We got our first look at the No Man's Sky Beyond patch notes this morning, and to be perfectly honest, we're still looking at them. To put it in scientific terms, the patch notes are "Like, super-big."
We've known about No Man's Sky VR, expanded multiplayer, creature riding, industrial base building, power and logic for bases, and most of the major stuff in Beyond, and we learned yesterday that Beyond won't reboot the universe and mess up your bases. But it's the quality of life changes that somehow feel the most grand and world-shattering. For example, in normal mode, inventory slot capacity for resources has changed from 250 to 10,000.
That's major. 10,000 units of resources in a single slot! You'll be able to mine and gather for days without having to dump your payload. The total number of slots may still be limited, but I feel like the strain of resource gathering has been almost entirely lifted.
Speaking of quality of life improvements, check out this small selection of beauties that jumped out at me:
- Technology can now be moved after installation.
- Added ‘Warp Hypercores’, a large hyperdrive fuel unit with five times the capacity of a regular Warp Cell.
- Increased the base mining speed of the Mining Beam.
- Added the Launch System Recharger, a starship upgrade that automatically recharges the Launch Thrusters over time.
- In normal mode, allowed some planets to never spawn Sentinel drones.
- Increased the base energy levels of the Mining Beam and the Terrain Manipulator, allowing for less frequent recharging.
- The Mining Beam now has a much higher base heat capacity.
- Added the option to remove button holds and make all non-destructive clicks instant.
- Many graphics settings no longer require a restart to apply.
- Improved the UI for comparing and purchasing ships, Multi-Tools and freighters.
- The Galaxy Map has been totally overhauled for clarity and visual style.
- Added a new photo-mode style building camera to allow easier placement of complex structures.
- Increased the tolerance of trader ships participating in a freighter battle so that they do not report friendly fire as a crime unless the shot is fatal.
- Made butterflies and other flying creatures much easier to scan with the Analysis Visor.
- Added Short-Range Teleporters. These pads may be placed around your base and wired up to create a network of near-instant transportation.
That's just a sprinkling of what's actually in the patch notes. I didn't even mention that you can sit in chairs. All those empty chairs in space stations and trading posts? You can sit in them. And if you're a Gek, your stubby little legs will occasionally swing while you're sitting.
That's actually in the patch notes.
NPCs will sit in chairs, too, they'll walk around, and pilots will actually leave their ships when they land in a space station. They'll respond to gestures the player makes, they'll interact with their environments, and they'll have "a range of biome specific interactions." Oh, please, if there's toxic rain, please let them take out little alien umbrellas. Please.
Is there more? There's lots more. Here's the full list of patch notes. See you in a week when you're done reading them.
