Welcome, travelers!
Please use the Waypoints thread as a means to share helpful tips and insights with other players in No Man's Sky. We want to try to keep this generally spoiler-free, so, please, no story elements or game progression revelations. This is more a place for things like mining guides, upgrade efficiencies, and general ways in which we can help each other throughout our respective journeys.
Please use the Waypoints thread as a means to share helpful tips and insights with other players in No Man's Sky. We want to try to keep this generally spoiler-free, so, please, no story elements or game progression revelations. This is more a place for things like mining guides, upgrade efficiencies, and general ways in which we can help each other throughout our respective journeys.
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I like that graphic!
Thanks! :D
The graphic is great! Thanks for setting these up!
This is surely a bug, but if you find a ship (or buy one) with more advanced tech than you've learned to build, you'll never learn blueprints for the new tech. Unfortunately the best fix is to dismantle everything and rebuild. This is mostly a problem with starships but can also happen with multitools.
What do you guys think about copying the various tips we've shared in the event and paste them here? I'm willing to do that if you want.
I don't (personally) think it's necessary since we've all read them but I could see the benefit if new people show up.
I was considering doing that already, but keeping some of the main tips in the description, that way they're front and center. Does that sound ridiculous?
and by 'ridiculous' I mean 'does that sound like too much work'.
It sounds like work (what I've suggested), but I said I was willing to do it. Putting them in the description sounds like a good idea. This is your creation, so I don't believe I can edit it, but if you'd like some help, I'd be happy to collect our tips and put them together. I could then post them here or and you can copy and paste and them. Then, I could delete my comment full of tips. Or, I could just collect them, put them together, and send them to you. Let me know what you'd like to do and if you want my help. :)
I'd like to echo scrypt's idea of "main tips" because there are some tips in that thread that aren't tips at all. But some of them could definitely be handy.
Here's a big tip that I wish I knew-- the different models of ships have different survivability, regardless of the upgrades you have on them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/4yz8eg/psa_your_ship_looks_affect_its_survivability_in/
Oh here's a tip that I meant to mention in the roundtable:
We've been talking about farming for the Atlas Pass V2 and V3. I've discovered the best strategy for that: stop farming, and pretend they don't exist. Seriously.
Atlas Pass V1 gets you more frequent suit upgrades and usually a blueprint or two. V2/3 gets you... plants. And boxes. Like the same stuff you get everywhere else.
Here's a tip that might be obvious, but I want to feel like I'm adding to the discussion lol.
When using your mining beam, you don't have to wait for it to cool down. Simply release the button that fires it and press it again. The heat bar will zero out when you start shooting it again.
To refine that, if you've gotten it up to blinking red, you at least have to wait for the bar to go down before firing. But yeah, the cool down isn't well designed.
That isn't an obvious tip, at least it wasn't to me! I discovered it accidentally.
That's not quite right, Travis, as it depends on your mod configuration. As long as the "overheat" meter doesn't appear in mid-screen, then you can do what Adam said, and your heat meter will automatically reset. This is not a bug, as it's supposed to allow for continuous, relatively uninterrupted mining. The overheat threshold varies depending on your mod configuration. If you do see that "overheat" meter show up, then, yes, you have to wait for a proper cooldown. Otherwise, when the heat meter at the top right of the screen reaches the top (or even blinks red), release the trigger, wait half a second, then resume mining.
Ah, OK. I was basing that on my original pre-mod experience so it was probably overheating much faster.
I didn't think it was a bug, but it's not displayed well. The gradual slide down to cool makes it seem as though the temperature is steadily dropping, which based on practice isn't what's happening.
This may also be a good time to talk about mod placement when upgrading. You'll receive a bonus per category when you group mods of the same kind together. On the right of the inventory screen, you'll see dials associated with different aspects of your equipment. There should be solid, bright colors progressing in a circle around the dial as you add more mods of that type. If you group mods together, you'll start to see a darker color bar progressing ahead of that main color bar. This is your attribute bonus. Furthermore, grouping upgrades of the same specific modification (e.g. Impact Damage, or Beam Intensifier, etc) will grant an even larger bonus.
Not an efficient build, but explains my point: http://i.imgur.com/405Gl4M.png
Notice the color bars around the mods that are grouped in like kind. Another indicator of a bonus being attributed.
Not an ideal example, but wanted to show a close-up animation: http://i.imgur.com/S0qLsVQ.gifv
This shows the difference in placing an Impact Damage mod adjacent to another Impact Damage mod, as opposed to placing it next to a Recoil Stabilizer mod (which would give a bonus, for sure, but it wouldn't be to maximum effect).
Hope I explained that well enough. I'm going to try my hand at a short series of help videos as soon as I'm back from traveling (about a week?). We'll see how that works ;).
I posted this in the other thread, but it bears repeating: http://imgur.com/a/JjzTW#DdqlX39
Efficient upgrade placement. Not mine, found on reddit. I followed this guy's example and totally did away with the boltcaster on the multi-tool. With the railshot adapter it's so pointless. Even the elite enemies that show up when you take valuables from planets that have hostile sentries go down almost instantly.
He could get better bonuses by placing Beam Focus mods together, Beam Coolants together, etc. It's a decent grouping, but scattered. Same goes for his ship.
