Unfinished: Astroneer 12/20/2016

Every time I see a promising exploration/space game. I can't help but wonder what if the release of No Man Sky was on early access.

Probably would get like ~1% of what they made in sale but would receive a lot of love and praise.

The player dude's running speed is perfect.

It's interesting that they're basically asking for this game to be something it isn't. Resource management and exploration seems to be the goals of this, so adding a perma-tether and bigger/easier inventory and tutorials on everything and all that really speak to what they want out of a game versus what a game is trying to do.

I'm not sure this game is for me, but just watching it is fine. It seems extremely relaxing and yet satisfying to prod at things and figure them out. I like all of the mechanics and I hope to see them developed further along these lines.

I agree, all of their ideas for making it better was exactly the things I wouldn't want in the game. I like the way the tethers are now and the power rate. Brad asked for lower power usage while he already knew he could put on a solar panel to get more faster >.>

The printer is also essential to base building. Allows you to make storage, large solar panels that take up 2 slots and seem to be more powerful than 2 small panels, wind turbines, etc.

Though the trading pad + fuel condenser = stop mining. I have a feeling that might be changed, or make Hydrazine worth a bit less.

And this should be something Vinny QLs, or also looks at Unfinished.

Game looks great.

The whole time Brad was trying to find the cave and literally going the opposite direction I was yelling at the screen. Something tells me Brad would not do well lost in a new place.

One word of warning, don't buy this game for Xbox One right now. They touch on it briefly in the video, but I just wanted to really emphasize how awful the current state of this game is on that platform. I'm generally not one to be too picky about framerates, but it's just really really bad to the point of being uplayable.

At its best when you start playing the framerate is in the high 20s, but as soon as you start building, it's down in the teens and very often a single digits (or sub single digits) slideshow. There's also a number of pretty severe audio and physics glitches that seem more pronounced there than on PC.

I'm sure it'll improve, but hold off for now if the Xbox One is the only place you can play it.

"Everything is something"

"That's true"

What a zen quick-look this is. I'm excited for this game, and I usually loathe survival-type games, but this thing nails the atmosphere perfectly.

Awwww, i have never played a game where i enjoyed thirst or hunger... Hope its not annoying. Power and air are one thing - hunger will at least give you a "purpose", but always just bogs down early game with frustration until you are up and going... i love Dragon Quest Builders for example, the food requirement is just an annoying inventory requirement - it actually makes me like the game less.

Looks neat. I'll think about buying it when it's done. Thanks for the QL guys.

Makes me want to play some more Factorio

@squidracerx What if they have have a hunger... for discovery?

Think about it, huh? Eh? Nice.

well caved in and bought it.

played 4 hrs straight

I made it through a bunch of the video now. I'd bet a lot of the other comments concern how the GB guys don't seem to be internalizing that this discovery game is about discovery. I don't blame them, the way they experience games as work doesn't match well with a concept like this. I bought it a couple days ago - very cool.

This looks cool, I just can't see myself ever buying an early access game. I always want to wait to see what the final game will be.

I don't think hunger really adds to "discovery", as the people saying hunger is coming said they will add "farming". So that's not going to push discovery (maybe finding seeds?). But its more like they watched the Martian, or are pushing for realism. Just wanted something else to have you do for longevity? But discovery? Not so much.
As I said - I had tons of fun exploring Dragon Quest but it gained nothing by hunger IMO, there was no great discovery (even with new recipes, as they were just "15% hunger refill" instead of 10%. Nothing fun about that). I don't think many people find having to remember to eat an apple in your inventory as a fun thing.
Just like Resident Evil inventory management, or Fallout encumbrance, or any game where your armor degrades... Adding systems that need attention or micro management does not always make something fun - usually just frustrating for many. So yeah i don't think its nice...

I'm going to pretend all those wrecked ships are the remains of Project B.E.A.S.T. expeditions and that if your dude takes off the helmet, it's a Kerbal.

Love GB but don't agree on what they want to be changed. Don't even need to place tethers everywhere like Brad was doing.

"Caved in." I see what you did there.

☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

Looks kinda neat, but I ain't touching nothing until it's out of Early Access. Same with Slime Rancher. I really like their looks, but I'm not playing half a game when a full game is still coming.

Brad is just not using his head at all in playing this. The entire reason he got to the cave without a tether is because he had built up a huge store of power and oxygen. Then he keeps constantly walking right past power and oxygen resources without looting them, then getting mad that he has to build tethers everywhere. He also never bothered to build another solar array for himself to help with the power problem.

I've never played this game and only watched him play it on UPF and this Quick Look, so it's not like I'm some expert, but it's pretty obvious there are in-game ways to clearly mitigate his complaints. And I'm also going to guess that if you craft down the tech tree you'll eliminate a lot of the other annoyances, because that's generally just how these games work. You start off weak and everything is difficult, but as you craft things and explore the game gets easier and easier and your options greatly open up.

Anyway, normally I feel like I've become pretty inured to the way Brad plays Quick Looks poorly and just doesn't pay attention to what's in front of him, but this one was particularly frustrating.

