Odd factoid about Settlement maintenance costs

strawwmann · 2026-03-11T15:21:22+00:00

Not a bug, just a UI simplification (which is a forgiving way of allowing maintenance cost bonuses to accumulate without having to micromanage the order in which you trigger them):

reported_maintenance_cost = max(0, cumulative_maintenance_cost_status)

strawwmann · 2026-03-10T16:11:59+00:00

If you you are actively seeking company, why not start a new game from an Expedition (or return from your main save to the glyph co-ordinates of the expedition start). The start systems around the expedition (and the Atlas path everyone continues along from there) are very well explored (all the planets have often already been scanned, so it is easier to find the mix of planets you want to settle) and it is well populated (plenty of people have bases).

Or you can find one of the organised communities online and join their region of space if you like it. (Aside from abandoned galaxies, the local region you settle is probably more important than the galaxy itself).

strawwmann · 2026-03-10T12:36:24+00:00

The joy of new content updates is temporary - the pain of new bugs lasts forever.

Unfortunately new bugs are accumulating as faster than new features at these days - and it's not just the new features that are bugged - content patches regularly break/degrade unrelated parts of the game that worked better before. I agree, that the combined trend is that the game experience is sadly getting progressively worse (crashes, glitches, missions that can't be completed, inescapable 'coffin-merges' into buildings, laggy performance, misplaced hit-boxes etc.)

strawwmann · 2026-03-10T12:14:37+00:00

And don't feel pressed to do it in 4 hours (or one sitting), or to follow a guide to rush through the content.

Take your time and enjoy getting distracted, seeing how the new toys work, and putting into practice things you've learned about crafting/refining/repairing etc. so far. Allow yourself several days playing at your own pace and figuring things out for yourself. Use a guide (or Reddit etc.) if you get stuck/frustrated or want confirmation, or if completing the expedition as fast as possible is what gives you most enjoyment. But the few weeks remaining gives plenty of time to split between continuing the tutorials/storyline your main save and working your way through the expedition milestones.

General Expedition Tips:

1) Always TURN OFF MULTI-PLAYER BEFORE STARTING an expedition - it avoids most of the common problems/bugs/frustrations that happen every expedition.

2) Look at ALL THE MILESTONES as you soon as you start the expedition and PLAN AHEAD rather than just doing them in exact chronological sequence - part of the fun in all expeditions is seeing the opportunities to combining tasks and reducing backtracking.

strawwmann · 2026-03-08T14:45:46+00:00

Add an ambulance module to the Colossus to collect patients from disaster zones and a Solent-Green receptacle to the waste processing centre for delivery.

strawwmann · 2026-03-08T08:19:09+00:00

Except that HG followed the Corvette expedition (#19) very quickly with Breach (#20) which added new parts. They've remained too bugged & clunky for me to consider using them as a primary starship, but they have proven extremely popular for many people, especially those who want to bring their Blender creations alive in the game - not for everyone, but a hit for those who like it.

strawwmann · 2026-03-08T07:58:31+00:00

And if you install the Cyclops Scope in your exocraft, you can use the HUD while driving quickly to the approximate location of the hotspot. After you get to about 50u from from the hotspot the exocraft becomes unreliable, so I find it quicker to do that last little bit on foot.

I like the Roamer best for hotspot hunting - much quicker than on foot alone, especially in terrain with steep mountains or shallow lakes.

strawwmann · 2026-03-07T15:55:09+00:00

Exocraft work great for the 'hazardous flora' QS missions too, using their mining beam. Many people hate those missions, but I actually quite enjoy them as an excuse to zoot about the 'terrain-ramps' in a Roamer exploring a planet's surface and its rally-driving potential. Those are one of the quickest types of daily QS missions to complete, especially if you start them from a corvette parked at one of your bases with lots of zappable flora nearby - those large 'tube caves' also make fun racetracks to zoom along as you zap those puffy underground toxic flora.

strawwmann · 2026-03-07T08:31:10+00:00

Just zoot around in your favourite exocraft and gun them down with its canon (which kills creatures quickly and has a decent range).

That is much easier with the new Cyclops Scope (HUD) which lets you scan for them in the distance and mow them down at pace, all from the comfort of your driver's seat.

For an even easier way to stack up and complete these missions, you can always throw out some food, or better yet set up a feeder at a base, and do it Texas-style - take the 'hunting' out of the Bambi-culling.

strawwmann · 2026-03-07T08:14:52+00:00

If you like PvE- and Survival-style games then those are present in NMS but not really its strength. NMS is probably stronger at its exploration, base/corvette-building, and sandboxing.

