Two players met up in No Man's Sky, but couldn't see each other

No Man's Sky appears to place each player in his or her own unique instance.

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Two players set up an experiment to meet on the same planet in No Man's Sky. Per a report published on Kotaku, their experiment ended in failure.

One player known as TheSadCactus landed on a planet that had been found by another player called Psytokat. Cactus got in touch with 'kat over Twitch, and agreed to meet up. They streamed their progress for the world to see, only to find out that No Man's Sky appeared to prevent them from seeing each other.

The conjecture as of this writing is that No Man's Sky generates a separate game instance for each player. That's why you can pause: if all players were inhabiting the world at the same time, no one player would be able to call a time out.

Cactus and 'kat are still investigating. However, it seems that barring modifications in a future patch, you cannot interact directly with other players in real-time. Indirect methods are possible, such as uploading any planets or creatures you find and name to the game's Galactic Library, which other players can peruse.



Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 9, 2016 3:19 PM

    David Craddock posted a new article, Two players met up in No Man's Sky, but couldn't see each other

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      August 9, 2016 3:23 PM

      lol, why didn't the devs clear this up a long time ago? I'm sure they've been asked about this point blank.

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        August 9, 2016 3:24 PM

        Maybe because they pulled a LOST and did not know at the time? lol. Just speculation.

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          August 9, 2016 3:28 PM

          I think they probably had it in the game at some point. They probably ripped it out to get it shipped (certifications and whatnot) but forgot to mention it wasn't in the final game.

          Also I wouldn't be surprised if it was only in the PC version since matchmaking on the PS4 requires PSN+

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            August 9, 2016 3:30 PM

            Pretty amazing to forget something that people constantly asked about everywhere.

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              August 9, 2016 3:31 PM

              They might have just always been talking about the PC version. Who knows, they will undoubtedly need to make a statement about this now.

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        August 9, 2016 3:39 PM

        [deleted]

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            August 9, 2016 6:20 PM

            [deleted]

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              August 9, 2016 6:37 PM

              They didn't clear it up a long time ago... and recently they've just been incredibly vague about it. Implying that it'd be unlikely to run into another player because of the size, and then less than 24 hours after launch, players are finding locations already discovered and trying to meet up.

              If at some point Hello Games in the last few months said "There is no multiplayer connectivity, just a shared database of discovered/named planets and creatures.", then that'd be clearing it up. But instead we get "almost zero chance of running into another player".

              It's just a lame thing for a developer to do. They should have been clear about the possible interactions with other players.

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                August 9, 2016 6:48 PM

                They don't need to be. I honestly don't get this mindset that the developers need to explain every facet of their game. Having a little mystery and stuff that maybe never gets found is fun.

                I'd agree with you, had they marketed or sold the game as being about multiplayer, but not only have they not done that, they've tried to play it down at every turn and they sell it on every storefront (Steam, PSN, etc) marked as a single player game.

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                August 9, 2016 9:57 PM

                Agreed. They suggested their game could do this and that, but in reality it's just a shallow, procedurally generated, single-player exploration game.

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                  August 10, 2016 10:47 AM

                  That's pretty much how I felt about the game from the second I saw it and they started talking about it.

    • reply
      August 9, 2016 3:26 PM

      Attn: Dave-A

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      August 9, 2016 3:28 PM

      Isn't this how it was explained to work? Everyone gets their own instance of the universe but some changes made by players are propagated out to everyone? That's how I understood it at least from reading other NMS threads.

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        August 9, 2016 6:06 PM

        I think the issue with NMS all along was that the devs said one thing, and then readers immediately thought "oh it'd be cool if you could also do this!" and then the echo chamber took that as fact.

        So here they said something like "finding any evidence of anyone else in the universe is basically zero" and then everyone did this: http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/49/49ded2238ba4eaaca94bf22f509c13db3e7699d8a1934664cd942a491650b05f.jpg

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          August 9, 2016 6:11 PM

          No they have flat out stated that you can run across other players. The chance of it randomly happening is pretty slim. Of course if people dedicate themselves to doing it it's totally possible. The issue here is this could be a server issue, networking issue, or even a mechanic issue. They said that friends do not get priority to be a part of your instance. So what allows someone to see another person then? It hasn't been explained and I think it's intentional because it's not the focus of the game.

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      August 9, 2016 6:07 PM

      I realize peoples expectations of this game are at the unreasonable point but part of the blame can be on the dev for not ever being forthcoming with concrete answers.

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        August 9, 2016 7:50 PM

        Can't have anything affect the sales when there was so much spent on marketing.

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      August 9, 2016 6:09 PM

      Breaking news at 11, game not multiplayer focused, has multiplayer that doesn't work on launch day. That or the mechanics of said multiplayer are not fully known.

