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Here's a topic for these, to keep them out of - well, all the other topics :)

Allow me to start. I had a new experience today.

I was on a planet and I was running low on Thamium9, the mineral you need for your Pulse engines. So I went into space to mine asteroids for some.

I was happily blasting away with my Phase Beam when two small friendly ships passed by between myself and the asteroid I was firing at. I let them pass, but after I had, when I fired my lasers again the beams went up, out of my upper field of view, and homed in on the friendlies ????

This prompted them to send out a distress call, and the next thing I knew I had a Sentinel ship on my case. So I dove down towards the planet and re-entered, seeking to lose him (I couldn't Pulse, I was too close to the atmosphere). Instead, the Sentinel ship followed me down, all the way. There then ensued a low-level dogfight, just skimming the terrain. Trouble was, because of that low-altitude limit and the automatic terrain avoidance, I couldn't maneuver properly and the Sentinel stayed lower than me so that I couldn't target him. He was certainly targeting me though, I was getting hit all the time.

So I thought bugger this and I climbed, got some decent altitude, then dived back down on him and made him eat photons.

I've had pirates follow me down too. Whenever enemies follow you down (usually if you re-enter without Pulse), they always seem to end up at low-level and don't appear to be able to climb back up. So don't stay down with them, because you can't target them down there. Instead, use their climbing disability against them and get up high. Then you can wing over and safely pepper them from above. Once you get a good distance above them, they don't seem to be able to shoot back at you.

But I don't know why my Phase Beam homed in on the friendly ships in the first place. The ships were indicated by green arrowheads, so I assumed they were friendlies. Maybe they were Sentinels themselves, I don't know. Whatever they were, they were small and red and fighter-like. All the other Sentinel bots I've seen are red too, so perhaps.

I saw blue arrowheads for sentinels. Like the drones when they're investigating what you destroyed and then taking a closer look at you, you'll see some blue eye icon or should I say, eye-con(tact)  :laugh:

I use photon cannons for mining asteroids as they don't use up resources and they likely won't aim up and after passers-by, at least I hope they won't  :-D


I once came close to battle near a space station, I even got a printed message "there is a battle nearby"  ???

I didn't even know that the lasers could home ???? Oh well, live and learn...

I remember we had a discussion about combat when you used the term "deflection" often. There I mentioned (http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=3892.msg81348#msg81348) that a juiced-up mining laser would instantly hit but I indeed should have mentioned that "all you can see" (as in, through your windscreen) will get tracked. :)

No worries, I know now :-D It won't catch me out again.

 :-D

I just got zapped by some water plant. Took out quite a bit of my health  ???

Crikey ??? I didn't know there were underwater attack plants...

happened on my moon without fauna, so it was either flora or one of those carbon zappers that have that one rolled-up tentacle, those that hide in foliage or hang from ceilings in some of those buildings. However, I couldn't see it when looking back and I didn't dare go looking for it, either. It took out more than half of my health with one whack.

Nasty :-\\ The land ones don't do very much damage, it's more of a jump-scare than anything.

yep, so I assume it was one of those plants, actually I think it was something that would fit right into the sea at the shores of Australia :-() -- yellow an teal stripes, lots of meaty tentacles that end in some type of spearhead. They're constantly waving. I might have got a tad too close so it could zap me properly, it really was a nasty attack. I'm quite glad it was planted or it might have given me chase  ???

By chance I found a shipwreck that was of the same type as mine, one cargo slot more, but almost all of the upgrades and base elements needed repair. I didn't want it, too much w@&k and a less than sub-optimal cargo grid layout.

But I found a military grade multi-tool when checking the beacon :)
[smg id=9034 type=preview align=center caption="found this tool"]

Ooh, nice find :-X

That underwater creature you found - I've seen one like that. You can scan it for dough. I called the one I saw a Clown Sleeve Anenome, back in the time when I was bothering to name things. These days I only name planets, just to help me remember what each one is like.

Well, I went and did it, started a new career. I saved my old one, just in case I decide to return to it.

Yesss! This time I started in a system with five planets (in my first game there was only the one I started on). Plenty of stuff to do and build up, without having to worry about those stinking pirates making nuisances of themselves. Hopefully. one of these planets will turn out to be a wildlife-free resource haven. I like those ones.

My first planet has a slightly toxic atmosphere unfortunately, not bad but it's there. There are also nine animal species, so far I've only seen two but they're tame. I've fixed the ship and gone to the Space Station, from there I'll check out the other planets. I won't go back to my first one until I get to craft some decent toxicity shielding for my suit. This time I made sure to interact with the Atlas sphere at the wreck site. I somehow missed that the first time.

This should be good. I'll probably be in this system for quite a while. I'm not leaving it until I'm upgraded to the hilt with lots of ship and suit inventory space, significantly boosted Hyperdrive and heavy-duty weapons and shields, so when I do eventually have to throw down with the pirates I can give at least as good as I get.

I'm looking forward to your new career and stories mate! Just what I don't get, is why you started over. Did you loose opportunities or did you have bad statistics, or is it just the idea of having a good start, pooring every last bit of juice out of the first planetary system?

Mostly just because there were things I could have done better, Binn. There is a special system of using upgrades for equipment efficiently which none of us here knew about until we were quite a way into the game, where they will boost each other if you arrange them properly. You can rearrange them (each upgrade takes up a slot in your inventory, of which you have two, suit and ship), but if you want to move an upgrade from one slot to another it means dismantling the upgrade and then re-crafting it where you want it, and that can be an expensive exercise. I spent a lot of money on a ship with 30 inventory slots thinking that would be all I'd ever need, but when we found about the upgrade system I realised that 30 slots wasn't going to be enough. Had I know more, I would have saved my money, and kept saving unitl I'd had enough for a ship with a larger number of inventory slots. I didn't feel like doing it all over again in that game.

But mostly, you don't get pirates in your first solar system, so it's a good time to get up and running and build up everything you need without being hassled by bad guys. Some of what you can build up are your ship's weapons and shields via upgrades, so that when you are ready to finally venture to another star you'll be better equipped to deal with the pirates.

There are other reasons why I started over, but these are the main ones. I could write a pretty big post if I were to list all the reasons :)

This time around I'm seeing a totally different range of ship configurations (Korvax), so they appear to change either between games, or between systems.

Yay, I've got a resource haven, right under the station! And no pirates to get in the way! I'm stoked 8) I can actually see the station in the sky when I'm on that side of the planet, so when I want to jump to it I can lift off, point straight at it and go. It takes me straight to the front door, I barely even have to maneuver.

I've realised that I'm still going to need a bigger ship than the one I started with, so the plan is to score about a 24-slotter ASAP, grow my suit inventory, then start saving for the big ship. Resource haven planets always seem to have tons of those suit-slot purchase pods scattered around, so I'm going for them after getting the ship. The prices of ships appear to go up exponentially as the slot capacity increases - the price difference between the original 16-slot ship and a 24-slotter is way lower than the price difference between a 24-slotter and a 32.

I wonder if that trick D_B discovered about dismantling all the upgrades in a Multitool to bring down the price of a new one applies to ships? I'll have to check that out when the time comes (save first, natch :-())

I thought of that Fragger, but haven't tried it yet, but I would imagine if it does bring the price of the ship down, the new ship will not have as many upgrades already installed, so check the price and installed upgrades first, then see what the difference is.

before we discussed the dismantling for lower price, I actually did try it (dismantled all I could but ran out of slots for the refund stuff) for a different reason and indeed, all you get is poorly equipped ships around you. If you don't have the blueprints for ALL of the upgrades the new ship is supposed to be equipped with, you're screwed.

Also, new ships usually have a few upgrades that you don't have blueprints for (yet) so I'd even consider to do it the other way round: max out your ship before going for a new one so the array of new ships will likely have tons of better gear on them :-D

I found a trade station on my moon, yay! :)
[smg id=9045 type=preview align=center caption="trade station on moon"]

Quote from: fragger on August 22, 2016, 07:53:15 AMI've realised that I'm still going to need a bigger ship than the one I started with, so the plan is to score about a 24-slotter ASAP, grow my suit inventory, then start saving for the big ship.

Like this? Ready to mine off a moon made of gold or something?  :-() It was the first ship I checked on that moon trade station. ???
[smg id=9046 type=preview align=center caption="really expensive stuff"]

Yep, like that :-D I'd like to have room for good upgrade arrangements and still have plenty of space for trade resources.

that's a hell of a lot of money you'll have to accrue before that dream of yours comes true :) Or, you go looking for shipwrecks and mend them, then the next, and so on.. usually those wrecks are one slot bigger than your own ship. Although there are exceptions, with either less or more than one slot.

Will you know THE size and upgrades from THE wrecked ship before mending?

And What about the blueprints; do they stay with you when you assemble and/or dismantle apps? Or do you use them up while creating its upgrade?
In other words; are they knowledge or malls?

you can check out everything about any ship, no matter whether your found it as a wreck or with the owner (always a trader) still sitting in it. Any ship with a pilot in it is automatically a trade opportunity. Any screenshot with the slots and gear of a ship shown is what it looks like when you find one, except the weapons and upgrades are usually broken.

It means that you need to get (mine, trade) a lot of resources to get a ship fully fixed up, some rare resources may not be available to you on the planet you're on, but if those are rare, then they're most likely used for high-end upgrades. In other words, if you only find crap resources, you'll only be able to install crap components.  :-()

You will be able to get any ship ready for flying around in it because the resources needed for that are more or less abundant or at least easy to come by. Well, except once, my very first start of the game I couldn't find one resource for hours so I started a new career. Might have found it far away but by the time getting there (without ship) I would likely have died due to a quite extreme climate.

Which means, it's not a good idea to look for a shipwreck if you're on an extremely toxic, freezing-cold, radiation-polluted and carnivore predator-infested planet (as you need to make that wreck your own ship and at that, the only one which can't even fly yet) Unless you enjoy torture a lot :-()


Blueprints are knowledge. They don't get used up.

Apps (in the game called "companions" which I really don't like) are parts of a ship that are composed of materials, half of which you'll get back if you dismantle them.

If you want to install one, you'll need to "know how" to, as in you need to have acquired the corresponding blueprint first. Then you'll need to acquire the "ingredients" (materials) which are more and more difficult to get the more advanced the upgrade levels of the blueprints/apps are.

So sometimes you'll find a ship with apps you don't have the blueprints for, which is why you should leave them as they are -- at least you can use those apps but if you dismantle them, you won't be able to reconstruct them until you found the corresponding blueprint. And that's a random thing. You can't go and buy blueprints, you happen upon them by pure chance.

fragger,

Having arrived in my 30-slot ship, I checked other ships at the station, and I kind of expected that they'd supersede my ship by about 10 slots (actually, they did) because they did when arriving in a 20-something-slot ship. Apparently the size of your ship triggers bigger ships (by around and up to 10 slots bigger) so you keep wanting even bigger ones. :-() I actually now saw the same type that I used to have (that fighter) with already 35 slots.  :)

Which means that you'll have to acquire a 30-slotter in order to even see any 40-slotters. I don't think that you'll come across any of those if your ship is more than 10 slots "behind."

Cheers Art, thanks for the tip :) You probably saved me a lot of grief.

A 30-slot ship isn't much more expensive that a 24-slotter - only one and a half million or so. I'm making dough fairly quickly despite not being able to pull off the "get rich quick" ploy at the station. Prices for 24-slotters average around 1.7 mill, while a 30 can be gotten for about 4 mill. So it's not that much more of an earn to get the bigger ship.

I'm glad you posted that :-X I'll hold out for the 30 as an intermediate ship.

welcome :)

however, it surprises me that you seem to get ships for about half the price as mine. I indeed got a 24-slotter I think it was, for like 2.5M but the 30-sloter cost me just under 10M.

Maybe it has got to do with what D_B suggested: play the poor guy and pay less. If your ship isn't equipped well (dismantled, mostly) maybe you'll see a lower price for that reason.