I agree, I don't use boltcaster. The only reason it's on this multi-tool that I have equipped, is because I've been hunting for a better tool, and didn't want to waste resources upgrading when I'm probably just going to dump it for a new one. Railshot is awesome :). Surprised that he doesn't have better grenade damage. Radius seems like a waste when you can opt for better focused damage.
The setup on his exosuit is good, unless you want to farm. Those Sigma and Tau extreme conditions upgrades aren't necessary, and take up much needed space. Equip the Theta module of each, and you'll have more room for trade loot, and spend less time and resources recharging depleted shields. Three Aeration Membranes is very important, though, as some of those waters can be quite deep. With as slow as you swim, and who knows what predators you might run into, you don't want to worry as much about air running out.
He had reasonable justifications for the choices he made (which things to forego for others) but I can't remember them now. I have yet to equip any specific hazard protection. I haven't had much use for them yet. I can always get from shelter to shelter or stock some minerals to recharge it. BUT I imagine on the extreme weather planets that would be different.
Speaking of swimming speed-- if you do the melee/jetpack combo into the water, you keep your speed while underwater. Bonus, your jetpack recharges immediately when you submerge, so you can take a dip and then pop out at the same speed and with a full jetpack.
While we're talking about tips, here's a request for tips.
1. Is there any trick to more easily finding those last couple species on a planet? I know that they're in a certain order (land, air, cave, water) and all but sometimes it's just worse than a needle in a haystack.
2. This one gets slightly spoilery, but very slightly. I've learned a ton of words from the three main species, but I've only learned one Atlas word, and I've hit three Atlas stops. I don't even think that first word came from there anyway. Is there a trick to learning more?
1. Whip your scanner out and pan the landscape. If you see a red dot pop up somewhere, follow it. Some animals are nocturnal, so you won't see them during the day.
2. Atlas words can come from Monoliths, I know that much. I wish the game showed you exactly where you stand in regards to words learned per species. I've heard that there are 400 words for each race, but I don't know if that applies to Atlas words (I would assume it does?).
1. Yeah, I've been doing that. The white dots show animal activity that's obscured or too far away, and when you get close you can tell if you've scanned it already. It's just a slog and a half to find the last one or two.
Oh and 2. According to the save file analysis people have done, the words for each species are all the same. Maybe there are some outliers like "interloper" for the Vy'Keen.
2. Maybe not 400 distinct words per race, but you still have to find them all. :(
Yup. That's one of my favorite parts of the game though.
1. What scrypt said is right, I recently realized if you use the scanner, it can show you life form dots. Red means you haven't scanned it, green means you have. Yes, try to check the land, air, water, and caves. Two of the last planets I was on, I missed out on a few.
2. I don't know how many Atlas words I've learned, but I know I've gotten them from monoliths or pillars. Also, I can now no longer learn "anything new" from monoliths, pillars, or encyclopedias for Korvax and Gek. I do remember that you, Travis, said I could still possibly learn new words from members of those alien races.
Another little tip, if you're trying to get the "life forms discovered" achievement, or whatever it's called: You can successfully upload planets that have zero fauna, and it will count toward that milestone. It still counts as 100% discovered.
Thanks for the great tips everyone!
@greg:
1. Yeah scrypt is totally right, and as I told scrypt, that's what I've been doing. There's always that last one or two that get really tricky. Interestingly enough, I haven't found a single creature in caves. I've full-completed a few worlds but never seen a cave dweller.
2. Maybe, maybe not. That was just speculation on reddit. However, speaking to them is faster if you're looking to get words fast. The random aliens you meet in shelters and space stations that give you a little puzzle thing (at least it's puzzling if you can't read the language) can be spoken to again for 20 carbon. One of the options there is to learn a new word. That comes up once every other time you speak to them. But the other times you can usually get carbon from them, so you can keep going indefinitely and learning words. Way easier than
@scrypt: that's either a PS4 bug or a PC bug. On PS4 you can upload barren planets, on PC you can't. But nobody knows which one is the bug.
Also @greg with regard to #2-- if you speak to them and still have unknown words, I don't think you've gotten them all. There are 450ish words for each species, and if I am reading this right, they only used those words for the dialogue. So if you never see missing words you may have them all.
I was attacked in a cave by a hostile spider looking creature, so they're in there!
Oh yeah, I know they can be for sure. I'm just surprised I've never seen one!
Yeah, I've seen those spider/crab-like creatures underground, but they can be above ground, too.
We should sitcky note somewhere what all our in game names are. How crazy it would be to run across someone else's discovered system. I've only come across one system someone else got to first.
In game names are Steam names. I'm GregoPeck.
Ya, mine is my PS4 name: Nardraug (eh that's my Steam name, too, tho)
You can find my Steam profile on my CG profile here, just click my name :)
Something truly exciting-- I was heading to a distress signal where a bunch of freighters were getting attacked. Two ships, easy peasy. But one of my shots missed and hit the innocent freighter. I decided to try my hand at piracy since I hear it's quite lucrative.
Little did I know that those sentinels aren't just robots on planets, they also have ships. So I got that level 10 milestone for ships destroyed. Yeesh. And the Korvax loved me for taking out sentinel ships.
@scrypt, you said, "another little tip, if you're trying to get the 'life forms discovered' achievement, or whatever it's called: You can successfully upload planets that have zero fauna, and it will count toward that milestone. It still counts as 100% discovered."
