The Foundation update to No Man's Sky brought a number of big new features to the game, including base building, freighters, the Survival Mode, and stackable inventory items. But one especially interesting feature has gone largely overlooked: The addition of communications terminals that "allow explorers to leave sub-space messages for others to find." 

There was some initial confusion about how, or even if, the new communication devices worked, based on some early messages posted in the No Man's Sky subreddit. But players now have them figured out, and they're currently sharing messages with one another across the cold void of space. The missives are short and sweet, kind of like an intergalactic Twitter: Some of the communications provide directions to significant landmarks, while other simply offer up some variation of "hello."   

Hello Games took a big hit for promising, and then not delivering, the ability for players to meet each other in the game. And this obviously isn't the same thing, but like the Foundation update itself, it's a step in the right direction. Regardless of what you think about No Man's Sky, it is undeniably a vast and sprawling game. Amidst all that, I think that stumbling on proof that you're really not alone out there would make for a very cool moment indeed. Quite whether that quells all the angry spacefarers out there is another matter.

More images of the new messaging devices in action can be seen on imgur.

When it rains it pours. Following the release of the first major No Man's Sky content update earlier this week, comes a new patch designed to fix a number of smaller issues. Posted to the game's Steam page earlier today, the update might interest those who've encountered bugs preventing progress.

Chief among these is NPCs who refuse to engage in conversation, thus denying mission critical dialogue. This is fixed, as is a bug which caused important Exosuit inventory items to mysteriously transfer to the Starship. While this will no longer happen, those already affected by the bug will need to wait for the next patch for a fix.

Elsewhere, a notification will pop up now alerting users to any installed, unsupported mods; Azerty keyboards now have better support, and you'll now be told if you acquire a blueprint that you already own. Some instances of the game crashing have also been smited.

You can see the full notes over here. Here's what Chris thought of the expansion when he played it earlier this week.

In September, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation into No Man's Sky following several formal complaints pertaining to the game's allegedly misleading promotional material featured on Steam. The independent regulator has now dismissed the claims and has stated "no further action [is] required."

As a non-statutory body, the ASA—whose role is to “regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK [by investigating] complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing"—can’t interpret or enforce legislation, however can have advertisements which fall foul of its code of practice removed. 

The regulator now suggests this is not the case. The ruling is thorough and comprehensive, however the following excerpts cover the main points: 

"The ad contained several screenshots and two different video trailers for the game, as well as a text description. We understood that, as NMS was procedurally generated, player experiences would vary according to what material was generated in their play-through. The summary description of the game made clear that it was procedurally generated, that the game universe was essentially infinite, and that the core premise was exploration. 

"As such, we considered consumers would understand the images and videos to be representative of the type of content they would encounter during gameplay, but would not generally expect to see those specific creatures, landscapes, battles and structures. We therefore considered whether the game and footage provided by Hello Games contained gameplay material of a sufficiently similar type to that depicted in the ad.

"We understood that the user interface design and the aiming system had undergone cosmetic changes since the footage for the videos was recorded. However, we did not consider that these elements would affect a consumer’s decision to purchase the game, as they were superficial and incidental components in relation to the core gameplay mechanics and features. We therefore did not consider the ad was likely to mislead in that regard.

"We understood that the screenshots and videos in the ad had been created using game footage, and acknowledged that in doing this the advertisers would aim to show the product in the best light. Taking into account the above points, we considered that the overall impression of the ad was consistent with gameplay and the footage provided, both in terms of that captured by Hello Games and by third parties, and that it did not exaggerate the expected player experience of the game. We therefore concluded that the ad did not breach the Code."

The ASA's ruling can be read in full here. 

After several weeks of silence, No Man's Sky launched its base-building update last weekend. There's more to come, so says developer Hello Games, however here's Chris' thoughts on the new features in the meantime. 

Base building is now a thing in No Man's Sky, thanks to the recent Foundation Update. Typically enough, there are limits to what you can build: you're relegated to a large but still-somewhat-stifling region, and building upwards will only get you so far. That is, unless you make a change to one of the game's files.

As this helpful tutorial explains, you only need to edit the tkgraphicssettings.mxml file, which is hidden in BINARIES / SETTINGS within the main No Man's Sky directory. If you set the property "RemoveBaseBuildingRestrictions to "true" then you'll be on your way, but as always, you do so at your own risk. 

I've not done this myself, but there are examples of some of the resulting shenanigans circulating on reddit, in particular this one:

Some redditors are questioning whether it'd be possible to build a connecting tunnel between two planets. Since someone has already travelled between planets using a jetpack mod, I'd hazard a guess that it's probably possible. Possible but, you know, a lot less efficient than just flying between planets. 

I've been playing a little bit of the update and am finding my initial No Man's Sky cravings are returning. Chris offered up his impressions yesterday, and you can read them over here.

"We don't have base-building," Sean Murray said when I interviewed him back in March. "And the reason is, it would just make people want to stay where they are and not explore." The concept of traditional quests—which Murray described to me at the time as fetching "space chickens"—was also antithetical to the concept of No Man's Sky, which was designed around restless, endless exploration, pushing players deeper and deeper into the galaxy, and never looking back.

