Permanent Portal Travel Patched Out since 1.58, WHY?

[Thamalandis]

First a little history:

Since Atlas Rises we were able to solve the Portal Coordinate system and obtaining 16 glyphs to use on the galaxy to reach any spot we precalculated by math. You needed 6 to reliable reach the center and 16 for the extreme coordinates.

To do that you activated the portal you found per sacrifice at a monolith (still works) and went through. There you used a signal booster which near 100% always found a base as it was an object to search for directly. You claim it as your home base and returned home. Then you could teleport there from the station.

Downside: You didn't have the ship so you needed to prepare to build Exocraft and have some patience.
Advantage: Especially for Space Civilizations, Atlas Rises allowed players to quickly gather and connect to play without being "friends".

Then came Next:

You suddenly had your ship past portal travel, could fly to the station to register it in your network to teleport to and any base build and uploaded also was reachable per teleport... if you returned home to do so later. This allowed fast and never before seen permanent portal travel. While some had "portal connection" issues on the other side, this was easily solved by going through the portal or using ANOTHER on any planet in any system to overwrite the old one and going back and forth.

The problem: Several players got themselves stuck behind portals without realising how to normalize their gamestate.
The "solution" of HG: Remove all ability to move past portal travel, including even looking at a map to cartograph it for the wiki with data etc. (mind blocking warp ALONE was too hard for them) and you can't even build bases there anymore. Despite the point you can't leave!

Initially one would think now you need to do it the old way. Go through a portal and find a base.

Problems: Since NEXT the new Signal Booster doesn't specifically target bases anymore. It is more like the "rare" case. So finding one takes a ton of patience and a lot of Navigation Data. Second problem, even if you find one, claim one (not build but found) and return through the portal, the base can not be ported to, teleporter build or not.

Conclusion: HG fixed hot coffee by some players not able to handle their game by completely removing the free travel system. They patched it out completely.

HG, one short point for you, removal is not fixing. The mishaps of 1000 players punishes your old loyal players and those wanting to use permanent portal travel. Are you out of your mind?! You patched out a working feature. Add a damn text tutorial to explain it to people how to return!

Give us back permanent portal travel!

[japp_02]

I'm not sure I understand your entire story, but in NEXT it's futile to use Portals to get nearer to center, because you cannot stay there and must return through the same portal you entered. So, in short: you can only explore the portal's destination system and nothing more, and that's what HG apparently wants.

These are the things you cannot do (without cheating) and therefore you cannot use them as a shortcut to center:

- You cannot use Galaxy Map, a pre-requisite to select system and warp;
- Teleporter's list remain empty;
- You cannot build bases (if you could then you could obviously teleport to them and continue).

That's it. Why? I would have to read in the mind of HG's devs. They have removed some important exploits from Atlas Rises, e.g. overhauling the crashed ship mechanics, made some changes in Economy and farming prices and...overhauled the portals by closing the build base loophole. You'll have to live with it and use Black Holes to go to center. The good news is that Black Holes have their warp range to center increased now, from 5000 average to about 10000 LJ (but it's more random now.)

[Thamalandis]

It was a working feature and one space civilizations in NMS used to come together to build player groups since Atlas Rises. I personally didn't use it to reach the center but the OUTER RIM. It is the other direction.

This game has no idea of cheating. Reaching the center isn't some big achievement. Gaining money by collecting trade goods and crafting some Warp Cells is easy as hell. It only saved some time for people.

If you mean permadeath mode... that mode is easier than you think. Despite cheaters being able to savescum with backups anyway.

If you read the above text nothing was "fixed". Some people got stuck behind the portal due to free-roaming and the interference.
You could actually fix it by going back and permanently teleporting there... or by using any portal on any planet to go back and forth once after you left the system. That wasn't rocket science. And one tutorial could have made it happen for the people that got themselves "supposedly" stuck.

HG removed a working feature of Atlas Rises - and NEXT - with patch 1.58. It is the equivalent to McDonalds writing "careful hot" on coffee... just HG using icecubes to remove any part of the heat instead... ruining the coffee.

You can't even open the map (blocking warp alone would be enough for people not free-roaming by accident) so Portal Travel can't even be used to properly document systems in the wiki anymore with region name, screenshot etc.

They "fixed" a minor problem in the worst way. Total removal.

[japp_02]

I have presented a semi-cheat method in another post involving the save editor. Here is the copy/paste:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1)
Use a portal, explore if you want and return through the same portal. This will add the system to the discovery page.

2)
Go in the disco page and left-click on the new system, this will place a 'custom waypoint' in the galaxy map.

3)
Save game, ALT-TAB to Windows, open Editor, replace your current coordinates with those from the Custom Waypoint.

