I thought I’d weigh in on the latest update.

For context I’m a day one player that has well over 3,000 hours in the game, and I have spent hundreds of hours getting the best X-class modules (before the chances of good stats were massively improved). I love the game, and I think Hello Games has done a phenomenal job of supporting No Man’s Sky and the community.

That said I’m not a fan of this particular update. It has good elements but overall I think HG have abandoned a lot of the structure they put in place over the years.

I think it has been said ad nauseam at this point but the new tech limitations directly affect game play. Slower maneuverability in ships and less jet pack power makes traversal less fun than it was previously. I see a lot of dismissal of min/maxing as “you just want to be over-powered”, but for me personally I like the accomplishment. You see the fruits of your labour, I worked hard and I’m rewarded for it. Like most games the more you put in, the more you get out. If I’ve grinded powerful shields, I want to be able to take a hit. If I’ve grinded powerful pulse engine upgrades, I want my ship to glide through the air. There is now a tangible difference in that.

Now I’ve heard a lot of people say this brings balance, but If HG wanted to change the dynamics and bring in new technology, they may have been better off holding this element until they had a suitable substitution in-game. For me it’s not a sticking point, as I think HG will address this part soon.

The menu makes sense in to be seperated as tech and cargo, I have no arguement with that (beyond that the tech cap should have been adjusted to match current standards). I think we may have gone a little overboard with stacking and space, but I have no problems with it. I do think the menu looks more cluttered now, and would prefer to see tech and cargo as two seperate tabs as opposed to two scrolling screens on the same page. I hope this part is addressed very soon as it’s harder to navigate, and looks much more cluttered in my oppinion.

As for customisation, I have no issue with being able to customise your game. Hell I like the idea of a custom mode, it’s not for me, but I think it has it’s place. My personal gripe is with how it’s been implemented. Being able to change the rules of the modes on the fly, has diluted each of the modes identities. What is the point of a custom mode, when it really applies to all of them? There is no difference between Normal, creative, survival and custom, those are just pre-sets that can change on a whim. Bear in mind HG introduced these modes in foundations, and now they have been eroded and seemingly abandoned.

Now I’m not affected by how other people play their game, but before you simply selected the mode that was right for you. But I see a loss of community over this. Before if people were struggling they would turn to the community, and that brought the best out of us; struggling to find an item? “Let’s meet up in game and I’ll transfer you one”. Short on units? “We’ll send you some to get you started”. Struggling with a sentinel pillar? “We’ll join and help”. Why would people turn to communities, when it’s all solvable at a touch of a slider? I think Hello Games may have sacrificed one of the best elements of this game, the community itself, in the name of accessibility which was already there in the form of different modes. I think it will be easier for new players to just bypass struggles, than seek out this game’s wonderful community for support. Many groups and civs thrive on player interactions beyond just “look at my base”, there’s trading, pvp matches and other competative events all of which will be nigh on impossible to fairly balance (apparently after testing the settings can affect pvp not just pve). That in itself is a crying shame.

Now people will say that there is still ship hunting as a community activity, for example. But if Hello Games is really focusing on accessiblility, do you think full ship customisation is not on the horizon? The removal of ‘game’ elements, severly diminshes a lot of the groups that have become staples of the community. I’ve seen a lot of issues on both sides of the arguement, but no one wants to see a playerbase exodus from the game, Sean said it himself, development only happens if the team and the community, continue to turn up for it. A lot of people that have not liked this update, have many hours in the game and add to the active player statistics, even if you disagree those oppinions and players should not be disregarded. As I said I can see the benefits of a custom mode, I would have preferred if it didn’t encroach existing modes.

The trade rocket looks great, it’s fun to see it break atmoshere and head to the station. Unfortunately most existing players will have little need for it. Every station, most bases and freighters have a trade station built in. Couple that with the added slot capacity, you end up thinking am I ever really going to be in desperate need to sell my inventory this second? I would much rather have seen the very cool looking rocket serve a new and unique purpose, as right now it just feels a bit wasted.

Some of the new visual elements look absolutely stunning, and I do like the improvements to the Nexus (although there may be a bit of HDR issue in there again atm).