      We do know that it was said that it is possible to run across other players.

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        August 9, 2016 9:05 PM

        And now they are clearly tweeting it's not a multiplayer game.

        No surprise there.

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      August 9, 2016 6:16 PM

      That's still pretty cool.

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      August 9, 2016 6:52 PM

      Two things: One, the fact they met up so soon seems to indicate the universe is much, much smaller than they said, even with "tracking" on.

      Two, it's bullshit they didn't just admit this earlier. A lot of people were looking forward to attempting this because they said it would be rare, but possible. I'm not at all confident this game is even going to measure up to what THEY said it would at this point.

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        August 9, 2016 7:01 PM

        Yeah, not sure what all the hype about this game was in the first place.

        it will be mostly dead in 3 weeks.

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          August 9, 2016 7:51 PM

          It'll be a bit longer than 3 weeks. There was a ton of marketing and hype built up for this game.

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            August 9, 2016 9:05 PM

            why are you so worked up about it? that's twice in a minute you've posted to whine about the amount of marketing for the game.

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          August 9, 2016 9:45 PM

          [deleted]

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            August 10, 2016 6:17 AM

            For this crowd it usually means no long discussed in chatty.

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              August 10, 2016 7:50 AM

              Except for all the single player games that do?

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            August 10, 2016 8:01 AM

            Hype dies off fast, no conversations about it in gaming communities (think Dark Souls), game is $10 by this holiday Steam Sale, poor sales lead to no sequel, Hello Games shuts down, our world implodes and life as we know it ceases to exist.

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          August 9, 2016 10:13 PM

          Given it's close proximity to Deus Ex Mankind Divided's release date, I rather wait for that one as I already know it's a single player game with more narrative and RPG focus.

          I had my feelings that NMS would basically be a SP game given the whole odds of running into other people (he didn't want to say never but still wanted a number as close to zero as possible, seems like trying to have his cake and eat it too). Ulimately they should have just added a coop mode where you can start with a small group at the same time but maybe make it so that you have to travel together and never split up haha. That would make it very, "You wanted coop, well this his how we want you to coop!"

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          August 10, 2016 7:59 AM

          they claim they're going to build on it, much like many other minecraft-like games.

          I think they're going to quickly run into limitations on the PS4 hardware, though, and be unable to put stuff in. that will probably piss off people on the PC side.

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        August 9, 2016 7:06 PM

        [deleted]

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        August 10, 2016 6:19 AM

        Hard to say. If starting locations are random, then it could just be that good ol' RNG made it happen. If the game has specific starting zones with some measure of difficulty radiating out (didn't I read that they just adjusted this concept in the first patch?) then it's more likely to happen than if people start at random points in the galaxy.

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      August 9, 2016 6:54 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 9, 2016 7:15 PM

      Clearly the NMS developers implemented the Multiverse duh... they are in entirely different universes!

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      August 9, 2016 7:15 PM

      This whole thing is just dumb. Maybe there were server issues (launch day), maybe they were in a different lobby, maybe they didn't actually both meet on the same planet like they thought, maybe one of the player had NAT issues. Someone made the comment that one players screen it was day and the others it was night. This really doesn't prove anything one way or another.

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        August 9, 2016 7:52 PM

        A few seconds on the official Twitter account would easily solve this debate.

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        August 9, 2016 9:07 PM

        I'm loving dis shit

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        August 9, 2016 9:14 PM

        the silence from the developers certainly isn't helping

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          August 10, 2016 6:21 AM

          No kidding. Instead of making it absolutely clear "There is no real time multiplayer in No Man's Sky. You will never see another player." they dodge the question constantly. I suspect they might be avoiding the issue in hope of patching that in after the fact.

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      August 9, 2016 9:16 PM

      I have had a lot of fun playing it; however, it hard crashed my PS4 twice, so I am pretty annoyed by that. The gameplay and meditative state of wandering these vast worlds is great though. I have my hyperdrive set up, and now I plan on farming gold and mapping worlds so I can buy a better ship.

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        August 9, 2016 9:48 PM

        serious question, but i'm curious about if it'll stop being "meditative" and start being "boring"? i mean, that's a fine line and something like journey walked it really well because it was short.

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          August 9, 2016 9:52 PM

          Well, I got a grenade launcher on my gun, and I was able to murder a lot of animals and robots, so there are breaks to the meditation.

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          August 10, 2016 6:20 AM

          Well, that's kinda like grinding in any game. At times I don't mind the mindless grind just to have something for idle thumbs to do. And, ya, at other times grinding is just so boring for the bazillionth time. Yet, that's the very point of the current wave of time waster games on mobile (I'm so guilty of this).

