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[Chronicle]

Put our a 1/4 of a finished game in 2016. Finish it over the next 7 years.

 

[March Climber]

I've had this game in my sights recently, and I'll probably pick it up during a sale as I'm in no rush. I completely overlooked the sheer amount of content added since launch, but I'm now I'm intrigued. Starfield will only blossom in about 3 years anyway, I'm in even less of a rush for that. Hell, Skyrim needs another modded run from me first.

Don’t expect NMS to fill the void for either of those latter two games. Apples and oranges.

 

[March Climber]

Holy shit the amount of

in here slagging off this achievement is wild.

This specific case isn’t a console war thing. Certain people in general won’t let go of their salt over the 2016 edition of the game. This thread has happened before, and the usual suspects pop up to remind us yet another time how they really don’t like the version of the game from 7 years ago.

 

[GymWolf]

Whiffed the launch and then they had years to fix their game with the money they made by tricking people at launch i guess.

Such an inspiring tale of redemption.

 

[Tams]

Because it, unsurprisingly, still doesn't have a lot crafted content

The story is... poor. There are no interesting quests with stories. The buildings you encounter have almost zero variation in their respective categories. Settlements are just copied and pasted.

Still a fun game.

 

[Panajev2001a]

W

This specific case isn’t a console war thing. Certain people in general won’t let go of their salt over the 2016 edition of the game. This thread has happened before, and the usual suspects pop up to remind us yet another time how they really don’t like the version of the game from 7 years ago.

A LOT of the hate dissipated after the NEXT expansion though… so, well…

 

[Braag]

Well, most of the world is procedurally generated. I mean the game was quite bare bones when it was released but they've been adding content to it for past 7 years so it's way better now.

 

[PectacularOz]

Because they lied through their teeth about absolutely every part of it.

Loads of people bought it.

They then used that money after the fact to improve the game to avoid Microsoft/Sony never letting them publish a game again.

 

[Ozriel]

Do you agree it is a system seller for PSVR2? (I do)

No. It’s not.

 

[BbMajor7th]

I mean, it's really simple: reinvestment. Hello Games is a limited company; rather than profits being siphoned off in shareholder dividends and CEO bonuses, they're reinvested into the studio and its products. It's a rare thing to see in this industry, but they're a studio that actually exists to make games rather than make money for vested interests. The guy who runs the company is actually an engine coder, rather than a marketer or an accountant. Hello Games are a rare glimpse at what this industry might achieve if you took all the money men out of it.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Like its been done since the dawn of space sims?

1984 - Elite

8 galaxies and 2000 stars, 20kb . Not accurate galaxies for the time with only so many stars, but 1984!

1995 - Frontier: Elite II

Milky way 100,000,000,000 planets & moons

Elite dangerous is again Milky way, i'm not even sure we have numbers accurate to be honest because at that scale, it's just too big. 100+ billion systems → ~400+ billions stars, many planets per systems, we in the trillion range?

You can scale to whatever you need with procedural generation. Elite dangerous stopped at a good representation of milky way with scientific data we have. You could just expand that to near infinity.

 

[naguanatak]

I mean, it's really simple: reinvestment. Hello Games is a limited company; rather than profits being siphoned off in shareholder dividends and CEO bonuses, they're reinvested into the studio and its products. It's a rare thing to see in this industry, but they're a studio that actually exists to make games rather than make money for vested interests. The guy who runs the company is actually an engine coder, rather than a marketer or an accountant. Hello Games are a rare glimpse at what this industry might achieve if you took all the money men out of it.

That was the problem with marketing. The guy who poured his heart into it and wants it to be what he has envisioned since childhood shouldn't be the guy talking about features he has planned, but aren't implemented and functional yet. That's why I can understand some of the criticism... But selling your house to keep your studio afloat and producing games is devotion not many (especially in the games industry) have.

 

[Shifty1897]

Anyone reading between the lines back in the day knew that Hello Games, a team of 10 people who had really only made a PS3 indie motorcycle game before this, couldn't make something as seemingly huge as No Man's Sky, even with procedural generation and after bulking up to 30ish people. It taught a new generation of gamers of the importance of bucking preorder culture and waiting for reviews.

