Survival vs Normal

[Gibbel]

So after spending 48 hours in survival and 51 in normal. I am here to tell you at a certain point the only difference is the fact you have to spend way to much time managing your inventory in survival mode then actually playing the game.

I actually accomplished allot more in normal because of this. Feels like I spend allot of the 48 hours played in survival on inventory management.

So in short F.. survival it's a tedious and annoying experience that isn't actually harder after getting a few upgrades. It feels like normal with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ inventory.

Over and out.

[Dirak2012]

+1

[Geldric™]

Seems like a glossed over comparison but whatever makes you happy. I will say that being able to carry around like 386,000,000 lbs of rocks (ferrite dust) does add to the realism of the simulation.. for me 👍

[Gibbel]

Originally posted by Geldric:

Seems like a glossed over comparison but whatever makes you happy. I will say that being able to carry around like 386,000,000 lbs of rocks (ferrite dust) does add to the realism of the simulation.. for me 👍

This game is super arcady. Realism and no man's sky don't go hand in hand to be honest.
But what ever floats your boat.

Just wanted people to know that might wanna check it out. If you want the normal experience but with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ inventory check out survival. However the experience overall is the same. You only need to recharge life support and stuff in a battery more often.
All off which you will have 100+ with you all the time anyways after a few hours of playing survival or normal.

[Galactic Starman]

Originally posted by Gibbel:

....Feels like I spend allot of the 48 hours played in survival on inventory management.

Inventory management 'disappears' if you dedicate one slot to every basic resource, especially in suit cargo slots. Install a Freighter Matter Beam and starship Transfer teleport thingies and any game play mode becomes a doddle to manage inventory. Just top up as you play and you always have resources ready to make anything you need when you need it. The same resources are collected over and over so no need to manage anything if you carry something of everything. Inventory management becomes far less repetitive in this way.

Survival is harder yes, because you carry fewer quantities but that's a more 'authentic' approach to surviving a dangerous science fiction adventure. Dangers hit harder and hazard and life support protections draining faster, are the more challenging aspects of Survival mode because you can take risks that you might not in Permadeath.

Inventory management is far easier in today's game with the huge inventories available to you (in any game mode) as you progress. There are now multiple ways to gather or collect resources for top up, without needing to do it yourself too especially with farms, settlements, fleets, depots, derelicts, pirate missions, Nexus and just recently freighter refiners too among others, Arguably the best way to play the game is Permadeath with a similar approach to inventory and what you carry. It is a similar experience but what dangers are there become more authentic if you're not alert.

It's a sad fact of human nature that many of us inevitably will hoard and not simply use only the stuff we need. Imagine if we had to live out our real lives like in No Man's Sky. There would be no sky and likely no mankind. : D

[Despistao]

Originally posted by Gibbel:

So after spending 48 hours in survival and 51 in normal. I am here to tell you at a certain point the only difference is the fact you have to spend way to much time managing your inventory in survival mode then actually playing the game.

I actually accomplished allot more in normal because of this. Feels like I spend allot of the 48 hours played in survival on inventory management.

So in short F.. survival it's a tedious and annoying experience that isn't actually harder after getting a few upgrades. It feels like normal with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ inventory.

Over and out.

If you had played expedition 7, you would have a character in survival mode, quite complete in terms of life, armor and inventory

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by Geldric:

Seems like a glossed over comparison but whatever makes you happy. I will say that being able to carry around like 386,000,000 lbs of rocks (ferrite dust) does add to the realism of the simulation.. for me 👍

"You can carry 10 tons of iron in your pocket, instead of 100 tons" isn't exactly realistic.

[Krash Megiddo]

NMS isn't about realism but gaming enjoyment. Thus I approve OP's point. Every time this topic comes up, which is about once or twice per week, someone will mention the concept of a new mode to replace "Survival". Something like "expert" mode:
1)same inventory as Normal
2)all the other nerfs and difficulties of survival
3)remove automated HUD messages (this is all the incentive I need to graduate from Normal)
4) something else, but only on my 2nd cup of coffee this morning, blah.

[Krash Megiddo]

Originally posted by nano:

Well, I would love for them to make a new game mode in which you can't buy anything and you have to get everything for the planets you explore.

This is a predicable tangent in these threads. Expert mode might include toggles to enable/disable stuff like this. "can't buy anything" would certainly be a ironman preference, but you can't pick and choose what to buy. You buy NOTHING and be happy with it

[Galactic Starman]

Originally posted by Despistao:

If you had played expedition 7, you would have a character in survival mode, quite complete in terms of life, armor and inventory

This was so true. Even the current one Pole Star Expedition gives you so much. All the freighter equipment unlocked, every portal glyph, mountains of units (from Trading properly using the freighter) and excess freighter salvage modules. It's an amazing start for any new player. All the expeditions have rewarded excellent collectables too, some quite useful and fun.

