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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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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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17 comments
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Creak Aug 26, 2016
I was expecting it but I wanted to try anyway, the game doesn't work with an old Radeon HD 6870 with the open source drivers.

I was actually surprised it launched and I can browse the menu and launch a world. The only problem is that not everything is displayed, like, the ground ;)

As I said, it's not a surprise (Alien Isolation doesn't work either) and I'm planning on buying an RX 480 sooner than later. Just waiting for kernel 4.7 to get into Fedora 24 ;)


Last edited by Creak on 26 August 2016 at 11:38 am UTC
wintermute Aug 26, 2016
Quoting: CreakI was expecting it but I wanted to try anyway, the game doesn't work with an old Radeon HD 6870 with the open source drivers.

Did you start with the -force-opengl option as described in the article? A lot of Unity 5.x based games have not worked without that on my AMD laptop.
Creak Aug 26, 2016
Quoting: wintermuteDid you start with the -force-opengl option as described in the article? A lot of Unity 5.x based games have not worked without that on my AMD laptop.

Yup, actually it works "better" without the option ;)
JudasIscariot Aug 26, 2016
Well, I tested this build and so far I have this to say:

- there's no such thing as "suspensions" it's just "suspension" or even a "suspension assembly" when referring to a vehicle's suspension.
- for whatever reason no matter what I try to do, I keep building a car whose wheels will spin in different directions and so I am end up going in circles.


Last edited by JudasIscariot on 26 August 2016 at 3:01 pm UTC
marcelomendes Aug 26, 2016
I'm currently having a lot of fun playing SkyBreak[1]. But I'll keep an eye on this one.

[1] http://store.steampowered.com/app/405370/
Ehvis Aug 26, 2016
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Quoting: JudasIscariot- for whatever reason no matter what I try to do, I keep building a car whose wheels will spin in different directions and so I am end up going in circles.

In [TAB] mode (I forgot what they called it), you can change spinning and steering directions.
JudasIscariot Aug 26, 2016
Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: JudasIscariot- for whatever reason no matter what I try to do, I keep building a car whose wheels will spin in different directions and so I am end up going in circles.

In [TAB] mode (I forgot what they called it), you can change spinning and steering directions.

Yeah I tried that and still ended up with a faulty car,

Also, you can't put a jack under the car once it's complete which is ...odd.
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