No Man's Sky - a procedurally generated sand box space exploration game

Wow. How is this game still producing all of these updates. Are that many people still buying new copies?
 
bigddybn said:
Wow. How is this game still producing all of these updates. Are that many people still buying new copies?
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Their memo is now probably "To beat down any shit talking that still exists."

My kind of company.

Probably one of their last updates I'd say. Can't imagine much more. Maybe their sales drive further with each update.
 
Eshelmen said:
Their memo is now probably "To beat down any shit talking that still exists."

My kind of company.

Probably one of their last updates I'd say. Can't imagine much more. Maybe their sales drive further with each update.
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I think they have decent sales. It's up there on the steam sales, and it's also a gamepass game so they are getting a constant stream from there as well.
 
FrgMstr said:
I actually bought it on sale a couple months ago. I just found it boring as hell. Went back to Rust.
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It's definitely a "choose your own story" type of game. The main quest line (if you can even call it that) is pretty meh. It's the freedom to do whatever you want that is the appeal, or the turn off depending on what you are looking for.
 
FrgMstr said:
I actually bought it on sale a couple months ago. I just found it boring as hell. Went back to Rust.
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Its a "find your own joy", type of game. Slow as hell, so you need to like gathering, building and trading.

But, before you delete it, you should try it once in VR (I know you have VR setups :p ). Its a blast the first time you enter the cockpit and take off from the planet. Worth experiencing once!
 
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bigddybn said:
It's definitely a "choose your own story" type of game. The main quest line (if you can even call it that) is pretty meh. It's the freedom to do whatever you want that is the appeal, or the turn off depending on what you are looking for.
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So a buddy and I play Rust together all the time, and thought we would give it a try. I was told basically that it was "Rust in space." Yeah, it kinda is. I was also told the team play was good, but that is were it kinda fell apart. It is not mean to be a co-op game at all. Also, there is not a lot of danger aspect to it. It overall it is a fairly leisurely game. The rush of getting killed any second doing any benign activity was certainly not there, and that bored me. It was cool and all, just not my cup of tea.
 
FrgMstr said:
So a buddy and I play Rust together all the time, and thought we would give it a try. I was told basically that it was "Rust in space." Yeah, it kinda is. I was also told the team play was good, but that is were it kinda fell apart. It is not mean to be a co-op game at all. Also, there is not a lot of danger aspect to it. It overall it is a fairly leisurely game. The rush of getting killed any second doing any benign activity was certainly not there, and that bored me. It was cool and all, just not my cup of tea.
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When you get outside of the starter galaxies onto planets that have the more rare resources it does get more challenging but yeah, I wouldn't call this a "high risk" type of game by any stretch. It's pretty chill.
 
FrgMstr said:
So a buddy and I play Rust together all the time, and thought we would give it a try. I was told basically that it was "Rust in space." Yeah, it kinda is. I was also told the team play was good, but that is were it kinda fell apart. It is not mean to be a co-op game at all. Also, there is not a lot of danger aspect to it. It overall it is a fairly leisurely game. The rush of getting killed any second doing any benign activity was certainly not there, and that bored me. It was cool and all, just not my cup of tea.
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I wouldn't call this game rust in space. A more challenging PVP space game that I would suggest is Elite Dangerous. That actually has a lot of risk depending on where you go. NMS is more of a PVE game largely. Plus, ED is just generally a better game when it comes to combat. The weakest part of NMS is largely the combat/ship control aspects because of how simplistic it is in that area.
 
It's about to release on the Switch too. No idea what it will look/perform like though. :D However, if it's pretty playable, this would be an excellent mobile time-waster, and I could see it being pretty popular there too. I'm sure they see sales spikes every time a new update comes out. They probably shrink a little each time as it continues to saturate its market, but I imagine they've done very well by it and its audience by now, and still going. I think I've paid for five copies now too. I'm sure there are others like me who bought a few to get other people or their kids playing etc. I've been REALLY wanting to play again. I've been too inundated with projects lately though, so things like this have been on the back burner. Most of my game time is on the Switch right before I go to sleep at night. Even though I think this would be cool to have on the Switch (assuming it looks good (enough) and isn't slow) it's the type of game I prefer on the PC. Especially on the living room PC with settings cranked at 86". It also plays surprisingly well with a pad despite having a million things to control.
 
