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A look at Planet Nomads now it's in closed alpha and available on Linux

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Good evening explorers, today I took a look at Planet Nomads a very early build of what could be a very interesting space survival game.

Note: If you do decide to pick it up, be aware right now it has issues with Unity and their new OpenGL version. I found that setting "-force-opengl" as a launch option helps.

I must stress it's very early, and access to the game is quite limited at the moment, but the developer sent me a key and it's interesting. It currently has a single planet and only a creative mode, but that's due to change as they build more into it.

I built a buggy, drove it for a moment and totally screwed up and carried on exploring.

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I am looking with very keen eyes at how it evolves during it's closed beta time period. I will keep checking on it and keep doing videos as it gains new features.

It is quite exciting, as the building system does seem quite powerful and reasonably easy to get to grips with. I can only imagine the kind of weird and wonderful creations people make with this. Considering how customizable everything is, even with vehicles, when it gets multiplayer support having your friends jump in your custom made vehicle for a cruise sounds pretty fun.

I didn't even touch building a shelter in this video, but it already has around 50 blocks available including lights, doors and so on.

Performance wise it runs okay, but considering I have an Nvidia 980ti it probably won't run so well on the lower end. This is another thing they will improve over time of course.

It will have many more features including animals, flying vehicles and space travel to name a few.

It feels rather bare-bones right now, but it is setting itself up with an impressive base for something great.

You can read more about it and what's in it right now on their FAQ page.

Planet Nomads has a Steam page ready for it, but you can pre-order it from their website to gain early access. I'm not suggesting anyone does pre-order, but considering it's already on Linux on playable you are at least safe. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Xpander Aug 25, 2016
like said -force-opengl needs to be used to launch this to avoid white flashing and some graphical glitches.
Sadly that means older opengl rendering path and much worse performance than with newer glcore.

i like the game so far, it reminds me a bit Scrap Mechanic's building mechanisms (which sadly isnt for linux, but using opengl).

and ofc some quick gameplay video:

View video on youtube.com
Zelox Aug 25, 2016
If there was a gog version of the game when you pre-order, it would be great :P.
Is this something you are allowed to stream on friday maybe :)?

Quoting: Xpanderlike said -force-opengl needs to be used to launch this to avoid white flashing and some graphical glitches.
Sadly that means older opengl rendering path and much worse performance than with newer glcore.

Seems to run well with the launch option fix :).


Last edited by Zelox on 25 August 2016 at 9:03 pm UTC
QUASAR Aug 25, 2016
It looks nice, I will give it a try as soon as I can, thanks!
tripy Aug 25, 2016
Aaaand I pulled the trigger. Not for the close alpha tough. No time for it now, and I don't want to spoil my exploration craving with alpha right now.
I mean, I'm waiting for so long for an exploration game (space/sci-fi themed preferably) that I can run without re-installing windows, that I feel I can wait a few more months.
soulsource Aug 25, 2016
Quoting: tripyAaaand I pulled the trigger. Not for the close alpha tough. No time for it now, and I don't want to spoil my exploration craving with alpha right now.
I mean, I'm waiting for so long for an exploration game (space/sci-fi themed preferably) that I can run without re-installing windows, that I feel I can wait a few more months.

What about Kerbal Space Program?
tripy Aug 25, 2016
Quoting: soulsource
Quoting: tripyAaaand I pulled the trigger. Not for the close alpha tough. No time for it now, and I don't want to spoil my exploration craving with alpha right now.
I mean, I'm waiting for so long for an exploration game (space/sci-fi themed preferably) that I can run without re-installing windows, that I feel I can wait a few more months.

What about Kerbal Space Program?

Isn't kerbal about building a rocket and land on a satellite ?
That's what I understood it is, and didn't really looked further than that.
A youtuber I follow streamed it pretty regularly, and yeah, no. Not for me.
I'm really about the exploration.

That's something I didn't really indulged myself since Skyrim, frankly.
I loved looking through all those caverns and searching places to discover stories.
Fallout new vegas was really good to, in that regard.

My heart skipped some beats when I read sooner this week that the new Deus Ex had depots for Linux on steamDB.
I don't want to be waiting for it, but I kinda hope that it will come.
Looking some youtube video, there is so much lore and so much to explore in that game, it's a dream.

But yeah, basically, I don't get my kick from the survival nor building part, but from the lore and exploration.
Ehvis Aug 25, 2016
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No real exploration here yet. You can drive around the planet (walk too, but who has the time ;-P), but there is no real point to it yet. At this point it's basically an in-game version of the editor with the vehicle physics enabled. Still good to have a look at what works though. Especially since Linux users normally don't get to play with alphas.

I have very few glitches though. Only when I alt-tab out it seems.
Shmerl Aug 25, 2016
Looks pretty good already. I'll probably buy an alpha version when it will come out on GOG.
nepo Aug 26, 2016
Sounds like an advanced version of "No Man's Sky" - but ways too early for me, even it looks promising.
soulsource Aug 26, 2016
@tripy:
I misunderstood you, as I thought you meant space exploration. In that case KSP is definitely not the game for you, as the KSP planets don't offer any lore, apart from a few hard to find easter eggs. They are basically what most planets in real life are: gigantic rocks, devoid of any life (except Laythee, which likely has some algae or similar, as it has free oxygen...). The only exploration you can do in KSP is find out how the dunes behind the next dune look like, and of course exploring the physics of space-flight.


@nepo:
Have you watched the video? It literally sounds like No Man's Sky - I guess the sound effects are creative commons or something...
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