nms-the-future

[visual cloak]

that is kinda exciting, considering that's their focus. It very well may refer to more civilization-focused and city kinda stuff though which I'd be underwhelmed by.

[hot flame]

I think it is more metaphorical, and simply means new places/things we haven't seen - another step

[rotund stratus]

One thing we definitely did hear is that origins was the start of something

A new direction

I think we can bet that this will build off that, or develop the game in a similar way

[sullen grove]

what is this columbus thing?

sounds like spam

especially with all the spoiler tags

also yeah, there's literally a couple mods that give you the past rewards. I love the past jetpack

[hot flame]

That was their way of suggesting something

[rotund stratus]

I definitely think civilisation will be at least part of the focus

[supple warren]

If we go off this, and recall that in broad strokes a few of the major features of Origins were new planets and planetary phenomena (i.e. new localized hazards such as wildfires, gravity anomalies, meteorites, etc.), then it stands to reason there's the possibility of new galactic points of interest (besides star systems/centre, celestial systems as I've called them) and maybe stellar/space phenomena 👀

[blissful grove]

Id like to see some of the older terrain return, water on moons and stuff like that. Watching old gameplay really makes me think personally that terrain and exploration has regressed, even with origins since turning up sliders and swapping colour palettes only does so much when every planet looks so similar.

[supple warren]

buuut that's a longshot

[woeful sonnet]

My speculation on the update:

EVA / spacewalks

It's a feature that many other similar games have, and it's something that every scifi game needs. The title "frontiers" makes sense for this as well.

[sullen grove]

Id like that.

like go outside to fix our ships

[rotund stratus]

Maybe! I do think settlements of some kind could add gameplay that encourages exploration if we look at it from a wild west, early settlement perspective

[sullen grove]

and bounce around the freighter and frigates

[supple warren]

also scifi game with more explorable spacebased POIs would make a ton of sense

[sullen grove]

and maybe space station

[rotund stratus]

This would make sense too

Space bases maybe

[sullen grove]

ooooh please

let us make a base in space and build

[supple warren]

Spacebased POIs to spacewalk on or somesuch would make a ton of sense too, given their hesitancy to more drastically change existing planets

Freighters with exposed base decks would be preferable to static space bases imo, but then, if space bases could also be moved about...

[sullen grove]

if they gave us space bases we could basically make our own freighter

[supple warren]

depends on how it'd be implemented, and if it uses similar building limits as existing stuff, you'd only manage that through some frustrating glitchbuilding

[rotund stratus]

It definitely looks to be at least exploration focused

Maybe building at a stretch

[sullen grove]

the name is really all we got to go on

[rotund stratus]

Yeah

And some stuff Sean said about odyssey representing the start of something bigger

But that's very vague, and we might only see the connection once we have changelogs

[sullen grove]

though.

i do want to point out the style.

that's like.. an eclipse/nightfall?

maybe planets are getting a big upgrade

rotations?

[gloomy hazel]

Maybe a day and night cycle on planets and moons now.

[toxic slate]

a similar stylized O was used for Beyond so it's probably just aesthetic choice

[hot flame]

That's no moon

I think it is just style

But never know

[lyric phoenix]

It's a space station. 😉

[gilded edge]

Yeah I'm 90% sure it'll involve space stations as those tease the "Station Override Module"

[unborn kraken]

The overridden space stations will be the base of operations to terraform planets we discover :p

[sullen grove]

i mean yeah, they put that module in with visions

it's gotta do somethin.

[visual cloak]

lol

[supple warren]

multi-select for base parts and copy/paste options (as long as one has sufficient resources for the paste-construction)

[hot flame]

@gloomy hazel here would be good, but you will need more rank

[gloomy hazel]

Wyn

More rank?

[hot flame]

Yeah, you need level 5 for most channels to post pics - activity based leveling

Eliminates people joining to spam pics and embeds in channels

[supple warren]

"Eyedropper" select tool for parts, i.e. you press a button/key to immediately swap to a part you're hovering over instead of having to shuffle through the menus

[supple warren]

A way to lock-snap so once you have a part on the snap point & facing the way you want it to, you can hold a key/button to lock it & place it without having to worry about slight movements snapping it facing the wrong way or to another part in the background 🤔

Would also possibly make it easier to place parts in a row without things snapping the wrong way

[sterile frost]

Weren't icons for some of those things added in prisms?

[supple warren]

different colored nights would be nice

[topaz totem]

also darker nights and caves

so the flashlight is useful

I usually forget about it

[rotund stratus]

Especially now the flashlight looks good

I never used to like using it before they redid it in prisms

I kinda want dungeons

Not with monsters (maybe a few here and there) but mostly environmental stuff

Traps, puzzles, bad conditions etc

[soft stream]

Good idea, but doesn’t really fit obviously with the Frontiers theme. Hopeful it might come in future though.

[feral dawn]

creepy void/Atlas themed procgen dungeons would be hella on theme imo. Not knowing what is lurking around the next corner as you search for exotic loot/blueprints.. Sean plz

[soft stream]

Enlighten me. How exactly does that connect with Frontiers?

[feral dawn]

Well according to the 4chan "leaks" we'll be able to enter a special void-like version of NMS. This could have unique styles of planets, maybe with these types dungeons to be found on them? All speculation, and otherwise I just really want Frontiers to be heavy on the exploration gameplay lol

[soft stream]

The leaks aren’t leaks. They’re trolling. Or speculation at best. So far, two main things (name and date) are already wrong. Don’t get your hopes up. It leads to disappointment. To me, Frontiers speaks of the unknown and unexplored - which admittedly could refer to the void. It also conjures images of courage, conflict, grit, and staking a claim. But dungeons? I can’t see it myself. Guess we will see!

[visual cloak]

i think dungeons on planets is an inevitable step personally

whether or not it comes in Frontiers is besides the point

[feral dawn]

Yea fully aware its most likely trolling since its from 4chan lol. I hope at the bare minimum we see improvements to flora/fauna procgen, behavioral AI and new destinations to explore on planets

[soft stream]

I personally think that’s much more likely. I’m just hoping we get new mechanics. New content is good for a day, but new reasons and ways to explore would have better longevity.

[soft stream]

Wanting it is one thing, but what makes you think it’s inevitable? It’s not a thing in the lore currently as far as I know?

[visual cloak]

because we’ve already received explorable derelict freighter dungeons in space. Planetary exploration would greatly benefit from some kind of dungeons, maybe underground doorways that lead to improved, more varied dungeons that can be tackled with more than one player

doesn’t matter if it’s in the lore

HG surprise us with features that aren’t based on lore quite a bit

[hot flame]

The very nature of the lore means that nothing is against the lore

[soft stream]

We also got Living Ships and an Exo Mech. Neither really went anywhere sadly. I think a lot of stuff in the NMS universe is experimental - but who knows? I wouldn’t hate it if you’re right after all. I just don’t see it being inevitable personally.

[visual cloak]

it is very much an experimental game

one reason why i stick around update to update

[visual cloak]

my main thought is that i feel what they did with Derelicts was cool but also felt like it was missing some major things, felt like a ‘1.0’, and i assume they’ll improve and expand upon the concept eventually

such as: making it an available multiplayer mission accessible at the nexus

[soft stream]

It certainly makes sense. Just not inevitable.

[visual cloak]

maybe

[gloomy hazel]

I really wish they revisited old ideas more often

[visual cloak]

[odd horizon]

Imagine NMS in its currents state but with pre-release art-design.
Also, I want HG to somehow return old model of knowledge stone(https://applexgen.com/ar/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1565991134_797_No-Mans-Sky-Monoliths-Riddles-and-Answers-Solved.jpg).

[visual cloak]

that’s not something i like to bring up, but i’d also probably be playing NMS more if it had the same pre-release/launch visuals but with all the new features. not gonna happen though

they could definitely bring back the old knowledge stones somehow, maybe repurpose them. maybe allow them to speed up time (offline)

[gloomy hazel]

Or the hexagon crystals...

[visual cloak]

yeah they shouldn’t completely remove older models, at least add a bit of polish to the old ones so they fit with the new artstyle to add that extra level of planetary variation

[golden cobalt]

something like this would be a nice addition

[visual cloak]

is that a mock-up? can’t tell what’s changed

[golden cobalt]

the "Name/Class/Value/Damage potential/Scanner potential" stats (for the MT in the cabinet, like we can do with ships) on the left

[visual cloak]

oh gotcha

[golden cobalt]

i know this is the visor aimed at the minor settlement building itself, but it would be nice that it could actually scan the MT. i'll work on this mockup a bit more, and perhaps i'll suggest it to HG.

[visual cloak]

yeah that’d be nice

maybe even add more complexity to multi tools so they’re more varied depending on class and what type they are

also, random feature request: I feel scanning/observing flora and fauna should have multiple levels of scanning to fully learn about them. Scan a creature once, you learn a bit, scan it twice, you learn a bit more, scan it 3 times and you master it and gain the ability to tame/adopt/understand it

[golden cobalt]

i very much like that idea

[visual cloak]

was done pretty well in the new starfox game

starlink battle for atlas

[wanton shale]

Yeah

[rotund stratus]

I think another thing to add to this could be sample collection. This would work on fauna, flora and minerals. It would give you additional information and boost upload value further

You'd have to take the samples to an analyser to do this. Perhaps samples of rare flora would sell well outside of their home system, too

[visual cloak]

while i like your idea, i hope it’s not focused too much around making units or nanites

but somehow make it more rewarding and feel like an accomplishment. where discovering and exploring is the reward

[exotic forge]

I agree I think you should get science or farming boosts for collecting samples and analyzing. You could build off the farming idea by having crop ranking system or random famines.

[supple warren]

also wish they would revisit old ideas more often, but also take a more comprehensive look at features and better connect them or adjust elements with other elements in mind

At times it feels like they make changes in isolation from anything else and overlook the impact they will have on other features. For instance, putting facility blueprint unlocks in the Anomaly without improving the facilities to make them more compelling & worth going out of one's way to visit.

Another example would be adding a bunch of exocraft upgrades without adding a tech inventory or increasing the default storage on the smaller exocraft to compensate. So on & so forth

[toxic slate]

It's funny... in this scene in the original trailer a lot of people focused on the giant worm. But my imagination was filled with what kinds of alien communities built these architectural elements and whether that was a small village in the background. I still wish for those kinds of cultural surprises in the game. Procedural societies with their own lore and history and architecture. I think that would be a valuable addition to deepen exploration opportunities.

[supple warren]

but also: worms that look mysterious like that and not repurposed flying eels 🤐

[queen jay]

i wish there was the ability to edit individual base perms instead of a universal option, like one base could be just for friends, another base only you can edit, then another that anyone can edit for example

[toxic slate]

I think the only reason they added them back in was to get people to shut up about it

[nocturne kraken]

Would be nice to have a dune desert like that too

God little procedural tribes would be the shit

[static thunder]

They managed to get sand dunes for Atlas Rises, but then dropped it for some mysterious reason

[visual cloak]

yesssssss

those tents/shelters look like they could either be inhabited or abandoned, would be nice if there would be both

[nocturne kraken]

More humanoids aside from protogek as fauna too

Tbh we could use a lot more body shapes, like ostrich/emu types, manatee looks, etc

[visual cloak]

maybe a wide variety of procedural 'evolved' versions of many of the fauna

yes Ostriches would be nice

[nocturne kraken]

Yeah that’d be cool

[visual cloak]

like, they start wearing clothes and stuff

[toxic slate]

yeah this was the most desert-like planet I found in Atlas Rises. I don't know why they got rid of this texture style or why there's no sand dune biome

[visual cloak]

and it would be varied depending on biome

[nocturne kraken]

Simple capes, hats, and tunics w proc gen depending on environment

Maybe we can unlock some in the quicksilver shop

Wow those dunes are great

[tropic cedar]

I played NMS since release but had some breaks between some updates. I wonder why there was a lot of colors before? Now, every frozen planets looks the same. I remember there was frozen planets with green grass, aquatic planets with pink grass and yellow grounds... why is it all gone now? Will the game have this kind of lanscapes back?