I have tried and tried to play this game and I just do not have a clue what I am doing. And the pop in is just ridiculously distracting in this game with things literally coming onto the screen sometimes right in front of you.
 
6 years after release and this game still just refuses to run properly. It used to play, but BSOD constantly, now it doesn't even start.
Someday, maybe...

NMS_Error.png
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
6 years after release and this game still just refuses to run properly. It used to play, but BSOD constantly, now it doesn't even start.
Someday, maybe...

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That's weird, I've played literally hundreds of hours on PC and for the past 3-4 years its been rock solid with zero crashes or anything. This has been on multiple different computer configurations.
 
TheSlySyl said:
That's weird, I've played literally hundreds of hours on PC and for the past 3-4 years its been rock solid with zero crashes or anything. This has been on multiple different computer configurations.
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Yeah I played around 10 hours during release week and it was fine. Ever since then, it either doesn't run at all, or it BSOD's my PC constantly when playing.
At this point I just come back every couple of patches... Nope, still doesn't run... Uninstall. Don't really have a desire to play the game, just curious if it will ever magically fix itself.

I just assume the game or Nvidia's driver is broken on Windows 7.
 
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Yea runs fine on win10 for me, no crashes yet, I don't think win7 is even supported?

I originally bought it on Xbox and didn't realize it was 'play anywhere' game, so have been swiching back and forth between pc and Xbox, cross save is nice.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
I just assume the game or Nvidia's driver is broken on Windows 7.
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While many devs etc. don't openly state it, much of these programs/games don't run well on win7 anymore. I quit using win7 for NMS when I couldn't access the silly twitch and expedition rewards vendor guy in early last year. Game ran fine otherwise on win7 though for me. All AMD hardware at the time too.
 
TheSlySyl said:
That's weird, I've played literally hundreds of hours on PC and for the past 3-4 years its been rock solid with zero crashes or anything. This has been on multiple different computer configurations.
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Same here.

Of course, this is usually the case for me, even with many problematic games. Then I say as much, and get blamed for being an apologist.

Or you know, I keep my OS clean, drivers up to date, and don’t OC my hardware into the ground.

:p
 
My prior platform/system I had crashing in certain games pretty randomly. I always thought it was the games since it was constant enough for me to say with certainty it was my system. I upgraded systems, and never had crashing again. A lot of people assume their setup is fine, but it really isn't.
 
Eshelmen said:
Their memo is now probably "To beat down any shit talking that still exists."

My kind of company.

Probably one of their last updates I'd say. Can't imagine much more. Maybe their sales drive further with each update.
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I bought the game by accident. I thought I was buying the Outer Worlds.

That looks like a good game. I should try it sometime.
 
Funny enough I bought it 4yrs ago, at the same time I acquired KSP... I installed and fired KSP up first and this hasn't gotten a shot... Maybe one day.
 
Nimisys said:
Funny enough I bought it 4yrs ago, at the same time I acquired KSP... I installed and fired KSP up first and this hasn't gotten a shot... Maybe one day.
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At this point just wait for Hello Games to release their final patch before you play it. It's like an Early Access game getting content patches before moving into 1.0 release.
 
It's nothing like an Early Access game. It was rock solid on release, just a LOT simpler in game play, and not quite up to the scope of what the studio had original led people to believe. However, it was still a complete game (if a bit light) and was solid from a stability standpoint.

The first couple of updates rounded out the single player side quite a bit, and improved on the experience significantly. The next couple did even more to add variety, more choice in the game, more to do and explore, more story options, etc.

The next couple introduced and refined simple multiplayer mechanics. Then refined it into a full multiplayer experience that most people would agree on as a multiplayer game. You could explore together in the same instance for example. Since then, it has added so far beyond the original scope in content, choices, stories, base building and vehicles, combat, (basically the whole game has been overhauled more than once) that saying it's Early Access just makes you look silly.

