No Man's Sky Catch-All 2.0

I'm not always the cynic, but wow, I sense a lot more disappointment in the future.

The ideas of this game are just so much larger than anything this small indie group can put out. It's what NMS was based on - grand ideas. And just looking at the last 10 or so posts, it's happening all over again.

Don't get me wrong, speculating is a huge part of the talk that happens on these forums. But in regards to this game, it seems like even after the disappointment and dashed hopes that this game turned into, it's happening all over again at even the mention of a new feature.

I'm definitely curious as well though. Other than building your ship or some type of space station, my first thought was along the same lines as absurddoctor, base building on procedural generation planets, while I understand the planets are re-built each time in the same way, it seems like that type of system is not built for random bases to be plopped down at will.

I have a lot of thoughts for how they should improve the game. But I'll wait until they have some concrete releases to speculate about the future in too much detail. They've got a framework to build on. If the release version had been treated as the early access versions of Terraria or Minecraft I think expectations would be better on both sides. But it wasn't, so we're here.

Citizen86 wrote:

I'm not always the cynic, but wow, I sense a lot more disappointment in the future.

Well this week has at most 8hrs left so there's that.

Tyops wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

I'm not always the cynic, but wow, I sense a lot more disappointment in the future.

Well this week has at most 8hrs left so there's that. :P

I'm confused: what does the week have to do with anything?

Gremlin wrote:
Tyops wrote:
Citizen86 wrote:

I'm not always the cynic, but wow, I sense a lot more disappointment in the future.

Well this week has at most 8hrs left so there's that. :P

I'm confused: what does the week have to do with anything?

FOUNDATION UPDATE INCOMING

Hello Games | November 25, 2016
Hello,
This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky...

They should have said next week if they meant next week... It's not like communications was one of their issues.

The update's apparently live now. Looks like it adds a good amount of stuff.

I'm interested in the quality of life improvements, but the base building stuff has no appeal for me. It's nice that they let you do base building in your freighter, though. The on the ground base building still seems silly in a game whose whole thing is to explore. I'm interested to see if the planet generation algorithm and biome-specific stuff actually plays out.

Huh, that's one impressive trailer. I was expecting base building to be like much of the rest of the game in that it'd be surface deep. Looks a bit more involved than I expected.

The thing that I wonder is what the heck is the purpose of the bases that you build? Like, what motivation do I have to do anything other than the bare minimum I need to get the in-game effects I want?

Obviously, that's a way deeper existential question, and it's one I have with every single game with base building ever. I think my brain just isn't wired to enjoy stuff like this, Mincraft, and the Fallout 4 base building stuff. If it was someplace I'd be living in, that's one thing, but in a game, building a "home" that I'm hardly ever in seems like a waste of time. But I'm a grouch.

Wow. That's a lot of content.

Color me stunned they actually got the update out the door. I figured the studio would just close up shop.

That's a heck of a lot of stuff.

Spoiler:
Tyops wrote:

They should have said next week if they meant next week... It's not like communications was one of their issues.

England follows the ISO 8601 week, which begins on Monday.

Edit:

JustJosh wrote:

Color me stunned they actually got the update out the door. I figured the studio would just close up shop.

Nah. They got enough initial sales that they likely have enough runway to keep their tiny, tiny team going for quite a while. After that, it just comes down to weathering the criticism.

Chaz wrote:

The thing that I wonder is what the heck is the purpose of the bases that you build? Like, what motivation do I have to do anything other than the bare minimum I need to get the in-game effects I want?

This. If the primary game goal is to make it to the center of the universe, and the travel method from planet to planet is the same, I would think base building, while fun on one or two planets, would become tedious. Three or four planets into it. I wonder if the game itself is changing from "keep moving" to something else? I hope they incorporate some of the suggestions to the photography and data collecting process I've seen mentioned around discussion boards since the game was originally released.

I'm not one of them, but a lot of people like base building as its own thing. Like, there doesn't need to be a reason. You mentioned it in Fallout, and I totally agree. But some people dropped an extra hundred hours because of the base stuff.

I'll have to watch the video when I get home. I wasn't thrilled with the game or very disappointed, so I'm open to trying again with new features.

sheared wrote:
Chaz wrote:

The thing that I wonder is what the heck is the purpose of the bases that you build? Like, what motivation do I have to do anything other than the bare minimum I need to get the in-game effects I want?

