Friendly to new players?

[Zelous]

Hi!

I've been watching streams of this game last couple of days and it seems interesting. It's been out for a while though, and never played it. For a new player is it welcoming? Or does it drop you right into it and figure everything out yourself?

[BraveCaperCat]

Originally posted by Zelous:

Hi!

I've been watching streams of this game last couple of days and it seems interesting. It's been out for a while though, and never played it. For a new player is it welcoming? Or does it drop you right into it and figure everything out yourself?

It has a deep storyline with tutorial messages everywhere (even for returning players) and additional tutorials in an additional menu (which it also notifies you about)

[UNBREAKABLE]

So long as you follow the main storyline you get the gist of the game. There are also in-depth difficulty options you can change if you find the game too hard or grindy.

Only advice I have is not to rush everything, take your time and let the game unfold. You want to retain some imagination for when you eventually do run out of quests and have to make your own fun.

[Ozwald]

I could probably teach my German Shepherd to play this game. Granted she's smarter than 80% of the people I know, but she's still a dog. I don't know of much more beginner friendly games out there.

Just be aware, the tutorial can seem a little intense, but it's really not. It feels like it's rushing you the whole time. I've finished it in 10 minutes, others have milked it out for hours. There's no rush.

Once you're past the tutorial, you'll see how chill & relaxed the game really is.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Start on Normal mode. The very beginning can be a little frustrating. It is important to read the pop ups. If you miss one, you can read in the log on what you need to be doing (esc key).

There are programmed storms at the beginning (intentional) to help teach you the basics about survival. If you don't pay attention or start panicking you can end up dead. Until you reach your broke ship you will not have a save to go back to.

Caves or digging a hole will get you out of the storm so you have time to think. There is a camera mode as well - far right on the x menu. It stops time and you can use the camera to scope out the area.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

Start on Normal mode. The very beginning can be a little frustrating. It is important to read the pop ups. If you miss one, you can read in the log on what you need to be doing (esc key).

IMO?

New Players should start with Custom, and make these changes:

1). Technology Damage: OFF
2). Predatory Animals: Defensive (optional, depends on how much patience you have)

**Make sure you leave the Tutorial ON**

The first one though, the game is borderline unplayable with technology damage on, esp with newer players.

When you run out of shield and take hits, stuff starts breaking that makes you very weak very quickly and the repairs are expensive and almost certainly require a trip to the space station (because every fricken upgrade mod requires a wiring loom which can only be bought in certain places) and/or some farming of materials that might require travelling to get if you don't yet have someplace to store extra materials like dioxite, phosphorus, etc.

It's way more trouble than it's worth gameplay wise. I find it to be an insufferable annoying mechanic that should only belong in Survival or Hardcore.

To the OP:

This game is extremely friendly to newcomers, the game tells you nearly everything you need to know about any quest that you're on, and teaches you every imaginable mechanic in the game through quests in a rather long questline that walks you through the various aspects of the game.

[Machika]

So people with base game who haven't played it in 3+ years just reinstall and eveything is caught up?

[maestro]

Originally posted by Machika:

So people with base game who haven't played it in 3+ years just reinstall and eveything is caught up?

It's advisable you start a new save file, but yes, you just install/update the game and go.

Just beware that this is only a few days after a humongous update and some stuff is broken.

May want to give them a week or so to get the game-breaking stuff fixed.

[Apex Artist]

It's far more beginner friendly than it was when the game first launched. Way back when I started my first play through, I was dead within 3 minutes. ....now, you can stroll around for a very long time before you're actually in danger of that happening, and if it does happen, no biggie. You just start again.

[Foxglovez]

Can you follow directions? Don't laugh. 99% of the threads are folks not paying attention, for real. There are some good Utubers that are funny but know a lot. Watch a few beginner vids, you wont really understand what they're talking about but soon the light will dawn. Captain Steve is a good one. There are others, many others.

Just start slow and turn down some of the options if you get confused. Follow the main quests as they are really tutorials. You can stop, restart maybe redo a character if you want. No one cares, it's your game. The more you try to figure things out and get a feel for how the game works the better off you will be.

Hot tip: Take a break every hour or two at first. Don't play till you're bleary eyed and cranky. It's quite fun. I'd never flown any kind of aircraft before NMS. Those are still fond memories. Sucha noob. And enjoy all those firsts - they only come once.

[BraveCaperCat]

Originally posted by Foxglovez:

Can you follow directions? Don't laugh. 99% of the threads are folks not paying attention, for real. There are some good Utubers that are funny but know a lot. Watch a few beginner vids, you wont really understand what they're talking about but soon the light will dawn. Captain Steve is a good one. There are others, many others.

Just start slow and turn down some of the options if you get confused. Follow the main quests as they are really tutorials. You can stop, restart maybe redo a character if you want. No one cares, it's your game. The more you try to figure things out and get a feel for how the game works the better off you will be.

Hot tip: Take a break every hour or two at first. Don't play till you're bleary eyed and cranky. It's quite fun. I'd never flown any kind of aircraft before NMS. Those are still fond memories. Sucha noob. And enjoy all those firsts - they only come once.

Actually, 99% of the threads right now are about people experiencing issues with the new update.

[maestro]

Originally posted by BraveCaperCat:

Actually, 99% of the threads right now are about people experiencing issues with the new update.

Obviously, they are talking about threads complaining about the start of the game (which I've seen plenty of, which is sad because the game literally gives you step-by-step instructions). Even if you get overwhelmed by everything happening around you and somehow miss the popups and they disappear, you can still hit escape and browse through menus and surely find the "LOG" tab which has (almost) the same instructions.

A new player isn't going to complain about stuff like Traces of Metal and such until they get there, which is a good 10-20+ hours in.

[Noop]

Yes this is a children's game if you couldn't tell. It's made so children can beat it. Obviously that means everybody else who isn't a child and is not missing half of their brain will be able to do the same.

Some things might be a little convoluted or hidden in weird ways but almost everything is easy to find cuz the game constantly bombards you with tutorials that you can not turn of. You get a quest for everything that you cant turn off and it will ALWAYS display random ♥♥♥♥ in the bottom right. Super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying but the devs never thought that having the option to disable ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ handholding would be needed. (it absolutely is, Im not 6 years old anymore I would very much like to not be treated like that)

Things that are hidden for example: The first ~3 ships in every space station will always be the same type, so this way you can farm s-types of a specific ship you like. However the game never explains that and you will need yt or other sources if you want to engage in target farming.