No Man's Sky photography and discussion thread

I'm just now getting back to No Man's Sky after playing other games for the last several months. This is my first time playing the Pathfinder update. I'm surprised at the number of improvements beyond the land vehicles. Is anyone else here getting back into it? If so I would love to see your pictures.

I was particularly impressed with the new base building additions. I hope they keep them coming. I built this base on a planet in the middle of nowhere.

Here are some images of a nice desolate planet a few jumps away.

Compare that to this image of this moon with furry blue hills and I wonder how anyone can say the planets are all alike in this game!

I'm still using my old ship from pre-foundation. Looking forward to getting several more ships for my collection in my freighter.

I'm on my way to the Galactic Hub at the moment to photograph the famous Diplos in the capital system of Lennon. Stay tuned...

Didn't a thread about this existed a few months ago ?

I haven't played it since the update. I have it installed. I may play it again one day, I wanted the platinum but it is quite hard to get it because of those creatures scanning thing

@clefdefa: there was a thread about seven months ago I know and I considered necro-bumping it but instead just made a new thread. If there was one a couple months ago I missed it. Link me to it if you can find it, I'd like to see it.

The scanning the creatures thing is all I have left to do for the platinum as well lol. That is the biggest pain.

By all means give the game another shot. The updates are great and there is speculation of something massive being added in the next update.

I like what they did to the game with the recent patches and additions.

Now most planets look very pretty indeed. And you can use the graphic filters in the game to change the looks further. Nice.

the game still has the problem that all you do is collect resources and look for monuments/upgrade pods on every planet, but there's not much they can do about that...

I'll probably get back to the game one of these days (I had it like month ago) so as to get some screenshots here.

Oh, there's one negative thing about the updates: it is now lot pricier to fix up a crashed spaceship. You have to pay to fix even the storage slots, which was free previously...

One thing they could add to the game is robot drones. Once you have a base, you could build robot drones and they would fly around the base, collecting resources for you. Now that would be nice.

@henrythefifth: Yeah, I'm not real sure about those damaged slots on crashed ships. It is way too pricey to fix all of them. A lot of those kind of changes make me glad I played since the beginning and don't have to deal with it. Seems like for those starting the game now it's a lot more of a hassle to get going. They removed a few exploits I use to use regularly. They made my Mordite farm a lot less valuable than it used to be and the crashed ship looting is long gone. But some people complained the game wasn't hard enough.

I like your robot drones idea. I saw on reddit where they were taking suggestions for the game to send to Hello Games and someone mentioned something like your idea. Maybe they will add it someday.

There's a way to circumvent the crashed spaceship fix: start the game unpatched and play it unpatched till you find a BIG crashed spaceship. Fix the ship and claim it as yours. Then patch/update the game.

You now have a big ship with great weps and lots of storage, practically free.

It is also good idea to start playing unpatched because in the patched game, you can no longer find blueprints...

-if you played NMS after it launched, you remember that you would find blueprints everywhere. They changed that, and now you have to buy blueprints, and it is very restricted what prints you can buy. So, yet one more reason to start the game unpatched, and only patch it up after you've found big pile of useful blueprints...

That's what I'll do when I repurchase the game: start it unpatched and only update it when I got a big ship and lotsa neat blueprints. Of course, upatched game is very glitchy and prone to crashing, but I think it's still worth the effort as it is the easiest way to obtain a decent ship fast.

@henrythefifth: Yeah, playing the original version definitely makes it easier. It's a shame you can't play a version after a few of the patches fixed the crashes and other glitches but before they made everything harder to find, worth less money etc. I guess what we have now is more like what they intended and playing it un-updated is like a cheat. I've just been evolving with it and would prefer not to restart a game. I would if I had interest in the survival and permadeath modes but I don't really. I like normal mode.

I need to get back into this soon. I am not sure where to start with base building - guess I'd better read some guides

The developers lied to us - and I don't like being lied to. Therefore, I did not play it.

I just bought the expansion for Elite: Dangerous, so I am going to give that game a few weeks of my time, but tbh I am finding that game to have too little reward for the amount of time required of me.

No Man's Sky, despite it's "problems" (it didn't really have any, only lack of features), was a really fun game that was easy to get into and was fun for 20 minutes or two hours. I didn't get hurt feelings over the broken promises because A.) I didn't follow the development closely, and B.) I didn't believe them in the first place, and C.) I liked what they offered, anyway. A fun, pointless, psychedelic romp around the universe.