I tried that today and it didn't work. One time nothing I discovered loaded on the screen, even though it said the servers were (or I was) "online" with a green icon. Later, when I tried again, that completion bar didn't show up on planets that had zero fauna). Maybe that's a PC/PS4 difference, I don't know.
As you can see here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=751323793
Greg-- check a few comments up
"@scrypt: that's either a PS4 bug or a PC bug. On PS4 you can upload barren planets, on PC you can't. But nobody knows which one is the bug."
It's a known bug one way or the other, I'm just not sure if we're bugged or scrypt is :D
Right on, I must have forgotten or overlooked that part, especially when I went back to quote what he said. I wish it worked for us, I'd have made some better money. It seems to me that a lot, if not most, of the planets I've been on haven't had any fauna at all. I remember being on some in the beginning that had them, but that was before I realized the scanner, achievement or journey milestone, and didn't scan them. It seems this was the very first screenshot I took, which lead me to put some good advice as the caption: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=743164929
It seems like about half and half for me. I tend not to stay on the barren planets long because besides not having animals, they're often quite boring. That screenshot is still hilarious! :D
I tend to stay on planets for about as long as I can before I start getting annoyed that beacons point me to monoliths I've already discovered or ones that won't decide they've been discovered and get their dark icons out of my face. LOL Also, some planets suck because of hazards, so sometimes I just decide to hurry up and get off it. Often I'm looking for something specific like Copper, for example. Also, if I'm on a planet for too long I get tired of it and ready to leave.
I would pay tons of units or real world money for something that gives you hints about the animals. I have one left to discover, and it's between a flying animal and a water animal. So it has to be either flying, cave, or water, since that's the order the records are in. I've found birds during the day and night, I've swam all around the ocean during the day and night, I've been all through a ton of caves during the day and night. It just isn't showing up :/
I wish I had the PS4 bug :D
While on the topic of things I'd love to have in-game, a way to call your ship as a late late late game item would be amazing.
Also Greg disregard that theory I read on reddit about the members of the species teaching you a different subset of the language than the stones. Everyone learns the words in the same order regardless of where you learn them.
Here are a few tips now that I've gotten pretty far.
1. This one is spoilery so it's hidden behind a pastebin, but I wish I had read it before even starting the game in a way: http://pastebin.com/9zrj2J4e
2. The numbers shown on the galaxy map are way wrong. If something says you're jumping about 1600 toward the center of the galaxy, it's actually only 3 or 400.
3. Black holes always put you between 1300 and 1700 light years closer to the center, so it definitely gets you clsoer than a normal warp, but you break some equipment. Come prepared, or be prepared to stop and farm for/buy ingredients to fix broken equipment. Worth it though.
4. Don't follow the path to the center waypoint that you have in your galaxy map. It isn't as efficient. Just go into free exploration mode, point yourself at the center (the big shiny light) and warp as far as you can toward it. Preferably to a black hole. Once you get a few jumps like this under your belt, you'll get a feel for how far forward you can jump and it becomes much easier.
4a. About black holes, further spoilery text that's related to #1 but is even more spoilery: http://pastebin.com/KqzCzzm5
Ultimately, I wish I had jumped more often. As it is right now, I'm at milestone 10 on all the milestones, and all I have left to do aside from enjoying the scenery and farming for words is to jump to the center. But that gets a bit boring.
Also-- the reason for the math mismatch. They noticed before launch that you could get to the center faster than they liked, so they expanded things 4x, but didn't properly update all the math. So warps that tell you they're taking you 1600 light years only actually take you 400 light years.
Black holes have a confusing numbers issue as well, but it's not an inaccuracy. A black hole warp might say that you went hundreds of thousands of light years but you're only 1500ish closer. That's because the report when you get out of a black hole tells you the linear distance you traveled, not how much closer you are to the center. If it takes you to the other side of the galaxy, that's a long damn trip.
Good tips! All of those are assuming you want to make that trek to the center. It's going to be difficult, I know, but I'm choosing to take my sweet, sweet time. The center is of little concern to me right now.
It was to me as well, until I ran out of things to do. The sights are pretty and the random animals are interesting, but that's not enough. I wish I had been progressing toward the center gradually the whole time. Still, it's going to take me 100 black holes or so to get there, so the need to farm for repairs will keep me interested, I hope.
@Travis 1. That's the only path I've been taking in the galactic map.
Oh and it doesn't seem like the game lists the fauna in order. My #1 was a land animal (the last I found) and something like #4 was the flying one. However, I agree that a better fauna scanner would be nice. Also, I agree, my wish is that there was something I could craft so I could call my ship at any time instead of having to run to it or find a location to call it so I can get off planet again.
It goes left -> right and then down.
So
First Second
Third Fourth
Fifth Sixth
and so on.
Which honestly seems weird doesn't it? It really seems like it should go top-down.
Oh also, 10 planets fully scanned and I STILL never saw a cave creature. Weird RNG.
Ah ok, thanks for the clarification, that should be helpful!
Yeah, that makes sense now. I can see it. The flying creature on this planet is actually the last on the list and all the rest were land dwellers. So, while it was the last on the left, that meant it was actually last on the list.
Damn, I only have 5 fully scanned.
1. It seems if you use your scanner on a "?" mark on the map, it may sometimes reveal what it is. I did this on one thing and it turned into a monolith icon. I tried it again elsewhere and it didn't work that way, but I think that's because something else (broken machinery) was in the way.
