So, what do you do in this game?

[SOLDIERRFK]

I'm just flying around scanning stuff and doing small missions. What do you do in this game?

[Felis_Exploria]

Depends on your interests. Some build, some do primary mission, some seek all missions, some want remembrance, some catalog planets, some role play, some try to find their perfect planet, some explore oceans, some run settlements, some test money making ideas, some seek cool looking ships/weapons, some play pirate.....

[Hypno Toad]

Uninstall and buy Starfield instead

[SOLDIERRFK]

Originally posted by Ballsac:

Uninstall and buy Starfield instead

Thanks man, thats really not helpful

[Ograus]

build a fleet (capital ship/freighter + frigates + "own ships")
max all those
manage frigate-missions
find ways to get the ressources for all that
explore wrecks in space/crashed
build bases
build a base on capital ship/freighter
hunt pirates or become one
smuggle
explore the world
follow the storys, ok not really epic dune style but still fine
.....
in other words: write your own story in this wonderfull universe

example of an agriculture base (->crafting tradeables)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044978617

example of a mining base
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2827374171

[SOLDIERRFK]

Originally posted by Ograus:

build a fleet (capital ship/freighter + frigates + "own ships")
max all those
manage frigate-missions
find ways to get the ressources for all that
explore wrecks in space/crashed
build bases
build a base on capital ship/freighter
hunt pirates or become one
smuggle
explore the world
follow the storys, ok not really epic dune style but still fine
.....
in other words: write your own story in this wonderfull universe

I was hoping when I bought the game there would be more of a social aspect to it

[Ograus]

sooner or later one finds other "travellers" (nms-players) to play with, and maybe learn from

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by SOLDIERRFK:

Originally posted by Ograus:

build a fleet (capital ship/freighter + frigates + "own ships")
max all those
manage frigate-missions
find ways to get the ressources for all that
explore wrecks in space/crashed
build bases
build a base on capital ship/freighter
hunt pirates or become one
smuggle
explore the world
follow the storys, ok not really epic dune style but still fine
.....
in other words: write your own story in this wonderfull universe

I was hoping when I bought the game there would be more of a social aspect to it

You bought the wrong game then...

This game is almost a pure sandbox. You do whatever you want to do, for no real reason. You build, explore, and upgrade... or not, it's all optional and ultimately pointless unless you find your own motivation.

[Raven]

Exploration: The primary focus of the game is exploration. You can hop from one planet to another, each with its own unique environment, flora, fauna, and resources. Explore the universe, discover new species, and catalogue your findings.

Resource Gathering: To survive and thrive, you'll need to gather resources from the planets you visit. These resources are used for crafting, upgrading your equipment, and refuelling your spaceship.

Crafting: You can craft various items and technologies, including upgrades for your exosuit, multi-tool, and spaceship. Crafting is essential for improving your chances of survival, as well as customising your gear to suit your play-style.

Trading: You can trade resources and items with NPCs and other players (if you're playing in an online mode, [although to be honest I give this one a miss], ) to obtain valuable goods or units, the game's currency.

Base Building: You can establish and customise your own bases on planets. Bases can serve as a hub for your operations, storage, and even farming.

Missions and Quests: The game features a quest system that provides objectives and goals, which can help guide your progress and provide rewards.

Space Travel: You'll need to manage your spaceship, which includes refuelling, upgrading, and maintaining it. You can also engage in space battles and visit space stations.

Multiplayer: While initially a single-player experience, NMS has introduced multiplayer features, allowing you to explore the universe with friends, build bases together, and embark on missions as a team. [Again, I leave this option out, except on Expeditions.]

Story and Lore: The game has a mysterious lore, which you can uncover as you progress through the game. The story can be experienced both through the main quest line and various other in-game interactions.

Creativity: "No Man's Sky" encourages creativity, you can take screenshots, build impressive structures, and share your discoveries/epic builds with the community.

Take your pick, mix and match, or ignore totally. It's a sandbox game.

[Chaos]

I suppose there is a kind of social aspect to it when you visit the Anomaly station and do Nexus missions. The Anomaly is like a multiplayer hub.

But yes its a sandbox game, that's where the game thrives so there's not much narrative.

Starfield is different, it's narrative driven, it's just fallout in space and space itself is a loading screen. As a result some of the side quests/missions are good but the rest of the game is shallow stuff on a 20 year old engine that's been done before, like Outer Worlds? The narrative in NMS is practically non-existent but there's more junk/stuff to do.

