No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime • Hacker News Board

Re: No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

#21

Post by shostack » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

ben_jones wrote: post #17

Title is disingenuous. If any gamers want probably the best retrospective of this game I'd check out The Cynical Brit's review on youtube [1]. Personally I'll never buy this game because the second they lied and said their procedurally generated universe had major multiplayer elements I knew it was complete bull shit. No way a cross platform game from an indie studio supports multiplayer in that kind of a game. [1]:…

Yeah, there is some damning evidence of outright lies at this point. I hope Steam is allowing refunds. If they aren't, does Steam hold your account hostage and threaten to boot you if you were to do a charge back?

The big shame is that this, Star Citizen and Elite:Dangerous all had such potential and DO have gorgeous graphics and cool gameplay mechanics. The unfortunate part is that most people like the idea of a gigantic space simulator, but the reality ends up being incredibly boring for gamers that have come to expect lots of social interaction in any game billed as multiplayer.

Re: No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

#22

Post by mercer » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 6:57 PM UTC

omegaham wrote: post #9

Pica_soO wrote: post #5

What im missing from this are procedural generated societys. Imagine a alien-caste system that goes full circle or something alike. Of course you cant (in reasonable time) procedural generate history, but you could use analoga to a bacteria-growth formula too at least "simulate" different civilisational stages and the clashing of those curves with other civilizations. You could even have the player interact with the…

> Of course you can't (in reasonable time) procedurally generate history Dwarf Fortress does it, and it's awesome. I'm not sure how you would adapt it to a setting like No Man's Sky, though.

Even a pale imitation of what Dwarf Fortress does would greatly enrich the game.

I think the problem is graphics. It's both easier and more time-consuming to fill a game with pretty graphics than to come up with procedurally generated history, economics, etc. That's why there are so many simple-graphics roguelikes and so many simple-graphics RPG's that provide incredible procedurally-generated content and incredible stories, respectively.

Re: No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

#23

Post by Pica_soO » Mon, Aug 22, 2016, 5:40 PM UTC

mercer wrote: post #22

omegaham wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course you can't (in reasonable time) procedurally generate history Dwarf Fortress does it, and it's awesome. I'm not sure how you would adapt it to a setting like No Man's Sky, though.

Even a pale imitation of what Dwarf Fortress does would greatly enrich the game. I think the problem is graphics. It's both easier and more time-consuming to fill a game with pretty graphics than to come up with procedurally generated history, economics, etc. That's why there are so many simple-graphics roguelikes and so many simple-graphics RPG's that provide incredible procedurally-generated content and incredible…

Honestly, after minecraft - no Sir, its not graphics. If somebody buys into your world at turtle graphics, he will buy in and add to it. We all defended carbordfort in the war of the stickguns against those pesky neighborhood guerilla.

Re: No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

#24

Post by mercer » Tue, Aug 23, 2016, 8:39 AM UTC

Pica_soO wrote: post #23

mercer wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a pale imitation of what Dwarf Fortress does would greatly enrich the game. I think the problem is graphics. It's both easier and more time-consuming to fill a game with pretty graphics than to come up with procedurally generated history, economics, etc. That's why there are so many simple-graphics roguelikes and so many simple-graphics RPG's that provide incredible procedurally-generated content and incredible…

Honestly, after minecraft - no Sir, its not graphics. If somebody buys into your world at turtle graphics, he will buy in and add to it. We all defended carbordfort in the war of the stickguns against those pesky neighborhood guerilla.

Absolutely, although I do sometimes like to marvel at the state of graphics/physics of the latest games!

Another example where I think lack of graphics actually contributes to making a great game: Avernum (RPG). Way back when I spent hours of my life playing Exile 1-3, of which the Avernum series is part remake (1-3) and part completely new (4-6). I recently bought the last three installments and I've been having a lot of fun playing it.

The thing is, even until this day few games I've played came even close to the experience Exile/Avernum provides, both in the tactical RPG sense and world-building and storytelling, even though the graphics are quite atrocious. Most Triple-A RPG's I've played were nice in many other ways, but fell short in the crucial elements that I care most about.

Re: No Man's Sky is Elite for the 21st century. Pointless? Maybe – but also sublime

#25

Post by Pica_soO » Sat, Aug 27, 2016, 10:22 PM UTC

mercer wrote: post #24

Pica_soO wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, after minecraft - no Sir, its not graphics. If somebody buys into your world at turtle graphics, he will buy in and add to it. We all defended carbordfort in the war of the stickguns against those pesky neighborhood guerilla.

Absolutely, although I do sometimes like to marvel at the state of graphics/physics of the latest games! Another example where I think lack of graphics actually contributes to making a great game: Avernum (RPG). Way back when I spent hours of my life playing Exile 1-3, of which the Avernum series is part remake (1-3) and part completely new (4-6). I recently bought the last three installments and I've been having a l…

Imagine a game that had a procedural story arc generator, following the heroes journey. It really could be more then just a bunch of reused puppets and set-pieces.