No Man's Sky Developer Breaks Silence, "Foundation Update" Coming Soon

[Lizzy Finnegan]

No Man's Sky Developer Breaks Silence, "Foundation Update" Coming Soon

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No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has broken its silence, stating that an update will be releasing "this week."

With the exception of a handful of tweets and several emails to the press, all stemming from an alleged hack [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168721-Hello-Games-Tweets-No-Man-Sky-Was-a-Mistake], No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has been near-silent about the controversial game since shortly after it released in August. That is, until today.

In a post [http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/11/development-update-2/] on the game's website, the developer states that an update, titled "The Foundation Update," will be available for No Man's Sky sometime this week, with detailed patch notes coming "soon." The update was named "because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come."

The post also comments on the "intense and dramatic" discussion surrounding the game, and also acknowledged the minimal communication from the studio. While they have "been quiet," the team promises that all feedback, "positive or negative," has been heard.

You can read the post [http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/11/development-update-2/], in its entirety, below:

"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"

The last patch, 1.09, released in September [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168489-New-No-Mans-Sky-Patch-Released], and focused on bug fixes, most notably the ability to more easily recover corrupted save files.

The game has been heavily criticized since its release, with critics alleging false advertising and missing features. These complaints have prompted an investigation by the UK's Advertising Standard Authority [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168520-ASA-Launches-Investigation-Into-No-Mans-Sky#&gid=gallery_6534&pid=1].





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[Igor-Rowan]

Well, they have been in silence for a really long time, one can only wonder if they really want to improve or to pull anotehr Molyneaux on us.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Am not claiming any supernatural abilities here, not until the testing stage is complete anyhow, but I did have an inkling the silence was more a laser focus of resources getting the stuff they wanted to working and into the game. It seems a concept labour of love with unfortunate events and amateur press handling alongside unbridled publisher marketing, not any nefarious intent from the developers, as much as people are seduced to the idea.

 

[enginieri]

So you will build a Base... as in the ground? as in fixed over the surface of one planet? In a game where the objetive is to reach the center of the galaxy? In a game where you became bored of planet Lousygray V after you have seen 90% of all animals, plants and rocks in less than 15 minutes?
Would not make much more sense and be more fun to have to build and upgrade a mothership? (say after you get all the basics of the game mechanics, and before it starts to get stale )

 

[Callate]

I don't want them to f@$% up again. I have to concede that after the Tonight Show debacle, there was an attempt to actively pull the wool over users' eyes as far as the game they were actually going to get.

The game presented looked awesome, but I don't know if any amount of patching is going to bring us that game. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I'm not going to put down my money until I start hearing some of the burned shown something that makes them loosen up their quite rightful grudges. And even then, I'm not going for it until it's half or less than its original price.

 

[Gatlank]

Too little too late.
Unless they remake it from the ground up (essentialy making a new game), adding features now won't save it.

 

[Voxoid]

Empty free foundation update followed by paid skinned asset packs. Woohoo.

 

[ManFromTheInternet]

I'm guessing they'll slowly start adding the things the game should have launched with, like a story, combat, generally fun gameplay, etc. It will take them at least a couple of years to turn this shell into a competent game, if they won't abandon it altogether before then. Any remnants of public interest will long vanish before they'll be able to make something out of NMS. It will be remembered only as another name on the list of over-hyped titles to fail on their grandiose promises.

 

[Hawki]

Foundation update?

So...Hari Seldon is turning up? 0_0

 

[sXeth]

So you will build a Base... as in the ground? as in fixed over the surface of one planet? In a game where the objetive is to reach the center of the galaxy? In a game where you became bored of planet Lousygray V after you have seen 90% of all animals, plants and rocks in less than 15 minutes?
Would not make much more sense and be more fun to have to build and upgrade a mothership? (say after you get all the basics of the game mechanics, and before it starts to get stale )

Yeah, I was always confused by base building being the seeming focus and one of the most requested features. The game is entirely about moving onwards after exploring a planet. I would assume ((hope?) they're making it so you can actually navigate the star map to get back to a specific system if they're doing this. But even if thats the case, there'd have to be some sort of added hook to make the base building worthwhile. With the current gameplay model that they have, a base at best would be extra storage while you scavenge around a system, then left behind.

 

[Laughing Man]

Well seems Hello Games has looked for something the community wants and has opted to throw anyone who bought this game a bone by selecting base building.

1). From the point of Hello Games this is a beyond stupid decision because it goes directly against the entire point of the game THEY designed. The objective as they put it is to keep exploring and to keep moving forward, the game itself has been designed to make this a feature and while you could very well incorporate base building in to this overarching gameplay design it is going to require a significant rework of said overarching gameplay principal to make it anything other than a lackluster attempt at throwing the community something they think they want.

