No Man's Sky Update Adds Base-Building, Survival Mode, and More

[Lizzy Finnegan]

No Man's Sky Update Adds Base-Building, Survival Mode, and More


"If you could have lived our lives over the last months, you'd know how meaningful this is."

Hello Games founder Sean Murray took to Twitter today (for real, this time [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168721-Hello-Games-Tweets-No-Man-Sky-Was-a-Mistake]) to share the news of the Foundation Update for No Man's Sky. In a series of tweets, Murray thanked fans for "sticking with us," and attributed the studios' silence to not wanting to discuss the update "until it was 100% certain."

"We're getting better as quickly as we can for the players who invested in us. Thank you for sticking with us," Sean Murray wrote on Twitter, adding "We hope you enjoy this first proper update. We didn't want to talk about anything in it until it was 100% certain."

"If you could have lived our lives over the last months, you'd know how meaningful this is," he added [https://twitter.com/NoMansSky/status/802814492195295232], speaking of the update.

The Foundation Update was announced on Friday [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168898-Hello-Games-Breaks-Silence-Promises-No-Mans-Sky-Update-Soon], although details on what would be included were sparse. Now that the update, 1.1, is live, we have a better idea of what is included, and how it may impact the state of the game.

The post detailing the update can be viewed, in full, here [http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundation-update/], and is huge. For starters, there are now three game modes: Normal (the original game, with normal difficulty and resources), Creative (where players can explore the game "without limits," and "build a huge base"), and Survival (planets and enemies are more dangerous, "creating a much more challenging endurance experience").

As for base-building, the announcement promises the ability to create elaborate structures, recruit alien lifeforms to help research new technology and run different sections, including farming, engineering, and weapons, and the ability to fast travel to your base from any space station. If you find a better location, you can dismantle your base, which will refund your spent resources.

Additionally, you can buy huge freighters, customize them, and use them to transfer large quantities of materials, along with much more.

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.

According to Hello Games, this is "the first of many free updates that will build on the original No Man's Sky."

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].

Permalink

 

[fix-the-spade]

So essentially No Man's Sky is now Subnautica in space, except Subnautica and the Unknown Worlds guys have never been anything but honest and straight forward in their promotion of their game.

Well it's an improvement I suppose.

 

[gigastar]

Well if nothing else, they couldnt possibly do it worse than alot of other open world multiplayer survival crafting games already on steam.

 

[Blitsie]

All the negativity and lies and whatnot aside, it piqued my interest enough to reinstall the game I must admit. At worst it sounds like they got the bones of the stuff they promised in so long (heck, that's why this is called the foundation I guess) and if it feels like there's enough potential here that they're gonna legit build up on (on a rather regular basis preferably) then heck, might fully dive in again.

 

[Saelune]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

 

[The Enquirer]

Well, I really wanted this game to be good. If they continue to add new things into it, and actually do so, not just say features will be added, then I may actually pick this up.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

So the game has now upgraded from the very essence of lies and crushed hopes in electronic form into a Steam Early Access survival game.

Hm. Maybe if they continue this route and add actual content to the game, they can change the minds of some of those refunds, eh?

 

[ManFromTheInternet]

So the game has now upgraded from the very essence of lies and crushed hopes in electronic form into a Steam Early Access survival game.

Brilliant, couldn't have said it better

 

[Borty The Bort]

Hold on, my sarcasm program is still loading
Sarcasm, loaded
Yaaaaaaaay...

Honestly, I couldn't give a toss whether they fix it by this point,I'm unlikely to ever touch it simply because I am bogged down by the plethora of survival games that exist. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don't make me play another one.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

^

Again though, the planet generation algorithm really needs to be redone.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Heeey, a survival game! Haven't seen one of those in a while!

(so glad I bought the industrial grade sarcasm generator)

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Again though, the planet generation algorithm really needs to be redone.

If you look in the patch notes, that is actually a thing that they are doing. Seriously, they aren't giving up on this project. I can't help but respect that. They are listening to the feedback and am getting a rather strong indication that publisher contracts were the major contributor to how it released in the state it did. Maybe we will never know till years ahead, but of all the developers for people to direct a stream of boiled piss towards, these are not a useful target. Not like Activision, Squeenix or WB...or that one that may be involved in a particular lawsuit or two.

 

[Dr. Thrax]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

I'm genuinely curious, what do you mean by this?
I've never played Destiny, so I'm not knowledgeable on pretty much anything surrounding it.

 

[Saelune]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

I'm genuinely curious, what do you mean by this?
I've never played Destiny, so I'm not knowledgeable on pretty much anything surrounding it.

Destiny was released unfinished, cause they rushed. Basically everything up to the Taken King Expansion is the true finished base game, but they made you buy them as expansions.

