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No Man's Sky Confirmed Feature List

hawk2025

Member
There's trillions of planets. They can show us 20 minutes of gameplay without destroying any mystery and give us an idea of how the game will play before we give them our money.




The mystery isn't in the billions of planets. We know those are randomly generated.

As Hello has stated time and time again, they want the experience itself to be a surprise and a learning one. They've shown plenty of gameplay, but they are purposefully obscuring the intricacies of most of the mechanics described here.

I reiterate what I said -- most people want the mechanics to be completely exposed and bare in long tutorial-like videos, and simply be tourists of the actual randomly generated content of the game. They don't want just the planets to be a mystery, but the details of the gameplay mechanics as well.
 
I need a story...some sort of substance i randomly destroy some opposing force wiping out a fleet and no contact comes from it..there will be zero satisfaction it'll be nice to see the fleet help me when im in trouble but i really hope these guys innovate in the content area that to me will be something innovative if they can make one of these endlessly open world games interesting enough with some sort of fluid evolving story with the different species you meet
 

Honome

Member
01-faint.gif

LOL

That´s exactly my feelings right now! I just hope for an early 2015 release!
 
Sounds excellent.

I dislike the fact that a large part of the community (well, at least GAF) seems to be demanding a Ubisoft-style, 20-minute playthrough that kills the mystery and discovery of the game. Perhaps it's best for Hello Games to capitulate as far as sales go, but I hope they remain steadfast and don't do it -- because I won't resist watching.

How do you destroy the mystery of a procedurally generated game?
 

peetfeet

Member
I know logistically what it means but damn, I can't wrap my head around it. I'm borderline OCD about exploration in games so that's pretty terrifying.

Yeah, a good way it was described by the dev was when asked what are the possibilities of meeting others he says,[sic] 'put a million people scattered on earth, how likely will it be you meet another person? add into the mix infinate planets etc'.... the mind boggles
 

Pop

Member
If the final game lives up to all of that then I will be set for years. Just sounds like I won't ever need another game.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I can see only two things that can happen with this game destiny:

-It will be GLORIOUS, with really giant planets and an infinity of different planets and variations with a huge "replay" value!
-Or it will flop like hell. With many and many of the planets looking almost the same with irrelevant variations, and planets that are in no way near a real sized planet; becoming tedious pretty fast.

I swear that I want the 1st to happen (who wouldnt). But Im finding the 2nd much more believable.
 

hawk2025

Member
How do you destroy the mystery of a procedurally generated game?



A procedurally generated game is still fundamentally governed by the algorithm that generates the areas, which is in turn programmed by real people.

Regardless of how it was designed, players will inevitably get accustomed to the patterns in the underlying algorithm.

Beyond that, see the reply above regarding the details of the gameplay mechanics. The mystery isn't on the fact that there's billions of planets. That's window dressing.
 

Tigress

Member
I still don't understand what sorcery they are using to making this real!

I don't know, but if they manage to pull it off, this game could possibly be something you'd never need another game ever. It really seems like they are trying to pull off an exploration sim and that would be totally awesome (I like sim games and I find a good sim game of whatever tends not to get old. For example MS Flight Sim was my main game growing up. I might play some other games but never tired of it. Only dropping it when a new one came out. Or when MS stopped supporting Mac :( ).
 

KingJolly

Banned
I can see only two things that can happen with this game destiny:

-It will be GLORIOUS, with really giant planets and an infinity of different planets and variations with a huge "replay" value!
-Or it will flop like hell. With many and many of the planets looking almost the same with irrelevant variations, and planets that are in no way near a real sized planet; becoming tedious pretty fast.

I swear that I want the 1st to happen (who wouldnt). But Im finding the 2nd much more believable.

If it is the first one, it will be the game of the gen
 

WhoEvenIsDriu

Neo Member
Literally every detail released so far leaves me with a weird mixture of excitement and complete confusion, I don't understand how meeting other players works, I don't understand how you make money, I don't get it at all...But I know I want it....

I can see only two things that can happen with this game destiny:

-It will be GLORIOUS, with really giant planets and an infinity of different planets and variations with a huge "replay" value!
-Or it will flop like hell. With many and many of the planets looking almost the same with irrelevant variations, and planets that are in no way near a real sized planet; becoming tedious pretty fast.

I swear that I want the 1st to happen (who wouldnt). But Im finding the 2nd much more believable.

And this, so much this.....
 

Alebrije

Member
I can see only two things that can happen with this game destiny:

-It will be GLORIOUS, with really giant planets and an infinity of different planets and variations with a huge "replay" value!
-Or it will flop like hell. With many and many of the planets looking almost the same with irrelevant variations, and planets that are in no way near a real sized planet; becoming tedious pretty fast.

