

If they had done proper playtesting and player feedback, they could have made a far better game. There was so much potential. Some things that could have been done to make it better were hard, but a lot of them really weren't.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

If they had done proper playtesting and player feedback, they could have made a far better game. There was so much potential. Some things that could have been done to make it better were hard, but a lot of them really weren't.

Here's what I think happened: they made all kinds of claims about what they could do, and got someone at Sony's attention. They showed Sony an above-average demo and Sony said "sure, but we want it ready before the holidays, so you can get it out and see what breaks and get it fixed." And so they committed to a grossly overly ambitious timescale, and found out along the way that some of the things they had planned were going to be a lot more difficult than they thought. And since they're just teeny, tiny little fish, they couldn't say no when Sony said they'd better damned well have something ready to ship.

Sony has an interesting history of sometimes keeping multiplayer games running way beyond the sensible time to can them, so it's anyone's guess what's going to happen here. But I'd bet they're contractually obligated to provide a fairly sizable time span of patches and updates. They could end up positively chained to this thing.

Re: So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a similar attitude to what RIAA/MPAA take with piracy. Sure sometimes things don't go right with crowd funding. But, if we as consumers can accept a bit more risk and loss when things go wrong then we can have better more challenging media.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[theArtificial]

Bummer. The Space Quest game was one I was interested in but missed (long time fan, SQ4 is dear to me) and I recently followed up on it since I was curious if it was released yet and I was shocked to learn that one of the original guys is taking care of a ill parent. I'm not excusing the issue, it just sheds some light on the delay. Looks like I'll be holding off another year until the price drops :D

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Dutch Gun]

I think it's very difficult to create a randomly generated world or universe that's actually interesting to explore, because human brains are extremely good at recognizing patterns, and people start seeing those same patterns everywhere you go in that universe. The randomly generated universe created an excellent setting for a game, but I don't think that by itself was meaty enough as a game mechanic to keep people satisfied.

You can contrast this experience with Diablo I & II, where exploring a randomly generated world and fighting randomly generated enemies was the foundation of those games, but Blizzard understood that this wasn't enough by itself. Even though I'm an explorer archetype, exploration without a real goal or driving force still gets a bit boring after a while. You need layered mechanics, such as addictive loot collection or an engaging story to help complement the weaker exploration aspect.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

people were screaming on the stardock forums during the "beta" that it wasn't ready and promised features were missing.

the devs called them whiners and started banning them from the forums.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[sg_oneill]

That might be a pretty good insight into whats gone wrong here. Hello games gets picked up by a big publisher. big publisher forces them to release game before its ready. nobody wins.

I kind of feel sad for hello games. The boss promised what the team could not deliver. Its not the teams fault, but they are not exempt from the rivers of shit that flowed forth. I've been in death march projects before from bosses who can't keep their mouth shut and wont focus on whats possible rather than a fantasy of it. Its hell,

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Gorobei]

Didn't you read? It's HUGE (and beautiful, and everyone gets survival mode for free now.)

See, Trump's already making things better.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

This gets claimed all the time. Only, Sony isn't the publisher of the game, Hello Games is.

Sony only was one of the distributors of the game (besides Steam and Humble Bundle). They also did the PS4 marketing and as such may have imposed some things. So the real problem probably was that Sony needed a release date so they could plan their logistics (creation of discs, boxes, commercials), and Hello Games gave one (that they chose) that turned out to be months too early.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

This gets claimed all the time. Only, Sony isn't the publisher of the game, Hello Games is.
Sony only was one of the distributors of the game

That is completely, utterly, and totally irrelevant to the point I made. Please address the point I made, or don't reply to my comment. Thank you.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

That is completely, utterly, and totally irrelevant to the point I made. Please address the point I made, or don't reply to my comment. Thank you.

Lol, it's completely relevant, since as a distributor, Sony has very little to do with the game's development. So they wouldn't have the legal power you claim they have.
Please stop being an arrogant ass, and don't reply when you don't have any proper counter point. Thank you.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

Lol, it's completely relevant, since as a distributor, Sony has very little to do with the game's development. So they wouldn't have the legal power you claim they have.

What? Who told you that, and why are you repeating what they said? Sony has as much to do with the game's development as they have managed to secure for themselves contractually. There are no laws which apply here, contract law aside. The contract can place any obligations on Hello Games which are not themselves illegal. That can certainly include an obligation to provide additional support and development. If you disagree, please explain in detail why you think it's impossible to Sony to have overlawyered Hello Games.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

Impossible? No. But also unlikely. It's just speculation on your part.