2). The community has missed the mark on why they want this, it seems like a cool idea and in a game that had base building as an integral part of the gameplay it is a cool idea, that's why a lot of similar styles of game, i.e survival progression games that involve exploring item / material collecting and crafting, base building is always an integral part of them. So the community wants base building because on the surface NMS seems like it SHOULD have base building but as I suggested above that idea was never an integral part of the overall games design.

Now given the nature of the game, as it is right here and right now, if they wanted to give the community something close to base building in terms of the game play aspects of base building, while also giving the player something that would be long term useful to them in the game AND potentially solve a good few numbers of issues that the community is complaining about. Would it not be better to allow the players to design and modify their vessels? You could build a freighter, or a cruiser or a fighter, tailor it to act as a cargo hauler if need be, make it look as you like, design it and tweak it and because it's YOUR ship it's always going to be with you throughout the entire game

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

So you will build a Base... as in the ground? as in fixed over the surface of one planet? In a game where the objetive is to reach the center of the galaxy? In a game where you became bored of planet Lousygray V after you have seen 90% of all animals, plants and rocks in less than 15 minutes?
Would not make much more sense and be more fun to have to build and upgrade a mothership? (say after you get all the basics of the game mechanics, and before it starts to get stale )

Yeah, I absolutely don't understand the direction this update is taking either. Hello Games is going from "here's ninety-three quintillion worlds to explore" to "so go ahead and plant your butt on one of them when there's no real reason to stay". The mothership idea would be much more fitting, I think.

 

[wulfy42]

Ok, first off there are already 23 quadrillion bases (literally), you don't need to make anymore. Even on one planet a base exists that covers everything you ever would want in a base, including the layout more then likely, if that even matters to you.

Base building (especially just a "foundation for it") is the last thing the game needs.

Now i'm not a hater of the game, I quite enjoyed it for 30 hours or so. It's biggest flaw was the crashes which supposedly have been mostly fixed at this point. It's SECOND biggest flaw (and thats by a wide margin), was it's lack of long term content.

Your first system could be quite fun and last you over 20 hours. Your second would last much less, and by your 5th, you can start to get pretty bored already.

So what needed to be improved?

First off, systems needed to be more unique, and have WAY more materials etc that are specific to types of planets and systems. These materials could be needed for a much wider range (and higher level) of upgrades. This would give incentive to explore new systems and planets in search for specific materials you need.

This would require a system scan, and planet scan that showed what materials where available (System would should what is available in the meteors, and planet scans would show what is available on each planet). Flying to many systems to scan for stuff could add many hours to the game.

More real quests and gameplay options could also add alot to the game as well. Bounties (find a specific enemy ship in a system), medical requests (Fly medicine to a hurt alien), request for specific items or materials etc, that you can complete for creds would be one way to go. Adding additional gameplay options could be done fairly easily without changing the base game, but could again add hours of gameplay.

Adding base building isn't going to add any real game time to this game, people will still play for just about the same amount of time and then get totally bored. It makes sense to improve the game in the most economical way possible (least work for most gain) initially, so you can keep people interested long enough for larger improvements later on. Base building could have possibilities eventually, especially if it was a SPACE BASE, that could actually travel with you, where you could store items and other ships, do repairs (For free) etc. That would make sense, but not for awhile, and certainly not with the game in it's current state (as right now even a space base wouldn't really matter much).

 

[enginieri]

Foundation update?

So...Hari Seldon is turning up? 0_0

shhhh, remember those mysterious tweets? Second Foundation man, second foundation...

 

[RJ 17]

Snip.

While I can certainly understand your point - and it's a fair point to bring up - I think it's also fair to bring up the fact that the whole "keep moving forward, keep exploring" bit turned out to be a rather pointless venture as all it leads to is...more of the same. As such, I think it's understandable that people might, instead, want to "settle" a planet.

Of course, the other counter-point to that notion is "are there any planets worth settling?" I haven't played the game, but my understanding is that despite the game being filled with countless worlds, the majority of them aren't all that interesting...which further enhances the "alright, seen this planet, time to move on" aspect of the game.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

IMO, they REALLLLY need to fix their planet generation algorithm because it's boring as hell and very samey... Where's the canyons? The caves? The cliffs? Why is every planet just hills and maybe some water?

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I called it, everything about this game was bullshit.

Randomization and "Procedurally generated" Roguelikes in games are always just repetitive recycled bullshit.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

You wanna know what would've been a first small step on a long journey, Hello Games?

GETTING THE FUCKING GAME TO PLAY DECENTLY AND COHERENTLY WHEN IT FUCKING LAUNCHED!

Asshats.

 

[CaitSeith]

Foundation update?

So...Hari Seldon is turning up? 0_0

Maybe The Mule was in charge of the marketing department. That would explain the hyperbolic hype prior release...

 

[CaitSeith]

I take everything that this studio says with a grain of salt. For example: what do they exactly mean with foundation? That's the kind of ambiguous terminology I'd expect from Early Access games.