2. On the PC there is more than one way to do something. In space you can activate your Pulse Engine with SPACE or A and D. You can also get to the menu that contains options and discoveries with the ESC or P key. I stopped using the P key because it's further away from both of my hands, one on the WASD area and one on the mouse. So, now when I hit a restore point, I hit ESC instead of P. Also, right after you touch a restore point and it says "discovered," you can quickly go into your menu to upload it. Then the game will tell say "units received" before "restore point saved." I'm hoping that means I got the units before it saved, instead of the other way around, but I haven't tested it yet.
@Greg: from my experience the scanner will reveal what the ? is if it has line of sight nearly 100% of the time, but even sometimes if it doesn't. I've seen it not work when there wasn't anything obviously in the way except for terrain, but then it'll work sometimes with terrain in the way so I have no idea. :D
I have seen "press P to go back" and the like but seriously, P? What were they thinking there? Escape is always the key for that kind of thing.
And I imagine that it saves immediately when you hit the beacon, but just hasn't had time to show you the notification about it, so I would bet it's saving before you upload it. That said, I rarely worry about that and end up uploading discoveries from the past 6 or 7 jumps in one sitting, unless I've 100% completed a world. Why it doesn't do this shit automatically is a total mystery to me. The E3 footage from a while back even showed an "upload successful" message whenever you discover something.
So further tip about going to the center: things actually do get weirder toward the center, at least in my experience. I use a few black holes in a row to jump a few thousand light years and then stop for repairs and such, and the planets are so much more enjoyable.
Go easy on "tips" regarding progressing to the center. Saying that things are more interesting or enjoyable is obviously pretty tame. I just don't want that to be the direction this conversation goes. This is where I think we might need a third forum thread, so that people can discuss what lies ahead, if they like.
I'm not spoiling anything, just restating something that the developers have said and confirming that it's correct in my experiences.
I haven't come across any black holes. I am jumping from one system to the next, using "path towards waypoint" (third dot), without skipping any. It seems the progression is actually working out well for me. First, I was on Korvax planets, then Gek, and now that I'm finished learning the language of those two, I'm on the Vykeen planets. I just ran into something special for my second time. I saved and quit there, hoping it's a safe place since there's only room for one starship. I'm kind of hoping (with a giggle) that it means no one else can get in to steal my ship.
> I just ran into something special for my second time.
What kind of something special?
I am with Scrypt, I don't want any spoilers either. I do love seeing the animals and ships, but anything story driven, no thnx.
Don't worry, nobody is saying anything about story! I think story spoilers for a game like this would give someone the ability to smack someone across the internet ;)
But it's a procedurally generated game, which makes it entirely impossible to spoil something except for story. Our games will all be very different. That's one of the things I love, you can never know what to expect.
> What kind of something special?
It has to do with Atlas and is not the one that contains a Gek and a Korvax. I wouldn't really call it a spoiler, but it could be. I remember running into one early in the game. Honestly, I can't even remember what it's called right now, maybe when I get in game I'll update you on what it is. Oh! I think it's called an Atlas Interface.
Ah ok. Understood. I don't think it's at all a spoiler since "Atlas Interface" is marked on your map from the start of the game.
So, yesterday I finally managed to get the last slot for my exosuit. I dismantled most of my techs and I now finally have them all reassembled as shown in the link you provided, Travis. I still only have a 28 slot light armored ship, which still did very well in all space flights. Scrypt's tip for using that laser beam is definitely right on. As for my multi-tool, the latest one I picked up only has 22 slots, but I am now using the Railshot Adapter, which is pretty sweet.
What is the laser beam tip? I can't find it from before lol
In the event. He called it "Phase beam" as seen here: @scrypt said, " (note: Phase Beams are your friend!)" . They are surprisingly great. They seem to aim really well and even though they may overheat quickly, they're extremely effective. I have a song for this: https://youtu.be/QLo8dPVSVvo
I actually prefer the blaster to the phase beam personally. At least when it's upgraded it fires super fast, auto aims, and almost never overheats. The phase beam, even upgraded, overheats in like half a second.
Early days before the upgrades, the phase beam was handy though.
Blaster can be strong, just needs sep upgrades just for killing
Ah, I see. Thanks!
I've been pretty happy with my upgraded blaster so far though :)
Just to point out my terminology was wrong, so we may not be on the same page. I'm referring to fighting in ships.
For the multi-tool, I don't even have the "blaster" or whatever it's called installed. The railshot adapter makes your mining beam insanely powerful as a weapon.
I was talking about ship fighting as well :)
I don't have the bolt caster (I think it's called) on my multi-tool :)
Yeah we were talking about fighting in space. I liked the Boltcaster, but now that I have the Railshot adapter, I don't really use that anymore.
OK so we got the answer about uploading barren planets: It's fixed on PS4 now, so it was never supposed to work that way at all. Weird that it only affected PS4.
Quick tip. If you find a distress signal on a planet where there's a crashed ship, take your ship there. If it's in range, it's easier to dismantle its tech and move some of the resources into your own inventory. This way you don't lose as many resources when switching to a new ship. This may be helpful if the new ship doesn't have enough empty slots to hold the resources already on your old ship.
Oh and I wanted to point out something. Scrypt correctly referred to the weapon as "phase beams" whereas I incorrectly called it "laser beams."
If you are going to upgrade your multi-tool, dismantle all that you can on your current multi-tool before upgrading. You get some good resources that way.
