No Man’s Sky Atlas Rises Update Adds 30 Hour Story Content, Joint Exploration

Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky is receiving its third biggest content update today with Atlas Rises. The free update has promised story content and working Portals but there’s a lot more in store than we imagined.

Basically, Atlas Rises adds 30 hours of story content, missions that are procedurally generated, high fidelity textures and a co-op mode of sorts called Joint Exploration. Joint Exploration is interesting because you’ll see up to 16 other players exploring a planet. You can interact with them and use voice chat, thus coordinating to explore the world together if you so wish. Though limited, the studio noted that it was a first step in creating “synchronous co-op” for the game.

The update also contains a new race and will reveal more information about the Sentinels, the Gek, Atlas and much more. Features like low flight mode, new soundscapes courtesy of 65 Days of Static, freighter classes for ships and the aforementioned portals are also in-bound. The update will be going live today so check your Steam updates accordingly.

Generation

Increased variety in weather, planet and structure names
More base building parts have unique names
Prevented trees spawning on sheer cliffs
Improved object placement on slopes
Improved grass placement and density
Changed the default starting ship model
Regenerated galaxy to remove differences between survival, normal and creative game modes
Improved building distribution
Increased distribution of heridium deposits
Improved generation of beaches along shorelines
Repositioned player bases to accommodate generation changes

Exploration

Improved balance of hazards between planets
Improved settings for hazard damage and strength
Reduce cave hazard recharge times
Added Shielding Shard to the starting player inventory
Limited the depth at which buildings can spawn underwater

Gameplay

More tech available in tech shops
Balanced tech shop standing requirements
Standing lights have a proper name when you interact with them
Increased robustness of systems for locating buildings
Increased number and types of objects which can be scanned
Increased information available about scanned foliage and creatures
Improved planet resource lists
Craftable products now sorted by most recent use
Improved differentiation of weapons
Fixed pinning product recipes and technology guides
Continued story unlocked through abandoned buildings
Added interactions and dialogue options for many structures and characters
Overhauled secondary character interactions
Joint exploration has been introduced allowing 16 players to see visual representations of each other in game. Joint exploration does not require PS Plus, and is not currently available on GOG Galaxy.

Trade and farming

Alloys, farm products and new gas products now form separate branches of a larger craft tree
Added new valuable higher tier craft products
Added new harvester to harvest atmospheric gases
Added new trade specific products
Added new farmable “Star Bramble” plant
Added larger 4 plant hydroponic tray
Increased contrast between picked and unpicked resource plants to more easily tell them apart
Balanced priced of alloys, farm products and gases
Improved distributions of resources on planets
Improved scan ranges for resources on planets
Added scan markers on more smaller plutonium crystals to aid resource gathering

Freighters

Balanced freighter prices
Fixed collision on freighter bridge
Added freighter classes
Added ability to warp in your freighter
Fixed floating turrets on capital freighters

Space

Improved space heavy air
Added requirement to scan planets in order to reveal their names
Improved planet name display as you enter orbit
Fix for massive carve radius when mining asteroids

Galactic Map

Updated galactic map UI
Improved galactic map controls
Improved star names gathered in galaxy map flythrough
Improved distribution of different coloured stars
Added interstellar scan events

Starships

Added ability to summon your ship from the quick menu
Refined ship reticules
Added new holographic cockpit HUD elements: mini map, pulse drive warning and target ship
Added new ship technology
Balanced space combat
Balanced ship weapons and technology
Updated ship weapon projectile effects
Updated ship hit direction markers
Improved flare graphics on ships
Improved loot containers dropped by AI ships
Improved effects on damaged AI ships
Balanced crashed ships broken slots and repair costs
Added a more convenient swap inventory button for moving items between new/crashed ships and storage units
Updated design of Atlas pass icons
Added ability to look around the cockpit when landed
Allowed player to remain in ship cockpit after landing
Improved spawning and distribution of AI ships
Improved ship altimeter
Added in-ship communicator
Added button prompt for ship zoom
Fixed a bug where your ship could become invisible by visiting the galactic map
Improved Pirate systems including the ability to negotiate or call in support
Added low flight mode
Improved landing code