I've read a ton of good things about this game, so I started it this week. I'm a couple of hours in now, but all I'm doing is floating around in the little space ship so far, and respawning every so often when I do something dumb.
Without spoiling it for me, is this really what this game is about? Does it get interesting at some point (soon I hope)?
UPDATE 1 DAY LATER: OK, so, using my ship log helped and I found something amazing. So I think I've found my way now and will stick with it. Thanks @tetraodon and everyone – y'all rock!
Mostly the latter. Let’s see… I fell into the sun, got eaten by a huge fish, drowned in some water, suffocated on a moon with no atmosphere (and figured out what the suit is for). And just plain gotten my ship into a place it couldn’t escape from, mostly by getting stuck in the trees on my home planet nor far from the launch site. But I did talk to the guy on the Attlerock (is that the right name?) who whistles. I guess that’s something.
Really, these all just seem like random encounters and I am not learning anything yet. I get the “keep exploring” idea, but I would think there would be some sort of clue by now what I am looking for or why, but everyone I talk to is all, “keep exploring”.
Use the ships log computer to give you an objective. It should have some areas filled in now from your exploring. Find something to do from there.
Once you start blasting off with an objective it becomes so much more fun.
You haven’t been playing wrong, but the transition from aimlessly exploring to “going out on a mission” is something that loses people.
Talking to people and examining writing will usually drop references to a couple of other places to explore, or to unanswered questions that are worth looking into. Even if they seem minor, these almost inevitably lead to putting together pieces of the larger story, regardless of which pieces you start with. I don’t specifically remember what whistling guy talks about, but it sounds like that’s the only potential lead you’ve found so far. It’s certainly possible to make progress without ever talking to him, via all kinds of things that can be independently stumbled on, but if you haven’t found anything else I bet revisiting his dialogue will give you an idea on where to search next.
(Okay, I checked the wiki and can confirm that, while Esker is not the richest source of new options in the game, his dialogue does include instructions that lead to new threads for you to pull on)
Ok but wow, then those are some subtle hints. I’ll start paying way more attention to what people tell me. Thanks!
You haven’t visited the ruins on the attlerock it sounds like. That should probably be your next step. They are on the other side of the moon from the whistling guy.
Gotcha, thanks!