No Man's Sky News

There’s been a lot going on since our last development update. The team has been working hard to bring you bug fixes and quality of life improvements, with a huge number of things fixed in the three updates since our last blog post.

You’ve all been hard at work too: producing amazing artwork; building spectacular bases; and unlocking the first community goal of Beyond, a brand new Vy’keen-inspired suit of armour. Even now, you’re making great progress on the second event to unlock the likenesses of Travellers Gemini, Mercury and Ares.



Patch 2.15 releases today on all platforms. It introduces a number of new features to bring the community together and highlight the amazing work you do: a showcase for the best community bases, and brand new weekly missions.


Very shortly, the Space Anomaly’s first weekend mission will go live. Nada’s spacetime loom has detected a concerning pattern resonating across the universe, and they need help from their explorer friends to investigate. Readings indicate a disturbance in reality, where an anomalous – and possibly sinister – force has begun to leak through to this universe…



These weekend missions, which bring explorers together on a specific planet, will tell a story that will unfold over the coming months. They also offer significant quicksilver rewards…

Travellers who wish to participate will find a new chapter available at the Nexus each week, from Friday evenings (GMT) until early Monday morning.

If you miss a weekend, don’t worry. These missions will continue to run for the foreseeable future. We are so excited to see what happens when you all start exploring a single planet together!




One of the things we like seeing most is the ingenious bases that you folks build. We watch the community closely and it’s always a joy – and a surprise! – to see the things you use the game to create. We wanted to find a way to highlight this brilliant work and bring it to the greatest number of players.

From now on you will be able to visit the Space Anomaly Teleporter to see a selection of the best bases we’ve come across. We hope it will showcase all you talented builders, and bring every player an ever-changing cycle of spectacular planets and architectural creativity.



We remain on the lookout for ever-more imaginative bases which we can feature in future. If you’d like your base to be featured, please include your portal coordinates, current galaxy, username and platform when you post it. This will help us find it quickly and bring it to wider attention. We can’t wait to see what you make!


Beyond brought a lot of new players into the game, as well as drawing back in a large number of old friends. We’ve been seeing some of our highest player numbers since launch, and with a wide variety of playstyles: VR and non-VR, lone travellers and multiplayer mini-factions, base-builders and explorers.

The wishlist of improvements and features continues to grow ever longer as our community grows. Your feedback – and your love for the game – are a vitally important part of the No Man’s Sky journey.

While today’s update shows off a pair of new features, other members of the team have been hard at work on an update that will address a whole heap of community requests. We hope to be able to release this fairly soon. We take your suggestions and priorities very seriously when working out what to work on, so if there are things you want to add to ever-evolving list then please let us know through the usual channels.

Patch 2.15 is live on all platforms today, with the notes available below. There is much more coming very soon.

Thank you so much for playing. It really means a lot to us.

Sean

• Added Featured Bases to the teleporter on the Space Anomaly.
  
• The list of featured bases will change periodically to highlight the best the base building community has to offer.
  
• The Featured Bases lists allows anyone aboard the Space Anomaly to easily visit and be inspired by other base creators.
  
• Bases featured in the list are protected to keep them as their architect intended.
  
  
• Added a new series of story-based mission to the Nexus.
  
• These missions are available each weekend and will advance over the course of the coming months.
  
• These missions are highlighted when viewing the Nexus mission board and reward a large amount of Quicksilver.
  
• Missions will involve using a portal to travel to a unique destination. This destination is shared across the entire community.
  
  
• Fixed an issue that caused galactic generation on PS4 to be out of sync with other platforms. This caused some system to vanish with the arrival of Beyond. These systems have been fully restored. As a result, however, some of the new and erroneously-created systems have been hidden on the galaxy map. These systems can still be visited via teleporter if bases have been established there.
  
• Fixed a number of issues related to the display of base screenshots in the Space Anomaly Teleporter list.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused reported bases to linger in the save-game of those who reported them.
  
• Allowed bases to be reported via the Build Menu, for instances where the base computer is not locatable.
  
• Added an autosave when handing in a mission on the Nexus.
  
• Added a community goal progress tracker above the Quicksilver shop in the Space Anomaly.
  
• Added a notification to clarify that your position is not saved while undertaking a multiplayer mission from the Nexus.
  
• Added the name of the current galaxy to the Galactic Map.
  
• Increased the stack size of Living Pearls.
  
• Added an icon to Kelp Sacs that appears when scanned, similar to sodium and oxygen-rich plants.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused long load times and poor performance around bases with complex power and wiring setups.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused tagged markers not to clear when their object was used.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused glitches in water rendering when entering the atmosphere.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck when performing a gesture while seated.
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC ship pilots would get out of their ship and become stuck within its landing gear.
  
