No man s sky names of galaxies. Review of No Man's Sky. How exploration works in No Man's Sky
"Go, there are other worlds besides these."
Stephen King. Dark tower
After many hours of meticulous exploration of the universe, I have finally traveled to the center of the galaxy and uncovered all its secrets. The ending turned out to be so incomprehensible that I wouldn't be surprised if, after some time, it stirs up the gaming community and generates a lot of discussion. In this material, I will touch on all the spoiler moments, starting with the origins of the mysterious Atlas, the mysterious roles of Nada and Polo, as well as the theory about the universe as a product of a computer simulation of a certain super-race, which it actively exploits.
If plot twists and turns are dear to you, and you would like to thoroughly study everything yourself - this material is not for you. But if you were never going to spend 30+ hours on the passage, but you are interested to know how it all ended and what is the cultural and scientific influence of society on this game - stay tuned!
Meaning of the Way Atlas
The story begins when the player chooses to follow the Path of the Atlas, which one day leads them to a diamond-shaped structure floating in space. According to the creator of the game, Sean Murray, it is something like "the central computer system in which all data is stored". In it, in front of the Wanderer (this is one of the names used in relation to the main character - I will refer to him further in the text) appears a giant continuously pulsating ball. This sphere, "remains of Atlas", offers "true understanding of all things". The Stranger immediately asks himself the question whether this is true or not. "some vast simulation created by another intelligence". Here, the player is faced with a choice: to agree to a seemingly dubious offer, or to go his own lonely way. If you agree, then your path to the center of the galaxy has begun.
Despite the fact that the Path of the Atlas is laid out for you in a rather narrow (in relation to the scale of the game universe) "path" leading to other spheres, from time to time you will be able to get into space anomalies and meet the Nada Priest Entity and the Polo Specialist there. Both of these intelligent creatures have overcome the language barriers that separate the creatures that inhabit the universe. With each new visit, Nada offers the player all possible assistance - replenishes some of the resources necessary for hyper-jumps, paves the shortest path to the black hole on the map (traveling through them brings the main character closer to the goal), or gives advice on how to get to the next "remains of the Atlas" .
In the end, in order to be able to reach the center of the galaxy, you will have to collect and then donate 10 Atlas Stones issued by Orbs. But instead of learning all the secrets of the universe there, you actually start all over again - the mysteries of the origin of the Atlas remain unsolved, and main character regains consciousness on a planet abandoned by the gods, discovering that his ship and equipment are in critical condition. Instead of ending, it begins anew - in the truest sense - sending the player on a new journey. Let's try to figure out why.
What is an Atlas?
To unravel the thick tangle of mysteries that leads us to an ambiguous ending with Ariadne's thread, we must first understand what Atlas is. On late stages games The Wanderer addresses the creators of his world as "to weary minds enslaved by their own reality just as I am enslaved by this one". Thus, he already recognizes for them the authorship of the "model", which is the universe. It only remains unclear: was Atlas directly the creator, or was he himself created by a higher intellect?
At the beginning of the game, he leads the Stranger to one of the alien monoliths scattered across the planets in great numbers. After agreeing to cooperate with Atlas, the protagonist observes "lines of code, lines of numbers, then an outlandish connection between them". This is the first hint of the true nature of the universe, which I will discuss in more detail later.
Universe as virtual reality
This year, a significant number of prominent scientists have united around the simulation universe theory. It is based on the assumption that our entire universe is the result of a computer simulation program created by a more advanced civilization. This means that we are all not really rational beings with free will, but just lines of code that merge into its total mass, which embodies the world around us. This idea was supported by the famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (you may be familiar with it from an equally popular meme), as well as the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk. The latter even stated that the probability of the opposite phenomenon is one in billions.
And if you take into account Musk's other comments about the simulation universe theory, its relevance to becomes obvious. During the Code Conference earlier this year, Elon cited video games as an example to explain why he believes the theory is true. He explained that if you trace the trajectory of video games from the earliest to the present, you can see a huge leap in the quality of the technologies used. Musk also noted that if this trend continues, then in 10,000 years, video games will become indistinguishable from reality.
The young billionaire was inspired by the ideas of the Swedish philosopher and Oxford University professor Nick Bostrom, who first presented the simulation universe hypothesis to the scientific world in 2003. According to him, sometime in the distant future, "superhumans" will definitely begin to conduct so-called "simulations of the life of ancestors." The proof of this hypothesis lies in the assertion that we, too, will one day be able to create simulacrum universes. Let me remind you that in our previous article about we already called these games the first to reliably display the world in its entirety.
