You haven't. In fact, you've delved deeper into that journey than most. As I said, it's an exploration of yourself - not your character, not the little snippets of lore you happen upon, but yourself - your own psyche. NMS is an amazing dive into Freudian Free Association, dressed up in psychedelic colors, fantastical forms, and textural curiosities. Even if it wasn't written specifically to be this, it turns out it is, and somewhere in there is an interesting story too, that is also a virtual Free Association... but I'll say no more to avoid spoilers.
Well, all I can say is that I got a lot more insight into myself from an hour with a mental health professional than in 50+ hours with NMS (NMS on sale and the copay were about the same amount). I guess the fundamental problem I have with NMS is that nothing you do fundamentally changes anything about the universe, even on the planet you build your base on. You can accumulate an S-class freighter with an S-class frigate entourage, max out your ships and equipment (and piloting skills) to the point where you can keep taking on Sentinel starships until you get bored, build the biggest base and distort the local economy for liquid explosives and circuit boards, but . . . nothing changes. Planet and local space are still filled with the same random encounters (you'd think pirates would get the message after the 100th time you blow them out of the sky in the same system, but nope). It's a universe of infinite variety that's, on average, all the same and completely unchanging. I don't need to always be saving the universe in the games that I play, but not having any response to my character's feats is, well, yawn-inducing after a while. This is one of the big things I hope Empyrion avoids when it gets to that stage.
Lol…stupid space pirates; I see them as each group having an area claimed, and when you wipe them the next group waiting in the wings are saying “Hey let’s take over that new vacant area before anyone else!” I agree that nothing your character does changes anything important in these games, and helps create end game boredom. Seems to happen to most games I’ve played (hence I’m always restarting to try new ways to succeed); I’m hoping the Factions, and their claimed areas in EGS, help alleviate some of that by having your character trying to balance political and economic environments. I perceive NMS more of a light entrepreneurial, building, and having a drawn out exploration, game with a little fighting and a shallow drawn out story line (Atlas), with the beginning short stories more as tutorials. Compared to the thousands of hours in SE, EGS and other survival games I play, I only have ~700hrs into NMS. The cause of the lack of play time in NMS is that I reach that very point of “ok now what?” and go off to another game; up to that point it is a fun ride and each time I come back to NMS I try different ways to start and play, but, even with the save editor to help with tedium all ends at the same “now what, nothing’s changed” point (just hit that point today with this play through…lol). I believe NMS knows or suspects the possibility of induced boredom to some players hence the results of reaching the center, and a few portals. I still enjoy NMS for what it is so far (and it has come a long way), but regardless of my verbose reply I agree NMS would benefit greatly if our actions could some way change or have some effect on at least the galaxy we are in at the time; a change to a different galaxy resulting in resetting the changes/effects made would be fine with me.
Sounds plausible, except when it happens repeatedly as I transit back and forth repeatedly between the same two planets in a system. Maybe it's their factionmates trying to avenge them? Yeah . . . after assembling a large farm in my base, I computed the units/hour that I'd be earning assuming optimal harvesting, and then the time it'd take to get to 100 million units; I then decided that rather than spend the next 12 hours or so puttering about my base, I'd just effectively advance time by 12 hours by giving myself 100 million units. To me, the interesting and important part was the unlocking of all the base components and putting together a set of cash crops, not the realtime hours spent harvesting, crafting, and selling the same things over and over. I get that such an approach isn't really in the spirit of the game, but the fact remains that it's the most efficient way to get access to better ships (since their appearance seems to be tied somehow to how many units you have). I think your description of "light entrepeneurial" is exactly right (and the shallowness of the trading system quickly becomes apparent, especially with the resource duplication possibilities in the refinery system). They'd have to change a lot about how things are laid out in the game in order to do much more with the end game phase. Well, at least the current narrative path doesn't allow for any radical change besides what happens upon reaching the center (and one could argue it's hardly radical change anyway, just NG+).
I figured rather than start a new thread, I'd post my NMS review here. Last night I jumped into empyrion again after a long hiatus, to try out A10 experimental. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), for whatever reason, the entire time all I could think of the whole time playing was of videos of NMS I had been watching recently, and how I thought it looked so much better than empyrion. This took me down a wormhole of youtube videos to try and make a final decision on whether to drop the $60 to buy it, and when I found a discount link for only $25, that sealed the deal and I downloaded it immediately. Now after about an hour and a half of play, I have to say I'm absolutely blown away. Especially as compared to empyrion, the game feels so much more alive and fluid. I am ecstatic about the fact that I can scan and earn money from every single thing I see in front of me, and that every planet has a different set of biodiversity. That is so cool. The extreme weather is super neat. I enjoy the building, even if it is only limited to bases. It is actually kind of better in my opinion, because it kind of holds your hand with the modular approach, rather than just giving you legos to build from the ground up. It gives a more realistic and sleek look to buildings overall. I actually like the ships personally. It's nice to not have to worry about them, just repair it and take off. The scale of the universe is incredible. I know I have yet to even scratch the surface of the game, and I'm excited to sink countless hours into it, exploring, trading, and just taking in the beauty of the universe. Now again comparing all of this to Empyrion, I know empyrion is in alpha, so there is a lot more work to be done, but it is just barely playable in my opinion. The glitching, stuttering, janky textures and AI, the fact that there is only a dozen or so planets to explore, the lack of underwater activities, the hard break between planet and space, the lack of stuff to do in space overall. I can go on, but I think that as of right now, NMS will be replacing empyrion for me. I want empyrion to be great, and I do check in every now and then, but every time I do, I am still left feeling like there is a lot of work to be done before the full potential of the game is realized. NMS in its current state is polished and can provide hours of seamless and endlessly interesting fun. I look forward to playing it more, and seeing what the multiplayer and other as yet undisclosed updates will bring to the game.
