No Man's Sky NEXT

Players have little to no reason to trust Hello Games. Their massively hyped game No Man's Sky failed to deliver on so many promises it became a running joke among the players and the game itself have been dubbed "One Man's Lie" due to many exaggerated promises given in the interviews by Sean Murray, co-founder of Hello Games. But the initial failure to deliver on the promises did not stop the developers from trying to patch them in later. 

a struggle to deliver

Hello Games have been patching in fixes and content over past year to make their flagship title No Man's Sky at least resemble anything they have promised. Now they have implemented a massive, free update, NEXT giving the players a full multiplayer experience they have been promised so long ago. Two years after the games launch players can finally explore the universe together. 

Update 1.5 brings in the four-player co-op play which you can enjoy with a group of friends or complete strangers. If playing together is not fun by itself you can also participate in special multiplayer missions. To make the entire ordeal easier game now has a built-in voice and text chats. The team is hoping that this feature will finally bring the "epic space battles" everyone has been waiting for, for past two years, along with mini villages, communal farms and maybe even racetracks. 

Implementation of NEXT update also begins a start of new, free, weekly events and community missions that accompany the launch of the new Galactic Atlas site. Furthermore, NEXT allows players to build on planets with almost no limitations in an optional third person mode. The update also has brought emotes, much-needed character customization, freighter changes, crafting overhaul, procedurally generated tech, reworked new player experience, graphical changes, UI rework, space station marketplace, and much much more.

THIRD PERSON

1. Third person camera for walking, jetpacking, swimming and in-ship flight.

2. New player models.

3. Completely reworked animation system.

4. New animations for players, as well as NPCs and creatures.

5. System and animations for gestures.

6. Character customisation.

7. Player character turns to look at points of interest

8. New get in / out of vehicle effect.

9. Interactions show the player character where appropriate.

10. Warping in ship is in third person.

11. Resized various deployable tech to better fit third person mode.

MISSIONS

1. Real time missions.

2. Scheduled missions.

3. Multiplayer missions.

4. Completely overhauled tutorial.

5. New mission types – photography, feeding, freighter combat, archaeology, and specialised hunting missions.

6. Guild envoy missions.

BASES

1. Bases can be built anywhere.

2. Players can own multiple bases.

3. Hundreds of new base parts Increased base complexity/size limits.

4. Joint base building Improved teleporting and selection between teleport destinations.

5. Improved terrain editor modes and options to be more intuitive.

6. Toned down saturation intensity of palette choices for colouring base building parts.

7. Base terrain editing now stops when you hit the limit rather than overwriting old edits.

8. Bases can now be deleted Improved system for placing base building parts.

9. Increased base building radius and made it expandable.

10. Disabled base auto uploading, and added manual controls.

11. Enabled downloading more than one external base from other players.

FREIGHTERS

1. Frigate fleets feature – including missions, upgrade system, system combat and exploration assistance.

2. Overhauled base building inside player freighters.

3. Reworked and added procedural textures to freighter bridge hologram planet.

4. Redesigned path from freighter hangar to bridge.

5. Improved speed of airlock doors opening on freighters.

CRAFTING AND RESOURCES

1. Reworked and rebalanced all core substances and resources.

2. Deployable tech can now be picked up.

3. Added refiner based crafting system.

4. Added Craftable ammunition.

5. Improved damage falloff on mining beam.

UI / UX

1. Additional markers visible in analysis visor

2. Points of interest can be tagged from analysis visor

3. Latitude / longitude displayed on analysis visor

4. Improved HUD; layout HUD lines dynamically hidden with the corresponding UI elements

5. Improved notification layout Improved build menu

6. Improved quick menu Inventory stack splitting

7. New repair interface

8. All player owned ships can now be summoned

9. Added system for repairing damaged inventory slots

10. Backpack showing in your inventory will now match customised character backpack. Backpack bars display hazard protection and life support

11. In-ship map now highlights enemies Improved docking indicators when flying

12. Completely reworked shop UI

13. Nanites no longer take up inventory slots

14. Scanning ships shows their slot count

15. Save slots are now sorted by timestamp

16. Galaxy map can show multiple markers for each system

17. Added dynamic suit protection inventory icon Inventory full notifications now take into account cargo slots

18. Fixed camera voxel to star voxel in Galactic map

19. Can pin base building recipes on the HUD

20. Added danger icons to tentacle plants

21. Improved tech and product pinning, with more detailed guides to obtaining the build requirements

22. Improved compass and HUD marker icons for objects of interest

23. Added multiplayer text chat on PC.

GRAPHICS AND PLANET GENERATION

1. Improved fog and increased draw distance.

2. New terrain generation system for improved navigability and more varied earth-like and alien landscapes.

3. Improved and increased variety of clouds and cloud shadows seen from space.

4. Improved planet surface rendering from space.

5. Improved terrain lods and visuals when flying in from space.

6. Improved sky and fog color selection.

7. New colour mapping system to create more varied and atmospheric visuals.

8. Added empty systems, with no current inhabitants Added abandoned systems, with derelict space stations.

9. Improved storm visuals Improved textures for ship, NPCs, and buildings.

10. Switched object and terrain fading to use Blue Noise to give smoother transitions.

11. Improved ship trail effects and new engine effect for ships.

You can read all about the changes here.