Put an Early Access tag on the game

[Ragvard Grimclaw]

I'm not going to say that game is in a horrible state, or that it is bad... but yeah, it needs a lot of work. Much more work than a proper full release game would need.

There are bugs (quite a lot of them), crashes (not overly frequent, but I had some myself), lack of/abruptly ending content (you can't sell some items like T7 and most T6 weapons because there aren't high enough level traders to buy them, late-game areas are literally same as early game but different color gear, POIs are 2-3 designs copypasted all over the galaxy, and galaxy literally has only 1 seed shared by everyone), balance issues (both in combat balance and in general progression - later in the game you straight up skip some gear tiers), bad UI (from bugs to just extremely inconvenient design, needs to be reworked) and what feels like an outright placeholders (fishing is clearly just here to say 'we have fishing', there is at least 1 weapon that is non-functional (Gun of Etherion). corrupted suits with low stats are probably sold by traders as a placeholder, you can find ship starters in recipes but I've seen no workbench to craft them, melee is clearly an afterthought, most animal drops have no use other than sale at almost the same price, found no use for darkness core fragments other than selling, all sources of darkness in the galaxy are the same, with two lvl1 drones even in lvl27 system), multiplayer issues (admittedly, already worked on). List of issues is LONG. Game is still enjoyable, but it doesn't feel like a full release.

Just call this an early access and work on fixing the issues and expanding the game at comfortable pace, and eventually it'll be a great game even worth a higher price tag than now or paid DLCs. Year or two of active development and adjustments with constant community feedback, and 'overwhelmingly positive' will be on the store page.

[9g6t7g967t]

I can forgive a lot of the bugs but the balance and progression of the game can be a bit jarring at times. Hmm. Lets' see spend 10 hours collecting resources or open a chest and get gear 5 tiers higher than what you can make.

Also agree on the UI quirks and I've also already commented on POIs before. There need to be dozens, if not hundreds of different ones. Not to mention issues with building and movement,

It does feel EA even if they decided to launch it as full game. The demo was good and I've still enjoyed the game so far but this feels like 70% of it is missing.

[Kickz]

Originally posted by Ragvard Grimclaw:

Just call this an early access and work on fixing the issues and expanding the game at comfortable pace, and eventually it'll be a great game even worth a higher price tag than now or paid DLCs. Year or two of active development and adjustments with constant community feedback, and 'overwhelmingly positive' will be on the store page.

Well, technically if the devs consider their work dev-complete they should not launch into early access.

If you read through the STEAM published developer guidelines on what should and what should not go into early access it does say this:

Originally posted by Early Access Rules And Guidelines:

7. Don't launch in Early Access if you are finished with development. If you have all your gameplay defined already and are just looking for final bug testing, then Early Access isn’t right for you. You’ll probably want to send out some keys to fans or do more internal playtesting instead. Early Access is intended as a place where customers can impact the final game.

Full guidelines from STEAM:
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess

So it all depends if the devs consider the game complete and buggy or work in progress...

[Ragvard Grimclaw]

Originally posted by Kickz:

So it all depends if the devs consider the game complete and buggy or work in progress...

Well if that's all content game will have, with no placeholders replaced and mechanics reworked, only bugs fixed then it would be like... 6/10? Okay game to spend few evenings in and move on, maybe play for few weeks if you really like it. But it has potential to be 10/10, and for this - it needs A LOT of work. Same amount of work an early access title would need.

[Rhaane]

Could be that it IS complete and we just gotta deal with a half baked final product. They might be moving onto a different project and this is what it is. It has no more bugs than any game Bethesda would call "complete" =p

After I finish up the 2nd planet I dont think I have any desire to keep playing. Its pretty well all copy paste from here out. Neat game, abit shallow =/

[BU4U Gaming]

Originally posted by Rhaane:

Could be that it IS complete and we just gotta deal with a half baked final product. They might be moving onto a different project and this is what it is. It has no more bugs than any game Bethesda would call "complete" =p

After I finish up the 2nd planet I dont think I have any desire to keep playing. Its pretty well all copy paste from here out. Neat game, abit shallow =/

Well a dev stated in another thread a few hours ago that the intention IS to add more to the game. Of course you can't always count on what devs say, but assuming they aren't just "leading players on", they are not gonna leave it as it is now.

[siethy]

Originally posted by Rhaane:

Could be that it IS complete and we just gotta deal with a half baked final product. They might be moving onto a different project and this is what it is. It has no more bugs than any game Bethesda would call "complete" =p

After I finish up the 2nd planet I dont think I have any desire to keep playing. Its pretty well all copy paste from here out. Neat game, abit shallow =/

You have barely even played it then if you stopped after the second planet, Honestly this is where it gets a bit harder i can see why you chose to quit there i dont think you truly gave the game a chance you just finding a reason to join the complaint crew

[Ragvard Grimclaw]

Originally posted by BU4U Gaming:

Well a dev stated in another thread a few hours ago that the intention IS to add more to the game. Of course you can't always count on what devs say, but assuming they aren't just "leading players on", they are not gonna leave it as it is now.

Saw that comment. Really hope that game will change for the better. I'm even fine with having save incompatibilities between versions if that's what it takes to rework mechanics so there aren't any cracks in game's foundation. Or pay for cosmetics DLCs to support the continued development - especially with current game's price being very affordable. But that's all only if devs follow No Man's Sky steps (which, at launch, also should've had early access tag, tbh) and keep improving the game even if it's not in the best shape currently (both content-wise and bug-wise).

[BU4U Gaming]

Originally posted by Ragvard Grimclaw:

Originally posted by BU4U Gaming:

Well a dev stated in another thread a few hours ago that the intention IS to add more to the game. Of course you can't always count on what devs say, but assuming they aren't just "leading players on", they are not gonna leave it as it is now.

Saw that comment. Really hope that game will change for the better. I'm even fine with having save incompatibilities between versions if that's what it takes to rework mechanics so there aren't any cracks in game's foundation. Or pay for cosmetics DLCs to support the continued development - especially with current game's price being very affordable. But that's all only if devs follow No Man's Sky steps (which, at lunch, also should've had early access tag, tbh) and keep improving the game even if it's not in the best shape currently
(both content-wise and bug-wise).

If they fix the current bugs, improve the co-op mechanics (though I personally don't care about that), add some more qol features and flesh the game out with more variety in pois the game will be a hit for sure. Even more so if they add mod support. It has a ton of potential, so I have high hopes for it. But yes it needs some serious polish still to really take off.