No Man's Sky - PS4 - Revisited

[Ohio Joe]

So... One of the advantages of having a nephew with a legal grow is that I get a crap ton of weed for free I rarely smoke it, preferring to use a vaporizer (not one that uses oil but one that heats the material to the point where the THC vaporizes but the material never burns), yet I still was finding myself with a lot... I mean a LOT sitting around. Talking about it with my nephew, he told me he had a guy working for him that could fix me up something like a Volcano Vaporizer:

https://www.storz-bickel.com/en-us/catalog/product/view/id/251

What is cool though is that it has a little bag that collects what is going to get you insanely stoned and then uses a little fan to blow it out into the room. A few minutes of pre-heating, plop in 4-5 healthy joints worth of weed, set the timer to turn it off in 20 minutes or so and go about your business... Anyone in the room will be stoned out of their gourd very shortly. Yes, yes, very wasteful... Like really wasteful... It's nice

OK, No Man's Sky... Why am I here talking about an almost five year old game? Because it has become freakin awesome. I got it the night of release and was amazed, I loved it - https://www.democraticunderground.com/12114517 - It had some issues but the initial impression was one of awe. Then... I kept playing... And looking for things to do... And wondering where a lot of promised features were... Then I saw something shiny, got distracted and the game fell into my PS4 library and got forgotten. Make no mistake, I was really disappointed... I'd been looking forward to it and it simply did not even come close but as a gamer since the late 70's (Telengard on the Atari 800xl was the shit back in the day) I've grown used to disappointment in games. Hello Games (the maker) went silent and the only news you saw about them was what a scam they had released on the public... Everyone hated them... And on to other games I went...

Then something funny happened... Around the beginning of this year, I had a video pop up on youtube that was titles something like 'Why you should play No Man's Sky in 2021' and I decided to watch it. I am glad I did.

Turns out Hello Games has been releasing patches on a steady basis for the last five years and slowly bringing the game to where it should have been on day 1... Now, it is one hell on an amazing game. It still does not have everything promised but all of the big items and most of the small items, plus a lot of shit never talked about is in there.

The game is a bit tough to start... There is so much you want to do but it kind of forces you to stay alive instead. It also has what at first seems to be some tough controls... Not movement but navigating the menus (and they don't pause the game) and figuring out how to do a lot of things but once you get the hang of it, it is much more intuitive then you will think at the start. It still has a lot of pop-up on the PS4 and I suspect that will never get fixed, just go slow when approaching crashed ships while in your ship and it's no biggie. Also, follow the missions until you get to the Anomaly no matter how much you just want to go off and 'do stuff'... It serves as a sort of tutorial and then you are free to roam the galaxy as you see fit... Follow the various story lines... upgrade your multi-tool and ships... Find new and better multi-tools and ships to collect... Build a badass base or build ten of them... Get pets and raise them for generations, manipulating their DNA to make them as you see fit... Enter the Expeditions mini-events for unique rewards... Grow a pair and try to get to the center of the galaxy in perma-death mode... Talk your friends into buying a five year old game to play co-op together... Bake jelly donuts and sell them for profit (really)... Set up freighter routes and be a space mogul... Play in multi-player and be a space pirate... Hunt space pirates... Find a living ship... And... Craft, craft, craft, explore, explore, explore and then throw in some fighting

If you are looking for an action packed game, this is not it. To describe it in a word, it would be 'chill' (As the kids say today... Or was that ten years ago? I forget). Turn out the lights, smoke up or sip some good Tequila and just let the hours slip by. This game has become something really special. It would have been better if this was the game released on day 1 but I'll take it.

[Ohio Joe]

1. No Man's Sky/Mass Effect Crossover

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/no-mans-sky-confirms-mass-effect-crossover-adds-iconic-normandy-sr-1-to-fleet/

So... In this second Expeditions mini-event it seems the big reward at the end of it is getting the SSV Normandy SR-1 from Mass Effect. You don't actually get to fly it but it's a frigate you own and can send out on missions (think... setting up trade routes). It's a powerful ship to add to your fleet and looks cool but a lot of the 'wow factor' was lost on me as I have never tried Mass Effect.

