No Man's Sky....

Writing this post was an ongoing journey over the last week, just like the game itself....

Fair to say status with NMS is "it's complicated". Same goes for trying to do this blog post.....

No Man's Sky has changed and updated so much..... I keep saying that and it's true; Saying it again now is an understatement. To coin a phrase, its a game that's "come good", indeed it came good a long time ago. So very much so(like here and here and here and here). It's far beyond(pun intended) what had been initially promised.

😱 pic.twitter.com/HSIj4jowoo

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) July 2, 2021

Yet I've never been drawn to it again. Not like the first time. The mystique got shattered fast enough. True also to say "you only have one chance to make a first impression". The game has always had my attention in one form or another; Just not so much in game the last ......few years.

So much time and effort in playing the game never mind blogging about it. So, so many updates. So many community members with so much content I couldn't and didn't want to keep up on. 

No Man's Sky can be all things to all players. Something for everyone and vise versa. While I still feel the same about the result of an update that reset my location. I never felt the awe of wonder that gave motivation to me at it's start. It's never been the same since, no matter the considered thoughts and reasoning on why. Play-styles, game mechanics, graphics; All personal perspectives, pro and con. 

Still despite years of pro's and con's the game can 'look good', even better with the latest update.

I'm interested to read about patch changes, understand the dev views etc; All well and good but it's still nothing that gets me into it again. That's my real quandary. I like the game, I want to play the game but as soon as I'm in the game I'm 'put off'; And at the same time not.... 

All very confusing and I'm the one feeling/blogging about it. If I can't explain it...... For me it's got everything and nothing. There's a compulsion and an aversion. 

The game now seems to have too much content. For me at least. Content I don't want or need in this type of game. That's no to 'dis' the good quality of life changes. Not that all the new content is pushed in your face as mandatory either. It's not. It's just hard to not trip over this stuff in game. Sometimes literally. It happens and the next thing you know your diverted; A journey from a journey that leads down the proverbial, metaphorical and actual rabbit hole. Exacerbated by the terrain manipulator.

I was happy to have my own ending(till I was moved); My own little corner, from my own journey to call my own. A place I found, chose to stay.... It's my involuntary removal, my forced eviction that really made me annoyed/angry. All my time, efforts, discoveries and experiences up to that point now meant nothing. I may no longer hold anger for it today but it was involuntary. I can never go back and see it again. That loss is still real to me.

Like Minecraft I don't do creative. I like to have value and meaning to game-play. It's all about immersion(for me). I get why some players want to 'just' do creative for building/creating without the grind. I get that. But I was sold on the journey of No Man's Sky. In this game creative doesn't 'do it for me'.

At the start like many I saw what I wanted to see and hype was real. I may not have been hyped but I wanted in.

It's been so long now that I think I think more about being irked, than about what life on the planet was actually like. I had only scratched the surface and it was gone.

The latest update may be a good place to restart..... Or continue?!? 

Starting again seems like to much effort for not enough payout. I've tried that before and it felt more of a grind than fun. As I said, the magical spark was lost. Mindset is key for a game like this. If you expect more and don't get it you'll be disappointed; Likewise if you 'just' hop in with no expectations you'll get more out of it. That's not to say that new content isn't worth it! 

Starting again and being faced with a crashed ship and repairs needing resource grinding, only to need to upgrade and enhance all equipment.... To start afresh, that's too much of a downgrade in the current save's quality of life. 

Continuing brings with it all my previous gameplay and emotional baggage. That's a me thing.

Continuing overall does seem a better option. Chosen again.... Shirley it's worth it(this time). To each their own. No wonder I blog and waffle on so much. 

 

So with the new update I did just that. To shake things up I wanted to see if I could find that old planet. At the very least it was an additional motivation to getting back into the game. One last try on that score. 

I knew the planets original name but no record of the system name. So I looked in all the systems listed in the discoveries log and the planets under each one. None showed 'my' planet. 

