Special Edition Podcast: No Man's Sky
Q: Is this a universe you are building for your game or just one galaxy? (CobraTV) A: It's a universe. Alex from Hello Games changed it on the website to "infinite galaxy" but it's a universe. You start with other players in the same galaxy but as they have said before there is more than one galaxy.
Q: It's been said that your first ship has terrible range, I assume this is for jumps, could you potentially fly to new solar systems? (Alan) A: Yes, but nobody has actually done it yet. It takes a really, really long time. It's a huge distance, some of the star systems are quite close together, but it's still a ridiculous distance compared to how planets are apart from each other. They could figure it out but Sean likes the idea of releasing it and letting a player do it, but they will be aiming for a very small target.
Q: Where there be a favorites list of planets? I would hate to find a beautiful planet and lost track of it completely. (WkwaiChen) A: The galactic map will have waypoints and they have a mini map for the galactic map.
Q: Are there space whales? (Ben6724) A: Sean really likes the idea of space whales. Someone at HG writes “space whales” on a post-it note and sneaks it on the schedule board so Sean joked that one day it may happen.
Q: Will every solar system have space ships flying about or are you sometimes really alone there? (Dussck) A: Yeah you can sometimes just be totally alone. When they were demoing it at PSX behind closed doors with the press sometimes they would jump into a system and there would pretty much be nothing there. Sometimes it will be quite empty and sometimes you jump and you'll be attacked by a large amount of pirate ships.
Q: Can you cut your engines in the game and just quietly drift through space? (Hipolipolopigus) A: Yeah, you can just go really slowly.
Q: Is xenoarcheology at thing in the game? (Hipolipolopigus) A: Sean likes that. They talked about remains on the plane ride back from Las Vegas but for now this is “unconfirmed”.
Q: When you reach the center of the universe and cross the event horizon the game just goes black right? Like the Sopranos. (RobertHanson) A: Sean wishes he would just be happy with that and he loves the idea of just fading to black.
Q: What does Hello Games think of the interpretation of the black hole in the movie Interstellar? (Ben) A: The science of Interstellar is not the most scientific. It's a bit of a weird film but Sean did like the black hole graphically. Wasn't sure about the “love dimension” inside it. “So there is no love in No Man's Sky?” GI asked. “Maybe that's just me. Cold and heartless,” Sean said.
Q: Will there be worm holes? (vyper248) A: They kind of showed that with portals which is what those are.
Q: Can you get yourself in orbit around a planet? (LucaDeAngelo) A: No.
Q: Have you played Elite: Dangerous since it came out? (Ben) A: Sean played the alpha, beta, and was one of the backers. Sean loves Elite and (the difficulty of maneuvers) is as it was when Sean was a kid.
Q: Will there be rings around some planets? (dodgy6) A: Yes but they haven't shown that yet.
Q: Some of the atmospheric transitions in the gameplay videos seem quite short. Will there be a variance in the depth of the atmosphere depending on the size of the planet? (moby67) A: Yeah but ships are going very fast which gives the impression of very little atmosphere. They want space to be traversable like in a movie like Star Wars and fun rather than what is physically possible. They want players to be able to fly down from space and back up in a short space of time.
Q: Will HG be modeling brown or dark brown dwarfs or does it stick with the main sequence stars of larger masses and temperatures? (sanityismyvanity) A: They have a whole bunch of star types in the game but they aren't trying to model our exact universe. They are trying to make a sci-fi universe. They have things that don't exist in the real world and some things that have a correlation in the real world. Sean is inclined to not give lists of every star in the game. He would like people to discover that themselves. The galactic map in the trailers has different colored stars and star patterns.
Q: Will there be planets composed completely from sand or planets completely composed of liquid like water worlds? (wolverine78)
A: Yes.
Q: Are there planetary maps? (Dussck) A: You have a mini map when you are on a planet. They haven't shown it yet because it is a little ugly at the moment. Your planetary mini map will have undefined key points for you to discover.
Q: Will there be true Earth-like mountain ranges, canyons, and oceans? (camtreez) A: Yes there are big features. They have already shown off some mountains and deep oceans.
Q: Can my ship go underwater? (toothdecay) A: At the moment no.
Q: Is it possible to get to a point on a planet and can't get back to your ship resulting in having to kill yourself, meaning we will have to be careful and think about where we are landing? (vyper248) A: They consider that a bug if they let that happen. Players have a jetpack and some ability to deform the world but if a player truly got stuck they would consider that something they have to fix but if a player enjoys that then Sean would be super happy.
Q: Will there be dynamic/timed weather effects such as sandstorms, hurricanes, acid storms, tsunamis? (dougg6) A: No tsunamis but the others are ok. There are weather effects which they have shown- sandstorms, rain, mist, but generally you will have a prevailing weather type on a planet that will come and go. Generally a planet will be one biome in its entirety with some variation within it.