[supple warren]

i've said it here & there, i'm pretty sure, but I really think they could get more out of the existing biomes if they'd expand the ground textures that can be applied to them

So, for instance, not just one ground texture for barren biomes, but possibly 3 or 4. Same for each biome, this way they're not just relying on color palettes and filters to make biomes look visually distinct, but also textures

Say some barren biomes have a harsher, rockier look, whereas others have this more desert dune style others so desire

Frozen biomes wouldn't just be snow and the odd gravel/mush, but sometimes more of an icy look dotted more with large rocks and ice/snow formations they currently have

[toxic slate]

More textural diversity would be a great thing. I swear the same repeating ground texture is used on barren, desert, and no atmosphere planets

[supple warren]

The art direction has changed, and while some of those colors have been restored over time for some biomes, it's not terribly clear why the changes were made nor if they'll be reversed or restored within the current style

[tropic cedar]

i can't add screenshots here?

[supple warren]

You're still new, so not yet, but you can share shots in #nms-photomode-gallery

[toxic slate]

It was a pretty drastic tonal shift for sure. They ditched most of the pastel colors after Atlas Rises. Perhaps too much complaining on reddit about "garish colors". But the color diversity is still much less in Prisms than it was pre-NEXT

My feeling is, with billions of planets to explore, why limit the colors you can see?

[supple warren]

Yeah, and while they have sortakinda restored some of them, it still feels to me like the bulk of the color restoration has gone to lush planets, or they lean on filters a lot in non-lush situations

[tropic cedar]

i posted 2 screenshots about the landscapes i was talking about

i miss them

[supple warren]

Like when this comes up I've had people try to show me examples of current non-lush biomes with more color, but often it seems to be through a planet filter or it pales in comparison to what was before

[toxic slate]

love that first one

[tropic cedar]

even underwater landscapes were insane. i will post another one

[supple warren]

especially considering with Origins they basically threw up their arms and said, "OKAY OKAY WE'LL MISHMASH SOME STUFF! VARIETY! GOOD NOW?"

[hot flame]

Hi

[supple warren]

like before Origins I would have said it may have been to preserve biome identities, ensuring they each look/feel distinct from one another, yeah?

[hot flame]

This isn't bash version channel, this is future, provide ideas or suggestions

[supple warren]

So now, let's go wild with the colors

[tropic cedar]

yeah i asked if they would try to make this kind of landscapes coome back

[hot flame]

That is neither

[supple warren]

Gotcha, and I have at least, I suggested more ground textures for each biome & more colors

[hot flame]

Hi! I'd like to see the return of legacy colors

[visual cloak]

hello

[gloomy hazel]

Hello, I too would like to see a return to the original art style.

[tropic cedar]

so am i. I'm kind of sad when i play sometimes, because i always expect to find a planet that look like vanilla ones but i know i will probably never find one 😦

So i just hope they will do something to make the original fellings come back

[visual cloak]

we have some of the atmospherics back since Origins

but it's just the fog/color/atmosphere that's changed really. We do have some new types of terrain generation but nothing like previous imo

[tropic cedar]

It's just about colors. every biomes are similar now. they were more random before. Color of grass, ground, plants

[visual cloak]

I think pre-Next, the art-style felt like concept art a lot. looser, more open, free, less restricted

[supple warren]

I would really dig a planet filter toggle option

[visual cloak]

turn off all filters

[nocturne kraken]

You know, I’d love to see massive ice sheets as ground textures too. Cold planets with no pine trees are a plus as well

[visual cloak]

then it'd look like Next unfortunately

[visual cloak]

mhm. We can now get cold planets with no trees though

[tropic cedar]

Imagine a frozen planet with green yellow red or even pink as main color

[gloomy hazel]

Hey we got blue now, don't be rushing things.

[visual cloak]

blue! so good so ncie!

[gloomy hazel]

Hahaha

[supple warren]

varied night colors 😩 (i know, i know, i've said it before)

[tropic cedar]

do you see the gif?

[supple warren]

It's part of being new, gifs won't embed

[tropic cedar]

oh ^^'

[supple warren]

But also I don't think they want gifs in this channel

[visual cloak]

the kitten's tears are blue, like arctic biome

[supple warren]

Might be wrong

[tropic cedar]

ok

[hot flame]

Sigh

[supple warren]

what would yooou like to seee Gleeaam?

[visual cloak]

he would like bubbles that pop

[supple warren]

ooohh do we have bubble blowers?!

that's now top of my list: bubble blowers

[visual cloak]

as long as they pop

[supple warren]

yes

[toxic slate]

why not floating in the bubbles

[hot flame]

I would like to see everything expanded, I mean I know that won't be a single update thing - but literally everything - keep adding biomes, ships, flora, fauna etc etc. Gameplay as well - deeper crafting/trading/modules/survival aspects/ship repair

So basically, just keep being themselves

[queen jay]

this would be cool, some planets are so cold that other ices would be able to form other than water ice, so the cold planets could vary in color

[visual cloak]

i bet we'll get those water improvements in Frontiers

[queen jay]

whomstdve knows, watch em add things that hardly anyone saw coming

[visual cloak]

usually

[queen jay]

also i wish there was a perm to disable player trading

other than turning off multiplayer

[visual cloak]

But I want to give you my 20 stacks of dung

[queen jay]

LMAO

[supple warren]

it's very good dung

[gloomy hazel]

i think it's physically impossible for that not to happen with how all the updates have been so far

sean seems so passionate about it and it's hard to imagine him becoming less so

[supple warren]

visiting a portal for the planet address should add the address to your discovery menu, and the portal interface revised to enable quick entry of logged addresses from a list with the planet name & coordinates displayed.

Manual entry would remain entirely possible, but this would serve as a good QOL improvement to make it easier to revisit previous systems & log friends' portal coordinates without having to go back & forth from screenshot to game to ensure address entry is correct

Also enable portal glyph entry in comms stations/message modules to leave folks coordinates to places more easily, i.e. without them having to know how to translate them from hex to glyph

[soft stream]

Knowing HG, they would add “Yellow Snow” as an edible. 🤣

[tawdry violet]

Just wondering whats this chat for? Speculations?

Oh, i just checked the info, and now i understand xD

Well, i've got a good one

You know what would be a cool concept for Frontiers? New ship types, but no, not different ships, i'm talking about bus-ships, lemme explain:

Imagine you and your friends are on a planet, and you all want to hop on the same ship to go to a certain part (something like a dropship basically) i know it wouldn't really be necessary, but it would make things quite different, all your friends in one ship

[visual cloak]

yes

cool idea

similar to ideas about a multi crew ship

[tawdry violet]

Pretty much

[visual cloak]

i’m not a big multiplayer player, but they could repurpose a frigate, give it multiple abilities like flying, weaponry, engineering and such and each thing can be manned by another player. Maybe it could hold exocraft and have an exocraft dock exit

[tawdry violet]

Actually...there's one thing that they could try with both frigates and freighters

Do you remember the ODST capsule featured in the halo series?

Well

What about falling from the freighter to the planet on a pod

[odd horizon]

For what purpose?

[tawdry violet]

Seems useless, but actually interesting

[visual cloak]

never really played the Halo games

but yeah, that could be cool

would be more fun if players had more control over it though

[tawdry violet]

That could come with New missions where you could board enemy frigates with enemies on them, clear the corridors and escape on a pod

Easy and cool

[odd horizon]

Sounds cool, but it's hard to imagine such missions in NMS.

[tawdry violet]

Yeah, quite too epic xD

But still, a man can dream

[tawdry violet]

I mean we got something like this with the desolation update

[odd horizon]

I've seen concept art of planetary blockade.

[odd horizon]

Derelict freighters are literally procgen dungeons.

[tawdry violet]

Yeah that's true

[visual cloak]

unfortunately they don’t feel fully realized

we get a bunch of tiny enemies that all look the same

would help to add a random chance to run into a big enemy slowly stomping around the ship

or a malfunctioning robot limping around

or some of those toxic cave plants that slowly grow on the walls and ceilings

[supple warren]

or even a survivor that asks you to pass something along to a friend

[jolly idol]

legit got people on #874277230895824926 telling me that stuff like oceans of acid are too unrealistic for NMS lol

meanwhile glitched planets are okay

[visual cloak]

dude yes

or…a dead guy

nothing is too unrealistic for nms

it’s highly stylized in concept and visual style

[jolly idol]

I'd love to just see more variety in oceans, like oceans made of something other than colored water

even if it's made up stuff like the "aether"

[supple warren]

also have oceans more tailored to their overworld biome

[jolly idol]

yeah

right now oceans just pick randomly from like 6 or 7 different biomes

with no connections to the land

[supple warren]

since atm they're literally just oceans with zero regard for surroundings

[visual cloak]

needs a lot of love

[supple warren]

lol yeah we're on the same page

also caves are pretty much the same way with zero overworld regard

you get the occasional bleedover of surface stuff in them from time to time, but that's not really intentional

[jolly idol]

I also want more variety for exotic worlds; the existing stuff is cool but it's either a set biome or just a variation of lush

[supple warren]

Would be super cool to explore caves on a cabled planet, for instance, and stumble across their "root systems"

[visual cloak]

unfortunately, even if HG devote a small part of dev work to water, it probably still won’t be enough

Not even Abyss was enough

[rotund stratus]

I still think a biome overlap system could theoretically work. Radioactive lush biomes, cold toxic biomes etc

[supple warren]

well abyss was a minor update

[visual cloak]

yes but it also focused on water stuff

[jolly idol]

@supple warren would love something like this (this is from a mod from the game Starbound; note the purple stuff with stars is a liquid you can swim in)

it's not meant to be realistic, just cool and fun

[rotund stratus]

Yeah different liquids would be cool

[visual cloak]

starbound ps5 when

[rotund stratus]

I kinda want rimworld to come to console too

[jolly idol]

from the same mod, but this would probably be too gorey for NMS:

[visual cloak]

i mean, we’ve got exploding aliens in nms

[jolly idol]

tidal locked planets would be cool as well, where one side of the planet is always night and the other side is always day

with distinctly different biomes, and temperatures, depending on which side you're on

[supple warren]

i would very much like to see some non-lush planet love, going back to the exotic/weird mention earlier

[jolly idol]

yeah

barren planets are so boring that you only ever visit them if you need fuel or something

barren planets are so boring that you only ever visit them if you need fuel or something

just because a planet has no life, doesn't mean it can't be interesting

[supple warren]

nor that it can't have water/bodies of liquid

[jolly idol]

like maybe stuff like this (just an image I found on google)

and yeah they can have liquid too

they can also still have atmospheres and extreme weather

also.... regarding a planet that could have life...

imagine you land your ship and it just looks like one of the existing vanilla barren planets, but then you find a cave or use your terrain tool to dig down

imagine you land your ship and it just looks like one of the existing vanilla barren planets, but then you find a cave or use your terrain tool to dig down

discord is fucking dying

imagine you land your ship and it just looks like one of the existing vanilla barren planets, but then you find a cave or use your terrain tool to dig down

[visual cloak]

i’d love if there were dead planets of barren ones that seemed to have no life, until you dig or find an ominous hole that leads to vast oceans of caves

i’d love if there were dead planets of barren ones that seemed to have no life, until you dig or find an ominous hole that leads to vast oceans of caves

[jolly idol]

imagine you land your ship and it just looks like one of the existing vanilla barren planets, but then you find a cave or use your terrain tool to dig down

[visual cloak]

i’d love if there were dead planets of barren ones that seemed to have no life, until you dig or find an ominous hole that leads to vast oceans or caves

[jolly idol]

imagine you land your ship and it just looks like one of the existing vanilla barren planets, but then you find a cave or use your terrain tool to dig down

yeah that lol; sorry discord is sending messages out of order for me

[visual cloak]

ha

this would not be fun though unless HG drastically increased the planetary depth limit

[jolly idol]

we already know the current terrain system allows for it; you may not be able to dig down very far right now, but we know it's possible because of existing game planets with deep oceans

[visual cloak]

hopefully all the way to the core

[odd horizon]

I wanna see implementing of planetary ecosystems like in spore.

