No Man's Sky's First Patch Includes Several Major Additions

Back in early July, developer Hello Games announced that No Man’s Sky had gone gold, meaning that development of the core game had officially been completed. Not content to rest on its laurels, the team at Hello Games immediately began working on the first major update for the game, an update which will be available as soon as No Man’s Sky publicly launches tomorrow.

Hello Games studio lead Sean Murray recently put up a new blog post on the official No Man’s Sky website where he discusses how everyone expected the Hello Games team to take a break once No Man’s Sky had gone gold. However, the majority of staff members at Hello Games (including Murray) were back at it the very next day, working on the 1.03 update which will be available on the same day as launch.

The patch notes for the 1.03 update can be found below, but be warned as there are minor spoilers in the text of the notes:

• The Three Paths – There are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.
• The Universe – Changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved, environments have changed biomes, and galaxies have altered shape. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.
• Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.
• Planets – Added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms.
• Atmosphere – Space, night and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets.
• Planet Rotation – Effects have been reduced.
• Terrain Generation – Caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.
• Ship Diversity – A wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.
• Inventory – Ship inventories now store 5x more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5x more per slot. 
• Trading – Trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. All trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. Various trade exploits have been removed.
• Feeding – Creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species such as mining, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting rare loot or pooping valuable resources.
• Survival – Recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous.
• Graphical Effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled.
• Balancing – Several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (exo-suit, ship, weapon). New upgrades have been added.
• Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging.
• Space Combat – Advanced techniques have been introduced like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.
• Exploits – Infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit removed.
• Stability – Foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).
• Space Stations – Interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added.
• Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight.
• Ship Scanning – Scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans.
• Flying Over Terrain – Pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update).
• Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Deus Ex) and Sean Murray. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

The 1.03 update clocks in at just 824 MB and is available now for players who managed to get their hands on an early copy of No Man’s Sky (though Hello Games recommends that players delete their current save and start a new one to fully experience all of the update’s new features).

Source: No Man’s Sky 

For more on the latest Indie Obscura news, be sure to read our coverage of Niantic’s official response to the fan outrage following the disabling of third-party Pokemon GO apps, the upcoming HD mobile release of the beloved indie title To the Moon, and Turtle Rock’s more open approach to development of new content for Evolve Stage 2.

Nate Hohl

Writer