No Man's Sky

[TheMightyEthan]

So Hello Games isn't quite outright saying, but is implying, that the reason they couldn't see each other is because too many people are playing right now and the servers can't keep up.

[deanb]

"We want people to be aware they are in a shared universe. We added online features, and some Easter Eggs to create cool moments"

 

See this could be "you're in a shared universe and 'online features' in the sense that you'll see the planets and creatures other people have seen" way which we know that's how it functions at the moment. That's the Spore level stuff.

Or is it a "not a structure multiplayer system like you'd get in COD but more a "singleplayer campaign with some multiplayer overlap like Darksouls/Watch_dogs where you absolutely definitely have the other people sharing the world with you".

 

I don't know if Sean just thinks when folks ask about multiplayer in his mind that's only deathmatch n what not and he's unaware of the likes of Dark Souls n such and player are used to the "your game session is now suddenly multiplayer for a bit" style of play. Like he's even said:

"Two players finding each other on a stream in the first day - that has blown my mind" but everyone knows they didn't find each other, that was sort of the point n why the question on it having functional multiplayer elements or not at all is a thing.

 

Any who couple days n it'll be on PC n I might be able to give it a whirl for a moment.

[TheMightyEthan]

But if you post the follow-up tweets too:

 

 

 

We want people to be aware they are in a shared universe. We added online features, and some Easter Eggs to create cool moments

 

We hope to see those happening... but too many of you are playing right now. More than we could have predicted

 

It is a testament to how amazing our network coders are that Discoveries are still working at all.

 

https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/763270760240713728

 

In context it implies that the "online features" aren't happening right now, even though discoveries are being shared, which implies that there's more online stuff than just the discoveries.  Like potentially meeting other players.

 

I'm not saying that's definitely true, and HG is notoriously bad at communicating, I'm just saying it's being implied.

 

It's also entirely plausible that in addition to being in the same place you have to be connected to the same server to actually be able to encounter each other in realtime.

[deanb]

It's still early day so we'll see what pans out with it coming out in EU today n PC on Friday. The prevailing theory is they're being coy in order to not potentially damage initial sales. So we'll see if their messaging changes in the next week or so.

 

They're the developers. I'd guess if they'd put MP functionality in they'd have god tools to be able to put two of their QA testers or whatever with each other to figure it out. Surely there'd be some screenshots or even video from that to be able to go "here's what it looks like when two people meet" and put the matter to rest. If two people were able to coordinate it in the first day to "meet up" and nothing happened it's likely to be that more folks will be able to attempt it very soon and if it carries on coming up blank then it won't look so great on Hello Games. Given the size of their team n scope of past games compared to this no one would really blame them for having it SP only but the longer they drag out without any clarification the less of a good look it is for them. It kinda has more of a buzz at the moment than say folks sharing planets they've come across or what not which I'd guess they'd prefer. 

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh yeah, I totally agree, their communication is terrible. And there's already at least two more meet ups that have been put on Reddit where they came up empty.

[TheMightyEthan]

The plot thickens:

 

 

Obviously given it's a random forum poster quoting an unknown reddit user quoting an unknown GAF poster it should be taken with an ocean's worth of salt.

 

I don't actually care one way or the other, I have no real desire to be able to meet up with other people anyway, but it's weird that they would just lie about this (if that's really what's going on).

 

Of course it's also possible that they have the feature turned off for the moment, like some other developer we've heard a lot about recently, due to server load, and that's why it's not sending that data.

[TheMightyEthan]

Apparently claiming the preorder bonus ship can cause a game-breaking glitch.

 

The gist is that the preorder ship comes with a hyperdrive, meaning the tutorial never triggers the part where you get a blueprint for a hyperdrive.  Problem is, you can't craft things without a blueprint, so if you sell your ship and inadvertently buy another without a hyperdrive you're stuck in that star system unless/until you happen to stumble across a hyperdrive blueprint (or can find another ship to buy that has one).

 

The solution to this is just not to claim the preorder ship until after you've finished the hyperdrive blueprint tutorial task, but it still sucks for those who inadvertently find themselves in this situation.

[toxicitizen]

Goddamnit, I'm getting increasingly tempted to buy this game. The exploration aspect looks like something I'd really enjoy and it kinda feels like close to launch will be the best time to experience the game, unless you want to only run into already discovered planets and stuff. But I have no income right now and there's no way in hell I'm not buying Deus Ex in two weeks, so I really shouldn't just drop 60 bucks on a whim like that.

 
Also, lol
 

 
Obviously given it's a random forum poster quoting an unknown reddit user quoting an unknown GAF poster it should be taken with an ocean's worth of salt.

Pretty sure that's a GAF poster quoting a reddit user quoting a GAF poster. Sometimes the whole GAF -> Internet -> GAF thing blows my mind.

Edited August 10, 2016 by FLD

[deanb]

Given all the other highly anticipated games I'm not expecting this to have much of a life of being "the game". We're just on a bit of a lul at the moment, as is always common over summer. Cos yeah Deus Ex along with like two games that people have been waiting 10 years for, and the usual end of year stuff oh n Dishonored 2 and probably even more that doesn't currently come to mind.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, FFXV is huge for September, it's just not one I'm personally anticipating all that much. What's the other 10 years game, though? Only other thing that comes to mind is Dragon Quest VII and that's only ~3 years old.

