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No Man's Sky Confirmed Feature List

Just remove a zero each step (which gives you 10% of the previous number). So, roughly:

Total number of planets: 18,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Planets with life: 1,800,000,000,000,000,000

Planets with "interesting" life: 180,000,000,000,000,000

That last number is 180 million billion (or 180 quadrillion).

Soooo ... Yeah that's a big number of planets with diverse ecosystems lol
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
What is the gameplay(at its best) actually like though? Is it just grinding for money on planets, walking around, taking pictures, looking for artifacts and shooting things in space? The space combat looks really simple and so does everything else about this game. It seems like it would be a great experience for Morpheus but as a regular game, I'm not seeing a lot of fun gameplay here.

It's pretty arcady, yeah, it's not supposed to be a space sim. Does that mean it can't be fun? And you could say "is it just..." about most games.
 

Kaversmed

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 have a feeling this is what is going to happen. Don't get me wrong, I want this to be as amazing as it indeed does look, but it's almost too good to be true.
 
This game is procedurally generated. You don't play it for in depth gameplay or intricate level design.

If it's anything like minecraft, you play it to walk around and explore randomly generated planets and space with braindead simple mechanics that are done better in other, more focused games. But, if you don't care about that and are satisfied with the simplicity of the core mechanics, you have an endless universe to make your playground.

If that doesn't sound like what you want, it's not for you. And that's okay.

Probably it's not for me. But what do you mean by make it your playground? Are there things that you can do in it like building stuff in MC?

It's pretty arcady, yeah, it's not supposed to be a space sim. Does that mean it can't be fun? And you could say "is it just..." about most games.

I mean, it can be fun but arcadey games tend to run out of steam very quickly. How many asteroids can you shoot before you get tired of it?
 
Honestly, I have no doubt it'll be a big hit. Procedural generation focused gameplay hits 99% of player's needs anyway. They just need to focus on making a scifi focused minecraft clone and they'll rake in the dollars.

Probably it's not for me. But what do you mean by make it your playground? Are there things that you can do in it like building stuff in MC?

I'm fairly sure they've mentioned you can build settlements and whatnot.
 
Honestly, I have no doubt it'll be a big hit. Procedural generation focused gameplay hits 99% of player's needs anyway. They just need to focus on making a scifi focused minecraft clone and they'll rake in the dollars.



I'm fairly sure they've mentioned you can build settlements and whatnot.

But how do you do it? Is it as simple as clicking a button or is it more in depth like MC?
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
I hope all the barren, lifeless worlds still have interesting geographical features on them. Just look at all the shit that's in our own solar system.
 
Honestly, I have no doubt it'll be a big hit. Procedural generation focused gameplay hits 99% of player's needs anyway. They just need to focus on making a scifi focused minecraft clone and they'll rake in the dollars.



I'm fairly sure they've mentioned you can build settlements and whatnot.

Don't think there is creation in this though, so Minecraft is a bad comparison
 

BenouKat

Banned
So if I read correctly, we generally cant meet friends into the universe ? This is pretty lame cause I was excited to explore the universe with a group of friends. This is the only way to not get bored of this kind of games, like Minecraft.

The "coop Journey style" is, sure, poetic, but also boring as fuck. Hope Im wrong.
 
So if I read correctly, we generally cant meet friends into the universe ? This is pretty lame cause I was excited to explore the universe with a group of friends. This is the only way to not get bored of this kind of games, like Minecraft.

The "coop Journey style" is, sure, poetic, but also boring as fuck. Hope Im wrong.

You can yeah.

The point Hello has been making is that the universe is so freakin massive that running into someone is a very very very rare thing and not the focus of the original game.
 

Five

Banned
Soooo ... Yeah that's a big number of planets with diverse ecosystems lol

Perhaps a better way of looking at this is trying to figure out how many planets you'll visit. It's more sobering that way.

18 Quintillion planets, sure, but they've already mentioned that it'd take billions of years to visit each planet if you only visited them for a second each. So you're not going to visit them all. This much is obvious.

Now, let's say you play for a day straight doing nothing but traveling from one planet to another. Some people will play more than twenty-four hours, sure, but let's just start with that. In the E3 video, it takes about a minute to go from one planet to another. Let's be generous and assume that's the average. If there are (24x60) 1440 minutes in a day, then you get to see roughly that many planets in that time. Divide this by 100 (10% of 10%) and we find out that you're only going to see ~14 planets with sophisticated life on them.


In other words, the appeal of the huge number of planets isn't to any one player. It's to the guarantee that what you see will not be what anyone else sees. What you see will still be very much limited by your attention span. And, if your attention span is short and only stimulated by planets with animals on them, then 1/100 is not going to keep you there.

