No Man’s Sky – Hipertextual

The algorithm that generates universes

No Man’s Sky has a very different technical peculiarity of any game you’ve played before it does: everything you see, everything with which you interact, all the spaces you travel, all is generated via an algorithm.

it is a technique called procedural generation . The creators did not have to manually model every solar system, planet, land, flora, fauna, bases or structures you see in the game. That way they were able to create a universe with planets 18 trillion (18,446,744,073,709,551,616 to be exact), each and every one of them explorable.

They have many planets does not mean your generation and features remain random. The algorithm of the game includes a series of conditions, such as:. The possibilities of life and quantity of flora and fauna on a planet are conditioned by their distance from the Sun is also taken into account the rotational periods, soil erosion and climate Local.

the goal of the developers was to achieve a ratio of 90-10. That is, 90% of non-habitable planets and the remaining 10% that most have simple life and are a few planets which really find density, large animals, lots of flora and an ecosystem really developed.

No Man’s Sky is full of possibilities, not certainties . Exactly the opposite of what we are accustomed to the video game industry.

This is the maximum that creates a bias level so high that hear comments passionate people saying it is the best they have played and an equal number of players saying it is the most boring, oversold and ultra-hypeado in the history of video games. to review No Man’s Sky is simply no middle ground.

I’m close to the first group. in my opinion this is the best titles I’ve played in recent years. During the last five days I have spent many more hours than most games I’ve bought in the past. There’s magic in the algorithm . of that I have no doubt.

Living within the universe of no Man’s Sky requires patience, cozy in your chair or on the couch, watching what you have around you, to learn about the environment. No big massive space battles and EVE, you will find planets evil robots, but be very occasionally. There is action, but less than you imagine and different ways to which we have become accustomed video games. Yes, everything is in first person, you do have a gun in your hands but far from using it to shoot bad will be your main tool to extract minerals and materials of planets you visit.

in that sense, quite Minecraft looks like.

We also have to understand, and unfortunately very painful way, that being a so open and so many possibilities video game, the “final” is a extremely distant and diffuse point.

I say it is painful because it is natural to want to understand what the purpose of all the time we are investing a video game. Are thirty hours I’ve already played give me some fruit? I spent five hours collecting materials and exploring planets, why?

But slowly the game opens its possibilities, little gradually begin to understand the scope of our actions, that the goal is not necessarily one that we do not strive to reach the center of the universe, we can do other things. If you play for one goal and finish you juice without simply must get to the center of the universe and see what happens.

But No Man’s Sky is more about the way to the destination. And that can be very frustrating for many people.

In addition, developers have already said they will soon add more things you can do in the world of No Man’s Sky , then emerge questions should we play to end the game? Should we play calmly and wait for more updates that make the game and the end, something better?

I chose to just enjoy what I see, I get carried away by the lore not hurry to reach the center of the universe and specialize, for the moment, to discover the Atlas. Also I decided to better understand the intricacies of the game economy and discover trade routes

The game becomes repetitive, too at times. Reach a solar system, visiting planets, finding bases, talking with aliens, discover their native language, learn their traditions and get materials to try to improve your ship, your equipment or your economy.

it is not all bad. You can not create benchmarks which is extremely frustrating when you explore a planet. An example to explain better: I found a crashed ship, if the fix I’m staying. I was missing one of the necessary components, but I knew I could buy it in the Space Station . But if I go out into space, without a reference point me be almost impossible to find again the ship. After all, the planets are 100% scannable and are the size of … well, a planet. Without a way back without the need for repair materials, I ran out of that ship.

The only place where you can put benchmarks, ironically, is on the map of the galaxy.

The storage system materials and objects can become a nightmare. There are some materials that can be grouped, others not. Objects by default each occupy a space … unless you disassemble a component of your ship, your spacesuit or your weapon. In that case, the objects appear you get grouped. It is a problem that Hello Games understands that it exists and tried to solve the update day one, but there is still work to be solved. Recall that when he left, Destiny had a similar problem solved weeks later.

We also think there is a problem with the nonexistent depth of NPCs with whom you are. I can understand that it is impossible to generate plot background in each of them, but … A short animation and three possible answers like that? I really like to have closer relations with some breeds, especially those with whom I have a good reputation. If Ambrosia could do well for fourteen years with Escape Velocity , Hello Games, today could also do so.

That said, for me the biggest problem becomes the lack of context in different aspects of the game:

1. context lose your travels because there is no way to get a simple record of all the distance you traveled, life you’ve discovered and landmarks you’ve unlocked . Only a list of planetary systems, visited worlds and moons.
2. In the absence of maps you lose the context of travel on each planet you’ve been. There is no sense of real progress when exploring new worlds.
3. The map of the galaxy do not end up showing a real context of everything we’ve come to as you travel between planetary systems, or on the road the center of the universe or the discovery of the Atlas.

human beings, as we were launching discover our world and then create space maps to contextualize each of our achievements. No Man’s Sky has a galaxy of life-size planets actual size, as a player need to understand the extent of my travels, my discoveries and my achievements in that universe.

a list of bad things must be added the “scandal” occurred on launch day when two players were doing streaming on Twitch found (which developers said they would be unlikely) but could not be seen. According to Sean Murray it was due to a problem server at the time, but others have managed to meet the day before the publication of this analysis, nor were.

The debate behind No Man’s Sky

It’s funny, but I think one of the greatest achievements of No Man’s Sky is the debate that has unleashed:

• is it possible that a small, independent team to be able to compete with major studios by a title has its value in the development and content, not the marketing?
• Why not end the industry to adopt the procedural generation for building universes, worlds and environments?
• My favorite: Do we live in a simulation

This last debate was catapulted largely thanks to Elon Musk , which when met Sean Murray , asked: “seeing the possibilities of creating universes in a single game, do you think that our reality is a simulation?” (Murray repeatedly said this conversation)

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as for the debates about the real possibilities of a small study competing your-your against large multinational studies, it is in’ll see. That said, Sony has forced that Hello Games hire a team to create a quality management system that is greater than the total number of employees that the study had . That probably explains the scale of human resources required to sustain a game with a throw of these proportions.

On the future of video games using procedural generation will have to wait six months or a year to understand the impact it may have No Man’s Sky on the industry, players and platforms (in this case PlayStation 4 and PC). Make algorithms based games is not easy and the benefit is paid only long term. Although extremely successful titles like Minecraft , Diablo (I, II and III) or Left 4 Dead demonstrate the possibilities and benefits, the overall development keeps to the manual creation of each of the elements and textures.

Conclusion

no Man’s Sky is probably the game we needed, not what we wanted. Break the monotony of style of game to which we are accustomed industry, where basically everything has some relationship (very large or small) to use weapons to shoot things, in fact breaks most of the conventions to which we are accustomed.

The problem is that perhaps we expected something else. It is easy to blame the studio trying to create hype with both secretiveness and disclosure of details in dribs and drabs, but each company is free to do what you want while not deceive people. No Man’s Sky is a victim of its own success and a hype that most blame the study, when it was created by themselves.

To my games exploration are drug so No Man’s Sky has occupied much of my attention throughout the week. I have spent dozens of hours, I’ve been through interesting times for immersive experiences that had not had in years, for situations of absolute frustration. It is a game that has surprised me countless times. For me that’s fun. I am of people enjoying a slow game, which need not always be about action and know they will have to spend weeks before reaching the main objective.

If you’re comfortable with that premise , you will have a lot of No Man’s Sky . If you expect big space battles, fighting evil robots, multiplayer strategy, large explosions or stressful situations, forget it, this title is not for you.