[Mr. GOH!]

Civ VI, son. Although it's onyl been 6 years that we've been waiting, I guess.

[deanb]

 

Well now he's crying. Hope you're all happy.

[TheMightyEthan]

I was actually about to post that I think you're talking about TLG!

[toxicitizen]

Oh, right. Completely forgot about TLG. 

[TCP]

Didn't a Civ game come out last year or something? It was in space IIRC.

TLG and Final Fantasy Versus 13 are the reasons I bought a PS3 back in 2009. I'm a little less excited for FFXV now that I'm old but my anticipation for TLG has only grown. 

[Mal]

I would love to play TLG but I'm not getting a PS4 for just that. Upgrading my old but trusty PC comes before getting a PS4. Maybe I will  play it on one of my brothers' PS4 when I got visit.

[TheMightyEthan]

Beyond Earth came out two years ago, but it was made by a different team and wasn't amazing.

[Mr. GOH!]

TLG looks like a less-fun Seaman crosses with a less-fun Black & White with a sprinkle of Ico on top. 

 

But back to No Man's Sky. I'm interested in it, but concerned that the gameplay loop, as they say, will get tedious before too long. I'm not really big on survival and crafting games these days, but I like the idea of exploration. From what I've heard of the game post-patch, I'll still likely wait for a significant discount before taking the plunge. My new game this month will be Mankind Divided, I suppose.

[Thursday Next]

You can feed animals on the planet, and then they become your friend and drop resources for you. I am quitting law to be a space farmer.

[TheMightyEthan]

The plot thickens further.

 

Apparently the European special edition boxes have a sticker showing PEGI 7 and singleplayer, but under the sticker the actual box says PEGI 12 and online play.

 

My speculation is that they've been planning to have the online play, but that there was a problem and so it's currently disabled, and that this happened very late in development (hence the box stickers).  Though this still wouldn't excuse the really cagey BS commentary from the dev about it.

[deanb]

PEGI is self-submitted too. Weird. I guess in a timeline sense it implies they had had multiplayer once upon a time and have since removed it for whatever reason (and it's not a case of "currently disabled cos of server load" if they've had folks put stickers on the CE boxes).

 

The lack of clear communication on this is really baffling. I wonder if there's some legal dealy-o, like I dunno part of deal with Sony was they'd have MP which'd mean increase in PSN+ subscriptions maybe n kickbacks from that or whatever and thus Sean doesn't want to outright state they'd reneged on that (but then they wouldn't have to outright state anything if all the boxes clearly state it's SP only). Otherwise it's been shown on live streaming it's not technically possible, the boxes and store pages list it as SP and the CE has been changed from PEGI with online elements to one without.

 

Another thought actually on the PEGI stuff is that might be because you could submit names such as "planetfucker" or whatever. I know in some cases the PEGI stuff does cover online communication which that might have counted as until a bit of wrangling with PEGI lot(probably from Sony who want to have a 7 rated game than a 12 rated). Cos the other part of the box doesn't have a sticker over it and still only lists "1 player".

 

Man I think all this mystery is more exciting than the game.

[deanb]

 

Finally I'm a beautiful butterfly! My wings, oh they're beautiful!

[CorgiShinobi]

I've been reading up on this multiplayer controversy lately. I never planned on getting the game myself, but I keep seeing news about the game.

 

I suspect that the original intent was to have multiplayer, but later on they realized how little players would run into each other and that it wouldn't be worth the stress on their servers to keep so many players in the same instance of planets. That's just my quick assumption and the fact that two players were in the same location and couldn't see each other. I don't know why that would be server issues and not just single player design.

[TheMightyEthan]

RPS' impressions seem to be that at a fundamental level it's fantastically fun and engaging, but that they made a bunch of baffling decisions that seem designed to annoy the player, but that in spite of those annoyances it's still fantastically fun and engaging.

 

 

 

I am having a tremendously good time playing No Man’s Sky, but I’m really getting annoyed by No Man’s Sky. Such is the dichotomy that’s central to this most peculiarly hyped of indie projects, that it is at once magnificent and mundane, breathtaking and benign. It is very much what everyone feared: a massive concept with no ideas to go in it. And yet it seems, from my first couple of days with the PS4 build, to be enough. I had to tear myself away to write this, what with a few quintillion stars I’ve still yet to explore.

[TCP]

Apparently claiming the preorder bonus ship can cause a game-breaking glitch.

 

The gist is that the preorder ship comes with a hyperdrive, meaning the tutorial never triggers the part where you get a blueprint for a hyperdrive.  Problem is, you can't craft things without a blueprint, so if you sell your ship and inadvertently buy another without a hyperdrive you're stuck in that star system unless/until you happen to stumble across a hyperdrive blueprint (or can find another ship to buy that has one).

 

The solution to this is just not to claim the preorder ship until after you've finished the hyperdrive blueprint tutorial task, but it still sucks for those who inadvertently find themselves in this situation.

 

So this is legit. At one point the tutorial for me just stuck on "refuel hyper drive" with no way to do it. I restarted last night, fortunately I hadn't put in a lot of time, and everything makes so much more sense. The first time it was guiding me into building a hyper drive and then the game urged me to use my hyper drive, even though it was telling me it was broken (but it wasn't). It was all so confusing. Sean Murray, you dun goofed ...but I still love you.