Monday, August 22, 2016

No Man's Diary #6


( 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 )
Day 7
As I scour my current system for the elusive chrysonite, I find another ship upgrade. It's pretty incremental - only a single inventory slot - but I like the look of it, and manage to scrounge enough materials to get it up and running. I have to fly without a shield for a while, but only fall afoul of pirates once.

I ignore the next crashed ship I find; I'm finding that repairs quickly get expensive and time-consuming, so I think I'll wait for something that's a more dramatic upgrade than a single inventory slot.

Unless it, you know, looks really cool, or something.

I'm still trying to name everything I can; as far as creatures go, I try to give them vaguely-sensible "common names", but planets I mostly feel have to be more dramatic, named for gods or places out of mythology. Oh, apart from that one extremely radioactive one with the storms and the murder-Sentinels who attack on sight. I just called that one "KEEP OUT".

After deciding (realising?) that this system's a wash, I pull up the galaxy map and step off the guided path to the galactic core, picking a random system with five planets - the more planets, I figure, the more likely that one will be an ice world (which I've heard are more likely to spawn chrysonite).

I warp into the middle of a space battle, but any hits I take are a result of crossfire; nobody's directly targeting me (yet). The attackers are too numerous for me to risk a heroic intervention, so I bug out to the safety of the system's space station.

I only spend a few hours playing over the next couple of days; a combination of limited time and increasing frustration as each new planet turns out to be another radioactive desert. Gold, aluminium, and heridium are plentiful, but there's still no sign of chrysonite.


After my first run through Hitman's new Bangkok level, I decide that I'll check out the remaining two planets in the system. Even if there isn't chrysonite, I figure, I'll just start trading other minerals and build up my bank account.

Planet #4: radioactive desert.

It's got some spherical growths that shoot spines when I approach, though; shooting them in retaliation gives me sac poison - something I've seen go for decent cash on the galactic market. It attracts Sentinel attention, too, but my multitool is upgraded enough that they're not a major threat.

On approach, planet #5 looks grey-white; my ice-planet hopes start to rise, but I quash them - I've made that mistake before.

But then...


In one crystal spar, my enthusiasm returns.

No comments:

Post a Comment