I base myself on the fact that Sony was not the publisher nor producer, and the fact that both Hello Games and Sony have publicly stated that Sony wasn't involved in development, and that HG was offered financial/people resources but refused them. I can't find the relevant articles now (proxy blocks game related stuff), but it shouldn't be to hard to google them yourself.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[drinkypoo]

I base myself

I think the words you're looking for here are "my argument", not "my self". At least, so I hope.

on the fact that Sony was not the publisher nor producer, and the fact that both Hello Games and Sony have publicly stated that Sony wasn't involved in development, and that HG was offered financial/people resources but refused them.

All of which continues to be irrelevant, and not support your point. My point is that Sony would surely want not to be blindsided by the game being abandoned when development is not complete, and was in a financial position to demand that Hello Games commit to maintaining it. You have nothing at all to support your point, not even logic.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[kalpol]

One of the best games ever. I actually got hold of Alec Kercso in the late 90s and had a short discussion with him about Starflight, he said while developing it he had a great feeling of being a small ship in a huge universe, something no other game that I know of has really done since. In fact Minecraft is the only other game I can think of that I've played where you can really feel lost and scared in a big place.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the words you're looking for here are "my argument", not "my self". At least, so I hope.

Which was implied. You're being an ass again.

You have nothing at all to support your point, not even logic.

Because you say so? Your point doesn't make sense, when you take into account the things you claim are irrelevant.
You haven't given any evidence that supports your speculation. Why would Sony be blindsided or be in any financial position when they weren't even involved in the game's development?

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[mattack2]

The news here is that a minuscule percentage of the original supposed functionality is a "new" feature.

What "original supposed functionality"? Seriously.

Based on following this (I haven't played it), the hype/mistaken expectations seems to have all been fan driven, and (admittedly anecdotal), I've read people who said that the original E3 videos aren't more off from the end result than tons of other projects. (The most recent one I read was yesterday on the Giant Bomb Facebook group.)

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

Hype and wishful thinking played a large part in the outrage, but there is no getting around unambiguous statements make by the developers that turned out to be false. This isn't a case of simply broken functionality either, entire systems are missing that were promoted just days out from release.

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[mattack2]

Again, can you give specific examples (with citations of where they were promoted/promised)?

Re:So the news is that it still doesn't make good

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole thing is just a random number generator. The galaxy isn't free roam as there are load screens in-between jumps to each star system and you cannot actually fly from one system to another manually. You can't even fly up to the star in a system. Once you realise this, the whole "game" feels really cheap and not even technically impressive.

Some of the planets are neat, but most of them are bland wastelands and after you visit the first 20 or so, you've seen pretty much all of the possible variations. It also bothers me that the planets are so small that it only takes like 2 seconds to fly from surface to outer space or a couple of minutes to orbit.

Frontier: Elite II did an actual free roam galaxy with much more accurate planetary scales 23 years ago. And it fit on a single floppy disk.

Since when is a press release a story?

[BarbaraHudson]

And why would anyone believe, or even care, what Hello Games says now considering how far from their hype the original release was? What next - "Go to millions of systems to collect Pokemons?"

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[thegarbz]

The real story here is that Hello Games still think they haven't burnt all their karma and their house down.

It take skill to screw up as royally as they did. Their name is forever tainted. The story here is that they still exist. I would have thought they dissolved and changed their name before daring to show themselves again.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's newsworthy to me; likely to many others who bought it at pre-release and haven't asked for their money back... mostly because Hello Games has been silent, except for tweeting after their account was hacked. Haven't played the game in weeks but was just looking at the steam page 2 days ago to see if something new had come out.

It will be interesting to see how it shakes out, I'm sure most players will only believe what is actually delivered in the patches.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[guises]

I care, a little. Everyone who didn't foolishly pre-purchse the game (you know, like you're never supposed to do) probably has some interest in whether and when it will turn into something worth playing.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's worse, the idea of a sandbox universe game is now tainted, too. Anyone announcing one in the next ten years will immediately be compared to this one. Forget crowdfunding in this case.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

The update is great, and brings something new to a game that was already enjoyable (at least for a reasonable amount of time). Nobody burned anything down - impotent rage, from gamers entirely too concerned over $60, spent on a game that didn't quite deliver what they thought it would, but yet still played for 50+ hours. And then complained about for months afterward. They could have spent that energy on finding a better job, so they aren't so damn concerned over $60.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

The devs still need to work someplace else, and they'd be blacklisted if they didn't finish this game.