So hopefully there's other stuff that's compelling in the game.
 

BenouKat

Banned
You can yeah.

The point Hello has been making is that the universe is so freakin massive that running into someone is a very very very rare thing and not the focus of the original game.

I understand their vision. I just hope there will be a way to meet people (with coordinates or I don't know).

Seriously this game seems amazing but exploring 99% of empty planets alone, i'm pretty sure i will be bored in a day.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I understand their vision. I just hope there will be a way to meet people (with coordinates or I don't know).

Seriously this game seems amazing but exploring 99% of empty planets alone, i'm pretty sure i will be bored in a day.

First of all, 10% of all planets have some sort of life. Not lush forests full of different kinds of animals (that's the 1%), but something. And even the ones which don't won't be "empty". There will still be landmarks to discover, cave systems to explore, resources to mine, maybe strange artifacts, lore hidden away, etc. The general philosophy here seems to be that if there's no life on a planet that planet is useless, but that doesn't have to be the case at all.
 
Regarding a proceduraly generated universe, impossible scale and planet sized planets, everyone that has not tried Space Engine should give it a go, it's free.

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Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
The planets within the universe will have a 10% chance of having life on them, with 90% of them having no life on at all. Of the 10% that does have life, 90% of that will be primitive and boring. So the lush garden worlds with more evolved life forms on will be rare

That remaining 10% of life (which will be intelligent) is going to be amazing. I remember Carl Sagan's words. If extraterrestial life is more advanced than us, then they are far more intelligent than us. Things that might be hard for us to do, might be trivial for them. I hope the devs go crazy with this!
 
Just because life will be relatively rare, doesn't mean dead planets won't be fun to explore.

And by the way folks... we won't know if a planet has life or not until we discover it. Sure when we fly to a planet there may be beacons or points of interest, but we won't know if they indicate life until we find it. They're trying to emphasize exploration. I love it.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
If there are (24x60) 1440 minutes in a day, then you get to see roughly that many planets in that time. Divide this by 100 (10% of 10%) and we find out that you're only going to see ~14 planets with sophisticated life on them.

But once you find such a planet (which will probably only take an hour or two unless you're really unlucky), don't you think you'd stay on it and explore for some time? So in those 24 hours you might spend one or two trying to find the planet and the rest exploring it and doing other stuff there.

Also, I'm not sure why this has to be the only goal. People are so obsessed with finding these, and only these, planets. Like I said above, what makes everyone think the other 99% of planets are completely pointless? I'm sure there will be worthwhile things to do on those as well. Explore, discover the unknown.

Many people here seem to just not really want what this game is about. Which is fine, but perhaps then you should go play a game that does give you that directed experience with clear goals and missions instead of complaining about one that isn't about that.
 

E92 M3

Member
I am so excited for this game! It's a dream game come true. Can't wait to just explore and travel about. Will also play in offline mode because I don't the whole species extinction is shared.
 

Dash_

Member
What I like about this game is that it excites the imagination in the way that looking forward to games in the late 90s and early 2000s did.
 

RexNovis

Banned
I am so excited for this game! It's a dream game come true. Can't wait to just explore and travel about. Will also play in offline mode because I don't the whole species extinction is shared.

Me too! I am beyond excited for this game. It's like the old school illustration for the Ray Bradbury Scifi pulp stories I read as a kid have come alive. Nothing can express what seeing this game in action makes me feel. Sheer absolute joy and excitement on a level I haven't felt since a child.
 
this is an ambitious game and it makes me hesitant to purchase it day 1. I really hope it turns out awesome. I'll probably go with ps4 version unless the PC version launches for a lot less money.
 

Melech

Member
this is an ambitious game and it makes me hesitant to purchase it day 1. I really hope it turns out awesome. I'll probably go with ps4 version unless the PC version launches for a lot less money.

PC version will have Oculus Rift support first. PS4 version will have Morpheus support if and when it comes out. Exploring a universe while being IN the universe through VR is going to be the way to play this game. Whether exploring a planet or flying in a ship, being in the universe for an exploration game is the most immersive way to play the game.

PC version will be the best version because of this when it first comes out.
 
PC version will have Oculus Rift support first. PS4 version will have Morpheus support if and when it comes out. Exploring a universe while being IN the universe through VR is going to be the way to play this game. Whether exploring a planet or flying in a ship, being in the universe for an exploration game is the most immersive way to play the game.

PC version will be the best version because of this when it first comes out.