I shall definitely be using my freighter to trade more frequently now, doing the economy systems loops. The expedition really highlighted how easy it is and the update build parts and things have made it fun to do too. I was tempted to make this expedition my main save as I got some nice solar ships too. But have decided with the help of a friend to swap the unused upgrades and stuff to my main instead and return to the locations to find the ships I discovered.

I did in fact do that but the other way round, with my Leviathan expedition 7 save. As you mentioned, once it converted to survival I noted I had progressed so much further and unlocked far more items than my main survival. It made no sense to not continue playing it.
So I made a note of the things I had discovered and built and currently revisiting places and discoveries to add them to my milestones and lists. Once that is done it's bye bye old survival save.

[Krash Megiddo]

Originally posted by nano:

Originally posted by Krash Megiddo:

This is a predicable tangent in these threads. Expert mode might include toggles to enable/disable stuff like this. "can't buy anything" would certainly be a ironman preference, but you can't pick and choose what to buy. You buy NOTHING and be happy with it

Really when I start a new game in permadeath I set some rules and if things don't get too boring I stick to them, so yes, nothing else is really needed :)

I totally get it. Anyone that plays NMS for more than 50hrs will probably enforce some personal rules because the game is just too easy otherwise. I would love a game mode that stopped treating players like noobs, such has no HUD messages.

[Galactic Starman]

Originally posted by Krash Megiddo:

... I would love a game mode that stopped treating players like noobs, such has no HUD messages.

You can turn the HUD off in Options. I do it a lot in Normal and sometimes in Permadeath for fun. I love the clean screen. Have you ever wondered why the back packs have red and blue lights. They're your indicators for hazard and support. (great for telling your co-op friends they are low on fuel) Survival plants like Sodium are yellow, Oxygen red etc and lit at night. Manual save points often have lights. Weapons have indicators although not all types (I must mention this to HG). The audio 'Hazard Warning' sounds now actually are now thank fully useful to listen and pay attention to.

My only grumble would be that with the HUD off some of the Analysis Visor indicators or scanning indicators are lost and would be better temporarily flashed up on screen then disappear. Also mission completion texts do not show until the HUD is back on then there is a sudden alarming catch up of everything you have collected or completed. Which is always fun...

Yeah the game is fun played without the HUD. It's just an optional setting. Great too for making clean Creative Mode visuals.

[BadBaneRat]

normal or if want a challenge perma-death, that's my 2 cents.

[Galactic Starman]

Originally posted by BadBaneRat:

normal or if want a challenge perma-death, that's my 2 cents.

If you want to be a real astronaut and test if you have the 'Right Stuff', set the HUD off in options : D

[gussmed]

“Normal” is practically creative mode when it comes to inventory. Survival’s inventory limits are pretty generous by the standards of just about any other game. Dirak’s mostly correct, except that the factor isn’t “normal” being 10x a very generous allowance, it’s 40x.

The lack of meaningful inventory limits in Normal contributes to some of the severe balance problems with the game. For example, the Oxygen -> Chlorine cycle nets you so much money in Survival that mission rewards are meaningless, but it’s far, far worse in Normal where you can haul 40x as much per run.

Arguably, the root cause is that there’s so much perpetual motion baked into the game’s design philosophy in the first place. You can create infinite amounts of chromatic metal, hydrogen, oxygen, iron, cobalt, sulfur, carbon, gold, silver, platinum, and of course chlorine once you have large refiners. That the nigh-unlimited inventory of Normal makes the economic consequences of that worse would largely go away if refiners didn’t create matter (and hence wealth) out of nothing.

[Krash Megiddo]

Originally posted by Star-Lord:

You can turn the HUD off in Options. I do it a lot in Normal and sometimes in Permadeath for fun. I love the clean screen. Have you ever wondered why the back packs have red and blue lights. They're your indicators for hazard and support. (great for telling your co-op friends they are low on fuel) Survival plants like Sodium are yellow, Oxygen red etc and lit at night. Manual save points often have lights. Weapons have indicators although not all types (I must mention this to HG). The audio 'Hazard Warning' sounds now actually are now thank fully useful to listen and pay attention to.

My only grumble would be that with the HUD off some of the Analysis Visor indicators or scanning indicators are lost and would be better temporarily flashed up on screen then disappear. Also mission completion texts do not show until the HUD is back on then there is a sudden alarming catch up of everything you have collected or completed. Which is always fun...

Yeah the game is fun played without the HUD. It's just an optional setting. Great too for making clean Creative Mode visuals.

Yeah I like most parts of the HUD. Its the annoying nag messages I can do without, as an "expert" haha.