• Fixed a number of issues that prevented switches being used when visiting other bases.
  
• Fixed an issue where background missions can update and disrupt a Nexus mission.
  
• Fixed an issue where Ares had the wrong head.
  
• Fixed a crash in network replication.
  
• Fixed a number of rendering crashes.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when viewing discoveries.

It has been a few weeks since our last development update, and we wanted to share a little more news from the studio. You can read the full post here.

The team here are still working intensely to address high-priority issues, as well as to improve the overall polish and quality of life of the game. Update 2.12 has been released today, with the long list of fixes and improvements available at the end of this post. However, we also have a larger feature to announce…


Today, we will be launching a community event, with new content available to earn from the Space Anomaly. Each mission completed at the Nexus will contribute to a cross-reality target for all Travellers. Universal progress will unlock a series of exotic items synthesised by Polo’s robotic companion, available to purchase with Quicksilver.

As with every update, all this new content is completely free for all existing players – there are no microtransactions in No Man’s Sky.



The event commences today, and has no set deadline for completion. Progress may be tracked from the Galactic Atlas website, or from the Quicksilver Robot itself.

Quicksilver Reward Missions

Once each day, a mission rewarding Quicksilver will become available at the Nexus. These Quicksilver missions can queue up, to a maximum stack of 3 (so you won’t miss out even if you don’t have the opportunity to play every day).

Encrypted Missions

These rare, high-priority missions offer especially interesting and lucrative rewards. Mysterious in nature, their requirements are secret until the moment the mission commences.


Specialist Polo’s robotic companion is busy developing a set of 5 new customisation items, which together form a complete armoured suit. This practical fashion choice is favoured by the Vy’keen, but is wearable by explorers of any race.

Each customisation item will become available for synthesis as all Traveller iterations complete missions at the Nexus.

Tier 1 – Armoured Boots

Reinforced foot protection system with integrated tread-balancing gyroscopes. Hundreds of years of high-tech research, as applied to footwear.



Tier 2 – Armoured ExoGloves

Armoured gloves, perfect for wielding weapons, impressing martial cultures, and picking really spiky plants.



Tier 3 – Armoured Leggings

Carefully woven nano-fibres make these leggings both flexible and resistant to small-arms fire. Washing requires specialist equipment.



Tier 4 – Armoured Chestpiece

Reinforced yet stylish, this Exosuit chest armour provides excellent abdominal protection without compromising on looks.



Tier 5 – Armoured Shoulderpads

Powerful shoulder armour, this Exosuit augmentation comes with high-voltage connections into the user’s skeletal system. This current jolts the user’s body as required, manipulating the muscles into their optimal defensive posture.




Patch 2.12 is live today, with the notes available below. There is much more coming very soon. Thank you, so much, for playing.

Sean

• Added new events to the Nexus:
  
• Occasionally, ‘Encrypted Missions’ will appear on the Nexus mission list. The objectives for these missions are hidden until the mission is in progress, but the rewards are far higher.
  
• Each day, every player also has the chance to complete a Nexus mission to earn Quicksilver.

• Added new customisation items to the Quicksilver shop: a full suit of Vy’keen-style armour.
  
• Progress towards unlocking these items is achieved by community-wide completion of Nexus missions.

• Fixed a number of mission flow issues in standard Nexus missions.
  
• Increased the reward from standard Nexus missions.
  
• Improved the visuals of the mission start UI in Nexus missions.

• Introduced a number of PC VR rendering optimisations.
  
• Introduced a number of general PC optimisations.
  
• Introduced an optimisation to region decoration.

• Increased the stack multiplier on a significant number of products.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented Larval Cores and Hypnotic Eyes from being used as cooking ingredients.
  
• Fixed bad data in the Nutrient Refiner recipes for various cheeses and cheese-based products.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented ships/Multi-Tools/etc being rotated in the inventory.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Blaze Javelin not to work in VR.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players with Rocket Boots to jump when selecting things in the Quick Menu.
  
• Rebalanced NPC language encounters so that attempts at using alien words are viewed more positively.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused creature bait stored in the cargo inventory to be unavailable.

• Fixed an issue that caused double inputs on some UI screens.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect unit costs to be used when purchasing Exosuit slot upgrades.
  
• Improved the audio balance in a number of places, as well as fixing some missing sounds and some incorrectly looping sounds.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to sometimes face the wrong way on the Nexus.
  
• Fixed a number of incorrect and missing control icons.
  
• Fixed a number of control conflict issues when plugging multiple gamepads into one PC.
  
• Added validation to prevent invalid actions being bound.
  
• Fixed a number of stuttering issues when using mouselook on the Steam controller.

