no man's sky

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May 13, 2002
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#2
My most anticipated game.

I was a big fan of Starflight when I was a kid. Always wanted to play another game like that. Just pure space exploration at it's finest. Travel the universe, discover new galaxies and planets, sometimes even life. Find, trade and sell resources, buy new ships, engage with friendlies or enemies and get into dog fights. The possibilities are endless. You discover a planet that no one else has seen, you mark the coordinates, name the planet, etc. The storyline is what you make out of the game. Whatever you want to do with your time is entirely up to you. This will be a type of game you can chill and just get lost in for hours.
 
May 13, 2002
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#3
How many planets are in No Man's Sky?

Over 18 quintillion planets.

The exact number is 18,446,744,073,709,551,616


To put that in perspective, "even if a planet is discovered every second, it’ll take 585 billion years to find them all,” Murray teased on the PlayStation Blog.

He continued:

“The cool thing is that every planet has a single number, a random seed, that defines everything about that planet. A single random seed generates every blade of grass, tree, flower, creature. So as the developer I can note down the planet seed, and then just go back there any time I want. We demoed this at Gamescom, just jumping round the universe to different planets. There are no load times, because nothing needs to load, as the planets are entirely computer-generated.”​


The other cool thing is only a very small percentage of planets will actually have life, about 10 percent of planets will have basic life forms. About 1% of planets will have more complicated life forms. And utopias are supposed to be even more rare than that. Less than 1 percent is pretty crazy given the 18 Quintrillion planets. Although, apparently the closer you get to the center of the universe, the more life there is.

The universe is so vast that you may NEVER stumble across another player. Actually chances are you never will. Over time, if all players really are spending all of their time going towards the center of the universe, the chances will increase. Of course, there will be AI in the game, so it won't appear as the game is completely void of life, and there are various trading posts where presumably you'll come across various AI.

It's really cool and important to me that they truly considered making this game so insanely big to give players a sense of just how big/infinite our universe is.
 
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May 13, 2002
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#4
But, the developers aren't going to want you to feel completely alone either. As it will feel overwhelming at first, they remind us:





Isolation Vs. Community
You want them to feel quite vulnerable, like we're all in this together. And I want that feeling where you bring up the map and you can see every now and then a star twinkling because someone has made a discovery - just that sense that this thing is a little bit alive and there are a lot of people out there. I think that's a really nice feeling. It's not just you are a tiny dot and the world's a horrible place and there are robots and creatures and sharks that are just gonna kill you all the time. You want that feeling that there's a slight sense of purpose. This is all getting a bit more filled in. It's becoming a bit more hospitable.
 
May 13, 2002
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#5
More random info:

Star types will be one of the factors that determines what kind of environments will be found on planets in that solar system. There are many different types of stars, including ones that don't exist in our world, what effects they'll have, we don't know. Could there be ice stars? Or diamond stars (like what scientists discovered a couple years back)?

Landing on comets
In an interview, they stated we could land on comets. There is a type of "space walk". Good chance we can get out and mine all those asteroids instead of just breaking them apart with our ships guns.

Are there moons?
Yes. And every satellite orbiting a star or planet will have varying rotations and orbits. This means most planets will have some sort of day night cycle.

How big are the planets?
They vary in size, some small, some earth sized, some massive. You can land, get out and walk for days and days or weeks and weeks.



There are no Gas Giants planets.
They didn't want anything you couldn't interact with, ie land on and walk around. They do have toxic planets with very thick atmospheres though.They have mentioned water worlds and worlds with toxic atmospheres. Since some planets will be hazardous because of the chemical composition of the air and stuff, you won't be able to stay out as long on those planets. Upgrading or buying special kind of space suits may allow you to however.

We have been shown a world with hills or mesas or giant rocks floating in the air. Put those three things together and you have a planet with a dense fluid core, deadly, possibly quite cloudy atmosphere requiring special suit upgrades and islands floating in that atmosphere. Really strange & cool stuff to find.

As you can see in this photo, there is Atmospheric Composition Readout which updates once the ship has entered the planet's atmosphere, giving you information you'll need to know. They've done the same with water (your suit will only allow you to go a certain depth/pressure until you upgrade it while exploring oceans/water).


They originally planned to use the real periodic table, but they thought it was too complicated for the common user to understand chemistry on a really high level, so they created their own, much more simple table. It cuts out alot of rare elements, and ones that don't really do much for the game, and renamed a few of them as well. Some may find this disappointing, but the reality is most people don't understand the periodic table, even Sci-Fi fans.


Discovering ancient civilizations?
Yep.





Lifeforms



(Look closley at these two images. Not only do you see ancient ruins in the background, look at the giant creature moving on the sand!