Overall I feel like this update seems to focus so heavily on inclusion that it disregards elements that long term players enjoyed. I think every single element could have been included, and with a bit more consideration to how they were implemented, recieved a much warmer reception. There are plenty of people that are enjoying the update, and that’s absolutely fine, this is just my oppinion. I don’t think any of the suggestions I’ve made, would directly affect their enjoyment, but I’m happy to have a discussion if you disagree with me.

Just remember whichever side of the fence you sit on, we all love this game, and there is nothing wrong with criticism as long as it’s constructive.

Imagine an alternate reailty where the original launch went well and all the promised features were in the game on day 1

I can’t shake the feeling that No Man’s Sky would still be a very polarizing game. No Man’s Sky was supposed to be a very lonely experience and everything seemed designed to make it clear to player that they were alone in this massive universe.

People at the time said they wanted the multiplayer that was promised, but when you actually look at what Sean had in mind, I’m really not sure that many would have enjoyed it even if was in the game on day 1

In a 2014 gameinformer interview Sean described a multiplayer that was influenced by the 2012 game Journey. In the same interview he specifically ruled out having players run around on planets together like Destiny and he wanted players to communicate with each other by leaving little messages on planets.

It’s clear that Sean originally wanted a very limited multiplayer that still kept the player feeling isolated and, I dont think a lot of people who preordered the game would have ever been happy with something like that. Base building was also not part of the original plan nor do I think Sean would have felt as much pressure add it had original launch went well. In fact, I don’t even think foundation update would have ever happened had the launch for no man sky been good at the start

The backlash from the original launch of No Man Sky had a profound impact on both Sean Murray and hello games. We cannot overstate the effect that those events had when it came to turning No Man Sky into the game that now is today

To preface this, I absolutely adore the game. But like most games we play there’s always personal changes you’d make to it to make it your ideal game. This is what I’d love to see in NMS.

-1. I’d love to see a more realistic representation of the size and distance of space within a star system. When you look at planets in our real-life solar system they show up as nothing more than a speck of light given their distance away. A way you could do this in game is planets show up as little highlighted specks of light in space, you use the scanner in your ship which has an attached hyper-advanced telescope, you zoom in on the planet and then you’re able to see what it actually looks like and scan it’s resources. Then you use your pulse engine and that little speck of light quickly expands to the size of a planet considering you’re moving nearly the speed of light to get there. I feel like this would be very satisfying and immersive giving a real sense of scale.

-2. Asteroid landing and construction. There’s already a billion asteroids in each system, I wish that there were always a few large asteroids floating around that you had the ability to land, walk around and base-build on. It would just add a lot more variety to what people build and come up with.

-3. Space station building and space walks. Though you can build on your Freighter. I wish you could literally create a space station in the vacuum of space just like the ISS or wherever your imagination takes you. Then added with that I think the ability to just float in the endless expanse with nothing but your suit and thrusters to keep you from floating away… Frictionless for eternity.

-4. STARS!!! Seriously like we need the ability to pulse to the star in each system. Obviously you can’t land on it, but it would be a great opportunity to find rare items or do dangerous missions. Think, the star gravity could be a constant threat once you get close enough to it where you’ll need to use your engine boost just to get out of its gravity well, once you get close enough it starts destroying your ships technology and if you get sucked in, well game over.

-5. Gas planets. This kind of ties into the stars, obviously you can’t land on it without dying… By getting imploded by gravity…. This would just add another element of variety to each system and with that the gas planets could still have moons you can land on with a gas giant lighting up the sky. Also there could be another cool way to harvest resources from the gas planet… Maybe a starship gas vacuum-harvester 😂.

-6. Planets with multiple biomes and actual rivers.. This is pretty self explanatory. But yeah correct me if I’m wrong but I have yet to ever witness a planet with actual rivers. It’s always just bodies of water.

-7.(This is more of what Hello Games could just add to a simple update) More RNG assets for star ship parts and animals just to add more unique visual variety to the many ships and animals we see. Sometimes the stuff you see feels very “same-y”.

That’s about all! Forgive me for the novel. I’d love to hear what kind of ideas you guys come up with!

Safe travels.