Things have obviously changed, as Murray predicted they might months before the game launched. His plan was to update No Man's Sky with new features based how people chose to play. "...maybe people will say ‘Hey, I just want to settle down and go fishing.’ And you know, maybe we'll support that then if there's enough of those people," he told me in the same interview.

While there's no fishing (yet), it seems there were enough people interested in settling down, because the Foundation Update provides base-building, which does include some fetch quests (though none involving chickens).

Here's a run-down of a few things Foundation gives you: 

• Creative mode, with unlimited resources
• Survival mode, for a more challenging experience
• A fairly easy-to-use base building system for all modes
• NPCs you can hire to work in your base
• Purchasable and modifiable freighters
• Teleporters for quick travel
• Tweaks to UI and procedural generation
• Inventory stacking
• A few new graphics settings
• A way to leave messages for other players to find

In 'normal' mode, once you find a planet with a habitable shell, you can claim it and craft a construction terminal. Hire an NPC (space stations now have several aliens in them) and he'll send you scavenging for resources for new modules. Soon you'll be able to hire other NPCs for technology and weapons development, you'll be able to farm plants for their resources, and even build your own landing pad and terminals to save your game.

The building itself is pretty easy. You select the module from the menu and snap it in place by tapping a key. It can be a bit awkward at times, especially building multi-story buildings, but that awkwardness is similar to just about any other first-person building experience (Ark, Fallout 4, Rust, etc).

Building a base doesn't mean you can't still explore. Your starter base comes with a teleporter, and every space station now has one as well. So, even if you've rocketed to new systems or galaxies, you can return to your base from any space station you visit. You can 'port in the other direction, too, from your base back to the space station, making repeat trips to buy or sell much easier.

And, since you're going to be doing more resource mining to be able to build your base, you'll need somewhere to store and transport everything. Foundation has the answer: you can fly your ship right into the landing bay of a space freighter, talk to the captain, purchase the massive barge (if you have about 7 million space-dollars. You can use your freighter to hold all your collected loot, summon it at will, and even customize the inside of it, just as you do your base.

There are some other nice improvements. You can scan planets before visiting them, to see what resources they contain—though I wish you could also scan for toxicity as well, because toxic planets bum me out. Planetary resources are more clearly marked—instead of just a red symbol with a lightning bolt, for example, plutonium, carbon, and thamium9 are now individually labeled when you scan while walking on a planet's surface. A quick access bar saves you the trouble of opening your inventory to charge devices like your weapons, mining laser, and ship shields—now you can do it with a single keypress. And product-stacking clears up some room in your inventory as well. 

Temporal Anti Aliasing gives the game a cleaner look, and some changes have been made to how planets are procedurally generated—not a massive difference that I've noticed, but a few planets I've visited have looked a bit more colorful and interesting. This is all very welcome, though I think dribbling out some of these small and useful UI changes over the past few months when everyone was wondering what the hell was being worked on might have been a good idea.

And look! You can actually land on alien creatures now rather than falling through them like a ghost.

As far as players meeting one another, well... now you can place a node on a planet and attach a message to it for other players to find, which I suppose is something. We'll see if Foundation changes more in that regard as it continues to be updated. The full list of Foundation changes can be found on the No Man's Sky site.

As far as my personal tastes go, I'm not really finding base-building all that enjoyable, and it's not really convinced me to return to the game. I like the idea of endlessly exploring more than I like the idea of building a house, but unfortunately I never found No Man's Sky's exploration all that rewarding and I'm not sure Foundation currently does much to change that. I still recognize that it's a great update, thoughtful and surprising in scope, and importantly it gives players new ways to experience the game while answering many of their wishes. A lot of players wanted the ability to create a home, and have a real home planet, and they got it.

Like a putrid fist punching through well-tended cemetery sod in the wee hours of a clammy, fog-enshrouded October morning—but in a good way—Hello Games recently sprung back to life to announce, and then quickly deliver, a No Man's Sky update of considerable substance. I'm still not convinced that building bases is entirely compatible with my fantasies of sailing amongst the stars, but coupled with the new Survival mode, teleport-equipped freighters, and improvements to the inventory management, the Foundation update sounds like a big step in the right direction.

Hello Games said when the Foundation update was announced that it represents "a foundation for things to come," and it seems that it may have meant the point literally. Poking through the No Man's Sky files after the update, a Redditor by the name of eegandj discovered the presence of a folder named "Buggy," which further investigation revealed was not a sly comment on the state of the game but rather a land-based vehicle, confirmed by the presence of references to "tire textures." He also found what appears to be an unused "specialist terminal" for ground vehicles, and models of buggy wheels that he was able to import into the game.   

Obviously this doesn't mean that we're on the cusp of a No Man's Mako, but the fact that this much of it exists within the confines of the game would certainly suggest that the wheels are turning. (That's right, I went there.) I've emailed Hello Games to ask if we can look forward to doing some interstellar burnouts in the future; for now, you can kick the tires yourself with the "Land Vehicle Test" mod (which, to be clear, just places the tires into the game so you can look at them) available from nomansskymods.com. Our own Chris Livingston is exploring the Foundation update as we speak, and will report on what he's found soon.

