The No Man’s Sky Beyond Development Update 3 (Patch 2.15) brought back the community events that we first saw for a period following 2018’s release of No Man’s Sky NEXT. I have participated in most of the events and have enjoyed them all, more for seeing other players on-site — the shenanigans going on — as well as the player-built bases that can always be found here and there in the vicinity of the mission target.

One of the busiest (even downright chaotic) events I’ve observed was community event #6 on the weekend of December 7th. I started the mission at the Nexus on Sunday, in the late afternoon / early evening when there were only a few hours left before the clock ran out.

I arrived to find five or six ships landed near the access portal, with many more zipping about at the mission target, a monolith by a lake, over which were flying two impressive “hot air balloons” (cleverly constructed bases). Players were everywhere — on foot, in starships, in ground vehicles. I came to find, later, that I caught footage of the Galactic Hub Defense Force (in their distinctive all-white, large fighters) engaging a number of “griefers” who were trying to obstruct the mission target with terrain. (Shortly thereafter, Hello Games released a patch including a bullet-item addressing this: “The ability to edit terrain in a multiplayer game is now its own permission setting, alongside the permission to edit a base.”)

It was quite a scene to behold.

I captured several minutes of video of the mayhem as I carried out the mission (on PC), which can be seen.