The game is twice (or more) the game that they originally suggested it could be, the content has all been released for FREE, they run huge sales every time an update is released to allow more people to get into it more easily.

To say it has been anything less than finished since about the middle of the update release cycle is disingenuous.

Whether or not it's your style of game is down to taste, but to say it's not complete, or that there is anything technically wrong with it now, is objectively false.

It's one of the most polished games of this style out there, and just keeps getting better over time.
 
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Mchart said:
My prior platform/system I had crashing in certain games pretty randomly. I always thought it was the games since it was constant enough for me to say with certainty it was my system. I upgraded systems, and never had crashing again. A lot of people assume their setup is fine, but it really isn't.
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Agreed!

It happens. It can be anything from a BIOS rev causing problems, to a driver, to malware that flew under the AV radar, to OS clutter, to a bad Windows update, to a bad or failing power supply, to an underpowered power supply trying to feed too much juice to a hungry system, a bad return from an S1 or S3 sleep state, to about a trillion other things. Everything could look perfectly fine, even to an experienced builder/user/OCer etc.

This is why any PC that I build has a clean OS install, only has the software needed to run what it's for (I don't use gaming PCs to do work, or work PCs to do gaming). All drivers are constantly up to date, I don't install a bunch of crap on them. I don't use over-bloated Anti-Malware software, or the Windows Firewall (I just lock down my network at the router and switch levels). If the OS gets too cluttered after a while, I do a clean install. I also only use Steam and GoG. I think having a bunch of different launchers, all with different patch levels for games, and who knows how many different versions of API updates and libraries that get installed into Windows, is counter-productive.

So barring a power supply going out, I don't typically run into problems.

I have in the past though, which is why I take all the steps I can to minimize what could possibly reduce stability. I also stopped overclocking over a decade ago. :D (yes, again, take away my [H] badge....) :D
 
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bigddybn said:
Wow. How is this game still producing all of these updates. Are that many people still buying new copies?
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It seems like the team behind it have a genuine passion for it, and they've made enough money selling it that they can afford to continue working on it. For smaller teams, a game that sells well can generate enough money to set you up for a long time. Thus if they want to, they can afford to keep working on the game. Terraria is a good example. Small team, like 10 people, and even though many of the copies sold were for discount rates ($5 or less, often as low as $1), they've sold many millions of copies and that amount of money is enough to keep paying the bills for the team. They seem to love the game so they keep working on it.

Same deal here. They seem to have a real passion for it. So I don't think the updates are about generating more sales of the game, though they probably do, but just because they want to.
 
Sycraft said:
It seems like the team behind it have a genuine passion for it, and they've made enough money selling it that they can afford to continue working on it. For smaller teams, a game that sells well can generate enough money to set you up for a long time. Thus if they want to, they can afford to keep working on the game. Terraria is a good example. Small team, like 10 people, and even though many of the copies sold were for discount rates ($5 or less, often as low as $1), they've sold many millions of copies and that amount of money is enough to keep paying the bills for the team. They seem to love the game so they keep working on it.

Same deal here. They seem to have a real passion for it. So I don't think the updates are about generating more sales of the game, though they probably do, but just because they want to.
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Exactly. See, I always thought that everything Sean talked about in the early demos, interviews, etc. was something that they were truly working on, and wanted to provide to the player. Unfortunately it went all sideways, probably when Sony got involved, and they couldn't deliver on release. Everyone screamed SCAM, but I think it was a classic cased of a publisher waving their whatever around, and saying put this out now.

I never got the idea that Hello's plan all along wasn't to provide all of this type of content, all these types of play, all the freedoms within the game, etc. I think that was always their goal. It just took them longer to get it all out. They're a small team that seem to accomplish more than your average large studio. The game just needed more time.

Even what they did put out at release though was pretty cool and different for the time. Even though it was sparse, and lacked variety overall. It had a certain appeal, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, and have only liked it more since each successive update.

They seem to love what they do, love the universe that they've created, love getting it into peoples' hands, and love to evolve it into something better whenever they can.