Random



•When you first start No Mans Sky, there will be no story or narration and no tutorial. Instead the first thing that will happen is an abstract sequence inspired by the ending of the movie '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Hello Games: 'The very first time, we just want the feeling that you warp in and see triply visuals as the galaxy forms around you'.
•You will begin at a random spot on one of the planets at the edge of the Galaxy. You will almost certainly be the first person to see and you may be the only person to see it. The doesn't guarantee equal footing footing for players either as some players will start in harsher environments than others.
• A mini map at the bottom of the screen directs you to a point of interest where you will find your ship a couple of minutes later. At the tap of a button you can bring up the Galaxy map to find your location, but you are free to stay put or head to space in search of other planets. A black hole sits in the centre of the map and is an unstated goal that you may or may not reach or even want to reach.
•I stated this game was an MMO in a previous video, meaning that it is a massive online game where players share a world. But in reality, whilst you will see your friends stats and location in game, you will likely never meet them. Hello Games: 'We don't want people just scouting off besides their friends. I actually want people to boot up the game and just think. Isn't this universe huge? Who are we? What are we all doing here?'
•The first time you see another player, you will see their suit and realise what you actually look like. Hello Games will not reveal whether you are human or another species entirely.
•The central map also allows you to freely swoop through the stars. Countless points of light will fill the screen representing billions of planets. The hue of space clouds and computed stars will hunt at what resources and activities may be available. Zooming in further allows you to see properties of a solar system, whether planets have been discovered and even point of interest. Players can upload new discoveries for everyone to see, but their will be percentage completion in game due to the size of the world.
•To progress in game, players will need to earn units which is the name of the in game currency. Fortunately almost everything you do including blowing up ships all the way to gathering and selling resources, will reward units in some capacity.
•In order to travel anywhere you must locate a ship. The starting ship does not have a hyperdrive, therefore you will need units to buy a better ship and to buy fuel.
•Resources can be mined on planets by using your gun and grenades to blast clusters of valuable cubes and you will need to use a scanning mode to locate them. Trading posts are spread around planets to sell resources. You can also travel to another solar system where that resource might not be available, to sell goods at a higher costs but you need to weigh if the fuel and ship required is worth the cost. Various Trading posts are specialized for specific upgrade to armour, weapons and ships with posts holding different stock and a rating of quality. If you're looking for a specific upgrade you would need to find the exact type of store and hope the rating if high enough for the store to stock that upgrade. Ships cannot be customized, so posts are a good place to find procedurally generated ships you like. You need to follow a ship back to a station in order to buy one. You have the option to attacks posts and ships and earn units/resources however the galactic police force will come after you and they will remember you in future.
•Space Stations populate every solar system, and it's general shape indicates the quality of items within. Multiple docking bays across the outer surface indicates there's always open parking spots. You can hop out and browse tradable cargo, or stroll down a line of ships checking stats and prices.
•No Mans Sky's planets are populated with procedurally generated creatures and plant life to discover and you can scan and upload data from the creatures you find. The game will also feature a robot enemy known as the Malevolent Force whose goal is to maintain a balance in the universe.
•On some planets these robots will patrol, keeping an eye out for players killing creatures, carving out resources or generally changing the environment. If you're just exploring and scanning the planet then you'll be left alone. If you draw there attention, they'll Attack you with lasers, while strafing and taking cover like any FPS enemy.
•Your ship, weapon and suit are the three key elements to upgrade in No Mans Sky. Most skills and stats are rated on a scale of 1 through to 5. Your suit and weapon (which is called the multi-tool) both experience permanent upgrades that don't vanish if you die. Your ships however cannot be upgraded, instead you will need to buy a new ship with the features and style that you're looking for.
•Space Combat is designed with an arcadey, pick up and play feeling. You will find groups of enemy ships and will need to prioritize which enemies need to be taken out first similar to combat in the Halo series. Choosing the right weapon is very important: Lasers specialise in melting shields, while plasma projectiles do heavy damage to hulls. You will not have to worry about ammunition, however all weapons will have a cool down timer to be weary of.
•Upon death, you will be taken to the nearest planet. Your ship and any cargo onboard are gone forever, but your bank account remains intact as does your suit, weapons and upgrades. No permadeath.
•Along the journey, players can find rare alien temples on planets. These temples require specific weapons or a combination of weapons to open. Once open, the temple will teleport you to a random planet closer to the centre of the Galaxy.
•If you decide to make you goal to reach the centre of the Galaxy, the game will take roughly 40-100 hours, but further exploration is infinite. Hello Games also has no plans to release any early access or open beta for No Mans Sky.
 
May 13, 2002
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#6
This video is really cool, it breaks down the variations of lifeforms.



It also confirms that Hello Games really hasn't shown us shit regarding lifeforms. They've purposely only shown us things we can relate too - like "oh that creature looks like a shark, and that one looks like a dinosaur". The truth is they have base models of creatures, thousands of them, and each is procedural generated, basically randomly based on the planet, atmosphere, environment, etc etc etc. So while the base skeleton of a create that resembles a deer, maybe in one planet it will have horns, it's hind-legs could be 6 feet long, maybe it's skin is hairless, etc. etc etc. So there is an infinate amount of possibilities for each base model creature. Same goes for trees and forests.

Basically works like this:

-Artist creates a base template
-Can be handmade or generated art
-The Variation is then generated

For example, often times there will be a base vertebra for the creature and from this vertebra there can be countless variations built on top of it, whether its different poses, a version of the creature that is more hunched over, and since this are simple things added over the base skeleton of the creature there is no need to and anything like different walk and run cycles, although the team did create a large variation of walks and runs depending on the size and shape of the creature. If the creature is larger it may lumber a bit more, whereas if it were skinny it will be around more more fluid and quickly.