Honestly, we have no idea if it'll support the Rift either at launch, later, or ever. Does it seem like a great fit? Definitely. Does Hello Games like the tech and did they receive DKs from Oculus? Yup. That's about the extent of the connection. To jump from that to "it'll launch on PC with Rift support" only creates false expectations.

Having said that, I think Rift support would be a tremendous boon for the game and the devs -- both at Hello Games as well as Oculus-- in terms of exposure as NMS seems to be a lot friendlier for casual players than say, Elite or Star Citizen.
 

Five

Banned
But once you find such a planet (which will probably only take an hour or two unless you're really unlucky), don't you think you'd stay on it and explore for some time? So in those 24 hours you might spend one or two trying to find the planet and the rest exploring it and doing other stuff there.

Also, I'm not sure why this has to be the only goal. People are so obsessed with finding these, and only these, planets. Like I said above, what makes everyone think the other 99% of planets are completely pointless? I'm sure there will be worthwhile things to do on those as well. Explore, discover the unknown.

Many people here seem to just not really want what this game is about. Which is fine, but perhaps then you should go play a game that does give you that directed experience with clear goals and missions instead of complaining about one that isn't about that.

You're absolutely right, but that doesn't take away from my argument at all. From the perspective of how many different animal-having planets you'll encounter, it's quite low despite how many total planets there are. That's not all you should be concerned with, but if it is then you're going to be disappointed.
 
There is no way they can make a planet the size of the earth and has the level of details as shown in trailer.

I was really REALLY looking forward to play it but promising the impossible actually slain the hype.

I'd love to eat crow on this.
 

GraveHorizon

poop meter feature creep
Is Minecraft : Terraria :: No Man's Sky : Starbound?

I didn't assume literal planetary scale, just planets that are big enough to feel like planets.
 

Five

Banned
There is no way they can make a planet the size of the earth and has the level of details as shown in trailer.

I was really REALLY looking forward to play it but promising the impossible actually slain the hype.

I'd love to eat crow on this.

It's perhaps less magical and impossible than you make it out to be. Do yourself a favor and watch this video, and perhaps read up on procedural generation as well! :)
 
It's perhaps less magical and impossible than you make it out to be. Do yourself a favor and watch, and perhaps read up on procedural generation as well! :)

I did. And no Radom generation with a set of formulas does not answer my question. It seem so logical when they talk about it, but the work is so much so complicated that I do not believe they (a small group) could achieve what they want even with the help of the procedural generation.

Again I would love to eat crow.
 

Jimrpg

Member
The more I read, the slightly more skeptical I become of this game, because of how it sets out gameplay rules. For example, if players don't meet very often, what is the point of having fighter ships? Is there going to be alien AI that try to kill me? Also am I part of a race and I'm the only one remaining? So I mine stuff and make money? Who's turning the money into ships and things if I'm stranded on a distant planet.

I know i'm supposed to just try and have fun with the game, but some of the things make it seem not as well thought out as it could be.
 

AngerdX

Member
I did. And no Radom generation with a set of formulas does not answer my question. It seem so logical when they talk about it, but the work is so much so complicated that I do not believe they (a small group) could achieve what they want even with the help of the procedural generation.

Again I would love to eat crow.

First of all it´s not random at all, i would call this directed procedural generation.
 
The more I read, the slightly more skeptical I become of this game, because of how it sets out gameplay rules. For example, if players don't meet very often, what is the point of having fighter ships? Is there going to be alien AI that try to kill me? Also am I part of a race and I'm the only one remaining? So I mine stuff and make money? Who's turning the money into ships and things if I'm stranded on a distant planet.

I know i'm supposed to just try and have fun with the game, but some of the things make it seem not as well thought out as it could be.

Have you even watched the trailers?
 

David___

Banned
First of all it´s not random at all, i would call this directed procedural generation.

Yea. They're only doing procedural generation to make the size they want actually possible. EVERYONE is getting the same seed and the universe won't change.
 

Jimrpg

Member
Have you even watched the trailers?

Yes I watched the E3 ones and the one before gamescom?

Looks amazing.

I hope they can deliver. But a lot of the things they say kind of break that immersion feeling. Like money. If I start by myself on a planet, why is there money? I must have missed that part where they explain that.

Also I'm wondering how they can make it fun. Planet sized planets... that's huge. How do you even begin exploring that?

So is this a retail game now? like $50?
 
The more I read, the slightly more skeptical I become of this game, because of how it sets out gameplay rules. For example, if players don't meet very often, what is the point of having fighter ships? Is there going to be alien AI that try to kill me?

