NMS: Game or Phenomenon ?

SpottyGekko

No Man's Sky launches about a month from now.

For the first time in recent gaming history, there will be a new game launch that is not instantly accompanied by YouTube walkthroughs and step-by-step leveling guides !  

Elite: Dangerous is the only other major game currently that has made extensive use of procedural generation afaik. However, in E:D players all start in the same general region of space and the differences in play experience are minimal. The procedural generation is confined to generating unique star systems in obscure parts of the galaxy seldom seen by any but the most determined explorers. Several guides exist for E:D, including things like optimal trading routes, etc.

In NMS, each player will supposedly start in a unique location and see things nobody else sees. I expect that there will be a HUGE rush of NMS discussions on the internet as players compare notes in the first few weeks of play:

• Where in the universe are you ?
• What do you see ?
• Have you seen object X or anything that looks like it ?
• Have you interacted with any NPC's ?
• What kind of gear have you got ?
• Where did you find the blueprints ?

Inevitably, there will be patterns and similarities, but those will only become evident once a great deal of discussion has taken place. Will Reddit collapse under the load ?  

To what extent experiences will differ remains to be seen. Hello Games has kept a fairly tight lid on game play "reveals", which could mean that there's a great deal of fun ahead... or a great deal of disappointment.

Streaming a game like NMS will certainly separate the real "personalities" from the deadwood. You would have to provide some fairly engaging commentary to keep an audience watching your stream as opposed to the thousands of other streams all showing similar "exploration" game play in unique environments.

Will you be embarking on the great NMS journey in June ?

Erillion

• Where in the universe are you ?  --> Will we find each other in less than one real year ?
  
• What do you see ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different bon-bon colour ?
  
• Have you seen object X or anything that looks like it ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different color ?
  
• Have you interacted with any NPC's ? --> Do they have the same text throughout the galaxy ?
  
• What kind of gear have you got ? --> Does it DO something DIFFERENT or is it the same i see, only ...
  
• Where did you find the blueprints ? --> Do blueprints create something DIFFERENT on different planets or is it all the same from the same procedural pool, just with different bon-bon colours ?

Can I make a difference in my sandbox ? Can I make a base ? Collect my ships and my findings ? Create organizations of players ?

These things do not have to be there at game launch. But i really hope they DO add all of this over time.


Have fun

SpottyGekko

Erillion said:

• Where in the universe are you ?  --> Will we find each other in less than one real year ?
  
• What do you see ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different bon-bon colour ?
  
• Have you seen object X or anything that looks like it ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different color ?
  
• Have you interacted with any NPC's ? --> Do they have the same text throughout the galaxy ?
  
• What kind of gear have you got ? --> Does it DO something DIFFERENT or is it the same i see, only ...
  
• Where did you find the blueprints ? --> Do blueprints create something DIFFERENT on different planets or is it all the same from the same procedural pool, just with different bon-bon colours ?

Can I make a difference in my sandbox ? Can I make a base ? Collect my ships and my findings ? Create organizations of players ?

These things do not have to be there at game launch. But i really hope they DO add all of this over time.


Have fun

NMS is not a sandbox, it's a procedurally generated playground !

You can go to the sandbox in the playground, and build sandcastles or throw all the sand out, etc. But as soon as you leave the playground, the caretakers come in and put it all back the way it was.

Procedural generation (PG) does not mean that only the colours change. The actual shapes change too. Around 1500 different weapon shapes (skins) ?

Sure, many of the shape variations will be small and/or subtle, but those will still be a massive change from what we are used to. In any "normal" game, assets are hand-crafted and re-used extensively. For instance, a game may have 2 or 3 desk lamp models, and one of those 3 models will be used for every desk that appears anywhere in the game world. With procedural generation, every desk lamp on every desk looks is a variation on a base pattern. The world suddenly has "flavour"...

As far as plot and story elements are concerned, those will likely be just the same as in any other game, because that needs to be hand-crafted content. The appearance of alien language characters can be varied infinitely (using PG), but once translated they will all be saying the same thing basically. There will be standard interactions like trade, requesting info, etc.. The game only contains a certain number of "activities", and those will be the same wherever you are.

There is a cost attached to everything, of course. Procedural generation will give a practically infinite variety of creature models, but don't expect their animations to be equal to the smooth and realistic animations of hand-crafted models using motion-captured animation.

And don't expect the same level of detail on the models either.

I know what PG does, but I don't really understand how it does it at the code level. I don't know what constrains the complexity of the objects generated via PG: is the coding too complex to do high levels of detail, or does generating high detail objects just kill the CPU/GPU when there are many objects on screen ? Or is there some other reason ?

DAS1337

Erillion said:

• Where in the universe are you ?  --> Will we find each other in less than one real year ?
  
• What do you see ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different bon-bon colour ?
  
• Have you seen object X or anything that looks like it ? --> Is it the same I see, only in a different color ?
  
• Have you interacted with any NPC's ? --> Do they have the same text throughout the galaxy ?
  
• What kind of gear have you got ? --> Does it DO something DIFFERENT or is it the same i see, only ...
  
• Where did you find the blueprints ? --> Do blueprints create something DIFFERENT on different planets or is it all the same from the same procedural pool, just with different bon-bon colours ?

Can I make a difference in my sandbox ? Can I make a base ? Collect my ships and my findings ? Create organizations of players ?

These things do not have to be there at game launch. But i really hope they DO add all of this over time.


Have fun

Apparently you can essentially discover planets and wildlife, as your own, and you can name them.  Don't think you can make your own structures, but I have heard them allude to the idea of creating your own base.  You do collect info, and upload it to a database.  You can get many different types of ships, but not sure about collecting multiple of them at once.  Supposedly finding other players and their discoveries is going to be quite rare, which is disappointing.  What happens when we all reach "the center of the universe"?  I've heard it is a 40 hour journey, without side-questing.  What then?  Will we be able to co-op?  I still haven't gotten a straight answer about that.  Why are there save points?  It's like they are intentionally trying to hide something.  From what it sounds like, from various interviews.  It almost sounds like we all start in different areas, but we are all in our own instance of the universe, and our saves and uploads alter everyone elses games(potentially), but we can't actually meet other players.  Then I hear developers say that seeing other players will be incredibly rare.  So which is it?  What exactly is it?  This is the confusion that has me on the edge about this game.  I'm not sure if I want to just play a single player game.  I'd pre-order now if I knew for sure that the possibility of 'guilds' and multiplayer exists on a massive scale. 

Rusque

I'm pretty interested in this. Hope it turns out nicely.