This was a smart move. Now they'll be able to get hired again.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[gl4ss]

*

The devs still need to work someplace else, and they'd be blacklisted if they didn't finish this game.

This was a smart move. Now they'll be able to get hired again.
*

actually..
the update does none of the really hard to do stuff that was promised.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[allcoolnameswheretak]

After a disaster like NMS, I would prefer a game developer to try to make things right, like Hello Games are doing, by releasing free content and enhancing the game, rather than simply disappearing.

But maybe I'm not so bitter about them because I didn't buy their game. I was very interested, but you could smell the hype from a mile away. And those promotional videos, you could easily tell that they were scripted and not real in-game material. So I decided to wait and see.

Really, all those butthurt kids whining about NMS need to get a clue. Don't fucking preorder and wait for the reviews.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[vel-ex-tech]

Just wait until Star Citizen releases. I've seen people on the forums who have spent nearly $1,000 (yes, one thousand real world US dollars) backing that game to get one of the capital ships at launch. I think only one or two of the low-end capital ships (yachts?) are playable so far, supposedly another one is coming in December with 2.6. But the single-player game, Squadron 42, was already supposed to be out and now we're just hoping we'll get a few missions come January.

I suppose at least whatever we get will blow No Man's Sky away. I'm just hoping it won't be Freelancer 2.0 with more polys. Well, scratch that. I backed it for the basic Aurora MR package and I'd be perfectly happy if it were Freelancer 2.0 with planets that actually orbit. I still play Freelancer Discovery every now and then for the hell of it. Heh, I'm sure the $1,000+ backers will raise hell, though.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[rhazz]

Personally I wait until a game has been out for 15 years and is well reviewed before making a purchase. Currently I'm enjoying Everquest, now on it's 23rd expansion.

Re:Since when is a press release a story?

[Anonymous Coward]

What screw-up? The game was a massive financial success. The only lesson the Suits learned from this episode is that they can literally get away with promising the universe and delivering a turd sandwich.

I Already Stopped Playing

[TechyImmigrant]

1000 more black holes with the associated grind for each black hole to get the stuff to repair what broke in the last black hole in order to get to the center, when something might happen.

Nope.

Now they're offering that I can sit still and build stuff thus making less progress towards the galactic center.

Nope.

Re:I Already Stopped Playing

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you not hear what happens when you reach the center? It just warps you back to the beginning! There's nothing to even explore, it just restarts the game.

No Man Sky is a troll game designed to steal 60 bucks from people who preorder / buy games without reading reviews.

Re:I Already Stopped Playing

[thegarbz]

I Already Stopped Playing

EVERYONE has already stopped playing. There was 500 active players on steam last week, down from the 220,000 when the game launched.

Re:I Already Stopped Playing

[TechyImmigrant]

I Already Stopped Playing

EVERYONE has already stopped playing. There was 500 active players on steam last week, down from the 220,000 when the game launched.

I broke my own rules and paid for a new game. I'll put it down as a learning experience.

Re:I Already Stopped Playing

[Anonymous Coward]

It warps you to another galaxy, which has its own set of solar systems and planets, and its own center. If one person's calculations were correct, there are something like 255 galaxies. Though in the end, its all kind of the same. There's no real way to distinguish between galaxies. Just a different int function input. The new patch has made the planets more interesting and varied though, which is great.

Truthful hyperbole?

[kylemonger]

I for one embrace our truthfully hyperbolic overlords.

Re:Truthful hyperbole?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we get truthfully spherical ones too?

Cut content?

[almaden]

It seems that the devs are adding back previously cut features and code to NMS. A lot of what was hyped about the game had to exist in one form or another at some point. I've never played the game, and avoided purchasing it based on all the negative feedback. If Hello Games had been more upfront with the missing features at launch, and then had some sort of roll out schedule, things might have been better. The deal with Sony may not have been a great idea.

Re:Cut content?

