Ah, so that’s why No Man’s Sky didn’t send out review copies in advance: the day one patch for No Man’s Sky, version 1.03, is totally insane. No, seriously, it’s longer than the features list for most entire games, and completely revamps the game. That’s why Hello Games cautioned everyone who got an early copy not to review the game based on that. Because it’s changing completely, on deep and fundamental levels. Ah, the power of the No Man’s Sky 1.03 patch.

No Man’s Sky 1.03 Day One Patch: A New Game

So, for whatever reason, virtually the entirety of the video games press has gotten their hands on a copy of No Man’s Sky already. A lot of the press have been streaming the game online, and the game looks great… but it’s clear that the real version of the game will be dramatically different in a huge number of ways. Here, let’s take a look:

The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.

The Universe – we changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved. Environments have changed biomes. Galaxies have altered shape. All to create greater variety earlier. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.

Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.

Planets – we’ve added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms.

Atmosphere – space, night time and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets.

Planet rotation – play testing has made it obvious people are struggling to adjust to this during play so it’s effects have been reduced further…

Terrain generation – caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.

Ship diversity – a wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.

Inventory – ship inventories now store 5 times more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5 times more per slot. This encourages exploration and gives freedom from the beginning. We’re probably going to increase this even further in the next update, for people in the latter game phases, and will allow greater trading potential.

Trading – trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. Observing these is the key to successful trading. We still working on adjusting this based on how everyone plays, but all trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. A bunch of trade exploits were uncovered and have been removed

Feeding – creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species, such as mining for you, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting you to rare loot or pooping valuable resources.

Survival – recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous

Graphical effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled. Temporal AA didn’t make it in time, but it’s so close

Balancing – several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (mainly exo-suit and ship, but also weapon), new upgrades have been added.

Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.

Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.

Exploits – infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit among other removed. People using these cheats were ruining the game for themselves, but people are weird and can’t stop themselves ¯_(シ)_/¯

Stability – foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).

Space Stations – interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added

Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight

Ship scanning – scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans

Flying over terrain – pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update)

Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Deus Ex) and me. I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

It’s an entirely different game now… which is just as well, since, you know, No Man’s Sky isn’t even out yet. The game comes out on Tuesday, and version 1.03 is going to be a very different beast than the one you’ve seen online. And if you happened to get an early copy, Hello Games recommends you delete your save—not to punish you, but just so you can check out all that new stuff. Sounds like it will be worth it.