It really sounds like this isn’t the game for you…the art style is definitely never going to change and I would not expect explosions to get more realistic…this isn’t that kind of game. There are games that do that but not NMS.
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The game is for me. I play just as much as you do. I have hopes for the game as do you. I want debris and broken glass.
I agree, but then again it is an exploration game…
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I just don’t think they’re realistic hopes and dreams…it would likely require the entire game to be reworked for that kind of stuff, which isn’t what they’re doing…they’re adding content and features on top of the existing baseline, not changing the foundation.
My play style is 80% shooting something. Hundreds of hours of shooting. Sentinels, freighters, ships, animals…and even plants. While shooting I explore and dig tunnels through planets and find buildings…some I have to shoot the door. It’s definitely not just an exploring game. Has anyone tried picking up an orb? Your in insta combat, fight em out long enough big ol mechs come out, a crap ton of walker things. It looks like StarWars. I would like that as much as y’all like wandering around picking flowers making explosives and selling em. Taking pictures while you wait. We both have totally different styles of play.
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And that’s the issue…this just isn’t a shooter, was never designed to be a shooter, and will likely never be…sure you can shoot stuff but the shooting mechanics will never be the most polished and the stuff you shoot will not explode/die in the most realistic fashion because that’s not what the game is about. This game was designed to be a pretty relaxing exploration sci-fi game. You can not like the art style and the AI and the lack of debris/realistic explosions and so on and that’s fine, everyone likes different things, but expecting the game to become something it was never intended to be will only likely lead you to disappointment.
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I wouldn’t say that. By now I think it’s a good enough platform to support a combative playstyle. The largest junk that’s missing is that NPCs can actually act in the gameworld, and one of the biggest roadblocks to that are animations… Which they now have, otherwise there wouldn’t be much multiplayer. Still no guarantee that I can charge into battle against the Sentinels with a squad of Vy’keen brothers, but once the NPCs get somewhat emancipated it’s really not that big of a step in terms of technical problems.
The question at the end of the day is always where HG wants to invest their work, because they created a game you could put pretty much anything in. Like, they might have the Idea to put a Xeno-dating sim in there…There’s really nothing to prevent them, the game is wide enough to support it. 
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The AI will never be hard enough and intense enough to please the shooter crowd and I REALLY would never expect the game to implement a system of debris and shards from explosions…those things would likely require the game to be reworked from the ground up…I really don’t think those are realistic expectations to be honest.
This game was intended to be alot. Not an exploration game alone. Both interviews hinted both routes. Pirating is one of the main things discussed, griefing has been hinted, there are dozens of weapon parts for your ship or character. Saying this game is solely an exploration game and nothing more is short sighted. And to discredit someone claiming that the game isn’t for them and they will be disappointed when they been playing since the first update is insulting no matter how you say it. But in hindsight we don’t even know what is coming so I guess I will just wait and see.
I’m just saying…if you expect the AI to suddenly get much tougher than it’s been then not likely going to happen, same for debris, explosions, art style and so on…basically all the things you expect out of Call of Duty aren’t likely to ever be implemented in NMS. If you want to have a go at the new PvP mode they’re likely implementing then have a go at it but this still won’t be a shooter.
I understand what you’re getting at. What I have to remind myself from time to time is that the game is procedurally generated. It is easy to forget that.
This is mind-bogglingly extraordinary and complex. It never ceases to amaze me each time I begin a flight to and from a planet or pass by freighter convoys. I’m glad the ‘ground work’ has been done as the landscapes and terrain building is amazing and very beautiful at times.
The Space Stations for example pay homage to ‘Tron’ and throughout the game there are hints at all kinds of graphic design influences, novels and films. NMS is in the early stages of creating a cult style of it’s own. They may be simplistic by design but the arrival and departure by starship is swift and exciting.
The sound design and musical score of the game is astonishing (again procedural) and that is a wonderful way to distract from any NMS visual weaknesses. Sound can be so important to making or breaking a game and both art and sound is developing nicely.