And while the game was unfortunately feature barren at launch, I can't help but respect the commitment to release free patches for years and years until the game was in a good state. If it was me, I would have probably taken the money from release, closed the studio and retired a multimillionaire.

 

[BbMajor7th]

That was the problem with marketing. The guy who poured his heart into it and wants it to be what he has envisioned since childhood shouldn't be the guy talking about features he has planned, but aren't implemented and functional yet. That's why I can understand some of the criticism... But selling your house to keep your studio afloat and producing games is devotion not many (especially in the games industry) have.

100% - we're so used to hearing from well-coached, PR-savvy spokespeople, that we forget ordinary human beings are just super excited about this thing they're making.

 

[Hudo]

Lots and lots of procedural generation and years upon years of fine-tuning and additions. Remember, when No Man's Sky launched, it was quite the shitshow.

 

[naguanatak]

Lots and lots of procedural generation and years upon years of fine-tuning and additions. Remember, when No Man's Sky launched, it was quite the shitshow.

Boring and barebones, I'll give you that, but shitshow? Like Gollum? Nah, I played hundreds of hours immediately after release. I remember everyone and their mother shitting on the game, yeah, mostly (as always) people who never had the intention of playing the game but just wanting to be part of the zeitgeist and internet hate.

 

[Hudo]

Boring and barebones, I'll give you that, but shitshow? Like Gollum? Nah, I played hundreds of hours immediately after release. I remember everyone and their mother shitting on the game, yeah, mostly (as always) people who never had the intention of playing the game but just wanting to be part of the zeitgeist and internet hate.

It was a shitshow because Sean Murray overpromised and straight up lied about what the game was. I call that a shitshow.

 

[CeeJay]

Those saying meh its just procedural generation, are over simplifying it. You don't just quickly write a script to generate unique planets and system and expect it all to be fully playable. It takes a lot of clever programming and deep understanding to create code that procedurally generates things that aren't downright broken. This is especially so when the universe you are creating is so big it's impossible to manually test everything. Hello Games put a lot of their development time and energy into the creation of their tools and automated testing and this is why they could create a universe on such a grand scale. NMS was definitely a big achievement to get out the door even if it was barebones at launch but not simply because of its scale, it was because it was at a huge scale that has a surprisingly small amount of weird anomalies and isn't riddled with game breaking bugs.

I was very critical of Hello Games and specifically Sean Murray at launch but you cannot really deny the amount of work they have put in since launch to get the game to where it is today. Personally I think they redeemed themselves fully.

 

[Reaseru]

At least they delivered through free updates...other less honorable developer would finish the promised game with paid DLCs.

 

[naguanatak]

It was a shitshow because Sean Murray overpromised and straight up lied about what the game was. I call that a shitshow.

Then it's just different definitions. What happened on the internet around and after release was a shitshow for me
But I get where you're coming from and I can respect that

 

[CosmicComet]

I still wish the planets were planet sized and that they had actual orbit paths.

Instead they are stationary and even the biggest planets are no bigger than large cities

 

[Tams]

Those saying meh its just procedural generation, are over simplifying it. You don't just quickly write a script to generate unique planets and system and expect it all to be fully playable. It takes a lot of clever programming and deep understanding to create code that procedurally generates things that aren't downright broken. This is especially so when the universe you are creating is so big it's impossible to manually test everything. Hello Games put a lot of their development time and energy into the creation of their tools and automated testing and this is why they could create a universe on such a grand scale. NMS was definitely a big achievement to get out the door even if it was barebones at launch but not simply because of its scale, it was because it was at a huge scale that has a surprisingly small amount of weird anomalies and isn't riddled with game breaking bugs.

I was very critical of Hello Games and specifically Sean Murray at launch but you cannot really deny the amount of work they have put in since launch to get the game to where it is today. Personally I think they redeemed themselves fully.

Yes, it's incredibly impressive and they've even made a somewhat decent game now.

But it's in their very name, Hello Games, and you could barely call NMS at launch a game.