Yep. You should listen to the last Bombcast. They discuss the difficulties of doing quicklooks and the expectations of the viewers. You have to realize that most of us would probably be much worse at quicklooks and much less interesting in order to appreciate how well they actually do.

......

that pun wasn't intended. augh

Agreed I love the life line, plus it gives you a good map of where you have been and it gives you lights at night.

Sure, that part is fine. It's just the whole not paying attention to what's on the screen that gets the frustration levels up. It's the same with how most of the Hitman episodes have gone, for instance. You'd think they'd learn at some point… :D

people see brad's name and go into auto nitpicking mode

vinny does the same shit and they laugh it up

c'est la vie...

yeah i totally see that happening. kind of a shame; i don't know what the optimum path for that game could have been but one option may have been to just shut up about it until it was sufficiently complete; guessing sony would have none of that. i still got the base mode to dive into, maybe i'll get drawn in again.

@flashflood_29 said:

Man, that was such a great moment.

Games looks cool, but suffers from the Early Access plague. All my friends are playing it now, while I wait for it to be finished. Once it is, they're already onto the next thing. Wish I had more time to re-play stuff, I guess.

watching brad throw the aluminum threw the air and then say he needs to go back and find it in his backpack made me laugh so hard. I could see it on the ground as he walked past it going to get more aluminum. beautiful. this was a shit show from start to finish and I loved it.

i just had a really terrible time playing wow tonight so I think maybe this is exactly what I need to unwind ... making giant penis sculptures is a good way to pass the time I've found in this world if you run out of things to do.

also worth mentioning I think is that if you even have one solar power on your backpack you can stand still in the day time and build upwards until you run out of oxygen/filters unless you make a tower of tethers next to you as well. you can get above the clouds this way and still not run out of power. i dont know what the solution is for night time power though, anyone can elaborate on options?

@grizzy: Hey Devs, if you're going to shill your game anonymously, first log out of your actual accounts :)

This game looks really nice, but it's super shallow. You can see literally everything in the game within 2 hours if you get a decent spawn, and anything past that is just collecting resources for the sake of them.

I ended up enjoying the few hours I played, but I very quickly ran out of things to do. I looked up a bunch of guides assuming I was missing something, but I'd done everything (aside from somehow never finding a single piece of coal).

To me if they explain too much in games like this i get bored. Takes the fun out of the discovery.

@ildon: Yeah I can confirm you are 100% correct on that. Early on, it's very easy to just build tethers to a cave and then rely on the natural power/oxygen stores found in the cave to survive. By the time you use all of these up, you've already grabbed a bunch of resources that help you get more tether to go further in, or closer to a vehicle that you can use as a mobile base with free oxygen supply.

It's mostly a case of attitude. Vinny rushes past things and dies and says "I'm probably not playing correctly, because I'm clearly just fucking around and not paying attention because it's a Quick Look." Brad does it and then complains and blames the game for it.

What do you do in this game once you've researched everything?

That's about it right now. It seems like the current end game is building a shuttle to go to the other planets in the solar system. It's a solid foundation, especially for an early alpha game, and their roadmap seems interesting enough.

Bought it but returned it on my PC. Frame rate is too chunky and the pop in is a mess, even meeting the recommended requirements.

I did enjoy it a bit though and I'll rebuy it when it's more stable. Just a hint for @brad and others - You can place tethers when they're selected by pressing T a second time. It'll place it at the point you're mousing over so you can keep running along and just keep hitting T every time you need to place one.

Hahah okay, so you didn't watch the whole video and you didn't read the comments, so you can't blame the theoretical responses that might or might not exist in response to what may or may not be in the video you didn't really watch?

If you never found "a single piece of coal," it means that you haven't explored other planets.

@bombedyermom: What if you got really drunk one night and forgot all about your character digging up some cool stuff and dying in a cave? :)

All I want to do is build stuff out of blocks, not prefabs.

Found out you can shift click to pick things up. Even watching the dev streams in the past they would drag and drop to their backpack and it was clunky AF looking but yea hope this helps someone.

I did fly to other planets, but I didn't really look around much. My ship landed on the side of a mountain and my base bugged out underneath some boulders making it a pain to continue. I wandered for a minute or so before realising it's pretty much the same as the other planets, just in different colours.

I just went back and checked my save after you posted this, and sure enough there's coal all over the other planets, I didn't look too hard and I assumed it was just a plant.

This game just needs lifeforms and it would be awesome. It is good, but the worlds need life.

A C++ programmer dies every time a product is sold as a "pre-alpha".

I know this is always the case but the concept art for Astroneer is so far removed from the game that it's crazy.

- In terms of the tech tree, what else have you, what else have you built and what has it done for you?

- This is about it, that's the thing. I've never completed any one path enough to say I've got advanced tech.

Brad quick looks.

@steveurkel: Thanks for the tip! Tab also sends what you're holding/clicked on into your backpack. If it's something that can go in it.

OMG. I go hoarse screaming at my screen, "THE FUCKING CAVE IS RIGHT THERE!!!" :P