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      August 10, 2016 6:36 AM

      Did all the hype for this game result from that initial showing at the Sony conference? It doesn't feel to me like they spouted endless PR waffle or anything.

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        August 10, 2016 7:02 AM

        One of the game's creators has done a decent number of interviews/demos on talk shows, game-specific and otherwise.

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          August 10, 2016 7:19 AM

          Yeah, how often does a game creator go on a talk show? It's relatively rare. In this thread someone posted his appearance on Colbert where he does actually say you will run in to other players and see them.

          Maybe they do have plans to patch it in, but we won't know unless they tell us.

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            August 10, 2016 8:58 AM

            Oh that's right, I remember the Colbert segment. I guess Sony PR pushed the hype harder than I thought.

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      August 10, 2016 7:03 AM

      [deleted]

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        August 10, 2016 7:06 AM

        I think this is a game for short bursts. Just to fly around for an hour or two and relax looking at nice landscapes and listening to cool music.

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        August 10, 2016 7:13 AM

        It seems like it'll be a good $10 Steam sale game. I'm sorry to bring up this shitty opinion, but it really doesn't seem like a $60 game.

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          August 10, 2016 7:34 AM

          [deleted]

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          August 10, 2016 7:45 AM

          I wouldn't apologize for it. I've been saying the same thing since it was announced. I was originally excited about it, and figured that because it was Hello Games, it was going to wind up a PSN title for $15, but when they announced that it was a $60 game I lost all interest.

          Procedurally generated survival games just aren't that fun without other people. Minecraft is great, but it's great BECAUSE you can play with other people and survive and/or build stuff together. No Man's Sky and the whole "you'll never run into another player" makes it sound like a game I don't want.

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            August 10, 2016 7:56 AM

            Agreed. They were (and still are) touting the "so big you'll never see another player!" aspect like it's a good thing. It would be SO much more fun if you could fly around with a friend and explore planets together. I could easily see this being the kind of game where you kind of just lounge around chatting with a buddy exploring planets together cracking each other up with who can come up with the stupidest name for creatures. Instead I'm going to wander around alone punching trees till I get to upgrade my fists to punch bigger trees.

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            August 10, 2016 9:01 AM

            I'm usually into single player games, but I never got hyped for this one. Not sure why, it never clicked.

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            August 10, 2016 9:06 AM

            Think I'm in this boat, yep.

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          August 10, 2016 8:59 AM

          Ya, I'm in no rush to play it at full price. The only game I'm buying day one this year is Dishonored 2.

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        August 10, 2016 7:14 AM

        They talked about it pretty extensively on the Bombcast. I mean, for like a solid hour. It just doesn't sound like a very entertaining gameplay loop. Unless you are really into exploration, the travel and identify shit mechanic gets old really fast. I think that's why they are patching in buildings and base construction plus extended trade. I think Hello Games got so wrapped up in the idea of building this infinitely huge world that they didn't stop to think about how fun it would be. It also sounds like the game runs like shit on the PS4. Sean Murray even said it would be like a whole different game on PS Neo.

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      August 10, 2016 7:37 AM

      Played it 6 hours last night, unfortunately my starting planet was filled with acid rain and carnivorous six legged beasts that run extremely fast not only that but there are sentinels here so everytime I try to mine shit they come after me, so right off the bat I'm behind the eight ball. I struggled to keep juggling the resources for my gun ammo, my environmental suit energy and simultaneously trying to repair my ship to get off this incredibly hostile starting world. After about 6 hours and multiple deaths I was able to finally scrape together enough shit to get off this planet, I dubbed it "Bad Luck" and vowed never to return. I did not find any sort of "meditative" experience as described elsewhere in this thread.

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        August 10, 2016 7:50 AM

        Those accounts are both incredible and terrible. Was reading about this other guy who kept getting shot by hostile AI in the first system.

        Makes for great stories, that's for sure.

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        August 10, 2016 7:57 AM

        Sounds fun....

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      August 10, 2016 8:00 AM

      And let the spin doctoring begin and apologist post begin.

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      August 10, 2016 8:01 AM

      more and more seems like a dud

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        August 10, 2016 8:52 AM

        This game reminds me of the episode from Silicon Valley when they launched. It was hyped up by everyone and the developers liked what they made and all their developer friends. But everyone else was like, eh.

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      August 10, 2016 8:09 AM

      I'm enjoying the game a tonne. I spent 2 hours on a planet learning an alien language through interaction with their artifacts and finding new weapons, downed ships and huge caves that I got lost in. While I can see why some are so down on the game, it is doing something that an exploration/survival game hasn't done in a long time and that is make me want to go back.

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      August 10, 2016 9:15 AM

      box says 1 Player. just saying. http://i.imgur.com/nkR1GSL.png

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