My experience and thoughts about this game

[Walach]

Greetings, after playing this game for a while, I feel like I want to share what I believe are some minor or major flaws in this game.
To start of with, I want to say that I love this game. It's great! So great that I want to share these randomly listed negatives I think would make the game better. Now, of course I know my thoughts here only account for my subjective thoughts and should in no way be seen as a objective statement of what is good or bad.

I also want to say that I have create several new characters, each on a new patch release. The reason is that I feel that the game "ends" too quickly and is only really challanging in the first hour. Afterward, it gets super easy. But, like I wrote above, I haven't gotten far in this game. I've only really been salvaging ships around the starting zone and the longest living character was played for about 3-4 in-game days so I might just be missing the real content that this game has to offer. If so, please don't spoil anything to me about it other than saying that a lot will change later in-game as it currently is.

Anyway, here is a list of random thoughts I have about this game, I might update or change items here as I play more. Maybe.

Spoilers will probably be seen below so this is my SPOILER warning of it!

Anyway, again, here's the list, I'm sorry if I sound too blunt on some items here:

Rice Wine has too similar of a sprite to the Water sprite making me have to hover to see which is which.

Water has way too great of a sell value.

Not needing anything, like scrap metal to restore items is very weird. Only resource needed to fix items is time, tools, and their batteries. All three are, sadly, something you have an abundance of from the very start of the game.

Way too many items are easily gained from the first minute of starting a new game. And buying everything but one tool in this game is so cheap that you won't even bat an eye about getting it if you have to. But more often than not, you don't even need to do that as tools are found everywhere.

Repairing is way too quick, I'd go as far as to increase the time for all repairs by about 20x longer, no joke here.

Training skills are super quick to train to 100%. I'd say increasing the time to train them by over 100x would be an OKish start, but I'm not sure that'd be enough of a increase.

When hovering over containers you carry, it should highlight which inventory it belongs to in the character inventory.

Money is way too easy to get. From the very first salvage you will probably never need to care, bother, or worry about docking fees, loans, etc. increasing every ship you can get at the start of the game by around 100-500x would, maybe, be an OK start.

Many gameplay systems are trivial and become redundant very quickly. Oxygen, as an example will never be a problem after you get an EVA suit as you can walk around in said suit forever, helmet and all, and if you need to eat, then just make a 1x2 room with walls, o2 vent, and a door and you're set. Adding a few squares for luxury items such as a toilet is also a very trivial objective to set up.

All Status', such as Contact, Intimacy, etc, for your character seems to have no purpose. Or if they do, then it's something that happens so late in the game, i.e., day 2 or 3, that you won't need to care about it as you will be swimming in money to think about any problem they might cause, something I've also yet to see happen.

The meat event happens way too often, it should be a special rare event in my opinion that one might not even encounter after 10+ hours of real world (not in-game) time. It should, probably, be something like a 1 in 10000 chance that you encounter anything about it.

Patches for hulls are useless, both figuratively and literally as you never need to patch a hole when you can just repair it so quick that the air in the room won't even escape in time (this is a joke, but still) and the price of them is so low that I can only think that some kind of mistake was made when setting the price.

Music has too high of a variance on sound level, and music in this game don't have enough "dark ambiant" variations. Same with sound effects in general.

Character creation is very crude and, in my opinion, in need of a major overhaul. Too much to say as every single system of it has something I really can't understand the reasoning of. But I believe the system is crude because so much will change that there is no need to have a final character creation before the very end of the game.

Your character can literally carry tons of items without ever having any negative affects.

Derelicts have way too much equipment in them, and they are way to often in pristine condition. It's weird, to me to not having 99% of all tiles such as walls and floors be damaged. It would fit more, in my opinion. And stuff like engines, etc, should also be on the verge of crumbling 99% of the time. I believe finding an item that is not destroyed should create a feeling of "score!" for the player instead of the "hey, I found the fifth 90% engine on this one derelict, neat, too bad I only pick up the 4 other parts which is at 99% condition as I don't need to care about money and don't care about repairing as a consequence of it" as it is currently

Way too few variations of items, finding weird, rare, ancient, etc, ship items should be the end game goal!

The Build system spoils too much of the game as it has every item, from what I know, in it so you will not have anything to find that you haven't already been spoiled by the Build system.

Distances from station to derelicts are way too close. Increasing the distance by 10-100x would be more in-line what I'd expect from a game like this.

The ship broker spoils what the derelicts are before you explore them. Just look for the most expensive derelict at the Broker and set course to the "never need to care about money after this single derelict again" salvage.

Shops sell way too good items. You won't ever need to search for anything in this game as it is now, you just need to buy them with your infinite money you got from one or two derelicts. Shops should never sell "like new" items. Or if they do, the price should be insane.


There we have it, these are some random thoughts on this game that I have as of now in patch .13 to about patch .15.

Thank you for reading my blog—I mean, post!

[a three-colored carp]

I'm not thrilled on the idea of the distance between stations being increased / repair time increased / skill growth time increased. I get what you're saying that certain things come easy, but making them take 100x longer for the same reward sounds punishing and anti-fun to me. It puts more strain on the gameplay pillars while simultaneously reducing payout.

I'd say the solve should be that there are high-end things that require a lot of money so there's two levels of play; the fast cash that you get early and the high-end you work towards.

Really like the idea of expensive and rare items!

[Walach]

Originally posted by a three-colored carp:

I'm not thrilled on the idea of the distance between stations being increased / repair time increased / skill growth time increased. I get what you're saying that certain things come easy, but making them take 100x longer for the same reward sounds punishing and anti-fun to me. It puts more strain on the gameplay pillars while simultaneously reducing payout.