4)
Back to game, reload save. Now you will or die in space and spawn in space station, or spawn on a lifeless planet, whatever you are now in the new system and can go on.
-------------------------------
Now doing just like above is cheating. To make it more interesting:

a)
Before using the portal you throw a dice and decide with pair numbers that if you are thrown further away from center, then you STAY there and must try with another portal in 24 hours. With unpair numbers you can stay there or try again on another portal in your origin system whenever you want.

b)
You must use random glyphs only, not specific glyphs you know are getting you closer to center! Use 2 dices for exactly deciding which glyphs .

Good luck!

[Thamalandis]

Which is actually hacking the savestate... which would work - but why not use a free warp mod with 1M ly instead - to achieve it. Then (if it would block chievos... I don't even know) remove the mod and continue with the correct game version ID.

Why do we even have to talk about this nonesense at all? There were 100 better solutions or less drastic ones for the people that stuck themselves.

Based on the now average 5k PC players - opposed to the former 1k pre-Next with - instead of the initial huge near 100k... I am not even sure the people still play that got themselves stuck.

I really find it idiotic when old features veterans and roleplayers and group players are used to get burned to the ground for fleeting numbers.

Heck HG couldn't even bother to get stable servers for 5k people since NEXT when they had up to 100k and it was permared.

I supported this game from before Day 1 no matter the storm. And I am finally about to give it the red thumb. Multiplayer update my ass... removing permatravel.

[japp_02]

Doing as I suggest above and using dices will roughly corrispond to what you could do in Atlas Rises.

[Thamalandis]

No, in Atlas Rises you NEVER die, not even by accident... well if you are incompetent or ignorant maybe.

Besides HG can't expect all space civilizations to hack their games to come together now or enforce everyone adds someone to a friendlist at some point first to teleport per friendlist.

Heck friendlist teleport is the SAME cheat. Just freely available. You could have some "permadeath mode" center player inviting teleports. Same cheat, easier and less messy.

HG if anti-cheat was even closely part of it - which again makes zero sense - has added a WORSE feature for this.

Heck if only to piss HG off I would offer my center character for start teleport in permadeath. Proving them wrong one friendteleport at a time.

Civilized Spaces:

https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Civilized_space

[MechWarden]

I would like a clearer idea of what the issue is with the Portals. I've heard arguments on both sides of this free-explore / restricted-access Portal issue. Even the actions HG have done gives mixed messages.

However, I'd also would like it if the emotions were toned down a bit. This is still a game, and having fun is Rule 0. Getting upset as if this was a political debate doesn't help with getting to the heart of the matter, and just divides people into different camps.

As much as I'm guilty of typing an essay on each post, it would be nice if we kept things to the point.

[Thamalandis]

There is no hostility inside the thread actually. I just see no point to be forced to cheat to do the same the game offered since Atlas Rises as a feature now. Especially when a new HG feature added offers a "select few" that want to cheat to do it anyway... but not the explorers in the exploration game... to actually freely explore. And not the Civ group players to organize without giant friend lists.

HG simply messed up fixing a crack by bringing down the wall.

[MechWarden]

Sorry, I see people posting long messages, and sometimes I feel like there is some tension growing. I can feel the frustration in your post, and sometimes I kind of worry if that might get in the way of things.

Anyway...
That over compensation might have been necessary. It could be said that even in its restricted state, things are pretty buggy and if things weren't blocked the way they are, it could get worse. I know, kind of a stretch. When does HG do something proactive in terms of bugs?

A simpler and more plausible answer might be that HG just screwed up in general, putting in a neat idea, and not realizing its full effects. Also, the Atlas Rising version operated differently than the NEXT version. HG might have felt like they were giving players a break by allowing them to make a base after using a Portal, since it would mean pulling up roots, and all but abandoning what they left behind. In this version, that cost is gone, and without blocks, Portals would make Wormholes Blackholes obsolete and useless (on top of blackholes being bugged for a long while).

On the other side of the argument, why do people head towards the center of the galaxy? Usually to do the jump to the next one. Isn't there a quest that does just that, but without the long trip? So already the main reason to make the trek there is short circuited. And after jumping to your next galaxy, what are you left with? I haven't done it yet, but I have been told you still keep a significant amount of things, making the trip that much easier. All you have to do is spam warps or get lucky with Blackholes.

So the question comes down to game mechanics. What are Portals supposed to be for? What can be done with them, given the current options of travel that are out there? We can't exactly have it exactly back to the old ways, since that just isn't practical. And having it as it is now, being restricted seems ridiculous, especially to long-time players that know what it was like before the change! So what would be a good middle ground?

[Thamalandis]

Revert to Atlas Rises idea of permanent travel and block warping on the map with an active portal, not the map use itself.

This allows portal travellers to document systems for the wiki PROPERLY and those that want to permatravel need to still put in a LOT of legwork. Especially due to the ... reduced... abilities of the signal booster.

In Atlas Rises the signal booster found what you told him to... always. No mistake and no data demand. Now finding a claimable base (as you can't build one) takes forever if you find a "Shelter" at all that isn't the actual Shelter Waypoint or a Droppod. A habitable base search will normally drown you in Observatory, Minor Settlement etc.