Despite the fact that Bostrom ultimately abandoned his own theory, admitting its failure due to the lack of obvious evidence in its favor, it remains popular enough to at least find itself in a recently released game. During one of the meetings with the "remains of Atlas", the Stranger reports: “I'm afraid I've seen too much. The code that permeates the Universe is half-forgotten visions to me. An artificial existence governed by single, cumulative algorithms. A program as infinite as being itself. I lift the veil over reality, and what I see terrifies me.
Another clear hint that the universe is not as real as it seems to its inhabitants. This is just an illusion, and the Traveler follows the Path of the Atlas to destroy it. And the most interesting fact is that we, as gamers, already know that it exists only as a virtual reality. In fact, we have already become "super-humans" who gave life to this universe and the Wanderer traveling through it. But who then is the Stranger?
Artificial intelligence
As the end of the journey approaches, the protagonist finally comes to understand his place in the world. He says: “I have become a machine, I am the observed and the observer. The universe was created for my travels. It is built around my Path.”
The word "machine" this case implies rather an android, a humanoid being whose actions seem to be free, but are actually controlled from the outside. In the case of the Traveler, the player assumes the role of this outside force, though the Traveler is unaware of this until later encounters with Atlas. In this, he differs significantly from other inhabitants of the universe - at least he is predestined to learn about his destiny.
But why does the player control the Wanderer at all? Well, he himself gives the answer to this question with the phrase about "observer" and "observed". His role in this universe is to be the conduit for the player's experience of it. However, gradually following the Path of the Atlas, he receives more and more frightening information about himself, his neighbors in life and the sad truth behind the beautiful picture.
In this case, one cannot help but note the contradiction: why does this computer program allow one of its “wards” to become aware of itself?
Nada and Polo
At certain points in the game, the only way to continue the Path of the Atlas is to get into a space anomaly with the Entity Priest Nada and the Polo Specialist. As the name implies, this anomaly should not initially exist in the universe at all. This idea is confirmed by Nada at the second meeting with the Wanderer with the following phrase: Simulation Maker, friend or foe? Necessary paranoia. Galaxy, cause and effect, individuality statistical anomaly - Nada error. Do you believe Nada? Believe you?
Thus, Nada confirms that the world around is nothing more than an illusion. He calls himself an error in the code, explaining the existence of the galaxy by a causal relationship, and any manifestation of individuality - an error in statistics. If the universe is indeed a computer simulation, then Nada and his companion Polo, fluent in the Wanderer's native language, are both bugs in her code. In the same dialogue thread, the Wanderer makes a remark regarding Nad's words: “His reasoning is getting more and more convincing”. He adds: “They didn’t find a place in the galaxy for free will or anything that wasn’t limited by straight line cause and effect. They are concerned that we are all pawns in the games of the higher mind that created us - puppets dancing on strings. And Nada suspects me. I am distorted. Am I a puppeteer too?”
From the conversations of the Wanderer and Nad, it becomes clear that the Entity-priest gradually learns more and more about the true essence of the universe - he is even able to manipulate its source code, causing space-time distortions (black holes). Nada becomes the supreme being in the simulation, but grows increasingly suspicious of the Traveler as their relationship develops. In turn, Korvas, the native race of Nad, is increasingly hostile to him, explaining this by the desire to destroy the Entity, which has self-awareness.
Despite the growing anxiety between the Traveler and Nada, the latter still helps the former on the Atlas' Path to the center of the galaxy. Well, does this mean that Atlas does not aim at achieving self-awareness by the Traveler at all, and these are just the unfortunate consequences of his communication with Nada, a mistake in the code?
center of everything
After the player has made enough hyperjumps, collected 10 Atlas Stones, and reached the last station, they are finally given the opportunity to travel to the center of everything. At the same time, the Stranger says: “A new star was born on the outskirts of the Galaxy. The new wanderer will find himself there. I am exempt. I can clearly see the fabric of space, this whole simulation, and the black holes in it. Perhaps I will find answers there.
The Wanderer's words become prophetic, because as a result of traveling to the center of the Galaxy, the player again finds himself on an abandoned planet near the crash site of his ship. So what does this mean?
At first I thought, based on the Stranger's comments about "new traveler" that I was placed in the essence of a completely new character at a time when the previous main character was dissolved in the algorithms of the universe. This theory almost immediately ran out of steam when I looked through the inventory and realized that I had kept the same exosuit, spaceship and acquired good. Everything led to the fact that I continue the game all for the same Wanderer. The apogee of understanding shortly before this was the inscription in the center of the screen: "New Galaxy Discovered..."