• Fixed repeated triggering of a warning noise when registering specific actions with Steam.
  
• Fixed a number of issues where weapons would interfere with Quick Menu use on PC.
  
• Fixed a PC controller issue that caused Discovery Page subsections to be incorrectly closed.
  
• Fixed a number of colour and texture issues in a specific exotic biome variant.

• Fixed a number of collision issues on the Space Anomaly.
  
• Added audio to Cronos’ barbeque on the Space Anomaly.
  
• Made landing bay seats sittable on the Space Anomaly.
  
• Fixed some specific LODing issues on the Space Anomaly.
  
• Fixed a number of LODing issues with specific fighter-style starship variants.
  
• Fixed a number of collision and visual issues with freighter hangers.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused faecium deposits to have an incorrect icon when viewed through the Analysis Visor.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with the graphics settings descriptions in the PC options pages.
  
• Improved the visuals of a number of mission icons.

• Removed some erroneous automatic chat messages.
  
• Added automatic chat messages when transferring items to players not in your current group.
  
• Added automatic chat messages when starting missions.
  
• Added automatic chat messages when short of ingredients to build a pinned item.

• Fixed a soft lock that could occur when answering the Communicator after swapping ships or summoning ships.
  
• Fixed a camera issue that could occur when answering the Communicator when playing in third person.
  
• Added a workaround to prevent a permanent black screen when using older AMD drivers.
  
• Added a workaround to prevent a crash bug in older AMD drivers.
  
• Added a workaround for driver issues with AMD laptops.
  
• Fixed a number of rare crashes when testing collision.
  
• Fixed a number of inventory-related crashes.
  
• Fixed a rare threading crash.
  
• Fixed a softlock that could occur when opening the Nexus mission list with the chat window open.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading very large bases.
  
• Fixed a rare networking crash.
  
• Fixed a rare memory corruption.
  
• Fixed a Linux driver issue.

• Various localised text improvements.

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to BEYOND!

Well, where do we start?

After the NEXT update in July 2018, we started work on a series of smaller, more focused updates. You saw the first of these with our Exocraft rework, with Abyss and with Visions. We’re very proud of these updates, but we realised that by focusing on one area at a time we were missing out on the chance to making something bigger. And so here we are, nearly a year later, with the results.

The early work on virtual reality got us really excited and convinced us that we couldn’t just tick the box. The chance to truly experience an alien world, to be totally lost in these strange lands – it was an utterly perfect fit for the dream at the heart of our game. The chance was there to do something very special which could set a new benchmark for VR.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Meanwhile, the multiplayer team had conceived of a whole new social hub – The Nexus – which enables you to meet up with friends (VR and non-VR alike), explore together, build bases together, complete missions together and much much more. Every time we played together we could feel how much it brought to the experience. And so this too began to grow in ambition and scope…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

At the same time a longer list of features and updates, large and small, was growing. Rolling them all together helped us to see the bigger picture, to listen to how people played the game, to not only add more but to remould the game in a hundred tiny ways. These, of course, began to fit together with an expanded multiplayer experience, and began to lift the VR experience to another level.

With 2.0, we saw a way to fill in some of the details and pull all the different strands of No Man’s Sky together into a cohesive whole. We think it makes this the perfect time to play No Man’s Sky, as a new player or a seasoned explorer.

Here is just a brief summary of what you can find in BEYOND:

- Virtual Reality support
- VR user Interface
- VR user interactions
- VR controller support
- 16-32 multiplayer
- Multiplayer missions
- Ambient multiplayer
- A new social hub
- New traveller NPCs
- Dynamic NPCs
- Alien Languages
- New alien encounters
- Technology trees
- Gameplay Balance
- Discovery Page overhaul
- Planetary Charts
- Creature taming/riding/milking
- Multiplayer missions
- Cooking & Recipes
- Cooler Aliens
- Improved base building
- Power & Logic & Industrial Bases
- Optimisation
- Starship enhancements
- First person exocraft driving
- Vulkan
- PC graphics options
- Expanded controller support
- Sitting
- Version 2.0

Please find our full patch notes here:

Our journey continues!

Sean

Hello!

Thank you for your patience. Our biggest update yet launches in a little under a week on August 14th and we couldn’t be more excited to share this trailer with you, showing off the massively expanded online component of Beyond for the first time.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

BEYOND is the culmination of 12 months of work on what was originally going to be 3 large separate updates.

The more we got into development however, the more those individual pieces started to coalesce and become interdependent on each other.

Virtual Reality is cool and a major undertaking for a procedurally generated universe, but virtual reality becomes all the more enjoyable and immersive when you’re playing with friends, be they VR players or not.

