No Man’s Sky day 1 patch, pets and…base building!?

Okay so before we jump straight into this one why don’t we get caught up on the No Man’s Sky news of the last week or so:

• An early copy of the game was leaked and an unknown, lucky individual was able to play through, post videos and his personal thoughts of the game onto reddit. I don’t want to search for it myself to avoid spoilers but for those who want to find those videos, google is your friend.
• On August 2nd it was tweeted that the game would be patched before release to add “features, balancing and content”
• On August 5th it was tweeted that the PC version of the game would be slightly delayed to August 12th worldwide.  The PS4 version is still expected to be available in Australia on August 10.
• It was also tweeted on August 5th that the No Man’s Sky servers would be wiped clean before the game’s release so that everyone would be on an even playing field.
• Finally, it was then tweeted – “if you are reviewing/playing our game without our update, on a leaked copy, then please don’t. It’s not what players will experience. “

Phew okay, we all up to speed? Thank you twitter.

Now let’s jump straight into today’s news. The most recent update to the pre-No Man’s Sky saga. This time courtesy of an official website post.

The post by Sean Murray (lead designer) starts by telling us that he and his team have been hard at work to update the game pre-release. He mentions that his team will “continually update No Man’s Sky” and that “this is the first of many.” He also mentions that the update will be available on launch for gamers and that he expects “future updates like these to continue to be free.”

Murray then reaffirms server wipes are taking place and goes on to explain the updates that will be available day 1… and there are an impressive amount!

• You now start your journey on 1 of 3 unique paths to follow. With early choices making big impacts on the later sections of the game.
• Universe generation has changed: galaxies are 10x larger, creatures are more diverse, atmosphere is more varied and planet rotation has been slowed.
• Dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazard planets have also been added.
• Terrain generation has added more interesting sea beds, large caves and geometric anomalies.
• There will be more ship diversity and larger inventories for ships and suit.
• Trading has expanded with differing star systems and regions having different wants and needs.
• Feeding native wildlife an appropriate diet will yield positive results including becoming your pet.
• Survival and combat aspects have been deepened.
• The game has received multiple balancing adjustments, improved visuals and exploit removals.
• Space stations are more varied.
• Star system and ship scanning had been added.

A big list of updates. I guess we understand why it was mentioned that those with a leaked early copy weren’t getting the proper experience.

The changes look exciting to me, but perhaps more exciting is what the post outlined for the future. “Next up we’re adding the ability to build bases and own giant space freighters. Temporal AA and my new cloud rendering tech should be coming soon too. It will really change the game again, and enhance it visually.”

I guess that officially puts the hype train squarely back on its tracks for me. Next stop? Release.