Possibly. Maybe I'll go for a 24 and see what the price of a 30 then does. In my last game when I had a 24, a 30 cost about 8 million, so maybe the smaller a ship you have now, the cheaper a much bigger one will be. Upgrades in your current ship may indeed play a part. I haven't upgraded my ship at all yet, despite having the blueprints. because there's no need - there are no pirates and I'm only hauling minerals and trinkets back and forth between the station and the nearby planet.

(sound of tearing hair) You've noticed how when you're in space and you point your ship towards a planet, the name of the planet appears connected to the planet by a line with a dot at each end - one dot near the name and one on the planet's center. When I first went down to the resource-haven planet right below the space station, there was a Trading Post very close to that dot at the planet's centre. The second time I went down from the station, I re-entered almost right over that same Trading Post.

Now, do you think I can find it again? I've tried re-entering all around that dot and I can't find the Trading Post for the life of me.

It would be really, really helpful if there was a key you could hit that would waypoint the nearest Trading Post to your position. Trading Posts don't have to be "discovered" for money or claiming rights - they're just there, and freely available for anybody to use.

So why do they have to be so bloody difficult to find? :D

There are many complaints on the waypoint system, not only is it bugged, it's essentially useless.

At the same time, Hello Games are aware of it and promised an overhaul of the waypoint system.

On the subject of ship prices, may it also be of any influence from which alien race you buy?

Since fragger commented the low costs of big ships as Well as the poor trading conditions on bis system / alien race?

good point, needs further investigation :)

Ever since I saw a hyper drive upgrade on a trader's ship during my last career, I wanted to get one of those. I assume that you have to jump at least once in order to see those because I haven't seen any of those during my current career during which I haven't yet jumped anywhere.

However, I decided to go back to my start planet (around a little over one minute away from the space station, on pulse drive) and there I found a trading post for the first time on that planet and the alien there gave me a blueprint of said upgrade, a warp reactor :) At least I could build one now but I need a ton of copper which appears to be next to impossible to come by in this system.

I want it because it lets you get from one system to a distant system with less jumps. Or, just one large jump rather than two small ones because it reaches farther.

I want more (better ones) of those :)

[smg id=9047 type=preview align=center caption="hyper drive upgrade"]

I actually built one of those Hyperdrive upgrades in my first game shortly before I did a restart, but never got a chance to use it because - well, I wanted to start over.

For your copper, have you tried mining one of the big asteroids? I've found many of those to be composed of copper. And I think they respawn once you've mined them out, you just need to look around for another one if you don't get enough out of one.

I decided to compromise on the "transitional" ship and went with this 26-slotter, for about 1.8 million.
[smg id=9048 align=center width=600]

I've dismantled all the upgrades it came with, of which there weren't many. Plus they were all over the place in the inventory and they were all low-level Sigmas. Since there are no pirates in the system, I won't be needing those upgrades for now as they were all weapons ones - I want to get my tech up before I start upgrading the weapons prior to jumping out of here and contending with the pirates. I'd like the Sigmas to have Taus and Thetas for company when I put them back in :-()

I'm considering this to be a transitional ship because I want to see what gets offered now and what sort of prices I'll be looking at for something bigger (so sue me, I want a big ship :-()) I've only looked at three or four so far, but I'm seeing 30-slotters going for about 4.7 million and 34s for about 7.8 million. Considering I paid just under 8 million for a 30 in my last game, these prices are comparatively low. I'm wondering if it's because I stripped all the upgrades out of the new ship - I should have looked at prices before I did the stripping but I didn't think of it. Even so, I noticed before that the prices for ships are lower in this game than they were in the last.

It's hard to say what factors are involved in determining ship prices. Maybe which race you buy from, how many systems you've jumped to already, what your current overall tech level is, maybe all or none of these things.

[smg id=9049 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9050 align=center width=600]


It seems that the bigger, bulkier ships have higher defensive strengths than the little fighter-type birds. As far as speed and handling go, I can't detect any difference between this ship and the first one, they seem about the same.

Btw, do you guys get those random messages popping up in the lower-right corner of the screen, like the one in that last picture? I find them annoying, and they get in the way of a good screenie.


EDIT: Saw a few more ships. A 35-slotter for just over 10 million and a 39-slotter for around 18 million. So I might save for a 39, get it, visit a crash site, do a swap out and repair for an even 40 slots (unless I happen to see a 40, but judging by the trend I imagine a 40 would cost well over 20 million). 40 should be more than enough, surely.

Incidentally, I found a wrecked ship which had one slot less than my current ship, so it seems they don't always go up by a slot, unless it was a glitch.

Nice ship, my new one is one of the small ones, but has more slots than my old one. I just find wrecked ones and repair them. I'm too cheap to buy one, heh.

I really wish the "Activate Hyperdrive" message would go away. I mean, if I'm walking on a planet, I can't very well activate my hyperdrive, can I? The tips that at least pertain to the current situation are OK, but the constant reminder about the hyperdrive is very annoying.

It would be nice if there was a way to turn those messages off ::)

I like this ship but I have to be careful getting out sometimes. Like the one you had D_B, it's a bit of a ways to the ground and I don't so much get out as fall out. I seem to come out on the roof of the thing, then I immediately fall, and if the nose is sticking out over a drop I can get hurt if I don't activate the jetpack in time.

I've looked at a few more ships. The biggest I've seen is a 41-slot number for 23.4 million. I'm holding off on putting any upgrades in this one unless I get engine ones as I full intend to go for a bigger ship yet. With nobody to fight, it's kinda pointless to spend the resources on weapon upgrades just to rip them all out again later. I might upgrade the shield though if I go for that free-flight mod, which I probably will. It sounds like that might be prudent :-()

yes, that's probably a good idea, upgrade the shield, I might do that as well. I don't do anything with weapon upgrades, or anything really, as I know I'm not going to have a ship for very long.

The evolution of my Multitool, thus far.

[smg id=9052 align=center width=600]

I'm not bothering with the Boltcaster at present as I'm concentrating on mining clout. With this baby upgraded to 3 levels of Coolant, 3 levels of Beam Intensity and 2 levels of Focus, I can whittle a big pillar down in a minute or two with just two or three continuous sweeps (then a few short zaps to mop up any little hanging bits). I can lase down a dome of something like Aluminum or Gold in a single back-and-forth sweep before the Multitool gets too hot.

Funnily enough, the wall crates offering new Multitools this time around have continually increased in size by at least two slots each time. I started with a five, then was offered a 7, then a 10, then a 12, and then this 14. The next one offered was a 16, but I had something else I wanted to do first and I forgot to go back and get it :D Now, every time I see a new one offered it's one slot less, at 13. I guess I should grab a 13 and hopefully the increase in slots on offer might resume. But I really like the way I managed to get this one set up and I don't want to mess it up :-()

Quote from: fragger on August 24, 2016, 01:36:26 AMConsidering I paid just under 8 million for a 30 in my last game, these prices are comparatively low. I'm wondering if it's because I stripped all the upgrades out of the new ship - I should have looked at prices before I did the stripping but I didn't think of it.

I did :)

The price is dependent on how geared-up your ship is as the ships coming in will try to reflect your current level. Meaning they'll come loaded with upgrades if you do. And the other way around: if you strip your ship, the others will mirror that and come with just bare bones, so to speak  :-D -- the lack of upgrades makes them cheap. I also noticed that the more military ships look, the more upgrades they'll have and that makes them more expensive than cargo ships of the same cargo bay size (amount of slots)

Which means that D_B's tip for the multi-tools (remove upgrades first, trade in cheaper) works for ships, indeed. Ships cost almost nothing (by comparison :-() and I too saw ships as cheap as you described it, fragger) if you dismantle all the upgrades there are and only then check for ships. It is remarkable, the ship in the pic below is one slot bigger than the one I showed earlier (see spoiler below) yet it still costs 20 millions less ???

pic in here

[smg id=9046 type=preview align=center caption="really expensive stuff"]

Compare the lack of upgrades, however :)

[smg id=9053 type=preview align=center caption="cheap 40 slots"]

Nice w@&k mate, that's good to know :-X

While at it, I was watching Art Blade through Steam and encouraged him do go on trading until he got the sufficient for the 40 slotter. Amazing how easy that trading seems, as he mad over 9 million in a couple of hours while I was watching :) :-X :-X

Unfortunately it was too late already to stay and wait for the exact right ship to roll in, although he already had slightly over 20 m. We'll see that today I guess :-D

It seems that this is the only way to make a decent amount of money in a reasonable time. You could go down to a planet, do a ton of mining and fill your ship and your suit with a gold-star commodity, and even when you bring it back to the station you might get several hundred grand for it. In the same amount of time, you can make millions just hustling on the space station's hanger floor.

I made just over 800,000 with a suit full of Emeril and four ship slots full of it as well (since each ship slot holds twice as much as a suit slot, that added up to a lot of Emeril - about 4,000 pieces in total), but it took me about an hour to mine it all. It was selling for the regular price though, not a gold-star price, but there was a good dollop of it in one area on the planet where I was so I thought why not. Most of it was in the form of a single colossal pillar that was so high I couldn't reach the top of it with the laser. And it was thick through as well, massive. I had to go to the top of a nearby cliff, and ever then the laser couldn't reach the far side of the pillar. So I cut out a ledge at the top on the nearest side, jetpacked over onto it (just made it across) and began whittling it away beneath me, moving down with it as it shrank. Even with my super-duper mining laser, it took ages. And then I fell off at one stage and had to go all the way back to the top of the cliff and jetpack across again.

The point is that I could have made a lot more doing the space station shuffle in the time it took me to get that 800,000 units' worth of Emeril, so the only real incentive to mine is to get the materials you need for your upgrades. So I'll be making the money for my next ship through hours of dealing in the hanger, broken up by trips dirtside to find techs and blueprints for upgrades, find the resources I need for those upgrades, and learn more Korvax words.

The nice thing about starting in a system with five planets is that any resource you need will probably be found on at least one of those planets. I'll be needing some Gravitino Balls at some stage though, and some other exotic elements, which I haven't yet come across. I may have to buy them if any are for sale, and they'll be pretty dear.

Speaking of cliffs and jetpacks, you guys probably know this already but I'll put it here anyway - if you use the jetpack while going up the face of a sheer cliff or pillar, the jetpack won't use up any fuel as long as you stay in contact with the face.

I've seen the same thing, fragger, one of the planets in my system has giant globs of aluminum, the only place I've seen that in the wild. Otherwise, you need to buy it. Another has crystals of that Christo-something that you need as well, so I grabbed a bunch. I think I'll just keep a stack or so of the rare stuff like those and Iridium, for ship repairing, as finding them and fixing them more suits me than buying them. Oh yeah, Zinc as well, can't find that hardly anywhere.

Zinc only seems to come from those little brown plants that you find occasionally (it's kind of odd that you can just pick zinc and platinum off plants, but it is a game). I've never seen a big dome or crystal growth of Zinc. Agreed, it seems pretty hard to come by.

I tend to try reserving a space for each of the most commonly needed but harder to come by minerals in my ship, like Zinc, Titanium, Chysonite, Iridium, and the like, and whenever I happen to come across any of those I snaffle them up. Other stuff I generally grab as needed, or I keep a bit on me in my suit. Thamium9 is easy enough to get from the asteroids that drift around every planet, and Plutonium crystals seem to pop up everywhere. Each planet has more Iron-yielding rocks and Carbon-yielding plants than you can shake a stick at, never a problem getting those.

There nearly always seems to be at least one big Iridium-bearing asteroid floating around among the smaller Thamium9 ones, and often a Copper one and an Iron one as well. I found an Aluminum one once.

I made nearly 10M in just under 2 hours, a couple of breaks included. So yes, I said it already, "it beats mining" :-()

And as you guys were discussing, I had already set that plan in motion (carrying around rare stuff for upgrades and repairs) some time ago. I too keep plucking platinum and zinc from plants and got quite a lot of units each in my spaceship.

Only I don't have copper asteroids, no copper at all, so far. Only from dismantling.

[smg id=9055 type=preview align=center caption="collecters and hunters"]

That's really odd how your Hyperdrive is in the third row down, I've never seen one in that sort of location before. That's great because it will allow you to have upgrades for the upper row of systems without the Hyperdrive getting in the way.

