Hello fellow space invaders!
Monday morning a star fell out of the sky. It had Art's signature on it. So now I joined you guys in your journey in the sky as well :) :) :) :-X :-X
Art, thank you very much, I am heavily enjoying the game, as you might have noticed already :-D
For the rest of you dwellers a brief note about my adventures so far:
Thanks to your thoroughly digging into space and its secrets, I was able to do a perfect start. I am still on my first playthrough. Just today I decided to take my chances and see what a second star system has in store for me. Well, so far everything works out well.
In my first star system (Vy'keen) I started on a poisonous planet with little to no intelligent existence. I managed to get my spaceship to w@&k and left off towards the spasta. There I tried if I could do Art's trading trick and indeed, I managed. It wasn't that extreme though as he told us; I had only one ship coming in buying the dynamic resonators so I had to wait long before I could sell my load. That made me want to max out my exosuit so that I could gather a higher amount of resonators in the mean time and make more benefit of trading.
I had the luck to have one planet on my system that appeared to be what Fragger calls a "resource haven". Full of structures, drop pods, shelters, gold etc etc. I also had the luck that on that specific planet, every time I got an upgraded multitool (or the opportunity to buy one) it was 2 slots more than my last one. So I maxed out my multitool pretty quickly. Maxing out my exosuit was more w@&k. Money making was involved but still, yesterday (after 2 days of gaming) I already celebrated a full 48 slot backpack >:D 8) :-D
Since money making wasn't that easy and I also want a bigger ship, I decided to go for a second system today. Of course I made a backup just in case, and after that I flew with my 27 slotter to the farthest reachable star system I could find. It has 5 planets and 1 moon. It's a Korvax system, so yay! new technology :)
Before moving I bought a new starship once. I went for a huge freighter with 25 slots. After that I found 2 shipwrecks so I came to a total of 27. Now in my new starsystem, I see space ships within the range of 17 to 42 slots! A 42 slotter (huge and rare) costs about 25 million and I want to get that one. The spasta in this system is incredibly well for trading. I get buyers more often than I could desire and most sellers have 3 or 4 resonators with them. Only after a while they stop coming (after more than half an hour) which is when I go out to explore some more ;)
I felt very much in a hurry because I wanted to catch up with you guys, that's why I totally skipped forum reading and posting. I was completely dedicated on upgrading and learning to know the game from first hand.
There's a few annoyances I discovered. The biggest one is the constant cutscenes when you have achieved another milestone, or part of it. It cuts you off most action abilities and is really breaking the game at times. Just give me a little pop-up notification that I achieved something, I really don't celebrate every 1000 steps I took in space as if it was my birthday, c'mon!!
Another annoyance is the orbit-sway when entering the space ship. Lucky me it only happens once or twice a day, and usually I'm able to get back to where I was in a minute or even shorter.
The game can become a bit repetitive when finding, entering and negotiating with these aliens over and over again. Yet there is quite some humour to be found in all the little conversations and stories that are being told through all the discoveries. The constant upgrade opportunities make me want to go on and on and on and on... and forget about the time on planet earth and go to bed way to late :-D :-D
Will try to catch up reading all your posts of the past 2 days tonight, but first I gotta get myself that ship ;) :-()
Oh and before I forget; thank you all for your posting and tips. It has been of great help! If I lacked that info I would've never been able to get that far in just 3 days and I am very glad that I could, so now I can compare a bit with what you do and maybe even contribute to some of the info with my own discoveries ;)
Hey Star Voyager Binn, welcome to the final frontier :) Glad to have another space-dog to share experiences with!
Wow, you got up and running quickly, well done :-X I agree, those "Milestone" messages get in the way and they stay on the screen too long. But they become less frequent after a while, like that one that tells you how many kays you've walked or whatever it says. I haven't seen one of those for quite a while. I think you have to accumulate larger and larger amounts of things to make additional milestone messages appear.
The "orbit sway" you mention, do you mean where you get shot up into orbit as soon as you lift off? Yeah, that's a pain. Funnily enough, I haven't had that for quite a long time now. I think the main cause is if you land your ship too close to a big pillar of minerals you're about to mine. When the pillar is mined out and you go to take off, that's when that "orbit-flip" seems most likely to happen. I make sure now that I land a good distance from something I intend to mine (not miles away though, I guess about the game equivalent of 100 meters or so) and make sure I don't fly over the stump of the pillar I've just mined when I take off. In fact I haven't had that glitch since I got my current ship, so maybe some ship designs are more susceptible to it than others, for some bizarre reason.
