Welcome back to the Galaxy
Can you believe that it has been a year since No Man's Sky took us into the depths of space, inspired by classic science fiction, spurred on by the sense of adventure and of course calling your first creature some weird and wonderful name and sharing it to other travellers. I really enjoyed No Man's Sky when I first played it- landing on a planet with a toxic atmosphere so it was a race against time to learn how to survive, fix my ship and start the journey to the centre of the galaxy. Overall though, it was quite laid back in terms of being able to do whatever I wanted, scan some creatures/plant life, mine for resources that with detrimentally improve some of the gear that was being carried and more. It wasn’t all about getting into space battles and taking the spoils but more so in trying to improve my friendships with alien species and discovering ancient relics that provided more information into why certain things in that planetary system were as such.
If you like to revisit my first journey into the No Man's Sky universe, you can check it out here
Since that first step, there has been many updates for No Man's Sky. From fixing various issues, to adding new game modes (Normal, Creative and Survival) and the introduction to freighters- which expanded your reserves so that you can carry more resources and transport them with ease. One of the first biggest changes was the introduction to bases. Finding an uninhabited base on your chosen home planet and set up a variety of things that will improve the space adventure. The most recent update for No Man's Sky, seeks to uplift the players game even more, by adding several new features, as well as improvements to the overall experience.
What is Atlas Rises?
One of these improvements is a new story- Atlas Rises. Being a new branch in the quest system, a new interdimensional race has appeared and glitches are causing ancient portals to activate. This will bring 30 hours of new story content which will double the lore and interactions of the existing game, perfect for any travellers that are starting out, or returning to their intergalactic endeavours. Not only is there a new story, but new worlds, new exotic planet types and even the Galaxy map has been overhauled. Crashed freighters can now be discovered so scavenging the lost cargo for rewards seem to be promising for anyone passing through.
Two things that do stand out to me are the improvements to the Analysis Visors and User Interface. The Analysis Visor is what you use to scan creatures and plant life on the plant you are currently on. You can still name creatures whatever you like, but it also provides increased rewards if you aim to find everything that is on the surface. Before the update, the user interface provided some challenges. There were so many things to look at and consider, it took a while to get used to all the different tabs within. Now a new mission log has been introduced, allowing you to view missions, an in-game guide for those that need tips or explanations and the Journey milestone page to show progress towards guild specific milestones. Also, visually, things have improved.
Will I be jumping back into No Man's Sky? After downloading the update this week, the love for the title has come back. The improvements that have been made have changed the game massively. For new players, it should be an enjoyable experience. Those veterans returning, it’s another exciting world waiting to be discovered.
For those that like to check out the full patch notes in detail, please see below!
Patch Notes
Generation
• Increased variety in weather, planet and structure names
• More base building parts have unique names
• Prevented trees spawning on sheer cliffs
• Improved object placement on slopes
• Improved grass placement and density
• Changed the default starting ship model
• Regenerated galaxy to remove differences between survival, normal and creative game modes
• Improved building distribution
• Increased distribution of heridium deposits
• Improved generation of beaches along shorelines
• Repositioned player bases to accommodate generation changes
Exploration
• Improved balance of hazards between planets
• Improved settings for hazard damage and strength
• Reduce cave hazard recharge times
• Added Shielding Shard to the starting player inventory
• Limited the depth at which buildings can spawn underwater
Gameplay
• More tech available in tech shops
• Balanced tech shop standing requirements
• Standing lights have a proper name when you interact with them
• Increased robustness of systems for locating buildings
• Increased number and types of objects which can be scanned
• Increased information available about scanned foliage and creatures
• Improved planet resource lists
• Craftable products now sorted by most recent use
• Improved differentiation of weapons
• Fixed pinning product recipes and technology guides
• Continued story unlocked through abandoned buildings
• Added interactions and dialogue options for many structures and characters
• Overhauled secondary character interactions
• Joint exploration has been introduced allowing 16 players to see visual representations of each other in game. Joint exploration does not require PS Plus, and is not currently available on GOG Galaxy.
Freighters
• Balanced freighter prices
• Fixed collision on freighter bridge
• Added freighter classes
• Added ability to warp in your freighter
• Fixed floating turrets on capital freighters
Space
• Improved space heavy air
• Added requirement to scan planets in order to reveal their names
• Improved planet name display as you enter orbit
• Fix for massive carve radius when mining asteroids
Galactic Map
• Updated galactic map UI
• Improved galactic map controls
• Improved star names gathered in galaxy map flythrough
• Improved distribution of different coloured stars
• Added interstellar scan events
Starships
• Added ability to summon your ship from the quick menu
• Refined ship reticules
• Added new holographic cockpit HUD elements: mini map, pulse drive warning and target ship
• Added new ship technology
• Balanced space combat
• Balanced ship weapons and technology
• Updated ship weapon projectile effects
• Updated ship hit direction markers
• Improved flare graphics on ships
• Improved loot containers dropped by AI ships
• Improved effects on damaged AI ships
• Balanced crashed ships broken slots and repair costs
• Added a more convenient swap inventory button for moving items between new/crashed ships and storage units
• Updated design of Atlas pass icons
• Added ability to look around the cockpit when landed
• Allowed player to remain in ship cockpit after landing
• Improved spawning and distribution of AI ships
• Improved ship altimeter
• Added in-ship communicator
• Added button prompt for ship zoom
• Fixed a bug where your ship could become invisible by visiting the galactic map
• Improved Pirate systems including the ability to negotiate or call in support
• Added low flight mode
• Improved landing code
UI
• Divided options menu into several pages
• Revised Journey page
• New Gek, Korvax and Vy’keen medals
• New medals for the merchant, mercenary and explorer guilds
• Revised log page
• Fixed animation on markers as they are removed
• Improved binocular UI
• Updated journey milestone icons
• Overhauled discovery log
• Added cardinal directions to compass
• Added distance markers to compass
• Fix for “redeem content” showing twice on Steam menu
• New trade and product icons
• Revised combat ship markers
• Improved ship tracking arrows when flying away from targets
• Overhauled conversation interface
Graphics
• Improved HBAO filtering around edges
• Improved TAA handling of grass blade edges
• Introduced depth of field effect during interactions
• Added LOD meshes and imposters to various props
• Fixed texturing on the buildable door
• Reduced HBAO shimmer
• Reduced shadow acne
• Fixed artifacts with imposter shadows
• Improved double-sided normals for foliage
• Improved terrain texturing and texture blending
• Improved grass colour blending and integration with terrain
• Improved grass and leaf materials
• Improved colour palettes across several biomes
• Improved planet night skies
• Fixed z-fighting on small glowing plants
• Various graphics optimisations and fixes
• Visual improvements to Atlas stations
• Replaced all terrain textures with higher detail and quality variants
• Added new higher detail foliage variants to several biomes
• Upgraded textures on several cave props
Audio
• Four new sets of soundscapes by 65 Days of Static
• Reworked space combat audio
• Reworked space explosions
• Added new ship weapon sounds
• Added weird biome soundscape
• Added new music and sound effects for story mode
• Lots of new UI sounds
• Minor mix changes and optimisations
Language
• Various minor language fixes and improvements
No Man's Sky was released on 10/08/2016 on PS4 and PC.
Written by Chaz C.