There are also different markings that are all procedurally generated on top of the creatures, or fins, scales and spikes. There are library’s of hundreds of these different details that can all be applied to a creature to create something unique, even if it is just a small variation in the size of a horn, or the marking on an animal, these are small things that can create a nice randomness across each animal in the world.

Even with something like Procedural Generation which generates something random for your world, there still has to be rules set in place for the algorithm. You want to make sure that there is a specific art style for the game. For instance, you don’t want to have a fish creature with random anatomy like a horse like head, or hoofs for fins. Things still need to consistent to the creature, and make sense. The same goes for the color, you want to have a set of rules for the color, and you want to implement a color theory system. You don’t want to have a world be generated that is completely random with a mismatch of colors that don’t feel cohesive, everything needs to feel like it belongs together. Without some type of rules Procedural Generation is going to generate are that is not very pleasing to the eyes.
 
May 13, 2002
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#8
So here are some known ship types.

In no man's sky there will be at least 3 styles of ships:

Explorer
Fighter
Trader



Each is pretty self explinatery and each will have their own purposes. Explorer's presumably will be excellent for travel, always cabable of hyperdrive and can travel the furthest distances (carry the most fuel), but they'll be limited on weapons. Fighters obviously are fighters and will have awesome weapons and Traders will be big beats used for trading cargo and whatnot.

Now, here is the fun stuff. Like all lifeforms and planets, the ships will also be procedurally generated, so there will be hundreds of base models of ships, and the game will go off those models & set rules, giving us an infinite amount of ships to buy/steal/destroy.


On this imagine, the one on the far left is probably an example of an Explorer. If one assumes the unused engines in the image are for hyperdrive, it has much larger engines than the others. The bottom right corner may also be an Explorer based on the same assumption.


Here is some leaked pics:

Fighters (keep in mind this is just a tiny fraciton)


Possibly Explorers & fighters?


Possibly Explorers


Definately Explorers in the sky



Trader (in the sky)

Another Trader




More regarding ships:

-Fighters are light and symmetrical
-Trader craft tend to be bulkier and slower, but with heavier weapons
-Explorer ships will have much better hyperdrives and stealth capabilities, allowing pacifists to run from every fight
-Each ship will have between one and three different armaments attached, and you’ll be able to upgrade them.
-Enhancements are hinted to be more interesting than simply more power or a faster rate of fire
-They are not defined in the game as a specific class, but it should be obvious by the visible hints what a craft is designed for
-A certain type of ship doesn’t restrict you to a certain path, but there are of course some ships more suited to certain tasks than other. But you’ll always be able to change to a different type of ship
-The cockpit of the ship will be the lifepod, so if the ship is destroyed then you go back to a lifepod and you’ve lost that ship.
-You will have the equivalent of a whistle to call your ship over, so long as it’s close by
-After a while, the wear and tear on your craft is clearly visible, helping you to form an emotional attachment to your beaten-up old ships
-There’s a generous targeting system that only requires you to point your nose near a bogey to loose off a missile or two - you don’t need to be really accurate
-Can “pull low above the surface and climb out in mid-air, before returning to the cockpit and flying around some more”
-Landing will be simple and straightforward
-Space combat will be arcadey
-Better ships will be found further into the galaxy, where combat will also be harder The Sixth Axis
-Fuel will be really expensive, and is used to travel from one solar system to the next, like a hyper jump. The Sixth Axis
-A quick and cheap way to get fuel is to go down to a planet and do some mining, but you can also make money other ways and use that buy fuel. The Sixth Axis
 
May 13, 2002
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#13
But it should be good just based on everything we've seen. Just pure space exploration at it's core, to me is dope, and I'll spend hours doing nothing but exploring. Everything else to me is a bonus.

The big concerns so far is repetitiveness, especially when it comes to lifeforms. Some people worry planets will just have slight variations of the same kinds of lifeforms. I'm not concerned about that though because they can and will continue to add base models, and as the earlier posts talked about each base model will have almost infinite amounts of variations. Plus they've only gave us a tiny fraction of what some life will look like, they've purposely held out on the truly bizarre creatures and whatnot. My concerns are more like how many assholes will there be because apparently you can destroy life to the point of extinction. So if someone discovers something really awesome and posts it's coordinates on YouTube, will some prick come along and wipe out this cool species? That's kinda fucked lol.
 
Nov 18, 2010
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#15
There is apparently a robot species you're always fighting. Before i am on board I need to see some FPS footage. Bravo for innovation but if it doesnt have a solid engine for moving and shooting then i could care less.
 
May 13, 2002
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#16
OK, so what is this games purpose? WTF are you doing just going to random planets in ships and looking at life forms? We're humans, we need to KILL shit.
They haven't explained what happens at the center of the universe. It seems like that is ur purpose, to get there but you don't know why. There will be tougher challenges as you get closer.

There will be shit to kill, there is combat, and there’s still the Malevolent Force patrolling planets to keep things balanced.