[jolly idol]

if you go to a vanilla ocean planet and place terrain from like 80 u down and go all the way up as far as you can, you can see that the current engine/system they use would allow for those types of planets

it just needs to be tweaked

I also really want gas giants even if you can't visit them; they're so pretty and would be really nice to see in the sky

[odd horizon]

In one of pre-release trailer was a planet with floating island in atmosphere.

[visual cloak]

it’s always funny when people dislike the idea of gas giants

[jolly idol]

yeah they could do that, and just have anything below that at a certain point be void that kills the player/ship like minecraft's void

[visual cloak]

because they lack the imagination to understand why they could be so cool

[jolly idol]

gas giants are amazing and are not always made of hydrogen or helium

some of them are made of mostly water

gas giants are amazing and are not always made of hydrogen or helium

not really liquid water per say but still

[odd horizon]

https://youtu.be/0APP5WcX8v8?t=36.

[jolly idol]

not really liquid water per say but still

[visual cloak]

didn’t know that they could be mostly water

but for gas, they’d be able to introduce a whole new range of flora and fauna types

[jolly idol]

Neptune is mostly made of water, methane, and ammonia

[odd horizon]

https://youtu.be/0APP5WcX8v8?t=36.

[visual cloak]

and add new upgrades to our ships to go in and mine gases and such

and add new upgrades to our ships to go in and mine gases and such

[jolly idol]

also some gas giants get so dense towards the core that elements like hydrogen turn into liquids

[visual cloak]

so you could have some big wobbly liquid particles floating around

maybe there’s organisms that live within the@

[jolly idol]

metallic hydrogen is a liquid

[visual cloak]

maybe there’s organisms that live within them

[jolly idol]

yeah that would be cool; not realistic but cool

especially in the metallic hydrogen part

[visual cloak]

again, hg aren’t aiming for realism

[jolly idol]

yeah and they shouldn't; if you want realism, get Space Engine or Star Citizen or something like that

[visual cloak]

but more inspired by realistic concepts i suppose

[jolly idol]

I love sci-fi, both realistic and unrealistic, and I just think NMS should stay the way it is just off the style it already has

[odd horizon]

I mean in NMS-verse gas giants can be made of anything.

[jolly idol]

which would also be cool

[visual cloak]

bubbles

[jolly idol]

there are still real things in sci-fi that are cool though, like tidal locked planets (which I mentioned earlier) and even just realistic gas giants are cool

also things like different types of stars, like neutron stars

I really wish stars in NMS were not just static objects in the background that you can never reach

because otherwise you could do cool things like different types of stars, like a pulsar star

because otherwise you could do cool things like different types of stars, like a pulsar star

[visual cloak]

wonder if they’d ever stray away from the current system of traveling

[jolly idol]

or even an unrealistic, but cool, green star

which I guess NMS technically already has to a degree

[supple warren]

that's part of why i'd like galactic points of interest broadened to celestial systems, wherein you could finally visit star systems with actual stars to approach (as well as other space points of interest surrounding it)

[jolly idol]

but it's still just a static object

(fun fact: in real life, it's impossible for a star to be green)

[supple warren]

that's part of why i'd like galactic points of interest broadened to celestial systems, wherein you could finally visit star systems with actual stars to approach (as well as other space points of interest surrounding it)

[jolly idol]

yeah that's something that even vanilla Starbound does really well

it has points of interest that aren't just spaceships or space stations

it has points of interest that aren't just spaceships or space stations

like colonies on asteroids

would also be nice if there were different types of space stations and they didn't all look the same in the inside lol

would also be nice if there were different types of space stations and they didn't all look the same in the inside lol

would also be nice if there were different types of space stations and they didn't all look the same in the inside lol

[upbeat lichen]

If we get gas giants I also want a gas blaster

[soft stream]

I said a DART gun!

[prime narwhal]

I don't understand people who don't want gas giants.

Its a space game dude. Give me all the space stuff.

Go play Elite for that

[upbeat lichen]

hehehe

[prime narwhal]

I've played Elite for years and still poop a little everytime I come across a pulsar star

its great

[visual cloak]

tbh, we get some pretty interesting combinations on arctic planets now. Why does the blue color turn me off so much though?

and same textures yes

[unborn kraken]

No Frontiers trailer yet 😦

[prime narwhal]

probably by thursday

or next thursday

S👀N™️

[visual cloak]

thanks for the heads up Sean

[queen jay]

Ammonia ice planets, methane, orrr there is an irl example of cold places that are red because there are types of algae and/or lichens that are red soo basically

Red snowy planets wya?

[prime narwhal]

IRL, planets that had Flora inside a solar system with a red dwarf would have darker shades of red-purple.

Because they would probably be absorbing infra red and red light

[queen jay]

If they were red, that means that they are reflecting red light, not absorbing it

Theres a cool video out there explaining energy regulation in plants via reflecting a specific area on the light spectrum and some plants have two types of chloroplasts to do this

Tbh I'm not even sure what I truly want exactly for this update, I'm just excited no matter what really

[prime narwhal]

I thought the plants would be a darker shade because the spectrum of light from a red dwarf is minimal compared to other stars, resulting in a very dark color. Wouldn't they NEED to absorb red light since that is the main light energy from a red dwarf?

I guess this is assuming the plants would follow the same laws of photosynthesis too. So essentially, they'd be darker tone to be trying to absorb the entire spectrum.

[queen jay]

That's true, but whatever color that we can see on them is the light that they reflect back, and that doesn't include everything outside of the visible spectrum, they would absorb most of any light that's any other color tho, some think that the plants could even be black to get every bit of energy possible (also if we wanna continue this discussion, we gotta move to #off-topic-bond-james-bond )

[prime narwhal]

That's okay, you're totally right. Hard to imagine what a naturally black plant would look like lol.I'm excited for whatever Frontiers brings though. That comment Sean made about it containing a missing piece of scifi fantasy really piqued my interest

[queen jay]

Yea I really wonder what he meant by that and if the update adds multiple major things, then what would he be specifying?

[wheat acorn]

Usually the big updates do contain several major changes

Beyond for example contained the Anomaly and VR

[sterile frost]

They have one feature that's kinda like the "headliner" and a lot of others

Like prisms was about the graphics but did a lot of qol stuff too

[queen jay]

True

[feral dawn]

Some more VR optimizations would be really nice

[visual cloak]

robot fauna shouldn’t all be the same size

[jolly idol]

They also shouldn't all be 4 legged

[visual cloak]

2 legged ones would be cool

and 6 and 8

[jolly idol]

Would also be cool if they had their own dedicated mechanical biome that isn't just one of the exotic ones

Like a "cybertron " esk world

[visual cloak]

mmm yeah, though hopefully feels diverse

[jolly idol]

Where all the plants, rocks, and animals are metal or robotic

[visual cloak]

then have a corrupt version

[jolly idol]

And has more than two species of animal lol

[visual cloak]

yeah that’s weird

same blehness as the planets with 1 weird fauna

[jolly idol]

Starbound has a (vanilla) steampunk biome where the trees are metal and drop gears and shit and the ground is also metal; the animals are robotic

I'm on mobile but if you Google it you'll see what I mean

Something like that but a version that isn't pure steampunk

[visual cloak]

cool, will check out in a bit

[jolly idol]

Actually shoot i was thinking of the modded version; vanilla is the same but has ice for the ground instead of metal

I only play modded starbound lol

[prime narwhal]

I want ring worlds

And Dyson spheres, and a Ecumenopolis planet

[visual cloak]

I think they mean like a halo ring shaped planet? maybe not

but i don't know how you could explore a few systems without seeing a ringed planet

[prime narwhal]

No

Not ringed worlds

Ring worlds

Like halo

[true whale]

torus planets?

[prime narwhal]

Sure. Give me all the cool space phenomena

[visual cloak]

i agree, i think exploring a planet similar to a ring world in Halo would be cool, look up and seeing the terrain far above

torus planets oh

[gleaming quest]

Wait are you guys talking about this video? (https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024265/Continuous_World_Generation_in__No_Man_s_Sky_)

Innes said that torus planets are possible in this one

[visual cloak]

if so, i hope they do it

thankfully, we finally got a pretty major weather update

they can probably use improvements though

[gloomy hazel]

They split planets in to sections/areas and I always hoped they would add localised weather to them areas and their surrounding areas rather than planet wide.

Spinning windy bois

[toxic slate]

why don't these volcanoes have smoke coming out of them? why are they so diminutive? why is the red paint on the ground which I guess is supposed to be a lava flow, not at least using the flowing liquid texture we've seen on some plants? This biome feels so rushed and could be so much better with a few changes

[prime narwhal]

Liquid simulation is not HGs strong suite

[blissful grove]

I'm guessing an engine restriction, same reason we don't have waterfalls or any interesting terrain post pathfinder at all, unfourtunately.

[toxic slate]

i'm not talking about fluid dynamics. there is a texture they use on some plants which is animated to look like liquid flowing. this would have at least been better than this solid color paint job on rocks

[blissful grove]

oh, fair enough. that does sound better than present texturing, definitely.

[prime narwhal]

Probably just engine limitations, and j believe this is this first pass at creating real volcanoes, they will probably get updated at some point, technology permitting

[toxic slate]

I think at least adding volcanic drifting plumes would do a lot to sell them as volcanoes. they look so much like "here's a model we plopped onto the land randomly" right now

[blissful grove]

I still wish we got the old terrain back, since the older pathfinder era terrain looks so much more interesting, imo - though I started in beyond, so i'm only going off of cherrypicked youtube videos

[prime narwhal]

I find the current proc gen to be my favorite all things considered. Underwater needs another pass at this point though. But, all in all, I think planets are in a good place, space needs some love though. Very little to do out there

[blissful grove]

Hopefully frontiers can fix that, since origins was a wonderful step in the right direction for me, personally.

[prime narwhal]

I'm excited for whatever we get :) I trust them at this point to produce solid updates. They can't please everyone, but I'm not going to complain about major free content that other companies would 100% charge for

[frank dagger]

they do this

let me show you

oh nvm you meant smoke

i read too fast

[flat crag]

@prime narwhal very true. If any other company made this game it would've cost me $600 by now. Plus a new gen upgraded edition.

