[Aptorian]

Define "die"? It's a single player game, there's only so many planets and stars you can visit before you've had your fill.

Everybody is still waiting to see what kind of content Hello Games release when they eventually break radio silence.

[Morgoth]

Very little content I suspect.

[champ]

Aye, I think this game will just fade away now and be filed under "lesson learnt."

I would have thought that any impacting updates would have been announced by now to keep it relevant though I guess it may go into VR territory in the future.

Though there is another way to look at the lack of any news. They could be letting the anger fade away then come back with a bang announcement to get the interest back... though I do find that unlikely.

[Aptorian]

Personally I think they went into damage control mode when they saw how bad it got after the release. I don't know if a professional PR guy got put in charge, but it's clear that any thing they said or did after the release was going to get torn apart and used to continue the barage against the company and specifically Sean Murray.

Better to go silent and use the tons of money they earned to fix the game. Doesn't matter if it takes a year. They have the money now and they need to fix the game, for free, or the company is going to fail.

[Khellendros]

I still play it, still enjoying it. I sent an email letter to the developers telling them how much and why I liked their game, because it seemed like they could use some positive feedback.

[Malankazooie]

If I would have seen this before release, I might have pre-ordered the game.

[Aptorian]

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

Quote

Foundation Update Incoming Hello Games | November 25, 2016

Hello,

This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.

Detailed patch notes will follow, and release will be soon.

Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all here http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release.

In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something.

The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about.

Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.

This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.

Thank you,

Hello Games

If you listen really carefully you can hear the pitter-patter of a million bloggers typing frantically on the first of hundreds of little opinion pieces about NMS that will come out in the coming week.

This post has been edited by Apt: 25 November 2016 - 05:12 PM

[champ]

When it comes to this, it is great to be proven wrong. Good on them and I hope it works out.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

NMS is on sale this weekend at the playstation store. Still not cheap enough to warrant buying, IMO.

[Khellendros]

Kruppe of Darujhistan, on 26 November 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

NMS is on sale this weekend at the playstation store. Still not cheap enough to warrant buying, IMO.

The digital store massively overprices games which are available as physical copies - something which I never understood. The sale price for NMS is what I would say the 'normal' price should be (having said which, I got the £70 special edition - as a present - the only special edition of any game I've ever got, and don't regret it at all).


On a different note, really looking forward to seeing what the update brings.

[champ]

You can already pick it up in most shops, new for £30 and second hand is £15 now.

[Aptorian]

Lots of improvements in the update. I think I will still wait 6-12 months to see what other updates are released, but this definitely makes me interested in playing again.

http://www.no-mans-s...ndation-update/

Quote

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

This post has been edited by Apt: 27 November 2016 - 11:32 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

I feel like i) they should have done this from day 1 and it would have saved them a heck of a lot of hassle and ii) why didn't they at least say "hey this is what we're working on" instead of the months of radio silence leading to ask the hate and rage...

[Traveller]

That is a.. long list. I guess they didn't dare release a list of what they were going to do until it was all actually there; lesson learned?

It will be interesting to find out how many people put it back in their machines to check it out. Personally I pricked up my ears at such details as 'removal of atlas pass locks in stations', the construction aspect, and the ability to own and customise freighters.

The ability to create something and make it a bit more personal certainly adds something to an otherwise fairly pointless trawl through space.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 27 November 2016 - 07:52 PM

[Khellendros]

Tiste Simeon, on 27 November 2016 - 04:37 PM, said:

I feel like i) they should have done this from day 1 and it would have saved them a heck of a lot of hassle and ii) why didn't they at least say "hey this is what we're working on" instead of the months of radio silence leading to ask the hate and rage...

They said pre-release that base building would be added later. As for the rest, I think it's certainly a case of "we get enough death threats as it is whenever we say anything" so I fully understand them being silent.

I'm most excited by the freighters and having a proper photo mode. The game can be unbelievably beautiful at times and it was a shame to have all the UI clutter in screenshots.

