No Man's Sky - Exploring a 60s-Scifi-cover themed universe (post-release thread)

I appreciate all the feedback. Thank you all.

Similar to @HideousRex , thinking back, I enjoyed trying to get stuff to survive on the first planet as acid or cold pushed my suit to the brink. I was much less enthusiastic about hunting down random stuff to get whatever going on my ship. If I could dial up the survival element (weather and hostile creatures) while getting mesmerized by the scale in VR, then it would probably be a win. Or if I could get into laser fight with alien cyborg cult that sees my spaceship’s technology as heretical (which sadly I know is not in the cards for NMS). I just know I’ll never get excited about decorating the rooms of my totally irrelevant space cottage or whatever.

@Profanicus What sort of VR troubles? G2 specific or NMS? Without the VR, I think NMS is a pass for me.

It’s just a very demanding game to run smoothly in VR so expectations need to be tempered. It’s understandable, as there’s really nothing else of this scale in VR atm, with the amount of freedom and dynamic content.

Running games at half res is not uncommon for a G2, but with NMS you’d also expect to be running pretty much locked at half framerate with reprojection, or else lowering settings right down.

You can run full res with DLSS, but I find that makes the game too blurry for me. Running at full res without DLSS, the game looks absolutely amazing but is a slide show. Half res isn’t too bad a compromise, it still looks good.

I love the way the game looks at higher settings so I run it like that, with ultra planets, and live with the reprojection and occasional stuttering. It runs better at very low settings. I have a 2080ti with Ryzen 5900x - the game benefits from a strong CPU, and obviously with a better GPU than I have you’ll do better.

The actual VR implementation is pretty good, way better than many other game’s tacked-on VR modes. Some people complain that it’s not a proper ‘room scale’ game but I prefer playing seated anyway.

Honestly - and again I’m not trying to put you off the game, more just trying to help you make an informed decision - you should watch a lot of gameplay videos or something. Survival gets very easy very quickly, but you’re always, always hunting for stuff to craft other stuff. It’s a huge part of the game, and inventory management is a pain in the arse.

It’s a fantastic game, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that based on everything you’ve said I would at least be wary. Watch the videos and maybe buy it on sale.

Hmmm. I also have a 2080ti, but with a Ryzen 9 3900, so that is not encouraging. The slide show warning is kind of a downer. I have NMS on PSVR, and the blurry was a big turn off so I stopped fairly early. It would not be much of an improvement to still have to be blurry or to be a slideshow. I thought my PC setup would be better for the game, but it sounds like that is not the case.

@Paradroid Thanks for the input. That cautionary voice is always loud when I consider NMS as I am pretty much the anti-minecraft type player. I am still drawn by the wonder of the sci-fi planet exploration in VR, but maybe it would wear off super quick. That and @Profanicus’s warnings are doing a lot to make me want to back off of trying it again on PC.

Well the alternative, is running half-res (like I do) and lowering the settings. Then it’s neither a slideshow nor blurry (just a bit more pixelated and aliased). Everything in VR is about trade-offs.

‘Ultra’ planets is pretty hard on the CPU but it gets easier on the lower settings. Ultra is just so nice though!

NMS is one of my favourite all-time games. And my favourite VR game. :)

Definitely experiment with the different game modes. Don’t be shy about starting over a few times as you try things out.

The Survival game mode is (imo) a much more balanced experience in many ways and sometimes I wish it were relabeled “Normal”, with “Normal” being relabeled “Easy”, "Beginner, or some appropriate synonym of “Chill”. But having said that, you might be turned off by the smaller Inventory stack sizes. (Especially if you try Normal or Creative before trying Survival.)

My biggest wish for No Man’s Sky is a robust Sandbox mode where we could tweak all these things. But I doubt we’ll ever see such a thing.

There is a way to approach the game to let you have 3D walking simulator with the least resource farming. Start in regular, as survival’s main “challenge” is smaller inventory, which sounds like it will annoy you more than challenge you anyway.

Do the main quest which is mostly intro/tutorial until you have access to the Anomaly, which is quite fast, and then proceed until you warp in to a new system and are in a battle to defend a capitol ship. For the least fuss, just take this ship. If you want to set yourself up better, turn it down and do more warp/exploring until you are given a second battle. Take the second ship. The first one is random. The second one is always one of the two larger models. They just have more starting space.

