I think they probably said they'd deliver some things that they didn't but I think mostly it's a) a lot of misunderstanding, and b) the publisher saying "Ship this game now!"
Oh, absolutely. I think, too, that some people forgot that this isn't a AAA title. It was made by a little known studio that hadn't made any notable games up to that point, and it was a crew of 15 people developing it. It is, for all intents and purposes, an indie game. An indie game that got way more hype than was good for it. Had the hype been a little more subdued, I think it would be regarded for what it really is: a decent game. Still a shame that the phrase "A mile wide but two feet deep" applies to it, but that's not necessarily restricted to NMS, either.
The thing I always worried about with Mythruna is what would a new player's perception be if the first time they played they were plopped in the middle of a desert that was miles in all directions. Or if I had longer seasons, what if the only thing they saw was winter?
That first sentence reminds me of a minecraft server I played on. The gimmick was that the entire 10km X 10km map was a desert and you had to maintain your hydration and watch your temperature. It may seem monotonous compared to the 20 something biomes in vanilla minecraft, but the mechanics that were introduced for this (at the time) new kind of gameplay made it really fun and challenging. Going back to the issue of depth, if you give the biome enough nuance and unique challenges, you could ship Mythruna as 'just' a desert and still have it have huge player retention. We should discuss biomes more thoroughly in the future.
As for long seasons, well... biomes and seasons would balance eachother out, in a sense. Each biome will react to seasons differently, right? Subtropical and tropical regions would have a dry season during winter, and a wet season during the summer, while heading toward temperate regions and tundras would lead to the classic expression of seasons, with variations depending on the climate. Ideally, local fauna and flora would react and cycle along with the seasons as well. (and maybe even migrate?) This is a game, so generally speaking, things that make it less fun have no place here. If winter is something we're still concerned about wrt how players will enjoy it, then we really need to look at how we can evolve winter to be 'fun'.
We've touched on this before, but it's still worth noting that winter doesn't have to be a time where everything is dead. Since it's here, No Man's Sky has a beautiful and colorful universe filled with life that has adapted to some of the harshest conditions we'll never have the displeasure of experiencing, be that radiation, scorching heat, or extreme cold. And frankly, we have more artistic license since this is fantasy. It kind of goes back to the idea of depth, too. Give them enough things to do and adapt to in one season, and they'll more likely than not stay until the next one.
Put in true pspeed fashion, if they see winter, make them think "Okay, typical snowy village." "Oh, why are the edges of the screen turning frosty?" "Whoa, so bonfires aren't just for cooking things!" "And pelts are more useful than plate armor in the tundra?!" "Ooh, is that tree growing over there made of ICE?!" "And are those crystal flowers over there being pollinated by crystal insects?" "Is that sparkly thing over there their nest?" and so on.
Of course, allowing easy customization of these things never hurts regardless of how you decide to balance seasons and biomes.