By upgrade, I mean swap out for a new multi-tool.
Yep, same goes for ships!
I recently realized (probably days ago) something I wanted to share with you so you don't miss out. When you visit an Atlas Interface, you may see a bunch of little lights around. Walk up to them and you might learn some words of the languages of the three races.
Also, Monoliths (or the places with purple icons that give you a choice of what to do) seem to be the best (if not perhaps only) way of learning words of the Atlas language. Typically, there you learn something from one of the three races, but sometimes you learn Atlas words, too.
I think I have 40 hours in this game so far, and I still don't have even the Atlas V1 Pass... I'm thinking I did something wrong lol
Wow. I have 100 more hours in it than you do. I don't remember how I got Atlas V1 or V2 for that matter. I'm hoping to get V3. I read about how hard it is to get and how to possibly get it.
The easiest way to get the Atlas Pass V1 is the space anomaly. It's guaranteed on your first trip there. And an anomaly is guaranteed on your first visit after your first Atlas Interface.
V2 and V3 can also come from the anomaly, but you have to hit it a ton of times first. You can also grind outposts for them, they come as random rewards, but that's quite tedious, I did it.
So to get V3, ask Nada for resources? I stopped doing that because "they" kept giving my blueprints I already knew.
I've seen the anomaly, but didn't before warping a bunch, and now it feels too far away to get to. But I suppose I'd better go there so it's easier to warp farther eventually :)
Don't worry if you miss out on one of those there are plenty more. I'm warping a lot more frequently now as I'm trying to get to the Atlas end point. I think that's why I'm seeing more of those anomalies and Atlas interfaces. I've been jumping from one system to the next without skipping any. So, I craft one warp cell just to get me to the next system and then I go from there, seeing what (if any) materials I need to craft another. If I need materials, I head to a planet and collect them. If I notice there are creatures, I try to discover all of them. I'm still more interested in Vy'keen planets as I haven't fully learned their language. I've learned the Korvax and Gek languages already though.
I can't see that this has been mentioned, and someone just brought up Vortex Cubes on the Discoveries forum. The way to get the most out of harvesting these things is to build (or find an abandoned starship with) Beam Impact Theta, and then dismantle it. It'll cost 3 Vortex Cubes (along with some Carbon and Omegon) to build, but once you dismantle, you'll be able to harvest them 99 at a time. If you find a ship with it already built, even better, because then you don't have to spend any resources!
Some items in the game aren't stackable in your inventory. This changes when you dismantle upgrades. When you break breakdown certain items, they will yield a portion of the materials used to build them. Some items, like the Vortex Cube, will change from a stack 1 of 1, to a stack 1 of 100.
Other items that I've come across that have this effect are:
The trick when using this for harvesting/trading is that, when you go to sell, you have to make sure to sell 99 and keep 1, otherwise you'll lose the stacking capability (until you find another 1/100 item). You could have one in your suit inventory, and another in your ship inventory, for maximum payoff, allowing you to harvest up to 198 at a time!
Thanks for the tip Scrypt!
Yep, that's a glitch that may get patched out, but I've used it quite a bit for vortex cube farming.
Ah, it looks like that glitch *was* patched out. No more stacking those unstackables unfortunately.
Hmmm... Still works on the PS4.
Interesting. I checked it because someone on a PS4 patch thread said it was patched.
Maybe it still works if you have previous stacks before the most recent patch? I dunno.
I tested on a newly acquired abandoned ship, post 1.08 patch, and it worked just fine. It doesn't seem like it's a bug. It actually makes sense, design-wise, when breaking down components while transferring ships. You can run out of room quickly, even on something as large as 47-48 slots. Stacking typically unstackable items could be a design choice for that very purpose.
Is it not working on the PC (i.e. Have you tested it out?)
I have, it's not working. Weird.
I wonder though, if it will let you break down components into stacks, but then if you pick up another one (like a vortex cube) it won't stack with the other stack, if that makes sense. That's what I tested. I didn't break down multiple ship components at once.
That would give you the option of more easily breaking things down while not letting you continue to collect.
Huh. Nope, I just tried that. I last stopped on a vortex cube planet. I tried breaking down two things that give you vortex cubes, and then picking up a few. It's now stacking the same as always.
SO... I dunno.
Huh. Nope. This is weird. Here's what I did:
1. Grabbed a vortex cube from the ground.
2. Broke down a module that gives you a vortex cube. At this point I had one that said 1/1, and another that said 1/100
3. Built that module again, and got lucky that it used the one that said 1/1.
4. Broke it down again. Now I have one stack that says 2/100.
5. Picked up a vortex cube from the ground, transferred it to my ship. Now, 3/100.
6. Picked up six more from the ground, transferred them to my ship. I have a stack of 6/100 and three individuals. Wat.
The only module, that I can see, that uses Vortex Cubes is the Beam Impact Theta ship module. It requires 2 to build, and returns 1 when broken down. Typically, when breaking down modules, you only receive half of the "high-end" resources that it took to build that module (Vortex Cubes, Dynamic Resonators, Neutrino Modules, etc.). I'm a little confused by your listed steps. Something seems to be missing in the process. You shouldn't have had any Cubes left after building that module, according to what you said you had on-hand (unless you're building something else, which I'm curious to know what that is!).