It's Cyber Monday, and that means sales—including No Man's Sky, which is currently down to $36/£24 on Steam. We've got tons of top deals for you in our roundup of Cyber Monday PC Game Deals.

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Well, I wasn't expecting that promised No Man's Sky update to arrive quite so quickly. Foundation is here, and it lets you build bases on abandoned outposts. It also allows you to recruit alien settlers to those outputs, and adds two new game modes including a Survival option. More importantly, update 1.1 introduces item-stacking to the spacey survival/exploration game. Item-stacking. Item-stacking. You can now stack items in No Man's Sky, or you can when you've downloaded the update, anyway.

You can also now play No Man's Sky in one of three modes: the Normal one we're all familiar with, a Creative mode that lets you "build a huge base" and explore the universe "without limits", and a Survival mode that obviously makes more of the game's survival elements. To make not dying more achievable, you can now stack items up to five times, and make use of a new Quick Access item menu.

You can purchase enormous freighter ships, and summon them to your position from "anywhere in the galaxy". You can also teleport resources directly to your freighter, while you tramp around on planets looking for heridium.

Base-building, meanwhile, will let you farm crops and research technology, among other things. You'll be able to teleport back to your base from space stations, and vice-versa, and dismantle bases easily when you come across a more attractive planet you'd prefer to settle on.

Have a read of the full patch notes for more.

After literally months of silence, No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has announced that something called the "Foundation update" is just about ready for release. The update is so named because it will add "the foundations of base building," the studio said, "and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come." 

"Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all here http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release," Hello Games wrote. "In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something." 

The studio also copped to being "quiet" since the game came out, but said that it is paying attention to the "intense and dramatic" discussions about No Man's Sky, and is continuing to work to improve the game. "Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone," it wrote. "This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us." 

It's great that the wheels are still turning, but is base building really what NMS players are hankering for? It seems a bit mundane to me. I want to explore a vast and strange galaxy, unlock its secrets, and ascend to godhood—or, you know, at least see some cool stuff along the way. Why would I want to build a base when I could be out cruising the stars? 

Hello Games said detailed patch notes, and the update itself, will both be released soon.

In case you'd forgotten, today is Black Friday, and we have ongoing roundups of all the best deals: PC game sales here, and gaming hardware bargains here.

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No Man's Sky, at least in terms of the gap between expectation and reality, is one of the bigger videogame controversies to come along in recent years. But in spite of its failings, it is having some unexpected influence on the industry at large. Valve recently tightened up its rules regarding screenshots on Steam, for one thing, which was widely interpreted as at least in part a reaction to the outcry over "bullshots." Now Geoff Keighley has told Polygon that he played a role in the hype around No Man's Sky, and promised that reveals at this year's Game Awards show will go "deeper" because of it.

"I have thought about the story of No Man's Sky a lot. Did we create this black hole of hype that the developers couldn't pull themselves out of? Some of that was authored by me," Keighley said. "There is a good moral of that story and it's part of what I'm trying to address this year; to have developers be more transparent about the state of their game."

Keighley said he agrees that No Man's Sky fell short of its lofty goals, but also suggested that it was an inevitable outcome because gamers had "an idealized notion" of how the game would turn out pretty much from the moment it was first announced. "I knew the team and it was eight guys," he said. "The vision was never going to be achieved."

As a result, new game reveals at this year's show will take a longer look at each new game that's announced, rather than just blasting through a 30-second cinematic teaser. "I think people will be surprised at the depth of some of the game content we will show this year," he said.

The 2016 Game Awards will take place on December 1, and will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, Steam, and other fine moving-picture platforms. Full details are up at thegameawards.com.

No Man's Sky has been the topic of much debate and discussion over the past few months, and now SIE Worldwide Studios president Shawn Layden has given his two cents on Hello Games' ambition and execution of the space-faring survival game.

Speaking on Live with YouTube Gaming, the Sony executive said that he believes Sean Murray and his team "had an incredible vision of what they were going to create." He said it was something that had never been done before, which was a "very huge ambition" for a "very small team." While it may not have launched to exactly what some people were expecting, Layden says Hello Games is "still working at" getting it "closer to what their vision was."

"What we learned from [No Man's Sky] is that we don't want to stifle ambition, we don't want to stifle creativity," Layden said. "We don't want to put people into slots where they must execute against an action-adventure path or a fighting path or a shooting path.

"And perhaps over time, it'll reveal itself to be all that it can be."

Layden recalls visiting Hello Games in Guildford, England, after E3 2014, as he wanted to see what a team of six people (at the time) creating such a massive game looked like. He continued by talking about how the games industry is a place "where everybody has the courage to say yes" and "realize their ambitions."

"No one slinks away from a huge challenge," he explained. "And sometimes you just don't get all the way their the first go."

In related news, the Hello Games Twitter account came to life recently after months of inactivity. It tweeted about No Man's Sky being a "mistake," but it turned out that was the result of a hack.