[rotund stratus]

This. 100 %

Even if it was the same biomes we already have it'd be amazing

[prime narwhal]

Yeah, I just want more scifi genre staples in the game :)

[queen jay]

I hope there is ongoing expeditions someday

Like a reoccurring thing

[ebon ore]

Rushed? it was procedurally generated. It's not like a Dev sat down and created that world for you

[supple warren]

the volcanoes are largely static assets tho

the lava coloration & their placement are the most proc-gen parts of them

[toxic slate]

The procedural algorithms are designed in conjunction with the art team

[prime narwhal]

Yeah someone designed those volcanoes lol they're a prop that get generated onto worlds

[nocturne kraken]

I saw sandy ground on a dead world today, but never see them on desert/arid ones

[dark halo]

I still remember when you could destroy them by crashing your vehicle into them.

[unkempt shell]

in a game so focused on building a world through readable text, there's an awfully large amount of generic text now. all procedural upgrades, procedural loot, and even the cooking products have a handful of description variations at best. it really makes these items feel less valuable than they otherwise could.

i'd like at least slightly more interesting descriptors for these inventory items, maybe using a similar system to the derelict data entries (though i imagine it'd be harder for them to make interesting, varied descriptors for this level of procedural stuff). at least the cooking items could work, as those are set in stone. hg pls

[soft stream]

Bouncing off your idea @unkempt shell, I’d love to see a way for players to create lore and choices for other players to explore. That would open up some cool opportunities for missions or side quests with their own stories and imagination based on player effort.

Perhaps even puzzles to solve, items to collect and missions to complete.

[unkempt shell]

so long as they provide pretty in depth tools with which to make such, i do think that would be one of the better player-generated-content styles for a game like this!

[mellow pond]

yeah i would appreciate more puzzles other than dialogue-based multiple choice questions

[visual cloak]

if puzzles were more active/involved and could cover large sections of land somehow while also having some procedural nature, they could add a nice new bit of gameplay

[feral dawn]

Atlas/Abyss themed labyrinth maze style procgen dungeons with text based puzzles, platforming puzzles, mini bosses, rare loot/blueprints is something I've wanted for a long time now

[prime narwhal]

Yes.

[stone lynx]

Oh god, not platforming. This game is not designed for platforming.

[prime narwhal]

Even if they are simple dungeons to start, like something Albion Online does with their proc gen dungeons. I don't think anyone expects Destiny Raid levels of complex.

[feral dawn]

yea not saying they would be that level of intensity, but like have some platforms covered in biohazards or trapdoors etc

[steel imp]

When to update?

[prime narwhal]

Prob next week

If not later

[rotund stratus]

I'd say later is unlikely

[visual cloak]

whoa

whoa whoa whoa

you've gone too far, antarctica man

[cedar oriole]

What does "Frontier" means to you, if you follow the NMS lore?

[prime narwhal]

@cedar oriole Well when I think of frontier, I think of the outer edges of a civilization. Areas that are newly being explored or settled. For example, frontier space in Elite Dangerous would be space outside 'the bubble'. In NMS, the 'frontier' could be many things, such as wild/unexplored galaxies, or the void where living ships come from, if we're thinking of Frontier in that sense. Frontier could also be a reference to Star Trek and their 5year mission to explore the final frontier. Or it could just be a name that suggests NMS will be entering a new frontier for the game, similar to how Next and Beyond were named because of the next steps they represented for the game,.

What intrigues me most is how Sean said a part of the update is a scifi fantasy staple that has been missing, and I assume its one of the bigger scifi tropes - not just something like laser swords, something more impactful to the genre. What are we missing? Idk, tbh. War? True settlements and civilizations? Alternate dimensions? (Not really, according to the lore, all of the Interlopers come from alternate dimensions in a multiverse). Idk, been trying to think about that comment.

[rotund stratus]

I think a big missing thing is civilisation, even in the form of settlements

Areas truly unexplored are very rare, and don't hane anything different to find than the populated areas, really

Having more population dense areas, and empty areas would be good

[prime narwhal]

Yeah I think so too. My gut feeling is something to do with civilization and settlements.

Sentinels would be pissed tho

Although, it could be Frontier as in, space and the final frontier, and the update being space-related content. Space could definitely use some love and content, and there is a bunch of things they could add. Ring worlds, gas giants, black holes, and other anomaly, like space whales, and could add a bunch of gameplay elements related to it.

That seems less likely, since its titled Frontiers. Idk why but making it plural make sit seem like cities or settlements.

[rotund stratus]

Might reflect the name in multiple aspects

I feel like it might have more exploration gameplay too, potentially

[prime narwhal]

Yeah I think so too

What staple are we missing other than cities and settlements? I feel like whatever it is, will be the cornerstone of the update

[rotund stratus]

Yeah literally the only Sci fi staple that's missing that I can think of is settlements

And it's been asked for so much

[prime narwhal]

Hmm..what about a galactic threat as the staple? I guess in someways Sentinels and Biological Horrors, along with creatures from the void could be seen as that. But NMS doesn't really have like... say Tyranids, or the Empire, that threatens the entire galaxy does it?

[rotund stratus]

Yeah that's true

Not sure how that would fit with the title, but it is missing a main threat

[prime narwhal]

well if we're exploring new frontiers, those would probably come with new threats? idk, its a stretch lol

[rotund stratus]

One idea that'd go with it is maybe a new galaxy/ dimension

With different generation

[prime narwhal]

Yeah, like a unique galaxy that is totally different. It would also allow them to create some awesome planets because they don't have to worry about breaking bases

[ocean comet]

guys I have serious connections with hello games and I know a thing or two about the new frontiers update. I can tell you right now that there will be at least one new thing, trust me.

[sterile berry]

WHAT OMG GUYS SCREENSHOT THIS

[ocean comet]

yes i can confirm there will be a new thing.. at least

[hot flame]

Terrific, now use the channel as intended

If you want to be silly, we have a whole channel for it #874277230895824926

[ocean comet]

people are strict here. everyone on edge for the new update, me too.

[visual cloak]

thank you Rogerio

now that i know something will be in this update, i won’t be able to sleep

[ocean comet]

I have lots of ideas about nms and i've provided them in here multiple times but a lot of the times there isn't much of a point because it's almost impossible to mention anything negative about the game here without being criticized. maybe that's changed i don't know. I stopped posting in here because of that.
My main feature that I'd like is a proper progressions system and a dungeon system to go with it. imagine having ships outside an underground base or maybe a space mining base and you go try to land in it but you have to destroy the pirates first. then when you cleared the landing pads you can land and take the fight inside through the dungeon.

i'd also like meaningful planets with meaningful differences like adding gravity to planets, then it would actually force you to want certain things like mechs so you can actually even survive in these high gravity planets.

[visual cloak]

it would be neat if every planet had different percentages of gravity

right now it’s just 2 types

normal and barren planets

[ocean comet]

stuff like that. atm it just all feels a bit pointless. why get a mech? it's cool for a little bit but then the novelty wears off. That's the main problem with nms for me. it's got plenty of things to do but not a lot of purpose. The main purpose seems to be just because you want to. why build a base? because you want to. etc. vehicles are pretty good though because they're fast to get around

[visual cloak]

generally toys like mechs do feel pointless

because the systems don’t really support it and make it meaningful

[ocean comet]

yea hello games are geniuses, seriously. but.. when it comes to game play loop design they just miss the mark, man. it's sad.

[visual cloak]

Though veteran players will eventually get to the point where everything is easy and they had already done everything

mhm they could have an update focused solely on a nice gameplay loop

[ocean comet]

not even that, some of us just get bored before that.

i mean the gameplay loop is amazing for people who want to look at cool looking generated worlds but

[visual cloak]

that’s basically the loop

[ocean comet]

maybe the thing that is missing that they're talking about is war.

that would be pretty cool

[visual cloak]

sometimes i think that’s okay, since at the end of the day nms is basically a chill exploration experience

faction wars, something i never cared about, but if done right could be quite fun

[ocean comet]

yea that is true but i feel like i need more of a drive than the next expansion slot

[visual cloak]

i’m just thankful they’re developing the game so much faster than any other space game

[ocean comet]

i think sean was so depressed about his game being shamed at the start that he just tried to add as much as fast as possible.

[visual cloak]

they probably all were

[ocean comet]

yea i can't stay mad at nms lol i keep coming back everytime there is a massive update

i restart my character then i get about 40/60 hrs in and realize that i have no idea what i'm aiming for anymore. i get excited about building a base but somewhere along those 40/60 hrs i start thinking it's a lot of effort to just find a world i'm even interested in. then i start wondering what the point is.

nms the total nihilistic universe simulator

either way, i'm so flipping excited for the new update :/

lol

[visual cloak]

hehe

it’s definitely a different beast in terms of games

[vast path]

we should get more granular permission controls for our bases, managed from the base computer. Let me go into my base computer and grant specific friends different levels of build/modification privileges.

[supple warren]

...time machines, space points of interest outside of stellar gravity wells, shrink rays, more direct methods of intergalactic travel (i.e. not the base teleport tack-on), hacking tech systems, making robots/remote control tech (i.e. not just mech-suit/extraction devices), deploying satellites for planet mapping and weather alteration, synthesis of hybrid organisms (not strictly fauna but flora as well) & other materials, intentional mobile planetside structures, alien environs that behave more distinctly (i.e. beyond gravity, dirt, liquid, wind, etc.), colonies of lifeforms that act together in observable ways vs. flavor text, space hazards that require more careful navigation around and/or shielding to weather through, asteroid colonies, more general space infrastructure in star systems, and uhhh a load more i imagine

[vast path]

along with this would be the ability to build at a base you've been granted edit permissions for, even if the owner is offline or hasn't uploaded the base.

[soft stream]

My guess on what's coming next:

1. Expanded exploration - new planets, biomes, flora, fauna - and possibly a new dimension (The Void)?
2. Space station / system ownership - including the ability to create factions/alliances in game, and set up custom builds / bases inside, potentially with unique functions / vendors. Also more player freighters per system (up to 32 per system)
3. Warfare - Fighting for or against certain factions will affect your standing. This may also include multi-crew ships and new freighter capabilities. Also expect weaponry and enemies to be re-balanced, and some areas to become more hostile or more friendly, depending on your standing with a faction
4. Settlements - More than bases, less than cities. Player created and RNG settlements that offer trade and missions, similar to the colossal buildings from Origins
5. Races - This one is more of a long-shot, but perhaps an expansion in the races you can encounter, with races being predominantly in certain sectors. These would be RNG, and some of these may also be offered in the appearance modifier

Overall, both solo and multiplayer would be better with these features, and they broadly fit with the Frontiers theme.

[supple warren]

also to be very clear, i'm not suggesting all of these, just highlighting some other sci-fi stuff I think could fit as staples that some may be overlooking

[prime narwhal]

I think it's important to remember the context to which the staple is being applied, and filter the staples of the genre that realistically make sense being added. Our two sources of speculation come from the Frontiers title and Sean's comment, but even the title may or may not be suggestive of the content.

That being said, I can see most of what you said making it in, in some capacity . asteroid colonies sound fun. Deep Rock Galactic/ No Man's Sky crossover?

[soft stream]

I really like the idea of more granular permissions for people you trust. And for the persistence of those things when other players are offline.