What I'm unclear on is if base building is limited to creative mode, or is it all in every mode (but creative has, what? No deaths and infinite resources?)

[Khellendros]

Briar King, on 27 November 2016 - 08:10 PM, said:

Is the inventory nightmare still in this game? I'm glad I didn't buy this then.

Inventory is a lot better now and is being made even more user friendly with this update (more things stack, can store resources in bases and freighters, a quick menu to select items rather than going into the inventory screen).

[Traveller]

I'm back in.

After an initial tester with the update, which reminded me of the stuff I didn't like about the game I gave it a better chance... and so far it's paid off.

I was pretty sceptical. But the changes made by the update have finally given a purpose to all the planets, upgrades and materials, plus adding enough new npc interactions to make it feel more populated, and not just an endless empty galaxy full of random things to collect and catalogue.

There are now some gameplay elements that make the exploration and collecting actually serve a more immediate purpose. And this makes the enormous galaxy into a background rather than the focus.

I had a few hours play last night. I built a home base, and because I needed materials to upgrade, I went searching for with an actual goal. You can now craft a signal beacon which helps you find resources, monuments and empty bases, there are also crashed freighters. I kept getting storms coming in, which meant taking cover from subzero temperatures, in caves or under outcrops.
I flew to a station, and recruited an npc Gek who now lives on my base, and picked up some missions from a missions board. Also you can now teleport back to your home base, which although weird for an exploration game, saved me a lot of time.

Having a base to work from makes a real difference. There are storage containers to build, and a vehicle shed, and lots of building components. And when you fly off to another world, you can transfer your stuff and set up a new outpost. This planet has limited resources and no fauna so I'll move on to a better one soon, but at least I'll know what I'm looking for now, and start on something more elaborate.

If you've got it stashed away, dig it out and check out the update. I was not expecting much, but the game seems subtly different; the survival elements, construction, flight and exploration now seem to come together for a more rewarding experience.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 August 2017 - 08:00 AM

[Aptorian]

Played about an hour earlier. I wiped my old progress and started a new game.

I only just made it off planet and went looking for a signal, so I can't comment on the new content, like base building, freighters, etc. But the base game is still solid, if perhaps too familiar. I felt that same enjoyment of exploring, foraging for resources (while listening to a podcast) and upgrading stuff. On the other hand it all felt too fresh in my mind. I did all of that stuff a lot last year.

I will say though that the new UI and hints system, coupled with more populated areas, makes for a better playing experience.

I think I will push on a bit and see how they've improved the storyline but I might be picking up Agents of Mayhem tomorrow depending upon the PC Reviews. If it looks solid I will post pone further No Man's Sky exploration.

This post has been edited by Seduce Goose: 14 August 2017 - 07:35 PM

[Traveller]

Well I put it on last night intending to find the elements needed for the Hazmat gauntlets, so I can make some glass - and ended up in a different system, placing beacons on different planets to help find this stranded guy who sent a distress signal.

The game is settling into more of a fluid experience now I've got used to a planet hopping, searching for specific items, refuelling and exploring. I spent a good 4 hours following one objective after another, and I'm beginning to appreciate the scope of it all. I've been impatient with it I think - the pace is just different from other games, which isn't actually a bad thing. The objectives are far and wide, and the goals like bigger ships and weapons are only obtainable through effort.

An initial project may expand into a dozen others, but if you start one thing and get distracted by many other things along the way to the extent that you don't mind because you're absorbed in it... that's a good game, right?

I still haven't got my glass or even the gauntlets, but I've improved my equipment and discovered a ton of new blueprints.

And I can use any space station to teleport back to home base.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 19 August 2017 - 10:42 AM

[Traveller]

Got caught up in Artemis quest.

Also found out how to find crashed ships, and reached a crashsite. The ship's not way better than mine but it has 6 more inventory slots so I think I'll repair it and keep it.