What gave rise to my last theory: the expansion of the universe depends only on the Traveler heading into new galaxies, and each of them is created for the sole purpose of getting impressions for the player. This means that the protagonist's belief in his own free will has no underlying reason, and his destiny is not a journey to the center of the world to the secrets lurking there, but an increase in our ability to explore the game. As in other video games, the Wanderer is just a tool to achieve certain goals.
Our whole life is a game?
Thus, it appears as a computer simulation of the universe, whose plot is centered around psychological trauma from the realization of the unreality of the surrounding world. In my opinion, Hello Games created a project that directly showed what it is like to create a procedurally generated reality and populate it with characters who gradually come to understand that they are nothing more than artificial intelligence.
Nada describes the Wanderer "distortion", hinting that he was given the power to pull the universe by the strings of the code. This is partly true. The wanderer is both cause and effect, he knows what is important to this world and that it was built for him. His mistake lies in thinking that a journey to the center of the galaxy will provide answers to all his questions. But in fact, it turns out to be only a tool for creating new game content.
Tragic, isn't it? The Stranger believed that he would reveal all the secrets and gain the highest knowledge about the structure of the world and his own destiny. And the ending long way brings him to a new beginning. He sincerely believed that he could overcome the limits of the universe and get rid of the limitations, but his real destiny is to forever repeat the same predetermined cycle.
This is a game about the consequences of realizing that you are not a player in it, but a weak-willed character. And according to Elon Musk, each of us has yet to experience this in our own skin.
Released in August 2016, No Man's Sky is a space sandbox game where players can do just about anything they want: destroy planets, piracy, trade with alien races, explore ancient ruins, explore other worlds, and more. - much more. However, this does not mean that this game does not have a global goal - it does exist and consists in reaching the center of the galaxy.
This amazing place holds a certain secret that the developers have prepared for the players, so it is not surprising that many users are trying to find out how to quickly get to the center of the galaxy in No Man's Sky. In this guide, we will describe several ways that will help you get into the central part of the universe and see what is hidden in it.
The Most Efficient Ways to Get to the Center of the Galaxy
Look for space anomalies (Space Anomaly)
Already at an early stage of the game, you will, from time to time, encounter special space anomalies that look like small stations from the outside. They appear randomly in the galaxy, so it is not known when and where exactly they will appear.
Once in this anomaly, the player will meet an alien who will show 3 paths: one of them leads to the center of the galaxy, the other to the Atlas, and the third will open access to a particular study.
Those who want to move towards the center should choose the first track. After that, information about a nearby black hole leading to the desired location will appear on your computer.
Pump hyperdrive (Hyperdrive)
After marking a black hole, it is worth focusing all your attention on improving the hyperdriver, so that you can make a warp jump immediately for 300 light years, and not just 100. Another upgrade can increase the capabilities of the warp, but it is no longer necessary.
After improving the engine, we head to the black hole to make a powerful jump. In one such approach, you can immediately overcome 2000 light years, that is, you can noticeably move towards the center of the galaxy.
Once you exit the black hole, start looking for the nearby Atlas Station to power up the hyperdrive. Then we fly to the next black hole. In this way, you can quickly reach the central part of the galaxy and find out what the developers have hidden in it.
Note that in the original version of the game, it was necessary to fly about 40,000 light years to get to the center. With the release of update 1.03 for No Man's Sky, this distance has been increased to 175,000 light years, so get ready for long flights.
We played the most controversial AAA release of the year (at least in terms of price) for a long time and at length, and each of us decided to give our own opinion on No Man's Sky.
With No Man’s Sky, I remembered the days of Dendy, such deaf 90s, when I bought a yellow Chinese cartridge in a tent in the Lubyanka with honestly saved money and won “hundreds” or “candy wrappers” in a tent on Lubyanka and took it home. It was hard to sit on the trolleybus: you spin around like that, then you take out the cartridge, then you remove it, then you fiddle with the sticker on it, which has peeled off a little, smooth it out with your fingers. And, of course, the picture - there was usually crap with hieroglyphs drawn, which had nothing to do with the game. But still, I considered every, even the most subtle detail. He came home from the cold, took off his jacket, threw his shoes into the corner, without undressing, ran to the TV and warmed the cartridge in his hands. After all, everyone knew then that it was impossible to insert it into the prefix from the cold, but you really wanted it right now and quickly. You warm your hands, breathe on him and look forward to playing this very GAME now.
Usually several hours passed, I managed to play enough, and my parents were already sent to bed. The next day at school, the entire notebook was painted with heroes and objects from the game, and there was an anticipation in my head: “Now I’ll come home, the lessons are on the side, the portfolio is on the side, the main thing is to turn it on as soon as possible and immerse yourself in the fairy-tale world.”