[soft stream]

What we need is weekly and monthly badges / achievements for completing missions. QS and other stuff is good and all, but building up a trophy cabinet feels more exciting and enduring to me. For example, each of the (procedurally generated) missions in the Nexus should have two badges associated with it. One for completing it solo, and another for completing it in group. The badges could be a standard selection that fill a space that looks something like the catalogue, with each badge being marked for the week / month it was completed. This would give players an enduring reason to keep playing by building up their trophy cabinet. You could also have trophies / achievements for streaks, first to complete, fastest time (or beating a time), total missions completed and more. The rewards would be as they are now, but you’d also be adding a badge to your collection. The total of the badges would also award you a place on an Interloper leaderboard. So you could see how your progress and achievements compare in the community.

In addition, something like the “Styles” system introduced this week in Pistol Whip might give reason to complete the missions in different game modes or with different load outs. It would essentially replace what they did with expeditions, but be procedurally driven and persistent.

[supple warren]

Alternatively they could work on making station/Nexus missions more enjoyable to actually do, instead of just baiting folks with rewards that more often than not they may not care about

'cause I can tell ya right now, the whole badge thing and gaudy rewards for expeditions? Didn't jive for me

Why? Besides not being driven by extrinsic rewards in general all that much personally, the activities are downright uninteresting and actually feel more tedious when they're put in the context of a mission or objective, at least to me

It's sorta like the Extreme Survival or Zoological Milestones, except those thankfully don't hover in the corner reminding you of how much more you need to do for them

However, if you do focus on them, they can quickly make the game feel extremely tedious & frustrating. Mostly because with those two milestones in particular, there's next to nothing you can do atm to make their relevant activities more engaging.

[rotund stratus]

I felt like the second expedition was a lot better

Shorter and funner

[cerulean ledge]

can we someday have futuristic sci fi roller blades that we can activate on exosuit for planetary exploration????

[hollow crescent]

Well, that’s the first time I’ve heard roller skating.

[soft stream]

Rocket roller skating? With competitive play? Sounds interesting!

[soft stream]

Fair enough. I agree. In fact, all missions have become kind of "meh" for me after almost 1K hours in game. I've been of the view for a while they need new mechanics and things to do in game - otherwise it can get a bit repetitive. Shoot something, fetch something, go someplace. There has to be more to being a traveller than this!

[soft stream]

As an aside, Expeditions would always be optional, so if it doesn't float your boat, just ignore the badges. I can understand it's not for everyone. For me personally, it would at least add a constant reason to come back to the game.

[flat crag]

I'd like the ability to mod my ship like swapping wings, engines, cockpits, make it truly your own ship... And it's be cool to build a space station. We can build bases on land and sea, why not space?

[rotund stratus]

I think we need a viable, non glitch alternative to melee jumping

[gloomy hazel]

Melee jump is the non glitch method.

It became game canon with NEXT and devs even tweaked it to make it easier for us to do so.

[hot flame]

Mentioned in the ARG also lol

[gloomy hazel]

Twitching hand!

[rotund stratus]

Idk I just think some other method would be fun

Though I can't imagine the game without something like that

[prime narwhal]

I'm right there with you. I don't care about badges and other (mostly) crappy rewards, especially if the task to them isn't really challenging and fun.

I would love to earn cosmetic rewards that reflect challenges I took part in overcoming. Like when I walk into the Nexus, having some flex cosmetics is fun, along with other rewards.

I don't know what HG could do to change missions from tedious to challenging, except in the form of Expeditions.

It also depends on the person and mission type too. Like for me, for combat missions, I'd really love more dungeons to explore with some type of boss at the end. But I have no idea how to make, say exploration/science base missions more fun and engaging, or trading missions. Those aren't my playstyles really. The only time I had fun doing trading was in Star Citizen, cus it was so damn immersive physically picking up packages and loading up my ship during an intense storm, but that's not feasible for NMS.

[flat crag]

Dungeons could be similar to the Desolation update. On top of freighters they could add bases and caves on land. Giant underwater abandoned bases to sort of raid through would be awesome with some friends. Sort of a Bioshock feel compared to the Dead Space feel of the freighters... Speaking of Bioshock, floating bases that travel the sky within an atmosphere would be cool.

[feral dawn]

Yes please, gimme sprawling ancient ruin style underground procen dungeons with creepy atmosphere and unknown entities around every corner...

Partially underwater ones would be cool too, swimming through dark corridors with giant sea monsters to find rare loot deep underwater

[visual cloak]

really hope they have enough big changes for terrain generation to reseed all the galaxies and make the journey change as we go toward the centers

i think that is the main piece of nms that has been missing

that journey to the center never felt fruitful or satisfying

it was arguably the largest, most ambitious thing missing from the game at launch

so i’ll place my bets on that

[lofty turtle]

The galaxy doesn't have much of any sense of "terrain" to it, if you're in a far corner vs near the center vs in the 700k ly starting band, you're just as likely to encounter the same kinds of systems and planets.

[visual cloak]

right

which makes exploration….

sometimes pointless

[lofty turtle]

Changing that would be an enormous balance task though, they'd have to establish reasonable limits and then seed everything to fall within those with enough meaningful variation you'd actually notice

[visual cloak]

yes

there’d need to be big enough changes

[lofty turtle]

It doesn't seem like the kind of overhaul they'd be up to this far into the game's lifespan

[visual cloak]

lots more art

[lofty turtle]

My guess is the game's last major update is about a year away, maybe less

[visual cloak]

they keep making huge changes to the main systems, so i wouldn’t shelf it just yet

[lofty turtle]

The frequent calls for more combat mechanics, I get where they're coming from but decent combat AI is something AAA games spend years getting right, and HG has never shipped an example of it before.

[visual cloak]

they’ll keep supporting it as long as they are funded, feel inspired, and have the player base

[lofty turtle]

No, they're going to move on to their new project 100% at some point. They're already like 50/50 on it vs NMS.

[visual cloak]

yeah i don’t know if they actually have anyone on their team who are experts in combat gameplay

i feel sometimes, with their small team, they sorta learn as they go

but also, the new game may be a one time release

it probably won’t be an ever evolving game

[lofty turtle]

Why not? The model has done well for them with nms, and the only term they've used to describe the new project is "hugely ambitious"

[visual cloak]

it depends on the kinda game it is

NMS is very different compared to all other games because it opens up so many doorways

so many possibilities

it really is, since it can continue to improve in so many ways

[blissful grove]

I hope they release mod tools for the game, given games like skyrim have essentially infinite longevity thanks to the support it's receieved.

[lofty turtle]

Minecraft has an entire ecosystem around it, is orders of magnitude more profitable than NMS, and has the backing of Microsoft, they can afford to keep maintaining it for many years. Nothing about that is true of HG.

Yeah a really robust mod SDK would be great.

[visual cloak]

i think HG has plenty of $$

plus they probably have other smaller games in development like The Last Campfire

i think they'd end development on NMS before adding microtransactions

[lofty turtle]

I'm sure they have enough in the bank to not have to worry in the immediate term but that's entirely different from MC's "this game makes reliable enough money we could work on it for the rest of our lives"

Yeah microtransactions would burn a lot of the goodwill they've built up over the years. My guess is the new project is a one time purchase but has a business model that allows them to make extra on the side in a non scummy way.

[prime narwhal]

They are very well funded

[visual cloak]

i could see their new game getting dlc content

[prime narwhal]

As of right now, the most recent news from Sean is they will stop when they aren't having fun developing it anymore, and they are just making skins for weekly missions, etc.

[visual cloak]

again, it depends on the type of game though

[prime narwhal]

However, they are working on a new project "just as ambitious as NMS"

[visual cloak]

NWS

[prime narwhal]

But I don't think that means the end to NMS, they love it

[visual cloak]

even if the future updates are smaller, it probably wont stop for a while

[prime narwhal]

I doubt it

And if they were, I think they would let us know.

Plenty of time for them to add dungeons 😉

[visual cloak]

alpacas

[lofty turtle]

I'm in the industry and I know how much a studio with X people in Y region costs to run per month, and it's not hard to work out how much money NMS is bringing in.

Not as clear how much money they have in the bank but they're going to put most of that into the new project not keeping NMS going indefinitely.

[visual cloak]

when it ends, it ends

[prime narwhal]

Of course it'll end at some point, just not yet.

I see another year or two at least

Or things will change and they just want to keep pushing the boundaries of what they can do, and we will see massive dlc paid expansions to keep them funded, who knows. They aren't hurting financially though, even with free update they pull large numbers each one.

[lofty turtle]

My guess is Expeditions are partly a way to keep the game running after the last major update, whenever that is. A new expedition probably doesn't require any new code, just plug a small amount of content in and you've given players something quasi new to do for another few weeks. They could do a year or so of those with like a fraction of one dev's time

[prime narwhal]

Yeah, they've set up NMS do be quite okay when they put it on life support.

[lofty turtle]

And they added that because they realized their older weekend mission paradigm wasn't cutting it

Something that's not clear just from looking at the structure of the content folders and what mods change is how much new logic is needed for new goals, new interactivity etc. Afaict their engine doesn't embed a scripting language, so all the game logic is C++ (and indeed, I don't think anyone at HG has the title "designer", they're all either programmers or artists)

So that's a major difference from something like Minecraft, and probably means that a robust extensive mod SDK isn't going to happen

[prime narwhal]

Yeah I don't think so either. It seems they've moved away from that vision of mods in favor of making the game "mmo-lite", as opposed to community mods and servers.

Less Minecraft in space, more space mmo/simulator is what I've been feeling from they updates.

[lofty turtle]

Yeah every Minecraft server is its own little world you can set the parameters of entirely without impacting anyone else's game

NMS has basically been a very very sparse MMO since 1.5

[gloomy hazel]

I hope you can build/ own space stations in nms

[prime narwhal]

I don't see why not. The caveat would be it probably has to be in a system that currently doesn't have a station, so you build one

You know, set up a little..
Frontier maybe? 😉

[odd horizon]

Maybe you will be able to claim small space inside Space Station and build anything you want.

[prime narwhal]

And it would be super helpful if say, they gave us a new galaxy or "zone" to explore, where each system basically had no stations.

[odd horizon]

Like there is free space for kiosk.

[prime narwhal]

That could be that path you take to owning a station. A mini capitalism simulator for all the traders out there, and you slowly start buying out competition and expanding your business, until you straight up just own the station.

[odd horizon]

Sounds complicated.

[lofty turtle]

The question I have with player controlled stations is, what happens if you lose connection to the discovery server right before or during a trip into one. And if there's already something there (ie abandoned system stations) how does that dual-worlds issue get resolved when connectivity falters.

Not something most players would encounter but they'd need a robust tech answer for it to prevent all kinds of weirdness.

Solvable.

[odd horizon]

1. You should upload station like your base.
2. Stations are pre-existent and you just claim them.

[lofty turtle]

I think rather than "players can adopt an abandoned starbase" I'd much rather see free floating structures in stellar space, creating new points of interest where there currently are none (space encounters and derelicts don't count, they're random spawns that don't persist spatially)

[prime narwhal]

Part of me feels the solution will be similar to how they handle the Nexus and our fleets, but that also doesn't feel elegant, and presents a problem with what happens when there's a NPC station and a player station in the same system.

The other thing to think about is, what gameplay does adding a station add? People want cities, settlements, and stations. But what could it add that differs from current stations, current cities, and other hubs we can go to? It needs to serve a different purpose to feel like a worthwhile endeavor.

And by cities, I mean the massive structures that exist on planets now. I forget their name.

[lofty turtle]

Frigates added the concept of "thing floating in stellar space that you can land on and get out and explore" and so far the only thing they've done with it is the derelicts, which are def cool but only serve one or two design goals.

Yeah the "what does it add, really" questions are paramount

[odd horizon]

Cringe: cities, settlements.
Based: pre-release ancient ruins.