Man... I put in a marathon session in the space station getting the money up for a new ship. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of ten million in two hours, it just isn't possible in my station - the ships are just not there. I can spend up to ten minutes just waiting for the one guy who buys at the gold-star rate to show up ::) The best that can be done is about 2 million per hour.

What race are you with, Art? I'm wondering if it's a race thing, or if some stations have more traffic than others. I hit every single ship that comes in and buy every single Dynamic Resonator I can get my hands on (I can have up to 22 of them in my suit at once, and often do), but there's no possible way I can shorten that rate of exchange pure and simply because the frequency of ships limits it.

But anyway, back onto the gist of this post :-() Of the dozen or so different ship types that come into the station, only one ever has the 40 slots I'm after - and it's the type that comes in the least often. Some of the types come in with monotonous regularity - sometimes there'll be up to four of the same type in the hanger at once, while others are rarer. The one I need is the rarest of the lot.

It took me five hours to raise the 10 million units I needed to get me up to the 20 million required for the 40-slotter. Since then I've spent 2 hours waiting for this particular ship type to show up with the right number of slots and a decent layout. When one does eventually come in, it either has 16 slots instead of the usual 39-41 (and once it had 14 slots - who the hell would want to buy a ship with two less slots than the one you start the game with?) or it'll have 40 slots but the arrangement will be lousy, like having the Hyperdrive right under the Photon Cannon with blank spaces on either side so there's no possible way of connecting the cannon upgrades to the cannon in order to get the adjacency bonuses. That sort of thing.

The exasperating thing is that while I was getting the money up, whenever one of these ships came in I'd have a look at its layout and I saw a couple that would have been perfect, but I couldn't yet afford one. Now that I can, they're all crap - when they show up at all, like about one every fifteen minutes or so. I don't get why some types of ship have to be rarer than others, that was a really dumb call on the part of whoever came up with it. They should all have an equal chance of appearing - this isn't GTA V.

How I wish you could customize your ships instead of being at the mercy of whatever the program throws up at you. At least give me a choice between a couple of 40-slot models instead of just one that deigns to appear only three or four times in an hour, and always sucks in layout when it does :D


(EDIT: Fixed ridiculously worded sentence :-())

Okay, I just did some rather expensive experimenting (expensive because I'm going to be dismantling everything I crafted for the experiment :-()) I believe that your upgrades don't in fact have to be adjacent to the thing they're upgrading, as long as the upgrades themselves are adjacent to each other. I put four ship Photon Cannon upgrades in a square shape with the levels like so:

1 2
2 1

Two of these were Accelerated fire (1 & 2) and Increased Damage (2 & 1), and none of them were adjacent to the cannon itself. Yet the cannon spat out the shots super fast and I obliterated a big asteroid in no time.

So It seems that the all that's needed for the adjacency bonuses is for the upgrades to be together. Doesn't matter if they're different types of upgrades (such as Accelerated Fire and Increased Damage, as above) as long as they're for the same piece of equipment. This explains why you can't put your jetpack upgrades next to the jetpack - the devs probably put the jetback where they did as a clue to this.

Right - the next 40-slotter that comes along is mine :-() Now I just have to wait for one to come along... again...

[smg id=9058 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9059 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9060 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9061 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9062 align=center width=600]


[smg id=9063 align=center width=600]

But I think 40 slots will be plenty. I also now have 36 slots in my suit, so I should be okay for inventory space, I think. Anyway, I don't want to part with this gem of a ship.

I also just picked up a 19-slot Multitool, but I haven't planned out or crafted the upgrades yet. That's the next job on the list.

So I should be ready to deal with the pirates when the time comes to jump (the ship also has eight hit points). I haven't finished exploring this system yet and I want to pick up more Korvax words and try to get some more blueprints, such as Hyperdrive upgrade and the ones that let you create your own Suspension Fluid and Antimatter for Warp Cell crafting (I haven't come across those ones yet - I got them fairly early in the first game).

I've been thinking about this ship... Maybe the reason why it was showing up so rarely in the space station is because it's some kind of a one-off, or a "special". Maybe the program throws up one of these ships sometimes that have extra performance or some outstanding set of characteristics. Maybe the key is to look for anything really different about a ship design, like those big box-like structures sticking out of the sides of this ship (they don't appear to be engines as there are no outlets on the backs of them, just solid panels). I've never seen a blatantly conspicuous design feature like that on any other ships.

So maybe keep an eye out for any really distinctive-looking ships that don't appear very often in the space station. At times I would wait up to half an hour or so for this one to put in an appearance, while all the other designs were showing up quite regularly.

Wow Fragger, you're making progress! The cool thing is, you and Art are more or less equally advanced, shipwise. Probably both going for the first jump in approximately a day or two, Nice!

Your ship looks really special. Weird wing-like things indeed. I also like the 48 slotter. It looks like a fighter dog in a giant ring-construction.
Your current 40 slotter reminds me of 2 ships in Arts space station. One is like yours but without wing-like structures. It's the ship of his buyer called Consul Yew. There's one other ship with the same body, but it does have wings. They're very tiny ones though with a curling end, reminding me of machinegun arrays on helikopters. I believe these ships often have a high amount of slots, as if being cargo ships

Cheers Binn :) I'm getting there. I got lucky with this system because with five planets you have a good chance of getting everything you need, resource-wise.

I just set up the 19-slot Multitool with upgrades, then got offered this from a wall crate (I already stripped out all the upgrades before taking the screenie - I want to rebuild it from scratch):

[smg id=9064 align=center width=600]

Apparently, 24 is the maximum for Multitool slots, so I'm there. I got rid of the upgrades that were there as I find it easier to plan the arrangement without any existing upgrades confusing things.

I got a lot of resource back from the dismantled upgrades, but it looks like there's a bit of mining ahead... I know from assembling all the upgrades for the 19-slot number that all the minerals I'll need can be found on the resource haven planet below the station, except for Crysonite and one or two others that I can get from another planet.

Right, to w@&k then...

Oh, 24 slots is the biggest multi-tool? Then I've had that for a while. I was wondering why every one I came across, either at a wall crate or trading with an alien, only had 23 slots in it. I guess I can strip everything out of it and re-organize where I want the upgrades and what type. I was under the assumption that you could fit all the upgrades possible on the largest tool, and since I still have a bunch I can make, that there was a larger one available. Probably can also skip looking for tool upgrades, I think I have them all. Haven't gotten a new one in a long time anyway.

Yeah, I think I've maxed them out as well, I keep getting ones I've already got. I'm not up on my Boltcaster stuff, but I believe the upgrades for the Mining Laser are: 3 levels of Beam Focus; 3 levels of Beam Intensity; 3 levels of Coolant System and 4 levels of Combat Amplifier.

I rarely use the Boltcaster, but there'll be room for it and some upgrades so I might as well fill up the spaces :) I think there is actually a higher number of upgrades for the Boltcaster than there is for the Laser. And then there are all the grenade variants.

fragger, I'm in a Vy'keen system.

Nice ship and tool  :-X :)

I like grenades. :-D

Cheers :-X

Thanks :)

I know 8-X

Grenades will get you in a locked door after a couple shots. Less if you upgrade them.

that's why I like them plus why I don't need the bolt caster  :-()

Also, you can bomb your way in and out of underground caves.

here's finally my 24-slot tool. An alien just gave it to me, nice  :-D

Not sure about how to best do the layout. Particularly the scanners. I used to do it like this, scanner and range cross over

SC - RA
RA - SC

Now I tried it as follows and I can't really notice a difference

RA - SC
RA - SC

[smg id=9071 type=preview align=center caption="tool 24"]

And I just found my 31st backpack (exosuit) upgrade :) Almost all of my stuff I found on this tiny little moon of mine. I really like it there  :-D

About an hour ago or so I came across two locations that were just perhaps 100 yards away from each other and both locations had three installments each. Like, those containers where you find tool upgrades (usually two containers which is why I call them trailer park, :-() ) and two types of what I call "lab" (observatory and whatnot, those long-ish buildings where you keep finding aliens in or where you keep finding that beacon type of thing you need to unlock solving a riddle).

It is funny what I keep seeing and finding on that small moon. Only it apparently doesn't have some stuff like copper which I really need for many high-end upgrades.

Excellent :-X I see you're not bothering with the Boltcaster. Neither am I, it's pretty useless, really. Grenades are best for locked doors, and once you get the Combat Amplifiers added to the Laser you can knock down those little floating Sentinel buggers before they can even get a shot off.

I think the square arrangement of scanner and upgrades is best, that's what I did too. As long as the #2 and #3 Range Boost upgrades are adjacent to each other, either horizontally or vertically. If they're diagonal to each other, they'll still w@&k but they won't impart an adjacency bonus.

Funny how your Multitool looks totally different to mine. I guess it depends on which race you get it from.

I've almost got my Multitool fully populated, except for that one space in the middle where my Combat Amplifier Theta (#3) is going to go. For that I have to get 20 worth of some stuff called "Radnox" and I don't have a clue as to where to get it from. None of the other starship pilots have any and I can't buy it from the Galactic Trade Network. Odd how you can get the #4 Combat Amplifier more easily than the #3 - #4 doesn't need any exotic minerals, just the "common" varieties of stuff.

[smg id=9073 align=center width=600]

hehe thanks :) And I got my Radnox from a trade terminal. In homeopathic doses, but still just enough :-()

Not listed on mine. I might have to mug an alien :-D

Mind you, I haven't checked the Trading Post terminals yet, or the ones you find "in the wild" - just the Space Station one. Maybe I'll have better luck with those, or with the space jockeys at the Trading Posts.

Hehe  :-D

I think as long as we stick to our home system, those purple rare things can only be found at trade terminals as I have never met an alien with those materials. They may have rare goods such as antimatter or other stuff that has been constructed and a few more or less common materials such as zinc sometimes. Oh, sometimes feeding little beasts on planets may help. Occasionally they seem to puke up or crap out rare stuff, I found some of those purple items that way. Just a few units, though.

And I finally found copper, yay! FINALLY! I had been busier trying to find copper than a mosquito having lunch at a nudist colony, really :)

Here's the copper: Floating eggs :) Easy to spot from the spaceship.

[smg id=9077 type=preview align=center caption="copper egg"]

They yield around 300-400 units of copper, I'd say
[smg id=9078 type=preview align=center caption="copper egg close"]

Found them on my ice planet. I hate it there. And I just dismantled my sigma and tau thermal protection shields as they melted down like a lump of wax in the sunlight. I needed to charge both shields with zinc or titanium, not iron, but I was able to craft some shield plating with iron which can be used to charge those protection upgrades. However, I had to constantly charge them and it wasn't even that cold, only like -20°C. Useless stuff. When it went down to -70, I was busier recharging my shields than a cat covering up crap on a linoleum floor.

Note the shield icons next to the ice symbol
[smg id=9079 type=preview align=center caption="thermo shields"]

Here my bum flap failed, too.
[smg id=9080 type=preview align=center caption="thermo shield failing"]

Holey moley, that's a scary-looking critter in that last shot ??? "bum flap" failed, lol :laugh: You've got some good metaphors in that post :-D :-X

I found some Radnox, indeed I was able to buy it from a Training Post Terminal. Those have a different range of stuff for sale than the Space Station one. But now I need something called Omegon for a Jetpack upgrade and even the Trading Post terminal doesn't have that one. I had some of that in my first game but I can't remember where I got it from. Maybe some alien gave it to me as a reward for something I did.

cheers :-D

And you just came up with a very funny typo, I suppose your exercises on the trading floor rubbed off a bit..