Oh... One other thing I noticed last night, cross play is now enabled in No Man's Sky. I've seen Steam (PC) and Xbox players in my game.

[Ohio Joe]

2. Expedition 2 is now over... Expedition 3 should start Thursday (6/3/2021)

No details on the third expedition yet.

[Ohio Joe]

3. It was not Expedition 3 but rather another new content update...

It was being reported that they had uploaded a new build on Steam and the assumption was it was the new Expedition but nooooo... A new content update (free, like all of them have been). This one is called Prisms and does a ton of visual updates with PC players looking to get the most out of it. They also threw in some other things... Flying pets can now be ridden when recruited, before it was only land based pets that could be ridden. There is also some 'set-up' content that is not fully active yet... I'm going to double down and say it is for Expedition 3 again because... Well, just because

[uriel1972]

4. Might look into it when I have the spare AUD$85.00

[Ohio Joe]

5. So... This has been rattling around the back of my head...

I went and looked and it is still selling for full price on PS4. I've not paid any attention since release so I had no idea if it's been full price the entire time or if it goes on sale sometimes. So... Off to the Steam Price History page:

https://www.exophase.com/game/no-mans-sky-steam/prices/

And it does look like it drops to about $30 on a pretty regular basis (though not at the moment). "I assume" when it is on sale on Steam, it goes on sale the other platforms... Not sure but I'll keep an eyeball on it and update when I know more.

[uriel1972]

6. Thanks

[Ohio Joe]

7. I see this morning it is now 50% off

On all platforms. Not sure for how long though.

[uriel1972]

8. just got hit with some serious bills /sigh

maybe later on, even at full price... maybe.

[Ohio Joe]

9. Pets

So I got about half way through the story, about 20 hours in and I just got distracted messing around with stuff... That was about 50 hours of play ago

At some point I might talk about some other things but right now I feel like talking about pets. Once you identify any fauna on a planet, you can interact with it... Feed it, pet it or adopt it. I have run across a few that I could not adopt and I don't know why but they have been few. Also, you can only have a max of six pets, Annnnd you get 2 slots and have to buy the other four (pretty expensive to get all six). Pets seem to be able to do things for you but I've not figured it all out yet... Some pets you can put harnesses and helms on to mount weapons and they fight beside you (or under you if you are riding them)... Some will hunt near by resources and bring them to you... Some don't seem to do anything. Some fly, some are on the ground and some swim (some seemingly through the earth).

Right now I have three pets.

The first looks exactly like a rainbow balloon. I can neither ride it nor does it seem to do anything but slowly follow me around but it looks cool.

The second is... uhhhh... ok, imagine a 4x4 that stands up, is made of some kind of multi colored rock and jumps around following you. It has no limbs or head or appendage of any kind. It does jump real high and kill enemies during combat... It's actually a bit odd to see.

The third is my favorite. When I first saw it, it was hostile to me (a red paw over the head indicates an animal as hostile) and it scared the crap out of me... Heh, I thought it was a werewolf It came running up over a hill about 30 feet in front of me and it was freakin fast. I kept dropping it some food as I ran and eventually it stopped wanting to kill me and I was able to pet it a few times and then adopt it. Imagine a cat with brown fur... A cat that spends a lot of time bulking out it's upper body... Oh... And it walks/runs upright... And has horns that are swept back... And glowing red eyes... And is as big as you are... It's pretty badass looking. It both fights in battle and looks for resources when not, plus it can have harness and helmet.

I've not even gotten into the genetic engineering you can do with pet eggs yet

[Ohio Joe]

10. The long journey

So... This video has all of the trailers for No man's sky, from the launch trailer through every update that has been released since (in order). The launch trailer lies... A lot. There is stuff in there that simply was not included in the game. From there on though, every trailer was truthful and did include everything advertised. It is still pretty amazing to see the evolution of the game.

