First, shut up about things being “overpowered”.

People aren’t complaining an overpowered thing got nerfed/balanced. People are complaining that they worked 100+ hours for upgrades that are now functionally useless. Going “well it was overpowered anyways” is a complete non-argument when the game is fundamentally noncompetitive. If you work hard to minmax in the game, that is a completely valid playstyle and the schadenfreude displayed to extremely powerful, finely tuned setups being ruined is completely baffling.

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Now onto ideas:

Personally I’d prefer that the tech slots be expanded a past the current 30, and probably more critically have better synergies/a higher overload capacity. Having up to 6 modules would be nice if two separate inventories aren’t feasible, but honestly in the longer term having more extensive and meaningful synergy interactions across more modules in a single tech inventory would be great and a huge step up from the annoying inventory trade-offs for hyperdrive range, scanner functionality, etc. Fundamentally, I’m totally in favor of a unified inventory, it’s just that this really should have been a move to raise, and not lower the ceiling (x-class modules were a really great example imo). Hopefully future patches and updates will build on this framework, instead of just rolling back all the changes and eliminating the promise this new system could hold.

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On the off chance HG ends up reading this as part of community feedback scouting:

You guys have done an amazing job pushing out content for this game, but you need to be really careful not to let the near-universal praise goad you into assuming anything is going to fly. The updates thus far have been very much additive and focused on expansion which is why they’ve been so positively received, but when working on an overhaul that can wipe out hundreds of hours of work you really need to do some more community consultation. Just because your vision and what the community’s interests are have aligned thus far is not a guarantee that they’ll continue to do so, and I really hope that you all keep up the trend of being great with feedback consideration and adjust accordingly. I have nothing but respect for the hard work you have done, and continue to do – I would hate to see any of it go to waste, and if you’d like an example of good community engagement without destroying hype for updates (or in their case DLCs), I’d strongly recommend taking a look at how the RimWorld dev goes about things.

Firstly I just want to make it clear I am *not* accusing Hello Games of any devious intent here, I consider them absolutely one of the good guys of the gaming industry with the level of support they have given the game over the years!

However…. there is something about this game that I just cannot put my finger on. I will mindlessly grind for hours on end achieving absolutely nothing, feel angry with myself about it (to the extent I have deleted the game multiple times) then go back for more the very next day.

It’s like I have the desire to find the perfect ship, but then there is nothing to do with it other than the few random encounters that are the same wherever you might encounter them. Or I will look for the perfect Capital ship and accumulate a fleet of 30 living frigates only to then send them on missions to retrieve a trivial amount of resources that I didn’t need in the first place. Or I will system jump for hours at a time looking for a perfect planet, convincing myself that it’s not a waste of time because I can also check the Space Station for multitools while I am at it (see, killing 2 birds with 1 stone, totally not a waste of time!).

Seriously I don’t want to sound like I am hating on the game, I think they have done a fantastic job – but something about it has triggered an extremely bitter-sweet response in me. Maybe I have some type of undiagnosed condition like OCD or something that this game taps into…

Anyone else feel the same way?

I submitted this request to Hello Games for settlement improvements (I include it merely for anyone who wishes to read it). What ideas do you all have to make settlements more relevant and fun?

I really love the idea of settlements. Even though this is technically an MMO it can get quite lonely in space. I like the idea of being in charge of something and helping it grow. Unfortunately, it feels too disconnected. Trying to interact with the citizens only gives you the option to leave. When there is a matter to be discussed, it is never in person. Any visitor, dispute, or proposal is done through the comms system. It would be great to have citizens show up at the office with their complaints, to go to the town hall and see everyone voting on proposals. To attend farewell and welcome events for missions. It would be great to be able to use things like the dance hall. That was another thing, inconsistency. It had me build a dance hall but dancing was still banned. It would be nice instead of waiting for options f we could inact them. I would love to make the active choice as overseer to unban dancing and not just wait for that option. I’d also love to be able to live at the settlement. I would love to have a place of residence that I can modify and expand (like a freighter). Having to cheat by building a base on the outskirts and moving inwards isn’t as fun. Making settlements a lot more dynamic would be a ton of fun. Being able to allow friends to buy homes there would also be cool.

The title says it all. This game has received 7 years of free updates; this game is near unrecognisable from it’s launch. But how do they make money?

Most games that I can think of that provide free content updates are:

Live service games (fortnite, halo infinite)

AAA studios with big revenue sources (minecraft)

For a limited time (sonic frontiers)

But hello games is small, the game not live service, the game is not big enough where I can see new sales alone funding the game, and the updates do not seem to be slowing down, I do not see people buying merch in droves), and they do not have other popular games to make money elsewhere (Joe Danger and The Last Campfire are not exactly money printing machines).

Edit: The updates are great, just curious about funding

I’m so surprised by No Man’s Sky on the Switch. It’s playable and not really all that limited. If, as Hello Games teased, multiplayer could get added, it would be an even more amazing feat.

Will I be sticking with Switch as the main driver for NMS? I’m not sure. It’s very serviceable though.

But, as I was looking into inspirations for No Man’s Sky today, I came across Elite. I had no idea, but Elite was ported to the NES. They had to do some work around in the cartridge. I know the OG Elite isn’t the same as games like Elite: Dangerous or No Man’s Sky…but man seeing 3D graphics on an NES (drawn wire frames) is interesting..and the game is still open ended and large in scope. It probably blew people’s minds!

I’m really happy Hello Games did port to the Switch. It’s a very nice way to dip my toes into this amazing, amazing game.