Quote from: fragger on August 27, 2016, 08:12:17 AMTraining Post Terminal

:-X :-()

I need that Omegon for my jetpack upgrade as well, haven't yet come across it. Maybe we can tame some critters so they can spit it out for us  :-D

Oops :-[ Sounds something like a scratching post for a cat, doesn't it :-()

 :laugh: yes, why not :-D

OK.. so I tried one more, a test run, whether I'd see pirates after the first jump. And I wanted to see something else. I'm starting to get enough of my home system  :-D

I didn't see any pirates. My new chosen system is composed of 6 planets which is why I called it Sixpack when I first scouted the area and I already checked it out. Since names stick if you upload them, which I did during my very first test, I was able to find it quickly and visited that system "for the first time" during this career. No pirates. I visited two planets and jumped back. No pirates. But in Sixpack, a Gek system, I saw a new spaceship. And I immediately fell in love with it. I wasn't sure about whether or not it was just fluke I didn't see any pirates, and I tried hard to find some, I decided to reload my backup and do it just once more (hoping I'd manage to see that ship again) so.. I did it a second time. Actually, my third time. And the ship was there again :)

[smg id=9087 type=preview align=center caption="dream ship"]

I have been thinking about whether or not to keep going and I think I will. I went there with my dismantled ship, fully aware that a pirate encounter might be a terrible thing and the last thing I'd want but all went well. Now I get new stuff to see, new blueprints and all that. And new worlds.  :)

And I want that ship.. saw it with 40 slots once. Need to find one like that again.

[smg id=9088 type=preview align=center caption="dream ship again"]

There were other cool ships, too. I am now pretty sure that the game does some random procedural mix. I came across Gek ships a lot during my first career and during my couple of tests I also saw their ships but they never looked the same.

[smg id=9089 type=preview align=center caption="cool ships 01"]
[smg id=9090 type=preview align=center caption="cool ships 02"]

I was too excited about those ships I forgot to take a clean screenshot of this one.
[smg id=9091 type=preview align=center caption="cool ships 03"]
[smg id=9092 type=preview align=center caption="cool ships 04"]
[smg id=9093 type=preview align=center caption="cool ships 05"]

Wow, all cool ships indeed. Seem from a complete different range as the ones we saw together :) :-X

yes :)

OK, got my new 32-slottie, I mended a wreck (http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=3896.msg81677#msg81677) :-D

Now I see why the resonator is so common in the home system.. so you can repair your jump drive in order to leave your system. I wasn't in my home system but still, the resonator was available at the spasta (space station) :-()

[smg id=9103 type=preview align=center caption="ex wreck"]

scratch that, it's a new 33-slotter  :-()

[smg id=9104 type=preview align=center caption="new 33 slots"]

 :-X :)

Make that 34 now :-D

OK, new planet. First shipwreck was a birdie (-1 slot) so I left it, the second was a bogey (+1 slot) so I took it :-D I wonder whether there are more on this planet.

[smg id=9112 type=preview align=center caption="wreck 3"]

I like my exosuit but I still can't get any omegon for the jetpack booster theta.
[smg id=9113 type=preview align=center caption="exosuit 39 "]

The new planet is just perfect: nothing there. But quite a few chunks of emeril and other good stuff :-D That large metal hill is emeril, not gold :)
[smg id=9114 type=preview align=center caption="empty and peaceful"]

Yeah, I'm trying to get Omegon for the exact same upgrade :) But I also need some for the final Phase Beam Impact upgrade. I need 150 altogether, 100 for the Phase Beam and 50 for the Jetpack. I have 97, but my priority is the Phase Beam. The only places I've been able to find any are in those terminals you find out in the "countryside". Trading Post terminals never seem to have any, nor do any of the other pilots that come and go. Nor do the terminals in the Shelters, or whatever those buildings with the landing pads are called.

I've got 42 slots now for my suit, going for 48. The planet under the Space Station has lots of Drop Pods scattered about, but the next slot will cost me around 300,000 (I can't remember if I paid that already for my last slot). I can afford the remaining six slots, but it'll just about clean me out. I'm gonna have to do the Dynamic Resonator hustle on the Space Station again :-()

I finally got the blueprint for the Hyperdrive Theta, which was the last blueprint I needed to get for the ship, and that plus the Phase Beam Impact Theta are the only two upgrades I have left to craft. I need 100 Omigon for the Beam Impact Theta and 3 Resonators (easy to get), 1,000 Gold and 1,000 Emeril for the Hyperdrive Theta. Fortunately my starting planet has lots of Emeril and one of the other planets has lots of Gold, so it's just a matter of going there and doing the mining for the Hyperdrive upgrade. But getting that damned Omigon for the Beam Impact is a bitch :-\\

I was thinking about going for a 48-slot ship, but it's so expensive to buy one and so time-consuming to w@&k up to one via the shipwrecks. Besides, I really don't want to part with the Goose. I've never had a ship that can do 168u in atmosphere and 200u in space. It's too good to give up, plus I really like the look of it :-() So I'm going for max suit slots instead.

hehe nice :)

I haven't even found any terminal with Omegon yet :( Well, I got all the blueprints for those upgrades you mentioned. A lot of resources (and slots for them) needed, indeed :) The system I'm hanging out at is quite loaded with materials. Emeril and gold and other stuff. :)

I want that ship I showed you before, the long-nosed fighter. Apparently it only shows up as a 40-slotter if your own ship is nearly as big. When I first saw it, it was a test, and I had bought a 36-slotter for 10M before so that is what triggered the fighter to be that big, I suppose. Now, with 34 slots, I am slowly getting there.  :-D

Quote from: fragger on August 28, 2016, 09:49:23 AMit'll just about clean me out. I'm gonna have to do the Dynamic Resonator hustle on the Space Station again :-()

funny you should mention that, I just grabbed the formula that may make us rich. :laugh: But looking at it, it also makes it clear why those things cost around 33k.
[smg id=9119 type=preview align=center caption="money making formula"]

Quote from: fragger on August 28, 2016, 09:49:23 AMI've got 42 slots now for my suit, going for 48.

that was an inspiring note. I did just that. And it's bloody expensive  :-D It's not cleaned up because I kept adding slot after slot and in between happened upon two monoliths.. I'll clean it up soon :-()
[smg id=9122 type=preview align=center caption="maxed out exo"]

I just calculated the costs of a fully upgraded exosuit:

6,300,000 starting with a free upgrade and then 10,000 per additional slot plus the cost of the previous one. So you start paying 10,000 then 20,000 then 30,000.. until the last slot which costs 350,000.

I was estimating about 350,000 - 360,000 off the top of my head for that last slot, so I was close. Expensive business. But when you think about it, after the ship, the suit and the multitool, what else do you spend really big money on? Those are the costliest things in the game, so once you've gotten them together there won't be any more huge outlays of money. There still may be times when you need to buy stuff, but not in the millions or the hundreds of thousands once you have your essential hardware sorted.

Well, I got the 48-slot suit together, and I'm considerably poorer for it :-() But it's worth having the max suit slots since I'm not going for a 48-slot ship. There are 48-slot "Spruce Gooses" coming into the station now but because I'm nearly all upgraded they're selling for about 175 million ??? I'm not gonna go dismantling everything to get the price to come down, do hours and hours of hustling in the station, buy a 48 and then re-craft everything for it at this stage - bugger that. So I'm sticking with what I've got.

(Out of curiosity, I saved the game and stripped out the ship to see what the prices of 48s would then do. They came down to about 57 million, but still).

So far, I don't have that many upgrades crafted for the suit. I haven't bothered much with protection upgrades as the planets in this system are all pretty benign. I do want the Jetpack Theta there though. That will go where the Jetpack Tau is now, and the Tau will be re-crafted one space to the right. But for now I want the adjacency bonus from the ones I've got.

[smg id=9123 align=center width=600]

Funny how I have all the Stamina upgrades, but the Stamina circle at the right of the screen isn't closed. Maybe I'm missing something there, or Stamina needs to be adjacent to something else. I've had it adjacent to the Hazard Protection slot in the past but there was no highlight, so I dunno.

Man, that bloody Omegon stuff is a pain to get hold of. I finally found some in a terminal at one of those places that has the single launch pad outside, and I got enough to craft the final Phase Beam upgrade. But I still have that Jetpack Theta upgrade to craft, which requires 50 pieces of Omegon, and I've got 47 :D I've been hunting for ages for those last three miserable pieces.

I've picked up a lot of Korvax words in the meantime though, stopping at every Monolith and Ruin that I come across. Almost got 200 of them now. I've gone right through he Korvax story that appears bit by bit whenever I interact with a Monolith, and it's gone back to the start. I've also found that I'm starting to get the same challenges all over again from the Monoliths that require a response from a multiple-choice selection. I guess there had to be a limit to the number of those.

The only ship blueprint I'm missing now is the Photonix Core for the Pulse Engine, which will go in that empty space left of centre. All other ship upgrades are complete.

[smg id=9124 align=center width=600]

Once again, I can't get the circles at right to close, except for the Hyperdrive (I think the inner white circle there is for the Pulse Engine, which theoretically should close once the Phototnix Core is in place). So maybe even if you have all the upgrades for something, and they're all adjacent to each other, you'll only get a closed circle if at least one of the upgrades is adjacent to whatever is being upgraded. In the case of my ship, only the Hyperdrive and Pulse Engine upgrades are adjacent to the corresponding systems, so maybe that's it. Same deal with the weapons, can't get any closed circles there either. But due to the layout of the ship, this is about as close as I can get whilst maintaining good weapons upgrade adjacency, but I'm still pretty well wepped up. I don't know what "Health" refers to. If it's the Deflector Shield, it doesn't make sense as there's a very large gap in the circle yet I have all three Shield upgrades adjacent. There is no damage to the ship either, so it's a bit of a mystery.

Once I get that Photonix Core installed, I'm going to start jumping. Time to see some new planets :-()

I've seen Omegon for sale now and then, but not often, and as I recall, only at those single landing pad stations.

As for your upgrades, Fragger, isn't there an omega level upgrade for most things? I'm pretty sure I have an omega for something. Don't know where/when you find those, as I've only ever found the sigma-theta-tau ones, except for that one thing, I'll have to check what it was, if I wasn't dreaming that.

There's a Combat Amplifier Omega for the Mining Beam and an Impact Damage Omega for the Boltcaster. There's a level 4 upgrade for the ship's Phase Beam Impact but it's called a Theta. The Beam Impact upgrades are titled Sigma, Tau and Theta but they're numbered 2, 3 and 4 - there's no number 1.

There's actually three level 5 Boltcaster ones but they're all one-off add-ons, not part of a sequence (Homingbolt, Wideshot and Shortburst Adapters).

There doesn't seem to be any other Omegas.

I'm starting to think that it's more a case of the titles Sigma, Tau, Theta and Omega being generations and the actual numbers on the upgrade icons are strength multipliers, so even thought the Phase Beam Impact Theta is the third generation it has a multiplying strength of 4, or something along those lines.

The game certainly doesn't make any of this very clear.

I have a feeling that getting away from the home system and closer to the centre of the galaxy, we might find more stuff unbeknownst to us at this point.

There are a few reasons why I think so.

First, those massive freighters that pop up out of nowhere. Huge ships that come in groups of three or four, you all saw those, and fragger posted some close-up screenshots. I wish one day we might own one of those.  :-D

Then, the pirates.. they can scan our cargo. We can't scan them. They can intercept us, we can't intercept them. So they're using some technology we don't have access to (at least, yet)

And I've recently collected a bunch of blueprints for stuff that is always build in by default, like a hazard protection in our exosuits, a pulse engine and launch thruster in a space ship. Stuff like that, the blueprints for which we can't use because.. we can neither build something from scratch nor dismantle those items. So maybe we might one day.

And there are those materials or items we got blueprints for and which we can already buy and sell, that seem to be part of a construction of something we don't have access to yet. Like unstable plasma for plasma grenade launchers or materials used for building large ships (I think one of those is called Lemmium or so, a yellow potato-like chunk of "hard" metal that is of no use to us so far)

Which is why I think there could be more..  :)

PS: and stuff you can buy like Calcium and whatnot, the purple stuff.. Radnox and so on.. blueprints coming up? :)

Yesss.. YES! :)

I mended ship wrecks until I got a 36-slotter and then I bought my dream ship, even a cool layout of the slots  :-D

[smg id=9130 type=preview align=center caption="the decision"]
[smg id=9128 type=preview align=center caption="I got it 40 slots"]
[smg id=9129 type=preview align=center caption="upgrading w@&k in progress"]

 :-X

It's cool when you get the ship you want. I knew I wanted the Goose as soon as I saw it, and it took hours to get it, but it turned out to be well worth all the trouble.