Wherever you have the stackable item, either on your suit or ship, if you pickup/transfer that same kind of item, it should go directly to the stack. For example, if I have a 1/100 Vortex Cube on my ship, and I go out and pick up a Vortex Cube from the ground, that item won't go to the stack unless I transfer it to my ship. They will continue to stack as individuals in suit inventory until they are transferred to my ship. What I have been doing is keeping the 1/100 Vortex Cube in my suit inventory. Then, when I pick another up, it goes immediately to the stack.
Yeah good point about the steps. I guess I had another vortex cube in my inventory and didn't realize it.
I think my browser ate part of that last one-line comment there. Either that or I thought I wrote more and hit "post" too soon. I was at the doctor so I may have just been distracted. Either way--
I guess I had another vortex cube and didn't realize it. I hadn't been to a trading post in a while so that's feasible. You are correct that it was Beam Impact Theta.
To your second paragraph, that's exactly how it used to work, then I saw someone say it was patched and tested it myself and my findings agreed with that person, the trick no longer worked. But then testing it earlier it was working for me again, albeit inconsistently. Transferring them to the ship only stacked some of them, which is dumbfounding to me. Reading more since 1.08 it seems that very rarely people say it was patched but it's mostly people saying it isn't.
I guess it's possible that there's a certain thing you can do that makes it inconsistent. And it may have something to do with save files pre-1.08? I had been doing all that testing on a single save, as in I hadn't saved at all since I started testing it. I tested again, got the inconsistency again. Then I saved again, closed the game, booted it back up, and it's no longer inconsistent. It's working perfectly.
So who knows. Long story short, it looks like it still works! It just got weird for me.
Freaky!
OK revisiting this a week later. Another patch, and this time the stacking bug is absolutely fixed. Dismantling the Beam Impact Theta this time creates a single item in a stack of 1/1 rather than 1/100.
Other "bugs" removed include the one where you could hold in E and mouse over all your discoveries to upload them quickly. Geeeeeeeez why did they remove that? It wasn't really impacting anything and it made uploading discoveries so much easier.
The patch is in testing on PC currently.
But also, the level of detail is far better-- way less pop-in near you as you walk through the world, and there are new graphical effects like fog and volumetric lighting (at least new to the PC, maybe not PS4, I dunno), all while running WAY better.
Anything new as far as gameplay goes?
Nope, they're working on making what they have work better first, which is sensible.
That's too bad. I'll probably check out the game again when there's more to it.
So a couple of notes on the patch, now that it's public.
1. The hold-and-sweep to upload all your discoveries is broken on Steam but not on GOG. That's an interesting disconnect. You'd expect it to be the same files. It's probably just a particular repository they didn't update. I'm *hoping* that fixing something else broke the sweep to upload, and they then fixed sweep uploading but forgot to add that to the Steam version.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(What I mean by that, on your discoveries screen, rather than holding E on every single discovery, you could hold E and then sweep your mouse over everything. It wasn't instant but it skipped part of the delay so uploading many discoveries at once was much faster.)
2. The item stacking will still work if you have a stack from before the patch, so as long as you sell all but one of your vortex cubes, gravitino balls, or whatever you had a stack of before, you'll be fine. But as soon as you sell that whole stack, you won't be able to stack again.
3. Distant LOD is far better now, way fewer terrain pop-ins, but the ones within a few meters still happen.
4. Graphics seem better across the board but there are some issues. Grass flickering is a big one-- if you're near tall grass, the textures flicker in and out. If you're a few meters away or fly above the grass, it's fine. Turning down the FOV helps significantly but doesn't fully fix it, but I'm not about to do that because increased FOV helps with motion sickness.
4. This is patch 1.0.9 according to GOG. Steam doesn't have any way to tell the version other than patch notes and we haven't gotten those in quite a while. There was a small update on Steam's experimental branch after 1.0.8 hit PS4 that some people think was 1.0.8, but some seem to think THIS patch is the 1.0.8 patch since no main-channel patch hit until now... BUT there are no patch notes at all since 1.0.7. That's incredibly frustrating. I get why they're staying mostly silent right now about where the game is headed. Anything they say right now would probably be met with tons of vitriol and death threats and other common angry gamer terribleness, but I don't think patch notes on patch day is asking for much. For a while they came a few days after patches but the 1.0.8 patch never got any patch notes. They assembled a community team a few weeks back that has yet to interact with the community.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. I gotta figure out what LODs are. Ark added "high quality LODs," but I don't know what that is, will Google later (nap time).
4. Speaking of Ark yet again, I know that sometimes the devs are too busy to bother with patch notes. They've said that pretty much. However, Ark did receive a small update last night that doesn't seem to be included in the patch notes. I'm not saying your argument is invalid or bad at all, I definitely agree with you. Patch notes *should* come along with patches, but sometimes they get overlooked.
Oh and I did notice an update for NMS yesterday and got it downloaded, haven't tried it out yet though (busy w/ Ark).
3. Ok so I "Googled" LOD and found the wikipedia page. I'll share it just in case anyone else is curious. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_detail
Yeah there are a few ways you can use the term LOD, but in this case it's basically that distant textures render in a higher level of detail sooner now, which leads to things looking better in the long run, with less mid range pop-in. The nearby pop-in is still rampant but it's progress!
I saw a video about the new Zelda game that contains some of the stuff you said. The person that made the video said those things would most likely not occur on the NX (or at least that was his presumption). I remember him showing off how the top half of the screen had much less detail than the bottom half. He also showed things popping in the background, things I never really noticed before.