[Ninefinger]

The social aspect is more of showing off what you can find and what you can build with the community. Some may be interested in checking it out.

You can also Frankenstein you pet using eggs and resources, just another thing to show off and to dabble with something creative.

Others have built small communities on planets, because some people are just really creative. The social aspect is there if you are the type of person that wants to find something others have not found and make it into something cool and share it with others.

I personally turn multiplayer off but I plan to build something worth showing after finding a relatively unique place to build and learn how to build so it looks the way I imagine it.

I have not built much yet so there is going to be a lot to learn, once i have something worth sharing I will share it and hope others might be inspired to either do something they want or to come and build close by and add to it.

In the mean time I have a lot of things to do before that happens with all the upgrades I need to get and exploring I need to do before I find a place to start the project.

And I play with Prepare to Sky mod so its not exactly easy to get there either and makes it interesting.

[UncreativelyNamed]

I run around on planets gathering data about all the stuff I find on them and then compile said data into a giant spreadsheet because I am a GIANT NERD!

No, really. I'm serious.

[Ninefinger]

Originally posted by UncreativelyNamed:

I run around on planets gathering data about all the stuff I find on them and then compile said data into a giant spreadsheet because I am a GIANT NERD!

No, really. I'm serious.

lol if its fun its fun thats all that matters

[Foxglovez]

We are gregarious loners. We babble on the forums but spend most our time making up our own games out of the pieces HG gives us. My latest save after the tutorial stuff am working on all things autophage. I have one of each of the stave types, most to S class, sentinel ships, all the autophage costumes and am heading to Isadorujang to set up my home base for further exploration.
It is fun to see what folks have at the anomaly but that is about it for social. So as noted above, not that game unless you go find friends. See if there is a discord channel you can take advantage of.

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by Peregrinus:

Exploration: The primary focus of the game is exploration. You can hop from one planet to another, each with its own unique environment, flora, fauna, and resources. Explore the universe, discover new species, and catalogue your findings.

Resource Gathering: To survive and thrive, you'll need to gather resources from the planets you visit. These resources are used for crafting, upgrading your equipment, and refuelling your spaceship.

Crafting: You can craft various items and technologies, including upgrades for your exosuit, multi-tool, and spaceship. Crafting is essential for improving your chances of survival, as well as customising your gear to suit your play-style.

Trading: You can trade resources and items with NPCs and other players (if you're playing in an online mode, [although to be honest I give this one a miss], ) to obtain valuable goods or units, the game's currency.

Base Building: You can establish and customise your own bases on planets. Bases can serve as a hub for your operations, storage, and even farming.

Missions and Quests: The game features a quest system that provides objectives and goals, which can help guide your progress and provide rewards.

Space Travel: You'll need to manage your spaceship, which includes refuelling, upgrading, and maintaining it. You can also engage in space battles and visit space stations.

Multiplayer: While initially a single-player experience, NMS has introduced multiplayer features, allowing you to explore the universe with friends, build bases together, and embark on missions as a team. [Again, I leave this option out, except on Expeditions.]

Story and Lore: The game has a mysterious lore, which you can uncover as you progress through the game. The story can be experienced both through the main quest line and various other in-game interactions.

Creativity: "No Man's Sky" encourages creativity, you can take screenshots, build impressive structures, and share your discoveries/epic builds with the community.

Take your pick, mix and match, or ignore totally. It's a sandbox game.

I'm ofter called a hater for calling out post like this one... since they are very misleading.
Yeah.. you can technically do all those things, but each of those are extremely superficial, and oftern unrewarding. It's a marvel that NMS tried to add so many things into the game, but it also doesn't master any of them.

I believe that if you have to come here and ask what to do, the game already lost you, it's a niche game for a very specific type of player.

[SoloQ]

It has a lot of systems but ultimately no end goal or purpose. You can collect a fleet but there's no reason for it other than to have it and obtain more resources from it. You can build settlements but there's no reason other than to have it and get the resources from it. You can explore planets but there's no reason because most of them have the same resources.

So if you can handle the fact the game ultimately will lead to nothing other than having everything you have, you can have a lot of fun with the game. It's a game for loot goblins and hoarders. Explorers maybe might enjoy it, some of the planet combinations are incredible and same with the animals and plant life.

They did add a bunch of new stuff to use data to learn to build. There's quite a few pages of things that weren't there a year or so ago. But again ultimately it exists for the sake of having more stuff to obtain.