Thoughts on Nightlies

Hey, I just thought I'd put out a few thoughts I had while playing through some of the new nightly content, and looking at other, unfinished stuff. I hesitate to put a feedback tag on this since there will be little proper feedback, and more random rambling, not all of which will have to do with gameplay.

1. The Protectorate: So, as far as I can tell from the protectorate area, your character, regardless of race, now starts as a member of the Proectorate, on Earth, which has apparently been there a pretty long time if the number of leaders is to be believed. This really puts the "humans are like the galaxy's newbies who don't know much about the other races" thing off a little, though to be fair that could have been placeholder lore.

2. Racial Diversity and the Human Problem: At the end of the (admittedly unfinished) protectorate section, you're presented with a human ship, which makes me think that perhaps every race is going to start out with a human ship now, which is also backed up by every race also having a variation on the human AI now. This worries me. I like the racial diversity, and I want more, not less, reasons to pick and play other races. Of course, once again this may have to do with it being unfinished and the devs are perhaps working on the AI or something.

3. The new story NPCs: I continue to like Nuru's small amount of snark, and I can fully accept that she would get sick of doing the same thing constantly and decide on a whim to join you. Now, I can't for the life of me remember the other NPCs names at the moment so I'll be using their race names instead:
Avian Priest Guy is so oblivious it's scary. He seems perfectly aware that sacrifices are being made in Kluex's name, blindly follows him, and blindly follows you because using some insane troll logic he figured you were sent by Kluex. I don't want this guy on my team, I don't care how cute he is, he's a member of a group of religious zealots, perfectly aware of this fact, and only follows you due to some misguided belief that his god is telling him to. Just... Augh. I want to trust him... Is what I would say if I didn't really want to hate him. I just can't though. He's too happy-go-lucky.
Hylotl Bookworm Fella seems nice, humble, and comes with you out of genuine curiosity, which is understandable given he seems to be a history buff. The Ark would be a big deal for him. That, and he doesn't display the seemingly innate, dripping disdain for and superiority complex over the other races. That's a plus. I wonder if him and Nuru will get along.
Esther... Can't say much about her yet. She seems like a combo of a friendly old aunt who wants to make people happy and cool leader guy who's seen everything before while going around and doing cool things, but I can't shake the feeling that Nox might be partially right in telling me not to trust her completely. Yeah, she was the grand protectorate, but still...
The Baron (I remembered one!)... Is strange and eccentric, and I don't know much about him other than he values his wealth and he decided to come with me because his castle sort of blew up a little. His "I do things because they're fun" attitude reminds me of Nuru a bit. I have a feeling I'll like him once he gets some more characterization.
Apex Resistance Lady... Um... Okay, so she sees a stranger, entrusts them with a dangerous mission when they could very well be an enemy spy or something, gets them to do all the work, then goes "good job buddy! I'mma come with you. What? Yeah the rebellion will be fine on my own I'm takin' a vacation!" WHOT? I thought the Apex were hyperintelligent, but she acts completely daft from the moment you lay eyes on her. Also I'm pissed at her because her mission didn't seem to complete correctly leading to the key not appearing at the Ark and her not joining the growing camp around the gate (seriously guys there's a big outpost with warm coffee and people only a short walk away)
Nox... Is giving me a Kylo Ren vibe. I'm guessing she's probably Esther's kid who went all dark-side but is conflicted and may actually be a better person than they think, but tries to deny it and tries to be evil but comes across as kind of petty and childish at times, and also thinks that the evil side is actually the one that's right. Okay she's totally gonna be a Kylo Ren knockoff... Ren has better hair though.
TL;DR: some of the story NPCs may need improvment to make sense and be more likable. Others are fine but still could use some more development than they get from their limited lines in and outside of the missions so far. Maybe make them talk with eachother a little, too, instead of just the player.

4. The Crafting: LORDIE! The new system is nice, makes crafting a more involved and interesting process. HOWEVER. I did notice some issues. Specifically, crafting time. While smelting ores makes sense, please allow me to leave and do other things while that's happening. Crafting armor and stuff takes just long enough for it to be awkward and unnessessary padding. Crafting small things takes only about 0.2 seconds but that's enough to make rapid-clicked-to-make-multiple (I can't be the only one who does this) very annoying.
Also Cotton takes freaking forever to get, and it takes way too much cotton wool, made from 3 cotton each, to make anything like clothes or tier 2 armor. Wayyy too much.
Have to say I love the upgrade system. SO much cleaner than needing to take the thing down and make a replacement furnace or whatever.

I may or may not add to this if I play more of the nightlies. I'll probably wait until at least unstable until giving a more thorough thoughts (and actual proper feedback) because... well, stuff'll be more complete, not broken, and I won't have to admin everything into existence and back again.

 

WHERES THA SPOILER TAG M8

 

Avian priest guy is tonu..cuac... or something like that. Tonauac
Hylotl bookworm fella is koichi, I like that name.
Esther I agree with you on, it feels off she wants to open the gate to the ruin...
Apex resistance lady is known as Lana, I like her scarf but not her attitude.
I have noticed the protectorate ship, and hope that that's not the case. I like my hylotl ship.
I personally like the protectorate, it gives a good tutorial on how to use the matter manipulator in an enviroment that makes sense. Even though it's a work in progress and the cinematics don't automatically play yet, I still am in LOVE with it as an intro. The decompiled files DO show cinematic sprites of other race ships, so I assume it'll "just happen to be" your race's ship that you jump on to escape Earth. The cinematic shows your race's ship blasting off from earth, so this is pretty much confirmed.

 

Kinda in the title.... don't want spoilers, don't look at anything with "nightly" in it....

 

Oh, great Sunborn I'm sorry I completely forgot I'll add that in now!