I was seriously thinking about going for a 48-slot version of it, but I would have to spend about 30 hours flogging Dynamic Resonators in the station - that's even if I strip out my ship to make the 48 cheaper. Then I'd have to re-craft all the upgrades again. Nah - I'll stick with the 40 I think :-()

 :) I think 40 will do, combined with a 48 exo.

This ship is fast.. goes over 210 normal speed, not using the boost.  :-D

Nice :-X

Interesting, I finally got the Photonix Core installed and now my ship gets up to 220u in space, and up to 183u at low-level planetside. It seems that upgrading your Pulse Engine increases your overall thrust speeds.

[smg id=9135 align=center width=600]

I also noticed on the Galactic map that having the Hyperdrive fully upgraded will allow me to make significantly longer jumps. I can now jump past five or six systems in one go, if I so choose. But the further I trace a path for a single jump, the fainter the line showing the path to the Galactic core becomes - after tracing the path on the map from one star to the next, beyond about the sixth star the path had faded to the point where I couldn't see it anymore.

I guess the devs don't want anyone to get to the centre too quickly :-()

Nice ship, Art, I'm going to do it the slow way and salvage, I had the thing where no traders showed up at the station last night, so I left and went exploring in the new system.

cheers :) I worked my way up to get that ship. If I hadn't done some testing before when I just thought, screw it, going to buy that 36-slot ship for 10M as I'm going to revert to the backup anyway, and jumped with that thing to the system "Six Pack" which I had made out as a 6-planet Gek system during yet another prior test, I wouldn't have seen "my" ship as a 40-slot version. It dawned on me that I need to have my own 36-slots ship in order to trigger the otherwise small fighter types with 40 slots. Fighters always seem to have only 4 slots more than your own ship as a maximum. And I wanted a 40-slots ship, and if possible, a fighter.. that's how it came to that. I reverted to my backup with a 31-slot ship and fixed up wrecks until I had my own 36 slots and then I found "my" 40-slot fighter. I am really happy and it does feel like having achieved something. :)

Now I am upgrading it to the max, which is fun. ^-^

The last planet in my second system called Six Pack is quite something. When I punched through the atmosphere and saw the first silhouettes and structures emerge, I briefly had a blackout. As in, the sky and terrain were not there but it turned black and dark for a moment. Something had passed me or I had flown through something, a graphics glitch, perhaps? But I did see my cockpit from the inside, it was something outside that darkened the sky and blocked the view.

It was the beast you see here, there was a flock of perhaps 20 or so of those, and it had kind of headbutted my ship  ???

[smg id=9150 type=preview align=center caption="flying dragons"]

The next thing I saw were enormous tulip-like plants about two or three times the size of a small shelter or building. You can see some of them here.. ???

[smg id=9151 type=preview align=center caption="enormous plants"]

And while I was standing on my ship, something aggressive and big as a pig or perhaps pony with light-emitting spots on its head was trying to rip me to ribbons.. ??? Only it couldn't get through the wing and fuselage of my ship. Phew..

[smg id=9152 type=preview align=center caption="come get me"]

It is also enormously hot. But else.. I called the planet Jurassic Park because there are tons of monstrously big animals and plants. Really like back in the day of the dinosaurs. Crazy  ???

I stood on top of my ship to get away from an attack and it didn't w@&k, thing must have a jump of 10m or so.

 :-D

Same thing happened to me. I was way up on top of my ship going "Nyah nyah" and the critter jumped up and got a bite in ???

 :laugh:

Yay, I finally got an Atlas Pass (v1). I got it from one of those terminal things after breaking into a locked building.

Now for a v2 and a v3. I want to find out what's behind those locked doors in the Space Station which require a v3 pass. Maybe it's an exclusive club where you get to drink Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters and hang out with Barbarella :-D

Barbarella! ??? OK, count me in. :-()

Jumped into my third system and straight into a "distress call to stop pirate attacks on a fleet of freighters" mission. So what the hell, I mixed it up with them. The upgraded weapons knocked them out of space like flies >:D My Deflector Shield held up very well too, though I had to repair it a few times between bouts. The same amount of damage that would knock the shield out entirely in my earlier game barely dents it now. I took out all sixteen pirate ships (yep, count 'em - sixteen).

I've since jumped a few more systems along - but I always seem to end up in a Korvax one :D I've decided I'm not going to stop in one system for any great length of time, unless I find a planet worth hanging around on for a bit (which I have, a lush and jungly tropical-type world that I posted some screenies of in that topic). I'm finding that once you have all your upgrades completed, there's not a great incentive to go to every planet in every system you visit. In fact I'm starting to think that the most fun part of the game is in the early days while you're gearing yourself up and getting your ship and Multitool together. Now that I've done all that, it's starting to get a tad monotonous - jump to new system, check out the planets, jump to new system, check out the planets... I'm hoping something fresh and novel pops up along the way. As it is, I've worked out that at the current rate (of traveling as far as my Hyperdrive will let me in one jump), it'll take about 1,700 jumps to get to the centre ???? Hopefully some quicker method of getting there will present itself later on, because I'm not going to stay interested long enough to get through 1,700 jumps. I'll be sick to death of it before I even get to a hundred.

There's got to be a better way, surely.


EDIT: Well, what do you know - I went back into the game and something new did pop up which led me into a whole new aspect of the game. Now maybe I'm getting somewhere.

HINT: (Art has already had experience with this in his first game) Make sure you do a "Planetary scan" every time you enter a new system. The default key is "c", or use whatever key you may have mapped it to for doing a resource scan on a planet's surface, but do it while you're in space. If you get an Atlas message in the lower right corner, act on it by following the guide that will appear.

This is speculation, but there may be something to be gained by getting the whole story of each race (you get a bit of one whenever you interact with a Monolith. You'll know when you've gotten a whole story when it says words to the effect of "this is the end of the tale" and the next time you do a Monolith for that race the story will begin again). I've gotten all of the Korvax's story, whose systems I've found myself in four times in a row... But I've jumped into a Vy'keen one now.

There's going to be a shortcut type of jump, fragger :) And various ways of keeping you interested, too..  ;)

Yep, met two individuals who provided a way to find shortcuts and I took one (won't say what it is for those who haven't come across it yet, don't want to spoil the surprise or the thrill of discovery). It shot me across several hundred thousand light years laterally but "only" about 15 thousand light years closer to the centre. Still a sizeable jump inwards though - it would have taken me about a couple of hundred "normal" jumps to make up that 15,000.

 :)

Spoiler

You certainly mean the black hole thingy? I also experimented with that yesterday, since I came across an anomaly station with a Korvax and Gek fellow inside. I got my atlas pass there from the Gek, and the Korvax offered me the option to use the black hole. It forwarded me 2000 lightyears more or less, but my Atlas trail was gone after that. So I reverted to my savegame and chose the Atlas trail instead. I think that will in the end lead us somewhere even more interesting and probably also a fast way to the core.

Great to hear that you're no longer having big issues with the Pirates. I did like you yesterday; made a few jumps forward, but without upgrading my ship. I was just curious, thought I'd made a backup, which I must have forgotten the night before lol :D
Anyway, I only once got a message that "hostile ships were approaching" and I could get rid of them by entering the spasta of the system I just popped up in. When I left there was only a distress call that teased me into joining a fight, which I ignored. I got one or two more distress calls, and could all refuse them. In a 'faraway system' I found a great ship with 47 slots. Price is 47 million so I figured to go back to my second system, the one where trading is so crazy good, save up and then go back and buy that ship. I might even try to find another shipwreck to get a 44 slotter first, so that my dreamship will hopefully come by with the desired 48 slots ;)
I got unlucky though on my last two shipwrecks, because they both were 42 slotters. One slot less :-\\
Anyway, I got a clear task now; get the required preps and buy that ship :)
And in the mean time I try to get the blueprints that still lack a perfect loadout and the omegon that is needed to get things sorted :-D

[smg id=9164 type=preview align=center caption="Dreamship"]

Excellent :-X

That Omegon can be a a real hassle to get hold of. I now carry some of it around with me and buy any I come across just in case I need it for some reason.

nice. :)

I jumped to a new system, the first planet has got no fauna (nice) but, in red letters, frenzied sentinels  ???? Alright, can't be that bad.. Oh, there are those gravitino balls, too, on that planet. Hey, let's pick up some.. and the battle ensued immediately. First a couple of drones and one of those robotic hounds but then.. a five-story tall battle robot came around the corner. WHOA  ???

[smg id=9173 type=preview align=center caption="madness 1"]
[smg id=9174 type=preview align=center caption="madness 2"]

I didn't finish off all of them and went off planet. That.. was a mistake. I got a "hostile scan detected" or some such and a couple of fighter ships warped into my trajectory. I took them out, but it wouldn't stop. I even had a bloody carrier  :o pop up in front of me out of which squadrons of fighters came right after me. I killed 20 ships before I had enough and reloaded.

Turns out that you definitely, definitely need to get rid of alerted sentinels before you leave the planet. Like, wait until you see the message that the sentinels are no longer after you.

I tried again and did that, killed every witness and the alert was called off, I left the planet and wasn't scanned or attacked.

Crazy.. so, finish what you started or it will finish you off  :-D

Crumbs ??? I haven't seen a "Frenzied" Sentinel description before. I've seen "Hostile" and "Aggressive", but not Frenzied.

I wonder why they're so protective of Gravitino Balls? There's another thing they're protective of, I can't remember what it's called - a "Something" Cube. I've seen them on a planet growing on some kind of plant. Like the Gravitino Balls, the Sentinels will be after you the moment you pick one.

no idea, really. Except perhaps.. if you had to protect something that resembled certain body parts, what would be your first choice.. 8-X :-()

 :-D

[smg id=9178 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9179 align=center width=600]

And what do you get? A whole 4 or 5 pieces of Murrine ???? It sells for a good price, but for the time and traveling around it would take to get a decent amount of it together, it's not really worthwhile.

Pirate attacks have now become fairly commonplace, but I'm actually dealing with them quite well and gaining increased standing with the various races when I take them out, so I'm leaving them in. I mixed it up with four of them here, and I nailed them all in short order while sustaining comparatively little damage compared to my first game. In that first game, four at once would have meant my death for sure. The upgraded weapons and shields make a world of difference, plus I've gotten more of a handle on their tactics, such as they are.

I never thought I'd say it, but now that I'm on at least an equal footing with the pirates, I'm actually stating to enjoy the dogfights.

[smg id=9180 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9181 align=center width=600]

I like that, "going, going.. gone." :-D Glad you can handle yourself now and I think that after a while without pirates, the game might be boring a little. I haven't yet encountered any hostile ships (except one massive battle due to "frenzied" sentinels taking it to the skies and off planet) but as long as I have a fighting chance, I'm OK with it.

Found my first pirate. A frontal burst of my photon cannons while he was still trying to materialise turned him into a dirty-looking cloud which dissolved just as quickly. I didn't waste much time there and decided to hit a black hole for a change and for the first time.

And damn, I came out of it and got smashed right into a stupid distress signal (space battle type). Saw some red-glowing energy balls zipping by from behind and some fighters overtaking me while I was also eying a message on my screen that told me my theta shield upgrade had snapped and needed repair. WHAT? ??? Went to the spasta (I had sold most of my stuff.. never thought I'd have to keep materials for repairs) but neither did I have nor could I buy the resources needed.

So out I went again and landed on a moon to find materials and wow, a storm came up, some toxicity and radiation.. and some summerly temperatures just over 300°C  ???

It is getting crazier, I reckon.  :-D

Apparently traveling through a black hole will always cause damage to some component of your ship. I had to repair my Photon Cannon, fortunately there were no pirates around at the time.

That's the price you pay taking a short cut, it seems.

