14 DAY TRIAL // No Man's Sky developer Hello Games highlights that the new open world experience isn't a massively multiplayer online title, as there are only light traces of other players in the game and very few actual interactions due to the sheer size of its procedurally generated universe.
No Man's Sky has piqued the interest of many gamers from around the world with its lofty premise of a sprawling universe that's procedurally generated and filled with all sorts of things to do and explore for players, who get to pilot their own ships and make discoveries.
Players start in different zones
Because the world is so huge, players are going to start in various zones throughout the universe's frontier. From there on, they can start exploring the rest of the areas and slowly progress to its center.
The actual multiplayer mechanics used by the game affect the exploration rather than the actual player interaction, according to Hello Games' Sean Murray, who has talked with PS blog about the ambitious indie title.
"If you’re the very first person to play the game, you’ll open up your galactic map and you can zoom in on every planet or solar system – and every single one will say 'unexplored'. And they’ll say that until someone discovers them and uploads that information for everyone else to see."
Interactions between players are rare
Player interaction will also be hard to achieve due to the sheer size of the game. While players can certainly meet up, that's going to be hard to do especially in the beginning of the campaign, according to Murray.
"I don’t want people to think that it’s an MMO. You’ll see traces of other players and what they’ve discovered, so you won’t feel alone, but if you and I were playing and I said 'come and meet me on my planet', I might be days or weeks away from you. Even if we were on the same planet and wanted to meet up… it’s like being at random points on Earth and trying to find each other."
As such, while the huge world of No Man's Sky is certainly attractive, it makes multiplayer interactions quite hard. This aspect remains relevant even as players start making their way into the center of the universe, as planets and players will still be spread out.
"Even at the centre of the galaxy, everything is still massively spread out. We want to make something that’s vast – we want it to be like the Wild West, where you never know what’s over the horizon."
No Man's Sky launches in the future first for the PS4 and then for PC.
