Ability to Lift/Move Objects?

It struck me this morning, my interloping traveling companions, upon waking from an NMS/Astroneer crossover dream that our avatars have no way to lift/move objects in game (although plenty things seem able to move us!).

Back when the universe reset, changing everything, I wanted to find a way to build a cairn for my fallen/missing comrades who had in their own quirky ways helped me to create a livable habitat and fill it with garden delights. If only my toon could lift/move a stone, place flowers before it, and say a prayer to the Atlas for an uncorrupted resurrection of their eternal digital souls.

I searched every station for a terrain manipulation device to try and create a monument to their passing, and when I found one, it was lacking. The great spirit ProcGen came when I was sleeping and eroded whatever I built until within hours it was as if it had never existed.

I find it odd that I can blast open things, blow up resources, pick flowers, kill plants and critters, even enemy ships, but I have no ability to pick up a rock and move it somewhere else. Some kind of tractor beam on the mining device would suffice. Possibly a pushing bar on the roamer? Or how about a fork-lift? :laughing:

Iā€™m not demanding that HG @OldGods do anything about it. There is enough of that weird entitlement thing going on as it is. But I do wish I could have built a cairn for my quirky friends with my own two hands that (apparently, info gleaned from the interactions with aliens) I have.

Does anyone else wish for this feature in NMS?

Are there other mechanics you long to have in (or remove from) the game?

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A gravity gun type device would be much appreciated. Especially if weā€™re given a reason for wielding it. Would be a great way to add another mechanic and more opportunities for gameplay.

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Interesting. Can you describe the kind of reason you would like to be given?

I rarely occurs to me to need a reason to use things in game other than what my own imagination provides. I guess some people are so already overwhelmed by events in their own RL that they prefer to immerse themselves in stories that are already worked out for them? Just wondering. Iā€™m intrigued.

Not intending thread drift here, though perhaps another discussion thread could be created about preferences regarding items, reasons, and story/lore.

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I just meant reasons like carrying cargo boxes to complete quests and things like that. You could also use the gun to just move rocks around if you desire. Object acquisition and management is not very satisfying as itā€™s just ā€˜hold Eā€™ and it magically goes into a container that has no visualization in-game other than a grid with an icon. No animation, not much of a sound effect. Itā€™s just there.

That being said, I do realize that weā€™re supposed to be in a simulation and weā€™re just (my perception) electrical probes as the simulation is running, going around collecting data for the atlas (an actual human interface?) on whether the simulation is correctly simulating the programmers universe. And as electrons we just have interface nodes we interact with and thereā€™s not much of a physical reaction (as in animations) but it would still be nice to see us lift and carry things. Maybe later in the game as the simulation becomes more life-like.

I hope all that made sense. :slight_smile:

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In a non-ontological ā€œalmost but not entirely unlikeā€ way? Yes. :grin:

And thanks for clarifying what you meant by ā€œreasonsā€.

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uh, yeahā€¦ Almost but not entirely unlike umm errā€¦

Anyway, if you give us a mechanic (as a gravity gun) make a gameplay loop that makes it useful and prctical. Moving rocks around is not a good-enough reason to have it in the first place. You could have it play multiple roles in combat by throwing objects, exploration by moving heavy objects, character locomotion by allowing it to be used to launch yourself (maybe?) Thereā€™s so many things that can be done with it if imagination is used.

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I love your ideas about this! So cool. <3

My HHGttG (Douglas Adams) quote was more towards your fascinating analogy concerning electrons. lol ;`)

Edit: Can you imagine the stuff you could build, though, with a tractor beam along with the terrain manipulator just using rocks? Hahah!

Well iā€™m not sure if that means you like my brand of tea or not. lol but I do find it interesting how hello games made an ā€˜allegedā€™ unfinished game at-launch seem to evolve over time on purpose by making graphics, gameplay and other aspects of the game seem crude and rushed at first. Was the game really unfinished and pushed out on a time crunch? Or was it intended as a beginning of a viable simulation just budding into a fabulous replication that the programmers intended? Gamers disappointed with the game at first claim the former and who can blame them. If this was the intention by HG then a lot of the ā€˜storyā€™ was lost on upset players. I am still undecided on the question as to whether it was intentional or not as HG seem to still pour a lot into the game. Maybe it was rushed and all the work gone into creating the procedural universe was just too much work to let go. Either way iā€™m glad theyā€™re still adding things. I just wish they were a little more imaginative with the gameplay now. So what do you think? Am I crazy? What am I saying? OF COURSE I AM!!!

