No Man’s Sky launched yesterday in the US and is finally available globally on PS4 today, but millions of players have already started pummelling the game’s servers. Renaming planets, wildlife and flora has taken its toll on the procedurally generated game’s online service, which have handled the extreme popularity of the title thus far. But the real test was getting two players to find each other in the 18 quintillion planet strong world. And it was a little disappointing when it happened.
Because even though it’s only been out a day, two dedicated No Man’s Sky players have managed to find each other in the same galaxy, on the same planet, and at the exact same spot. Except that when they did confirm that they were in fact in the correct space, nothing of note was there. The two players couldn’t even see each other, making the incredibly lonely space trucking journey one that is bound to stay that way forever.
It confirms a few theories that fans had about No Man’s Sky before launch, especially after Hello Games was extremely vague about how multiplayer worked. They made it clear that PlayStation Plus wouldn’t be required, but it was thought the the reason behind this was more a grace than anything else. Programmer Sean Murray stated that it would be near impossible for players to find each other, and it turns out he was wrong. Not because it happened, but because it literally is impossible for two players to see each other in-game.
Despite that, players TheSadCactus and Psytokat are still trying. They both got PS Plus to see if that changed anything (it didn’t), and continue to experiment with the game live on Twitch. Despite not seeing each other, it is interesting to note that the world’s they found themselves on were identical (down to finest details). Although when the one renamed an object, it wasn’t reflected on the other side – meaning each game might be running on its own instance on the server.
That, or they’ve somehow managed to stumble on an anomaly. A truly identical planet to another one of the millions out there, tricking them into thinking that they were close together. That’s the most unlikely explanation, but right now no one really knows what to make of it. Does No Man’s Sky really not have multiplayer?
Last Updated: August 10, 2016
Gavin Mannion
August 10, 2016 at 09:32
well if that isn’t a massive disappointment I don’t know what is.. so what’s the point of renaming all these planets and things if no one can see what you’ve done?
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 09:45
Dickbuttius Prime will forever be alone
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:05
I believe the planet names and discovered species of animals and plants will show. You just wont see an actual player walking on the planet names your mum or Dickbuttius XD
Gavin Mannion
August 10, 2016 at 10:07
not according to the article above
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:09
The article above doesn’t categorically state that. Just stated that in this instance, in the moment, the planet’s or creature’s name didn’t update. There was no reloading the game or leaving and returning to the planet – which would cause the game to redownload the info and therefore refresh the data. If there was constant refreshing, not only would the servers be taking too much strain, but then it’d make sense to be a proper MMO type thing where the player would be seen.
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:17
I’m in conflict then since the live stream Sean Murray did for an hour long states otherwise
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 10:16
Dickbuttius orbiting YourMom
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:18
Joh, YourMom being the dead planet XD
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 10:19
Not HairyEwokMom, just YourMom, the abstract object
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:22
Whichever, it will be dead and inhospitable… This game has endless troll potential with the naming of planets and creatures.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:24
They apparently have filters in place to prevent some of that. There will always be a way for some people though. Always.
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:29
Wh3r3 th3r3’5 a wi11, th3r3’5 a way. Doubt they have leet language in the system.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:30
They probably do tbh. But people have used other special characters to great effect before. Including Cyrillic.
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:35
Waiting to see the planet named 8===D (size may vary)
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:35
XD
HvR
August 10, 2016 at 11:32
Or proper Afrikaans filter …. I declare this Planet Vleispyp!!!
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 11:41
XD
Oh, the possibilities with Afrikaans is ENDLESS
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 12:38
Inhabited by the Naaie species.
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
August 10, 2016 at 15:41
LOL!
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:27
Meh. Don’t care. It never looked to be a “play-with-other-people” game from the start.
I’ll play it offline anyway myself.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:29
I’ll be online, but only really because my ADSL never disconnects. XD
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:30
Hehe. I personally think that planets and animals with idiotic names are going to ruin the experience for me, so I’ll disconnect for the first time in years, I suppose 🙂
Hopefully you can just “tick” a box to play offline. That would be better.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:32
Eh, the map highlights planets that haven’t been explored (actually that have been, but you get the idea). So I’ll only really visit those. Probably.
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:34
Interesting. Well, I suppose I’ll see. But I’m very happy going in there by my lonesome in the big galaxy. It’s the idea I got from the game from the start, and it’s what appeals to me.
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:34
So you don’t play games for escapism? 😀
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:35
Haha. See, you get it. 🙂
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:36
Not if the door is bug proofed…
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:37
Inter-comment mixing!
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 11:05
Win!
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:41
lol
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:35
100% with you there. But I don’t mind arriving on Duranius Prime if it seems cool.
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:37
Haha. Yea. Or Spock’s Spine.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:37
Live Long and prosper youngling.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 09:34
So it is just like Spore and the Sims then. Each person plays locally, single player. But you’re connected online to share your discoveries and see other peoples’.
Also, did they try turning it off and on again for the planet naming? 😛
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 09:35
Also.
HvR
August 10, 2016 at 10:02
10 million species discovered or the same species discovered 10 million times?
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 10:19
Dun dun dunnnn
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:03
What’s going on….. You tell us Sean Murray…. You’re the god that created that universe.
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:05
In every twitter post the question is raised and no reply is given.
HairyEwok
August 10, 2016 at 10:07
Did we just bump into the one question that can never be answered by man or machine.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:06
I don’t think, from start to finish, he realised just how big this thing was.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 09:38
I wonder if this is consistent with the PC version?
ElimiNathan
August 10, 2016 at 10:42
Probably, this seems like a backend code (server) problem
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 09:38
Heh.
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:13
You shut your heh!