[prime narwhal]

Right, but they are totally different from a station. They are sort of similar to a base, but are mobile. They serve a unique purpose. I just think people claim they want these things, but don't think about what purpose a settlement would actually have that adds gameplay that currently doesn't already exist. The same for owning stations.

[lofty turtle]

The Colossal Archives added in Origins are cool if not game changing, if Frontiers adds villages I think it'd be in that vein

[prime narwhal]

I want ancient cities in the form of dungeons with mini puzzles, combat, and cool rewards.

[lofty turtle]

the archives have real draw-in issues though and I'm not sure if they're easy to fix, PS4 and Xbone aren't getting any more RAM

[odd horizon]

Yeah, it would be cool to see procgen stories like in Derelict freighters.

[prime narwhal]

I still think the most obvious updates could be a combat oriented one, including wars and fleet battles, true bounty hunting and pirating, and MAYBE even ground based battles (but that's a stretch). The other thing I could see is a class of ship between our personal ships and the frigates, that are multicrew and have interiors, such as the Millennium Falcon, Serenity, or the Rocinante.

[lofty turtle]

I wish you could see archives from as far away as they would actually be visible, a tower on the distant horizon. It always feels terrible when one suddenly materializes right as you fly near it

[odd horizon]

Like you explore ruins and find out why there are no people.

[lofty turtle]

Yeah the walkable ships thing has been a dream for a while, it's the first thing I thought of when the frontiers tease said "missing piece in our sci fi fantasy"

It'd need to plug in to gameplay that mostly doesn't exist at the moment - as is you can do missions together from separate ships just fine

[prime narwhal]

It could be part of the update for sure. Though, the missing piece could just be the idea of space as a frontier, and all the themes that evoke that. It'd be quite the update tho.

Yeah some multicrew missions would need to be added as well

[odd horizon]

They can tweak freighters, you just assume direct control and drive it.

[lofty turtle]

The design challenges on NMS must be so tricky, like "how do we get this feature that everyone fantasizes about without implementing an entirely new game within our existing giant framework"

Yeah repurposing frigates to be for multiple human crew would be cool

Get up to some of the wacky adventures that are currently only in the frigate mission logs

Most of the frigate mission log stuff is definitely Imaginary Gameplay though and that's fine

[prime narwhal]

I do wonder if at some point NMS updates will leave old gen behind, and focus on next gen/PC. I imagine certain things just aren't possible on past gen, idk if they'd want to alienate their players like that though.

I guess they wouldn't make that decision though until the data showed that the vast majority of players were next gen/PC.

[lofty turtle]

I'm guessing they won't do any updates last gen can't run. As is they are working out of a single multi plat codebase, if they split that and had to backport any fixes to platforms that are no longer their primary ones it'd be a pain, and they don't have a large staff.

I guess PS5 sales picked up in the last half year but it's still not a large install base compared to PC + previous gen

[prime narwhal]

Makes me wonder how far they are pushing the tech then, as they don't seem to be struggling too much with that. One of the benefits of proc gen I suppose. Unlike, say, Destiny 2 which has reached the full limit of what they can really do and are now cycling content, or so Bungie claims.

[gloomy hazel]

Yeah I wish

[supple warren]

I feel like Frontiers could have a planetside POI overhaul, more planetside alien activity (not wars, possibly skirmishes, but more non-violent than violent activity), & new galactic points of interest besides star systems.

Each of those relatively neatly works around the planetside base problems, excluding those built around existing points of interest, while opening new spaces to explore

[prime narwhal]

Makes sense to me. We just need a trailer at this point, I think we've done plenty of speculating lol

[odd horizon]

Destiny 2 has such struggles, 'cause its engine is shit. Like Bungie said they need around several days to update small part of a map, let alone literally shittiest netcode.

[prime narwhal]

Well yes I'm sure that is a major part of it. And I believe the netcode is p2p at the foundational level, with an overlay of a dedicated server "bubble"

Regardless, my point was there is a point where every game will reach technical limitations, and I don't get the sense that we are near that point with NMS.

[cedar briar]

Doubt I'm the first to say this, but why doesn't space stations have a ship yard with brand new starships?

Then you wouldn't need to wait hours to find out what the ships in that station are

[prime narwhal]

🤷 theres probably a reason in the lore, but I always found it odd that the game doesn't have 'ship manufacturers' and sellers, similar to Elite and SC.

I would like to see it though, and the tradeoff could be buying from a station is a little more expensive and the ship comes more 'stock', but buying from a traveler it will be a bit cheaper. Kind of like buying used cars vs. new cars.

[cedar briar]

Yeah even if all ships are sold as C it would still be worth the conveience

[prime narwhal]

Yeah, but I wouldn't want every ship to be at every station, that'd be TOO convenient.

[cedar briar]

Waiting for ships isn't terribly fun. But they could definitely keep that in, just have like 5 stock ships that can always be bought

A fixed subset of ships, never exotic would be fair I think

With a ~20% markup

But, as Tom Petty once said, the waiting is the hardest part

[prime narwhal]

Yeah. Its a little more difficult in NMS case because the ships are proc gen, as opposed to a fixed amount of ships in other space sims. But, there are definitely certain styles of ships that are common and can fall under a certain manufacturer.

[cedar briar]

Well that's basically what I'm say, that the space station just have 5-10 or whatever number of that system's procgen ships

[prime narwhal]

would be a nice feature along ship customization update ;]

[cedar briar]

I'm meh on customization personally

[prime narwhal]

Eh idk, I'd like the option to have paint jobs and add things like decals or the name of the ship, makes it feel more like your ship and gives it some personality.

Maybe some knick knacks for the cockpit

[cedar briar]

Oh ship personalization would be cool

Usually people mean like changing the structure when they talk about customization

[brave plinth]

You can name your ship. There are also bobbleheads that you can install in the cockpit

[cedar briar]

They meant painting its name on it

[prime narwhal]

The name appears on the ship?

[cedar briar]

It's common in space games

[brave plinth]

Ah, misunderstood then

[cedar briar]

But yeah, some simple cosmetic changes would be nice

even if they were tied to QS

[prime narwhal]

No I wouldn't want ship customization/building in the sense of changing the structure of the ship, unless it is like certain components that get swapped out, like maybe different thrusters or weapons, or maybe some variation in the appearance of wings, but for the most part, the structure should be the same.

[brave plinth]

Paint color is tied to the ship seed too, so changing that would likely change the ship's seed. It would work better as a brand new ship option imo (assuming ship building is ever introduced)

[cedar briar]

Basically, the customization for freighter exterior

plus the decals

Yeah I realize they'd have to overhaul ships

So that the seed is only tied to major structure

[brave plinth]

It could work if it was building a new ship. I dont know if it could work with a ship already owned as it would change the ships stats as a result.

It would quite literally lead to a "racing stripes add HP" moment

[cedar briar]

It'd be a lot of work for HG for sure, more than I think most people realize

To preserve all the old ships and ensure that cosmetics affect only appearance

And frankly I doubt it's worth it

But. It would be nice.

Maybe for NMS2 😉

[brave plinth]

Yeah, I cant imagine it being remotely simple to implement. Players requesting often think its just a snap of the fingers and it just works.

[prime narwhal]

I'm a software engineer, I understand its not simple at all. Just something I would like to see

[brave plinth]

But the paint and decals are latched on as part of the seed. While freighters can be recolored, they often lose that color and revert back.

[cedar briar]

Oh we're not talking about you @prime narwhal

[brave plinth]

Yeah, sorry, didnt mean you specifically.

[cedar briar]

There are far less reasonable people who do think it's just a simple tweak

[brave plinth]

There are players that say stuff like, "I can't believe we still don't have ship customization. Lazy devs!"

[prime narwhal]

Ah gotcya, I know the type lol

[cedar briar]

or think the current system is intention pro-grind

[brave plinth]

Anyways, thats my suggestion. Ship coloring could happen but its most easily implemented if it were part of some ship creation mechanic.

Since HG holds the keys to the proc gen, they would be the translator for ship customizations from a player

[cedar briar]

ship creation, if they did add it, should be upwards of billions of units and hundreds of thousands of nanites

[prime narwhal]

Something to sink credits into would be nice

[brave plinth]

Price tag is lazy imo

Id rather it be some type of quest

[cedar briar]

Or maybe a living ship style quest that lasts a month? 😏

[brave plinth]

Maybe need craftables to build certain parts, etc

Have a use for Cryo Chambers, Fusion Ignitors, etc

[cedar briar]

Idk, I'd just want found ships to stay the default

[brave plinth]

Same, a custom ship should be a pain in the ass, honestly

[cedar briar]

Now that you mention those, it does sound like that was their original intention with those parts

[brave plinth]

It shouldn't be easy but it also shouldn't be so easily exploitable

And price tags are absolutely exploitable/trivial

[cedar briar]

Yeah price tag is meaningless after a few hours and the wiki

Oh what if you had to assemble a team of builders similar to the Expanding the Base questline

[prime narwhal]

Aren't exocraft customizable ?

[brave plinth]

Exocraft arent procedurally generated

(Assuming that was a comparison to ship customization)

[cedar briar]

I don't think so actually?

[prime narwhal]

Right, so a possible solution would be to 'build' ships the same way we build exocraft, and have this be a unique tier of ship, reserved for endgame players. Maybe these ships start off bad but require immense work to get to S-tier. Its not an elegant solution, and would eventually make proc gen ships obsolete, but could work.

I cant remember if exocraft can be customized though, i dont mess with them much lol

[cedar briar]

I will say the LS quest would be way better if instead of pieces you got some kind of D tier and had to nurture the creature up to S tier

[brave plinth]

You can paint or decal most exocraft

[cedar briar]

Didn't know that

[brave plinth]

I mean, the concept of ship building can work with proc gen ships but you'd have to lock the seed down after the ship is created. Otherwise, any changes made is really just changing the seed and that would change stats, possibly decals too.
Having the ship start at a lower class would be ok if the task required to build one is super easy or just a price tag. If it were a full quest like suggested, at least A class would probably make it worthwhile.

[brave plinth]

Probably a discussion for another time but I kind of feel like the whole class system would make more sense if it was tied to the actual ship's current stats...as built by the player.
So an S class fighter would only be S class after the player builds up the weapons systems up to a point, etc

[lofty turtle]

Hashing is a one way process, you can't really customize something and then get a random seed out of it. Customized ships would be just like exosuits and exocrafts, in multiplayer each player has their own struct that is sent over the network to everyone who can see them.

[cedar briar]

it doesn't have to be one-way does it? if it's not for cryptographic purposes

[lofty turtle]

It wouldn't be substantially more data than what is currently sent over the network now. The main work in adding ship customization would be the UI for doing it well, and tying it into the game mechanics in a balanced worthwhile way.

The only value of a hash here is for stuff that's actually randomly generated, at the point you have something non generated you can just store it as a struct (fuselage 047, wing 033, thruster 188, etc - dunno what it actually looks like under the hood because that's on the code side)

[brave plinth]

Wait, isnt that essentially what ive suggested?

Player decides which pieces of the ship they want, game translates via proc gen algorithms and creates a seed for the ship.

