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The fans making their own games in No Man's Sky
After another major update, explorers are finding their own games within the galaxy.
The games within the game of No Man’s Sky
© Hello Games
Nine months isn’t that long in game development, really. No Man’s Sky was years in the making, but despite the furore around the game’s feature-set on release, developers Hello Games have at least made good on some of their ambitious promises since launch, working hard to iterate on a vast game with some great new additions in the months since.
The latest update is called Path Finder and is yet another significant addition to the game, bringing things like PS4 Pro support and permadeath, for those who like a challenge, this is according to the studio the “path for the future”.
All good and well, yet with great – near infinite – choice comes a great dilemma. Yes, No Man’s Sky’s procedurally-generated universe is vast, but after you’ve completed the main story, what do you do next? Our advice if you’re returning to the title and feeling overwhelmed: seek inspiration from fellow travellers. With an active community, No Man’s Sky has more to do than ever, and some are still finding their own games within the game. This is the meta, if you will, of No Man’s Sky.
Trade exploring for agriculture
One for stats-obsessed EVE Online players to get stuck into. Over on Reddit, user bikelegs has created a spreadsheet that aims to evaluate the economy of farming in No Man’s Sky. The Path Finder update changed farming, you see, and this user discovered that crop growth times were highly variable. The thing is, they couldn’t easily work out what those variables were, and so created the spreadsheet as a way to categorise each crop type.
But bikelegs went way further than a simple list. In the spreadsheet you can find everything from the price per hour, to the yield per hour, and even growing times and average yield, which should help you maximise your yields to trade instead of playing lucky dip visiting new planets at random. We wonder how this player would fare at Stardew Valley or Farmville, because although No Man’s Sky received plenty of complaints after it was released, there’s something magical about a game that can inspire such dedication into a project related to it. Bravo!
Farm those crops!
© Hello Games
Become a community cartographer
During the run up to the game’s release, there was a lot of confusion regarding multiplayer, and just how shared the overall universe actually was. You still might not be able to meet another player, but that isn’t stopping a subset of players from teaming up to comb a small pocket of No Man’s Sky’s 18 quintilllion planets. A group of hardcore players are getting together as part of the Galactic Hub Project; the idea here is that like-minded people are mapping out a subsection of the universe, the Euclid region.
Over on the reddit thread there are instructions on how to navigate the hub, and how you can help map it out if you’re interested. This is cool, and it feels like a way of testing just what No Man’s Sky can do, and just in case you want to help, here are the coordinates for the Rentocniijik Expanse: 0469:0081:0D6D:0024. Be warned: this may take a while.
Become an in-game photo journalist
Make no mistake, if you can find the right planets, No Man’s Sky has always been a beautiful game. Full of colour and vibrant pastel shadings, it was hard not to be blown away as you reached the crest of a hill and the sun’s rays blinded you on a planet that, well, looks and feels alien. But thanks to the PS4 Pro support in the game along with the HDR and the photo mode (all games should have this, by the way, it’s fantastic), some of the new shots are just stunning. People are running competitions for the best photos, and some of them are PC desktop wallpaper-worthy. The new photo mode has options which allow you to change the time of day, cloud layers, and fog density, and you can even go into third person to take a snap of your Starship.
Where are you setting up your base?
© Hello Games
Play No Minecraft’s Sky
When the game first launched, there was little point spending much effort on your home planet base, since the whole point of No Man’s Sky was to get as far away from it as possible. But now, thanks to the creative mode, people are spending time finding the perfect location to call their own, and really going for it on the home decor. While the building tools don’t quite make it a Minecraft, we’re wondering if eventually people will start building homages to other games with the surprisingly extensive base building tools.
Hunt for alien tech
Thanks to the sheer size and scope of No Man’s Sky, people are still discovering new species and plant life. But with the Path Finder update comes new multi-tool specialisations and classes, including alien multi-tools. Given that the multi-tool is basically your “do everything” weapon, from mining to killing, these new class-based weapons are fun to play with, but are also interesting to discover. Over on Reddit, users are sharing discoveries of new alien tech, and although they’re fascinating to look at it, some are finding that the new alien multi-tools aren’t as good as tech they already had. More searching required, we think.
Why not sell your ships?
© Hello Games
Become a master economist
Even nine months on, fans are chatting about where to sell things and how much for. With the number of things you can discover that you can sell at vendors, it’s hard to know when and where to actually try and make a profit. It appears that almost every material has the chance to be sold at double the price, but where, and to whom? Anecdotal experience is all anyone has to go on right now, but the quest to find places that will garner the best profit continues at force, and people are setting up their home bases in galaxy systems that pay the best prices for high value items.
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