I spent about 2 hours yesterday looking for “the perfect planet” to build my first real base on. I found it, and it is GORGEOUS. Beautiful glowing floral, rolling hills, those bubble things that are so pretty, etc. I’m extremely happy with it. I then found the settlement using a map, and decided that for roleplaying purposes, I wanted to build my house/base on the hill overlooking the settlement and be its overseer.

I couldn’t apply for overseer because I needed ONE more convergence cube, not a huge deal. I casually browsed google to figure out how to get one.

I pulled the game back up, and IT HAPPENED. In the text feed, I saw that another player whose name I won’t post landed on “my” planet. I start to get frantic. I go to the settlement and the player is looking at the hub, presumably trying to apply as overseer. 18 quintillion planets. 18 QUINTILLION. And someone manages to find the one that I spent half the day preparing. I wave at the player and type in the chat, no response.

I frantically Google how to get another convergence cube. I spend about an hour pulling my hair out with no success, FREAKING OUT because I assume all my hard work will be swept away by some other player that’s probably way more experienced than me. Not a high bar, as I’m pretty new. The entire time I’m frantically searching, the other player’s starship AND frigate loom ominously over my hard-found settlement on “the perfect planet” that i worked so hard to find. I realize I read something wrong in my neurotic, frantic spazzyess and easily get one. I go back to the settlement, apply, and everything is fine.

My heart rate dropped back to non-heart-attach inducing levels. I begun building my beautiful home and managing the settlement. All is right in the world. 18 QUINTILLION planets, and the first time I see another player aside from in the anomaly, they found the ONE planet I care about.

Horrible experience. Tons of anxiety. Racing heart. Questioned life at its core. 11/10, would recommend.

So I keep dying because I play late night after work and family stuff and fall asleep – heat, radiation, etc… I’ve lost millions of units value of resources – the typical find the grave next to my ship or last save point and it’s empty because already died multiple times. Then have to pick myself up, jump into ship find a more hospitable planet, gather resourcea and repair and rebuild.

Besides, log off before I fall asleep, any other recourse? I’m new and don’t have an exocraft, would that be enough protection while I mine and explore…I actually love to mine and scan the fauna for units and nanites.

After completely ignoring this game since launch I finally decided to give it a shot starting a week ago, and I’ve been playing it nonstop all week.

I love sand box exploration games, space, sci-fi, and customization. Although there is somewhat shallowness in certain aspects, this game hits all of those fairly well and the story and mystery is a nice cherry on top. Going from system to system, planet to planet… It can get a little repetitive. But repetition isn’t bad. Repetition is normal. Every game is repetitive. I kind of see this game like Warframe but better and way less grindy and way more freedom. This is probably the first “casual” game that I’ve seriously gotten into besides Minecraft and it’s refreshing to say the least.

I’m wondering how this game has or will effect the production of other games and how far they will go in the future because to me this game seems like the tip of the iceberg when it comes to procedural generation. I can only imagine what’s in store for the future of exploratory gaming and other implementation of this kind of design.

There is definitely one thing that is missing from this game, and I guess I’m beating a dead horse here but this game needs ship customization or even creation. It could be an extra thing to seek out materials for, more blueprints, recipes and an addition to the market. Customization is simple. And if you don’t want it then you could just flat out ignore the aspect. Purely aesthetic. It sure would be a great community enhancement for personalization.