Now that we have settled into Frontiers, and we know HG has more planned, it is time to share the rumors and whispers. Just keep in mind these are speculations, not data-mined or confirmed in any way. If possible, keep these speculations to educated guesses. However, wild and unrestrained speculation is allowed for those who just can’t help themselves. 
Previous Anniversary Update speculation can be found below:
I will start with something builders are talking about. If you noticed in the new build menu, all of the old building parts (Wood, Concrete, Metal) are clumped together under one tab. Not seperate like the new building parts. This has some speculating that these pieces will either go away in a future update or will be radically changed. The belief being that the only reason they are still there is so our pre-Frontiers bases can still show. This then leads to the idea that another reset may be on its way. Some see that as inevitable.
My ancient pre-NEXT Legacy base has parts from the early generation build menu so I don’t think the game deletes these parts completely. I agree that some components might get deleted though, as has happened in the past.
In the spirit of this topic I’ll now add my own speculation for NMS in the future:
I think that ship customisation (including new ships) is on the list for future upgrades.
It has long been requested by the masses.
The previous Expedition came with new Explorer ship designs & I think it stands to reason that all the other ships are earmarked for upgrades. Also we have, over time, recieved new Royal (orb) & living ships.
In the same way we can now ‘breed’ speciality pets from previously acquired species, I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar idea was implemented to ‘collect’ parts blueprints & later retrofit our ships with new components, colour-altered to our choice.
Regarding ship building, i see that very likely to come but i am suprised it has not happened yet. All ships had a redesign years ago now. Then Fighters had an upgrade in appearance, then about 1-2 years later, explorer ships had an upgrade. But what is more of a tell, is the ship scraping UI. It has an exact model of your ship,(besides color) taken apart into its individual pieces. Then there are customisations for all exocrafts and the datamined customisation UI for ships that was found years ago but nothing came of it(could be that it was for exocraft customisation that did eventually release)
Ship cutomisation would be great, but i’d love larger ships that seat multiple people or an option for piloting a larger ship(about 2-3 times larger) with at least a small walkable interior that can be customised with a couch and house a single small pet.
Been watching this article float around for a few days. Now SM has acknowledged it with an “OK”?
Of course, I am sure it is supposed to be satirical.
The thing about satire is that you have to be very skilled to pull it off, and this author isn’t.
Satire only works when the position adopted is clearly ludicrous. Sadly, at the launch of NMS, there were huge numbers of people who were only too willing to attack the game. To those people, their opinion was far from wrong-headed.
I’m not at all sure this thing is intended to be satirical. If it is, the author should pursue a different style of communication. He’s clearly not succeeding with this one.
I was not impressed either. Would have never posted it if SM had not responded to it. Really just wondering why he gave it an OK
Agreed. It also tends to fail when the subject is a matter of some actual good-faith debate among its fandom. Like in this case, many old-school NMS players, myself included, are vocal about the about the aspects of the game’s earlier days they miss: artistic style, lone explorer atmosphere, etc. We’re thrilled by the game’s continued support and expansion, but would love to see more of those legacy aspects re-incorporated. In this case, a piece like this too easily comes off as a smug straw-man reproach to that particular point-of-view.
Here’s one more vote for loving the original version of our adopted virtual universe. Not the least of which was, crafting was simpler, more systematic, and made its own kind of sense. For example, with energy bearing elements, ALL of them could be used to power just about everything. A number of substances could be used to bolster shielding, repair, etc. What we have now really is a confusing mess, tedious, and way too many things to keep track of.
I play single player / multiplayer blocked, so I’m still the solitary Traveler, coming across “uninhabited” player bases. But the rest of it, yes, I miss it.
Looks to me it might be a sarcastic “OK?”
like one might give an obnoxious big mouth whome you can’t bother to argue with.
You ‘agree’ with a questioning ‘Ok’ & roll your eyes.
That’s my take anyway.
So are there any specific things you want to see get updated? I’m personally hoping for some kind of combat update, or at least some more types of enemies, but I’d fine with anything.
I’m very much hoping they unfetter the settlements. Right now, they are a fun distraction for a couple of hours, and that’s it. If there would be procedurally grown settlements all over the universe, and there would only be a small number (maybe one per planet?) That would wait in their basic state for a player to take them over, they would add a lot more to the game than just that…
I’d be more after a general balance update… or a new game mode that has mechanics that enforce a playstyle that requires more engagement with the game world to be successful in, if they don’t want to break anything in current modes and upset people. Right now, there’s simply not enough barriers to make the game interesting for me. Everything is geared toward making all the content available to you as soon as possible, without interlocking exclusivity, and without spending any real effort.
