A year after the launch of No Man’s Sky, Hello Games have released their third big update to the game.

Called “Atlas Rises” (version 1.3) the update is significant in that it really appears to be a major move on the developer’s part to get many of the features players had expected from the beginning. The most notable is of course multiplayer – in this update a system has been added to allow groups of players to get together and chat. Interactions are kept to a minimum (everyone is reduced to a floating orb) at this early stage which reminds me a little of Fable 3. Unlike that game though it looks like we’re going to see it expanded further in subsequent updates. Unfortunately it’s a mode I won’t be able to test right now as I have the PC version from GOG.com but I do hope it arrives soon. To facilitate players getting together a portal network has been opened up that lets players dial into locations, much like Stargate.

In addition, there’s a new quest system, an expanded economy and tweaks to flight modes that should give players more control during battles and flying low over planets. The story mode has been expanded to around 30 hours now and incudes a branching narrative. Finally, the introduction of crashed freighters might not sound like much but it was one of those noticeable things from the pre-launch videos that was missing and left players wondering what else was missing.

Full details are below but further information can be found from their website. On the PC the update weighs in at 5.7Gb. More to come as we spend some time in the game.

No Man’s Sky is out now for PC and PlayStation 4.

Patch notes

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

UI

• Divided options menu into several pages
• Revised Journey page
• New Gek, Korvax and Vy’keen medals
• New medals for the merchant, mercenary and explorer guilds
• Revised log page
• Fixed animation on markers as they are removed
• Improved binocular UI
• Updated journey milestone icons
• Overhauled discovery log
• Added cardinal directions to compass
• Added distance markers to compass
• Fix for “redeem content” showing twice on Steam menu
• New trade and product icons
• Revised combat ship markers
• Improved ship tracking arrows when flying away from targets
• Overhauled conversation interface

Graphics

• Improved HBAO filtering around edges
• Improved TAA handling of grass blade edges
• Introduced depth of field effect during interactions
• Added LOD meshes and imposters to various props
• Fixed texturing on the buildable door
• Reduced HBAO shimmer
• Reduced shadow acne
• Fixed artifacts with imposter shadows
• Improved double-sided normals for foliage
• Improved terrain texturing and texture blending
• Improved grass colour blending and integration with terrain
• Improved grass and leaf materials
• Improved colour palettes across several biomes
• Improved planet night skies
• Fixed z-fighting on small glowing plants
• Various graphics optimisations and fixes
• Visual improvements to Atlas stations
• Replaced all terrain textures with higher detail and quality variants
• Added new higher detail foliage variants to several biomes
• Upgraded textures on several cave props

Audio

• Four new sets of soundscapes by 65 Days of Static
• Reworked space combat audio
• Reworked space explosions
• Added new ship weapon sounds
• Added weird biome soundscape
• Added new music and sound effects for story mode
• Lots of new UI sounds
• Minor mix changes and optimisations

Language

• Various minor language fixes and improvements