[Ohio Joe]

11. Frontiers

So the newest addon was announced this morning on Playstation blog:

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/08/09/as-no-mans-sky-celebrates-its-fifth-anniversary-hello-games-reflects-on-the-journey-so-far/

Along with a video:

Annnnnd... None of it actually tells us what it is going to consist of or when it will actually arrive... Sheesh. If they are saying soon, it could be this week or next month but probably not longer then that. We are also still waiting for the next Expedition. When the first one came out, it ran two months and was followed quickly by the second one which only ran two weeks and now it has been what... Two months so... I don't know, maybe it will be bundled with the Frontiers expansion? Since the original release, Hello Games says very little. Each expansion has been dropped without forewarning (this is the first forewarning I recall) and just a tweet announcing it at the same time. But... More stuff coming soon

[Ohio Joe]

12. Frontiers Update Released

Last edited Wed Sep 1, 2021, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Patch notes here:

https://www.nomanssky.com/frontiers-update/

Basically a building update but more as well. Hundreds of new building parts have been added allowing for what will prove to be some more awesome buildings (there is a video out there of some existing ones and they are amazaballs as it is... A crashed deathstar... more parts will definitely let the architects go nuts). There is also a very, very rudimentary town building sim added. It looks like (I'm still downloading the 14gig PS4 update, so not played yet) you can get one settlement (maybe more? Not sure) and the settlement is randomly generated for each player. You become overseer and set the build orders and general direction of the town. The better your town gets, the better the rewards you get from it daily.

It sounds interesting at the least, I'll have to see how it plays.

Also, they announced that Expeditions 3 is 'coming soon' and that one of the rewards will be a 'monstrous pet'. I don't think that means in size but rather the design of the pet will be a monster unique to the expedition. Interesting stuff... I'll update when I have a much better feel for it all.

Edit - Adding the Frontiers trailer:

[Ohio Joe]

13. Expedition 3 Released

As I write this, it is about 9:40am MT and I'll be able to start downloading it at 10am so.... Soon I'll go smoke up and start. I'm very excited though, the expeditions are have been a lot of fun (if too scarce) so far. I'll update on this later... Oh, and I'm also working on an update for the Frontiers release and my thoughts on it. That will come... ehhhh, sooner or later

Edit - Forgot the link - https://www.nomanssky.com/2021/09/no-mans-sky-expedition-3/

[romana]

14. New player

Recently picked this up for PC when it was on sale on Steam.

I'm really loving it so far! Hello Games did another game I bought for the Switch recently, called The Last Campfire which is utterly charming, which is why I finally pulled the trigger on NMS. Glad they made good on the game (which had one of the worst launches I can ever recall).

[Ohio Joe]

15. Expedition 7 - Leviathan

So... It just dropped this morning and I'm still downloading it. I checked out some update videos from a few of the youtubers who play for a living and it looks like this is some kind of weird perma-death like expedition... Not really sure how that works yet but looks interesting. All upgrades are 10 times as expensive, so they want you to get upgrades from dying instead... But you also have to start all over... Not really sure how that works but I'll give it a go and see how it plays out. Also looks like the big reward will be a leviathan frigate to go along with your freighter. So now you can possibly have the ship from Mass Effect (a similar reward from an earlier expedition) as well as a leviathan escorting your freighter and doing missions for you.

[Ohio Joe]

16. So... This is a really interesting choice for an expedition...

It is a perma-death expedition (meaning... You die, you start the expedition all over again from the start). This makes it not only very unfriendly for new players but a turn off even for a good number of existing players. Most of the things the expedition has you go off to do, are given with pretty much no explanation on how to do them... So you really need to know how to do things in order to finish. It also takes you through a lot... I mean A LOT of battles, especially pirates... Crap man, they are all over you all the time. Crawling through derelict freighters... Fighting off hostile fauna on every planet... Endless battles with Sentinels... It's a long haul to get through this one. I'm really enjoying it though... Part of me thinks they should make these more accessible to everyone but the other part of me is enjoying it too damn much to care all that much.

[Ohio Joe]

17. Leviathan expedition ends... What is next...

Well... The Leviathan Expedition ended yesterday, and man was that fun. I saw some youtube videos of some of the more popular NMS streamers and they were completing it in just under an hour... Crazy shit. My first run through took me almost 30 hours and covered the first five weeks of the expedition. I did complete it once more though and ended up with a much better ship for Survival mode, which completing that to the center of the first galaxy is one of the two trophies I have left (the other is finish in perma-death.. I'm working on it). I hope they do more perma-death expeditions.

