In regards to 1. I disagree - there are plenty of flawed things that are still my taste - just like this game is.
I can enjoy something and still admit the problems it has. I don’t need to ‘justify’ my enjoyment by pretending something is perfect or doesn’t need improvement.
That would be like saying a person I like has zero flaws or issues. Just patently untrue. EVERYBODY has something they need to work on themselves even if they can’t see it.
If you can’t tell the difference between constructive and destructive criticism that’s something you need to work on lol.
But you end up “exploring” the same stuff over and over.
Theres no reason to actually explore a planet - pretty much everything you want to do/see is taken care of at any random spot you choose due to the single biome planets.
You’ve got like maybe 6 different versions of flora depending on the enviroment type. If your lucky they give you a color change too so instead of all green tree A you’ll get a red tree A .
Now I know it can be explained away by the games lore, but when the main goal of the game is to explore it doesnt really help.
It doesn’t even matter how many galaxies/universes you jump to - it’s all still the same limited number of assets with the same limited color wheel.
Yes, it is a flaw. Because those “smaller things” are little more than virtual fidget spinners.
They offer a few fleeting moments of novelty and thats pretty much it. They have little to no relevance to the gameplay loop or are opposed to the gameplay loop.
I can “build” a settlement that does next to nothing and I can’t even design it the way I want.
I can build a base that is practically lifeless, but I have to be carefull because terrain will respawn. Or base foundations float on top of terrain.
And all the things I can build I’m lucky if theres 3 different skins I can choose from to try and make something “my own”.
And then of course lets not forget about the near literal mile wide inch deep the games oceans are. Heres a submersible. We will force you to use it for a couple missions and then theres no real need or point to it. All the oceans are the same shallow boring experience.
Here im being slightly facetious but only slightly :
You’ve seen one ice planet? Guess what - you’ve seen them all.
One glitch planet- you guessed it youve seen them all.
Tropical planet - oh look this ones sky is a different color, but still the exact same type of tree as that other tropical planet 40k lightyears away.
Honestly, i wonder if generative ai would work for a procedural game like this. Any ‘errors’ could just be written off as alien flora/fauna or a glitch in the simulation.
My biggest problem with exploration in NMS is how quickly it all becomes the same thing.
Hell if they just made planets multibiome that would go a long way to eliminating that cookie cutter feel.
The handle doesn’t look that long to me. The blade looks to be at least twice as long as the hilt - and the hilt looks like it could only hold a single handspan comfortably.