I picked up EGS years ago and I'm just starting to play it. Right now I'm just gathering resources but I don't know what my next steps are supposed to be as far as base or vehicle building goes. NMS looks interesting as well and it's half off on GOG for the next few days.
Does anyone have any experience with these games?
There's supposedly a big redemption story with NMS's development. Its launch was a disaster but they somehow managed to turn things around commercially at least.
They added a lot of new stuff and made a lot more things worth doing and flowing, but its still the same sandbox genre.
The redemption is that they spent years working and fixing it after being completely thrown to the gutter, something no one expected. Its less "omg they fixed it and its amazing now" and more "for no real money, they kept grinding anyway just to try and redeem their product."
Its a principle and moral redemption, not exactly a production one.
Commercially maybe, but I'll bet it's still shit.
NMS is still as vast as an ocean and as shallow as a puddle. Once you notice how "different but the same" the procedural generation is the magic wears off.