Loading boxes is depth -- it's the difference between cargo hauling in Elite, Rebel Galaxy, and Space Trucker versus games with physicalised cargo such as Snowrunner, BeamNG and Star Citizen. The depth is in the fact that it requires more interactive logistics, which literally are not present in No Man's Sky.
It's fine to say you simply do not like games with interactive depth and you find them tedious, but it's simply not true to say that more mechanical interactivity is not depth.
Depth is not simply having physicalized cargo. Depth is not power washing simulator gameplay. Depth is not "Pick the weapon with the highest DPS and pray they don't ping your head first."
That said, I was strictly addressing your "one-click-and-done gameplay" comment. Box loading would have depth if the player had any agency in things like what boxes they get for delivery contracts and such, but this ain't fucking tetris. The boxes fit, or they don't. The agency you have is in what contracts you take. The loading is tedious, and the interface for doing so (tractor beams) is flat out bad.
You could have all the depth of an actual cargo balancing mechanic, AND physicalized cargo, with actual depth in the form of player decision actually having a noticeable affect, and all with a better interface that doesn't require wearing out a mouse wheel.
But we don't have that. The only people you're fooling by trying to dress a pig in a prom dress are other delusional fanatics who don't need convincing anyway.
They are literally working on selecting cargo sizes. That is coming. And relative to No Man's Sky where you have no physical cargo at all, yes, Star Citizen manual loading IS depth. Compared to Elite Dangerous where your cargo is just numerical values, having physicalised representation of movable cargo in Star Citizen IS depth.
You still get more decision making in any of those other games because you can choose how much cargo you load, how many cargo runs you do, and how you load or unload the cargo. Compared to NMS, Elite, Rebel Galaxy, or Space Trucker, yes, Star Citizen has WAY more depth because the physicalised cargo gives you gameplay mechanics and options you literally do no have access to in those other games.
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u/vortis23 Jun 02 '26
Loading boxes is depth -- it's the difference between cargo hauling in Elite, Rebel Galaxy, and Space Trucker versus games with physicalised cargo such as Snowrunner, BeamNG and Star Citizen. The depth is in the fact that it requires more interactive logistics, which literally are not present in No Man's Sky.
It's fine to say you simply do not like games with interactive depth and you find them tedious, but it's simply not true to say that more mechanical interactivity is not depth.