I wonder how many trillions of floors Diablo 1 had if they had used this weird way of marketing No Man’s Sky uses.
Why is trillions in quotes? Did they add them or not?
I write a planet generator. All of the planets are the same to begin with, so realistically I can only generate “1” planet. Then I add one toggle which is random, if it’s on the planet will be completely water. I now have “2” planets. Now I add another toggle for one huge mountain, I can now generate “4” planets (dry,water,dry-mountain,water-mountain). Keep adding toggles, sliders and parameters until you have “trillions” of possible planets and you’re done.
The funny thing is that the changes are cumulative, so if I release a game that can generate X planets and I add a binary toggle I can now claim I added X planets to the game. If I add a slider from 0-9 then I added 10X planets. So since No Man’s Sky already had a giant number of planets, adding trillions of them could mean something as stupid as they added a new resource to the game so now every planet can have that resource in different amounts.
I thought I’d check which 2^N gets you to a trillion, it’s N=40. So you can have 40 parameters per planet and add one more, then suddenly you’ve created an extra trillion planets.
And that’s assuming just toggles, if each parameter has 10 levels you only need 12, then add one toggle and you get trillions. Heck, I can name 12 parameters that have at least 10 different values off the top of my head:
- Amount of water overall (oceans and lakes)
- Amount of mountains
- Amount of Forrest on the land
- Amount of life forms
- Temperature
- Amount of moons/rings
- Size
- Amount of rivers
- Whether the landmass is one big continent or multiple small islands
- Amount of volcanoes
- Amount of caves
- Amount of iron (or any other resource)
Congrats, if you now add a does the planet rotate toggle you’ve created trillions of planets.
It’s a procedurally generated universe(s). These systems haven’t all been pre-generated, but will rather be generated to explore when a player visits a system for the first time.
Right, but that still counts. Although I guess it’s kind of an “if a tree falls in the forest” question. If the world doesn’t exist unless you find it, was it really there before?
The point is rather how meaningful this statement is. It doesn’t really matter if your algorithm can come up with trillions of ways to place trees, if it’s the same handful of trees it’s still gonna feel samey after the third time.
Hmm, true
I’d trade that update for one that fixed the jank combat. I will continue to complain about the gun being auto-holstered after 2 seconds without firing as one of the worst parts of combat, so “line your shot” is a terrible strategy because by the time it’s lined, you’ll miss due to the animation creating a 1s lag between click and shot.
The almost random targeting of what you’ll interact with when holding E is another big annoyance.
Capital ships are a total letdown, too. All they do is sit around motionless in space. Can’t destroy anything bigger than a fighter.
Hey, at least they added inventory sorting!
You know, after a decade of people asking for it. And without fixing the several fundamental design flaws that made the inventory a nightmare to use without sorting in the first place.
But at least they thinly papered over one of the game’s most hated bits!
Just more procedurally generated and boring as fuck “new planets”
To be fair, what this really means is that it adds more options for proc-gen. This means planets will be more diverse, which is good. The actual number of them is totally pointless, but it’s easier to report in than the tangible effect.
Can anyone recommend a decent space sim? I’ve talked myself in and out of buying No Man’s Sky a dozen times, and all this shade will probably remove it from my wishlist.
NMS is ok. I play it from time-to-time, and probably have 10s of hours in it. In survival mode, it feels similar to subnautica; or I guess most survival games (I personally haven’t played many). The breadth of mechanics is huge, but they all lack depth. Combat on ground and in space is very simplistic, for instance. Space combat is just pressing a button to have your ship auto-lock on a target, pressing another button to switch between anti-shield and anti-hull weapons, then pressing the shoot button. I really don’t like the cartoonish aesthetics of the other sentient alien races, or my character.
I used to really like the Freespace and Wing Commander games when I was a kid; and haven’t really played anything comparable (i.e. high production value with good stories and voice actors).
I’ve played X4, just for maybe an hour or so, and it seems like it’s another sandbox-like game.
Depends on what you want out of the game. Freelancer is old, but it’s still one of the best experiences you can get. If you really want to feel like a nobody pilot going from rags to riches, X4 or Elite: Dangerous can scratch itch, but both have considerable learning curves, with X4 allowing you to own space stations and pilot anything from fighters to frigates.
I put so much time into Freelancer. The multiplayer was really fun if you had a friend to fly with.
