No Mans Sky - looks interesting

[Moonhawk]

This looks interesting. Kinda has an Elite 2 Frontier feel about it - totally open ended gameplay, procedurally generated content........

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/

[Moonhawk]

Martin4x4 said:

If you're looking for massively multiplayer Elite

You need to take a look at Eve Valkyrie

I think No Man's Sky is a different beast altogether. In the gamespot videos - the developers talk about how big the galaxy is (basically 1:1 scale) and that players will be scattered throughout it - meetings between players will be quite rare by the sounds of it.

They even said that if multiple players were on the same planet - the chances of them meeting would be slim - simply due to the vast scale of the game.

It'll be quite a unique experience I think..........knowing that you are essentially alone - but there is always the chance that you could bump into somebody. Those chance encounters could dramatically alter the game play experience.

[Moonhawk]

motorizer said:

It doesn't look anything like 1:1 scale in the videos.....

I'm not sure you can say that considering how little is shown - but the developers do make claims that implies its 1:1 scale (or to a scale that it doesn't really matter).

6:20 onwards the developer speaks about how it is possible to meet other players - but that it is extremely unlikely due to the scale of the game. He speaks specifically of "planet sized planets".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKoBNfjImvo

Even if it's not strictly 1:1 - it is clear that the scale is vast - and they do state that it is the "opposite of an MMO".

[Moonhawk]

Dare2Fail said:

.....but they clearly are trying to make something absolutely MAHOOSIVE.

Indeed - I found this quote from a dev:

"people underestimate how vast our (in-game) universe is. If we were lucky enough to have a million players and started them all on one planet, they would still be really far apart"

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/1/5856718/no-mans-s...

[Moonhawk]

Mandown46 said:

Its certainly an interesting concept, and one I'll keep an eye on, but, with so little opportunity for human interaction, and seemingly so little in terms of what to actually do. (I may have missed some articles) how quickly are you going to get bored with just flying around empty planets and space?

It hardly looks empty - plenty of flora and fauna on the planets shown - and there also seems to be a lot of procedurally generated NPC stuff going if the space battle sequences are anything to go by.

[Moonhawk]

Mandown46 said:

Yes, the planets shown do look nice, but from what I've read, those planets with any sort of life on them are going to be very very rare.
I suppose some sort of goal based activities would be good, if nothing else but to put players into interaction/conflict with others/NPC's

Not so sure myself - I wonder whether they will go with the "life but no as we know it" element in order to populate more planets than would otherwise be the case in a totally realistic universe.

I guess details of stuff like NPC interactions, goals etc will come later. They did say the ultimate goal of the game is to get to the centre of the galaxy and that there would be a big payoff for achieving it (although the game wouldn't end there) - they also said that you have to upgrade your ship etc in order to achieve that goal - so it looks like there could be cash, trading, mining, gathering elements to the game too. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I actually wish Elite Dangerous had gone more down this route. Whilst a new Elite game is fantastic news - I was a little disappointed that they went with a sequel to Elite rather than Frontier. Given we had seamless space to planet transitions back in the early 1990s on Amigas - it's a shame we wont have this with Elite Dangerous (at least not at release).

[Moonhawk]

Lucas Ayde said:

This gives a bit of insight I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgFNPg9qUXI


Looks very interesting - basically a mash-up of Minecraft, Rescue on Fractalus, Elite and Wikipedia(!).

Depending on how well the controls 'feel' and how much actual engagement that they can generate from a huge sandbox, it could be a real winner. Could also fall totally flat.

Definitely got a "Spore" look/feel about it too.

Each planet is supposed to be totally unique and contains flora and fauna - but I wonder how varied planets are within themselves (i.e. will we have polar regions, mountains, seas, deserts etc all with different flora and fauna).

I have already seen some footage showing caves on a planet - with some narration suggesting they could go very deep. Also - some caves will only be discoverable if you actually dig for them.

Edited by Moonhawk on Tuesday 21st July 11:37