This. If the primary game goal is to make it to the center of the universe, and the travel method from planet to planet is the same, I would think base building, while fun on one or two planets, would become tedious. Three or four planets into it. I wonder if the game itself is changing from "keep moving" to something else? I hope they incorporate some of the suggestions to the photography and data collecting process I've seen mentioned around discussion boards since the game was originally released.

Well, after loading it up it seems you can build a network of bases. You can portal between them at any time, and start to setup auto mining units, storage facilities, and you can even have a mobile base on board a freighter. Some of the things they added cost a lot of money and rare resources, so the point of bases seems to be to build up a supply chain. Build bases on particularly valuable planets, and exploit them. (They also added more resources, and some biome specific resources)

The point overall seems to be the same as most sandbox survival games. Build stuff so you can build more stuff.

I'm glad they included a teleporting option between the bases. There's one planet I would build a base on because it was the safest and most prevalent with resources and creatures.

I think the prime mission of the game remains the same, but the universe (hypothetically) feels deeper because it allows for actions and interactions that befit such a high technological state. I'm hoping they've updated some of the navigation issues because in a civilization with relatively easy space flight and then FTL travel to boot, I should be better (en)able(d) to find my way around a single planet.

I'm super pumped to give this a whirl. As to the building stuff I think the portal technology is the most critical component that changes it from base building for the hell of it to stringing together a series of safe zones as you brave your way across the galaxy. It doesn't feel at odds with the fundamental philosophy of the game at all, to me.

Customizable freighters? Shut up and take my units!

I just started re-playing Mass Effect 3 too...hmmmm.

It's a rather substantial update that seems to add some "end game" content. I'll probably now actually make it to the center of the universe then start on making a nice base. I'm still more interested in exploration so I hope the next update expands on what you can encounter instead just resource gathering.

Gremlin wrote:

That's a heck of a lot of stuff.

Spoiler:
Tyops wrote:

They should have said next week if they meant next week... It's not like communications was one of their issues.

England follows the ISO 8601 week, which begins on Monday.

Fair enough. This is me eating my hat.
IMAGE(http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/uploads/monthly_11_2010/post-41268-128903159681.jpg)

The trailer looks nice. I sincerely hope that this softens the animosity people had toward HG. I guess with those game modes though they have given up the pretense that players are playing in the "same" world. We're just tagging things from the same database.

Is it possible to happen on to someone else's base?
Am I still recharging shields by dragging Fe on to my shields from the inventory UI?

I remember my time with the release version fondly until I soured on it and this hasnt really done much to move me to come back.

Tyops wrote:

Am I still recharging shields by dragging Fe on to my shields from the inventory UI?

Yes, have they fixed the egregiously flawed inventory system?

Tyops wrote:

Is it possible to happen on to someone else's base?

I think it might. There is a way to leave messages for other players if they happen upon your base (or so the description on the thing says). Still not sure if players can actually encounter each other.

PC version seems a bit buggy. SLI is busted, and I can't seem to bind a controller button for pulse drive.

My son has conscripted the PS4 into his Overwatch machine as per usual so I won't get any time until later this afternoon.

Patch notes:

Spoiler:

http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundatio...

────────

INTRODUCING UPDATE 1.1

Welcome to the Foundation Update. It adds the foundations of base building, and is a foundation for things to come. This is the first of many free updates.

Official YouTube Video

GAME MODES

Explorers can now decide to play with different rule sets, across three game modes:

Normal mode is the original chilled exploration experience

Creative mode allows players to explore the universe without limits, and build a huge base

Survival mode really changes the game, creating a much more challenging endurance experience

Death quotes: prepare to see these a lot in survival mode.

BASE BUILDING

Claim your home planet by finding an uninhabited base and creating your own, fully bespoke outpost.

