Update 1.3 of No Man’s Sky Delivers on What Fans Have Been Asking For
No Man’s Sky was a major letdown for many players in its initial release. A flurry of refund demands and a lawsuit against the developer will attest to this. But Hello Games has apparently been hard at work to deliver the greatest set of enhancements the game has seen since launch. With all these changes, it looks like we’ll be getting the game initially promised and then some.
We have seen several improvements to No Man’s Sky, with updates coming at a relatively steady frequency. One of the cornerstone improvements was the Pathfinder update that improved the exploration aspect.
But what about the multiplayer? That promise looks like it’s finally being met with this latest update, Atlas Rises. You can find Hello Games’ outline of changes below:
- Glitches in the simulation have begun to appear.
- Visualized by strange floating orbs, up to 16 players can see and communicate with one another, and explore the universe together.
- While interaction with others is currently very limited, this is an important first step into the world of synchronous co-op in No Man’s Sky.
- While interaction is very limited, VOIP (Voice over IP) allows proximity based voice chat with other nearby explorers.
- Use portals to quickly travel to more populated planets, or to meet up with friends.”
Additionally, the first big change players will notice in No Man’s Sky is the graphical overhaul. Alongside appearance, virtually every aspect of the game has been improved: Quality of life changes, better space combat, a better user interface, and more ways to interact with the environment. Not to mention a new alien race. And to explain more of what’s going on, 30 hours of story have been added.
With the plethora of changes coming in Atlas Rises, here are the highlights.
Galactic regeneration
- A regenerated system adds wealth, economy and conflict levels to star systems.
- To control this the Galaxy Map has been overhauled, improving navigation and providing access to key information.
- Install galactic technology to be able to filter the map by lifeform, wealth, and economy.
- Improved waypointing, and navigation allows you to see your journey so far, from beginning to end.
New worlds
- The variety and visual quality of planetary biomes has been improved.
- Explore rare new exotic planet types as you journey toward the galactic core.
Crashed Freighters
- Discover and scavenge lost cargo from gigantic crashed Freighters on planetary surfaces.
- Use the terrain manipulator to excavate buried resources in the region.
- Complete Salvage missions for Guild rewards.
Mission System
- Visit the new Mission Agent in Space Stations to pick up unique and rewarding new tasks.
- Missions are constantly generated, and cater to all play styles (scanning, trading, combat and exploration).
- New NPC guilds have been introduced, each with standing and objectives.
- Build your standing with numerous NPC guilds and unlock more difficult, more rewarding missions.
Interstellar Trading
- New economic variables bring new depth to trading between star systems.
- Star systems are now classed based on their economic strengths and weaknesses.
- New trade goods have been added. Meet supply and demand by purchasing goods at a low price, and hauling them to economically favorable systems.
- A tiered crafting system allows increasingly valuable products to be crafted by combining harvestable materials.
- Gas harvesters have been introduced, allowing explorers to extract valuable elements from a planet’s atmosphere to use in crafting.
- Combine crafted products to create increasingly valuable items that can be sold on the Galactic Marketplace.
- New maintenance interactions have been introduced for all harvesting equipment, bringing more depth to farming, mining, and harvesting.
Analysis Visor
- Analysis Visors have been re-calibrated to show more information and offer better rewards for scanning.
- Analyze resources before harvesting for to gain alternative resources from mining.
- See more information about each discovery.
- Scanning Flora and Fauna now yields increased rewards.
- Specialized analysis visor upgrades can be equipped to further improve effectiveness.
Terrain Editing
- Transform the ground beneath your feet using the new terrain editing Multi-Tool enhancement.
- Add or remove terrain to mold the landscape as you see fit, anywhere on any planet.
- Choose from a number of materials, shapes, and sizes to sculpt your unique creations.
- Form terrain around your base to make it feel like part of the environment.
Portals
- Ancient portals can now be activated. Revisit previous planets, others bases or jump randomly to new worlds.
- Learn the language of portals by unlocking mysterious glyphs as you journey through the universe.
- Interact with a portal and input a specific combination of glyphs to quick travel to a specific planet.
- Share glyph combinations with the community to help others travel quickly to specific planets and points of interest.
Space Combat
- A number of improvements have been made to space flight and combat.Enemy artificial intelligence has been overhauled, and new difficulties have been added.
- Ship maneuverability has been improved, bringing more skill to dogfighting.
- Devastating rockets can be equipped to ships and upgraded for even greater firepower.
- A new HUD has been introduced to improve the experience of space combat. This includes a communicator, which can be used to advance mission steps, or even to hail pirates before they attack.
You can find the full list of changes for Atlas Rises here. Now that it has finally arrived, you will be participating in No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer? Do you consider the game redeemable? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.