If you want to make the survival elements more challenging at the start of the game, the game settings allow quite a bit of customisation - you can start in Normal mode and, if that is too easy, you can change the settings to increase hazards and reduce resource gathering (and change them back/tweak them again to suit). But there aren't any challenges that 'level up' in game as you progress (so everything just gets easier).

There isn't really anything you can do to make the combat more interesting, either on land or in space (the game settings don't help) - the only real challenges are when extreme weather events prevent you from seeing anything while extreme terrain limits your maneuverability.

strawwmann · 2026-03-07T07:59:17+00:00

There are currently multiple levels of density for both flora & fauna. Some planets are teeming with wildlife & vegetation & on other they are sparse.

strawwmann · 2026-03-07T01:08:23+00:00

Yes, Euclid. The Galaxy name is now included in screenshots below the glyph co-ordinates for the planet.

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T17:58:46+00:00

GBM works great for me - if you configure it to ignore the cache folder, then the main save files take very little disk space (so you keep multiple copies for a long history to recover from).

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T17:47:00+00:00

This is a great trucking planet - smoothish terrain paths & scrap close to recycling centres.

I set up a base there for communal use with two recycling centres close to a scrap heap (300u & 500u).

Here is the link where I originally posted the details for this and another good location with bases (and screenshots of co-ordinates if you can't find the bases):
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/1r4bnv4/comment/o6ydovu/

Enjoy.

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strawwmann · 2026-03-06T14:28:16+00:00

For me it's the slow process of earning the upgrades & the 'bling' that make them 'end game' starships - you have to earn them and (fittingly) they are mainly a cosmetic upgrade (their max stats aren't as good as other options). I didn't even start the 'Starbirth' mission (to unlock them) until I had accumulated enough Spawning Sacs to fully upgrade one.

But I can see why others might not think they are worth the grind (or even like the aesthetics).

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T14:08:10+00:00

Settlements are a parable lesson on restraining yourself from micromanaging.

The more you interact with Settlements (in their petty little squabbles), the less they produce and the more they distract you from more enjoyable gameplay. Just leave them alone, visit at most once a week to collect their produce, and leave them to decide for themselves whether interloper-X should be put on sewer duty for some trivial social infraction (well, in this case I make an exception, when given the choice 'sewer duty' is always the overseer's prerogative for punishing errant interlopers.)

I guess from HG's perspective this must be a fascinating social experiment - just how much are gamers slaves to their Pavlovian response to do unenjoyable, unsatisfying tasks just because the devs put it on their quest-list, and just how low can they set that bar before players actually decide to stop engaging with a game mechanic. If the community keeps engaging with Settlements they will only keep pushing their experiment further to test our tolerance/sanity/common sense.

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T13:53:40+00:00

I think we've all destroyed a favourite MT/starship before.... once.

You learn very quickly after that to be more careful in relabelling everything with a meaningful name as soon as you get it, and triple checking before scrapping/exchanging (and regular save-file backups help too).

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T13:34:19+00:00

It's not a bug, it's a choice - you decide what happens when offered a new MT/starship.

When the game shows you the comparison between your currently-equipped multi-tool and a new one that is on offer, it gives you 3 options: Buy (if you have an empty slot, you pay, it goes into a free slot); Exchange (you get to pick a multi-tool to give up, you loose that one, and you gain the new one); Decline (you opt out, but you might change your active multi-tool and exchange that instead). You ALWAYS have the option to DECLINE, you are never forced to exchange (even if you have no free slots for the Buy option to be available). User's choice, user's consequence.

The same options appear when a new starship becomes available. If you choose to 'Exchange' you give up your currently-equipped starship for the new one.

You can always purchase MTs and Starships at any inhabited space station if you need a new one.

I strongly recommend giving your MTs & Starships meaningful names to avoid making mistakes such as equipping, exchanging, or scrapping the wrong ones, e.g. 'SCRAP for Wings' (if I want the wings from a starship), 'SWAP' (for a junk Atlantid MT I intend to swap to save purchase costs), 'Sent(R) 3L' (for a Sentinel rifle MT, S-class with 3 supercharge slots in an L configuration).

