4Game

So I recently headed out to HIP 36601 for the first time to collect some raw materials. That took about an hour of nonstop jumping in my modestly upgraded Asp Explorer, being 1500+ ly from the bubble. The harvesting planets are of course orbiting star C, quite far from the main star. But twenty minutes after reaching the system I land on the first planet, so far so good. Get out in my SRV and start shooting crystals.

Except…nearly all the materials dropped stay stuck in the shards. Twenty minutes of shooting crystals and I get exactly one (1) Polonium to fall. Finally!

Except…while maneuvering to pick up the material (a process which is way too janky, btw) my SRV gets stuck. Completely embedded in a crystal formation. I try every button, I try logging out and back in, I try exiting the game entirely and restarting. Still stuck in the shard. So I exit the game and restart without Horizons. The game asks me if I want to be dropped "in orbit". I say yes.

Except…it drops me 100,000 ls away from HIP 36601 C. Not near the central star, not near anything in fact, 50,000 ls from the nearest object.

So I take another 15 minutes or so to fly back to the planet and I begin my descent, exactly the same as last time.

Except…this time, as I'm finishing my approach, the ship refuses to slow down. I try to position myself pointing away from the planet and boost, but it's too late. I crash into the planet and explode, sending me all the way back to the bubble.

Three hours of grind, zero materials, zero fun, three or four giant gamebreaking bugs encountered, ending in peak throw-my-monitor-out-the-window frustration.

And what is the point? Even if everything worked perfectly it's a longggg ass grind to get materials to make my ship perform a narrow variety of grindy tasks a little more efficiently.

Now consider on top of that: these are bugs that could easily be addressed, that people have been mentioning in forums like this for years, and they've never patched them, just like they've never addressed the obviously grindy gameplay balance.

Having a very hard time right now seeing how this game is worth playing anymore.