Of course there'll be things to kill you. I think in almost every gameplay video they've shown there's been some element of space combat involved. Take the most recent (E3) example: you head towards a planet and come across a number of ships attacks a different group of vessels; now, we don't know if the vessels being attacked were merely neutral freighters with valuable cargo or if the attackers were actually part of a faction policing the area and came across smugglers, etc.. what matters is how you decide to involve yourself. In the case of the video, you make a beeline towards some of the attacking vessels and engage them. a pursuit which takes you to the planet you were heading for anyway, etc... So yes, there seems to be a number of things out there that you could (if you choose to) involve yourself in where a ship bristling with guns could come in handy. As a side note Hello Games has said multiple times that life in NMS is fragile. You're not being billed as this Shepard-esque savior of the galaxy. You can very easily find yourself outclassed and outgunned.

Also am I part of a race and I'm the only one remaining?

No idea. They haven't expanded much on this.

So I mine stuff and make money? Who's turning the money into ships and things if I'm stranded on a distant planet.

I think it'd be easier to think of the stuff you mine as money; you find yourself at a starbase and want to upgrade to a particular ship but it costs X amount of Resource 1 and X amount of Resource 2, etc... As for what you can so if you're stranded on a planet? No idea. For starters, don't get stranded on a planet ;)

I know i'm supposed to just try and have fun with the game, but some of the things make it seem not as well thought out as it could be.

I think a lot of it is way more well thought-out than a number of people in this (and every NMS) thread are giving Hello Games credit for. A number of the questions you have in particular are easily answered if you take a look at some of the videos and watch some of the more recent interviews with Mr. Murray.
 
Yes I watched the E3 ones and the one before gamescom?

Looks amazing.

I hope they can deliver. But a lot of the things they say kind of break that immersion feeling. Like money. If I start by myself on a planet, why is there money? I must have missed that part where they explain that.

Also I'm wondering how they can make it fun. Planet sized planets... that's huge. How do you even begin exploring that?

So is this a retail game now? like $50?

I'm just wondering why you were wondering what the point of fighter ships are. I mean they showed some ship combat in the trailers.
 

Five

Banned
I did. And no Radom generation with a set of formulas does not answer my question. It seem so logical when they talk about it, but the work is so much so complicated that I do not believe they (a small group) could achieve what they want even with the help of the procedural generation.

Again I would love to eat crow.

The scale is not the issue to be doubting. It's the amount of variety.

Suppose I build an algorithm that puts a random color in each pixel of an image. The algorithm will take longer to solve for a larger image, but it's not more complicated to devise the algorithm. It does the same thing at coordinate (1,1) as it does at (1000,1000): pick a random color.

Granted, that's not a worthwhile algorithm to make because there would be very little use for an image with randomly colored pixels, but that's beside the point. Hello Games have already shown that their algorithm is capable of making trees and lakes and dinosaurs and stuff, so there's no reason to assume that it couldn't do the same across an entire planet.

But where it gets to be more work is adding more variety to the kinds of things that can be scattered about the worlds. It's easy to say this animal is blue and that animal is red, or this animal is at X location and that one is at Y place, but that's boring. It's harder to say a more interesting thing like this animal has four legs and that one has eight. This animal lives in burrowed tunnels, and that one lives in the trees. This animal has one female per pack and that one is evenly split on genders. This animal is a carbon life form and that one is silicon. This animal needs to water every hour, and this animal stores water in its hump for a week, and this animal is poisoned by water. This animal has object permanence and this one does not. This animal stabs its prey and waits for them to die before eating them, and this one waits for others to kill its food or for its food to die by itself, and this animal eats fruits from the tops of trees instead of other animals.

There are a lot of things you can take for granted in a "random" creature which start to seem repetitive after a while. If all the animals have only two eyes, that's a missed opportunity. If all the land animals have four legs, that's a missed opportunity. Or if none of them live in trees, et cetera. So there is legitimate concern that there won't be enough variation, because variation takes work. But simply putting dense detail in each inch of the planet is not impossible, or even hard given enough RAM.


First of all it´s not random at all, i would call this directed procedural generation.

It depends on what you mean by random. You can bet they make plentiful use of their PRNG. For the end-user, repeated visits to the same sector will net the same thing, but on first visit it will seem random in arrangement. After all, if the game were truly random, it would be rather like the TV static in appearance and sound. Nothing of note could be made out from the visuals or audio.
 

Jimrpg

Member
I think it'd be easier to think of the stuff you mine as money; you find yourself at a starbase and want to upgrade to a particular ship but it costs X amount of Resource 1 and X amount of Resource 2, etc... As for what you can so if you're stranded on a planet? No idea. For starters, don't get stranded on a planet ;)

Cool. Still tho, that kinda breaks the immersion a bit if you know what I mean, that somebody could build a spacecraft with his bare hands if he had the resources. For some reason I never had a problem with this in Terraria.