What have they added recently? I heard there are ground vehicles now, this true?

The last time I played was for maybe a few days after they added bases and freighters, that's it.

@xantufrog: Just fool around with base building in creative mode, thats what I do. Once I have perfected my base there I build one just like it in Normal mode. I love base building in video games.

There are 3 different ground vehicles now. They added a lot beyond that. Check out this link:

https://www.nomanssky.com/pathfinder-update/

Ok so it's cool that they added more stuff to the game, but can somebody lease explain the point of the bases, like do they actually do anything or is it just all show?

@vfighter: Well, you can farm on your base and make money. You can store items there and you can use a trading terminal. It's also a place to keep your vehicles. Other people can visit your base and leave messages. I just enjoy designing them from a creative stand point I guess. I think it's fun. Having a base seems to make spending time on your home planet and exploring it more enjoyable.

And you can teleport back to your base from anywhere in the galaxy.

Those are nice shots, the planet i built my base on was an ice world, i probably should have moved it since it was almost instant death going outside on it but it looked cool... but I wish they could optimize this game better. My fps took a massive hit after the foundation and also the pathfinder update, ended up quitting it completely since then since its unplayable at 30-40 fps. I used to get over 60fps up to 90 fps.

Also another main reason i quit is most of the mods i liked stopped working in the pathfinder update and nobody remade them. There was this one that let you fly your ship as close to the ground as you wanted, you could even fly it in the water but that one doesn't work any more. Also there was this other one that was great that increased the speed of your ship several times over and it made flying so much more fun. and similar to that was another one that let you run 5-10x faster and it was extremely fun to explore at that speed.

@Yams1980: Hmmmmm. It's a shame that they aren't keeping up with the mods, I hadn't heard that. I play on PS4 so I don't know much about the PC side. It's a shame you can't get it to run decent. Hopefully the next update fixes that.

I think they went too far with the restrictions, as they really leech all the fun outta the game...

For example:

You need high enough rep with the aliens to buy blueprints. Higher rep, better blueprints you can buy.

Now, I spent two hours planetside, doing favours and investigating monuments to upp the rep.

Then I thought, this should be enough, and zoomed to the space station to see the blueprint seller.

And to my dismay, found out only low level prints had become available...

Yeah... To get the juicy prints, I would've needed to spend like four more hours upping rep with the aliens. I decided to not to bother...

Now, given that there are different races of aliens, this all means you have to labour away for dozens of hours just to build rapport with them all, if you fancy getting blueprints. And that's no fun at all. It might be logical and reasonable, given that aliens would not trust strangers, but it is still no fun.

Add to that the fact you cannot buy blueprints with money, but need to gather these research units...

First time I played NMS was about month after launch. Back then it might've been buggy and rather ugly, but at least it was fun and carefree. Now it's just rather anal with all the restrictions.

Looks like Hello Games just cannot get it right...

@henrythefifth: My rep is maxed for all three aliens but I assume that happened a long time ago for me in the early versions of the game. First time I ever looked at it just the other day they were all maxed. I think playing the game from the start was the best way to play this. I feel like I've gotten the best of both worlds. The game seems much improved to me but I haven't had the hassles of starting over in the new versions. They do seem to want this game to be awful grindy though for some reason.

I'm blazing my path towards the galactic hub and rarely stopping for much more than crafting warp drive fuel, currently 66 jumps away, but I seemed to get lucky with the fauna on this last pitstop planet and felt the need to stop and scan every one of them. That makes 6 100% scan all creatures for me so far, that platinum trophy is in sight! Check out these guys all from this same planet:

The creature's procedural generation is still one of the weaker aspects of No Man's Sky I think but they are improving.

Still making my way through the Euclid Galaxy trying to reach the hub. I've noticed that many of the creatures are looking almost half way normal which is sort of a new thing but there are still plenty of weirdos out there such as these two guys:

I'm pretty close to the goal now, it's been a fantastic voyage. I'm excited to see what the community has built in the Rentocniijik Expanse. Only 21 jumps now.

The journey continues....

not gonna lie @mark1974 you make me want to play this game again.

I'm getting a pretty good grasp on Elite: Dangerous after investing what feels like way too much time, but I think I might come back to NMS before too long.

