I’m just some random doofus who wants to add his two cents.

I grinded myself into a supergod with upgrades both in my tech and regular inventory using only my cargo and freightor inventory to house my items with two activated indium mines to source me effectively with infinite money. It felt like i had reached a gameplay dead end with nothing more to do. I built absurd things, walked across every kind of world they offer. The whole thing was turning stale for me. Less an adventure and more of a meditative drifter simulator. Still great and profound imo, but just stale.

When i jumped back in, after the update, my entire set up was a disgusting mess both in my suit inventory and my ship inventory as well. After an hour or two of sorting the mess out, i settled on a chosen setup. It was a bummer to have been nerfed, but i also think it was fun hunting for it all anyways. You knew, journey vs destination. That’s just me. If you disagree, that’s fine. I love you anyways.

I switched it from normal difficulty to a survival difficulty and ran some quicksilver missions and once more found myself feeling vulnerable to the elements and it really did breath a fresh sense of life into the game for me. Space battles had stakes again and storms were once again terrifying since i could no longer hide behind 3 layers of hazard protection.

Also nerfing the activated indium was a great move too IMO, because after bankrupting myself on shipspace slots (my goodness those are expensive) i find myself really appreciating once again the currency systems with running trade routes, building circuit boards, being a space pirate, and selling settlement production. I have a deep joy in being a space trader and the update made it feel like a meaningful challange again.

What makes it work so well for me is that they allow me to do it that way. My joy is not everyone else’s joy and it feels to me that they tried to account for that in the difficulty slides.

I get the frustration for the minmax nerfs and i appreciate the expression of frustration. Alot of hours were put into the grind and i get how it feels like a massive stab in the back. However, i doubt HG actually did this in bad faith. I’m sure they’re working on a way to account for it and fix it. No doubt, they see the backlash.

The thing is, I’ve never seen a franchise do something like this before, in the sense that they built a game then spend the next 6 years building heavily unto itself. In a way, it feels like HG is flying blind through a model entirely of their own creation and mistakes can and will be made. In the past they have been made. Outlaws hit players with entirely too many pirate attacks, then they fixed it. Endurance lacked ramps in freighters and they eventually added them in. People wanted space whales. We got space whales. They’re listening, and I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it right.

I see what they tried to do, and they fell on their face for a lot of people, but there’s no doubt in my mind they’ll pick themselves back up and take care of you. I have faith in them.

I’m not usually one to write down my grievances with video games, but the release of 4.0 was so disappointing I feel I need to get up on my soapbox and give my opinion, especially since others are telling those of us against the 4.0 update that how we feel is an overreaction.

I installed NMS when it was added to game pass, and since then I’ve gotten 500+ hours under my belt as an interloper. I’ve learned the ins and outs of this game. I’ve hunted for my perfect ship, spent hours reloading for an elusive S-Class freighter, and figured out adjacency bonuses to really unlock my gear’s full potential. Every update I’ve played has had me singing praise for NMS, and 4.0 sounded like it would be no different. It promised a streamlined UI, higher level caps, and major QoL changes. After playing it I feel lied to. 4.0 did not feel like the step forward it was supposed to be. Instead, it was more like three big steps back.

The new inventory system completely ruined the gear I spent so long finding, leveling, and perfecting. Over 2/3 of my tech upgrades were removed from my gear, upgrades I spent hours hunting for down in the depths of derelict freighters and across the galaxies space stations were rendered completely useless. I’ve seen people saying that we didn’t need our maxed out gear, and that this change wasn’t a big deal, and maybe they’re partly right. We didn’t need maxed gear, but we wanted it, so we put in the extra time and effort to level up our gear and perfect it and make it ours. Now it’s all gone, and the time and effort we spent is wasted.

To add insult to injury, the new UI makes it harder to try and salvage what I can from my equipment. It feels like a total downgrade from the legacy UI. The inventory tabs were cleaner, felt much better to use, and moving stuff around in them was efficient and easy. The new one-page inventory feels claustrophobic, and the page scrolls too fast on console to move anything around effectively. It’s been a pain in the ass to try and fix my stuff with this new “streamlined” UI, and I’m wishing I could switch it back.

This update broke my heart. I’ve loved playing this game, exploring its vast galaxies on my quest through the cosmos and leaving my small mark on the wonderful worlds I’ve visited, but I feel like I cant play the game in its current state. I sincerely hope Hello Games will do what they can to try and fix this, and in the future think about both new and old players when making updates.

As a final word, if you aren’t happy with 4.0, please don’t use it as an excuse to be rude to or harass the NMS devs. If you are messaging them, remember that they are real people with real feelings. With that being said, I’m done here.

Phoenix out.