Q: Are there carnivorous plants? (sanityismyvanity) A: Yes but they haven't shown them yet. In the very early days of the game Sean was playing a build and there were these plants like the barnacles in Half Life that pulls stuff towards it and they had a flock of birds flying around them. Sean was unaware that the plants had been implemented in the game and the plants devoured the birds.
Q: Can I be eaten in one bite by a creature, tree, or whatever? (croonin27) A: You could be attacked and killed with one hit.
Q: How big can an animal be? Can there be an animal as big as Godzilla in NMS? (secretsystem99) A: Really big creatures but not sure about Godzilla.
Q: Will I be able to have a pet? I'd like to have a zoo. (F2yK34) A: No you can't have pets and you can't take them in your ship. Jokes about balancing them on the wing of your ship to take them into space and start a zoo but says it would be a bug and they would fix it.
Q: If I kill a species will it remain dead or will I go back and find it has respawned? Will mined areas stay mined? (colbycheese3) A: If you do something of significance they will share that and if it is not that significant they will save it locally. If you kill a bird they scratch that off locally and that bird is dead but they don't feel the need to broadcast that to every player. If you try to destroy an entire space station or take out a whole fleet then that is more significant. They considered allowing players to kill an entire species but says it would be impossible to kill every animal in a species on an Earth sized planet.
Q: Will it have cities? (uncompetitive) A: No they want it to be more like the unexplored frontier and less urban.
Q: What's the coolest way that Sean has died in the game? (croonin27) A: Your suit has different ratings for how long it can survive in different kinds of environments. You will have something marked on your map that you don't know what it is but you sometimes won't be able to get there. Sean found this really deep ocean recently and Sean couldn't reach the bottom with his suit. He could scan and see there was something down there but he couldn't make out what it was so he made a dive to see what it was and drowned on the way down. “What do you think would have been down there? Maybe some resources or a crashed big ship full of loot?” GI asks. “It could have been a creature I haven't seen before” Sean said.
Q: Will we be able to establish our own bases or homes on a planet? (deathstrokerises) A: Sean has already said no to this question previously but talks about the journey to the center being the main objective for most players but he likes the idea of some players staying on a planet and exploring it fully or staying in the same trade route indefinitely.
Q: Can you sprint? (seanguy1234) A: Yes. In everything they have shown the player has been walking but you can sprint and that is “down to your suit.”
Q: Can you fly your ship in third person view? (bangarang) A: This discussion comes up all the time at HG. You're always in first person but Sean says they may add third person if someone finds it weird.
Q: Can you name your ship? (sanityinmyvanity) A: Ships are a discovery and you can name your discoveries so every ship of that type will have the name you name it if you discover it first.
Q: If you see another spaceship can you scan it and see its stats? (Dussck) A: No, its only when you see it at a tradepost or space station that you can see its stats.
Q: How big are the interior of the space stations? (czack) A: There is space at the back of the tunnel shown in the trailers but there isn't much to do inside besides trading and looking at other ships. Sean thinks of space stations as ship showrooms.
Q: How is it possible for your ship to compete and survive against a fleet? (prak) A: Freighters are armed reasonably well and in order to take them out you have to have an advanced ship with advanced weapons but you generally won't be able to take it out on your own.
Q: How are factions distributed? Do they have their own turf or are they peppered throughout the galaxy? (willstarstryder) A: It's more like they have their own turf. The galactic map is divided into small regions with colors that show what kind of resources, factions, and names for those regions.
Q: Is it conceivable to play this game offline? A: Yes.
Q: Is it possible to shrink this tech down to one world and make an Elder Scrolls game with more variety on one planet? (shadowwolf4099) A: Sean is excited about that and would love to work on a procedural RPG in a dense space.
Q: Is there a significance behind the logo? A: Yes, the Atlas. They haven't said what it is but you will come across it in game.
Q: Will the pop-in be reduced in the final game? (AnHero007) A: It's generating all around you. Sean is unhappy with the pop-in and they will reduce it but to some extent it is part of the tech.
Q: Is there a targeted frame rate? (squishy) A: 60 FPS is the target but Sean isn't promising it will be that.
Q: Are you considering a physical release for the PS4? (alexatpixelpunk) A: They assume it will be digital but is open to a physical release.
Q: Is there any chance NMS will come to XboxOne? (ergto) A: They are not allowed to talk about that stuff.
Q: With the current build of NMS, is the hardware capable of added features, mechanics, and base models in the future or are you stretching the feasibility of modern hardware with this game? (lepolba) A: Sean said they are a small team but there is room for more to be done.
Q: Is a building module possible at some point? A: Sean would really like release the core game, it be successful, and continue to develop the game with features the community would like to see.
Q: Will addons after the release change the game drastically like it does during development? A: It won't be DLC. It will be new features like in DayZ, Terraria, or Starbound where they are adding features.
Q: Release date? A: 2015. Not allowed to be more specific. They are going to be quiet and focus on development.