Browsed by
Month: December 2020

Taking a Stroll Back Through Time: A Long Walk on a Desert Planet

Taking a Stroll Back Through Time: A Long Walk on a Desert Planet

As regular readers of this blog and my NMS-focused followers on Twitter are likely aware, I am currently enjoying No Man’s Sky Foundation 1.1 (circa 2016) alongside the current version of the game, which at the time of this writing, is Next Generation. I got this setup on my PC early last year and have had a lot of fun being able to go back and explore the universe of olde, harboring worlds with wilder and more chaotic terrain generation. In a recent session in Foundation, I decided to record my exploration of a mountainous desert world and share it, here, with readers.

Craggy desert worlds of this sort appeal to me, and I could see from high above the surface that it would be enjoyable to explore. After setting down beside a small lake as the sun was setting, I set out on foot to see what I might find. After, perhaps, 10 minutes of walking it occurred to me to start recording my screen as I explored.

The ability to be anywhere on a planet and summon your starship from afar had (happily) not yet been added to the game in the 1.1 release. Several types of Habitable Structures feature landing pads or ship summoning terminals that can be access by way of a Bypass Chip (dropped from the game in NEXT) in order to call your ship to those limited locations. As a driver for my exploration in Foundation, I often land and set out in a certain direction and not stop going forth — no turning back — until I locate such a facility from which I can summon my ship. On this adventure, it took 3 hours and 30 minutes to locate such a building, and it was a glorious little walk.

Read More Read More

A Tour of 3 “Yoda Hut” Bases from the Swamp Worlds of “No Man’s Sky Origins”

A Tour of 3 “Yoda Hut” Bases from the Swamp Worlds of “No Man’s Sky Origins”

[ Update: It is worth noting up-front that the weekend following the publication of this blog post brought the “Mud Huts” discussed here as a buildable item that can be purchased in the Anomaly from the Quicksilver merchant. As such, searching for the ideal hut is (perhaps sadly) no longer a requirement for those seeking such a base shelter. In a recent video, Mac Foraday demonstrates the building of such huts. ]

The first few weeks after No Man’s Sky Origins landed, I spent a great many hours in the game traveling from system to system, exploring the entirely new worlds added to the universe, as well as the dramatically expanded diversity found on the planets that have been there all along. Almost immediately I discovered a fiery hellscape of a world that was so unlike anything I’d encountered in the game before, I had to setup a base from which to explore it in detail. After several weeks’ journey, I paused to share some of the amazing sights I encountered.

Aside from the aforementioned hellish volcano worlds, another new type of world is a swampy sort marked by dramatically rooted trees, glowing fungi, and a sort of organic pod dwelling that players have taken to calling “Yoda huts,” given their similarity to the well known Degobah homestead of the aged Jedi master. Not long after installing the update, I encountered my first world of this sort, but I didn’t immediately notice these little organic huts situated at the base of certain trees. But, as soon as I came across my first, the possibilities got me quite excited given my fondness for “tiny home” bases.

The unfortunate thing about these organic pods is that surrounding flora is heavily clipped into almost all of them, cluttering their interior space with leaves and brambles. Finding a hut that is both nicely situated and free (or nearly so) of intruding plants is a time-consuming process, I’ve learned. They can often be found in small groups close together or even growing in and amongst one another in an overlapping sort of way. Some are inaccessible, the main opening being entirely in the ground or in the trunk of a tree. But, if you want to find just the right pod-home on these new swampy worlds, with a little patience you can.

The photos and video shared here start off with the first pod I found enough to my liking to put down a base computer and settle. The encampment is a series of three huts located on a hilly world that’s more misty than swampy, really. The main hut is the “cleanest” of the lot, the other two being rather overgrown, internally. I was still able to utilize them though, placing my base teleporter just inside the entrance of one, and using the other to conceal power storage and host a bouncing blob terrarium.

Read More Read More