So, with the new game where they’ve nerfed the phase beam as a weapon, what’s the new strategy for space combat? Because the controls are kind of too clunky in space to really make consisten aiming that easy.
It seems that “locking” at the enemy (putting the cross over it for a couple seconds until it turns red) and only then firing causes 2x damage, so it seems the space combat rewards precision and control now, which is kind of an interesting change. Though I don’t really know if this is new - I just don’t remember seeing it before.
As for phase beam, not sure if there are any changes. It seems tracking radius is smaller, but it might be that the same “critical damage” bonus applies. I’ve been using the photon cannon more, so I’m not entirely sure.
I’ve not yet found a replacement for the starter ship but even still I’ve won all my 2 v 1 pirate battles by just staying in place and not trying to classic dogfight them. You will never be able to out turn them with the basic tech. Shield plating for recharge is essential and pretty cheap. Got a 100k bounty for one event which was a nice windfall.
The phase beam is DRAMATICALLY different now.
It used to have a very short burn time, but would lock onto a target that was anywhere in front of you. You jut basically needed to keep a target in front of you to burn them down, once you upgraded your beams.
But now, the beams only lock on to a target if you get the reticle right on top of them, which makes it way less useful.
Yeah, although I’m not sure the controls in the game are really well designed for precise control.
Not sure for how long but GOG still has it on sale:
It looks like they’re not over until the 16th.
This is my current annoyance, and not just in combat. Controlling the ship in general is kind of terrible, and I’m not sure what the main reason is. Is there a control setting I can fine-tune? Am I just not used to it yet? Is my ship just a low-maneuverability ship? Or am I just bad?
No, there’s nothing to adjust. Ship flight is unwieldy and janky by design. I believe Hello Games wants to take the emphasis off flight sim mechanics and emphasize the exploration and crafting sides of the game.
It’s not bad. It’s just drawn that way.
The previous phase beam mechanics made it work, because you didn’t need to be super precise. You could just kind of fly in a fairly relaxed manner, and then let the phase beams handle aiming… but now you can’t do that, so you end up having to do cheese maneuvers, like flying backwards slowly and crap.
Not really sure why they changed it.
For those trying to reach systems with better/more diverse planets, note that the color of the star dictates the types of planets and life you’ll find in a a given system. In descending order of quality/interest they’re coded as Blue (Class B, O), Green (Class E), Red (Class K, M) and Yellow (Class F, G).
Wait, you’re saying the class G stars in this game are the worst quality? That’s weird since Sol is a G class star.
Yeah, in NMS, blue and green are much more likely to yield interesting stuff than yellow/red but of course, they’re harder to reach.
Well, after sinking a weekend in this, I have my final verdict: NMS, now with a year’s worth of patching and care, is a superior gaming experience. There’s a repetitive core game loop, and there’s not enough unique content to fill an entire galaxy regardless of procedural generation, but the game really does its basic concepts (exploration, gathering, building) really well.
I started fresh and plan on focusing on exploring and following the story crumbs. I always loved the bits of lore from the abandoned buildings and monoliths and I really want to see where that all goes now.
I also never spent very much time previously with base building, farming and freighter stuff, so at some point I want to dabble a bit more with those.
I kind of have the opposite opinion after this weekend. I started a brand new game too see the changes. I think Hello Games has done an admirable job of updating the game, and they’ve certainly made it better than at launch, but I still find the core gameplay is pretty awful. The exploration stuff is bland and annoying because the planets still feel alike (just palette swaps with different toxicity/ice/heat levels) and ship flight is clumsy and limited. Flora and fauna have no sense of biology or purpose other than supplying crafting materials. Crafting is uninteresting because it’s just clicking on menu items and playing inventory shuffle, with the primary gating mechanism being the number of your ship and suit slots. The story, such as it is, just reads like pretentious twaddle to me.
I guess what I’m saying is that if you weren’t jazzed by the core gameplay loop before, I don’t think any of the updates really did anything to address that. The game is much improved, and I applaud Hello Games for continuing to work on it through all the negativity, but it’s just not a game for me.
The Artemis signposting – essentially the game’s real tutorial – was welcome.
What’s weird is that NMS’s gathering/exploring/building repetitive gameplay loop tickles me more on a deeper level than Elite’s combat/trading repetitive loop. Both are miles wide and effectively inches deep, but I guess I prefer naming plants and animals after cocks, more than shooting down yet another mindless pirate or delivering smegma in some stupid CG.
Man, if someone stitched Elite and NMS together, the resulting width of that kiddie pool would collapse under its own imbalanced proportions into a true gaming black hole from which nobody could escape.
I briefly considered Permadeath this weekend and if I had my game would’ve only lasted 2 minutes.
Thankfully I chose Survival but I started on a planet with -30 to -40 Celsius temps (should be in Freedom measurement but oh well) and I can only survive outside for less than 2 minutes which isn’t even enough to get to most points of interest around me. So I have to strategize a bit to figure out how I might be able to survive longer as I try and move away from my starting point. There is a cave nearby but I don’t know if it will give me the resources I need though I need to explore deeper into it…or strike out in 90 second trips in different directions.
The fact that the planet is so hostile is actually fun for me since it immediately put me in a survivalist mindset and I have been thinking about my next plans since I saved and closed the game last night. I played DayZ over the weekend too (after a long break) and both games sit as nice companion pieces and are quite complimentary. They both put me in the same immersive mindset and mood.
I’m looking forward to diving back in.
And earth is a crappy planet, sounds correct to me :)