[lofty turtle]

I was responding specifically to "I mean, the concept of ship building can work with proc gen ships but you'd have to lock the seed down after the ship is created. Otherwise, any changes made is really just changing the seed and that would change stats, possibly decals too. "

When you generate a random number from a seed, you cannot derive the seed from the number

[brave plinth]

Ah ok, so...sort of

[lofty turtle]

And for something that is not generated, ie because the player defines it, the concept of a random seed is irrelevant

[brave plinth]

There is a mod creator whos figured out how to at least change the color of a ship model via the seed but it doesnt guarantee the decals or stats afaik

[lofty turtle]

Ah yeah, it's possible that the seed value that's stored in save files encodes several bits of information, some of which are fed into a random generator and others which simply specify numbers

[brave plinth]

It also took a solid year to figure that out for one ship model only. The devs know whats locked in the exe, so in theory they could create a way to translate a player request via UI

[lofty turtle]

But it's also possible that that reverse engineer just found the right knobs to twiddle to get a relatively consistent result out of the generator and that it's actually a pure seed value

[prime narwhal]

That's why I suggested it working similar to exocraft. It would utilize existing technology without the need to mess with the proc gen. I've never worked with proc gen before, as I have only done web dev, but there's no way to grab the seed of the ship you want to customize and store it, and then allow the player to customize without 'regenerating' the ship? If you essentially copy/create a new object for the ship that you want to be customize and remove it from the proc gen, then it wouldn't matter, as long as you can grab the seed and the data from it and store it somewhere, no?

[brave plinth]

Also, while two ships may be identical in appearance, decals, etc, they may have totally different seed values...but that wont matter to the player because the player isnt looking at the seed value, only the visual outcome

[prime narwhal]

Of course that's a lot of assumptions on my end and over simplification. Like I said, no experience working with anything proc gen, besides randomly generating filler data for projects lol

[brave plinth]

This is definitely true from what i understood of the results.
At that point though, a seed that is close enough to the expectations the player wants should really be fine.
The player gets a "custom built" ship but the stats, etc are still proc gen.

[lofty turtle]

so, here is what i assume currently happens under the hood when the player happens upon a ship in NMS:

1. the ship has a specific random seed, which was generated by the ship population manager when it spawned (either nearby, because it's an NPC ship, or because another player found it somewhere however long ago).
2. the game runs the seed through the "get ship visuals based on seed" function, which determines (consistently, hence the game's whole continuous PGC nature) which parts the ship is made of, which colors those parts are, decals, etc.
3. the game renders those mesh parts and decals at the right location, and feeds in the color values to the shaders.
   in the case of a theoretical customized ship, instead of steps 1 and 2, the game would instead look at (in my case) "JP's Current Customized Ship Struct", as loaded from my savegame or sent over the network to another player, which correctly describes which parts and which colors the ship is made of, and then render the ship appropriately.

[odd horizon]

There is old article (In Russian) about procgen reverse engineering of NMS with cool illustrations. Wanna see?

[prime narwhal]

Yes

[odd horizon]

https://habr.com/ru/post/312998/

[prime narwhal]

Ty

[odd horizon]

Oh, my bad. That's already the translation.

But original article was deleted.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170606055423/http://3dgamedevblog.com/wordpress/?p=836

[prime narwhal]

Super interesting, thank you

[supple warren]

speaking of ship customization & such, i kinda think part of a better approach than just repainting or readjusting existing ships' part/colors would be full-on building, sorta like exocraft.

At least in my experience, exocraft manage to keep their custom colors, and presumably that's because they're not proc-gen. However, I don't think anyone would like a customizable fixed design starship or set of them, so a full custom build seems the better option.

nvm i see that was already discussed, i only skimmed the shorter messages

[prime narwhal]

That was my line of thinking as well, but the issue then is that the proc gen ships would eventually become obselete, as most people probably want to have a ship they can fully customize, aside from living ships or just awesome exotic ships.

Which is why I think it could be an endgame goal. Another idea is that, in order to build ships, maybe you have to go out and collect the proc gen ships, and 'feed' it to the ship builder so that you have parts to build ships with?

[supple warren]

not necessarily, look at games that enable shipbuilding and then how many folks may simply opt to download others' builds. Convenience of prebuilds would likely take priority over custom builds for many folks

[lofty turtle]

it's possible they'd add ship customization along with a player-to-player ship market

one idea i had for how customization could work is, you have an inventory of unlocked ship parts - the actual mesh pieces, not the abstract inventory icons - that you can swap in in the ship builder UI. maybe to start with this inventory is the parts comprising all the ships you already own. but you can also scrap a ship and its parts are added to the inventory.

so that way, finding crashed ships could either be a moneymaker or you could be on the hunt for specific parts.

and trading a ship to another player would be a useful way to get new parts as well.

[prime narwhal]

That's what I was thinking when I meant you have to 'feed' ships to the shipbuilder, so that you can unlock certain 'parts' to build with. Such as, certain wing patterns, cockpits, etc.

[lofty turtle]

some players could specialize in making custom high end ships with rare parts and selling them for a lot of units.

[prime narwhal]

That way you still need to go out and find proc gen ships, for a while, at least

[lofty turtle]

yeah exactly

also maybe there's an additional cost to add a scrapped part to your inventory, if they wanted to turn it into a late game money sink.

[prime narwhal]

Tfw ships basically become pokemon

[lofty turtle]

so newer players are still using stock purely-generated ships and if you see something wild and custom you know the player either spent a lot of units or built it themselves.

[supple warren]

since we're on this topic, i'd still like to see ship/mutltitool repairs made more wortwhile via fake damage (broken slot) repairs contributing to an improvement in the equipment's stats as a sort of "uncovered potential" kinda thing

[lofty turtle]

that's cool

[supple warren]

Since with the intro of ship scrapping, repairs are basically a skip in favor of melting the broken ships down

[lofty turtle]

it's clear that han solo and chewie have put a ton of work into the millenium falcon over the years, taking it way beyond its stock potential, and it'd be nice to be able to build that kind of investment in your ship beyond just installing upgrades and unlocking slots.

[prime narwhal]

Hm, reminds me of what Engineers do in Elite Dangerous.

[supple warren]

It'd also make restoring the slots feel more rewarding

Right now people aren't inclined to because basic storage isn't rewarding in itself, or so it seems

[lofty turtle]

the same mechanic could probably be applied equally to ships, multitools, exocrafts, exosuits, and freighters

so long as they had meaningful boosts to offer

[prime narwhal]

I think for meanginful upgrades, aside from say storage, I really think the way ships operate and the flight model would need a significant overhaul, as well as ship combat, the damage model, etc.

[supple warren]

The idea at least to my mind was more that a damaged slot is inhibiting full functionality, so repairing it restores that, whereas regular storage expansion is just basic storage expansion 🤔

But it's a thought

[prisma cradle]

Faster exocrafts,

When I say fast I mean, fast

[rotund stratus]

Could have floating POIs and islands

[toxic slate]

the problem is the environment generation system can't keep up even now with exocraft and even jump boosting travel

[rotund stratus]

I'd like for the 3rd person exocraft camera to align properly down steep slopes

[lofty turtle]

the most basic thing i want, like if they were only allowed to do a single thing before going hands-off with the game forever, is improve the water surface edge rendering. what's in there right now feels totally busted, it's clearly this world space shader that doesn't look right in various conditions. the rest of the game looks so damn good these days, that's the last thing i'd like to see fixed on a pure visual level.

(i hope they do a lot more than just that, obviously)

[toxic slate]

I would like every planet and every body of water to not be tinted blue at night

[supple warren]

i would like a planet filter toggle, especially since Origins allowed some of the exotic/weird filters to show up in other biomes

[thick ivy]

I'd like a larger field of view for first person in ship.

I'd like the ability to map areas and view the maps.

The ability to add words/letters with different fonts rather than just numbers of the same font for decals.

Logic gates

Processing chains (auto-feed from mine to refiner and from one refiner to another).

short-range teleports to have more range.

Ability to group base parts together to move them and copy/paste them.

Procedurally-generate enemies.

Wider variety of buildings, with more variation in size, color, styles, materials, and layout.

Wider variety of freighter and space station interiors (procedurally generated).

Alien enemies (not just sentinels and alien ship battles, but ground combat)

Ground fortresses (similar to derelict freighters, but on planet surface)

[lofty turtle]

underground dungeons connected to the surface by a metroid-style elevator is something i've wanted for a long time.

it'd be cool if some of them weren't combat + loot focused, just a research base or something with some NPCs that have a quest for you back up on the surface. like fallout vaults.

[rancid sigil]

gas giants with floating stations in the upper atmosphere, similar to Cloud City

I think it would add a lot of variety to systems

you could even have creatures living up there too

[stuck apex]

What would really bring me back to the game is ships that you can actually walk around and live in, without being massive, unmoving freighters. Right now, the ships are so small and single purpose they feel a little like toys. You hop in, and then you have pretty limited control over the rest. Shields are automatic, taking off is automatic, landing is automatic, even most of the flying is automatic. It would be great if you could have a massive ship with a crew cabin and weapons deck and control hub that you had to actually land and control. And a way of making these ships more balanced could be making their pulse engine speeds slower, so that you have time to get up and walk around your cabin before you arrive at the next planet

Theres so much opportunity that comes with it, like a nomadic play style, taxi services or even multi-crew ships

[gloomy hazel]

Some of those big haulers look big enough to have the small interior you can walk in

[crystal sage]

Yknow, i love water, and i realy do love the seas and oceans of NMS, in fact, i am building an underwater base atm 😄

But i'd love to see something like this, and maybe deeper water (Definietly want deeper waters 😄 )

[gloomy hazel]

And then we die to water pressure 👍

But imagine big sea creatures that are as big or bigger then the sand worm

Terrifying

[crystal sage]

Cant share pics here? Big sad

oh well, something like the Subnautica Leviathans 😄

[blissful verge]

I wish this was in the game omg 😲 😩

[wheat acorn]

I mean its a neat feature but also only for a little bit compared to the difficulty of implementing later on

I would note the Freelancer; not super exciting to walk around more than a few times

It might be cool if you could see your character piloting from outside tho for screenshots!

[chrome schooner]

heh

seems like I somehow had this one muted and hidden

back on 😛

[crystal sage]

Add VR support and hell yeah 😄

Most importantly, i hope they don't go in a way that they start making updates that they deem cool and good, and in fact nobody want that stuff XD

[chrome schooner]

Biggest one for me personally would be allowing multiple freighters per system

the mod seems to work fine

[crystal sage]

why do you needthat? 😄

[rotund stratus]

Multiplayer

[zenith marten]

Yeah, it's especially painful when doing daily QS missions and someone manages to summon theirs first. No way to beam down your exocraft or access all the storage containers

And there isn't even any performance impact on having multiple player freighters. I've done a test where I summoned in my freighter on ps5, then had my PC account and a friend warp in theirs as well with the multiple freighters enabled from debugglobals. The ps5 nor PCs had any framerate issues with 3 nearby player freighters

[crystal sage]

I get that, but what's the goal with multiple Freighters in the same system?

[crystal sage]

Yeah, that explains a lot ,:D

[rotund stratus]

Multiple people can access their storage, bases etc

[crystal sage]

Actually, one thing that i just thought about that would be a nice (more of a Quality of Life) check, is if the Upfolding Royal wings would start to fold up, as soon as the landing sequence starts, because most of the time it's halfway in the earth/landing pad when it starts doing so...

I reeealy hope a dev sees this XD

I guess u can imagine how bothering that can be, especially when you fly something like this beautiful girl
#nms-photomode-gallery message

[hot flame]

If you want to make sure a dev sees it, you can tell them directly

!hg

[misty iris]

You can submit bug reports or suggestions/feedback directly to Hello Games with this link: https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[crystal sage]

Thank you very mutch 🙂

Also, how do you call the upfolding wing design? ,:D

Like, there is the other small one

[hot flame]

I'm sure there is a community name, I just call them tri wings

[odd horizon]

Two years I submitted them idea of Atlas Pass V4 as base decoration, which you can link to your personal code from Waking Titan ARG. Guess it was bad idea.