Anyway, I'm glad you're in :) Looking forward to reading your stories and experiences!
I've been in contact with Binnatics most of the time so I know first hand what he did. :-D
And yes, welcome aboard, my friend :) I'm glad you're enjoying it as much as I hoped you would :)
THanx guys, will keep you posted :)
Well, fellow star strollers, I came back to this topic that's been already out of use for a while, since I kept posting on the other topics. Much more appealing :-D
I had to come back to this one though, because I am getting slightly disappointed at this stage.
I had great fun searching for the ideal ship and upgrading it to the max. I was able to do that quite fast, due to the terrific research you guys did on loadouts, crafting procedures and adjacency bonuses etc.
So I got my perfect loadout already after one week of gameplay, without having to start over once 8)
Here's where I got until now:
[smg id=9192 type=preview align=center caption="Starship fully loaded"]
[smg id=9193 type=preview align=center caption="Exosuit fully loaded"]
[smg id=9194 type=preview align=center caption="Multitool fully loaded"]
Since I reached that goal Sunday evening and already had some experience on the 'road of the Atlas' I curiously followed the rest of the road:
Spoiler
I took the rest of 7 jumps in order to visit all 10 Atlas Interfaces, and to get the 10 Atlas spheres required to "build a new star" at the edge of the galaxy. I was really looking forward to that. What name would I give it? And was there any modification possibilities to it? Would it give me some sort of cool insight, an upgrade or a new 'path or task' to follow? A hint maybe to my destiny, the centre of the universe?
Well, as a matter of fact I sold my first 3 atlas spheres, no knowing that I would need them later on. So yes, I had to pay almost 9 million for the 3 that I cam short after visiting all portals. Some more trading involved, plus more searching for traders selling these spheres, for god's sake :angry-new:
I found them and I paid for them. And so I went on to the ultimate Atlas Interface, number 11 actually. I entered and gave the stones. And all my expectations turned out to be false. Not even a glimpse of the new star I created; in fact I heavily doubt if that star was ever created. All I got was a lousy message telling me something about the path, the universe and the destiny.
[smg id=9195 type=preview align=center caption="Build a new star"]
[smg id=9196 type=preview align=center caption="Task fulfilled"]
So; in search for some black holes then :-\\ I will probably need close to 100 black hole jumps, since I'm currently 172k light years away form the centre. And a jump is about 2k lightyears each, so yes, quite a distance.
So here I am, with a topped off loadout, in search for black holes. I've already done that once, don't expect crazy things from that. The fact that the game hasn't much to offer in terms of progress at this stage, except for a very long road ahead, makes me think of some things I find annoying. I do enjoy exploring the worlds, some are crazy with weird stuff to see and discover, but usually as soon as I set foot on a planet, I have bad framerates. I updated my drivers and don't experience any difficulties in the game or glitches, but the FPS is really annoying. Especially when a world has trees, it tends to be very bad. But even if it's just a lump of rock formation with heridium and gold, I get bad performance. The drawing distance is the second thing that annoys me. I usually see the world being processed in the near distance. That typically is annoying during flying sessions over the plant's surface. I put quite a lot of settings to medium and shadows and reflections even on low, antialiasing to 1. but it doesn't make much difference.
This stuttering and visible image-building really is taking the immersion away. I know it shouldn't be that way, since the game is far not as demanding as for example GTA V; the graphics are in fact quite simple compared to that world. I have earlier experiences with the Havox engine and those were good. Anyway, the fact that there's nothing new to discover besides other rendered models of the same worlds, plants, animals and spaceships together with the hard time the game is giving me when I try to enjoy the new surroundings and life forms I discover, makes the game sort of pointless to me.
It's like comparing this game to a desert; every slope of sand looks different and there's not two grains of sand equal, still my feet will hurt and my throat is dry when I walk through it for more than a day.
I will push forward, since I'm not giving up so easily, but I had to get it off my mind. I think I expected more...
the devs will eventually add free new stuff. Wait for that, then :)
Soon after posting I realised this was the negative me. :-D
I've already played 62 hours in a week time and I had mostly a good time. Already longing for diving back into it. The game has some sort of attraction to it that is hard to describe. I just hope that the graphics performance will be better in the near future ;)
now you're being optimistic.