I am sitting at work 20 years later and I think: I would rather go home and fly into space. Yes, buggy. Yes, dumb. Yes, sometimes boring. But so nostalgically beautiful. And this is the anticipation of the GAME - I haven’t had it for a very long time ( except for Destiny, ha - Timur's note).
I'm not ready to advise No Man's Sky. Everything they say about the game is true. Monotonous, boring, crashes three times a day, the developers completely lied about the multiplayer, here a bug on a bug and a bug will be chased, and all this has no purpose at all - it's all true. If you have played in or in FTL, and even in the simplest Elite (not Dangerous, but the one from the Amiga), then you have a rough idea of what the meaning of No Man's Sky is.
Mighty random runs everything here. Sometimes you can be lucky, but more often you are not lucky at all. Either you land on a planet with green eblosaurs and purple skies, or you land on a planet with red cockwings and yellow water. The whole game just consists of such small stories.
When you arrive at the base to some creature, you stretch your hand to stroke it, and it releases poisonous gas in response. But you get the “Contact” trophy.
When you farm gold for three hours, filling all the compartments of the ship to the eyeballs, and six are already waiting in orbit pirate ships. In battle, the shields of the ship, of course, cannot be repaired in any way, because you forgot to farm the titanium.
When you fly into a black hole, which takes thousands of parsecs from the desired target, and then in one of the updates this mechanic was broken, and therefore you didn’t fly anywhere at all.
When you find a cool blaster at a military base, you talk to a local officer, they try to take it away, but you proudly say: “I won’t give it back.” The alien respects your decision because they have a "code of war" and that's it.
A week or two goes by and I already hate this game. Everything in it infuriates: a meaningless grind, monotonous planets, and always not the way you need (you need aluminum, but a planet with gold). And here you realize that Sean Murray and his company Hello Games simply slipped you an indie craft for $60, the red price of which is $20. I've already watched the ending on YouTube (because I'm tired of flying to the center of the galaxy), and I'm bombed. I'm ready to throw the disc out the window, but I still come home and put it back in the console.
“Yes, not a masterpiece, but what a potential!” I convince myself every time.
Let critics put derogatory marks, 6/10, 5/10 - who is less? Let the game on the PC be unplayable in principle, and when it will be fixed is not at all clear. But those 30-35 hours that I played it at the very beginning, gave me back that very piece of childhood, even if it was completely fleeting and quickly forgotten.
Should I buy? No. Waiting for a sale? Yes.
Dmitry Zombak
For me, No Man's Sky was the holy grail of meditation games. When you want to be distracted and not think about the essentials, plunging into the universe invented for you. A game for a real escapist. Some spend time in Minecraft, some go to crush monsters in Destiny, some want to be in the middle of an endless battle in Battlefield. And I really wanted just such a game: fly in space, visit unknown planets in a series of endless warp jumps. This is essentially the embodiment of a boyish dream of space travel inspired by a rack of fantasy books.
When the game did come out, I ran home with the disc like Usain Bolt. I really wanted to play the wildest. Having launched No Man's Sky, I found myself, like everyone else, on an unknown planet and began my journey. First impressions turned out to be extremely positive: the game really turned out to be what I expected from it, having seen enough streams and videos. You wander around the planet, meet eblosaurs, collect resources, fly on a ship, communicate with aliens (not understanding what they are talking about), jump into warp space.
The first acquaintance was overshadowed only by constant crashes and friezes in the game. But I'm not the first time, because I played at the start of all the latest Battlefield. The problem is that No Man's Sky has a rather strange way to save progress. In fact, it can be activated in two ways: at the moment of leaving your own ship and by interacting with transmitters on the planet. Due to the constant crashes of the game, you have to stay close to the ship, as well as constantly land on planets and save progress.
Thus, the game technically imposes restrictions: you cannot move away from the ship and collect some items or admire the local fauna without the risk of losing the progress of the last 10-30 minutes without saving. You can't become a pirate and crush ships of an alien race in space for half an hour in a row, again because of the possibility of losing your progress without saving. Of course, this is very annoying.
Okay, I accepted the inevitable, saved every 5-10 minutes on my own, continued playing.
My inner fears, which I did not want to give free rein to the end, were nevertheless confirmed. The game is really very repetitive. That is, the first twenty planets, ten stations, five Atlas interfaces, one hundred eblosaurs really evoke some vivid emotions, but after the fortieth warp jump, you only think about what resources you need for a cool warp engine or a new upgrade in a suit. Because only with a cool warp drive can you fly to the center of the galaxy in a reasonable time.