All ships are upgradable in inventory space now. If you like the game, you’ll want to figure out how to get a freighter to your tastes and with max upgradability. But for now, you don’t care, you just want “a freighter”. If you find a crashed regular ship, only repair it enough to get it to launch so you can sell it. They take a lot of mats to fully repair, and you sound like avoiding that to start is the right thing. Better to sell it for cash to buy first inventory upgrades and then items you prefer not to farm.

This is the most important step: Do the quests on the freighter to get a frigate fleet that can do afk missions for you. They bring in enough cash once you get that ball rolling that you can just buy whatever resources you like for the most part. Use most of your early cash to buy more frigates to get fleet missions rolling. Missions from the space stations can also get you starting cash. Start looking into depot raiding as a hobby, and sell those items too. Spend it all on base inventory slots and more frigates at the start.

When you have spare cash to buy resources, NPC ships in both space stations and planetside trading posts all will happily trade with you. Start checking out which sell what types of items. There are also random events where a ship that wants to trade land near you planetside. And Inhabited outposts have the trade com, and there are random trade coms in the wild. Buying resources is rarely a problem once you have the inventory to hold them and the cash to buy them.

You can also now buy technology at the Anomaly with a currency you’ll have to dig up, literally. And you can get upgrade doodads for your freighter by pirate activities. So work on unlocking all related to inventory upgrade items and tech for freighter inventory and base inventory asap. Some tech items allow for passive inventory transfer and make life nicer. There is also the grind for upgrading the base slot count in the freighter and suit inventories. One involves mini-ship dungeons, the other is just grind but you can buy some with money. And having the frigate fleet going helps there too.

Then I’d keep loosely following the main quest, as it acts as a tutorial. Two branches involve combat intro. Also start doing missions from the Anomaly as soon as you can. One mission type is combat. Grinding Anomaly missions gets you a time constrained currency, but also randomly useful items. You should then quickly have less painful inventory and the ability to buy resources you don’t feel like faffing about harvesting due to the frigates funding you. Often you can get the rare farmed mat to make the tech upgrade you just bought from an Anomaly mission.

By this point you’ll have your own opinions on what you like and feel like doing.

I can’t be sure you’ll like the game. But going about setting up with these early goals should have your first run allowing you to just buy and not gather as much a possible and allow you to get items with combat where possible.

I started the new expedition, but did not found has “story driven” as they said it was. Was kind of fun of rush objetives with other people around (this is my first expedition) but at the same time is harder with more people, all competing for some resources (larval eggs).

Looking forward for whatever they release on future expansions.

Damn you guys.

I just finished State of Decay : Homecoming and was looking at what to play next. I was considering Outer Worlds : Murder on Eridanos (I’ve already finished the base game and the Peril on Gorgon expansion), Long Dark : Chapter 4, maybe giving Thea : the Awakening another shot (as I had been enjoying it) or diving back into Valheim now that it’s had a big update. Then I happened to read this thread…

Last time I played NMS was December 2020. I’d finished pretty much all of the base game, explored a lot of the expansion content, built myself a very nice base with all the trimmings, had multiple S-class personal ships and an S-class freighter with a fleet of frigates, and was sitting on over 100 million credits. I was DONE and happy. Then I come here and read about Expeditions. “Sounds interesting”, I think to myself, “Maybe I’ll just log in real quick to check out what it’s about…”

20 minutes of updating my GeForce drivers (needed to do that anyway) and 2+ hours of playtime later and I’m like “what the hell, it’s midnight already?!”. Just like that I’m back in.

Damn you guys.

Spent those 2+ hours exploring the first world in the Sand Worm expedition, collecting a bunch of raw materials, following the quest goals and reaping the rewards. Had to dodge environmental hazards, but at least they give you some supplies and equipment upfront that help with this, so you’re not forced to dig holes to hide in. Once I did the on-planet bits and repaired my ship it was off to the nearest space station to buy/sell some resources and collect the next quest goal reward. Now I need to build the jump drive, which is going to take more resources and cash than I have currently, so it looks like I’ll be taking on some odd jobs from the station NPCs and doing some resource mining in the system for a bit.

You’re welcome. ;)

I found the storm crystals pretty lucrative on the starter planet, but you’re beyond that now so not sure how they stack up with how much you need.

Also the natural burial sites/ancient bones are there too, which also bring in a good penny and are a milestone goal.

*Of course you’ve played further through the game than I ever have, so I don’t know why I’m trying to give you advice! :)

Because it’s very good advice! Thank you!