Construct your homestead for shelter, using modular structures and decorations, replicated from resources gathered while exploring

Recruit alien lifeforms to help research new technology. Farming, engineer, weapons and science specialists are hirable from Space Stations

Use Terminus Teleporters in Space Stations to teleport to and from your base at will Expand your base with storage containers to stockpile precious resources and rare products

Find an even more beautiful location and you can simply dismantle your previous homestead to refund all of the spent resources

FARMING

Cultivate biome dependent crops outdoors, or inside your base or Freighter using Hydroponic Labs

Plants grow over time and offer a steady supply of resources to be harvested

Hire a farming specialist to research and grow ten new plant types, and discover new resource elements

MAKING CAMP

Players can now build essential equipment in the field on-planet

Place save points anywhere in the world, crucial for Survival mode

Automated Harvesters gather resources from mineral deposits in your absence

Waypoints can be placed and colour-coded to allow explorers to return to discoveries

Communications Terminals allow explorers to leave sub-space messages for others to find

Discover nearby mineral deposits, uninhabited bases or suit upgrades with the use of a Signal Scanner

FREIGHTERS

Purchase huge interstellar Freighters at great expense, and then summon them from anywhere in the galaxy

Resources can be teleported to your Freighter while on-planet, ideal for stockpiling goods for trading

Customise the inside of your Freighter within the Base Building section

Create extended cargo holds to expand your vessel’s capacity, and grow crops of rare resources on board

Transport your Freighter and its cargo to different, more economically favourable systems to maximise your earnings

Use the new recruitment system to crew your Freighter with Engineer, Farmer, Weapons and Science specialists to help research new technologies

NEW RESOURCES & TECHNOLOGY

Discover new biome and star specific resource types as you explore the universe

Craft the new Advanced Mining Laser and Hazmat gauntlets through base building and use them to gather rare resources

Research and discover dozens of new products, building components and technologies

USER INTERFACE

The user interface has been improved to accommodate the stress of Survival Mode where a small inconvenience can be the difference between life and death.

The intelligent Quick Access Menu streamlines Inventory access.

Products can be stacked up to five times per inventory slot, resulting in increased starship, base container and freighter storage capacity

New arrow indicators have been added to emphasise shield and life support changes more clearly, to aid decision making

Scanned Primary resource elements have been given specific symbols to allow for easier differentiation

View your current objective at any time quickly by pressing left on the D-Pad, or H on your keyboard

The UI has been visually improved by removing colour tint and other artifacts

Early warning indicators have been added to starship cockpits to notify explorers of inbound Pirate activity

Red cockpit warnings indicate more clearly when Pulse Drive is unavailable

TAA & MOTION BLUR

Motion blur has been added to accentuate the feeling of speed, particularly when in-flight. This can be switched on or off via the Options menu

Temporal Anti Aliasing (TAA) removes jagged edges effectively and has been added as an option to improve visuals clarity

Screenshot of new TAAScreenshot of original TAA Texture streaming can be enabled, allowing minimum spec PCs to run the game more smoothly (accessible from settings xml)

Terrain generation and colourisation algorithms have been revised to produce more aesthetically interesting planets

────────

────────

PATCH NOTES

General Gameplay

Fixed technology becoming instantly fully charged when repaired

Fixed ship appearing on incorrect pad in space station after loading

Added interactable objects that required certain tech to collect

Added shootable objects that require certain tech to mine

Rebalanced resource availability and technology charge requirements

Fixed initial game flow - where travelling to space too quickly after visiting the monolith could prevent the first atlas station notification appearing

Prevented player being prompted to scan for buildings before leaving the system after visiting the monolith

Prevented laser and melee attacks while in space from attempting to edit terrain

Improved calculation of resources received when mining terrain

Renamed Signal Scanners to Signal Boosters

Signal booster objects updated to search for playable bases, suit upgrade pods, and mineable resources

Removed signal booster from being distributed on terrain, as player can now build them

Improved accuracy of environment detection, fixing cases where it rained inside caves

Fixed galactic waypoints not loading correctly across saves

Removed atlas pass v1 requirement from doors in stations

Suit upgrade pods are no longer spawned in stations

Suit upgrade pods can now only be used once

Fixed collision in anomaly that was causing issues when exiting larger ships

Increased the number of different NPC character models generated per system

Fixed the game always remaining in day time for players who began their save prior to patch 1.03