[TheRealQuestor]

Don't ever believe the hype and don't always trust reviews. NMS is actually quite a fun and interesting game. For a few hours anyway then it tends to get a tad monotonous. Is it worth 60 bucks? No even on a good day. Is it worth playing? Very much so

never happy huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

i don't even play games, but after all the negativity and hate they received... they actually dug in and made an update nobody expected to have came. i for one am glad to see them try to fix their mistakes. other game makers could learn from this because many games ship and the company takes the $ and runs, never even trying to make their customers happy. after all the hate they received, they deserve a little respect for attempting to make it right.

Re:never happy huh?

[Rei]

I assume you never actually bought and played the game, then?

Re:never happy huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm actually surprised to see a larger-than-expected portion of the NMS reddit sub act enthusiastic about the update. Its been nothing but disgruntled shitposts for months. It really is a good update and made some serious strides, from what I have seen so far. The game really is gorgeous and unique, no matter what anyone says, and I hope they continue to improve it.

Re:never happy huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are missing the other AC's point. The point is, having already under-delivered on their promises for whatever reason, with that being in the past and therefore immutable, they had a choice: a) take the money and run, b) try to slowly deliver on what they were meant to in the first place. Option b is clearly the course worthy of greater respect.

Re:never happy huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

exactly, thank you.

Re:never happy huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Was it the first sentence of the post you're responding to that lead you to assume this? You're an excellent assumer.

I'm going to build a dome

[Hognoxious]

If all goes well, you'll start to attract alien settlers who bring their own skills to your new society.

Skills like drug dealing and rape?

No thanks. I'm going to build a dome over mine, and make the bug-eyed monsters pay for it.

Re:I'm going to build a dome

[110010001000]

+1 insightful for sure. I'll bet these "aliens" didn't even go through customs.

Re:I'm going to build a dome

[Hognoxious]

Didn't get an insightful. So far it's four funnies and a flamebait.

It's left as an exercise for the student to work out whether that's from an SJW who hasn't recognised the parody or a Trump-pumper who has.

Re:I'm going to build a dome

[Tokah]

I presume it is a reference to the Stephen King book.

April fools joke!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

...

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[110010001000]

I'm gonna keep modding you down! I cannot be stopped!

Weird twitter message

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you could have lived our lives over last months, then you'd know how meaningful this is."

What a load of nonsense. And this from an English speaking person.

Translation: "You couldn't know the meaning of this update."

And from their trailer video:
"The new survival experience will test travelers' endurance to the limit."

What does that even mean?

Re:Weird twitter message

[sd4f]

All the pre-launch publicity can be viewed as a massive exercise in building hype without actually committing to much at all. The language used irks me a lot as well, as it's bordering schizophrenia, but that's probably the point of it; they don't want to commit to anything, but make people think that's what they're getting. A case in point was the commonly asked question of whether you will see some other player... The answer was always that the universe is so large that statistically speaking it would be almost zero, but never gave the answer of 'no' because that wasn't implemented in the game.

Unfortunately no man's sky is a game which had a reasonably good concept, but it was then taken to a completely absurd level of marketing and spin. I just wonder how much of these problems are due to the forced hand of publishers who want their ROI, and how much was just incompetence from Hello Games?

Re:Weird twitter message

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think I would agree with you on NMS being a "reasonably good concept". The game mechanics seem overly simplistic and very shallow.

Not having played the game myself, but having experienced the GUI and gamplay in general from watching other playing the game: It really does look like NMS is either really really bad, as a sci-fi game, OR, it is simply a game for kids aged 7-10 years old.

Given the hype in the news, and their $60 price, I've always looked at NMS as being a cash grab. But, heh, that is old news.

Re:Weird twitter message

[Anonymous Coward]

Online was planned from the beginning but cut before release. PS4 BDs even had Online play icon on the back of the case covered by sticker.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/11/no-mans-sky-online-play-sticker/

Re:Weird twitter message

[jittles]

All the pre-launch publicity can be viewed as a massive exercise in building hype without actually committing to much at all. The language used irks me a lot as well, as it's bordering schizophrenia, but that's probably the point of it; they don't want to commit to anything, but make people think that's what they're getting. A case in point was the commonly asked question of whether you will see some other player... The answer was always that the universe is so large that statistically speaking it would be almost zero, but never gave the answer of 'no' because that wasn't implemented in the game.

Unfortunately no man's sky is a game which had a reasonably good concept, but it was then taken to a completely absurd level of marketing and spin. I just wonder how much of these problems are due to the forced hand of publishers who want their ROI, and how much was just incompetence from Hello Games?

