No Man’s Sky may never stop being a conversation starter, especially if it lives up to its promise of delivering a functionally infinite universe. Having already detailed the game’s economy and multiplayer, Hello Games today unveiled a comprehensive list of 35 facts, new and familiar, about the game. Here are the cherry-picked new details:
- The game contains exactly 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 planets. If you spent one second on each, it would take you 585 billion years to explore all of them—nearly double the original ETA.
- Hello Games has bots probing the universe constantly, ensuring that the game’s underlying engine is producing “varied and interesting” planets.
- Planets are defined by their position in space, meaning those extremely close to or far from stars will be more barren. This represents the bulk of planets, but you can find plenty teeming with life in the more hospitable in-between.
- All planets will feature a day and night cycle, with animal behavior to match.
- The universe isn’t stored on a server or even a drive. All planets are generated dynamically as well as procedurally, only loading in when you draw close and disappearing when you drift away. As a result, the game will be completely playable offline.
- Attacking factions in space will earn you a negative reputation with that faction, on top of an increased wanted rank. Conversely, siding with a faction will earn you support when you take on rival groups.
- The Sentinels that retaliate when you destroy resources or harm wildlife don’t police every planet, which renders lawless zones invaluable resource mines.
- Space stations sell a “rolling stock” of ships, meaning you’ll have to finish window shopping before the current lineup disappears.
- You can explore every mountain on the horizon or planet in the distance, but you’ll need a jetpack for the former and hyperdrive fuel for the latter. Better get upgrading.
- Both the overarching soundtrack and each planet’s soundscape will also be procedurally generated. The former is thanks to custom-made software which influences band 65daysofstatic’s OST. What’s more, animal calls are defined by the shape and size of their body, which affects how their throats are modeled and ensures no two species sound the same.
- Hello Games began No Man’s Sky’s development with just four members, but has since grown to a 13-man team.
No Man’s Sky will launch on PS4 and PC simultaneously at a currently undisclosed date. Hello Games claims the secrecy is “for good reasons,” in no small part owing to multiple floods at its office.
Source [Hello Games on the PlayStation Blog]
