Hows the core gameplay loop nowadays?

[x Princess Leliana x]

I last played a few years ago and while the game was fun and I enjoyed myself, the core gameplay loop was basically the same as launch. Go to planet, farm gold, sell gold, move to new planet.

There was more to do than that of course, they added base building and vehicles and such, but the core loop was very much still just "farm resource for an hour to fill up your ship, then go sell it, use money to buy better ship, rinse repeat". There was no real way to make money out of doing that, and no real way to progress without making money.

Has that changed at all? I know again theres been a ton of updates to story, missions, ship generation, base building overhauls, freighter overhauls and this and that, but is that core loop still the same? I heard something about hunting pirates for bounties and that seems neat, but can I make my 100 million for a freighter doing that?

[Dirak2012]

Freighters are free though.

[x Princess Leliana x]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

Freighters are free though.

Thats a change then. Last I played a basic freighter was 50mill. Still doesnt answer the topic tho :P

[SMJSMOK]

I'm not super far into the game so I can't answer you reliably, but there are definitely side quests you can do to earn money. I've just completed a couple of quests where I was sent to hunt pirates and it was quite fun. You can definitely play the game as you're describing, but that sounds pretty boring.

[KornPortable]

farm resource and sell it ?
If I want Units just duplicate Chlorine with Oxygen and sell it
Put a mini base + resource extractor for things I generally want
to have so I don't run out of them ever
or buy it off from TP with the Units I duplicated

My Gameplay loop is pretty much check Anomaly for mission do a daily or 2.
Check thing I need to craft/upgrade go find those things.(Hyperdrive/Freighters/etc.)
Craft things that I'm interested in and play with them.
If I'm bored then I go do something else.

This new update is pretty much change how it look
inside the Freighter so I plan to renovate them somewhat
that mean gather some material > maybe making or upgrade a base

TLDR : I don't think NMS have a gameplay loop really
It is a sandbox that you do whatever you want in it

[Dirak2012]

You can:

Hunt for crashed ships and scrap them.
Search for ancient bones or tech.
Set an industrial mining site and sell in bulk (braindead mode).
Build a farm to craft expensive components.
Glitch the game with refiners.
Buy expensive stuff in a system and sell it in another.
Do pirate missions and sell the illegal components.
Sit in the online hub and wait until someone drops items worth million in your inventory (it actually happens).

In the end, you will still reach the credits cap quite easily and money is not that relevant.

[x Princess Leliana x]

Originally posted by KornPortable:

farm resource and sell it ?
If I want Units just duplicate Chlorine with Oxygen and sell it
Put a mini base + resource extractor for things I generally want
to have so I don't run out of them ever
or buy it off from TP with the Units I duplicated

My Gameplay loop is pretty much check Anomaly for mission do a daily or 2.
Check thing I need to craft/upgrade go find those things.(Hyperdrive/Freighters/etc.)
Craft things that I'm interested in and play with them.
If I'm bored then I go do something else.

This new update is pretty much change how it look
inside the Freighter so I plan to renovate them somewhat
that mean gather some material > maybe making or upgrade a base

TLDR : I don't think NMS have a gameplay loop really
It is a sandbox that you do whatever you want in it

All games have a gameplay loop. Minecrafts loop for example is harvest resources, craft tools, harvest more resources, craft more tools, rinse repeat till you win.

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

You can:

Hunt for crashed ships and scrap them.
Search for ancient bones or tech.
Set an industrial mining site and sell in bulk (braindead mode).
Build a farm to craft expensive components.
Glitch the game with refiners.
Buy expensive stuff in a system and sell it in another.
Do pirate missions and sell the illegal components.
Sit in the online hub and wait until someone drops items worth million in your inventory (it actually happens).

In the end, you will still reach the credits cap quite easily and money is not that relevant.

If its not that difficult then that sounds good to me. When I last played it was 5+ hours of tediously mining gold to get enough money to buy a new ship or something. That got old real, real fast. So glad to see theres stuff I can do to not have to do that.

[SaD-82]

Originally posted by x Princess Leliana x:

All games have a gameplay loop. Minecrafts loop for example is harvest resources, craft tools, harvest more resources, craft more tools, rinse repeat till you win.

