September 2020 - NMSspot

“Hell’s Front Porch” : No Man’s Sky “Tiny Home” Base IX – in Origins

09/27/2020 blakespot Comments 2 comments

The update of the year, No Man’s Sky Origins 3.0, has landed and we’ve finally gotten a healthy helping of what many of us were hoping for: improved variation. I a have a lot to say about this update as a whole, and intend to do so in posts soon to come, but early in my exploration of the game’s new universe I discovered the most inhospitable hellscape of a planet I have ever encountered in 2,700 hours in the game. It is an “Erupting Planet” with frenzied Sentinels and “Colossal Firestorms” that I was quick to experience upon landing, after my suit AI warned me of an approaching “Wall of Flame.” It is a terrible place.

I was in love.

Where better a place for another cozy little “Tiny Home” base (my ninth, in fact)? So, I began scouting out locations from the air, when finally I found the place — a spot near the wall of a sooty canyon at the base of three active volcanoes, with sparse flame-ravaged trees bespeckling the dark lava rock surface. There I built a metal base, raised on a pedestal to avoid the frequent flame spurts that characterize the world, with water and fuel storage tanks (obviously) situated on the safety of the roof. (At least there are no R.O.U.S.es — well, actually…)

The base is situated in the Eissentam galaxy in Normal mode on PC (Steam). I didn’t expect my first post since Origins launched to be another base build post, but the situation was too perfect. More from me on Origins soon, and I hope you enjoyed a look at this little patch of paradise. Stop in for a visit…if you’re up for it.

No Man's Sky characters tilted by a glitch

Community Event (Sept. 18) – Or Where Not To Park a Derelict Freighter

09/23/2020 blakespot Comments 0 Comment

I don’t post about every weekend community event, but this past weekend’s was so out of hand that I thought I would share a video.

As I emerged from the portal on the event world, I found myself in the middle of a lot of action, with boltcaster rounds whizzing all about. Sunday, it seems, was a busy day on the event world.

Player bases peppered the planet’s surface, and after making my way to the Anomalous Disturbance to find out what was needed to quell the disturbance (Albumen Perls), I explored several. Among them was a large canon-shaped base that I investigated, failing to realize that it was actually capable of firing players far above the surface and into space. I learned this after-the-fact from a video by Jason Plays who demonstrated The Cosmic Cannon, as created earlier on a different planet by player Commander Keen, who apparently constructed it on the community event planet as well to give folks something rather unique to play with (portal coordinates to the original location can be found in the video).

After visiting several other bases and gathering Albumen Eggs, I headed back towards the site of the Anomalous Disturbance, noticing a massive freighter half-embedded in the ground. It was not there moments earlier. As I approached the landing pad of a large base next to the Disturbance, I noticed the landing rings were set at an angle. This observation betokened what was to come when I stepped out of my ship and onto the pad. I was — tilted. Leaning. I could walk, but as if in a stupor of some sort, with controls skewed along with my orientation with respect to the ground. I then noticed my jetpack had been disabled. And that’s when I realized just what was going on.

Someone managed to glitch a derelict freighter (which arrived with the Desolation update) into the event planet and in close enough proximity to the event site that “gravity” was obeying the floor angle of the freighter and jetpacks were disabled, as they are in a derelict freighter, because the game thought I was inside the freighter. It was quite difficult negotiating the base where I landed in order to get to a clearing where I could summon my ship, which was the only way I could think to get out of that bind. And, indeed, once I lifted off, things were back to normal.

I love the creative player bases and various other clever player creations on community event worlds, but this one seemed to actually have put players at risk of having to restore from their older save, which could be costly to players that hadn’t made a manual save in a while (or who don’t backup their saves frequently). And, as can be seen in the embedded video, I wasn’t the only one affected. It wasn’t such a fun experience.

At any rate, I quelled the anomaly and it was revealed that Ariadne is no murderer — an unknown imposter has taken on his/her appearance and stands in their place…

Community Event (Sept. 4) Brought a Sator Square and Other Sights

09/09/2020 blakespot Comments 0 Comment

It has been a few months since I covered one of the weekend Quicksilver community events — the last one I covered was the odd “event that wasn’t” — but a few of the sights I encountered this past weekend prompted me to share another video.

The mission took place on a “Cabled” Exotic world (the sort that always send my mind in an equestrian direction, somehow) where a gathering of cable pods were needed to quell the disturbance at hand. Locating 16 cable pods on the surface of such a planet takes some times, to be sure, but that gave me the opportunity to observe some of the player-made bases that cropped up on the world. These are, for me, the highpoint of these events, and I wanted to share some of what I encountered.

The most notable base presented a massive, floating rendering of the ancient Sator Square. Have a look and hats off, player Aceacin, for the striking build.

“Tiny Home” Base VIII: A Desert Cliffside Dwelling

09/01/2020 blakespot Comments 1 comment

Exploring a recent desert world, I was flying high, skimming the mountain peaks and deep canyons that formed the planet’s horizon when I spotted a small outcropping of rock halfway up the wall of a deep canyon. It struck me that it would be the perfect spot for my next “tiny home” base. It provided and excellent vantage point to observe the world’s profusion of flying serpents, and the frequent firestorms that besiege the landscape promised to make a small, cliffside dwelling all the more cozy.

The wood-slatted base is comprised of three rooms, somewhat partitioned by beams and rafters. Entering the dwelling, one finds themself in the computing and communications area. Proceeding further into the base, a living area with a couch, meal table, and large-screen display can be found. Beyond this lies a sleeping area with storage lockers and closets and a doorway leading out onto a platform that leans out over the cliff edge and features a small sitting area as well as a Base Teleport Module. The entire dwelling is generously arrayed with flora of various sorts, in the interest of augmenting the oxygen levels of the world’s thin atmosphere.

In the interest of space savings, the Nutrient Processor and various additional storage tanks and containers are located out of doors, but in close proximity to the base. A small patch of Curious Corn has been planted along the cliff to provide additional foodstocks.

The short walk-through video that follows conveys the overall feel of the habitation.

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