:-()
I know what you mean about the frame rate Binn, same with me. I had to turn all graphics options down to "Low" or "Off" to get it to run with any degree of acceptability, but even then, any planet with lots of trees or animals, and especially oceans, brings the frame rate to a juddering crawl. I don't think the game has been optimized for PC very well at all.
My computer is not a super whizz-banger, but it's no slouch either. It's still well above the requirements. I've always had to turn settings down for just about every graphically-intensive game I get, but I've generally managed to have medium settings with a few highs mixed in. I can run FC4 above medium settings (and that certainly has lots of trees and animals, and a way better draw distance) and GTA V around medium (and that game has an incredible level of detail AND tons of activity going on in it AND a huge draw distance), and both games run smooth as silk.
As for longevity, I know I probably won't go the distance with NMS, but I'll play until I've had enough. I've always known that. I was aware from the start that it was the sort of game that I will get sick of at some point, and once I reach that point I'll leave it and probably won't come back. For the first two weeks I couldn't tear myself away from it, for the two weeks since then I've started to play a bit less each day, then knock off and do some 3D modelling or something, come back to the game for a while, etc (when I'm on the computer that is, I do do other things :-()) For the first time yesterday since getting the game I didn't fire it up at all for the whole day. I haven't finished with it yet, but the day is coming fairly soon when I will be.
I love the game and it's certainly been engrossing, but I'm already starting to look forward to Civ VI and if that hooks me in the way Civ V did, I'll be hanging up the space helmet for good - if I'm still playing NMS at all at that time.
I think they made the game a tad too long, i.e. too many jumps required to get to the centre. The thought of still potentially having to make hundreds of trips to get there is not exactly appealing. Just like books or movies or any form of entertainment, you can make it go on for too long. There's a difference between epic and interminable, and if you're going to make an epic, you better make sure you provide enough novelty and entertaining diversions along the way to keep people interested.
Still, I'm not over it yet, but by the time I get a 48-slot ship together and find that last remaining Health Module Sigma (which I've been trying to get for days and days but the game stubbornly refuses to let me have) I think I'll be close to my fill. I still want to see if anything of note happens once I learn all three alien races' stories. I've gotten all of the Korvax story and about half the Vy'keen's, but I'm yet to run into any Gek so far in this game despite making about 8-10 jumps.
The end is definitely starting to come into view for me though.
Actually, I've decided against the 48-slot ship. I really don't feel like going through all that upgrading and earning again at this point, so I'm sticking with the 40. I FINALLY got that Health Module Sigma, so that's it for the techs, I have them all now.
I've completed the entire stories of the Korvax and the Vy'keen, but haven't even started the Gek one yet. I don't know if I can be bothered hunting down all the Ruins and Plaques to make that happen at this stage. I just went through a marathon session of planet-scanning to get the remainder of the Vy'keen tale, so I'm a bit monolithed out for now.
I think I might have to take a bit of a break from NMS in fact and maybe give it a chance to freshen back up a bit. Maybe I'll get into some Civ for a while, I'm experiencing a bit of NMS overload at present :-()
Funny.. I was the only guy who didn't even think of buying the game when everyone else was, then I made up my mind and got it minutes before release (so I even got the pre-release bonus ship) and now I'm apparently the only one "that long" into the game and I still haven't got enough of it. I don't see an end of it any time soon. :) I left my fully upgraded 40-slot ship behind, traded as if my life depended on it, and got a new 48-slotter that, since last night, has been fully upgraded -- had to go to the trouble yet again. I just did the same for a new 24-slot multi-tool that looks just so much cooler than my old one but I had to drop my completely upgraded tool and I'm about to get the new one tooled up (pun intended) again to the max. :-D
Hell, there are so many cool random ship designs I am already mentally preparing to ditch my current ship at some point in favour of a new and better-looking one. Perhaps change from fighter to freighter while I'm on it. ^-^
I'm not grinding NMS as much, I just go to it when I want to relax a bit, explore some stuff. I have my multi-tool upgraded enough, just need to get some radnox to complete the beam upgrades, maybe get the exosuit upgraded so I don't have to swap out shields all the time, and find a new ship now and then. But other than that, I just like wandering around and looking at things.
