Me:
Do you know the game, no man’s sky?

ChatGPT:
Yes, “No Man’s Sky” is a well-known video game developed by the British studio Hello Games. It was first released in 2016 and is available on various platforms such as PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is famous for its massive, procedurally generated universe, which includes over 18 quintillion planets, each with its own unique environment, flora, and fauna.

The core gameplay involves exploration, survival, combat, and trading as players journey through the universe. Players can upgrade their ships, suits, and weapons as they discover different planets and interact with various alien species. The game was initially met with mixed reviews due to the lack of promised features, but it has since seen numerous updates and expansions that have significantly improved the experience and added new content, such as base building, multiplayer, and improved story elements.

As of my last update in April 2023, “No Man’s Sky” continues to be a game that evolves, with Hello Games regularly releasing updates to enhance the game and keep the community engaged.

Me:
how many stars in that game?

ChatGPT:
In “No Man’s Sky,” the number of stars corresponds with the number of planetary systems players can explore. The game is built around a procedural generation system that allows for over 18 quintillion planets, which means there are nearly as many stars since each star typically hosts at least one planet.

This near-infinite number of stars and planets is one of the most prominent features of the game, as it provides a practically unlimited space for exploration. The number is so large that players collectively have only discovered a small fraction of what the game has to offer, and it would take many lifetimes to visit every star system in the game personally.

The 18 quintillion figure comes from the 64-bit seeding algorithm used to procedurally generate the game’s universe. It’s a number that is often cited to give an idea of the scale of the game’s universe, even though it’s not expected that every single star or planet will be visited by players.

Me:
How long would it take one person (given they are immortal) to visit every star system in the game?

ChatGPT:
To estimate how long it would take one person to visit every star system in “No Man’s Sky,” we would need to make several assumptions. Let’s say for simplicity:

• Each visit to a star system is very brief, just a flyby, taking about 1 minute on average (this is an extremely conservative estimate considering that even the fastest possible visit would likely take much longer due to loading times and the need to travel between stars).
• The player is engaged in this task 24 hours a day, without taking any breaks.

Given these assumptions:

1 minute per star system × 18 quintillion star systems (18 × 10^18 star systems)

= 18 × 10^18 minutes

Now, let’s convert the total minutes to years, knowing there are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year (ignoring leap years for simplicity):

18 × 10^18 minutes ÷ 60 minutes/hour ÷ 24 hours/day ÷ 365 days/year

= 18 × 10^18 ÷ (60 × 24 × 365)

≈ 18 × 10^18 ÷ 525,600

≈ 34.2 × 10^12 years

So, it would take approximately 34.2 trillion years for one immortal person to visit every star system in the game, assuming one minute per visit with no breaks. This time frame is several orders of magnitude longer than the current age of the universe, which is about 13.8 billion years.

Me:
What if the entirety of humanity were to participate and map each system, how long would it take to map every star system?

ChatGPT:
To estimate the time it would take for the entire human population to map every star system in “No Man’s Sky,” we’ll need to continue with the assumption that it takes about 1 minute to map each system. The current global population is approximately 8 billion people. For simplicity, we’ll use this number for our calculation.

Let’s continue from the previous calculation, where we determined that it would take approximately 34.2 trillion years for one person to visit each of the 18 quintillion star systems, provided they spent one minute per visit.

Now, we’ll divide that number by the current human population:

34.2 trillion years / 8 billion people = 4.275 million years per person

This is a rough estimate and assumes that every single person on the planet could and would dedicate their time to mapping star systems in “No Man’s Sky” non-stop, without accounting for the vast differences in access to technology, interest in participation, or any other logistical concerns.

In reality, the time it would take could be considerably longer due to many factors, including game mechanics that may limit how quickly star systems can be mapped, the fact that not everyone has the game or the necessary equipment to play it, and the reality that people would need to spend the vast majority of their time doing things other than playing the game.

It’s also worth noting that the actual gameplay mechanics of “No Man’s Sky” would not allow for such an organized and simultaneous mapping effort. There are in-game limitations to consider, such as travel time between stars, loading times, and the actual activities required to consider a system “mapped.” The process of discovery, documentation, and travel within the game is much more complex and time-consuming than a simple one-minute flyby would suggest.

I’m looking at and firing at an enemy torpedo and if I try to lock onto it my ships spins in some random direction because it’s locked on to an enemy ship that’s in completely the opposite direction.

Once I’m in the enemy freighters shield brakes on my ship seem to stop working so I end up bouncing off the ship. I can’t run through the lines to destroy the shield generators when I’m getting bounced back into space.

I’m decent at space combat otherwise but the it feels like the game is handicapping me during freighter attacks. I keep getting dropped into the middle of an asteroid field with friendlies blocking my shots.

Extra fun is that the freighter you’re saving has an RNG controlling the class. When I actually did save a freighter it was a C class ship, a huge step backwards from the A class I have. Sorry but the new mechanic kinda sucks, the ships being saved should Always be an A class or better or it’s not worth the time. The free freighter that the Atlas questline gives you was better than what I got when I saved a freighter. That’s the level of time the new system wastes.

Not sure why this isn’t already a thing. Systems and planets are already like this, so it’s clear that Hello Games has the ability to do this. These are already done this way to (probably) stop people from naming these larger systems into something offensive.

But based on the past few expeditions, it’s become increasingly clear that people won’t use this system to make fun or funny names for things and instead will choose to name commonly found resources or creatures into things that are political or offensive.

I don’t think specific words need to be locked or anything. If I found one of these discoveries in the normal mode then I can just move on. But, expeditions (especially the last one) force you to interact and see the discoveries of other players for much longer periods of time compared to other parts of the game.

Having all discoveries on necessary progression systems (starting places, rendezvous points, etc) be pre-discovered by Hello Games eliminates any need for them to ban any names and still lets people name random systems whatever they want. I’d imagine this would also drastically cut down on reports sent to HG. For the most part everyone wins by doing this. People can still name random systems whatever they want, HG doesn’t have to deal with a bunch of reports, and people can play their space game without political and offensive names being shoved down their throat.