I had a feeling it might have had to do with that jump. Thanks for clearing that up :)

Thinking of energy weapons reminded me of a funny bit in the original Terminator movie. It's early in the piece when Arnie goes into the gun shop to get his weapons. He's talking to the clerk and rattling off the names of all the guns he wants - "The 12-guage auto-loader" and "The .45 long-slide with laser sighting". Then he asks for a "Phased-plasma rifle in the 40-watt range". The clerk shrugs at him and says, "Hey, just what you see, pal!" :-()

 :-D

Materials for repairs, damn indeed :D

I didn't want to leave all the materials I collected (I have one slot of almost every material in my ship) but later I realised that apart from upgrading you don't need them for much else. I even made a list what you should need to carry with you while travelling, just to make sure you don't run out of things:

Thamium9
Carbon
Plutonium (those 3 are quite logical, as being fuels for the devices you carry)
Zync
Heridium (those 2 needed while crafting warp cells for your hyper drive)

If you have experience, add the stuff we'd better carry with us in case some repairs have to be made ;)

OK.. after a very tiresome and at times boring session (trading until my eyes started to bleed) and going through quite a few ship wrecks, I finally had the money and a ton of luck: I got my new 48-slot fighter.  :-D

And now I can do the upgrade-marathon yet again. :'( I created a list (http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=3904.msg81916#msg81916) for just that purpose :laugh:

[smg id=9190 type=preview align=center caption="new dream ship"]
[smg id=9191 type=preview align=center caption="with headlight"]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm enjoying the combat now, when it happens. In fact I'm welcoming it as a change of pace :-D Whenever I get a distress call, I'm in like Flynn. If they try to jump me, I'm like "Yeah? Just bring it, you scurvy space-dogs!" >:D


[smg id=9202 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9203 align=center width=600]

[smg id=9204 align=center width=600]

nice. :-X :-D

Had my first real space combat last night. I traveled back to my home system to find some nickel and aluminum for upgrades, since I knew exactly where those were and it was easier than trying to find them in the system I was in, so I mined a bunch of what I needed and took off for the station to sell some stuff I'd gathered and when I hit space, got the distress call thing. I knew I should have ignored it, but went for it anyway. The latest ship I had picked up had decent weapons and shields on it, so I started attacking. Thing is, I wasn't quite sure who I should be firing on. I take it the smaller ships that are flying around the freighter are the ones you need to shoot? So I shot a few, they shot back, and I killed a couple. Then it seemed that one of the bigger ships was shooting at me, or maybe at someone behind me? Anyway, there was this double cannon thing floating around near one of the big ships that may have broken off or been shot off the big ship, and it seemed it was just shooting at anything including me. I couldn't fire at it, as it seemed it wasn't something I could target. But anyway, I got into it with more of the small ships and eventually ran out of stuff to repair my shields with and popped back at the station. Went out and got my stuff and headed back to the station for some trading.

So, first space battle and I didn't do too bad, I think I got at least 6 or 7 of them, I did get the milestone for shooting down 5 ships, so at least that many.

Oh yeah, has anyone had an issue with the online services not connecting? You know, when you upload discoveries, there's the little indicator in the lower left that tells you if you're online or not? Mine's been offline for a couple days now, and I know my internet isn't the greatest, but it's usually connected. I wonder if their servers are down or something.

Sometimes I get that online services not connected message too. I don't know why, it seems to go up and down. Maybe it's due to traffic or something, but I don't think it's just at your end D_B. My connection is pretty stable - actually it's very stable - but I still get that too, a fair bit actually. It doesn't seem to adversely affect the game or the saving or anything.

Re the combat, yeah, the little ships are the bad guys. But it's entirely possible that one of the freighters was shooting at you. They're a fickle bunch - if you target a pirate ship but miss and accidentally hit a freighter, they'll classify you as an enemy and will open up on you. The game needs a "transmit apology" key that you can hit to let them know it was an accident :-() I haven't seen a turret tumbling around in space by itself still firing, but maybe you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On another tack, I came out of hyperspace into this system so close to the space station that I couldn't slow down in time and I ran into it. It didn't do any damage though, I just sort of bounced off the wall. But I mean, really - that's the last time I let Chewie do the calculations ::)

 :-D I popped out of hyperspace once and got the message "no free slots available" plus there was a bit missing in my health bar. Apparently my Chewie-idiot had me materialise right next to an asteroid that blew up in pieces.  :D :-D

I got the disconnection problem for a week or so now. It's more off than on. Sometimes reloading the game helps.

With those distress signals, I remembered fragger's story about that he got shot at by the big ships because he might have hit one of them by accident so I knew I would have to avoid hitting them at all costs.

I've got the anti-pirate mod, just a file, installed and when I came to pay the priest and Polo a visit for the path of the Atlas, the third time, Polo wanted to know about the pirates. My only option I had to answer his question was greyed out. Because I needed to be level 3 regarding killed ships. The game crashed when I backed out.

I removed the file, went out to space and got two distress signals in short succession. When I was close to the big ships I never fired towards them. When the little bastards were attacking the big ships and flying right at them, I waited until I had empty space behind them so I wouldn't hit a big ship. It worked, and I never got shot by the big ships. I had racked up enough kills to get the required level for Polo so I slapped the anti-pirate mod back in and all is good.

I did the last Atlas mission just like Binnatics and am now free to horse around a bit :)

The big ships will definitely target you if you hit them, I've had that happen twice now. I saw one of my Photon Cannon shots hit a big ship, I was too close and I miscalculated the deflection :D I saw the shot hit and the whole fleet turned on me (got a whole bunch of green arrowheads in the hud, pointing from different directions).

There's quite a diversity in freighter design too, I'm noticing. I saw some in one system that were truly gigantic, like Star Destroyers. They were immense ????

reminds me of when I left a planet while the drones were still on full alert. They took it off planet to space and a bloody carrier popped up next to me, spilling out squadrons of fighters.

I've completed the Atlas path and "birthed" a new star, which was pretty anticlimactic and all rather pointless - not to mention that following the path took me further away from the core. Some sort of beneficial reward like a big boost toward the core would have been nice, instead of the "satisfaction" of creating a new star that you will never see nor apparently have anything to do with.

Learning all three races' stories doesn't appear to reward you in any way either.

It's starting to look like there is only one worthwhile goal: get to the galactic core. IF it turns out to be worthwhile, that is - it takes a lot of jumps to get there. Which isn't actually much fun, just watching the hyperspace effect over and over for about a minute each time.

Well, nothing else for it...

I think you didn't read my spoiler in my complaints post. Anyway, I had the exact same feeling when completing the Atlas trail. I did some research about space navigation which at least learns us that taking black holes is the best way to travel and that the giant lightball on the 'horizon' is the galactic core. ;)

You can find that here (http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=3905.0)

OK, so I definitely had green arrows and red arrows on screen during that fight, so I guess the freighters got mad at me. I also had grey arrows, are those pirates or friendly?

If they're small grey arrows, they mean ships that are way out of weapon range. If they're large, they may be the freighters themselves if they're not hostile towards you, or ordinary neutral ships in the area, like the ones that come in to the space station. There are sometimes blue arrows, which represent Sentinel ships, sometimes one might show up if you accidentally hit a freighter, I've had that happen.

Oh f@#k me. Now fragger just HAD to do the same, too!! Is there anyone else who wants to slip in their post before I can? Feel free to do so NOW!  :laugh:

***

Bloody hell, now D_B squeezed in his five cents as well!  :laugh:

Grey is neutral, which means those pirates that you are supposed to take out. As soon as you do, they'll start turning red.

***

going to read that in a minute, Binnatics :)

And this time YOU slipped in your post before I could hit "post" :-D

***

Fragger, same story here. Kind of dull, really, that Atlas ending.

I'm just a happy space pilot trying to get my hands on many different ships on my way to.. where, exactly? Indeed, I got pushed away from the core during that stupid Atlas path. And I hate taking the black holes because they wreck my good stuff in my ship and I hate to do repair runs all around neighbouring planets.

And I hate spell checkers that keep telling me to turn a British English word into an American English word and I keep teaching it British English all the time. :-()

 :laugh:

 :laugh:

Let me guess - the spell-checker wanted to change the word "neighbouring" on you :-()

Funny how American English spellings deviated from the traditional English ones:

Traditional English: honour, colour, valour / American English: honor, color, valor

Traditional English: centre, metre / American English: center, meter

Traditional English: dialogue, catalogue / American English: dialog, catalog

Traditional English: programme / American English: program

Traditional English: aluminium / American English: aluminum

In the last example, the whole pronunciation and syllable stress of the word is different. In traditional English it's pronounced "al-you-MIN-ee-um", in American English it's "ah-LUM-in-um". The presence or lack of that last "i" changes the whole word.

Neither is universally "correct" or "incorrect". They are both correct in their respective countries. In Australia we use traditional English spellings, so that's what I was taught. Some of what I write must look funny to American eyes :)

Interestingly, as I look at this in the edit window, all the above traditionally-spelt English words are being tagged by the spell-checker except for "dialogue" and "catalogue", and the American versions of these words aren't being tagged either. So maybe these spelling are interchangeable in the U.S.?

yes, it did  :-() I also was taught the traditional British English spelling. And I got the same, dialogue etc not being tagged by the spell checker.

 :-D

I've cobbled together some thoughts on the game, a month since beginning.

I think it's a fantastic and engrossing game and I will be returning to it, after a bit of a break. I'll be starting anew though. I think you have to be prepared to make your own entertainment within NMS. If you're looking for deep strategy, intricate story arcs, detailed character-building and rip-roaring space action, you're in the wrong game. This is not the gaming equivalent of Battlestar Galactica or a Star Trek movie, which some people seemed to expect. The best and most rewarding challenges in the game are the ones you set for yourself.

Were expectations met? Mine were, for the most part. Re-viewing the promotional videos on Youtube and re-reading some of the pre-release dev interviews, it is true that there were mentions and impressions given of aspects of the game which were not in fact included, or at least had different implications, so the negative criticisms levelled at the game were not entirely without foundation. I can see why some people were disappointed, but I also believe that some took the hate to an unfair level.

I think many people extrapolated some comments made by the devs into gameplay features which were never promised. I remember reading a comment by somebody on Youtube about his plans to "fortify an entire planet" once he got into the game, which was clearly a case of reading aspects of gameplay functionality into the premise that was simply never there to start with, nor was promised. This functionality was what that particular individual wanted there to be, not what the game's creators said there would be. I think there was a lot of that sort of thing - people seeing what they wanted to see, not what was being shown.

I think the best way to approach NMS is to go in without expectations. Take it on its own terms and don't wish for, or expect, things that the game can't deliver. I wasn't disappointed because I went in without any expectations and was prepared to let the game show me what it had, not what I wanted it to have. I think it's a game which provides a lot of entertainment, but you have to be prepared to make that entertainment yourself.

There may be added functionality over time, the devs may introduce new gameplay elements, or they may not. Hard to say at this point, but there is potential and scope for innovation. Whether there will be any now after all the bad press remains to be seen.

Interesting read, fragger. :)

I am lucky that I didn't know anything about the game and definitely not more than what I saw in a few videos that mmosu posted. Those videos left me with an impression of a very colourful game with the strangest worlds and even stranger colour combinations as if painted with text markers. And a multi-tool you could blast through rock to get inside of caves that also looked very strange and colourful. I remember the multi-tool in action when it mined some minerals. And strange looking space ships.

That's about all and that's what actually did not make me go all crazy about the game. I only got it because you guys here were kind of crazy about the game and I just wanted to be part of that silly experience when I bought it the very last moment before release :-D

I made my own way through the game -- you know how and what I did. I took my own time after a few strange starts that had made me start over and particularly after a bug prevented me from progressing (unable to create restore points) so, I had a bad start but had learned a lot from my own mistakes. After that, you know the story. I had a lot of fun levelling up and trading. The way I played it, and some of you decided to start over and do as I did, was a very condensed and intense gaming during the early stage of the game, allowing us to achieve what I believe not many players out there were able to achieve.

After we got lots of money and maxed-out equipment, we left the home system as geared-up as one could ever be. That too was fun. It took away a long and painful phase of development and perhaps it was the reason why there was little left to impress us. The only thing that could have and should have impressed us was the path of the Atlas but I think the devs either forgot to finish that path properly or Sony cut out the fun somehow.