That's not the gameplay loop of Minecraft. You can do this ("Why?" would be the question, though.), but the gameplay loop actually is: Gather and build.
Here in NMS the gameplay loop is: Gather and explore.
Both games are sandbox games and thus being open-ended. You can't win in Minecraft (besides seeing an end screen when defeating the dragon) and you can't win in NMS. Especially not in NMS as "winning" will start the game in earnest.

[gussmed]

I’m having trouble seeing “explore” as something you actually do in NMS. Mainly because my experience is that while new planets are very different looking, functionally they’re the same planet you’ve always seen with a new skin.

I’ve played plenty of games where exploration is a major part of the game, and they feel completely different from this. Subnautica, Satisfactory, Civilization - all of those give you real reasons to explore.

The part I want to get to in NMS is the bit where you’re making huge bases dedicated to various crafting loops. The bases (usually freighter based)I see featured in the Endurance trailer and occasionally in player videos. So far that looks pretty distant.

[KornPortable]

Originally posted by x Princess Leliana x:

All games have a gameplay loop. Minecrafts loop for example is harvest resources, craft tools, harvest more resources, craft more tools, rinse repeat till you win.

That's up to you really what you win in minecraft?
to me I just having fun with a few friend and that's it I don't care about upgrading gear
I don't care about portal or the underworld thing or a dragon thing

So what is your goal in NMS
To me I just want to do something I find intresting mainly Explore the content and Mech
I don't care if I'm not going through the story
I don't care If I'm not having max rank guns / ships
I don't care about building base too much and there's still TONS of decoration
that I haven't unlock

It's not MMO where you need to level up get better gear to attack stronger content
It's not PVP/MOBA where you need to destroy your Opponent Team
To me NMS is just a relaxing Sandbox and that is enough

[tkwoods]

All game play loops are basically the same. Just some games are more scripted than others.

Many get lost in a game where their hands is not held and directed every move. If that's you then games like NMS are not for you.

[Triggerd_Noob]

Originally posted by gussmed:

I’m having trouble seeing “explore” as something you actually do in NMS. Mainly because my experience is that while new planets are very different looking, functionally they’re the same planet you’ve always seen with a new skin.

I’ve played plenty of games where exploration is a major part of the game, and they feel completely different from this. Subnautica, Satisfactory, Civilization - all of those give you real reasons to explore.

The part I want to get to in NMS is the bit where you’re making huge bases dedicated to various crafting loops. The bases (usually freighter based)I see featured in the Endurance trailer and occasionally in player videos. So far that looks pretty distant.

Most of my Units come from exploring via upgraded scanner (flora,fauna, and now minerals) . In the earlier stages I explored to find metal deposits, storm crystals, and mfg recipes as well as items needed to make things.

[gussmed]

Does scanning change radically later in the game? Because in the stages I’ve seen, the monetary rewards for scanning a new thing (animal / plant / mineral) are pretty small. It’s welcome that you get *something* for scanning a new thing, but I’m having trouble understanding how that’s now a major source of income for you.

[KornPortable]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Does scanning change radically later in the game? Because in the stages I’ve seen, the monetary rewards for scanning a new thing (animal / plant / mineral) are pretty small. It’s welcome that you get *something* for scanning a new thing, but I’m having trouble understanding how that’s now a major source of income for you.

You can get scanner module at space station to upgrade it
It usually give you more units when scanning for living things(Plants/Animal)
I'm not sure how much you can upgrade it but I can get 30k-40k units per new scan right now

[SaD-82]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Because in the stages I’ve seen, the monetary rewards for scanning a new thing (animal / plant / mineral) are pretty small.

600 k for a rare animal, app 300 k for common ones, 400 k for uncommon species.
Scan the wildlife of one planet which can take up to 5/10/15 minutes (depending on the animals and where to find) and you're in the range of 3 million to 7 million credits. Just from wildlife alone.
S-class and high roll x-class scanner modules are one of the best providers for getting money just by playing alone without the need of building anything or waiting for things to be processed.

[mbrowne999]

Loops within loops within loops.