LadyCrimson

So, I got that freighter, deco'd it a bit, then left, fully intending to ignore it. But now every time I warp anywhere and fleets pop into the system, I'm bombarded with "hey don't you want to hire my frigate" messages if I get anywhere near them. Which I could ignore, but it's annoying. There's a whole mini-game re: freighters/fleets/expeditions (expeditions mostly make you items/money passively), which I'm not ready/willing for. Should I copy back/reload the save folder just before I bought it? Hmm...maybe if I just delete that command room module? Or hire max frigates no matter the type and maybe they'll shut up then and leave me in peace? Haha. Game dilemmas!

NMS Sky - along with not really needing complex bases for functionality (not yet anyway), another reason it doesn't appeal to my personal obsessive nature is ... I've become so used to 7 Day's structural integrity building rule concepts that the whole modular room building stuff just isn't very engaging even if you can make kewl things visually. I suppose it's a little bit like FO4 style. I've been wanting to put mini-bases above ground now, because if you don't, eventually you may find rocks/bushes growing in the middle of it as stuff like that respawns close to, but not exactly, the same spots. There are pole foundation pieces, but I can't figure out how to place them at height, they always start at ground level if you try to place one first. But I was able to place the "square room" module ... in mid-air. Just floating in space. Then the foundation would "snap" underneath it and spawn legs. Ok then.

"There are many like it, but this one is mine." ...finding a system that had the right fleets pop, and then the reload-grind to get the specific freighter to be actually offered, plus as over a B class was long. I got impatient re: an "S" class and settled on an "A" class. ...there are some much more unique/kewl freighters in the game I think, but I would guess they are hard to find/get. ...looks like you can build a huge modular-room base on the thing (red-lined squares in pic below are player-placed). To the point it would get annoying to run around in. But I hear getting the freighter modules/currency to unlock more/all the modular rooms/thingies for it are a serious PITA. I probably won't bother. In fact, I probably won't use it, since I'm not interested in quests/combat etc, altho who knows. But I had to have the ST/SW combo one. And now I know what they're like.

I was sifting thru Steam Library and noticed something. I had full-reinstalled the entire game. Apparently I got free Achievements just for that? They're the only two that Steam lists I have for the game and I "achieved" them same day I reinstalled it. Not that I care, but did achievement borking/resetting happen to many or anything? lol

I will turn 54 soon.

NMS ----the way I play, big bases are largely pointless. Game keeps prompting me to set up something re: an overseer or some such. I'm happy with just teleporters, landing pad, storage boxes, and a room or area filled with resource refiners. I also read that there's a parts limit (all objects. not just walls/floors), across all bases you make in a save. After that you can't place anything else. Not that most would ever reach the limit, just the fancy mega builder types or those wanting a big base on multiple planets. ----did a few more main quests. I find them utterly boring and went back to making my own fun. ----started a new separate save. The tutorial is even more annoying/feels too long (for my impatience...) the 2nd time. It does give you some early things for "free" doing it all tho, and I don't know if you can access the Anomaly station initially if you skip it entirely. Actually, all the main missions after the first tutorial mission line ends, so far, still feel like tutorial in a way.

*drops put of warp* ... "You're not a trading ship." ... "wtf is happening."

I may have a ship collecting addiction. I keep seeing ones that make me go "oh, I like visual." Dangit, it's not like I can seriously use/alternate more than maybe a couple. Going to have to confine myself to just screenshots of all of them soon. Trying to find a freighter I like. No luck so far. But it's cool they let you walk around on top of one. For a second I thought I was going to be able to tread the whole length of it, but no - the "you are about to die" health drop started at some point. I also like how you can jump/stand on all the player-vehicles, unlike some games where if you try you just bounce off. "Star Wars" theme. Yeah, I hear there's one that looks even more like a Destroyer. I want the Star Trek one, where do I get that.

