So I took … probably a year off from the game. Pretty much quit after the update that introduced power and VR (Googling suggests that this was the Beyond update in Aug. 2019, so … yeah, a whole year); the PS4 version of VR had issues (if you use the wands) with flying and I didn’t think to switch to controller until a couple of weeks ago.  There were also a few things that, at the time, irked me about the game:

• The introduction of changes to environments took the blue sky, green grass, blue waters of my main base area and completely shuffled them into an ugly rainbow. The best I could do at the time was move the base to some place with blue waters, green grass, and a red sky.
• It always seemed like every update was changing something like recipes for tech or what was used for fuel or whatnot.
• The initial VR draw distance for even a moderately sized base on PS4 meant that I couldn’t see three quarters of my base at any given time, and if I moved too fast, I was in danger of falling to my death (there’s a reason my current main base is called SkyFarm III).
• I went from having a perfectly happy base to suddenly needing somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 solar panels and a crapton of batteries, which I was in no mood to go through the process of building.

I spent most of my time since then establishing myself on Elite: Dangerous. I still had love for (at least the concept of) No Man’s Sky, and always thought about coming back …

So I’ve turned 50. In protest, I took two weeks off from work and picked up NMS again, this time switching to controller in VR. Had the pleasant surprise that, for the most part, draw distance in VR for bases wasn’t horrendous any more. Built the solar panels and batteries. I had found a good spot on another planet with a class A power source before I left, but took the time to move my main base to this spot (as the sky is blue, water is blue, and the grass green). Also turns out that this spot is just close enough to a nitrogen source, so I could reduce my number of bases by two with this move. Still have a base (Radon Love, which had both free power and radon source close to each other) in the old system since there’s no cold/radioactive planet in the new system, but moved my Sulpherine base to the new one. Can even farm at the Sulpherine base (great sources of milk there), which also had free power and some deep core copper nearby. Did have to track down just the right planet with the appropriate life form for some Eggs though.

Been streaming it all. Had someone hop on the other day and ask me if I needed help … well, with 900 hours in the game, no … I either know what I’m doing or have decent enough Google-Fu to find out. Also asked me if I needed a lift to the Galactic Hub … well … no, I have a “foothold” base on New Lennon and while the Egg Farm is possibly out of the Hub (or I neglected to name it before uploading it, sorry), my other three systems are in HUB1 space. Thanks for stopping by though!

I’ve obtained and maxed out a living ship. I’ve managed to accrue somewhere in the region of 18K nanites and am working on adding storage and S-Class upgrades to my exotic ship. Between the three gas bases and two farms, I’ve got plenty of materials for building Fusion Igniters and Stasis Devices.

The only problem I have right now is that even with the WFH that COVID triggers, all my other obligations (dog walks, my own walk, work, sleep) leave me probably less than 2-3 hours a night (I know, cry me a river) to play … and in VR, it’s so easy to lose track of time.

Oh … and the warp navigator in VR on PS4 is … confusing or problematic at best. But I haven’t been doing a lot of exploring.
Have a hard time right now not playing in VR, even though things are so much clearer on the screen compared to VR. Also have a hard time playing E:D since no VR for E:D on PS4.

Maybe in a few days I’ll actually start refamiliarizing myself with the HUB’s layout and naming scheme and get back into exploration!