I know I know its a freaking video game.

I'm just wondering why you were wondering what the point of fighter ships are. I mean they showed some ship combat in the trailers.

Yes but the OP notes confused me a bit when they said that human players would be very far away. I take it that there are computer AI races out there then that have ships too and I could be engaged in battles with the computer. (That also leads me to another point which is, will I be facing them by myself or will I have allies.)

As I said, its probably best for me to not worry so much about details, and just enjoy the game.
 
Pretty sure they explained that it isn't so unrealistic that a planet right next to the star or at the edges of the system have the same chance of having life as those in the temperate zone. If you want to encounter life, you will be able to aim for just those planets which are likely to support life and your chances will be significantly higher. Also I think you will be able to tell from the atmosphere (or lack thereof) if there is a good chance of water, life etc.
 

Jimrpg

Member
The scale is not the issue to be doubting. It's the amount of variety.

But where it gets to be more work is adding more variety to the kinds of things that can be scattered about the worlds. It's easy to say this animal is blue and that animal is red, or this animal is at X location and that one is at Y place, but that's boring. It's harder to say a more interesting thing like this animal has four legs and that one has eight. This animal lives in burrowed tunnels, and that one lives in the trees. This animal has one female per pack and that one is evenly split on genders. This animal is a carbon life form and that one is silicon. This animal needs to water every hour, and this animal stores water in its hump for a week, and this animal is poisoned by water. This animal has object permanence and this one does not. This animal stabs its prey and waits for them to die before eating them, and this one waits for others to kill its food or for its food to die by itself, and this animal eats fruits from the tops of trees instead of other animals.

There are a lot of things you can take for granted in a "random" creature which start to seem repetitive after a while. If all the animals have only two eyes, that's a missed opportunity. If all the land animals have four legs, that's a missed opportunity. Or if none of them live in trees, et cetera. So there is legitimate concern that there won't be enough variation, because variation takes work. But simply putting dense detail in each inch of the planet is not impossible, or even hard given enough RAM.

Well I suppose animal creation will be all randomized with rules saying what it can do and what it can't.

For example there will be mammals, and its legs must be connected to its body, but it could be anywhere, then they pick a color, a random height, random weight, random facial feature placement, random behaviours.... there can be many possibilities. So when people say they are worried about procedural generation. while behaviours may be limited because that's based on what the creator puts in, the look of the creature could have many many different possibilities.
 
The scale is not the issue to be doubting. It's the amount of variety.

Suppose I build an algorithm that puts a random color in each pixel of an image. The algorithm will take longer to solve for a larger image, but it's not more complicated to devise the algorithm. It does the same thing at coordinate (1,1) as it does at (1000,1000): pick a random color.

Granted, that's not a worthwhile algorithm to make because there would be very little use for an image with randomly colored pixels, but that's beside the point. Hello Games have already shown that their algorithm is capable of making trees and lakes and dinosaurs and stuff, so there's no reason to assume that it couldn't do the same across an entire planet.

But where it gets to be more work is adding more variety to the kinds of things that can be scattered about the worlds. It's easy to say this animal is blue and that animal is red, or this animal is at X location and that one is at Y place, but that's boring. It's harder to say a more interesting thing like this animal has four legs and that one has eight. This animal lives in burrowed tunnels, and that one lives in the trees. This animal has one female per pack and that one is evenly split on genders. This animal is a carbon life form and that one is silicon. This animal needs to water every hour, and this animal stores water in its hump for a week, and this animal is poisoned by water. This animal has object permanence and this one does not. This animal stabs its prey and waits for them to die before eating them, and this one waits for others to kill its food or for its food to die by itself, and this animal eats fruits from the tops of trees instead of other animals.

There are a lot of things you can take for granted in a "random" creature which start to seem repetitive after a while. If all the animals have only two eyes, that's a missed opportunity. If all the land animals have four legs, that's a missed opportunity. Or if none of them live in trees, et cetera. So there is legitimate concern that there won't be enough variation, because variation takes work. But simply putting dense detail in each inch of the planet is not impossible, or even hard given enough RAM.




It depends on what you mean by random. You can bet they make plentiful use of their PRNG. For the end-user, repeated visits to the same sector will net the same thing, but on first visit it will seem random in arrangement. After all, if the game were truly random, it would be rather like the TV static in appearance and sound. Nothing of note could be made out from the visuals or audio.

Well said.

When I wrote "detail" in my previous post I probably mean detail with lots of variation. Sorry for my bad expressing ability.
 
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