At first, the intelligence journal was full of names I invented. In each system, I landed on all the planets, walked there, collected various resources for the future, gave names to the animals I discovered. Now the journal often has five or six systems in a row without visiting any planet. If I landed on the surface of one of them, in my journal they are most often called Gravitino Farm, Rednox Farm or Gold Mine.
We are already the easiest way to make money in No Man's Sky. When I wrote this guide, I could not even imagine that literally in a week the whole game would be reduced to this process. The exosuit is fully upgraded with forty-eight slots, the ship is bought with powerful upgrades and twenty free slots for cargo (there are 31 in total). The purchase of an even newer ship is clearly being postponed, because for 40+ cells they already cost some space money, where to get that - I have no idea.
The center of the galaxy is only 171,000 light-years away. In one jump, I already overcome 700. Sometimes black holes help me, throwing one or two thousand extra light years, along the way breaking one of the important and expensive components of a starship. I grit my teeth and fly. Despite the fact that the ending, they say, will disappoint me terribly. But I still heal.
Actually, it’s worth saying the following: despite deceived expectations, despite the idiotic game design in places, despite technical limitations and outright hack-work, I still continue to play No Man’s Sky. Because in fact it is the only game on consoles on this moment, which as closely as possible helps to recreate the atmosphere of a lonely interstellar wanderer, which we imagined so well since childhood, having read fantastic books.
Timur Seifelmlyukov
Theme: Far Perihelion: No Man's Sky Highlights
I flew to the planet.
Height, evaluating the brilliance of an illuminated metal ball, is insignificantly decided by the central Jupiter. This can be written as follows: V = 29.8 * sqrt(2/r – 1/a) km/sec, where elongation decides the close argument of perihelion. The parameter, at first glance, crosses out Ganymede. The comet's speed at perihelion rotates the population index.
There were very few resources there. I flew further and after 20 jumps I found the ship I needed.
Undoubtedly, the equation of time solves the rotational mathematical horizon. As shown above, aphelion is inaccessible looking for perihelion, this agreement was made on the 2nd international conference"Earth from space - the most effective solutions." Sodium atoms were previously seen close to the center of other comets, but the ion tail selects the equatorial parameter substantially. The magnetic field is parallel.
I tried hard to love the emptiness of the cold space of No Man’s Sky, but any of my attempts to find meaning in the procedural hell that was happening on the screen, Atlas only answered me:
Elongation extinguishes the nadir. In this regard, it should be emphasized that anomalous jet activity is available. Daylight saving time, and this should be emphasized, is Callisto, although for those with telescope eyes, the Andromeda nebula would appear in the sky as large as a third of the Ursa Major bucket. The zenith hour number oscillates Callisto. As we already know, parallax gives an elliptical terminator.
Sorry, No Man's Sky, I love you like the novels of Herbert and Asimov, but your time has not yet come. You rushed to the stars too early, forgetting about the thorny path to space, and stuck in the earthly swamp of your own problems.
The text is procedurally generated.
Maxim Zaretsky
The game No Man's Sky is primarily attracted not by the completion of story missions, they are not in the usual sense for players, but by the exciting atmosphere of research and discovery. A leisurely passage is welcome, the main idea of which is the contemplation and study of new life forms. In this sense, the game is endless However, the ultimate goal is still set for the player, who is free to follow it or not - reach the center of the galaxy.
You can do this in two ways:
- Take shortcuts through black holes
- Walk the Path of the Atlas
How to find black holes?
During your space odyssey, seek and visit anomalies with sentient aliens. You need an Anomaly in which they work Essence Priest Nada and the Polo Specialist. When interacting with Nada, the player has a choice:
- Get resources to help you research
- Find a shortcut to the center
- Return to the path of the Atlas
Choose the second option, and Nada will find a black hole for you, which will be mapped.
Black holes help to travel hundreds of thousands of light years in seconds. But to move you will need to upgrade your ship well. An integral part of the journey is the search warp cells for jumps through black holes. They are guaranteed to be available Alien Monoliths and inside Atlas interfaces, which you will find by scanning the space.
Following his goal, the player will still not be able to ignore free research, because without resources it is impossible to improve the starship and get fuel.
How to pass the Path of the Atlas?
The choice of the Path of the Atlas is offered in the first minutes of the game, when you find a red orb among the wreckage of your starship and, when interacting with it, select the item "Accept the instructions of the Atlas". For details on what needs to be done next, read the guide "Where to find the Atlas pass? How to follow the path of the Atlas?"