I swear that I want the 1st to happen (who wouldnt). But Im finding the 2nd much more believable.

Yep, since they are usung a base model to generate ship, plants ,animals , etc variations . It looks like a bigger Spore. Hope this game does not bombs as Fable and its promises.
 

akira28

Member
If the final game lives up to all of that then I will be set for years. Just sounds like I won't ever need another game.

You will eventually get bored of resource gathering and upgrading and defending yourself from computer generated enemies. There has to be more to it.

My reaction when reading that everyone has the same universe and that players can run into each other.

but player encounters would be rare, or at least not common. I would like a nice medium, where you don't have EvE online style gank gangs, but you can have some nice organized moderate scale PVP if people wanted.
 

adj_noun

Member
So what kind of planet should the designated GAF planet be?

Lots of possibilities for tech development?

Wild and wonderful diversity of flora and fauna?

Volcanic and gassy?
 

Ferr986

Member
Only significant events are shared between people. So for example, killing a single animal won’t be shared. It’ll always be dead for you though. But if you wipe out an entire species, then that would be shared with everyone else

thats what I dont like. I dont see why if someone wipes a species everyone lose it.

I know theres offline mode too, but I still dont get why they do this in the online mode. Its ruining the game for the late newcomers.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
Nothing new here if you've actually been following the game, but it sounds so damn amazing! Love how there are no set quests, carreers, allegiances, etc. You just do what you feel like doing, and stuff will dynamically evolve from there rather than you choosing stuff from a menu. Can't wait.

The one thing on the list that sounds off to me is "Made up of multiple galaxies". In all interviews I've heard/read Sean has talked about it as a single galaxy. That's one massive galaxy, for sure. Much larger than our Milky Way, which is estimated to have 100-400 billlion stars and "only" about 100 billion planets. The galaxy in NMS has 18 quintillion. That's about 180,000,000 times as many. Shiiiiiiit. But still, I've never heard them say there are several galaxies in this universe.
 
The thing that worry me the most is that will exploration be exciting enough to keep me going? Because discovering wasteland after wasteland with one type of resource from each planet sounds extremely boring to me. I would take 100 distinctively unique planets over billions boring planets any day.
 

superbank

The definition of front-butt.
Hopefully most of these confirmed feature don't get cut.

These features are confirmed! ... to be said by HG.

Well this list is great for all the people confused about what the game is supposed to feature anyway. There did seem to be a lot. It would be nice to actually see these things and confirm for myself though. :)

Fun is put above scientific accuracy. Flying between planets won’t be long and monotonous, and neither will flying out of an atmosphere

So it will indeed be like the 3.5 minute "gameplay" video. Flying through space will be like running through minecraft biomes, but it will take even less time. Of course you will probably want to stop and check out each planet, slowing down the pace.
 
So, basically with a universe so big as they say, all a lot of people will see are barren planets (90% of them). Cool...
 
thats what I dont like. I dont see why if someone wipes a species everyone lose it.

I know theres offline mode too, but I still dont get why they do this in the online mode. Its ruining the game for the late newcomers.
If the universe is as large as they say it is, that won't be a problem.
 
What will you do if you discover another player in the game? Will you kill them or embark on an exlpotatory mission with them?
Can you even do that?

Reading all that just increased my hype a lot. This game sounds phenomenal.
 

btags

Member
What the hell would "using an alternative periodic table" mean? It is not like games simulate physical and chemical processes on the atomic level. Sounds like a bunch of marketing bs to me.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
thats what I dont like. I dont see why if someone wipes a species everyone lose it.

I know theres offline mode too, but I still dont get why they do this in the online mode. Its ruining the game for the late newcomers.

You're probably severely underestimating just how many planets there will be in this game. Again, around 18 quintillion (18,000,000,000,000,000,000). About 10% of those will have life, and 10% of those will have "interesting" life. That's just 1%, but 1% of 18 quintillion is still 180,000,000,000,000,000. Even if a billion planets were completely wiped of animal life and resources (which won't happen) that wouldn't really make a dent in the total amount of stuff out there. And I personally think it would be really cool to arrive at a planet and find that it has been ravaged by some other player who was there before me. Seeing anything like that is gonna be so rare as to almost be impossible unless you actively seek it out that it should be a rather special event.

So, basically with a universe so big as they say, all a lot of people will see are barren planets (90% of them). Cool...

Which will make discovering a lush planet full of life that more special. It wouldn't be an "event" at all if half of all planets were like that. And if these "interesting" planets are somewhat evenly distributed you shouldn't have to look all that long before you find one anyway.
 

Ferr986

Member
If the universe is as large as they say it is, that won't be a problem.

Probably, but it still sucks that you're losing "content". I know it can be a minor complain if the universe is as big as they say, but its still bothers me. I dont see the reason to keep it that way.
 