I’m sure a lot of people enjoy that, but I… well, I just can’t feel at home in a world like that. It’s like TES Oblivion back in the day, where for some reason it was decided that no decision should ever close off any content. It just makes nothing have meaning. Upgrading doesn’t have meaning because your inventory slots can be stacked to kingdom come, bases don’t really have meaning because you can just build a mobile one on your freighter that you get for free, any kind of ship upgrades don’t really have a meaning because there’s nothing to really use them on (bloody push-over pirates…), the only multi-tool upgrades that really have a meaning are mining beam upgrades, because there’s just not really anything to use the rest of them on, exocraft have no meaning because you can carry as much lifesupport and hazzard protection refills with you as you want and most animals are fast enough and cheaper to deploy, exosuit upgrades have mostly no meaning for much the same reasons, not even distance travelled means anything since there’s more fast-travel systems built in than I can shake a stick at, money has no meaning because you’re pretty much earning it passively by the millions, and…
Ugh, I didn’t want to rant for this long! It just pains me whenever I play the game. Give me some hardcore mode that is properly balanced to be a game, not just an “experience”, and I’d be happier. Wouldn’t necessarily have to be ultra-hard with death around every corner or anything, just add some meaningful decisions to progression where I have to commit to something in order to achieve it, have a well distributed balance curve that reaches at least until midgame and doesn’t hilariously collapse after yo repaired your starship, makes the economy a bit more sensical and shut down the damn teleporters or at least make me pay through my nose for them.
I guess I’m sounding a bit like that possibly satirical article about how NMS was a better game back when, but that’s not really it. I love most of the added features. I just don’t like that they result in an intangible mess without focus and challenge. One could solve that and keep the features in, if one was willing…
Err… you could just not use them…
I’m mostly with you, particularly the engagement and meaningfulness thing. In fact, looking it over again, I guess I agree with most of it, I just cringe when people go overboard and want everything to cost us something mortal, either units, resources or part of our soul. My Lord, the early days of this universe, it was like Survival Mode only, and it drove me crazy. I hated dying, and I hated how often I died. It took me more than a month to make enough units to buy the fighter I wanted, and… that’s kind of like a real life job, and that’s what I hate in some games. Games that are an ordeal, and not a good one.
Now, this one was so good for me, even as bare bones as it was in the first year when you weren’t cool if you liked Team Mercury and their idiot tinker toy game. That I put up with everything it threw at me, because the next world was a sight to behold and explore, and it still feels that way to me. I prefer my fic, but I miss that starry universe every time I leave it for a while. And I haven’t played it seriously since July or August. So I miss it, teleporters and all. 
But to actually contribute to the thread, I guess I’ll harp one more time on my pet wishies.
Yeah I’m with you. I don’t think settlements are bad at the moment or anything, but they don’t really accomplish either goal they set out to do. At least let us arrange the buildings or something, most settlements I’ve seen don’t really have blocks or streets so much as gaps and alleys. I remember Sean said that Frontiers was simply laying the groundwork for future updates to settlements, and while I think that’s normally the best way to approach these kinds of things on paper, settlements are still kind of hollow at the moment.
One idea I had was that maybe they could have them generate with the surrounding environments in mind, kind of like what Minecraft does for villages but with more variables. If the planet is extreme or has aggressive Sentinels, make it more likely to be inhabited by Vy’Keen. If it’s a desert planet, have them usually generate using stone pieces and some kind of monument of a Titan Worm. If the weather is particularly dangerous, have decorative but seemingly reliable defenses to keep people safe, which you can upgrade to be functional for players if you gain control of the place. I’m sure they already have plans in place for how to fix most of their problems, but I definitely would have preferred if they just had a single update composed of just the settlements.
Yeah definitely. A full blown structure overhaul would be a great idea for an update, now that I think about it. Maybe even an anniversary update.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they incorporated a bit of procedural generation in buildings. Hopefully a little better than the settlements with the wonky floor levels and blocked doorways.
Yeah ideally most features in this game should involve procedural generation in some way. I think the NPCs make the best case for this, none of them ever really look alike, but not to the point where the races lack identity. Gek may sometimes have horns or… a second set of eyes, but you can still tell what’s a Gek and what’s a Tethys.
I’m hoping that Settlements are a kind of stepping stone. Settlements to somewhat developed communities, to towns. and then to cities and spaceports. Spaceports as in something like the arrival area in the Anomaly, so they have a template already for it. I’ve mentioned before that these larger communities could be eye candy for the most part, and what can be visited, as with earlier generation video games, and the Anomaly, is a small segregated part where the action is. And the action could be the usual procedural quests, or some hand made special things like mini-expeditions.
And I’m hopeful that the reason these communities are happening is because of something Lore based. In my fic, the hero runs across these settlements in uncharted / lawless space free of Sentinels, but I’d love to see that there’s an actual reason for these communities grounded in some development within the universe. A rabble rouser hero like a Nigel Fox or something.
I was pleasantly surprised to see these settlements in the Frontiers update, just several days after I posted my chapter with my own villages in it. I’m hoping Team Mercury might possibly take some notions from that crazy thing and formulate some elements that might be “game capable.”
The last Expedition ends today…bubble pipes are unlocking…