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:13
heh heh heh. 😀
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 09:46
I saw the two guys on Twitch checking if they could see each other. What I also noticed on different Twitch streams was that although the planets are random the quests and missions are linear. Always saw the same question and mission type as I hopped between streams.
In all honesty NMS looks awesome and like a great load of fun but at the $60 price tag and no “friends feature” or MP the game is very overpriced for an indie game.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:09
Conversely I just bought the game. XD
HvR
August 10, 2016 at 09:59
“This is surprise for the gamers we built in multiple dimensions into the game as well” – NMS PR troll
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 09:59
xD
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:10
Here is a link copied from Kotaky commenter and I remember this as well a while back.
https://youtu.be/ZqeN6hj4dZU?t=336
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:12
It’s a time stamped link at around 5:30 into the video.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:12
I’m too lazy to open and scroll. Summary / tl;dr?
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:13
He literally sais “the only way to know what you look like is for another player to tell you how you look like”
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:15
Which means that there are some possible explanations.
Either it exists like Sims/Spore – single player with server push & pull calls. Or, the servers are too busy and aren’t loading the other player’s data in time. OR a person will need to leave and re-enter to find each other, visually.
That last one is a problem. The other 2 are ok, but the first is contrary to his statement (which I remember seeing, no need for the video) which could be ok with some and a deal-breaker for others.
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:17
For now I am also leaning toward it being a bug and will be fixed, but the fact that they are ignoring every twitter question on why the two players were unable to see eachother is bothering me.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:23
Perhaps they don’t have an answer yet? It’s early days. Literally the first, to be precise. XD
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:30
If it’s supposed to be in the game then they can just state MP is in the game and they will be resolving the problem. That in itself will put out a lot of fire that are starting. Not just stay quite and ignore the fanbase.
Admiral Chief - Check
August 10, 2016 at 10:18
Spoiler alert, you will only see every 42nd player
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:25
From the start they made it pretty clear that MP wasn’t really what this game was about. So if you went in expecting that, well, too bad. Even with their “vague” comments you could see that it wasn’t their intention for people to play this together.
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:25
It’s early days. Let’s give them some room to fix bugs.
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:27
Do they really need a special bug fixing room? Why can’t they just use a normal room?
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:28
I don’t think a special room would be referred to as “some room”. To me that sounds like a well below average room.
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:28
Because the bugs would escape under the door! Duh!
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:29
Oh right, I never thought of that. They’d need airlocks & stuff.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:29
Because bugs can’t exist in a vacuum?
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:33
What stuff?
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:33
Sciencey stuff.
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:29
Jeez. It’s like you people have never even heard of bug-proofing doors. 😛
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:30
Also, once they’ve fixed the bugs do they put the bugs back in the game?
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:31
Trevor makes a good point.
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:32
Yes. So the fixed bugs can speak to the broken bugs and tell them which room they must go to. This is all very simple.
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:33
Then why don’t I understand it?
I mean… um… fuck.
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:34
^ one of the bugs that need fixing right here.
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 10:35
The bugger… No?
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 10:36
You spelled booger wrong.
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:36
XD
Alien Emperor Trevor
August 10, 2016 at 10:36
I’ll bugger yNOSTOPSHUTUP!
RinceThis
August 10, 2016 at 11:05
BWAHAHAHAAH
UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy
August 10, 2016 at 10:25
It would kind of be a nightmare physics-wise… If you travel at the speed of light everything else outside of your vehicle would move a lot faster. Which means you will in fact get to a planet years after another person that only had to travel a few lightyears.
Dane
August 10, 2016 at 11:43
Woah
ElimiNathan
August 10, 2016 at 10:37
Seriously cant wait to see their reply to this
Ottokie
August 10, 2016 at 10:45
Same. If it turns out they were stating false info people are going to go apeshyt.
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 12:36
While people are taking to Twitter to rage, I’ll be exploring a new planet and calling it “Entitlementopolis V”
Captain JJ off track
August 10, 2016 at 10:57
Same price on console and pc. Answer that.
Dane
August 10, 2016 at 11:45
I must admit, my mate and I /were/ planning on meeting up at the soonest possible moment, and doing all of our building and exploring together. Don’t think I will be interested otherwise.
OP PLEASE UPDATE US WITH ANY SORT OF RESPONSE FROM NMS WHEN THEY DO RESPOND THX BYE <3
Viper_ZA
August 10, 2016 at 13:48
Price drop imminent…glad I did not preorder this.
Captain JJ off track
August 11, 2016 at 06:49
Oh good, because it’s a bit crazy now.
The Order of the Banana
August 10, 2016 at 13:58
I’m kind of relieved because the last thing I want is for No Man Sky to resemble Eve, where the little guy becomes easy pickings for nefarious pirate-inclined power-levellers.
The Order of the Banana
August 10, 2016 at 13:59
Also, my obligatory… LOL, KAKTAKU!
Captain JJ off track
August 11, 2016 at 06:49
Agreed
NilbogResident
August 10, 2016 at 16:01
“Turns out No Man’s Sky may not have multiplayer after all”
Sean Murray never said it was a multiplayer experience. As a matter of fact, he has been going out of his way recently in stressing it’s a single player experience. These articles are incredibly baffling.
Sliquid
August 10, 2016 at 17:57
I haven’t really kept up with this game much but I did watch a few videos awhile back. To my understanding the game doesn’t have many multiplayer elements but it seems I read or heard the dev stating it was in the game. I thought you could run into players but the probability was slim to none. I genuinely don’t know enough about the game and wondering now after reading the article if this is a bug or they lied or what the deal is. I’m more into the single player games and was going to let this be out awhile before I bought it but the idea of maybe running into someone was interesting to me.