Are credits still a pain to come by? I remember seeing the cost of a freighter, then how slow it was (for me, at least) to make money and being discouraged lol.

@mrbojangles25: I think it would be nice to switch back and forth between No Man's Sky and Elite. They compliment each other and excel at opposite aspects from one another. I'm not sure about Elite but No Man's Sky is easy to get into after a break. There isn't much control wise that needs to be remembered.

For the freighter your best bet is going to be farming pearls or something like that. I made a lot farming Mordite and turning it into lubricant to sell but the last update cut my profit in half. It shouldn't take you more than an evening or two to make enough farming to get a freighter. Setting up the farm is a bit tedious because of all the elements you will have to round up but I enjoy it. When I'm hunting for elements I multitask by also scanning creatures and taking photos and just generally enjoying the game.

As far as making money goes it's hard to say. It depends on how far you have gotten and how easy it would be to set up a good farm. I have over 100 million credits so I haven't been worried about it but I do want to fill out my frieghter with S class ships so I'm going to have to think about making money again. Actually there is an exploit for buying ships cheap so I'm not sure how much of a concern it will be.

Oh, wait! There are only three alien races in this game?

-well, in that case maxing rep would not be that huge issue.

I thought the game would have at least ten races in it, with more races appearing as you move towards the center of the galaxy..

BTW is there a way for you to give gifts to aliens? There are lot of these beads and daggers around, and by giving them as gifts would surely upp the rep fast. Is it possible?

For what I remember, the interactions with aliens were very limited and had no gift option in them...

@henrythefifth: At the moment the interaction with aliens is very limited. If you destroy pirate ships in an alien's system your rep goes up I think. I think monoliths increase your rep too. I can't remember exactly what all increases rep, if you play for a little while it just seems to happen whether you even mean to do it or not. I really never paid much attention to it to be honest. It is rumored that the next update will include a forth race.

Well I made it to the Galactic Hub capital system of Lennon. I have to say that without a doubt the journey there as well as the amazing actual visit is the best thing I have ever done in No Man's Sky. It was pretty incredible.

The base on Drogradur NO425 isn't really a base anymore but a kind of monument.

You can't even get inside which is kind of a bummer for me as it's the first base I have ever visited and I couldn't receive an emblem. It's crazy how many messages are scattered all across the planet. It's absolutely littered with them. A lot of people have been here at this point.

But of course the main attraction is the Diplos.

It is so crazy seeing these things. They are like nothing I have ever run across in No Man's Sky and I've been to a lot of planets. They are absolutely incredible. I spent time riding on their backs as one does when visiting the famous Diplos. Here is a picture of one next to my ship for proof I was there LOL.

Here is the other gendered Diplo:

Standing over a normal creature to give you an idea of the size:

And I thought these two guys were pretty cool. I'm sure everyone just ignores them when visiting the capital and mostly just give the Diplos all the attention.

The other thing you have to do when in the Lennon system is see the butterflies of Neptune II.

All in all a fantastic vacation. I used the space station to warp back to my home world on the other side of the galaxy and it felt like a proper vacation but yet I was glad to be home. I have to get to work now cataloging my own system. I highly recommend everyone taking the same trip.

How many hours did the journey to the center take?

On my longest play I spent about 20 hours on the game, and only scratched the surface...

I've never been to the center. If you are referring to my post above, the "Hub" I refer to is a community that the players have established in the Euclid galaxy that is actually on the outskirts. 166,000 light years from the center. Check out this link:

http://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Galactic_Hub_Project

My base is 374 jumps away from the Hub at 1,600 light years a piece with a fully upgraded warp drive. I used black holes to get about 130 jumps from the hub. After that it took me three or four days of playing quite a bit to arrive at the Hub. Signal boosters give you coordinates and there is an app that plots your position relative to the Hub or anywhere else you may want to travel. https://pahefu.github.io/pilgrimstarpath/

Ok, my bad. I assumed galactic hub would the the center...

BTW how does the new fast travel work? I understand you can now jump from space station to space station via their 'warp portals'.

But how does that work in the game? Can you jump to any space station you have discovered? And does the fast travel cost money?

@henrythefifth: When I first heard about the hub I assumed it was at the center too. Thats what everyone thinks at first because it seems like it's the easiest place to gather but when you understand the way black holes work it's easier to do it roughly around the diameter you start the game in.