Actually Art, I did the same thing with my Multitool. I had a fully upgraded one but it looked like a toy ray-gun from the fifties, so when saw one that really looked like it meant business, I stripped and ditched the old one and set about rebuilding the new one. Took me ages to find the Radnox for the #3 Combat Adapter, but I got there in the end :-X
I also thought about the multitool. Mine looks like a supersoaker and I wanted to have one of these tiny guns you see in corvax systems. I like them a lot better. But to go through the whole hassle again for the upgrading... I might think it over again first :-D
Btw, I noticed quite a bit of framerate winnings when I put the settting "gamma" to "0". It always was at I think 128, and turning it down didn't change a thing to the appearance, I couldn't tell the difference anyway. And things run a lot smoother now. And I also noticed the effect of oceans; they sort of cause little hickups in the FPS rate, as if there's a dent missing in the gear, or something 8)
I believe it's the transparency of the water on ocean planets that causes the biggest slow-down. Coming down from space, at first the water is drawn opaque, but when you drop to a lower altitude the transparency begins to be drawn in and that's when the frame rate takes a big hit. I learned from 3D modelling that any kind of transparent, or rather translucent, texture severely impacts rendering time due to not only having to render the textures of objects being viewed through the translucent ones but then having to take the texture of the translucent objects into account as well (such as if the translucent object has a texture like waves on it) and having to filter the far-side object textures through those translucent ones. And when you have an object texture that is translucent and textured AND reflective - it's welcome to slow-down city, folks :-()
I've also noticed on ocean worlds that when you direct your ship toward a land mass so that the water is no longer in view, the frame rate picks up very noticeably.
I'll try putting that Gamma setting to 0, cheers Binn :)
Quote from: Art Blade on September 07, 2016, 08:03:44 AMHell, there are so many cool random ship designs I am already mentally preparing to ditch my current ship at some point in favour of a new and better-looking one
Done. :-D First time I found a 48-slot fighter wreck. Couldn't leave it alone as it looked very much like one that I had to leave behind when I took the small elegant fighter. Now I saw a very similar ship so.. I just had to :-D
[smg id=9207 type=preview align=center caption="again new ship"]
Nice ship :-X
The diversity of ship designs seems never-ending, it's really impressive. Sometimes I've seen a additions to ships that I'll see once and never again. There was one like the Goose only it had four huge spherical tanks, two on each side, one behind the other. There seems to be so many different choices of "accessories" and combinations thereof that you rarely see the same configuration in more than one system, it's very cool :-X
Thanks :) If only it had that egg-shaped windscreen..
And I saw one of those ships you mentioned. Also your type of goose, in yellow. And I really like that cool turbine goose, I'd like to get one of these. :-D
[smg id=9208 type=preview align=center caption="the tanker"]
[smg id=9209 type=preview align=center caption="the tanker rear"]
[smg id=9211 type=preview align=center caption="fragger's goose type"]
[smg id=9210 type=preview align=center caption="cool goose"]
[smg id=9212 type=preview align=center caption="cool goose front"]
I thought you'd be surprised to find a reply 7 minutes after you posted that, fragger, and see the ship you mentioned.. or did you miss the last post? :)
I did see it but didn't get around to replying for some reason, I think I might have been distracted by the phone or something.
Yeah, that's like the one I saw, only the one I saw had big shield-type things around the spheres.
I went through some thousand screenshots to find it for you, so I was a bit curious for your reply. Thank you mate :)
I appreciate you taking the trouble Art, sorry I didn't reply sooner :)
No worries, it's just nice to interact with one another and a pleasure to share thoughts, ideas, stories and, of course, screenshots :) I find it particularly interesting when we get to see something somewhat similar on different PCs despite the randomness of the game :)
Quote from: fragger on September 09, 2016, 08:09:26 AMonly the one I saw had big shield-type things around the spheres.
I think I just found something like that. Looks impressive :)
[smg id=9240 type=preview align=center caption="shielded tanker"]
[smg id=9241 type=preview align=center caption="shielded tanker 2"]
There are plenty here, apparently, at least three different types in this very system :)
Here, with wings (and the shielded type in the background)
[smg id=9242 type=preview align=center caption="winged tanker"]
hey, a different shielded tanker, even more massive ??? :)
[smg id=9243 type=preview align=center caption="even bigger tanker"]
They look like they mean biz :-X I haven't yet had a ship with one of those styles of cockpit, dunno what the view is like from them.
go get them, tiger :-()