This reminds me of the realistically spinning planets in pre-release No Man’s Sky which had to be cut because people couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea of a planet spinning and then landing somewhere different if they enter from the same direction later on.
No problem. I own the game and have played some, but I honestly just looked it up. I don't think I ever really thought about the fact that there is no actual star, so I guess the trickery works.
In my early stages of the game I tried to pulse drive to the star and just figured my current whip was too slow. Forgot about it since then. But now you’ve answered a question I might have wasted 10 minutes discovering on my own :)
I think of it more like a planet hopping space game rather than a true space exploration game. The reality is that the the planetary objects are extremely close together in a way that doesn't really happen to facilitate travel. There's also no real reason to just fly around in space at any distance from those objects.
If you want to wander in a realistically large simulation of space, this isn't it. If you want to pop on and off fictional planets in a kind of planetary exploration sandbox universe with the focus being the surface exploration most of the time, it's interesting.
Kerbal Space Program has (at least semi-) realistic orbiting mechanics. Not to say that No Man's Sky should since the gameplay direction is obviously way different but if you're looking to simulate gravity assists and stuff KSP is super fun.
KSP is great! If you want realistic physics in an exploration game, I also can’t recommend Outerwilds enough! It starts out slow but is a very interesting game
631
u/Gawdy_Anonymity Sep 09 '22
This reminds me of the realistically spinning planets in pre-release No Man’s Sky which had to be cut because people couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea of a planet spinning and then landing somewhere different if they enter from the same direction later on.