You might remember the huge unrest at the player base to claim their legacy bases at one of those claimable sites. Finding those is already a lot harder than Atlas Rises. This makes up for using the spaceship.

It is not one bit easier. And preventing warp out of the system prevents people from softlocking themselves. Even though the softlock could easily be fixed before by finding another portal and activating it to travel back and forth to another location.

As it stands now HG removed the exploration part of the game with portals, makes it terrible hard to proper document for the wiki, reduced the sprawling galactic civs system to a friendlist horror management to reach them AND created the "elite" traveller class of small player groups that know people in certain galactic regions to use the friendteleport to STILL do the same. So it effectively became a luxury to freely teleport for the people with huge old teleport networks over the galaxy they collected BEFORE patch 1.58 but in NEXT.

By the way I own all extreme corners... I could "seed" them in the community with friend teleport. Not that some names ala "my little corner" made me want to anymore.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Originally posted by japp_02:

I'm not sure I understand your entire story, but in NEXT it's futile to use Portals to get nearer to center, because you cannot stay there and must return through the same portal you entered. So, in short: you can only explore the portal's destination system and nothing more, and that's what HG apparently wants.

These are the things you cannot do (without cheating) and therefore you cannot use them as a shortcut to center:

- You cannot use Galaxy Map, a pre-requisite to select system and warp;
- Teleporter's list remain empty;
- You cannot build bases (if you could then you could obviously teleport to them and continue).

That's it. Why? I would have to read in the mind of HG's devs. They have removed some important exploits from Atlas Rises, e.g. overhauling the crashed ship mechanics, made some changes in Economy and farming prices and...overhauled the portals by closing the build base loophole. You'll have to live with it and use Black Holes to go to center. The good news is that Black Holes have their warp range to center increased now, from 5000 average to about 10000 LJ (but it's more random now.)

Yes, it seems to be a return to how portals worked initially. You can visit, but you don't get to stay. The main purpose was to visit other folks bases or other locales that had S class items.

Unfortunately, I believe that now you can't really visit a base- even see it- when the other player is not at home. Maybe they will tweek that back to the old school way.

[Thamalandis]

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

Yes, it seems to be a return to how portals worked initially. You can visit, but you don't get to stay. The main purpose was to visit other folks bases or other locales that had S class items.

Unfortunately, I believe that now you can't really visit a base- even see it- when the other player is not at home. Maybe they will tweek that back to the old school way.

Veteran here! That is NOT how it worked. Neither before Atlas Rises when the glyph system was there nor during and not after Next before Patch 1.58.

Before Next you didn't even have the ship. Did you ever try to DRIVE around a planet in an Exocraft to reach a base of someone that didn't build it in 20 minute range? I hope you got a few DAYS time.

You could claim a base on the portal side, return home through the portal and teleport to your base. In theory you could still do it in NEXT, just with the bonus of building bases anywhere. People forgot to "return" and apparently enough people didn't find out the easy fix to use another portal to reset the teleport network error, so they all complained until HG blocked the feature for them to not accidentally get lost behind a portal. They broke the entire system to save the few souls from doing so.

Only one uploaded base of those present will be loaded PER PLANET, so finding the one might be harder.

[ThrashNeon]

Originally posted by MechWarden:

On the other side of the argument, why do people head towards the center of the galaxy? Usually to do the jump to the next one. Isn't there a quest that does just that, but without the long trip? So already the main reason to make the trek there is short circuited. And after jumping to your next galaxy, what are you left with? I haven't done it yet, but I have been told you still keep a significant amount of things, making the trip that much easier. All you have to do is spam warps or get lucky with Blackholes.

It's even worse for creative mode players now. There are no black holes in creative mode. No Atlas quest either, so we also can't choose a galaxy type if and when we ever get to the Euclid center. If I want to go to a the first lush galaxy (Eissentam) to explore and build bases, I now have to warp to the galactic centers of 9 galaxies (~750,000 LY EACH time)... in "creative" mode. Being able to build bases at portals still took a LOT of time if you wanted to explore different galaxies, so I was willing to do that... but now, I really don't think I'm even going to bother. VERY disappointing.

[IvanThePornTerrorist]

This needs to be fixed, all HG is doing is removing the ability for communities to form since only the most devoted will warp thousands of lightyears as opposed to just portaling in and building a base. There is literally no reason people shouldn't be allowed to build on the other side of portals and they shouldn't drag everyone down because a few people got stuck. I hope they're aware that people don't like this.

[Sario]

Probably because the galaxy of the event's planet is Euclid.
We know that all galaxies are present at the same time without being reset. But the story, the galaxy should have been reset when we move through the galaxy. It is strange if you can return with the teleporter.
Movement between galaxies is possible programmatically as can be seen from the remedies of people who can not return.
Allowing teleport to carelessly will jump over the galaxy or be thrown into outer space.Their goal is not to make this safe.
I think that it is the identity of this change which is located between the specification and setting.
HG should separate the event portal system from the regular portal system.