Good reference with Terraria. That game started off amazing, and just got to be more and more incredible over the years. I run a constant world on my network at home. My kids and I still drop in and out of it on occasion, add some new things, and go explore all of our old ruins and mines that were created long ago, maybe built over, etc. We always left signs in each place with funny messages. Still a blast to hop in there, check out the old, and add some new.
 
J3RK said:
Exactly. See, I always thought that everything Sean talked about in the early demos, interviews, etc. was something that they were truly working on, and wanted to provide to the player. Unfortunately it went all sideways, probably when Sony got involved, and they couldn't deliver on release. Everyone screamed SCAM, but I think it was a classic cased of a publisher waving their whatever around, and saying put this out now.
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Also Murray isn't a PR guy. He's a socially awkward nerd who doesn't do well with pressure in interviews. He said things he shouldn't and didn't realize that equivocation can be taken as confirmation. That combined with the Sony shit, combined with the fact that I think they just bit off more than they could chew and we got the disaster that was launch. But they made enough money they could keep doing it and it seems to be their passion.

If anyone wants a funny, but also well researched, video on the whole thing watch the Internet Historian's video The Engoodening of No Man's Sky. It's a pretty decent look into what happened and what has gone on since.
 
Sycraft said:
Also Murray isn't a PR guy. He's a socially awkward nerd who doesn't do well with pressure in interviews. He said things he shouldn't and didn't realize that equivocation can be taken as confirmation. That combined with the Sony shit, combined with the fact that I think they just bit off more than they could chew and we got the disaster that was launch. But they made enough money they could keep doing it and it seems to be their passion.

If anyone wants a funny, but also well researched, video on the whole thing watch the Internet Historian's video The Engoodening of No Man's Sky. It's a pretty decent look into what happened and what has gone on since.
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I also think some of the things with Sean, is that in some interviews/demos, someone would ask if you could do something, or maybe he even thought of a feature on the fly. He seems like the type that's like "oh, that's a great idea, I'm going to put it in" but maybe couldn't get to all of it, maybe forgot some of it, maybe it was more than they could implement as a team at the time, or under the time constraints the presented later. That's definitely speculation on my part, but as a designer myself (not game, but analog music synthesizers) I get ALL KINDS of wound up with ideas, brainstorms, caught up in suggestions by users, and I basically say yes, or tell my self yes to all of it. I usually manage to pull most of it off, but I'd say half wasn't worth the effort, some was a major rabbit hole for not the most amazing result, and then some I end up forgetting, or saying fuck this I can't look at it anymore. :D So I understand that mindset at least from my own perspective. It's easy to get carried away with ideas, feature creep, expanding scopes, loss of focus, etc. Luckily I don't have a publisher or parent company breathing down my neck, or I'd probably be on the evening news. :D
 
Another issue I think was that this is what I call a "desperation genre" in that it is something people really, REALLY want, however WHAT they want is not feasible. We see that with Star Citizen as well: People just LOVE the idea of playing space, where you can be in a universe like Star Wars and fly around everywhere, trade, fight, pirate, whatever you want. They want a universe simulator. The problem is that they want something that does EVERYTHING, where there's no limits on what you can do, and where everything feels purpose built and authentic.

That can't happen though, not only is there not enough money to do that, but even if you had it, you can't coordinate a team large enough to make it happen. So you will have a game with procedural generation, limits as to what is in it, etc etc. As Todd Howard once accurate said "We can do anything, we just can't do everything," and that's true with any game.

BUT that's not what people's expectations for the "desperation genre" games are. They have an idea in their head of what they want, how they want to play, and they expect that it WILL be that way. They hype themselves up, fantasizing about how much fun they'll have living out their exact fantasy. Then, when the game launches, at least some part of that isn't possible and they are shattered because they'd built their expectations so high.

Builders like Minecraft suffer from the same thing and I think that is part of the reason Minecraft itself has done so well is the shitty, basic, graphics help lower expectations. It's legos with monsters, not a fully realistic environment where you can build anything. Some others that have tried to do a graphically better environment seem to get crushed under the weight of unrealistic expectations.
 