Screenshots of 'view-point discoveries' proved interesting to try and pinpoint dates to cross reference with my own old manual screen-shots; But again no real relevant, helpful information was gained. 

Signal boosters were a no go. As were portals.

Nothing I can see lists where the old base was. Looking back at screen-shot's of patch notes on reloading saves. There was mor than one patch that 'slightly altered' a players location. If it had happened to me more than once I'd have been really 'peeved'. 

As for the old planet. If I can't find the data entry I can't set a location and I can't find a way back(stargate would be the only real way at this stage).

I did come across some screenshots of my old discovery lists. Cross checking both old and new lists was odd; No matching lists of system names! So on the face of it a lot seems to have been renamed and altered. No record of those changes either.

There are no entries under 'removed' systems/planets so my sought after planet may still 'be in there somewhere'.... I guess?! Maybe it's been reset and marked as an unknown world, in an unknown system. So no help for easy relocating if it is.

So many questions and zero answers. Typical No Man's Sky(50-50 tongue in cheek with that comment). 

It's been nearly three years since I last saw that planet..... Yet my entire discovery, recent or otherwise,  lists every entry is 5 years old! .... It's not the only 'timer' in the game that's "off". The save file shows only (about)half of the Steam time played. Which is weird. The only other save I have is a Creative mode save with a few hours on it.

Maybe I should stop being narky about it. Forget the loss. Let it go. This was a last chance and a needle in a haystack. I tried. "Dear subconscious, let it go". Dámn you subconscious not that song!

Time to reload and find a new location....? 

Motivation is lacking. It's not like I don't have other games to play more meaningfully either! 

The next best planet I come across.....? 

Make it work for me instead of bemoaning an old loss......?

Maybe I'm a fixated obsessive compulsive... Or I want to like the game more than I do or can?!?

I'm a puzzle.

From hype, launch reality, journeying, patches, universe changes, pro and con expectations, it been a massive rollercoaster ride for sure. In game and out. I still have a gut reactionary feeling about this game that may never go away. Pro and Con.

Uninstalling the game to bring some form of real finality seems overkill to me now. I guess I wanted to cut my losses and simplify it's effect on me. Maybe that was a coping mechanism? Maybe I'm overthinking it all way to much..... (Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much!!).

It's not just a simple case of 'just playing the game' either. It's too broad for that; Especially now. Years of updates later with all the additions.....

No more clinging onto hope of seeing a lost planet. Yea a real mindset change is needed. Rather than going after any form of objective I should do what I do in Minecraft. Just be in it. Enjoyment in it's doing.... For the sake of it. Find a new place to call mine!

A real change from Traveler to Wanderer.

Sounds simple. Yet so very, very decidedly complex...... For me.

Still it's about time to ditch the remaining game blame-game attitude, chip on my shoulder.... 

What better way to do that than to try something I'd never done before. Played it in VR 'mode'.

It was way better than I expected! One of the most immersive experiences I've had on a very practical level. 

The best sci-fi VR in cockpit shooter I'd played before was House of the Dying Sun. It was good out of VR and a real blast in it. No Mans Sky seems to turn ups that ante.

The biggest element to make it so is that you see your avatar grip the controls. Left hand on the throttle and the right on the stick. It 'feels' real and that's part of what 'makes' it real, immersive.

As for where I go from here...... I'm really still not sure. 

Setting up a base or even the freighter would feel like a chore. I think scaling back expectation is a key thing. Maybe I need to just potter about, see what happens and leave it at that... What happens, happens.

Time to go a wandering....

On a planet, by random happenstance I saw and claimed a crashed starship. Back on the freighter it was parked in a spare bay, sparking and smoking in the hanger. It's a ship with a lot of broken tech. Some I could half repair, some need new components. Nothing like a garage project to focus on. A goal for no other reason than to do it. Wasn't the game all about that in the first place. 

One thing is for sure; I'm more 'at one' with the game. Maybe I've finally 'let go'. 

As for how long that lasts.....