Bringing the social multiplayer enhancements we wanted to make together with VR seemed not only desirable and natural but unstoppable.

Remember that everything you see in our launch trailer can be experienced in VR if you have a headset.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We'll be telling you a little more about some other elements of Beyond very soon.

BEYOND is not only our biggest update to date, but it also feels like our most important. It feels like all the different strands of the game have come together and unified the experience more than any other update before it.

The community has helped us get to this point in so many ways. Your feedback, encouragement and support fuels us and makes us strive for more and better every day.

It is never easy when the standards you set for us and we set ourselves are so ambitious, but the highs certainly outweigh the lows and it is a privilege to be on this rollercoaster with you.

This is another step on our journey and our journey continues.

Much love,
Sean

Hello Everyone,

We know that there is a lot of hunger out there for news and updates on No Man’s Sky. We’re very excited to be able to share more information from behind the scenes.

Our next chapter No Man’s Sky: Beyond, is coming on August 14th!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Beyond will contain three major updates rolled into one larger free release. These changes are a mix of features we’ve been dreaming of for a while, and a reaction to how we have seen folks playing since the release of NEXT.

An expanded Online experience will bring a radical new social and multiplayer experience which empowers players everywhere in the universe to meet and play together.

Meanwhile VR support will bring the entire game experience to life in virtual reality. Grab the joystick and thruster to fly your starship over an unexplored alien planet as you peer out of the cockpit at the view below. Reach into your backpack to grab your multitool, touch it to switch to terrain manipulation, and carve out intricate shapes with unprecedented control. Play in multiplayer and casually wave to your non-VR friends or fist bump your VR peers. Anything possible in No Man’s Sky, NEXT or any other update will soon be ready and waiting as an immersive and enriched VR experience.

If you want to know a little more about what to expect on August 14th, you can read a small preview from when we let press play for the first time.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

GamesRadar - "No Man's Sky is the virtual reality game I have waited my entire life to play"
"Murray hesitantly promoting the latest update to No Man's Sky and us doing our best not to lose our cool. That, I'm afraid to say, is far easier said than done; No Man's Sky is absolutely phenomenal when experienced in virtual reality. I'm sorry, Sean – this is where I cordially invite everybody to join me aboard the hype train, and there is no turning back this time."

IGN - "No Man's Sky feels like a totally different game in VR"
"I can’t really describe how it felt. Teetering just above the planet's surface, it didn’t feel like No Man’s Sky anymore. It felt lonely, exciting, and honestly a little scary. That’s No Man’s Sky VR in a nutshell. Taking something you once knew and experiencing it in a completely different light."

PCGamesN - "No Man’s Sky VR brings personal scale to an endless galaxy"
"Where many other VR games (with rare, excellent exceptions) have felt limited, the grandness inherent to No Man’s Sky rips those limitations apart"

PCGamer - "No Man's Sky and VR are the perfect match"
"I spent fifteen minutes with No Man's Sky VR, and it wasn't nearly enough. Whatever voodoo is required to make a game feel just right in VR, Hello Games seems to have nailed it."

The Verge - "No Man’s Sky in VR feels like a whole new game"
"I’ve played well over a hundred hours of No Man’s Sky since the game first debuted in 2016. I’ve touched down on countless planets, swam beneath alien oceans, and ran from a hostile robotic police force. But nothing I’ve done up until now has felt as thrilling as jumping into the cockpit of a ship, pulling down the glass enclosure with my hands, and pushing the throttle to blast off into the sky."

Eurogamer - "No Man's Sky is absolutely stellar in VR"
"It's amazing, of course. There are few games better suited to the full immersion of virtual reality, and I'm delighted to say that, from my short experience: there's that thrilling sense of being there, feet planted on some alien planet, scanning the horizons and getting drunk on the endless possibilities out there."

Polygon - "No Man’s Sky in VR is a blast"
"This is VR at its most compelling, putting me in fantastical places and giving me viewpoints that I can never expect to attain in real life."

Engadget - "No Man's Sky VR is the purest way to explore the universe"
"if the goal of No Man's Sky is to make players feel, full-stop -- then VR is the best way to play. This sense of scale and immersion simply can't translate on a 2D screen."

UploadVR - "No Man’s Sky VR Is A World Of Limitless Possibilities"
"No Man’s Sky in VR is, without question, poised to immediately become the largest and most expansive VR game to date once the Beyond update releases.”

Beyond will be our most ambitious chapter so far, and something we’ve been working ridiculously hard on. We’ll continue to support No Man’s Sky in this way for the foreseeable future.

We look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks, there’s a bunch more to talk about and can't wait to join you in playing August 14th.

Thank you so much,
Sean