The PS4 patch came out today and confirms that all these changes are patch 1.9. Interestingly, the "sweep" discovery upload is also fixed/broken depending on how you look at it on PS4. So only GOG users still have this ability.
Perhaps since 1.9 is now out on all platforms we'll see patch notes in the coming days.
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log
Patch notes are up. It confirms that getting more than a single item per stack of some items was an exploit and has been intentionally fixed. The hold-and-sweep to upload thing isn't specifically mentioned, but one bug that was fixed...
Fixed a rare issue where pressing and holding a button would cause the game to crash under specific circumstances.
... sounds like it might have something to do with that.
It looks like the last time I sent Hello Games some crash reports was on 8/18. Whenever an update came around that time, the game stopped crashing for me. Today, I got a reply from them about the crash reports I sent:
"Hello,
This mail is to let you know we’ve released a patch which may have resolved the issue you described. Please try it out, and get back to us if you are still having problems.
We’ve now released a number of patches for both PC and PS4, and hopefully they really improve the experience for everybody. As you’ll see from the patch notes below, it’s been a huge amount of work for a small team. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
See below for notes on all recent patches:
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/
Expect more updates to appear as we continue to improve and expand the experience for players.
We really appreciate your patience and understanding.
Thank you,
Hello Games Support"
Granted, they apparently fixed my crashing issue long before they released this most recent update.
Yeah they update their boilerplate every patch or so, that's the one I've seen mentioned recently.
Honestly props to them. As much as I hate waiting days for patch notes and not knowing what's coming, they're really working hard to fix the game.
I don't recall seeing an update since I last posted (on the 21st), so I don't know if this article relates to a new or old update, but I found this (which covers some things we've discussed here): http://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-no-mans-sky-update-arrives-focuses-on-fixing-n/1100-6443878/
Yeah that's the one I posted about above. An update about their intentions for the near future would be welcome now. The natives are getting restless!
I am getting restless! They might be a little reluctant to talk about what is next given the "overhype" of the game prior to release.
Yeah, that's probably why they've been basically silent for so long. Even just some general hints without any hype or specifics would be neat at this point, but those hints would also be subject to overhype. They're in a no-win situtation.
Their intentions for the near future are bases and freighters, as far as they've indicated.
Right, but a matter of when-- a month, six months? Something like when they plan to start, if people can expect things before the end of the year, that kind of thing.
Actually not even that. The issue is that the very active Hello Games twitter and Sean Murray's twitter have been entirely silent since the launch, with the exception of announcing patch notes. The only thing they've said on their own site is that they'll be working on bases and freighters when they have patched the bugs. But that was early on, the reception the game received has only gotten worse, and they've stopped talking.
Which, fine, they're working on things and they may not have any new details to share. BUT the problem is that the hole is being filled by the detractors. The people who feel they were lied to or that the game failed to deliver are louder, even if there numbers are falling a bit. But they're controlling the narrative.
This PC Gamer article says what I mean pretty well, although he feels much more pessimistically than I do.
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-makers-of-no-mans-sky-need-to-start-talking-again/
They've stopped talking, but no one can say they haven't been active.
My prediction: The user base will dwindle down to those who probably would have been the only ones to buy the game if they had been 100% completely transparent about every "boring" detail of the game. Hello Games will continue to support the game, as they have always said they would. People will talk shit about Hello Games for forever, despite anything, because that's what people do. Sean Murray isn't Phil Fish. I highly doubt that he, or his team, will "quit games" just because of all of this negativity. They'll either rise above it, or fail, but I just don't see them quitting, and that's the implication by the 'detractors.' The game was patched on the PS4 a week ago. They've been putting out patches constantly since launch. They have taken zero breaks from making/fixing this game. They've been silent, and I think they should remain silent until they put out new content. Let the work speak.
As an aside, I'm really getting tired of reading/hearing about the multiplayer expectations (re: the article you linked). Can we move past that as the de facto entry of attack, FFS? The fact that he chose to open with that, beating the deadest horse, and then go on to complain about lack of communication from the developer, when, actually, we've been getting detailed patch notes and news updates on their site (which are very much valid avenues of communication)... According to the article, the writer had been playing No Man's Sky every day for almost two months. That's a lot of No Man's Sky. He goes on to state that he found the game ultimately boring, and insisted on chasing that STUPID DEAD HORSE that is finding another player in the game. He obviously doesn't like the game for what it does offer. Fine. Go play something else. You've put at least 60 hours into it. Move on. Why write this article? Who does this serve? It's not news. It's not even an original opinion. He's just giving fuel to those detractors. His article could be summed up by saying "Why should we care, if Hello Games obviously doesn't?" Thanks for that!!
Don't get me wrong, the game has shortcomings. I'm not that biased or naive. This whole precedent of staying constantly in touch with your customers on social media is a bit ridiculous, though. Not everyone does it, so it's certainly not standard. Hello Games is different because they were so active prior to release. One of the reasons they have been attacked so severely has been due to talking too much, so I would think a very good remedy would be to not talk so much. Gotta keep the attack up somehow, though. The train of irrational hate needs a reason to get longer, I suppose.
I agree with your predictions, and also the multiplayer expectations. I'm even happier without it.
I don't think patch notes are enough, and as far as I can tell there's been no news since September 2. That last development update is awesome. We need another one. As specific as that one is, no need to hype stuff again and kill people's hopes and dreams and (apparently) everything they live for. Just *something*.