Almost zero is not zero. It therefore implies that it is possible, even if its completely unlikely. However, without multiplayer support, the probability was exactly zero. So therefore they did lie and I have heard, from a coworker who bought the game, that there are several state attorney generals who are investigating the release of the game. I've also heard that the company basically vanished into thin air over night, so I am actually quite surprised to see there was an update.

Re:Weird twitter message

[sd4f]

Considering the game sold many copies, and spurned a lot of good will, I would say it was a good concept in the context of what was advertised. Yes, certainly the actual product was a dud, but the trailers, the hype, people liked what they saw.

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[wjcofkc]

It's not your comments, it's your handle.

All 400 active users will love this!

[thegarbz]

Okay so normally we joke about a low number of users when talking about Windows phones, or BeOS users. But really Steam lists 400 active users last week.

The game launched with some 220k active users which within a month was reduced to less than 10k. The game is dead. The it is truly amazing that Hello Games haven't abandoned it completely. They are literally now adding features to a game that pretty much no one plays and that has gone down as one of the (if not *the*) biggest disappointment in video game history since the release of Duke Nukem Forever, and the latter had no where near the hype surrounding it.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the game. I've liked it since day one. I think people over imagined and hyped it in their own mind. This is an infinite generated universe.

This is a chill type game. I'm impressed and now it just got better with base building. Then again I started on Atari 2600 & pong - so maybe I appreciate it more.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

"I think people over imagined and hyped it in their own mind."

Oh definatly. It's just a shame these people were the ones developing it and talking about it on televison, in game press interviews, and on stage at the game awards.

Didn't help they fabricated false trailers and screenshots and used them to convince their customers that their delusions were real.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[drinkypoo]

This is a chill type game. I'm impressed and now it just got better with base building. Then again I started on Atari 2600 & pong - so maybe I appreciate it more.

My first game system was a Coleco Telstar. I still expect developers to make good on their promises, more or less. I'm not shocked when claims are slightly exaggerated. Entirely invented ones are not acceptable.

Re:All 400 active users will love this!

[drinkypoo]

The it is truly amazing that Hello Games haven't abandoned it completely.

They are probably contractually obligated to Sony. Perhaps there are more players still playing the PS4 version, so Sony hasn't yet abandoned it. When Sony does, then these jokers can, too.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Rei]

"A chill type game" in an "infinite generated universe" was exactly what I was looking for in NMS - and was sorely disappointed when it turned out to be nothing more than poorly designed grind game, with the procedural generation just being randomly pieced together premade assets.

It seems neat until you wear through the veneer, and then it's... oh, this thing is just plywood held together with duct tape

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

It seems neat until you wear through the veneer, and then it's... oh, this thing is just plywood held together with duct tape

But it's procedurally generated duct tape!

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's procedurally generated duct tape!

Now that is the thing: the duct tape is the same old duct tape it always was - it is the position where the duct tape is applied which is procedurally generated.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[thegarbz]

This is a chill type game

If you sit outside and watch the grass die at least you get some vitamin d and fresh air. It may even be more enjoyable.

Then again I started on Atari 2600

So difficult games with scoring systems? What's that got to do with a boring grind of a game that makes people look forward to going to work and doing TPS reports?

Re:All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

DNF still ranks much higher than the abomination that was E.T.

NMS reigns either way.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

As another of the 400, I am waiting happily for the update to download, I want a base on the Vortex planet I discovered.

It's a relaxing game and a good way to spend an hour or two when you have time to burn.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people are waiting for update.

Excluding grinding, the game has maybe 5 hours of gameplay, so most don't play it anymore.

Looks like the patch has caused players to spike from 400 to 40,000 in one day.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[deek]

Yep, I agree. It's actually a really good game to chill out and spend an hour or so playing. If you spend too much time in it at once, it does wear thin, but an hour here and there is great pacing for the game.

I've already got my money's worth out of the game, so these updates are just a bonus. Also, reading all the angst, from people decrying HG for their lies, is pretty amusing. I guess more people have now learned that even developers don't fully know how their game will eventually turn out. Never set expectations about a game until it has been released.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[Jogar the Barbarian]

My first game system was a Coleco Telstar.

By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth, I've been around a long time, but my obscure nostalgia maxes out at the Vectrex. I've never even heard of the Telstar.

That may be the point.

Re:All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno. If it gets into shape I might buy it cheap around Christmas.