[chrome schooner]

Yeah I suggested the thing after BEYOND for the build menu to show the electricity an item takes

probs others that requested it

but still nice to see it added later on 😛

[quiet cloak]

I've been thinking about the suggestion of cities a bit. Full-on cities would be way too performance heavy ofc.. but a new planet type with various scattered building ruins might be possible (simple objects for performance, no/few interiors except for POIs)

Terrain gen could use lots of unnatural shapes and metallic textures to give the appearance of an ancient city-planet that's fallen to decay

[soft marsh]

Towns or settlements might be more feasible

[quiet cloak]

Yeah for sure

[cedar briar]

Some of the exotics have that feel

[odd horizon]

I think towns should be extremely rare, maybe one in whole region.

[visual cloak]

i agree on rarity, though hopefully they’d be diverse enough as well

[cedar briar]

Anything with true rarity would be welcomed. I really liked that the Living Ship quest leads everyone to the same planet, it makes it truly unique

[odd horizon]

Yeah, living ship quest were great. Much better than Dreams of the Deep.

[cedar briar]

I liked that one too, but I just went back and forth with the same two submerged buildings

[odd horizon]

Yeah, and it was just exhausting.

[cedar briar]

But then what happend in Dreams of the Deep could happen anywhere I guess

[chrome schooner]

Depends how big they are I think

[cedar briar]

It certainly didn't feel unique

An exotic biome with empty city-like terrain would be neat

[chrome schooner]

like this is a base from the Next Gen post

if they can proc gen formations like that

it would be a 'city' for me

oh

an alternate way could be to have a small chance for an ancient ruin

to be bigger so it's not a building

but the ruins of almost a city 😛

[odd horizon]

Also. Are planets from living ship quest exist inside known galaxies?

[chrome schooner]

🙂

wait that's the same place

but during night lol

[cedar briar]

Ancient ruins should have more variety, it looks like they were all factory developed and randomly plopped on every planet in the universe

Different time periods of ancient for example

[chrome schooner]

apparantly you can dig them out also

can spend a day digging

and then they're huge apt

[cedar briar]

They look the same as the above ground ruins, or mostly so

[odd horizon]

It would be cool if HG somehow returns all pre-release buildings.

Many of them were really cool.

[cedar briar]

They may if they've already done most of the work

They did that with abandoned space stations

[odd horizon]

Old trading outposts were great. (https://i.redd.it/q2oy6tku7z731.png).

[chrome schooner]

Yeah

I love the buildings and ruins in the pre-release footage

[odd horizon]

https://www.nomanssky.com/2016/08/what-do-you-do-in-no-mans-sky/

[chrome schooner]

early space station?

[odd horizon]

Most definitely.

[chrome schooner]

I think it's funny they forgot about their press page

since Atlas Rises 😛

[zenith marten]

where did u find this?

are the trailer bases stored in game?

[chrome schooner]

that's in the news message of the Next Generation update

dw

it's just a base someone made

but I pointed out 'cities' could just be npc owned bases that are proc gen'd 🙂

at the size of large bases

https://www.nomanssky.com/next-generation-update/

Scroll down a bit

[azure ore]

Even if they did the cities underground interacting with the caves it would be cool. Places to explore underground and then have to display everything all the time would not be necessary.

[gloomy hazel]

Would be cool if HG shared coordinates for the trailer planets.

[chrome schooner]

and/or send weekend missions there 🤔

[prime narwhal]

What we really want is NMS just to absorb deep rock galactic and put it in the game.

[neon trench]

Honestly that’d be so good

I’d want the same sort of mining mechanics too though

Literally I only play DRG and NMS

A combination would be my favourite game

[toxic slate]

I think anyone asking for procedural cities should look first at what Star Citizen is doing. if NMS just had a bunch of buildings populated by vendors that would be boring af and IMO a waste of development time. but actually making it feel alive -- takes a lot lot more work

[supple warren]

yeah, and supposing it was just a subset of the structures populated with vendors, and/or giant structures with only a small portion open (see: archive buildings) would also be pretty 🤷

[prime narwhal]

Which is honestly why I love Star Citizens approach to a space sim. Elite and NMS are great for the scale they provide, and are really great in their own ways, but Star Citizens detail and immersion is unmatched. Obviously, SC has a ton of issues, but I really like their approach of a few solar systems that are highly detailed.

Of course, it has different goals in mind than Elite and NMS and is going for a true space sim MMO.

[frank dagger]

I dont want cities in nms

i dont see the point

[prime narwhal]

If you're playing Elite and NMS , you just have to accept the fact that the proc gen won't provide the same level of detail as a handcrafted world can.

[prime narwhal]

Adds some detail to the landscape.

But yes they need to add a gameplay element. Personally, I'd love a colony management "minigame" along with expanded building to allow you to build a colony on a planet. Kind of like a "surviving Mars" simulator and figure out things like establishing trade, food, overcoming the unique challenges of a planet, until the colony is self sufficient.

That's a little ambitious for NMS tho I think

[frank dagger]

nms planets are already cluttered with random stuff

the only thing i could possibly want is dungeons. nms planets are beautiful but they need to be more mysterious i think. deeper oceans with scary hostile creatures. deeper caves

[prime narwhal]

Well by that argument, what's the point of anything? "Cities" or expanded settlements can just replace some of the current single building locations, and add some gameplay elements. For example, maybe a trader from only colony needs you to take a shipment to the space station, or to a different colony, and employs you to do it, and it effects the local market. Could have a bunch of things like that, plus more.

But yes I would love dungeons. The game sorely needs more combat oriented stuff

[frank dagger]

i want nms galaxy map to be like elites. i hate it in nms

[prime narwhal]

SAME.

[frank dagger]

i think it's awful man.

it also takes away a lot of potential for exploring

[prime narwhal]

I want NMS planets/style/features, with Elites space and flight model.

[frank dagger]

hmm nms does need a better flight model but not like elites. it still has to be fast. because that's the thing with nms, it chooses fun over realism

[prime narwhal]

Like, you know how they said there was orbit and rotating planets? And players got confused so they removed it? I really have a hard time believing that, because it happens all the time in elite and it has never once been confusing lol

[frank dagger]

yeah

[brave plinth]

I absolutely believe it.
The game had no way to navigate via coordinates before

[prime narwhal]

Yeah that's true. I think the issue is in space combat, the fov is off and the other ship models are too small.

[frank dagger]

space combat is very arcadey

[prime narwhal]

Which is fine

[frank dagger]

i dont mind it that much though

yeah

[prime narwhal]

Just needs some love

[brave plinth]

If I wanted Elite, I would play Elite

[prime narwhal]

I'd like elites sound design tho

Cus damn is it good

[frank dagger]

ooooh yeah lmao

it's incredible

[toxic slate]

People always bring this up when I say I want rotating planets, but they never keep in mind that at that time HG was perilously close to being bankrupt and was just trying to finish what they could and get it out the door. They didn't have time to tinker with UX

[prime narwhal]

The issue is the solar/galactic map, not the planets themselves. Like right now, say you leave a planet that your home icon is on, you'll be able to always see that icon.no matter what the planet does, it's easy to find it because of the markerm But turning your ship and floundering about to find OTHER planets is the issue. We need a way to pull up a map and lock in planets/coordinates.

[brave plinth]

It was also prior to base-building being introduced, so it would have either complicated the base building even further or they would have had to take it out anyway.

[toxic slate]

yeah I've long advocated for a top-down system map, where you can select a planet and just auto-pilot there

[brave plinth]

I'm pointing out that there were little to no ways to navigate when they allegedly removed planet orbits. There were no coordinates in the ship or the visor, and you couldnt have a base either, and no custom markers yet.

[prime narwhal]

True, but idk I feel like if I left and came back and the planet was oriented differently or moved a little, I could figure out what just happened. Of course it would be insanely hard to find the same spot I was just at, but at release, there was very little reason to find the exact same spot on a planet, you can basically find everything anywhere.

[brave plinth]

And since the planets are positioned via a coordinate system for the space system, they are always locked to a specific position. Changing that would be a MASSIVE overhaul.

[toxic slate]

well, orbital mechanics and rotating planets are two different sets of problems

[brave plinth]

Ok, but we can look back at how that whole situation was handled. They didn't add a UI coordinate system until NEXT. That means for at least a year, the only method you could use to navigate a system is if you had your only base there and up to 3 (or was it 5) save beacons

[prime narwhal]

You mean it's not as easy as planet.orbit = true; ?😉

[brave plinth]

But anyways, since this is for the future, I'd like to see some type of cartography update where waypoints discovered can be viewed from the Discoveries page

[prime narwhal]

Yeah I don't think orbits would even be possible given the current system. I'm pretty sure the sun is just part of a skybox basically, given how you can easily change it's position in the camera mode.

But I could see rotations being added.

[prime narwhal]

Yes

I guess to simulate orbit they could make the sky box rotate lol

[toxic slate]

Yup obviously orbits would require big changes. Don't think they'd ever do it. But I do think it's funny that they have a full orbital system for each planet and moon on the galaxy map. so somewhere that code exists to handle it

[gloomy hazel]

It "existed" in 1.0

According to official patch notes claiming it was removed anyway.

[frank dagger]

really

[toxic slate]

I don't think orbits ever existed. Maybe before their code got destroyed in the flood

[prime narwhal]

The code was fine I believe. At least, I hope it would be. Any large scale project uses a version control system such as GitHub where the code lives off the machine.

[gloomy hazel]

General agreement is that, it never existed. We kinda need to accept it possibly did cause they said it did.

[toxic slate]

My bigger want is rotating planets. I want to chill at my base the planets actually move across the sky. The moon has phases. Eclipses. And my god, much longer days.

[cloud yew]

yea Sean said in interviews they had backups and stuff

[prime narwhal]

Yeah, I couldn't imagine any project not using version control lol

[brave plinth]

Well, unless someone cracks a 1.0 PS4 copy, we'll never know the answer. Personally, i dont think it matters because I don't think orbiting planets adds anything of gameplay value, it just complicates the experience for new players

[toxic slate]

Nah Sean came out later on and said they were trying to put on a brave face, but actually lost months of work

[cloud yew]

people have played 1.0 on PS4, you just delete the game, disconnect internet and put in the disc. Rotation didn't exist even in 1.0 on PS4

[prime narwhal]

Oh I'm sure they lost local assets and work that wasn't stored, but most projects get things pushed regularly to the version controls code base.

If not they learned a valuable lesson to push frequently lol

[toxic slate]

Oh I know, I'm a developer too. But my impression was maybe they weren't pushing remotely often or at all. It was a situation where someone's laptop at home saved them. I'm sure they learned their lesson lol

[prime narwhal]

They probably weren't pushing things that were WIP

And lost those

Which, depending on the thing, could be huge

[cloud yew]

actually now you mention it, I remember the sound guy at HG done an interview with Cobra TV a few years ago and he said that they lost more than they admitted in the flood or something along those lines..... we'll never know

[toxic slate]

but anyway this channel is about the future

honestly my number one request, and it would be so easy to implement, is longer days. maybe generated procedurally. so some planets have 18 hour days, some have 6, or 30 mins, whatever

[prime narwhal]

Could be based off of the planets size