Fixed a potential crash in foliage instance renderer

Localisation

Fixed stats page in asian languages

Fixed multiple issues with asian language formatting

Multiple improvements and fixes to localisation text in all languages

UI

Added new icons for specific types of primary resources

Fixed health bars not appearing on some targets

Added hazard and life support drain indicators

Fixed mission messages not appearing in a timely fashion

Beacons now notify the player that they will save the game

Fixed crash when creature IK animations were updated under certain conditions on the discovery screen

Improved navigation in discovery UI

Massive speed improvements to browsing huge discovery lists

Increased size of discovery storage

Added option to load "Earliest" previous save in Options menu

Fixed weapon naming

Added icon to remind players of the reload button when weapon is empty

Multiple fixes for viewing discoveries

PS4

Added photo mode

Large optimisations to the engine to accommodate base building

PC

Added support for up to 8 mouse buttons

Fixed better order position history for mouse smoothing

Fixed bug where setting gamma to zero gave a fully bright rather than fully dark image

Fixed hard-limiting on save sizes, with appropriate warning about free space on boot

Player is now notified when shaders are being loaded

Fixed occasional crash on exit

Fixed performance of trail renderer for some AMD cards

Large optimisations to the engine to accommodate base building

Generation

Added biome specific plants

Adopted new method of distributing resource plants on terrain, for more lifelike clumps of plants

Improved distribution of plant life across all terrain types

Introduced visual differentiation of red, green and blue star systems

Introduced new mineable terrain resources found only in red, green and blue star systems

Reduced average building frequency

Introduced planets with elevated building density

Introduced planets with no buildings or sentient life

Increased the proportion of lush and tropical planets

Decreased the proportion of lifeless planets

Fixed bug where multiple ships could appear, overlapping, at the player's start scene

Prevented certain building types being incorrectly placed underwater

Prevented multiple buildings occasionally being placed in overlapping positions

Prevented buildings occasionally being placed intersecting with the terrain

Improved and altered per-planet terrain resource generation, improving gameplay and visuals

Creatures

Fixed elevation cache mismatches, causing errors in creature knowledge and pathing

Fixed slow memory leak in creature role allocation

Improved creature animation speeds

Fixed issues where some creatures turns had the incorrect frame count

Fixed occasional crash when interacting with creatures

Atmospherics

Increased proportion of vibrant blue skies

Corrected cloud levels for clear skies

Improved average cloud level settings

Fixed cloud rendering while flying in your ship

Improved atmosphere depth when transitioning to space

Increased fidelity of atmosphere rendering on nearest planet

Improved atmospheric fog as you fly to a planet

Improved fog method for planets seen on the horizon

Terrain

Improved terrain generation algorithms

Improved and extended blend areas between different terrain noise types

Terrains now generate more open spaces

Smaller features now appear at nearer lods to improve visuals in the distance

Fixed objects being placed on incorrect terrain material types

Improved resolution of distant planet terrain

Decreased differences between planet as seen from space and actual planet terrain

Fixed seams on planets when seen from space

Improvements to terrain material selection and terrain material blending

Terrain generation priority and cost calculation improvements

Fixed terrain generation angle calculations, which would previously prevent nearest region being generated first

We now generate caves on lower terrain lods to decrease visual differences in lower detail terrain

Introduced more varied and vibrant colouring to terrain for each biome

Decreased frequency of brown terrain colour selections

Changed texture scales to improve transition between terrain lods

Improved terrain colour combinations to add variety and better match terrain contouring

Improved terrain texture blending method to better retain vibrant colours

Improved settings for hue, saturation and value noise variation on terrain

Fixed a number of issues causing holes to be seen in the planet terrain

Fixed occasional crash when mining terrain

Visuals

Fixed colour of muzzle flashes on player weapons

Added muzzle flashes to ship weapons

Added cockpit lighting for damage and weapon firing

Added debris to freighter explosion effect

Improved freighter cargo explosions

Improved photon cannon hit and space explosion effects

Improved turret explosion effect

Improved grass colour selection

Improved grass colouring method to match underlying terrain colour

Improved grass placement to match gradient of terrain, and rocky terrain slope patches

