No Man's Sky

[Skybex 645]

Exploration is fine when there is something worth seeing. So far it seems like planets are all the same but a different colour and the animals are random Lego pieces put together by a child.

http://imgur.com/Mfrz3Uk

 

[FMPONE 5,979]

6 minutes ago, Skybex said:

Exploration is fine when there is something worth seeing. So far it seems like planets are all the same but a different colour and the animals are random Lego pieces put together by a child.

http://imgur.com/Mfrz3Uk

 

LMAO that fucking creature...

No it's ok, procedural generation is the future 🤓

[DrywallDreams 700]

5 hours ago, Skybex said:

Exploration is fine when there is something worth seeing. So far it seems like planets are all the same but a different colour and the animals are random Lego pieces put together by a child.

http://imgur.com/Mfrz3Uk

 

What were you expecting to see, though?  Real time procedural tech isn't going to get you anything more than goofy looking Spore creatures and somewhat standard looking voxel terrain.  Especially out of a 15 person team, the stuff they accomplished is absolutely nuts.  

[2d-chris 2,210]

13 minutes ago, DrywallDreams said:

What were you expecting to see, though?  Real time procedural tech isn't going to get you anything more than goofy looking Spore creatures and somewhat standard looking voxel terrain.  Especially out of a 15 person team, the stuff they accomplished is absolutely nuts.  

but it's 60 bucks ...

[DrywallDreams 700]

7 minutes ago, 2d-chris said:

but it's 60 bucks ...

Hello Games has been working on this for over two years, using procedural tech in a way/scale that no one has quite done before.  $60 isn't so bad a price for the game, imo.  I've paid more for less.  Hell, I'm preparing to spend more than that amount on a single copy of a Tetris game, so I may be a bit crazy.  

Really, the game seems like this year's Destiny.  

[Mazy 4,274]

More like inventory is full simulator  It's fine, but already after 2-3 hours yesterday I feel like I've had my fill, but it might also be a thing that you kinda need to be in a particular mood for.

The part where you're speeding towards a new planet and enter it's atmosphere is pretty amazing, it's just all the other stuff you do that loses it's charm very quickly for me. Gonna give some more time to see if it throws some surprises into the mix.

It's also going to be interesting to see how they support the game in the coming time, almost more than anything it felt like any of the countless early access survival/crafting games on Steam.

[Skybex 645]

3 hours ago, DrywallDreams said:

What were you expecting to see, though?  Real time procedural tech isn't going to get you anything more than goofy looking Spore creatures and somewhat standard looking voxel terrain.  Especially out of a 15 person team, the stuff they accomplished is absolutely nuts.  

I was expecting planets to be different along with the resources you can gather. Find a planet that is barren of everything but one resource but mining it might piss off the local mining group, another planet that has lots of sentient life, another that is constantly hit by meteor storms or a planet that looks like its recently been hit by some massive natural disaster. 

So far we just have a varied bumpiness, colour and different lego piece animals. And instead of searching for rare materials and minerals, it seems that everything is abundant and its just a grind to keep certain meters from nagging you constantly.

Also I see that "its only a small team" argument on reddit a lot. Quite frankly I don't care how many people or who made it. The price point is all i care about, and at $60 I expect a full AAA title in terms of quality. But what i see is a game with much less depth than Minecraft or Terraria offered on release, both of which i paid about 8 dollars for.

To be honest, the game reeks of being a programmers game. A game with some nice features that can serve as a quality starting point. But did they have a singe game designer on the team to focus any of these ideas into an actual game? I really does just look like a tech demo and at some point someone decided to cobble together some form of game and what they ended up with is the "inventory full" simulator @Mazy mentions.

[Vaya 3,435]

@Skybex possibly a decent structure that could be refined for a sequel then...or a large patch?

 

 

Patch notes 2/10/16:

• Added gameplay

[Thrik 3,340]

11 hours ago, Skybex said:

Exploration is fine when there is something worth seeing. So far it seems like planets are all the same but a different colour and the animals are random Lego pieces put together by a child.

http://imgur.com/Mfrz3Uk

 

HAHAHA

[KoKo5oVaR 1,542]

I think the problem is not procedural generation, it's when you clearly realise it's procedural generation

[2d-chris 2,210]

10 hours ago, DrywallDreams said:

Hello Games has been working on this for over two years, using procedural tech in a way/scale that no one has quite done before.  $60 isn't so bad a price for the game, imo.  I've paid more for less.  Hell, I'm preparing to spend more than that amount on a single copy of a Tetris game, so I may be a bit crazy.  

Really, the game seems like this year's Destiny.  

2 years is not the point, and even then it's not a lot of time for a AAA priced game, you'd expect some serious quality and scoped content (1 trillion procedural world is pointless if the content doesn't compliment it) even Overwatch realized this and priced their game down to $40 for PC. Value is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of games these days, or well, perceived value I should say. I'm not trying to hate on this game, it excites me from a concept point of view, but for me it's a $15-20 game from what I have seen thus far, and charging full AAA price upfront to seeming catch the hyped fans is only punishing the people that cared the most. 

[Steppenwolf 1,360]

Procedural games are still in their baby shoes. We've seen some impressive tech for world generation but the next step needs to be procedural content generation that doesn't feel weird and shallow. I imagine it's only a question of time that someone makes a game as complex as say Skyrim, only that the world, quests, characters, factions etc. get generated afresh everytime you start a new game.

[FMPONE 5,979]

29 minutes ago, Steppenwolf said:

Procedural games are still in their baby shoes. We've seen some impressive tech for world generation but the next step needs to be procedural content generation that doesn't feel weird and shallow. I imagine it's only a question of time that someone makes a game as complex as say Skyrim, only that the world, quests, characters, factions etc. get generated afresh everytime you start a new game.

I think the bottom line is that people will either 1) want stories or 2) want to create stories. Either way, there has to be a story somewhere. 

When you know that a code just randomly generated the world you're in, it's going to feel very meaningless and shallow.

[DrywallDreams 700]

2 hours ago, 2d-chris said:

2 years is not the point, and even then it's not a lot of time for a AAA priced game, you'd expect some serious quality and scoped content (1 trillion procedural world is pointless if the content doesn't compliment it) even Overwatch realized this and priced their game down to $40 for PC. Value is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of games these days, or well, perceived value I should say. I'm not trying to hate on this game, it excites me from a concept point of view, but for me it's a $15-20 game from what I have seen thus far, and charging full AAA price upfront to seeming catch the hyped fans is only punishing the people that cared the most. 

The problem is that the definition of "content" is now "art assets".  The Witness had people complaining about the same things, after all, that was "just line puzzles".  A game can have 100 hours of art assets, and it's a great game.  If most the game's content was created through programming, the devs are lazy or are overcharging for their game.  

[KoKo5oVaR 1,542]

I remember losing the immersion and being very disappointed when i realised most of the loots in skyrim were randomized and will adapt to the level of your character. On the contrary, the procedural generation of the levels of FTL or Nuclear Throne for example don't get me out of the game. Dwarf fortress is also a great example. I do think procedural generation can be an added value, if its mechanic stays hidden or well dressed and you don't get "oh, another random event again" moments