No Man's Sky: I wanted to keep buying/trying (a lot of) different ships, for funsies but also function - cost doing that is high. Even my grinding self was finding it overly taxing re: grind 30-40 million, buy/try one or three, grind, etc. I noticed a difficulty setting that makes buying ships "Discounted." I was expecting ship prices to be lower for less grind, but also that the scrap/sell value would be scaled to the same ratio (a small to moderate loss). But the sell value actually remains the same so you buy at half price but scrap for full price = 100% profit. So I stood in a few space stations waiting for ships, bought only the "A" class ones (because they give you inventory augments when scrapped), scrapped, bought, scrapped. I now have 600million units, a lot of Nanites from selling the scrap-modules, and an Exotic ship with 70 storage and 43 Tech slots. Oh sure, you don't have to take advantage of this but I wonder if the profit ratio re: that setting is intentional or a long oversight. It would've been enough help just for the buy price to be halved. That said, I finally got to try a bunch of ships. The variation of visual styles between the several "class type" is high. If you want a Fighter, Hauler, Explorer, Shuttle, Solar, Exotic etc in a certain style/color scheme, you're gonna have to stand in space stations for a long time hoping for RNG. I know there's some "special" ones to get too but in general. EDIT: this is a game where once you've gotten far enough to have "learned a lot", it kinda makes you want to start over.

Also: There are "solar" ships. Using photomode - looks really cool, right? But this is what it's like trying to fly it in space. Just no. I scrapped it. TBF, those only come out/block view in space, planetside they stay closed.

Meet Chicken McNugget.

Ok, time to try feeding/taming pets. ------------------------------------------------- "Nah....nah....nah...." "Too ticklish, made riding difficult." "Too delicate." "I want that one! ... what? I can't? Game sucks, 1/10" ...sadly, you can't control animal companions directly at all, even riding - they aren't true mounts. Mostly for fun and ingredient farming.

I still don't know if I "love" NMS, but I will say this: if you like endless free roam exploration it's definitely a great time sink. Sure all the planets are vaguely the same after a while, but it still feels rewarding because suddenly you find a huge cave to get lost in, see a landscape formation, islands, sunken holes that you've never see. You're unlikely to ever explore even 5% of a given planet tho ... just take off and go to another one, or a new solar system. Saw one video where a guy land-ran the circumference of a planet and it took 25+ real time hours. ---if you have a quest or icon mark that's kinda far away, better off time-wise going to space and warping back to it vs. surface flying. ---tried the "car" that is basically a mech suit. Could be handy in some cases but overall, still don't like mechsuits. ---too many markers etc. can = a cluttered solar system icon skyscape. Makes me not want to place many beacons or even a teleporter-only base computer. At any rate, I think NMS is going to get paired with 7 Days to Die in terms of sandbox games that I can return to/waste multiple 100/s or even 1000's of hours on over several years.

How NMS suddenly makes you want something you didn't originally want. Or: "I have got to get me one of these!" Or: "HEY, where'd you get yur pilots license?? I'm walkin' here!" Some planets defy gravity. I wonder if it would be "safe" to make a base on one of these floating rocks. They're like .... ant-squids? If you can tame one, do you need a giant aquarium?

But at least the one mag is a cat one. They got taste.

Hospital waiting room, waiting. Theres a single flyer mag on a bench. Everyone has phones now I guess. Gosh it takes forever to scroll emoticon list to bottom on the phone.

"Average Betty" - although perhaps I should rename it again to "Metal Mule" I don't like the blue/orange color scheme but take it to the right planet and it'll look better. She's a good ship, but occasionally likes to show off a personality quirk or two. Apparently other planets had their version of dinosaurs, that didn't go extinct.

More NMS blatherings: Went to a space station. Checked the npc pilots ships. One had one with 39 storage slots! But they wanted 33million for it. Since I am a mining/selling fool, I did have it. Barely, I am totally broke now. But then I scavenged the Ugly Boat for 4million and doing so for some reason gave me a ship-inventory-slot mod. So now the new ship has 40. And it's not quite as fugly so I named it "Average Betty." Too bad I can't repaint it. I think the groove for me in NMS is going to be farming billions over and over to collect 12 - I think that's max? - spaceships/upgrading them to the max (I don't care about the freighters). That and finding the perfect Paradise planet with a good supporting 3-4 other planets around it. And maybe eventually, taming a flying pet I can ride. I've seen screenshots. I want one. Oh, after the first "space fight" with some folks, I turned that stuff off. I can barely fly the damn ship without constantly doing accidental loop-de-loops - aiming/fighting in space is basically "no." At this point it's pure sandbox for me. Edit: you can rename your Mining Tool, too. So I did. It is ... MIner69er. *listens to the groans* ...