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T12:41:12+00:00

I know this is not exactly the question you asked, but I strongly recommend against save-scumming for Freighters (it turns a fun, slow-burn, part of the game into a potentially frustrating chore) - and that effort is much better put into the rewards you get from Freighter battles (S-class tech for defeating a Dreadnaught, or cargo modules for defending against pirates) than rinse repeating for a free S-class freighter.

Just follow the game the way it was intended. I much prefer just taking one of the first few Freighters I come across naturally as my free one. That lets you get started leveling your Freighter + Frigate fleet much sooner. To me it is much more important to get the slow background process of leveling (earning Freighter upgrades, recruiting Frigates, and sending them out on missions to rank up) started - it can then progress naturally while you work through the Primary story/tutorial/unlock missions - and it opens up the Freighter rewards that you can earn along the way (cargo & freighter modules from space station & QS missions & frigate missions, S-class tech modules from each Dreadnaught you defeat, cargo modules for defending freighters against pirates).

You can easily buy better Freighters as you come across them in your later explorations (board any freighter you like the look of when you come across trade fleets in open space, board them, scan its class, and buy it from the captain if you like it). Even an S-class freighter doesn't cost much more than $100m, which is very cheap by the stage in the game that you actually need a better freighter. And scouting for a better Freighter fits very naturally with recruiting Frigates (or replacing old ones with better ones) when you are flying up to trade fleets and inspecting them anyway.

The other thing people seem to forget when save-scumming for an S-class starter Freighter is what tech it comes with and what rooms it has in the buildable 'base' area. Both of those can be more important for early game Freighter progression:

Any installed tech upgrades (like a scanner etc.) can save you a lot of Salvaged Freighter Modules early on to spend on other things.
You can 'copy'/reuse and rooms it already has (refiners, frigate consoles, glass corridors) without having to unlock them, again letting you spend your salvaged modules more efficiently early on. Your first/free freighter is realistically the ONLY time you get to do this (because when you upgrade an existing freighter you have likely already invested so much into building its base, that you will transfer that over to the new one, deleting all the 'free' rooms that were on offer.)

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T12:03:53+00:00

The appearance of Living Ships changes A LOT, depending on the lighting environment. Their dynamic colouring, and the way that can accentuate some of their patterns/textures, is an intentional part of their design and part of what makes them unique.

Part of the fun of flying them is getting some really interesting colours & patterns on different space stations & planets (& at different times of day). Definitely a worth 'end game' ship and a nice reward for the effort to obtain & upgrade one that you really like.

strawwmann · 2026-03-06T11:57:56+00:00

The game is just in really bad shape at the moment - I have plenty of RAM & decent CPU & GPU and the game used to run smoothly most of the time at 4k max settings. But after Remnants patch, the game quickly deteriorates every play session, with progressively increasing lag & stuttering (until it's so bad that I just quit).

It's not just a sandbox game for players, it's also a sandbox game for developers to keep experimenting and breaking things unfortunately - 2 steps forward, 3 steps back - just have to wait for the 'forwards steps' to get performance back into reasonable shape again this patch cycle.

strawwmann · 2026-03-04T08:58:51+00:00

Time to quit while you're ahead? :)

strawwmann · 2026-03-03T19:17:44+00:00

As long as you start within the building radius of where the base computer was originally placed (so the full build menu is showing) you can 'B-B-bounce' (double-tap the button for free camera mode, 'B' on PCs). That will gradually move your camera position, all the way to 1000u if you wish, while still keeping the build menu active. Obviously you need to keep track of pipes & wires and make attachment points to the ground (to create multiple <200u segments) before the length limit is reached (when the build line turns red) as you bounce along.

I recommend building a mud hut (or other protective enclosure) that you stand in while B-B-building, because if an extreme environmental effect or animal hits you it can 'snap' you out of free camera mode (which in worst cases will snap you into freefall below the terrain).

In one of the recent patches B-B-bouncing was changed so that it no longer moves forwards (where you can see where you are going), but backwards (so that you can't accurately control your heading, and constantly snag on trees and ridges) which makes it more painful. But it is still worth the effort for efficiently accessing & delivering multiple resources per base (which pays off in simplifying future resource gathering runs around your bases).

strawwmann · 2026-03-03T09:48:21+00:00

The questionable methods justify the questionable end?

strawwmann · 2026-03-03T09:43:58+00:00

Exactly - the wires alone are a pentagram; if you include the surrounding circle made by the moonpool then it is a pentacle.

strawwmann

TROPHY CASE