However, that doesn't stop me from finding ways to create my own story.. a story driven by curiosity that keeps me going. I am particularly fond of the enormous variety of ships. I have learned to like to fix up wrecks. :-D And there are a few mods out there that allow for additional fun and that make the game easier, most notably the anti-pirate mod in my case.

So yes, only as long as I keep finding stuff that I want to do, which is not story-driven but perhaps part of the original game concept: Explore. And I still like to visit new planets and systems and.. space stations with new ships.  :-D

speaking of which.. man, I love this one (my new ship, hehe) in every aspect. Shape, colour.. and the crazy structure the teardrop canopy sits on :-()

It is now officially battle-hardened. During a distress call I took out 17 attacking pirates with it. Sorry, pirates, just leave us alone.  >:D

I do enjoy the teardrop cockpit, such a great view all around. I tested a lot of cockpits by now and I think those cockpits are probably the best because they least obstruct the view and you can see more to the sides and up than in any other cockpit I found so far. :)

[smg id=9230 type=preview align=center caption="nice shape"]
[smg id=9231 type=preview align=center caption="crazy cockpit"]

Oh man, there are so many cool ships! At this space station I even had to choose. Since I'm on my way to the core of the galaxy, I can't stay and test them all.. :'(

I definitely need a portable hangar to carry around with me.. oh, if only there were carriers for that matter, something like the Battlestar Galactica! I WANT ONE! With room for at least 100 ships. :-D

[smg id=9232 type=preview align=center caption="left this behind"]
[smg id=9233 type=preview align=center caption="and my old one"]

my new ship: :) Amazing how there are still ships that are cooler than the ones I already had.
[smg id=9234 type=preview align=center caption="long pointed nose"]
[smg id=9235 type=preview align=center caption="cool fighter"]
[smg id=9236 type=preview align=center caption="R2D2 on board"]

Love that ship with the needle nose. Very nice :)

me too, haven't seen anything I'd want to trade it in for yet  ^-^

Well, maybe there is. I did a test with the ship you'll see below, didn't even want to save it yet but instead just take a test flight with it. I wanted to see what the cockpit view was like, before actually considering it, that was the only reason I grabbed it and I just took of with it. Just a test without wanting yet to land again so I wouldn't create a restore point with a probably crappy ship.

Then I had a first time encounter, a bounty hunt!  ??? >:D So I took the little yellow scientific insect ship to the battle, without having changed a thing about its upgrades, no time for that  :laugh:

Here's the ship I thought looked very cool. I found it funny, it's yellow and got the Japanese sun painted on it -- might as well be some kind of Pokemon Anime Manga whatever, but still it's cool somehow ^-^
[smg id=9246 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 01"]
[smg id=9247 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 02"]
[smg id=9248 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 03"]
Taking off, right behind a big trader.
[smg id=9249 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 04"]
There was a message I didn't find time to capture, it was something that contained "80,000u bounty" and here's what I saw. I flew towards it and gave chase.
[smg id=9250 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 05"]
It is kind of hard to play with a controller, fight some three-star bad guy, and take a screenshot with my keyboard.. so only one screenie but still.
[smg id=9251 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 06"]
Gotcha!  >:D
[smg id=9252 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 07"]
It was a tad more than those promised 80,000 but don't we all know already that they can't do the maths properly  :laugh:
[smg id=9253 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 08"]

So here's the equipment I was fighting with. Wasn't half bad but totally random. :-()
[smg id=9254 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 09"]

However, I thought that actually the experience was quite cool. So I flew back to the spasta and landed -- I was surprised to see that my old abandoned needle-nose was still there  ??? :) Just to be on the safe side, I took my old ship back.

Now, what to do.. keep this or keep that.. Decisions, decisions. :-D
[smg id=9255 type=preview align=center caption="Japanese warrior 10"]

Just by the way, I decided against the yellow ship, cool as it might look. It only had 4 health. Fighters with 6 are already somewhat low.

Cool :) :-X

I've started right from the beginning, with the 16-slot Skywalker Special :-() This time I want to see if I can get all the way up to a 48-slotter just by salvaging wrecks. The first wreck I found was one slot less though, at 15. So I passed on it - the objective is not to downgrade, for heaven's sake... ????

For me, the most fun of NMS is getting everything together and working my way up. Once I get all my equipment maxed, I'll call it a game.

Speaking of "equipment", here's a little contest: Let's see who can come up with the most colourful name for this rather vulgar-looking piece of flora. I've got a head start with Viriditas Penisia, Willy Weed and Junkbush.

[smg id=9262 align=center width=600]

(considering the prominent erect three main exhibits)

Triple Whopper Royal

Imperial Trinity


(Else)

Big Bang

Phallow Me


(and why not)

The OMG Factor

 :laugh:

I like the phallow factor :-X :)

I'd say it looks like a Multi tool ;)

 :-X :laugh:

One or two or a handful creatures in one place, OK.. but THIS.. ???

[smg id=9264 type=preview align=center caption="legless land shrimps"]

I can hear them scream for a grenade 8-X

I actually did that. Before I read your post. You do know me well, don't you  :-()

[smg id=9266 type=preview align=center caption="shrimps meet grenades"]

 :laugh: :-X :-X :-X :-X

[with a French accent] "Zeris no greenpiss, no animul protecsiurn, so whynot."

>:D

Alright, I did it again.. new ship. :-D There are actually a couple of cool ships here. The "Red Baron" to the right is my new ship. It actually got double wings :)

The other one with the yellow needle-nose isn't shabby, either. But the third, the funny bird to the left cracked me up.. LMAO :laugh:

[smg id=9267 type=preview align=center caption="new ship again"]

[smg id=9268 type=preview align=center caption="red baron 01"]
[smg id=9269 type=preview align=center caption="red baron 02"]
[smg id=9270 type=preview align=center caption="red baron 03"]
[smg id=9271 type=preview align=center caption="Yellow Nose"]
[smg id=9272 type=preview align=center caption="funny fighter 01"]
[smg id=9273 type=preview align=center caption="funny fighter 02"]
[smg id=9274 type=preview align=center caption="funny fighter 03"]

Quote from: Binnatics on September 12, 2016, 12:12:11 PM
I'd say it looks like a Multi tool ;)

:laugh: :-X Damn, why didn't I think of that one?

[smg id=9284 align=center width=600]

 :-X :-D

Quote from: fragger on September 12, 2016, 04:23:51 PM
:laugh: :-X Damn, why didn't I think of that one?

8)

@ Art; Nice ships indeed! I think I like the design of the other needle-noose even better, but I don't like the colours. And that red baron is NICE! Also has a nice name ;)

thank you, Binnatics :) It still amazes me when I see new ships with yet another new design. When I saw the red baron sitting on a landing pad at a trapo, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. I ran over and made it mine.  :-D

My 2nd planed on which I found all creatures. :) And I am happy to say that there are only non-carnivore beasts here so I don't have to worry when going for a stroll. I flipping hate it when there are carnivores around. No relaxed walk, always on tip-toes.. no chilled-out exploring.. so I am really enjoying peaceful planets. This one is nice. The weather is nice, too, and the temperature is normal, so really a nice new peaceful haven to fall back to.  :-X :)

Here's Dodo, and Dodo wants to be my friend. :-D Oh and that yellow thing is just some plant.

[smg id=9285 type=preview align=center caption="peaceful planet"]

It appears as if the hype about the game was over when I look at the fewer and fewer posts and stories and screenshots. It almost feels as if I was the last man standing, or, playing. I don't know whether anyone is actually still interested and still reading the posts here or just being absent for whatever reasons.

Well, I am still enjoying the game and I keep seeing strange or interesting stuff. I am now in my third galaxy so I'm not in a terrible hurry to get to the next. Instead, I start to explore adjacent star systems and call them "neighbours" which I count. Like, right now I am exploring "9th Neighbour" and in between, I jump back to this or that system just so I might get a distress call from a group of big freighters. You know, recently I started to hunt pirates as a hobby. Who would have thought.  8)

As far as I can tell, pirates are just normal fighter ships that we can see in stations. I found out that in the ship's cockpit where you can see a mini version of your own ship slowly circling and its name is shown on top, that the image and name changes when another ship is nearby. I kept seeing different shuttles and other ships on that mini display. When I encountered pirates, it didn't say "pirate" but instead showed a regular ship albeit they are apparently ships of the fighter class. Nothing special.

I usually use the booster to get close, then fire the mining laser at a pirate to draw his attention and then I change to photon cannon when he's headed towards me.. into a hail of energy bubbles -- a matter of seconds until he blows up rather spectacularly. >:D

I am always careful not to hit the big freighters and so far, I haven't been attacked by those. By now I have shot down almost 100 pirates. I have come to like those space battles against up to 20 pirates although the big ships in fact do kill a few of them leaving some 10 to 15 pirates to my attention. Which is better than none  :-()

Also, I have found many different and at times bizarre ships and flown most of those that looked different or special. Currently I am flying something regular but before I had a crazy ship. That is what keeps me going to different systems as each system has got a special breed of ships and I am curious about what else I might find. :)

I owned that one once.
[smg id=9287 type=preview align=center caption="bizarre fighter"]
[smg id=9288 type=preview align=center caption="bizarre fighter rear"]

Quote from: Art Blade on September 14, 2016, 04:51:10 PM
It appears as if the hype about the game was over when I look at the fewer and fewer posts and stories and screenshots. It almost feels as if I was the last man standing, or, playing. I don't know whether anyone is actually still interested and still reading the posts here or just being absent for whatever reasons.

I'm still reading the posts but not adding many, or indeed any at all, about my own experiences, because I'm not having any. I feel the game has run its course for me personally. It pulled me in big time for the first couple of weeks, but then my enthusiasm slowly began to ebb away. I think it was because once I came to realise that there aren't really very many built-in game objectives (I mean other than ones you may set for yourself), some of the attraction was lost for me. I'm not interested in getting the free-upgrade mod because about the only aspect of the game that really gave me any sense of satisfaction was the earning of the techs and the upgrades. So installing that mod would remove any incentive for me to play at all. I'd be the last person to knock modding - if you've paid good money for a game, and if modding it isn't affecting anybody else, you have every right to do so if it adds to your enjoyment of the game you've paid for. But I'm the type who likes the sense of achievement in having done things the hard way :-() I never even got around to installing the anti-pirate mod. Once I'd earned all the techs and upgrades though, I sort of felt like I'd gotten all dressed up but didn't have anywhere in particular to go.

I enjoyed the game for a month or so, but it just didn't last. As I said in some of my earlier posts, I knew it wouldn't hold my attention forever, but I lost interest in it sooner than I thought I would. It started to go downhill for me when I completed the Atlas path and got a big fat nothing for it other than causing an obscure star to be created in some distant corner of the galaxy that I would never see nor have anything to do with, and I thought, "then what was the flipping point?" The icing on the cake was the trip to the core turning out to be a non-event, other than to basically kick you back to the beginning in a new galaxy with everything needing to be repaired but no new techs or anything to w@&k towards.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't turned into a NMS hater, nor do I have any ill feeling or resentment towards it, and I might still play with it from time to time, but I'm just not enormously interested in it anymore. Maybe the devs will add more features and activities in time, but I'm not holding my breath. The game has received so much bad press (most of it unfairly, in my view) that it may have scared the devs away from touching it any further. We'll see in time, I guess.

There is potential for so much more in NMS, but it feels like it was cut short in the rush for release. For instance, there are a number of minerals that appear to have no purpose, revealing the entirety of all three of the alien races' stories achieves nothing, and I can't help but feel that the Atlas path was intended to lead to something but that too got cut short. I'm even starting to wonder if the V2 and V3 Atlas Passes actually exist in the game or if they too are evidence of omissions - I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that those doors can't be unlocked because there is nothing behind them.

Different strokes and all that. It's a very good game, there's just not enough of a variety of accomplishments to strive for to keep me hooked.