Rebel Galaxy feels a lot like it, but it’s focused on capital(ish) ship combat (broadsides, etc) instead of fighters.
I need to get back on Rebel Galaxy, I think I got some 2 or 3 missions past reuniting with your aunt. The sound track is fucking amazing, though the gameplay being essentially naval battles in space really let me down at first, as I personally prefer 6 degrees of freedom, but the game does all things well.
Yeah, the soundtrack is perfect for the vibe the game is going for.
Where can you get Freelancer these days…?
Only in yo ho ho seas 🏴☠️
It’s annoying that it isn’t at least on GOG, it’s such a prime candidate.
True. It’s been number one requested game, but its copyright hell is among EA and Microsoft :(
I fucking love No Man’s Sky. I play video games to relax. Most of the time I ignore objectives and find my own way around. I used to follow people and creatures around Skyrim. I had been playing a ton of Red Dead Redemption 2 just to go ride hourses and look at stuff. My friend Trudi had me play 20 minutes or so on her computer and I bought my copy that day. I have been playing it off and on for a few years now.
I wouldn’t base your decision on what Lemmy says. They’re pretty unreasonably salty about the game. Reviews from players are very positive and the game’s only $23 right now.
- Despite what they’re saying, there is actually a lot of legitimately interesting and sometimes fantastical biomes and this update has added even more.
- There are a lot of different parts of the game that you can pretty casually engage in. Various missions, settlements, settlement management, ship collecting, manufacturing, fleet management, trading, piracy, archeology, and more.
- It’s a relaxation game for me. Just hop on, pick a direction, and go. Do whatever piques your interest in the moment.
If “casual” and “relaxing” are dirty words for you, then it probably isn’t up your alley. It’s certainly not going to be intense and action packed (though it does have its moments). But it’s a good game if you, like me, sometimes get tired of the sweaty online shit, crunchy brain melting games, and the overall weight of life in the real.
There’s a lot of different types of space sims. What kind of gameplay are you looking for?
Depending on what you want, Freespace 2 and all its mods/updates are still excellent. Wing Commander Saga is a standalone game based on it of remarkable quality.
Honestly I think it is time they put NMS to bed and focus on their upcoming title, LNF.
They have added so much over the years, and I understand as their first project they are probably incredibly attached to it, but lately it has been feeling like diminishing returns on updates.
What good are a bunch of new planets gonna do when they still all basically look and interact the same as every other planet?
They have added new planet types and civilisations. Indont play the game but its being heavily praised all day that theybhave greatly expanded with gas giants, full water planets and lost/failed civilisations. Sounds fairly impactful.
I do play the game and I can say from experience it isn’t.
I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, as the review scores keep improving so obviously folks are liking it, but you’re not alone if it still doesn’t click. They keep polishing it and piling on more stuff, but the base game is still rather disjointed and in my opinion, easy to burn out on. Procedural generation doesn’t mean any of the procedurally generated things are going to be interesting.
I like to pop in every time they drop an expedition. Those let you speedrun the game and get reacquainted with it with not much effort. You also get introduced to whatever new thing they added. It’s a bit like playing ARK on a 20x resources 20x taming server so you can just play the game without so much grind.
Yep, I had my fun on it, but without true PVE it’s just another exploration/building game.
Yeah seriously, no matter how much they tack on, it still doesn’t make the base game fun to play. Nothing more boring than a game that feels like a job.
I love Factorio, and many other games some call “job simulators.” Done well, games can feel like jobs and be good. The difference is when it feels grindy, or if it feels like you’re doing novel things and actually accomishing things. NMS just feels grindy, and like you’re doing the same thing over-and-over, without any reason to continue.
I confess I haven’t popped back in for a few updates now but it still was missing the slick/dynamic animal behaviour that even the very first trailers had, which I was most interested in.
Recalling when two people found the same planet and did not see each other, disproving any implied multiplayer -
What’s the birthday paradox look like for “trillions?”
I still want my money back. I’ve tried all their updates and the game still feels bleh, underwhelming and just overall boring
I think of it like an oil slick on a pool of water. Very pretty, but absolutely zero depth. They indulge heavily in the aesthetic of a space sim, without actually having anything of substance tying it all together into something coherent.
Yeah, they overpromised and then didn’t deliver on half of what they claimed. That they are applauded now for doing some of what they said they’d do is laughable to me.