^ I've had 32 ram for over 4 years now and the only thing that would go near to filling it all up briefly was 7 Days to Die's map generator when it was not optimized yet (eg it's better/not like that now). So again, only certain types of people/tasks would warrant more, imo, even today. And I totally understand the longevity aspect. I try to build like that too. So for a year maybe I have an uber rig but then I spend a lot of years turning stuff down, and down, because what I cared about were certain longevity aspects more than having/maintaining uber.

Or are interested in demanding titles at 1440/4k High/Ultra/RT. And would prefer as much as possible not to have to use DLSS just to get 60-ish fps CPU in a new build is currently, imo, just as important as GPU. Don't cheap out there. I knew when I went big-screen-4k that I'd have to leap more often and higher to keep up, even when I'm not an Ultra (edit) or RT type of person. DLSS has improved a lot since the start but I still don't like to use it. But yeah, if one is using 1080p and won't care about next-gen demanding/snazzy titles/features, 4090 is still overkill.

For the probable price/performance gain, I would say no. If I was going to wait for anything, it'd be longer term and the 50xx at this point. If the only concern is gaming, generally I would say ... no. Except, perhaps, if you're one of those who likes to run a game with 500 mods and mega texture packs. Or, er, maybe if you like having 400 browser tabs open. Or if you constantly do specific non-game software/tasks that are extremely RAM heavy. But for general desktop/office/gaming concerns - nah, there's no need. Ram's also easy to add to or swap later. Well, typically, not familiar with Dell.

NMS - ---the ground vehicle you get for free w/the Base Computer readouts/missions came with 40 storage slots, and you can call it to your location like the ships. ---I was wrong, I got to keep the starter spaceship. It just gets stowed and you can call it back/switch if you want. ---I found the "easy" way to search for lush "Paradise" planets, which sound nice for building a true "main base" vs. the cruddy starter planet I was on, or temp bases just for teleportation/markers. I found one first try, but it's very red-themed, even the grass. I don't like red. I'll keep looking. ---the animals wandering, fighting, killing each other right next to base structures drives me nuts. I built a wall-fence around everything, maybe that'll work. ---the cooking/food stuff, holy cow it's way too much. Seems to be mostly to make money? But way too many resources/farming/animal farming/recipes, not worth it for bulk vs. just mining 9999 stacks to sell. Just for sim-ing? Settlements? I know nothing about Settlements/hirelines and not sure I'll bother.

Hubby got a letter from Bank of America saying his CC something or other was denied. We don't have any Bank of America stuff. >.> Someone took out accounts with BoA in his name etc. Then got red-flagged trying to do stuff with them. We've been very careful/lucky in that all our lives but finally got hit with something. What a PITA.

Side subject: lately I've been thinking that one thing I'm really weary of is the "talking head" syndrome in most crpg's. Click on npc and get long minutes of speech while a talking-head stares at you with its animated lip flapping until the text "choices" pops up, until some of us start slamming the skip button if available, causing amusing face animation stops and starts. Yet I have no idea how to "do it better." I still preferred the full text boxes of the top down old rpg's, or in newer cases, when chrs. talk as you're still running in the world, so it doesn't feel like the game has come to a standstill. There's the idea of it being audio communication, so you can listen while roaming, but while that works for short snippets (ala Borderland/Jack or some FFXV/Tales of Arise party interactions), it works less well for quests, with UI/audio spam (ala Cyberpunk) that may drive you nuts. Plus of course you may miss hearing something.

Some guy landed his ship near my small base. He had 5 more ship storage slots, so I bought it. It was much boxier and uglier tho, so I had to rename it Ugly Boat. For a second I thought I was going to get to keep two ships, but the starter one disappeared when I ported out/back to the planet. Between that and a few more backpack slots, I feel ok on earlyish storage for now. I'm at the stage in NMS where I'm not entirely sure if I love the game or just sorta like it. On the one hand, for me, great chill sandbox. On the other hand, not quite enough motivation to do the sandbox if one isn't into the base building or ship combat etc. which is the main reason to find/horde resources or work on upgrades. I've tried to do more questing, not feeling it - akin to not feeling it in Bethseda games, really. It's currently a cool game tho - depends what you want/like to do is all. And checking new planets for scenery gazing/exploration could soak up a lot of time just on its own. Edit: oh I guess there will be ground vehicles. The Base Computer gave me a mission that gives one I think, but I need some resource I don't have yet.