So... What's next? I don't know but it will be out before long. They have announced the Switch verion for sometime in October... I don't really care about the Switch but what they said about what will be included on the disk is very interesting. It is going to include almost all of the named updates released so far (no multi player for the Switch so that is excluded) and... One not released. So that tell us that sometime between now and the Oct release of the Switch version, there will be another named updated. Named updates are pretty sizable and introduce something new and cool.

I suppose there is also the chance of another expedition between now and then... Maybe, maybe not... The expedition releases are not very steady. They've come fast and also very slow so... We'll see. My guess is that we'll see it around the end of September but... That is just a guess, all we know for sure is that it will be out by the Switch release in October.

[Ohio Joe]

18. Looks like it's coming sooner rather than later...

Looks like the next named update is coming real soon. Sean Murray tweeted out his usual emoji tweet:

Link to tweet

Each named update gets an emoji tweet... Just the emoji, nothing else. Sometimes, in retrospect, it's kind of makes sense. He did the Whale emoji for the leviathan update but... Then he also did the orange emoji for the origins update so... We'll see. Usually though, the emoji comes just before the update, often just a few days. Another things that happens is No Man's Sky goes on sale on all platforms for 50% off, so if you are looking for it, the sale is coming soon.

[Ohio Joe]

19. Endurance

Last edited Wed Jul 20, 2022, 10:22 AM - Edit history (1)

Looks like the new update is releasing this morning and it’s called Endurance.

The main thing I’m seeing is a complete overhaul of freighter base building. Tons of new stuff here. Freighters now can be as fully customizable as a base. Teleporters, building multilevel bases, loads of new parts and living frigate fleets… Loads to go through here.

There are also a bunch more little graphical upgrades. From much better asteroid fields to extra little details all over the place.

Annnd… This is not the big summer update… That is still coming.

Edit - The Endurance trailer is now out:

[Ohio Joe]

20. Expedition 8: Polestar

Annnd it looks like they also dropped the new expedition today, called Polestar. This looks to be intended to get you used to all the new freighter stuff. I don't know anything like rewards yet but almost certainly cosmetics... Probably another living frigate for your fleet, we'll see... The download is 14 gig so I'm still waiting on that to give it a go and see whats up, I'll update later or tomorrow with details but... The next expedition has arrived

[Ohio Joe]

21. This did not get dropped yesterday...

I had a busy day yesterday, my niece is about to have her first kid and I kept getting called over to her place to help with stuff so I did not get back to look at this. Once the download was done and I fired up the game, I did a quick check on the expedition and saw that it is there but not underway yet... It says soon, so that probably means within the week. Probably giving people time to mess around with the new features before it starts.

[Ohio Joe]

22. Polestar dropped this morning...

I’ve not started it yet but I can see it’s there. It’s advised to wait for patch 3.97 before starting so I’m waiting for that on ps4 before I begin. The patch is a download but the expedition is server side and since ps4/5 and Xbox have some validations before releasing patches, they are available a bit out of order for a few hours. Steam is good to go though.

[Ohio Joe]

23. Waypoint released

Lots of new stuff, including Switch support on this patch but most of it seems to be customization and quality of life fixes. I'll have to muck about with it and see whats in there but... Another free update

[Ohio Joe]

24. Expeditions rerelease

Hello Everyone,

In 2021, to close out the year, we re-ran the year’s expeditions in a reduxed format over the holiday season to give people another chance to experience these events and reap the rewards when time is perhaps a little more available. That proved to be very popular so we are pleased to announce that we are doing it again.

Here are the dates:

Expedition 5 (Exobiology): 24th Nov – 8th Dec
Expedition 6 (Blighted): 8th Dec – 22nd Dec
Expedition 7 (Leviathan): 22nd Dec – 5th Jan
Expedition 8 (Polestar): 5th Jan – 18th Jan

https://www.nomanssky.com/2022/11/holiday-2022-expeditions/

So... While I was expecting them to do this, this is not exactly what I expected. Each expedition has unique rewards from ships to cosmetics to base building parts and more. Last year, they did a rerelease of the first four expeditions and with the release of the Switch port, I thought they would rerelease all 8 expeditions giving the Switch players a chance for all the goodies but... It seems not. It's kind of a shame because the best reward was the Golden Vector ship from the first expedition.