Just because nobody is playing it doesn't mean nobody WILL play it.

I'm still curious. I just didn't shell out $50 at launch. For $10 maybe it's great.

Re: All 400 active users will love this!

[sgrover]

I spent many hours in NMS. I won't say it's "great", but I won't say it's horrible either. It does not appear to be what was advertised, but it is what I expected. (a space based exploration game). I spent about 100 hours in the game - plenty of value for my $60. And I usually play off-line so my game time is not part of the "steam" counts. I fired up the game for the first time last night in two months to checkout what the new update did. Deleted my saved games and began a survival mode. Much harder than in the past. Getting to the first station and I'm greeted by 3 aliens instead of the usual 1. Two of them want me to hire them for my base - that I don't have yet. That's different. Looks like I'll get another $60 worth of entertainment from this game. Good value despite the naysayers (not matter how justified).

Re:All 400 active users will love this!

[Anonymous Coward]

I play it all the time.

You, along with all of the rest of fucking whiners in all of this, are the problem. Go play call of duty and minecraft. The rest of us who actually enjoy the innovative idea of this type of game will actually play it, AND enjoy it while we're at it.

Like I say to all people with your position on this great game, suck a fat one and go cry more about a game you pre-ordered and didn't like. Nobody who matters really gives a shit.

Refunded

[war4peace]

What went refunded stays refunded.
Sorry Hello Games, I'm not falling for it again.

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[Calydor]

So not only do ACs get ignored based entirely on being ACs, now we also ignore good points made from registered accounts based on ... the name of the account?

Welcome to kindergarten.

It starts to get more compelling, cheaper now..

[SuperKendall]

Given how the game was at $60, I decided to pass. But I see now on Amazon the game is just $20 (!) for the PS4, thinking with the update it may be worthwhile...

I head the PC player counts were pretty low, but it seems like more PS4 gamers might have stuck with it.

Re:It starts to get more compelling, cheaper now..

[Anonymous Coward]

I play NMS on the PS4 and do enjoy it. I treat it differently than a normal game, I don't go for the center so far, I look around, see what fun can be had while slowly leveling my equipment. If any game you play has to have a goal and a boss fight at the end NMS might not be your game.

I do like the open world aspect and I also don't mind the procedural generation. Hey, I played 'Sentinel' on the Amiga back then. A game with 10000 procedurally generated worlds. I did reach level 10000 (you don't have to play each level though).

Re:It starts to get more compelling, cheaper now..

[Woldscum]

Go look at your local used game store. Local GameSpot had used PS4 NMS discs for 9.99.

Re:It starts to get more compelling, cheaper now..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet you don't offer a shred of proof for your belief. Also see flying spaghetti monster.

Foundation update

[Chris Mattern]

Hari Seldon not included.

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[Dogtanian]

It's not your comments, it's your handle.

Er, what ?

I can only assume that you're not familiar with established use of the term as a somewhat (intentionally) infantile and facetious reference to an alcoholic drink and nothing more?

See Wiktionary, Oxford Reference, etc.

(Perhaps you were imagining something less pleasant? Or maybe people *do* get it, but they're just opposed to alcohol consumption in general...?!)

It does quite a bit actually

[HalAtWork]

- Base building
- Teleporters work
- Farming / Biodome / Specimen collection
- Making camp
- Setting up harvesters
- Leave messages for other players on terminals
- Purchase/manage/customize/enter freighters
- Grow crops on board, recruit crew
- New resources & tech
- More NPC variation
- Better cockpit indicators and panels in ships, more scanning options
- New anti aliasing options on PS4
- Added free exploration and survival game modes
- Tons of audio/visual/gameplay tweaks

So it adds a lot of what was missing, and some additional stuff.

Missing:
- Sand worms
- Varied planetary physics
- In-atmosphere battles
- Rivers
- Ringed planets
- Hacking locked doors
- Radio chatter
- Seeing other players
- Asteroid landings

The missing list is getting smaller.

Re: It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it now work on Intel graphics? It refused to install on my relatively recent top of the line boot camped MacBook Pro which can run other recent games with no problem. Seem like that ought to be top priority. Fortunately, Steam was problem free with the refund.

Re: It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure about PC, I am playing on PS4, but the full patch notes are way at the bottom here: http://www.no-mans-sky.com/fou...

Doing a text search I have seen nothing about Intel graphics. I wonder if there is a community patch somewhere?