Basically they sold an unfinished product and made people pay more to get the full game.

 

[sXeth]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

I'm genuinely curious, what do you mean by this?
I've never played Destiny, so I'm not knowledgeable on pretty much anything surrounding it.

Destiny was released unfinished, cause they rushed. Basically everything up to the Taken King Expansion is the true finished base game, but they made you buy them as expansions.

Basically they sold an unfinished product and made people pay more to get the full game.

Based on the various leaks and interviews, the Dreadnaught (Taken King) was supposed to be finale of the original storyline. Though the content of it was different.

Dark Below was obviously stuff that was meant to be in the base game. Taken King's quest system even merges it with the Hive missions from vanilla.

House of Wolves reused some level assets, but seems to have been developed separately. The writing style (NPC's getting more personality and in-mission voice acting instead of just the Ghost briefing) is a dramatic shift from the vanilla missions and more in the style of Taken King-onwards. The basics of Trials of Osiris was found in leaked stuff way back in vanilla, but the PvE stuff was new.

 

[RedDeadFred]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

I'm sort of torn on this. On the one hand, Destiny's gameplay was at least enjoyable (from what I've heard anyway), but I'd say it's almost a fact at this point that parts of the game were cut out to be sold later.

With NMS, the core gameplay boils down to collecting stuff so that you can be better at collecting stuff. That's fucking terrible and it's something that I don't know if they'll ever really fix regardless of the free updates. It's why I wasn't surprised at the negative response the game had. While there absolutely were plenty of lies about the game, the majority of the hard evidence of gameplay leading up to its release was generic collecting while looking at some pretty scenery. I don't really see them ever adding enough depth to any of the game's other mechanics to make it even remotely enjoyable, but I guess for some, it's enough.

Still, I'd cut NMS more slack than Destiny since people bought into that not only for the lies, but also because of the years of goodwill Bungie had built up. NMS was just an indie dev getting caught up in way more than they had originally anticipated and they handled it VERY badly. Whereas Destiny was more like an actual betrayal.

At least, that's my opinion on the shitty scenarios surrounding both of these games.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

If you look in the patch notes, that is actually a thing that they are doing.

Well that's good. Can't seem to find any screenshots of it in action though.

 

[sagitel]

If you look in the patch notes, that is actually a thing that they are doing.

Well that's good. Can't seem to find any screenshots of it in action though.

well they arent going to say they are doing something without doing it. i mean they arent going to lie to people about incorporating something in the game.


oh wait.

OT: sean we had this conversation before. i dont give a toss how hard you worked. i just care about the end product. so far its been bad. building bases and freighters and whatnot are also more of the same. you get resources to get more resources. you need to add actual gameplay in the game. also if anyone have had the update can you confirm that it actually works. so far the planet resets after you leave the atmosphere, and the robot ball thingies attack you on planets so are these going to fixed?

the only thing that could make me play again is adding actual weapons to the game. the ability to kill all the sad excuses of alien animals and wipe them out. destroy half a planet and more.

 

[Saelune]

They are already doing better than Destiny by not making people PAY for the content that should have been in the game from the start.

I'm sort of torn on this. On the one hand, Destiny's gameplay was at least enjoyable (from what I've heard anyway), but I'd say it's almost a fact at this point that parts of the game were cut out to be sold later.

With NMS, the core gameplay boils down to collecting stuff so that you can be better at collecting stuff. That's fucking terrible and it's something that I don't know if they'll ever really fix regardless of the free updates. It's why I wasn't surprised at the negative response the game had. While there absolutely were plenty of lies about the game, the majority of the hard evidence of gameplay leading up to its release was generic collecting while looking at some pretty scenery. I don't really see them ever adding enough depth to any of the game's other mechanics to make it even remotely enjoyable, but I guess for some, it's enough.

Still, I'd cut NMS more slack than Destiny since people bought into that not only for the lies, but also because of the years of goodwill Bungie had built up. NMS was just an indie dev getting caught up in way more than they had originally anticipated and they handled it VERY badly. Whereas Destiny was more like an actual betrayal.

At least, that's my opinion on the shitty scenarios surrounding both of these games.

Mostly just taking a shot at Destiny, cause I hate it way more than NMS, though in all honesty, Day 1 Destiny was probably way better than Day 1 No Man's Sky.

Either way, not forcing people to pay more for your mistakes is morally better than the alternative.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Certainly better then getting nothing for your $60, I fully expected them to quietly make a sequel and just pretend nothing bad happened before, which would more then likely have worked since most consumers can't think past one or two weeks.
But hey they are giving you something for your trouble, doesn't make all their lies ok but at least it's something.