I remember hearing something on Giant Bomb about how the galaxy itself is generated server side (makes sense... how else could everyone be playing in the same star map). I've only played for about an hour, but I suspect there is an initial connection/download when you boot up the game and or arrive at a new planet. I've lost connection a few times while exploring planets with no noticeable impact on the game, so it certainly isn't "always online" like Destiny. But I do believe the game is dependent on online connections from time to time.

Beware, geek speak/"well actually" follows. :)

So, an interesting thing about procedural content generation (aka random content). If the algorithm doesn't have any true randomness to it then it will always produce the same result, so every single PS4 out there would generate the exact same content, as long as they shared the same code and same random seed. In fact, I heard they used one of the developers phone #'s as the seed for the pseudorandom number generator. Anyway, the fact that random on a computer is actually 'pseudorandom' can cause major problems, especially with cryptography. True randomness on a computer is hard.

I don't know what/when/why NMS connects to the servers, but it seems to be perfectly fine without it. I suspect it's just for naming of locations/species/etc. and maybe achievements.

First of all, I'm fairly certain NMS requires an Internet connection to play (can anyone confirm/correct me on that?)

It does not. You can play completely offline. (In fact, there's at decent amount of folks on the subreddit that can't connect to the server, but are happily playing).

These people are outliers. I mean no offense, but connectivity is the norm in 2016 (the vast majority of consoles are connected to the internet), and this has affected the delivery of digital product, including games. There are downsides to this way of doing things, like the preservation of history (we've definitely discussed this here in the context of playing Destiny 20 years from now), but for better or worse, physical game discs are on their way out, and the awkwardness of day one patches are a symptom of the fact that we are in a transition. I say this as someone who likes physical objects and likes having an archive that isn't dependent on the internet. On the other hand, I like how malleable games are now, and how easily they can change or be fixed. (Destiny, for one example, has changed how I look at this.)

People can say the version of No Man's Sky on the disc is canon or whatever but they're not describing the game that most will play. Prompts to update software are ubiquitous to anyone with a smart phone. People are accustomed to it. Being indignant about it at this point is a bit like being indignant about the lack of pay phones relative to 1995.

After reading statements from Hello Games about offline play, I can see some legitimacy is believing this game could exist solely offline. I think you have to reconcile this with their statement that the unpatched game is not the finished game, though. Although playing offline removes one of the game's selling points (the world may see what you discover and name), this does seem to be a nice compromise for the historical longevity. The game can be updated and improved, and one day in the distant future, as long as you have the game on a hard drive somewhere it can be played without needing a server.

I mean, given the always online nature of NMS that would work in their case.

Why do I keep seeing this everywhere? You can play NMS perfectly fine without an internet connection.

I think there is some confusion happening here due to some of the preview coverage of the game. I remember hearing something on Giant Bomb about how the galaxy itself is generated server side (makes sense... how else could everyone be playing in the same star map). I've only played for about an hour, but I suspect there is an initial connection/download when you boot up the game and or arrive at a new planet. I've lost connection a few times while exploring planets with no noticeable impact on the game, so it certainly isn't "always online" like Destiny. But I do believe the game is dependent on online connections from time to time.

I mean, given the always online nature of NMS that would work in their case.

Why do I keep seeing this everywhere? You can play NMS perfectly fine without an internet connection.

Thank you for correcting me then.

First of all, I'm fairly certain NMS requires an Internet connection to play (can anyone confirm/correct me on that?)

It does not. You can play completely offline. (In fact, there's at decent amount of folks on the subreddit that can't connect to the server, but are happily playing).

These people are outliers. I mean no offense, but connectivity is the norm in 2016 (the vast majority of consoles are connected to the internet), and this has affected the delivery of digital product, including games. There are downsides to this way of doing things, like the preservation of history (we've definitely discussed this here in the context of playing Destiny 20 years from now), but for better or worse, physical game discs are on their way out, and the awkwardness of day one patches are a symptom of the fact that we are in a transition. I say this as someone who likes physical objects and likes having an archive that isn't dependent on the internet. On the other hand, I like how malleable games are now, and how easily they can change or be fixed. (Destiny, for one example, has changed how I look at this.)

