First of all, this game is so much better, and it was so much better after each update, but this particular update has brought everything nicely together. I'm still noticing a few compromises the engine has to make. For instance, if you have high mountains, you can't have deep caves, and visa versa. I'm fine with this though and I'm certain they'll improve the height/depth ratio at some point in the future. It just means you can't really have extremely deep oceans unless the land itself is reasonably flat. All in all though, it's broader and deeper in terms of gameplay mechanics and some changes, such as material combinations are a great addition. But there's always a 'but' with me ... You should know that by now, so:
1: Remove the unit distances because it's of no consequence whatsoever. All it does is complicate for the sake of it. Just keep it as it was and give me the time it takes to get there. Unit distance for close up and time for further away is just silly in my opinion.
2: Reinstate the timers on the sentinels. I can only think of one reason they've done this, and that's the please the 'pew-pew' crowd. All they had to do is tweak the old system a little and they could have pleased both the explorers (which there are many and 'were' once the mainstay of the NMS community) and the battle orientated. It was ALWAYS the case that the timers varied and you'd sometimes have less or more time to deal with the sentinels before they called for back up. Now you don't really have an option unless you fancy killing every sentinel that comes your way. All you can do is run, which I see nearly everyone do on Youtube. Before this change, even explorers would take on a sentinel or two.
Adjust the sentinels and give them personalities, depending on the planet. Some could have 1 - 3 second timers, giving us the same result we're seeing now. Others could have 5 - 10 second timers, making it an urgent matter to kill them as soon as possible, while others could just be as they've always been. The change has removed that moment of panic you had when you wasn't sure you could deal with them fast enough. There's no point in killing them now.
Some examples of possible sentinel personalities. These (or whatever they decided to call them) could be information added to your scanners, giving us a very good reason to actually scan the sentinels:
Fickle: These sentinels vary in the time you get. It could be anywhere within a range of 1 - 20 seconds, depending on how they felt that day. That would add a moment of regret or relief once you see how fast the timer is moving.
Bully: These sentinels only ever give you 1 - 3 seconds before they call for back up. They're to be avoided at all cost unless you decide it's the day the worm turns.
Balanced: These sentinels give you between 10 - 20 seconds before calling calling for back up and are the pride of the Atlas.
Aggressive: These already exist, and I hate the little blighters.
3: Slow those clouds down by at least 50% and stop them broiling for 50% too. I'm not keen on watching a time laps in real time and it breaks the immersion in my opinion. Wind swept planets could increase those percentages whilst calm, idyllic planets could slow them further.
