No Man’s Sky patch removes exploits, dramatically changes the game

No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games has published the complete release notes for the game’s day-one patch, and it contains more than just bug fixes.

The 1.03 update—which goes live August 8 for reviewers and those with early copies—makes fundamental changes to how the game plays. Most notably, there are now three set “paths” through which players explore the procedurally generated universe of No Man’s Sky, each of which will have a “significant impact on what you see later in the game.” The story has been rewritten to accommodate the change and allow for multiple endings.

The universe and planet generation criteria have also been changed; there’s a deeper trading system; and new combat mechanics that include critical hit systems in space fights. Plus, lone explorers now have a greater chance of running into other players thanks to a tweaked player “collision” system that lets you scan for areas visited by other players. A full list of changes is posted below.

Those that have started the game already—most notably one intrepid player who paid a whopping £1,000 (about $1,300) for an early copy on eBay and began posting his experiences on Reddit—will find that the update doesn’t apply to existing save files, while Hello Games is also wiping early player data from its servers. Essentially, those who picked up an early copy, by legitimate means or otherwise, will have to start again.

While Hello Games hasn’t explicitly said it, it’s likely that at least a few of the changes in the day-one patch are a result of leaks from early copies hitting retail. Not only were several gameplay videos posted online, but Reddit user Daymeeuhn also claimed to have reached the centre of the galaxy (the ultimate goal in the game) in around 30 hours using a cheeky exploit. Thanks to resource management tweaks, that exploit will not work following the patch.

The patch is the first of many for No Man’s Sky, with Hello Games promising that future updates will “continue to be free.” The ability to build bases and own giant space freighters, temporal antialiasing, and offloading rendering to the cloud are due in the next update.

“We’re under a pretty intense spotlight right now,” wrote Hello Games’ Sean Murray in the patch notes, “and hopefully it’s easy to imagine how hard it would be to switch off from that, or how deeply we care about people’s first impression of the game. In fact most of us were back here the day after we went gold, working on this update.”

Continued Murray: “This universe we’ve built is a pretty large canvas, we’ve got a lot of ideas. This is the type of game we want to be.”

No Man’s Sky 1.03 update notes

The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.
The Universe – we changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved. Environments have changed biomes. Galaxies have altered shape. All to create greater variety earlier. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.
Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.
Planets – we’ve added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms.
Atmosphere – space, night time and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets.
Planet rotation – play testing has made it obvious people are struggling to adjust to this during play so it’s effects have been reduced further…
Terrain generation – caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.
Ship diversity – a wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.
Inventory – ship inventories now store 5 times more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5 times more per slot. This encourages exploration and gives freedom from the beginning. We’re probably going to increase this even further in the next update, for people in the latter game phases, and will allow greater trading potential.
Trading – trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. Observing these is the key to successful trading. We still working on adjusting this based on how everyone plays, but all trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. A bunch of trade exploits were uncovered and have been removed
Feeding – creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species, such as mining for you, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting you to rare loot or pooping valuable resources.
Survival – recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous
Graphical effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled. Temporal AA didn’t make it in time, but it’s so close
Balancing – several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (mainly exo-suit and ship, but also weapon), new upgrades have been added.
Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.
Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.
Exploits – infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit among other removed. People using these cheats were ruining the game for themselves, but people are weird and can’t stop themselves ¯_(シ)_/¯
Stability – foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).
Space Stations – interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added
Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight
Ship scanning – scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans
Flying over terrain – pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update)
Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Deus Ex) and me. I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.