People can say the version of No Man's Sky on the disc is canon or whatever but they're not describing the game that most will play. Prompts to update software are ubiquitous to anyone with a smart phone. People are accustomed to it. Being indignant about it at this point is a bit like being indignant about the lack of pay phones relative to 1995.

I mean, given the always online nature of NMS that would work in their case.

Why do I keep seeing this everywhere? You can play NMS perfectly fine without an internet connection.

I guess if game publishers want to address Cody's complaint they'll remove that ability to play the physical cache of content and require it to be enabled by a day 1 patch. I don't think that's a happy solution for many at this point in time.

No. There is already a Tony Hawk game that literally cannot function without its day 1 patch even for single player. So i you don't have the internet, or if it is the future and there are no PSN servers, you are fucked.

One of your solutions to the NMS "problem" was to not have it be playable before its official release. Those Tony Hawk people just beat you to it. ;)

I mean, given the always online nature of NMS that would work in their case.

Also, the multi-tool overheats after about three seconds of using it, and then you have to wait for it to cool down.

I've found that if I let off the trigger for a second before it overheats I can get back to mining a lot faster.

Yeah, I realized that, too. I'm just struggling to find anything it actually adds to the game. It seems like an unnecessary annoyance. You already have to put energy into the damn thing, why give it an overheat mechanic, too?

I guess if game publishers want to address Cody's complaint they'll remove that ability to play the physical cache of content and require it to be enabled by a day 1 patch. I don't think that's a happy solution for many at this point in time.

No. There is already a Tony Hawk game that literally cannot function without its day 1 patch even for single player. So i you don't have the internet, or if it is the future and there are no PSN servers, you are fucked.

One of your solutions to the NMS "problem" was to not have it be playable before its official release. Those Tony Hawk people just beat you to it. ;)

Also, the multi-tool overheats after about three seconds of using it, and then you have to wait for it to cool down.

I've found that if I let off the trigger for a second before it overheats I can get back to mining a lot faster.

I guess if game publishers want to address Cody's complaint they'll remove that ability to play the physical cache of content and require it to be enabled by a day 1 patch. I don't think that's a happy solution for many at this point in time.

No. There is already a Tony Hawk game that literally cannot function without its day 1 patch even for single player. So i you don't have the internet, or if it is the future and there are no PSN servers, you are fucked.

For as much as people are pushing for games as art, they are not treating them as such and making sure they can be preserved.

Physical media is (mostly) a legacy technology that's been included in the current gen because enough of the world isn't ready for the content delivery method to be via the net. I doubt this will be the situation in the next-gen; I imagine it will likely be download only, which stinks for people in your situation :(.

If we were in that next-gen world where every game had to be downloaded, then publishers could, in theory, offer physical discs with a pre-download-cache of the game's content in order to reduce the download size for people who don't have good internet speeds. In that situation I don't think there'd be complaining about the disc not being the final product. It would instead be a nice thing the publishers offered.

For all intents and purposes that's where we are now. Practically every game is offered as a digital download. Also, nearly every game has a day 1 patch that puts that pre-download-cache into the final release form. The only difference is that you CAN play the unfinished pre-download-cache.

I guess if game publishers want to address Cody's complaint they'll remove that ability to play the physical cache of content and require it to be enabled by a day 1 patch. I don't think that's a happy solution for many at this point in time.

Anyway, digital delivery is the future, and once we're all able to acquire our games this way I don't see the problem being a problem anymore.

Edit: upon re-reading this it sounds like I'm trying to argue against. I'm really just trying to offer up a alternative way of looking at it and agreeing that it stinks for some.

And, in very bad news, NMS has already proven itself a major content recycler. Every planet I go to has the same "settlement" and "mural" structures, right down to the north-south-east-west positioning of iron-built buildings in a mountain's pit. The dynamic content generators have their limits, and it didn't take me long to find them.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/the-first-dozen-hours-of-no-mans-sky-soaring-past-disappointment/

First of all, I'm fairly certain NMS requires an Internet connection to play (can anyone confirm/correct me on that?)

It does not. You can play completely offline. (In fact, there's at decent amount of folks on the subreddit that can't connect to the server, but are happily playing).