Subnautica was sort of like this and ruined its sandbox potential for me. It definitely helps to abstract the gameplay a bit if that's not the focus, but the full flexibility is one of Empyrion's core strengths. Hopefully it will have a good story/exploration flow like Subnautica and outdo NMS on that front in the future as well.
I guess it depends what you enjoy. I've personally almost never built anything from the ground up in empyrion, because the building system is just so tedious. I enjoy more of the exploration and purpose driven aspects of the game. I love the new faction system, and the accompanying storylines that have been implemented. I don't love sitting there nit picking on the fiddly placement of a block in my base. I like how NMS takes the fiddliness out of the equation and just gives you walls or floors or roofs. It ends up looking a lot more natural and realistic than the 3 foot thick walls that we are forced to use in empyrion (or else deal with the fact that one side of your wall will be awkwardly restricted in placing anything near it if you use a thinner wall or ceiling block). There is also the fact that there are possibly better approaches to the system that empyrion has chosen than the one they are using, such as a more freeform approach that Dual Universe and Skywanders are pioneering. There are ways to have a more in depth building system without it being such a pain in the ass. In any case, all of this doesn't negate the fact that Empyrion is still extremely rough around the edges, and for me at least, can be a bit of a nightmare to play at times. I am so annoyed driving a hover craft around and constantly flipping over or getting stuck when I plow into a hill or sinking into a lake. It's also just poorly optimized and many of the textures and animations just leave a lot to be desired. I assume they will improve things, but when I say "things" that is a mind boggling amount at this current time, for a game that at this point has been in development for the same amount of time that NMS has been out. So hopefully it will get to the level of polish as NMS, but given the scale of what needs polishing, it's hard to picture that ever happening. That's not to say they won't finish the game, but I get the sense that a lot of what we see right now is what we will get in the end.
All your comments about Empyrion are valid, but you may find over time that NMS isn't all it is cracked up to be either. The randomized gigantic galaxy is cool at first but eventually you start seeing the patterns and worlds start looking similar. What they do with life is an improvement over Empyrion which has so little variation, but it felt weird to me. The entire color scheme of the game is kind of psychadelic, and feels kind of cartoony. I know some people are OK with that style, it didn't do it for me. Even if the graphics aren't as sharp, Empyrion looks more real to me. (In terms of terrain & flora - not as big of fan of the fauna.) But Empyrion would certainly get boring if you aren't into building. I still play it mainly because I like to design stuff, I have no idea what a person would do for hundreds of hours other than build, in the game's current state. There's not enough else to do. NMS seems to have some level of funding and they keep improving the game, so it does seem like a decent game to follow over time if you like it. I am not sure if they'll ever fix the things that would make me go back to it, though. The whole premise of the game and the story was kind of demotivating, and the art style wasn't really my thing. I think post-release it has become a good game, just not what I am looking for exactly. Empyrion needs modular building, it would benefit greatly from letting you create and share blueprints for only PART of a structure. The all-or-nothing approach is very limited.
With respect to things seeming similar, I think that is a bit of a challenge of any game, empyrion included. There is a set of planets that provide variation, but within those sets they are all pretty similar. The problem is less noticable in empyrion because there is only so much exploring you can do before you run out of new places to explore, whereas in NMS it is literally limitless so you can get a better sense of the patterns over time. I do hear you on the art style thing. It was a major turn off to me, and the realism of empyrion was a major turn on. However, the art style of NMS grew on me watching videos, and I feel like the fact that you feel like you're in a cartoon allows them to take more liberties in the development of the worlds, and you don't notice the lack of realism, because realism isn't the point. Compare this to empyrion, which is striving for realism, but doing it poorly in my opinion, and you really notice the flaws a lot more. Overall, I think the animation style is fun and light hearted, and that sets the tone of the game, which I have realized I like about it.
@spacefarmer for myself after 1500 hours in nms. The moment I worked out how to make money and could work on the grind to get the best ships you could find. It wasn't taking me long to start moving. Even picking up my base and move everything to a new planet. The graphics are great in many ways. But it did loose me because of the repetition. Yes they have updated and it's gotten better but not enough to bring me back. Where here we can do so much more. The one who has really been showing just what you can do of late is @ravien_ff and how he has been changing planets. Ok not everyone does this. But it does show you. There is a lot of things you can do with this sandbox. So for me that's the draw. nms was never a sandbox. Look no mater what your game style is we can all say one thing! Glad we can pick the type of games we want now days. I would hate to only play one game. "Pong" when that was the top game of all time! Oh wait it was the only game at the time. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, other then stating what I have done.
Yea, I can see how putting 1500 hours into any game would make you a little bored of it eventually, lol. Good to know that's the expected lifespan of the game. Seems well worth the $25 I spent on it.
I can see that if you're into building. Empyrion is my most played game, at almost 300 hours , but I am kind of bored of it already. Not because I am out of stuff to do, given the low hours I've played there is plenty more, but just because I am not a big fan of the Minecraft like building system, and I find it hard to play given how rough it is. If that's for you, that's great, but it's definitely not for everyone.
No Man's Sky almost the perfect game for me. Really just wish it had better combat. Everytime I bring it up people throw a fit saying it's not a combat game it's about exploration and relaxing. Pretty sure combat was advertised as a feature for the game and doesn't even have to be mandatory. They already have mercenary guild quests but the combat mechanics are lacking imo.