 

[naguanatak]

Those saying meh its just procedural generation, are over simplifying it. You don't just quickly write a script to generate unique planets and system and expect it all to be fully playable. It takes a lot of clever programming and deep understanding to create code that procedurally generates things that aren't downright broken. This is especially so when the universe you are creating is so big it's impossible to manually test everything. Hello Games put a lot of their development time and energy into the creation of their tools and automated testing and this is why they could create a universe on such a grand scale. NMS was definitely a big achievement to get out the door even if it was barebones at launch but not simply because of its scale, it was because it was at a huge scale that has a surprisingly small amount of weird anomalies and isn't riddled with game breaking bugs.

I was very critical of Hello Games and specifically Sean Murray at launch but you cannot really deny the amount of work they have put in since launch to get the game to where it is today. Personally I think they redeemed themselves fully.

100%
I also get the comparisons with games like Elite, but in my unprofessional opinon since I'm not a programmer, NMS seems much more complex with different systems on top of each other. All working. Is it wonky? Yeah, absolutely. Hilariously so at times. Do you fall through the planet a couple of times after an update? Yeah, you might. Did you have to restart the PS4 in the beginning more often than I'm comfortable with? Yepp. But after thousands of hours I'm maybe used to it. Through playing the game I became much more acceptable to bugs in games. And still it is mindblowing to me that this game runs on a fucking switch.
This team might not be the best of them or the be all and end all, but they sure know how to work and deliver.
Pure labour of love and always trying to make the players happy, even if you have thousands of hours on your savegame and something doesn't work. Send it in, they will try. At least that's how it went in the past.
PS (VR 1&2), Xbox, PC, Switch, Mac... All free updates

 

[Hudo]

What happened on the internet around and after release was a shitshow for me

To be fair, the internet always over-reacts and over-dramatizes shit. Just look at the Phil Spence/FTC shit that's going on right now. Mindless over-dramatizing for clicks and internet points.

Edit: I have to say couple of positive things about No Man's Sky nowadays, however: They at least allow you to seemlessly land on planets, anywhere you want, go seamlessly anywhere you want on the planet and take off seamlessly into space again. And you can actually fly around in space and explore shit. There are "AAA" space exploration games released in 2023 that can't even do that.

And before anyone loses his/her shit again: No, I am not fanboying for MS or Phil, I hate everyone equally. But I've found out that I hate the internet more equally than others.

 

[RoboFu]

The gage is very shallow and repetitive because of how it was made.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Around Star Citizen Kickstarter, another game with some the same ideas got backed. It was Limit Theory. Made by one(1) man. It did not happen, but he really tried. You can see their forum and there is a lot of videos of his plans and tech for the game. Even now I still regret that he failed to make it. With procedural generation you can really go far. No man's sky did it. Great for them, and I hope that one day they use the power of the next gen consoles to make what Starfield should have been.

I'm curious what went wrong, his video shows a good segment there. There are a few procedural Gen space games. One that mixes no man's sky and Daggerfall (as the graphics are very 1990s 3d) is Star Explorers
It has full galaxy and planet landing dude keeps updating it.

 

[Doctor Hades]

I know No Man's Sky has its fans and that despite the very shaky start that the game has been improved leaps and bounds beyond the original.

After spending 20-30 hours playing the game initially, I realised just how aimless and pointless it was. It looks nicer now but I just cannot stand to play it anymore. The infinite procedurally generated stuff just feels lifeless and sterile, and the game lacks any soul or direction even with all the new stuff added.

It's the one element I dislike about Starfield too. Where's the fun in exploring a randomly generated environment? I'd rather explore a beautiful handcrafted game with a proper story that a purpose behind it, and a beginning, middle and end, not a glorified sandbox.

 

[deriks]

First of all, Sony gave them some money and marketing was all into, then success came and the community still is very much great, so a lot of improvements was made. The game is WAY different from the first year, and in the best way possible

 

[Daneel Elijah]

I'm curious what went wrong, his video shows a good segment there. There are a few procedural Gen space games. One that mixes no man's sky and Daggerfall (as the graphics are very 1990s 3d) is Star Explorers
It has full galaxy and planet landing dude keeps updating it.

Burn out in his case. He got around 100 000$ and worked for years alone, without even administrative help. I hope that one day he tries again.