Some real revisionist history going on here. Murray flat-out lied about many things. It's awesome that they have turned it around, but they deserved every bit of criticism.
 
MavericK said:
Some real revisionist history going on here. Murray flat-out lied about many things. It's awesome that they have turned it around, but they deserved every bit of criticism.
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I've been saying the same exact things as I am now, through the entire 76 page thread. Nothing has changed, except additional positive comments at each new release. "Flat-out lied" is a big stretch. Anyway, I've spoken enough about the launch in the past. It's all here, so not going into this again. I was even one of the ones that had pretty high, not expectations exactly, but hopes based on what I thought it could be. I still enjoyed it even though it launched with about 50-60% of my hoped-for features. I said as much, but played and enjoyed it anyway, and have been since. There is no revisionist history though. I've maintained my stance on all of this (agree or not) from the beginning. My predictions, and questions have all turned out to be true on the positive side of things, and the game is beyond excellent, so there's really nothing to talk about other than how good it is.

There is another space game thread on here that deserves this kind of discussion, if you really want to get into this type of conversation.
 
J3RK said:
I've been saying the same exact things as I am now, through the entire 76 page thread. Nothing has changed, except additional positive comments at each new release. "Flat-out lied" is a big stretch. Anyway, I've spoken enough about the launch in the past. It's all here, so not going into this again. I was even one of the ones that had pretty high, not expectations exactly, but hopes based on what I thought it could be. I still enjoyed it even though it launched with about 50-60% of my hoped-for features. I said as much, but played and enjoyed it anyway, and have been since. There is no revisionist history though. I've maintained my stance on all of this (agree or not) from the beginning. My predictions, and questions have all turned out to be true on the positive side of things, and the game is beyond excellent, so there's really nothing to talk about other than how good it is.

There is another space game thread on here that deserves this kind of discussion, if you really want to get into this type of conversation.
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I guess we can agree to disagree. I've seen the interviews, when he says "yes" to a question about a feature that was obviously not in the game, I call that lying.

I don't really want to "get into it" that much, I was just starting to notice a lot of sympathetic bending of the truth (not you specifically but others as well). Sure, in the following years they have had a huge redemption (even if I still don't like the core gameplay loop), but let's not hand-wave away what actually happened. If we forget the past we are doomed to repeat it (pre-orders, etc.).

In any case, enjoy your game. :) With this new patch I may actually start playing this again with a fresh save to see if it's any more tolerable.
 
I played a ton of NMS co-op with a couple buddies back in mid-2019. While at the time, it required us to corelate our mod load-outs, it was GREAT fun!

I'm gonna reinstall this, if nothing else just to finally see FSR 2.0 with my own eyes.

- Seriously though, anyone that hasn't given this game a shot in the last 2-3 years.. It's well worth your time. *full vouch*
 
MavericK said:
I guess we can agree to disagree. I've seen the interviews, when he says "yes" to a question about a feature that was obviously not in the game, I call that lying.

I don't really want to "get into it" that much, I was just starting to notice a lot of sympathetic bending of the truth (not you specifically but others as well). Sure, in the following years they have had a huge redemption (even if I still don't like the core gameplay loop), but let's not hand-wave away what actually happened. If we forget the past we are doomed to repeat it (pre-orders, etc.).

In any case, enjoy your game. :) With this new patch I may actually start playing this again with a fresh save to see if it's any more tolerable.
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Not a big deal either way ;)

IMO though, a good portion of that was definitely pre-release, and I'm 99% sure that it was their intention to get all those features in. That's where I make the distinction from lying, and hopeful future design elements that ended up not making it in by the publisher forced deadline. Some of those claims were made even before Sony got involved. (though yes, some were a lot closer to the eventual release) For all anyone knows, many of those thing were actually being worked on and they had to axe them last minute due to the time constraints. I would always put blame on the publisher before the dev unless proven otherwise.

Anyway, yes, the disparity existed, but I have a feeling there were reasons for it, some people think it was a lie. I just can't see the lie angle. Especially having worked in software development, QA, etc. fields. Shit happens, features get axed, bugs get punted, timelines grow until someone says "no more, release it as is".
 
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