So I was a day one supporter of NMS and I got possibly my best game yet going. On XBOX Series S, I was originally on PS4. Love the better graphics!

I’m in Euclid, in the Xicorr system on a paradise moon called Rawa. Contrary to the hellhole it “rotates around of”, Rawa is lush, peaceful, inhabitated only by three different species of birds, is in a Vykeen system and has an economy based around ore-processing. And that’s good, because I love mining. So after visiting every planet and moon in Xicorr, I made Rawa my home once I’m invited to build a base.

And then it gets better.

I find a nice Vykeen settlement. It has a trade terminal, a blueprints / component seller and a landing pad. AND, and what looks like a very promising cobalt mine within sight. Again, love that shit. So I build myself a nice little 3×3 wood shack with some basic amenities, use the Vykeen outpost’s landing pad as mine (Shouldn’t they have a problem with that?). Called it Ranesota, which is what the game called that region. And then I go mine. And mine and mine and mine. Deeper and deeper. No end to those caves, just chockfull of cobalt. I get around 5M units worth of Cobalt out of there in total, totally cleaned the place.

So I go back to my shack, and I build a teleporter because I’ll want to comeback here easilly right. I want to research Solar Panels to power my Teleporter or whatever you call that gate, so I go on the hunt for salvaged data. I find a very minor settlement with a grumpy Vykeen inside and nothing else about 500u East…. and i get the silly idea to build a TUNNEL to his place. So I lineup my ship’s icon and I start digging. And digging. And digging. A long-ass time. After popping out in the open a couple times and having to dig down to keep going, I finally pop out behind Ranesota. That’s my tunnel, that’s INFRASTRUCTURE. I build a path with boulders leading to the entrance and a gate around the hole.

Haven’t found the buried modules I wanted to, so I start walking west this time. And I catch many modules, many knowledge stones…….. and I keep going, I figure I should get a lot of these to build my stuff and understand what my neighbors are saying… then my scanner / analysis visor spots a “Minor Settlement”. Figured, might as well go check it out…. 1000u out. Heh, my planet has no weather to speak of, always sunny and nice… let’s go….

I find it….. Trade terminal, a blueprints / component seller and a landing pad. Nice, that means another base. And I realise I’m now 15 minutes away from Ranesota, so this works for me. Build another shack. Call it Haller after a nearby region that was called Haller’s Last Stand……. Call my ship to the landing pad for no apparent reason……. and I decide I’m hopping on it going home and building a tunnel between Ranesota and Haller. They are 15 minutes apart.

So I line up the Haller icon and I start digging. I pop out a bunch of time, keep digging down and then back up always lining up with Haller…. eventually I pop out, and I try to dig down….. and it won’t dig. I’m on the bedrock. So I look around where I am… this is ANOTHER magnificient COBALT MINE just like I love em. I’m 5 minutes away from Ranesota and 9 minutes away from Haller in this closed pocket with no other (apparent, so far) entry point than my tunnel.

I’ve already hauled for a million units’ worth of Cobalt from it back to my ore-loving neighbors in Ranesota and it’s still pretty full. I’ve made another HUGE gate around the entry point to this tunnel…………

I mean.. the SCOPE of this game. You can start doing your own thing outside the narrative of the game completely and it just feeds you and keeps you going. This is amazing!

Now my fear is of course, Frontiers comes and buries all my digging and changes my paradise to a toxic hell, I hope not.