I'd say the solve should be that there are high-end things that require a lot of money so there's two levels of play; the fast cash that you get early and the high-end you work towards.

Really like the idea of expensive and rare items!

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, all of these things are just my opinion. I like long "tedious" game-play and I kinda assumed it would be like that from how Neoscavanger was. The numbers might be "a little" too high, but as they are now, mostly when it comes to money, you become economically independent way too quick.

Another random point:
For the love of god, make it easier to spot right from wrong shoes!

[gear_head]

Hello, I also enjoyed NEO and hope the game moves to those timescales.

I'll try to answer with my subjective feelings on these topics.

Character creation feels on rails as a temporary thing to allow play as other systems are fleshed out. Slowly, ways in game to trains traits and skills are being added, pointing to this evolving when that is done. Perhaps hardcore starts where your gain everything in game will be possible.

Water is at a premium and I believe after the first tutorial station, acces to water will be much harder or metered in stations eventually.

Drinking from strange containers you find aboard abandonned ships without spending the time to really inspect it seems risky. I am supprised they did not add more gross fluids in pouches yet.

Preventive maintenance on many things built to last only take time and tools (remove a burr, bend back pin or casing).
Granted it extends life, so not infinite.
Welders could need steel or aluminium stock, but in so minute amounts when used to fuse cracks....

For a lot of the rest, the first system is the tutorial system. Things get hard only when you expand:
Your captain is a hardened shipbreaker and will not break under social lacks.
But once you get a crew, they can quit if the social part is not handeled.
Once you get a bigger ship, repairs pile up. After a month and in a 900 tile ship, I had to take 2 in game days to fix the backlog as tiles spring slow leaks even before they break. Tracking that gremlin made me put in a strict maintenance policy.
As for training time, since there is a wipe every patch, we need to see the content. Also as more content come in you will need to split your time more. Balance will come, basically.

Ship patches are usefull at first, then less, then more as you may get hit by meteors during a day long autopilot burn. You cannot move very well or work fast under 2gs, so a patch is very usefull then! Also, emcuberance is in but you only see it under gravity, so it doesnt make a difference for a lone captain until you get autopilot.

Have fun playing! I also see things to improve, but i remember the progress NEO did over years even post release and I am hoping for the same here!

Good luck out there.

[Walach]

Originally posted by gear_head:

*snip*

Thank you for the reply!

I agree with a lot of what you said, or at least I can see them being fair points to make.

I hope they make it so water is more similar to as it was in Neoscavanger where you had to boil it first, hopefully minus the same tedious clicking needed to boil it.

I've never had an issue with water, in general, it's everywhere and I had to make my own home rules to limit myself from getting too much of it. I even try and not use the Flasks, opting to only use the pouches as it creates more inventory needed to store it.

And I know of the real world use of welding, but as it is now, it feels too easy to make money and survive. Using welding rods instead of electricity, or as well as, could be a nice change or something as well.

And when it comes to the social stuff, I don't think it has any affect on anyone other than giving NPCs some extra options which they sometimes use. I'd like to see a limit like if you're too sad, then you can't uninstall stuff etc. Like how the game "Cataclysm: Dark days ahead" does it really.

I also hope they add a lot more events and random stuff that can happen, as it is now we only really got the meat one in my opinion. I'd like to see swarms of space-rats, viruses both digital and not, random weird notes, more corpses in various states, etc.

Anyway, I wanted to add a list of how I play this game, setting the game as hard as I believe is a good middle ground from what is and what could be.



My home rules are:

I remake my character until I get the "very low" survivability box-sled-ship, something that's a lot more annoying to get when you can't continue making your character when you've picked the ship.

I try and start a new game in two ways, 1. no removal of traits or pick any event, start at 18 years but with said box sled ship, or 2. Start at 22 years with 3 traits removed and one added (beautiful, because I want to be beautiful) with the box sled ship. Somehow, I just can't bring me to "waste" my character's years as I don't want to turn middle-ages as me being one is enough of a reality check!

I'm not allowed to buy any items from the shops or traders other than one oxygen gas tube and one air-vent-thing. With the note that if it would be a must-have, unique, or quest related thing I must buy to get, then I'd be allowed to buy it.

I'm not allowed to loot the station for more than the minimum to get the oxygen stuff. Can't use or sell the dropped equipment everyone leaves behind in general afterward. I do stash them in boxes as to not clutter the hallways too much, junk I leave as it fits the scenery. Also, I have to "pay any shop bought items back" by buying stuff for 10-100x the price I bought the item for as soon as I have any money and then installing it in the station.

I try and not cheese or meta-play around anything. Emphasis on try.

I try and use the basic pressure suit for as long as I have the energy for it, I wish there was more variations on it with longer air-time. The EVA suit feels like a cheat, but I'm lazy and will always wear it in the end.

I try and make it so I don't just walk around in the EVA suit at all times, that is, I make my ship into one with air in it.

I discard salvage as a higher "money tax," that is, I restore them, uninstall them, then leave them as a way to make the game a little harder.

I try and not look at the ship broker as it spoils the best salvage.

I'm not allowed to use the Gigs. Though that one gig I got where I saw, and have a screenshot of, someone wanted something to help me, the character, for an upcoming legal issue sure got me scared!

I'm not allowed to stack inventories deeper than: Backpack/Container -> pants/jacket -> bottle/small container -> water/other.

I have to try and handle all my status'. Even the copies of each one I always get, having two Contact status' sure is weird.

I try and focus on all the "quests" when I get them as a way to make me not have too easy of a time salvaging.

When I dock at a derelict, I boost to make it so that my ship and the derelict starts to drift away further from the station which creates a longer flight home.


There we go, I believe that's all I try and limit myself with, might have missed some of them but I don't believe anyone would be unhappy of me missing them.