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As long as it is ā€œComputerā€¦ Teaā€¦ Earl Greyā€¦ Hot!ā€ weā€™d be on the same page. :grin:

Well it is my understanding that whole fiasco was 90% SONY, 5% the flooding of their studio (where they lost everything and had to start almost from scratch) and 5% HG for climbing into bed with the Devil (SONY).

SONY has ruined an number of fun games, EQ, SWG, etcā€¦

If you werenā€™t crazy; you wouldnā€™t be human. We seem to be wired that way. lol

I donā€™t really think anybody would intentionally make a game crude to start with and over time build upon it. (I think) But it has always been intriguing to me how the simulation story of NMS plays right into that sort of game evolution. Instead of having the simulation already at full bloom from launch, make a game where the simulation evolves while the player is playing it. Itā€™s a brilliant idea but sadly i donā€™t think thatā€™s intentional. I agree itā€™s external forces at work and not creativity and imagination driving it. But itā€™s pretty cool. That is if HG keeps improving the ā€˜simulationā€™.

Your tractor beam idea was a great addition. You could have a gravity-gun type attatchment to your ship and move asteroids and other things around. Same mechanic but employed on the ship instead of the multi-tool.

And BTW, iā€™ve never tried Earl Grey. Makes me feel less of a human until I try it now.

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Iā€™m not entirely convinced that it was supposed to be like that at first. I imagine it was a response to all the furore that transpired at launch. HG doesnā€™t talk to us except through the game.

Two players were incensed that they found each other at the same spot in the game and couldnā€™t see each other! That, and things like it, somehow wound their way into the in-game lore messages in the most intriguing ways. ;`)

I like the tractor beam on the ship idea. You could grapple one of those pesky zippy pirate ships. ā€œHold still damn you! Canā€™t you see Iā€™m trying to blow you to smithereens here?ā€

Ooh! Or even sentinal ships. Though they would probably have the same tech. :`(

Come to think on this further, Tractor beams already exist in game: the space stations, Anomalies, and freighters make use of it. Hmmā€¦

One sip of Earl Grey and I guarantee you will feel human again. Just ask Captain Picard.

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What an excellent ideaā€¦

That would be great, too!

(also to you both on the tea front, I recommend this as really something else: a loose-leaf blend of two thirds English Breakfat with one third Earl Greyā€¦oh my word yes)

:wink:

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Hmmā€¦ Worth a try! <3

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I have to agree with you but itā€™s bun to think about it the other way around. I guess they felt comfortable with the full price tag because they knew (or hoped) they would eventually turn it into their intended product.

Never really thought about it but it is already in the game isnā€™t it? And it would be fun to grab a sentinel with the multi-tool gravity beam and slam one sentinel into another.

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If you know how procGen works, that is not astounding at all. In fact, it would be truly astonishing if you could.
Itā€™s one thing to mark object ids as existing or non-existing in a save file. The generator builds them when you get near them, then applies the transformations (for which you already need a certain LOD-level, because otherwise the referenced objects donā€™t actually exist yet, hence the problem of big piles of gold showing up in a distance and then turning out to have already been mined when you get closer).

But spacially tracking a procedurally generated object through the worldspace is a whole different matter. See, it would be simple to walk up to a rock and pick it up. Because when you walk up on the rock, the rock actually exists. But then you carry it a few miles, or god forbid onto another planet, and drop it, and leave the game, what happens?
The bloody rock wonā€™t actually exist until you return to its original location, because only then itā€™s generated. Once it exists the generator could apply the necessary transformations to its position, and you could now walk back to where you left it and find it there, but thatā€™s somewhat unsatisfactory.

If you wonder why the rock cannot just be generated where you dropped it, thatā€™s because the seed from which that rock was generated was itself generated during the process of generating the location it was lying at, which in turn is a result of the higher LOD-levels being generated for that location, which in turn is a product of that entire planets lowest LOD-level.
In short, what youā€™re asking for would require to the engine to realise that you left a rock at this specific position, and then generate the darn planet it was picked up on, which will essentially double the games memory consumption and likely also the CPU load until that rock is generated and placed at your feet, and by that time youā€™ll probably have wandered off thinking the rock was gone, or, if youā€™re playing on PS4, the game will have died of memory starvation.
ProcGen is awesome, but itā€™s also a female dog in some regardsā€¦

Now, objects that donā€™t require a whole planetary context to be generated, like mined resources, crafted products etcā€¦ Those could be placed easily. But now they all require a 3d model all of a sudden instead of just a nice thumbnail imageā€¦

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Actually I know quite well how procGen works. However, I was talking about my in game experience playing a character in the simulation. odd, not astounding.

Thanks, though. ;`)

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Ahhhā€¦ Way to miss the point, me! :smile:

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