Early copies of No Man’s Sky have been surfacing over the past couple weeks. If you wanted to stay in the dark about the game until its release tomorrow, it isn’t difficult, but for those who are tempted, you can find a bevy of information about the game right now. However, with No Man’s Sky‘s “day zero” patch, the game will look very different from the early copies. The patch is available now for those who have the game, and for those who don’t, it will be available at launch. You can read a sample of the changes below.
For starters, if you are part of the minority that has access to an early copy of No Man’s Sky, you might want to delete your save file and start again. You won’t have to do this ever again, but the patch introduces new content and experiences that simply will not be available to those who merely update a previous save file. One of the reasons for a new save is that there are now three unique paths that players can follow which will feature choices early on that significantly impact the game’s later stages. The Atlas path specifically has been rewritten by Sean Murray of Hello Games, and James Swallow (who has written a bevy of tie-in novels for Deus Ex and Warhammer 40,000), to be more about player freedom.
Quantitatively, the game is getting massive updates as well:
- The galaxy will be ten times bigger;
- a new atmospheric system makes the skies four times more varied;
- there is more diversity of creatures;
- there are more varied ships per star system;
- ship inventory is five times bigger and suit inventory is 2.5 times bigger;
- more variety in space station interiors;
- and there are more hazardous planets to explore
These are just some of the more statistical changes. Balancing is also happening in terms of combat, as well as trading values which will reflect galactic economies. Some of the cool new features though is the ability to feed creatures specific food based on their diets and have them perform tasks for you such as mining or just being your pet. You’ll also be able to discover star systems players have already discovered, just by doing a scan through your Galactic Map. This will increase the likelihood of running into other players. For the full list of tweaks in the update, check it out right here.
All the updates for No Man’s Sky are intended to be free, and Sean Murray already began teasing some more updates in 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.”
You can finally experience the game tomorrow, August 9th, on PS4 and August 12th on PC.
Source: No Man’s Sky Blog