[keroro gunsou]

25. Just did the free upgrade

To the ps5 version and sweet pecan/bacon brittle this game is pretty. Tough slog to get off of the first planet as usual, but even that was pretty

[Ohio Joe]

26. New emoji tweeted

Woohoo! We have a new emoji, a snow flake. What does it mean? It means a new update is about here… They usually drop updates on Wednesdays so hopefully in a few days we find out what it is… I’ll update with info when it drops

[Ohio Joe]

27. Fractal has been released

I’m downloading now but it looks like this is mainly a VR release. It does include a new expedition that has a brand new type of ship type as the final reward. I think, at least for now, this is the only way to get one of these. It says the ship’s speciality is high speed and maneuvering in atmosphere so… That should be interesting. We’ll see once I get it and try it out. Also included are a ton of minor fixes across all platforms.

[Ohio Joe]

28. Speculation abounds on next update

With the latest update only a month old, there is a lot of excitement over the next. Some data miners have discovered some all new space station files that are not yet put into use. Some have even modded them into the game and they do look pretty damn awesome. They are not functional yet so they can't be entered but oh boy... Take a look:

[Ohio Joe]

29. And... The new emoji has dropped

Link to tweet

A devil face… What’s it mean? Don’t know. When is it coming? Not sure but they usually drop updates on Wednesday so… Tomorrow? We will see. More free content incoming though

[Ohio Joe]

30. Interceptor released

New enemies, new ships, new planet types and both land and ship based quality of life fixes. This is pretty big... I downloaded it this morning and I'll be messing with it tonight... I want a Sentinel interceptor ship

[Ohio Joe]

31. This is a really good update...

A new planet type, new enemies in corrupted sentinels, new sentinel types, new elements to harvest, new ship type and more... The new ships are very cool looking but you have to finish the new side mission to be able to start getting them so I think I have maybe an hour or two left. A very combat heavy update, the corrupted sentinels are very tough, much harder than standard sentinels. This is also definitely end game content, you need a very good weapon, very good armor and all of the glyphs.

[Ohio Joe]

32. Expedition 10 - Singularity - Plus more updates

First up... The trailer:

Oh my... So much here, so lets get started with what we know

1 - Apple release - Last week saw the release of No Man's Sky on various Mac platforms. I'm not a Mac guy so I'm not certain of which ones but they are out there.

2 - Expedition 10 & a new ongoing story line - So... A bit of a recap first:

Since day one there have been the Sentinels... Kind of an intergalactic police force. Planets could have one of four Sentinel configurations... No Sentinels... Sentinels that only attack if you attack them... Sentinels that attack if they see you kill wildlife or harvest resources... Sentinels that attack on sight. Then came the last update, Interceptor... This introduced corrupted Sentinels but gave no real clue as to what they were or how they came to be.

Now... We have Singularity. This expedition is different. It is introducing a story line that will play out 'over the next few years' and that choices made now will impact how things play out for you over the course of the story line and beyond. Based on the trailer, it looks like the Sentinel story continues.

WTF? I'm very, very excited

I've no idea how this will play out... I just have so many questions that Hello Games wants me to get answered as the story unfolds when I WANT IT NOW



The Expedition runs for five weeks and I'll be starting it later today. I'll give an update when I know more.

[Ohio Joe]

33. No Man's Sky - Official 7th Anniversary & Echoes Update Teaser Trailer

Ahhh, the seventh anniversary update, Echos. Some of these named updates really change the game... Give it something big. Others are less game changing but usually still some cool new stuff. My hope is that this gets released this coming Wednesday but we'll see. I'll update again when I know more.

[Ohio Joe]

34. Wow... This update is pretty massive

The highlights... A new race, new base parts, freighters are now fully destructible and can be blown up, they also now participate in space battles, two new types of multi tools (one that you buy parts for to fully customize it... Oh and it's a staff), new resources, new recipes, about 20 hours of new story/lore and lots more little things.