Yes ship detail and procedural creatures could be better and your explosion debris that you mention. I am sure these finer details will arrive when machines and computer power can cope. Remembering a great deal of extraordinary mathematics is at work behind the scenes, I can forgive some of the minor details missing.
One thing I would like to see is a font and GUI perhaps more sympathetic to classic science fiction novels. For example colourful 60s dog-eared’ option screens and maybe worn backings for display of Alien Text but using No Man Sky fonts. At the moment the style doesn’t draw on their science fiction art style seen in release notes and advertising. It should because it’s great and would tie GUI to the colourful worlds design.
I hope story now is given some attention and multi-play immersion and then later a return to polishing procedural details:
Like waterfalls! LOL and other things haha. Don’t worry they will arrive one day. Little details DO make a big difference and often go unoticed when done well. I remember the game without good quality lighting, base building and those superb ground vehicles. Now it would be odd to think of it without!
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@johnnycloud well put. Good day
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Little details like the sucking up of exploding plants with the mining beam and ‘water’ vapour on seed trays I really love! The stomping of Alien Quad Sentinels and impact of their hits. 
But then maybe I am daft lol
I don’t think that’s the kind of debris he’s talking about…you’re a dude that enjoys the sights, the world, and the exploration…that’s what this game is at its best. What it’s not is a realistic shooter…the art style isn’t going to change to ultra-realistic, the AI isn’t going to get much better at dog-fighting in space, exploded ships aren’t going to fall into pieces you can crash into, and so on. Also the game can’t evolve past what the launch minimum specifications can handle because that’s what the game was promised to run on when it released…so Hello Games can’t turn around and tell a section of their paying customers “sorry, you now can’t run the game anymore until you upgrade or buy new hardware”…the game will always have to be able to run on a base PS4. Sure they can boost the resolution and the frames a bit for the Pro but drastic feature differences can’t really exist because people with all compatible range of hardware have to be able to play together.
That’s what I’m talking about when I say this won’t be a shooter.
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Agreed on both. I didn’t mean to suggest that it could become a game for the hardcore FPS crowd.
You just had to pick the most difficult trivial seeming ProcGen problem, did you?
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Hardcore FPS games tend to have smaller maps to focus more on the look and dedicate their CPU power to rendering textures, realistic lighting and breakable objects. Some games focus too much on this sometimes and your left with a very pretty game but a poor FPS experience.
Some FPS or shooter games are a little more casual and can host larger maps.
If you put that into NMS terms, technically the map is the star system, huge beyond comprehension. All generating in front of you as opposed to the pre-loaded, pre-created map.
Which leads to an interesting point regarding how they will implement PvP, I bet the environments are smaller in this new tailor made game mode.
I have always had absolute faith in Sean Murray his team and vision
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Okay so, wanna help sign my petition to turn no mans sky in to the xeno-dating sim we’ve always secretly and now publicly want?
I need to see this happen just so I can say,
"You see son? it wasn’t trump, it wasnt brexit, it wasn’t uncle xis infinite reign over China, it wasn’t Russia nor was it the pantomime politics that originated there and then adopted almost instantly by western society… It was the introduction of xeno dating sims that did us in, and your father was there when it all went down… Sorry I don’t have any real war stories for you but, that’s life. Now go out and fight that proxy war for supposed water reserves, make me proud? "
Man that got dark…
Precisely. Perfect example, look at old battlefield games when it was trying to cater to their actual audience and not the call of duty crowd EA had them chase the last decade or so.
Old battlefield games the buildings were basically 100% destructible, you could essentially flatten an entire level to rubble. The game was much more team orientated and every role felt crucial and important to victory.
Modern Battlefield is all about set pieces and just particular areas that are destructible and super cool, they also streamlined the action and made it easier and more like cod. They sacrificed a lot of good gameplay elements and immersion for spectacle. But that stuff had to go if they wanted their destruction to scream Holywood blockbuster.
Game development is a bit like spinning plates, the more you add the harder it keeps to maintain everything going, and sometimes you gotta step back and remove some plates or the close proximity of one plate is causing the one nearest to it to waver a bit and we can’t be having that now can we?
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That is in fact true for all of software development, not just specific to games
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