After playing more last night I came back here to post the exact same advice. If/When you start Expedition 4, read through ALL of the milestones for each of the five phases, don’t just follow the quest objectives in order. Several objectives in Phase One, Phase Two and Phase Three can be completed on the very planet you start on, and the game doesn’t care if you complete objectives out of order, so you can save yourself a lot of hassle and tedious travel time if you knock out all the objectives possible on that starting planet.

Thankfully I read through all the phases and objectives while puttering around on the space station in the first system, so I only needed to zip back over to the starting planet from the station and resume checking off objectives. The bones are the only one I have left that can be accomplished there, and I’m flush with cash (great tip on the Storm Crystals too, I didn’t realize they were so valuable until I rolled over them in my inventory and was like “hold up, how much!?”) and resources now, so soon it’ll be off to the next system and second phase.

This is fun!

This was amazing. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Very nice! Thank you.

Last night I finished all of the goals that can be done on the initial world. The ancient bones one was the longest, they’re not stackable at all even if you manage to dig up a duplicate item, and inventory space is tight this early in the Expedition, so I had to make a couple of trips back and forth to the space station to sell stuff (I never managed to find the trading post I thought I marked on the planet earlier…there is just too many markers left by hundreds of players).

Then I spent some time creating and installing upgrades on my ship, exosuit and multi-tool. I warped out of the system, but the new system to begin Phase Two is several jumps away for my basic warp drive, so I need to pause for a bit and purchase/collect the resources I need to make multiple warp fuel cells to charge up my drive for the jumps. I will probably try to organize my inventory a bit as well, selling off stuff I don’t need and stockpiling common and uncommon resources so I can quickly build things later on when the Expedition calls for it.

I’m enjoying this Expedition thing a lot. It feels like starting over fresh again sort of, but not quite as brutal or time consuming. I also like not having to agonize over holding onto every last thing I find, worrying about what kind of ship or multi-tool I have, or anything beyond focusing on the tasks at hand because I know I’m only here to accomplish the mission and won’t be playing this traveler anymore once it is complete.

Nearly done with Expedition Four. Couple of annoying issues later in the series of milestones that you should be aware of if you’re attempting the Expedition.

  1. There will come a point where the next milestone is to visit a Planetary Archive (also known as a Colossal Archive). What the description text fails to tell you is that simply visiting one you already know about or one that has been marked by you or other players won’t progress the event. You need to purchase Planetary Charts (the ones that locate inhabited buildings and cost 1 nav data) from the space station Navigator using navigation data chips, then fly out into space and start burning those charts one by one until you luck into revealing a Planetary Archive. Only then, and only at the revealed Archive, will the quest allow you to progress. I killed at least an hour visiting a couple of different Archives before I figured this out.

  2. Later, in one of the final milestones, you will need to interact with the Atlas. Since you start the Expedition with a brand new character, you don’t seem to already have the Atlas quest line or the relationship with Polo and Nada that you likely have with your regular character(s). This means going through at least the beginnings of the Atlas Path quest again, which is time consuming. The weird part is that in my space map I can clearly see the option to follow a path to an Atlas Station system, and yet it will not let me select that option (I haven’t done the Polo and Nada thing yet). If I am wrong and there is an easier way to find an Atlas Station, I’d love to know it.

One simple way to locate a nearby Atlas system is to interact with a certain kind of crashed ship beacon. The kind with no ship and no pilot, and where the beacon contains a small red sphere. These beacons are fairly common on Dead worlds.

Would this still work now?

Yup, it should still work fine. Hello Games changed the save file structure in the patch before last and the cheat uses that new structure. I don’t have the codes for the latest expedition handy though - perhaps someone who has completed it can post them too.

So I was completely wrong about this. Your new Expedition character DOES come equipped with the ability to summon the Space Anomaly (Polo and Nada’s home and the hub for a ton of stuff), I just didn’t see it anywhere in the Expedition information. You simply need to press X while in space to bring up the menu of options for communications and other stuff in your ship. The ability to summon the Anomaly is there and active. Summon it to your location, board, interact with Polo (and Nada too if you like) and give him some Dust, and you’ll activate the path on the star map to the nearest Atlas Station (should be one jump away).

The Anomaly is available in Expeditions, but the icon only appears (silently) in your quick menu after 1-3 warps. For some reason, though, the warp count trigger is inconsistent in Expeditions, just like the trigger for the freighter rescue event. People have reported a different number of required warps.