Yeah, I feel the same as Fragger, and I haven't even "completed" the game yet. Even a few weeks ago I decided I was going to treat the game as early access, as it was clearly not finished. I had done something similar to Kerbal Space Program, a game I enjoyed immensely, but played every iteration up through the development process quite a bit. This usually meant re-starting a new game as new features or fixes made old saves not w@&k anymore. This was fine for a while, but once the game had a full release, it had changed quite a bit and now starting from scratch was a bit more difficult and I found I had no desire to do so. So I left it, and haven't played for a year maybe? I may get back into it, but found that was a danger with early access games. I also have Stranded Deep and Subnautica sitting there, both of which I played quite a bit in early versions. Stranded Deep changed the world save format so that it's quite a bit different than it used to be. Subnautica has added so many new things, it's almost a different game now. I feel (hope) the same thing is going to happen to No Man's Sky, I'm pretty sure they are still working on it, and plan to add features. I don't want to get used to a game only to have it change drastically while I'm still playing it. I prefer to wait and watch how it trends and then when it looks like it has stabilized, I'll get back into it. I mean, they were talking about having the ability to build planetside bases, and other structures, so that would be a huge change, and who knows what else. So, early access gets you a glimpse of what the game might be, but I found it's best to let it sit for a while.

I'll play when I have some time where I don't want to get into something else, in that way, it's more like a casual game, play for 15 or 20 minutes, find some stuff, fly somewhere, then quit when you need to go to lunch or something. But until it's more finalized, I doubt I'll play for extended periods. But that's not to say I don't enjoy seeing what you guys are up to, and what weird things you've found.

thanks for those posts, guys :)

The AtlasPass V2 and V3 exist. You get to see a room loaded with plants or a room that looks like it belonged to a janitor, stuffed with crates and robotic parts. So it's either a carbon stash or a trade commodities stash. Sometimes there are also random machines such as health or shield or exosuit slot upgrade machines additionally to the aforementioned supplies.

I still read all the posts about the game. Thinking back, that must've been what most enjoyed me of No Man's Sky. The anticipation of what might be in the beyond. When I got the game and started playing I was so happy that I could finally join the fun, but sooner than I'd thought possible I learned the hard way that this game is indeed far from what it could have been. The Atlas disappointment was huge to me. I don't even believe that I actually created a star. I think it was just the message.
Finding a new galaxy was a cool climax @ first, but then I realised there would not be anything new other than more planets, ships and whatnot. So who cares for a new galaxy? We already had a bazillion stars to explore and now we are cut off any history we made happen ourselves to which we will never get back again. Same with the black holes. They make returning impossible. Keep exploring, lost in space.

The joy we've had so far together on the forum was so great. Building my ship was great, too. But having to do all over again was not so cool. And the mod which I installed made it too easy. But then there wasn't any purpose to go through with it. I do have a great ship, perfect layout now, no challenges anymore. Probably the mod was the last punch I needed to leave the game behind.

Well, fair enough, this was the first game to really get me away from GTA V for more than a week. Quite an achievement :)
I won't forget NMS easily and I might return to it when new updates come out. But I agree with you guys; this game was intended differently, bigger. There should have been something that would keep us going. Clues and gestures towards a strange mystery. That is in fact what I had thought of. Something like the great mystery of Mount Chilliad, something nobody solved until now, but where hundreds of ideas, possible clues and theories are being shared until today on the net.

The concept of a galaxy that will build itself along formulas being triggered by exploring players is revolutionary. But the devs (maybe because of Sony) haven't managed to get it to full potential.
They spent so much time and creativity into how starships, plants, animals and atmospheres would be randomly created, with an almost infinite amount of possibilities, that probably they didn't have any time left to make a game with it. They were stuck in a concept, lost in space :-D

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgR02tFIOMg#)

thanks for the feedback :)

Actually, I understand all of you. The game is lacking. But somehow that was my first impression when I watched some of the first videos, which is why originally I didn't even want to buy it, and now I can say first hand that it did not get any better playing the game  :laugh:

When I got the game, I had major problems and quickly recognised major errors I committed while playing. Having had to start over more than once, I wanted a fast lane to get where I should have been. That is when I start to analyze and trick games if the start is crap. You guys know exactly what I did to get up to speed and then I went through all the stuff there was without any mods, so essentially "the hard way," too. Then I was about to lose interest because getting JUST ONE NEW SHIP was incredibly, insanely difficult if you wanted to buy one. Well, a few hours of mind-melting trading and some 60+ millions later I bought one, already using D_B's clever exploit (strip down your ship or multi-tool if you want to get a better price) yet still some 60M for a ship.. I think we're among the few guys who were actually able to pull that off, making millions in minutes rather than weeks or months. Still, I wanted more. I love playing around with stuff that essentially should be accessible but.. the price.. I would have stopped playing if it hadn't been for the mods. Thanks to the easy way they provided, I was able to and still am able to have some fun with the game. Which is very limited to finding new cool random fighter ships and space battles. The best part was when we all kept adding new findings of how to improve the game, tweaks, tricks.. that really was nice  :-X :)

I'll be off this game October 13, release date of Shadow Warrior 2, which I will be playing cooperatively with an old friend of mine.

Looks like we all feel pretty much the same way, to varying degrees. I think of NMS as being a terrific concept in search of a game. We had a blast with it and a good time raving on about what we'd discovered, but we quickly uncovered all the game's secrets and ran out of new things to report other than ship configurations and planets we'd found. Which is good, but a complete game this does not make.

It has given me a bit of a hankering for a good space sim though, and I've actually been looking at Elite: Dangerous, a roughly analogous affair to NMS which has been out for about a year or so but is continually being improved upon and updated. This is a re-imagined Kickstarted reboot of the Elite space-trading games of the 80s and 90s, and is a really good-looking item. You can't land on planets unless you buy the "Horizons" EXP, and even then there is no life on those planets, however this is reportedly being worked upon and will be added in future via updates - at least, that's the impression I get. The game has mixed reviews, about 2/3 of which are positive, but there's a substantial minority of players that don't like it, so make of that what you will. There appears to be more to w@&k towards than there is in NMS in that there is a diverse assortment of missions available, which will vary depending on what system you're in. Yes, missions, something NMS almost entirely lacks. There's a lot more focus on accurately piloting your ship which makes it a bit more like a flight sim in space, and the graphics are gorgeous - your ship cockpit details alone put those of NMS to shame. AND you can move your head and look around while you're flying. You can even see your own hands on the controls.

There is no 18 quintillion planets in E:D, just a measly several hundred billion solar systems. Like NMS, it utilizes procedural generation, but did it a year earlier, just without detailed planet surface terrain and animals. NMS was not quite as revolutionary as it was made out to be...

Here's a sample of the gameplay (there are tons of E:D vids on Youtube, I've only just started looking at a few). The guy was new to it himself at the time and was still getting the hang. He refers to it as a MMO game but it can definitely be played in single-player mode (I checked) - HOWEVER: there is no offline mode, and that rotten practice really ticks me off :angry-new: So single-player is essentially playing MMO without the MM - or at least, you just don't see the other players, but those other players can still affect the market, sort of like GTA V's stock market system. I'm still looking into how the multi- and single-player versions may differ from each other, or whether they even do.

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkQH1xRlh0#)


Here's the game on Steam (don't bother with the trailers. Like all trailers, what you see is not actual gameplay. Youtube is better for viewing actual gameplay clips):

http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/ (http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/)


I won't be getting into it any time soon, it's too close to Civ VI time. But the game is on my "potential interest with reservations" list :-()


EDIT: A couple of extra points worth mentioning:

E:D has full joystick support for most popular makes, including the whole Thrustmaster range and HOTAS setups.

Most negative reviewers say the same thing - the game is boring. Now, where have we heard that before? I think "boring" to some people means either having to put in time to learn a game, or experiencing anything other than instant action all the time. By all accounts, E:D definitely has a curve and requires a commitment to get to grips with, and will take time and patience to get to know. These are the sorts of things that some individuals classify as "boring", i.e. having to put in any thought or effort themselves. Without playing the game, the negs could be right, I can't say one way or another. But about 85% of players claimed that NMS was boring, and look how much we got into it. Unfortunately NMS couldn't sustain our enthusiasm due to the ultimately limited nature of its concept, but had there been more to do in it I'm sure we'd all still be waxing lyrical now. E:D does appear to have more to do in it. It's something to bear in mind, at least.

A lot of people also found FC2 boring. Yet that game is the reason why we are all here now ^-^

Interesting concept, but I'm afraid I will be amongst the guys who will rate the game as boring.
Funny accent this guy has. Any idea where he's from? He seems to pronounce certain parts of sentences supper fast, as if being glued together ;D

I am very careful on whatever early access there is right now. I'm sure devs are still working on it, but my experience with DayZ (still experimental, probably releasing a weapon, car or zombie-type every few months) taught me not to go crazy on something that is still w@&k in progress. 
Besides of that, Gkid just told me about his experiences with Ark, which is also still experimental, not seeming to ever come to a full grown game.

One reason I'm here is that I ditched E:D quite some time ago after only 82 hours of gameplay.

I had it from the start, played it simultaneously (not cooperatively, nor in the same session) with B33 ENN (an old OWG fellow who is "inactive" here). He decided to go down the dark alley by becoming a pirate and slave trader, messing with basically every law-and-order system there was, which included that he wasn't allowed to dock anywhere in the legal space without having the police after him. I decided to go down the trading route (as I almost always do in those types of games) and specialised in rare goods (erm, dynamic resonators, anyone?) which included travelling half across the known universe to buy, say, one bottle of the unique "arse of the galaxy beer" for say, 10 credits, then travel back all across the universe (which pretty much resembled warp jumps between systems in NMS) to sell that one bottle for say, 500,000 credits. There I'd buy something similarly cheap like "the other arse of the galaxy" stout, same price, same route back, same profit margin. I became quite rich in the process. Using my HOTAS whatever joystick was very rewarding.

Then I had a chat with B33 ENN. I asked him how it was going and he said that he was saving up for a new ship (the Adder). Actually the one I had been using for some time now. And I sent him this screenshot. It shows what I would get for my current adder if I traded it in for a fresh one.

[smg id=9299 type=preview align=center caption="Elite Dangerous Ship Price Check"]

As you can see, my refund would have been way over a million which is for the ship upgrades installed. Remember, he was saving up for the base price of some 90k. Unfortunately I wasn't there at his place to watch him shift in and out of consciousness after letting out one hell of a scream.  :-D

However, I was fed up with going back and forth, jumping from system to system, always the same procedure.. and jumps could include unforeseen drastic and very unpleasant events. Like, jumping straight into a sun. The moment you come out of the warp jump, all systems go on alert, hull integrity alert, overheating alert, hull breach, system failure, alert, alert, alert.. You wouldn't believe how busy you can get trying to get the f@#k out of there again without falling apart.

And there were pirates that could pull you out of pulse speed. And they really liked to finish you over properly. At least you had some kind of escape vector but that was more or less some random chance and it wasn't certain you could actually make it.

I was really pissed off by all the nonsense.

What it really boils down to for me, it's not that I don't want to play NMS, it's just that there are other games right now that I want to play more.

The problem with early access, is that there's the danger of the game becoming something you don't really like anymore. Like Kerbal Space Program, the early versions were just seat-of-the-pants space flight, where to even get to the moon you had to go by eye, and just gun it when you thought the time was right. Now, there are contracts, expense accounts, guidance systems, etc, and the game just feels different. If I hadn't played the early versions, and just picked up the game on release, I would probably feel differently about it. Same goes for Minecraft, the game as it is now is very different than the game was a year or two ago, and extremely different than what it was 6 years ago when I started playing it. Space Engineers is another one, the addition of planets changed the game entirely.

Maybe it's best not to know what it was, and just start with it in a more complete state. But as I said, I can feel this happening with NMS, it will either change and become brilliant or it will be even worse.

Actually, I don't think it will change. Maybe some new features but what the game lacks for me, is the feeling of progress. Something that you may or may not achieve, something that gives perspective to your actions.
I don't expect them to put that in the game.

About that E:D game, I don't see enough movement when I watch that clip. All I see is a cockpit, a star map and a warp animation. I didn't watch everything, just quickly skipped through the vid, but couldn't find anything that showed me gameplay I'd actually want to do. In NMS you can at least move around in worlds, giving you the feeling that you have the liberty to explore, search, interact and kill a bit left and right :-D

 :-D