We recently reported on a tweet made by the Hello Games account regarding a forthcoming content update, known as the Foundation Update, they were working on for the beleaguered No Mans Sky, while information was thin on the ground at the time of writing, beyond the tweet and a post saying they have content planned and they have been listening to the community, more information regarding a change log was promised.
If you could have lived our lives over the last months, you'd know how meaningful this is.
Here's update 1.1https://t.co/4TelmFIgsK
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) November 27, 2016
The Foundation of Things to come.
A mere 2 days later and we have the missing info and indeed a patch to the 1.1 client, or Foundation Update as Hello Games are calling it, for PS4 owners yet there is no sign of a patch on PC.
The games website and the above 6-minute video outline the finer points of what is being made available to players. The more interesting take points from the notes are:
- Three new game modes have been added, Normal, which is effectively what we had pre-patch 1.1; Creative, allowing for base building in an unlimited universe and Survival which promises to add more challenge to the game, testing player’s endurance.
- Automated harvesters are now available, allowing players to get on with exploration and other activities.
- Players can now take control of unoccupied bases, allowing them to ‘claim’ a planet as their home with the ability to architect an outpost to use for a mix of storage, shelter, farming and research.
- Aliens can be recruited to assist with research.
- Save points can be added at any location in the game.
- Giant freighters are now available for purchase, which can be manned by hired alien crew.
- Menus and inventory have been significantly streamlined as has resource scanning.
- Vessels can be internally altered.
Foundation Update Base Building
In terms of game play alone it seems like this should potentially give the game a much-needed jump from its 1.0 incarnation. In addition to this new graphical options have been added, such as motion blur and TAA, both of which can be enabled or disabled as needed, these should add a feeling of speed when flying and give a sharper image to the game.
The patch notes reveal a hell of a lot of work has been being done while Hello Games and Sean Murray have been silent, hopefully the promise at the end of the video of this being ‘The foundation of things to come’ hold true and players are willing to give Hello Games and No Mans Sky another chance after the amount of scorn the game has received since it launched, lacking many features that were hoped to be a part of the game.
[Update]
It appears the PC patch has now been pushed out also, with our Steam copy updating around an hour ago.