You have to have a base to utilize the warp, teleporter thing. You can transport back to your base from any space station. In normal mode your teleporter saves the last four space stations you have teleported from. So technically you can teleport from one station you have been to, back to your base and then teleport to another station in your list. I traveled a long way from my base to the hub and then teleported back. I will make sure that I keep that station from the hub in my list at my teleporter so I can always go back. If I have been using it for other stations I will make sure I jump back to the hub to keep it on my list at my base. There is also another system I keep in my list that I know has a lot of the hard to find element rigogen. It doesn't cost any credits to use warp portal/teleporter.

I hope that all makes sense. It's easier to understand when you actually have a base and use it.

Ok, thanks for the info. The four previous locations save on the teleporter makes total sense...

-on my last play I did find one base, but did not claim it as home base because it was on a rather boring planet.

Now, do you know if all planets have possible home bases? Or is it possible to build your home base on any planet you visit from scratch?

And finally, can you have more than one home base, or does your old home base get 'deleted' if you decide to set up new one?

Sorry about all these questions. I'm just curious.

@henrythefifth: No problem about the questions, that's what this thread is for. Almost all planets have areas where you can build a base. Only the most barren ones don't. You land on a planet you like, build a scanner and it will point you to an area for a base. If you don't like that area, build another scanner and it will give you a new area.

You can only have one base at a time. If you build a new one the new base will give you half of the materials from the previous one.

I finally got the platinum trophy. I don't think that really means anything though. Looking at the criteria that gives you a platinum in No Man's Sky, it in no way reflects any kind of mastery or high level play of the game. A person could get a platinum in this game and still not be able to claim any kind of real understanding of the game or to claim a deep or extensive level of experiencing it. Trophies are empty and usually meaningless bragging rights. But anyway I got this one.

My Base is in a region called the Nedqualaak Void. So what I'm up to nowadays is doing as much cataloging and research of this area as I can and categorizing it applying my own naming conventions based on those used for the hub. I'm in very early days of this project. Here are some of the landscapes that can be found there.

A couple aquatic creatures.

Myself along with the loyal Gek of my freighter crew rule this domain. Come visit us and sample the best NIPNIP this side of the Euclid Galaxy!

Congrats on the platinum trophy, man.

By the way, can you tell any easy ways to get electron vapor? It is needed for antimatter, which is needed for Warp Cells, and I found it difficult to find...

Or, is there easy ways to just buy Warp Cells for your hyperdrive so you would not need to craft them all the time(as it is bit of a chore)???

Ta again!

The best way to get warp cells is to craft them. It's time consuming but it only takes common easy to find materials. Just use your scanner. The only shortcut is finding them in the round cylinder containers that are usually littered around planets. You'll need an Atlas pass for that though. You will always find some part of constructing a warp cell or even a warp cell itself in them. You can buy them at some terminals but its better to craft your own.

you give me the interest in playing it again but I have so much on my plate right now.

I'm still super far from the plat of this game, it takes too much time getting it.

I'm glad I could spark some renewed interest. I'm more into it than ever due to the updates and the community efforts. This game is really starting to come into it's own. Don't worry about that platinum trophy too much. The real enjoyment comes from pure exploration and finding rare things as well as exploring what the community has mapped out and benefiting from it. Or at least that's how I see it and enjoy the game. It may be difficult to find more than a few truly wonderfully rare things in this game on your own but when you can travel to coordinates where another player has found something great this game really opens up.

I hear you about having so much on your plate right now though. So many good games have been released in the last couple of years it's hard to find the time for it all. I'm still wanting to play Prey but I got to get my No Man's Sky fill first. That game should be pretty cheap by the time I get around to it. No Man's Sky has a big update coming in the near future it seems, that may be the best time to dive back in.

NMS still costs 36 euros at local Gamestop.

-bit too steep for repurchase, but i'm sorely tempted.

BTW, did you ever hire staff for your base? I never quite understood what the staff would do at the base anyways if you did hire them...

The staff send you on fetch quests so that you can build the new technology they give you. Construction items, blueprints, weapons, vehicles, plants etc. Is that 36 euros new or used?

More scenery from the beautiful Nedqualaak Void:

36 euros used. New one is still going full price... Ouch!

BTW I really liked space battles in NMS. Easy and smooth. and you can charge your guns and shields mid battle, so you cannot really die, unless you have no materials to charge shields...