Re:It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

Still no multiplayer.. /fail

Re:It does quite a bit actually

[UnknownSoldier]

The funny thing is that the $3 (*) PC game called Grav: Reborn already had some of those features over a year ago.

* $3 when on sale; normally $10

Re:It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a benefit actually for a solitary experience. Look how multiplayer is ruining Metroid.

Re: It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

HAHAHA nobody cares about your shitty laptop. Everyone knows it sucks but you!!!!

"Top priority"

Re: It does quite a bit actually

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel graphics

Are you out of your fucking mind? Intel graphics can barely run Tetris at playable framerates. If you honestly think a game with destructible voxel-based free roam worlds and modern graphics is going to do anything but melt your pathetic GPU to slag, then you are an idiot. No Man's Sky barely runs at playable framerates on my GeForce 960 and that's with the details turned down to medium.

Did you really think....

[Anonymous Coward]

...that. 20gb download was all that's needed to fully simulate an ENTIRE FUCKING UNIVERSE in all its variety?

Re:Did you really think....

[Rei]

The size of the download has nothing to do with it. If you want to talk about "universes", the rules that define ours could be fit on a 3 1/2" floppy disk hundreds of times over.

The problem is that what they did was just poorly done.

Re:Did you really think....

[sd4f]

If you want to talk about "universes", the rules that define ours could be fit on a 3 1/2" floppy disk hundreds of times over.

Double density or high density?

Re:Did you really think....

[TechyImmigrant]

If you want to talk about "universes", the rules that define ours could be fit on a 3 1/2" floppy disk hundreds of times over.

Double density or high density?

Flippy. Cut the tab on the other side and turn it over for twice the capacity.

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[sheramil]

It's not your comments, it's your handle.

Er, what ? I can only assume that you're not familiar with established use of the term as a somewhat (intentionally) infantile and facetious reference to an alcoholic drink and nothing more?

He's not a fan of the work of Kenny Everett, and he doesn't like cowboys or running jokes.

even if they're done on the best POSSible taste!

MOO3

[DarthVain]

I wouldn't compare it to DNF. DNF is it's own thing. In the case of DNF it was in various states of vapourware for more than a decade. I don't think people were "disappointed" when it release as that would suggest the users were *surprised*, which I don't think anyone was that it was a steaming POS. Also DNF was a sequel.

The biggest disappointment for an initial release I would say was Masters of Orion 3, as expectations were so high, and the delivered product so missed the mark. However again, it was a sequel.

Probably the best comparison was Mass Effect 3, and it's stupid ending, however apart from the ending it was a much enjoyed game by most I think, so again not a perfect example either.

It would more fit the DNF model if they failed to release it "until it was done" for 10 years and then came out with a finished product, but one that was dated and not all that great.

Re:MOO3

[thegarbz]

Probably the best comparison was Mass Effect 3, and it's stupid ending

Not even close. ME3 may have not had the decision tree style ending everyone was hoping for but the entire series was largely driven by choices that ultimately produced an incredibly solid game. A disappointment in the ending is just that, it doesn't change how awesomely fun the game is on the way. Although one could make comparisons to what's at the centre of the galaxy in No Man's Sky (spoiler: FUCK ALL), but at least it wasn't an incredibly stupid grindfest to get to it.

The only comparisons we're drawing here are the level of overall disappointment. I'm not sure what is worse than DNF other than NMS.

Re:MOO3

[DarthVain]

Agreed. I really enjoyed ME3 even if the end was disappointing. In fact I am looking forward to ME4 (which I just saw a bunch of trailers for)! That said, I hope they take a lesson from all the negative PR they got over the BS ending and really do an even better job this time around!

I mention MOO3 as it was what prompted me not to pre-order or early adopt games anymore. I was really interested in No Man's Sky, and was very tempted. In the end I was like "nope, I'll wait and see how the reviews come out"... lol glad I did!

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[Deep_Inside_Yer_Mom]

So not only do ACs get ignored based entirely on being ACs, now we also ignore good points made from registered accounts based on ... the name of the account?

Welcome to kindergarten.

I'm totally with you brother! People are so judgmental.

Re:Flamebait? I see my trollmod is following me

[Dogtanian]

Though I'm familiar with Kenny Everett (I used to watch his TV show when I was a kid!), I'm not familiar with whatever character he had that used "drinkypoo" as a catchphrase.

I'd assume it didn't originate there, though.