> My prediction: The user base will dwindle down to those who probably would have been the only ones to buy the game if they had been 100% completely transparent about every "boring" detail of the game. Hello Games will continue to support the game, as they have always said they would. People will talk shit about Hello Games for forever, despite anything, because that's what people do.
I agree with you on this. Eventually the rage will subside and it won't be as fashionable to talk about No Man's Sky so you won't be seeing "think pieces" saying the same thing anymore nor will people share them. I am going to make a further prediction in that this game will eventually, years later, be seen as a good game. There will be think pieces that state it's flaws yet that largely it will be seen with fresh eyes as a good game. Kind of like Spore now, not perfect but good and sells quite a bit.
> That last development update is awesome. We need another one. As specific as that one is, no need to hype stuff again and kill people's hopes and dreams and (apparently) everything they live for. Just *something*.
I bet, for you, another dev update would work well. That said, them going into silent running mode is the best strategy in our current environment. ANYTHING they say at this point will be wrong. It will be picked apart and become a new news cycle where the majority written/comment sentiment will be anti Hello Games. Eventually they will post what you want Travis, but if I were them i'd hold off for along time.
When a community is aggrieved and as negative as they are now i'm not sure more communication is the answer even though everyone says it is. Sometimes you need to have people work it out to achieve some kind of resolution on their own. I'm not sure I can think of a case where there was so much negativity and a company turned it around with more talking.
Patching the game and then talking about new free content is the ticket and eventually, we will get some kind of post mortem or something from them but for now, silent running seems like the best option.
I agree with that to a point, but right now the thing people are complaining about the hardest is the silence. Especially so, considering that the latest development update talks about bring on a community management team that hasn't interacted with the community at all.
People feel neglected, in a way, even the people who like the game. Maybe especially those people. The rage about "NO MANS LIE AMIRITE" has died down quite a bit. The people on /r/NoMansSkyTheGame at least seem to downvote trolls now instead of celebrating them. The complaints left are reasonable, and chief among them is the silence from Hello Games.
Which is why I think now is a good time to talk.
When they released the last development update, people in general did not tear it apart like you mention. It was hopeful. Aside from the typical, tired "I bet they're just lying!" comments, it was very positively received. Something now to expand on this paragraph:
"What matters now, as always, is what we do rather than what we say. We’re developers, and our focus is first on resolving any issues people have with the game as it is, then on future free updates which will improve, expand and build on the No Man’s Sky universe."
would be great. Just something to say "We are nearing the end of bug fixing and will soon start working on content updates." or something to that effect.
Just to be clear I don't think this is an *obligation* or anything. They sold a game and we bought it, and the extent of the obligation, in my opinion, is to fix the major issues. I just think it would be better for them and us.
I don't know. I think the "What matters now...is what we do..."statement is pretty solid. Expanding on that would be redundant. Even if they did, the prominent vox would undoubtedly be "Don't just tell us, show us." At some point, calling for them to double-down on what they've already said is tantamount to micromanagement, and doesn't help anything. From a strictly business standpoint, what do they possibly have to lose by staying quiet, even if it's just for a while longer? I see how it might benefit us, but I don't see how it would really, truly benefit them at this point. People that have demanded refunds have either gotten them, or are getting them. I would presume they want to bring in more players. Talking more than they already have about what's coming, when it's coming...especially in the face of the launch drama, means little to nothing. I'm sure they are acutely aware of this. They need to put out content. Content that might draw in fresh players. The fans that are already here should trust the devs (and if they're still around, I believe there is definitely trust there). I'm sure they'll start talking again, when they have something more to say.
My understanding, in the way that it's phrased as a "community/support management team," was largely to handle the reports of bugs and crashes, at least initially.
"I see how it might benefit us, but I don't see how it would really, truly benefit them at this point."
I meant to say that as them speaking might benefit us. It sounds like I'm saying them staying silent would benefit us. Apologize for the confusion!
What I imagine is that they're waiting until they have something really solid to say before they say it.
It's just really frustrating when patch notes come late (super late in the case of 1.0.8 which didn't even show up until a week or more later, a few days after 1.0.9 came out), and say things that amount to "We know there are problems and we're going to work on it" and are then silent for weeks, patch notes aside. It's especially frustrating as someone who likes the game quite a bit, who lost interest because of some of the places where the game is quite shallow. After 70ish hours, yes, so that's a lot of game. I just see a lot of unfinished potential, and my frustration comes from that.
I sound unappreciative, but I'm not. They're working hard to fix things when the mood at Hello Games has to be pretty dour. It's not easy and I greatly appreciate it, personally. I'm sure they'll do some great things with what they have after the bug fixes are done.
This started off more as me wanting to vent than wanting to start a debate but here we are :D
You're venting, I'm venting, just in varying perspectives. I'm not trying to win anything, promise :).
I loaded into NMS yesterday... I couldn't play for even 5 minutes. It's totally a game style I like or should like, but I find myself so bored seeing the same patterns and doing the same tasks over and over again. Learn words, find the same set of structures scattered about, dodge/kill the same sentinels. Constantly monitor inventory space, go to space station.
Maybe if I load a podcast while playing or load a sound track, but then I might not hear my suit is out of juice or something.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/no-mans-sky-audio-chief-says-sean-murray-fine-hello-games-busy-next-patch-1585646