What does that mean?

People have mentioned Earth-sized planets etc. but the thing is, this is irrelevant. It all depends on the speed of your space ship inside a planet's atmosphere. You could have a tiny planet and an incredibly slow space ship and walking speed, or you could have a massive planet the size of the sun and an insanely fast space ship. In both cases you can get from point A to point B in, say, 5 seconds. It doesn't make much difference. The only difference a large planet does make is the discovery element, since even if you can fly very fast, you need to make several full orbits around a planet to comb through every square mile of it.

thats what I dont like. I dont see why if someone wipes a species everyone lose it.

I know theres offline mode too, but I still dont get why they do this in the online mode. Its ruining the game for the late newcomers.

I know Hello Games keep mentioning this detail about wiping out animal species but I don't think this will be very common at all. Think about it, you'll have to spend days of combing through a planet, playing Where's Waldo while trying to find that last little elephant-cat in the jungle. I'm not saying people won't do it, but I suspect it'll take a lot longer than you might think, just to wipe out a single species on a single planet, as well as your actual walking speed.
 

Wil348

Member
Ever since the initial announcement, this game sounded incredible to me. Now it just sounds even more incredible. I need it.
 
I still can't shake the idea of this being akin to Minecraft without building. Sure, it'll be fun to explore for a while, but it still doesn't sound like there's a whole lot to do.
 

Tigress

Member
thats what I dont like. I dont see why if someone wipes a species everyone lose it.

I know theres offline mode too, but I still dont get why they do this in the online mode. Its ruining the game for the late newcomers.

Honestly, I like that. Kinda puts some realism in the game that people will have affects on the planet. And means you are at the whim of if some one is a jerk and kills everything else off or not (you may have people like me that will try to rp rather than just game the system and I'll probably try not to kill off an entire species).

Read that entire list of "gameplay" and I still dont know what the core gameplay mechanics of the game are about.

Really? It's a simulation, there aren't core gameplay mechanics. It's like a good RPG where it is trying to give you a variety of ways you can play it. You can fight your way through or you can try to be a peaceful explorer. You can aggressively try to reach the center or you can just have fun exploring planets and ignore the incentive for getting to the center. You get to discover the story as you go.

Honestly, I have a hard time seeing how one cannot envision how they expect this game to be played from that list... if it really works how they say it will, it's going to be awesome. But it's not going to like some platformer where it feels more like a game of reflexes and trying to hit the buttons at the right time. It's more of a simulator for exploring planets and simulating you actually doing it (you can even try to roleplay your character out or pretend it's you there. I think trying to play it as it's just a game is going to be boring and if that's what you want, you're better off some other game, probably a platformer or FPS where the focus is more the gameplay mechanics).
 
There's trillions of planets. They can show us 20 minutes of gameplay without destroying any mystery and give us an idea of how the game will play before we give them our money.

The other side of that point is that since there are trillions of planets you can just wait until the game comes out where have tons of impressions, reviews, gameplay vids, let's plays, etc.. to make a more informed decision; because the universe is so vast I could argue that you wouldn't really be missing out by not hopping in day 1.
 

Pop

Member
You will eventually get bored of resource gathering and upgrading and defending yourself from computer generated enemies. There has to be more to it.

Well with the amount of planets, space travel, planet exploring, different resources to mine, different species to discover and the multiplayer add-on coming after launch. I think I'm good.
 

wildfire

Banned
I read the whole OPs post, and I want this game now even more.....

I read that list and certain things were off putting or too vague.

The actual turn offs
Implication that planets are as big as real world planets.

I like the idea of playing in a planet sized world but in a galaxy filled with such worlds is going to make encounters with other players extremely limited.

This is further exacerbated by

Only one major resource per planet

Since they intend to make crafting a thing in this game I'm concerned about how much of a pain in the ass it is to get resources when distance issues will be a thing.

They mentioned flying between planets will be quick but I wonder how the rest of the galaxy scales to fit these goals and the goal that you rarely will see other players.

The one part that is very vague is.

"In every solar system there is one core thing that you can do which is of great significance to that solar system. And that is shared among everyone, and fundamentally changes that solar system, and people can choose whether or not to do that. And there are a number of mechanisms like that, which create emergent gameplay."

Other than that there are some great ideas I have longed to see in other games like periodic elements accounted for in a game.
 
Which will make discovering a lush planet full of life that more special. It wouldn't be an "event" at all if half of all planets were like that. And if these "interesting" planets are somewhat evenly distributed you shouldn't have to look all that long before you find one anyway.
Yea, or when I get it on the PC and after playing for something like 10 hours without seeing one I'll just stop caring. Yes, there are a lot of planets with boring life, but there are a lot more without any life at all. Either their numbers are bullshit or I'll be losing interest in this.
 
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