Reminded me of good old X Wing Alliance and Wing Commanders. Used to play them a lot, back in the day...

Space visuals remind me of HomeWorld, another great PC space battle/strategy game.

Oh, and the music in NMS is very good. Classic New Age stuff. Reminded me of Popol Vuh for some reason...

@henrythefifth: 36 euros used is a bit much. I'm surprised it is still going for full price. I had heard it had been discounted but maybe that's just the digital PC version? As much as I love the game, I think 60 is asking way too much. Not that I regret buying it for full price, it's a must play for me.

I have to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the space battles. I sigh audibly every time I hear "hostile scan detected". It isn't hard though, I use my mining beam which locks on and the pirates are gone quickly. Usually lose half my shield though which is easily recharged with iron, one of the most common elements in the game. I never get involved in those large scale freighter battles because I always accidentally shoot the wrong side. I wish the bounties were worth more, that could make the space battles more fun. I love the visuals and they have improved significantly and I think everyone agrees that the music is great. It sets an awesome atmosphere.

I'm annoyed, because the Atlas path disappeared from my map with an early update in the game, and I've never found it since. I don't even have Atlas Pass V1 - I am happy to keep plowing towards the center, if that'll get me back on the path. But if not, it feels like my time would be better spent starting over (despite now a huge investment in the game)

@xantufrog: Even though I finished the atlas path I still see the anomaly with Polo and Nada every so many jumps. You should be able to run into it again before too long. I don't know if that would reset the path on your map or not. Atlas passes aren't too important in my opinion but they are nice to have.

edit: just in case, you do know you can select different paths on your galactic map right? the Atlas path option is gone? Did you try reinstalling the game?

I traded in my Alien multi-tool for an upgraded version.

I did not come across this new multi-tool randomly. It was discovered by another user in the HUB and I just went to the location and picked it up. I was very attached to my old one. I did just randomly come across that one as that was all you could do to get anything in this game before the HUB community. It was the first Alien multi-tool I had ever seen and it was quite awhile before I saw an image of another like it on the internet. At that point it was just about the coolest find I had ever made in the game. A true rarity. But with the update of different classes for multi-tools as well as star ships my precious find is now only a C-class Alien multi-tool. All old multi-tools and star ships are C-class post update. Since searching for multi-tools does not fit into my current play style I went the easier route and bought one that another player has found. I was shocked I easily found the system. It was not in the main HUB area and yet the second star system I clicked on using the info provided was the right one. It was a miracle. Then I spent about a half hour trying to find the Lennon system again so I could transport back with the space station I know in my stations transport list. I've searched for Lennon several times now and it almost always takes me awhile to find it.

Here is the old pre-Foundation image of my previous Alien multi-tool:

And here is the new one:

It was a hell of a grind to get the new one ready with all of the blueprint equipment installed. I forgot what a job it is to do things like that since I have been well established with all my gear for some time now. Radnox! That stuff is rare! And it's only on hostile extreme cold planets and only seems to spawn after quite some time trying to find it. I remember my luck being much better in the past when I didn't even need the stuff.

You gotta admit that those space battles give nice change of pace for all the scanning, and more scanning, you do planetside.

BTW does the game now have a proper system maps?

-I remember having lotsa trouble navigating in system, without system maps that would've allowed to view the planets in system, see their climate/resources and positions at one glance.

Sure, you can see properties of planets by pointing your ship at them, but this is rather awkward especially if the other planets are obscured by heavenly bodies...

Oh, and any news on the Space Bars? Whenever I talk to NMS players, they moan the lack of space bars, places where they could put their feet up and get a drink. Are Hello Games planning on adding them, or have they already done so?

Personally I want bars with karaoke! And darts.

@henrythefifth: the maps and planet scanning are pretty much the same.

Some kind of mos eisley cantina would be great!

Well, I repurchased the game today.

Started unpatched and then spent two hours looking for a crashed spaceship, till finally found one. It was not as big as I'd liked, but it'll have to do for now.

The unpatched game was so bad to play that I updated it the moment that new ship was fixed. Here's pic of the ship.

Oh, also noticed that you can take down locked doors with melee attacks, instead of weapon beam. Handy in the early stages...

@henrythefifth: why would you play for 2 hours without installing the patches? The game's come a loooong way from release

@henrythefifth: I think that was a sound strategy so that you could more easily get a good ship. I hope you enjoy playing it once again with the new improvements.