Improved lighting on grass

Improved alpha cutoffs and blending for grass in the distance

Improved colouring method for on-planet buildings

Fixed "pop" in lighting when flying between planets

Fixed incorrect lighting seen in shadow areas

Improved lighting method when rendering tree leaves

Fixed procedural texturing on objects with multiple overlapping textures

Fixed size of certain texture atlas normal maps

Fixed texture scaling on asteroids

Zinc plant is now more obvious when it has been gathered

Fixed occasional rendering errors due to precision on cockpit during warp

Fixed pulse lines not appearing when pulse driving out from planet atmosphere

Fixed shadowing artefacts on imposters

Space

Improved asteroids to allow much denser fields

Improved explosion effects

Fixed scale of moons on the space map

Added freighter groups to the space map

Changed distribution of resources in asteroids

AI ships will now clear asteroids in their path

Planets are now scannable from space to see their resources

Space Combat

Fixed bounty targets warping out too soon

Improved HUD indicators in space combat

Added damaged ship effect on AI starships

Added formation flying

Improved locking on passive starships

Improved AI combat flight patterns

Added new ship weapon technology

Holding brake whilst turning now activates drift for fast turns

Improved AI ship freighter attacking

Improved freighter targeting code when under attack by enemy ships

Freighters

Fixed pulse drive to prevent travel through freighters

Improved docking code

Added hangar to the lead freighter

Added docking in freighters

Added icon to accessible freighter hangars

Added colouring to cargo drops to identify what is in them

You can now only pick up cargo drops that will fit in your inventory

Added auxiliary freight ships to freighter groups

Added alert lights and alarm audio for when freighters are in combat

Improved turret lights and explosions

Improved muzzle flashes on freighter turrets

Added indicator of cargo contents

Freighter Commanders now give rewards for rescuing them from pirate attack

Fixed collision on freighter cargo containers

Audio

Updated the lush ambience to make the wind sounds less noisy

Ambient background fauna now checks for the presence of creatures

Added rain on foliage

Added rain on ship

Added freighter specific footsteps

When on a dead planet, no music will play

Round table prop now plays an appropriate sound

Added more music to the loading sequence and game start

Added audio to new base building props

Created sounds for new base building props

Added audio to freighter doors and internal freighter ambiences

Added freighter explosions

Added freighter alarm

Added ambient radio comms when approaching a freighter

Fixed missing sounds when in a space station due to the mix settings

Multi-tool upgrades now affect audio

Lots of minor mix changes

Changed some compression settings for PS4 audio to make the sub-channel audio play more reliably

I know. Scanning planets from space seems (a) like space game 101 and (b) dope.

So, this was kinda neat...

Spoiler:

I defended a freighter convoy from attack, and the commander invited me on board. I landed in the launch tubes of the freighter, walked around the ship and talked to the commander. One of the options was to buy his freighter for about 7M. It has 13 slots. No idea what I can do with it yet, other than build a base inside.

Interesting content update but I'm worried they still haven't patched my biggest concern with the game which was the ridiculously slow economic progression.

Re: above spoiler

Spoiler:

From what I remember scraping together 7M credits takes many hours and 13 extra slots for that is probably better than buying a bigger ship in the base game but still quite expensive.

I even noticed one annoying thing in the patch notes which is that they took out the suit upgrade pods in the space stations. Tracking down drop pods for suit upgrades was so annoying and just having a guaranteed one in each space station encouraged moving from system to system. Hopefully they just moved that to the base building progression.

Latrine wrote:

Re: above spoiler

Spoiler:

From what I remember scraping together 7M credits takes many hours and 13 extra slots for that is probably better than buying a bigger ship in the base game but still quite expensive.

Spoiler:

I played enough that I just had 25M lying around. It looks like each freighter slot holds 2x a ship slot, so this relatively small freighter was worth 26 ship slots. You also get a mobile base, which can be stocked with hirelings and various other base objects that give you a bonus. You can also summon the freighter to you. Kinda neat seeing it warp in at low orbit while standing on the surface of a planet.

Still cannot return to a previously visited planet I guess going forward custom waypoints will help.

Still getting bug where my face is suddenly crammed into the dashboard of my ship severely restricting field of view.

Walked around a big freighter which was pretty cool. Need about 4 times as much cash to purchase one though.

Are the freighters pilotable? That'd be a big change.

I dont think so but dont have one yet. You can summon them into low orbit on whatever planet you are on. Basically a mobile base.

Started digging into base building. It isn't half bad.