^{I’d like to preface this with the fact that all of this is purely SPECULATION. I won’t be expecting any of this as none of it has been officially confirmed. You shouldn’t either.}

I think to start, we should quickly go over what we know. Unfortunately, we’re nearly 100% in the dark about any details of the upcoming features and changes. We know of something called “No Man’s Sky online” that will bring unspecified MMO elements to the game that won’t turn it into an MMO, and …that’s about it right now. We did of course also get that 1 second sneak peak from the trailer, but that’s all we’ve got.

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I’m gonna split the rest of this post into two sections: speculation and wish list ^{(Formatting explained at bottom of post if needed})

Speculation:

MMO elements/No Man’s Sky online

I think that this could contain a lot of different things. An important thing to note is Sean said this was going to be it’s own update before it became Beyond, which means there’s likely a lot of different MMO-type features. In the post talking about Beyond, Sean stated that there are many recognizable elements, but in the end doesn’t turn NMS into an MMO. Two other things to note are, they said this will “bring players together like never before” and that this part of the update was a response to how people have been playing the game recently.

– Guilds are a reasonable assumption (A ‘recognizable online element’)

– No more orbs/player models for everyone (Sort of a call back to that survey they had all of us do. One of the options was this feature, so I’m sure they’re working on it. If not in this update, it will surely be in a future one)

– A chat log with multiple settings: Local system chat, Party chat, Guild chat, and even Global chat (A recognizable online element)

– A searchable base catalog players can upload their base to and search for other’s bases (a response to how players have been playing the game recently. A lot of cool and unique bases are being made and a catalog to easily search them would make visiting much easier)

– A searchable discovery catalog players can upload their biological, planetary, multi-tool, and ship discoveries to (Something I’ve seen the community request in the past)

– Community missions/bosses that call many players to a specific location to achieve a large goal (this one might be a biiit of a stretch, but that’s the fun of speculation. This would “bring players together like never before.” Also, I realize that community missions already exist, but they’ve all been very singular missions that everyone does. These would be more involved with fellow players)

– Faction overhaul (I think there is a lot of opportunity with this. There are a lot of different ways they could it factions into the MMO type feature, to the point where warring factions with real players seems entirely possible. Excited to see if they go this direction and what direction they choose after that)

I can’t think of any other notable social features, but if I do, or if I see anything particularly interesting in the comments, I’ll add it below this text

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2) ? and 3) ?

Numbers 2 and 3 in Sean’s tweet about beyond are basically completely unknown at this point. According to Sean’s post talking about Beyond, there were 3 separate updates mashed into one. Which means there are two more updates that don’t include No Man’s Sky online. They could be anything at all, but going off of how HG has treated updates in the past, I have a few ideas. HG listens to the community heavily. If a large portion are requesting/complaining about the same thing, chances are they’ll be added/changed in the next few updates.

– A space overhaul: Updated asteroids, better ‘space dust’, etc. (The community has been requesting space be overhauled for a while now, practically ever since NEXT released and didn’t feature a major space update. I think that reason alone is enough to warrant HG releasing a space focused update.)

– A variety overhaul (Ever since NEXT dropped, the major reduction in variety has been readily apparent to the portion of the community that played to explore. There have been countless posts showcasing the aesthetic and variety of older versions so I highly doubt HG ignored the community’s outcry for the old level of variety. Maybe this update will go beyond the level of variety in past versions.)

– A fauna overhaul: more fauna variety, better fauna AI, etc. (This has been heavily requested since even before NEXT dropped. The community has been requesting the AI seen in pre-release trailers for what seems like forever. I’m sure HG has something in the works to update the fauna. If not this update, then one in the future.)

– A combat overhaul (I’ve seen a lot of requests for this, but they overhauled combat a few updates ago by changing space combat and adding new upgrades/weapon types to both ground and space combat. I’m honestly not sure what they’d add here as I feel that the combat in NMS is as good as it needs to be with the current game. Beyond could change that though)

Wishlist

MMO elements/No Man’s Sky online

Honestly, I don’t care much for the online aspect of NMS. Maybe Beyond will change that, but I was always content with the “Maybe one day I’ll happen upon a random player” kind of multiplayer. I don’t really have any sort of hopes for this part of the update, so anything that they release will surpass my expectations.

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2) ? and 3) ?

This is the part of Beyond that I’m excited about. (no real order to the below)

– Variety Variety Variety: old color palette range or better, more creative planet asset usage, more creative ship asset usage, more varied space stations, more ‘extreme’ terrain proc gen ^{(super flat worlds and crazy tall mountains/deep af valleys}), more varied planetary structures, etc. (To me, this game has always been about exploring places others have never been and maybe never will be. Making real discoveries and exploring an infinite universe is the main pull of the game for me. When NEXT dropped, I was initially very happy, but that faded quickly once I realized the variety was heavily limited compared to previous versions. Things are more cohesive and make more logical sense than before, but the sheer enjoyment of finding a place that felt truly unique was lost after a short time. It’s much less exciting going to the same looking, white, icy planets in NEXT than it was landing on a curious looking blue and red planet with freezing temperatures. Knowing what to expect when landing on a planet, at least to the degree it is in NEXT, makes ‘exploring’ feel meaningless. NMS is a procedural universe. Limiting whats possible for the sake of continuity is more of a step backward than anything else in my opinion.)

– Minor ship customization: collectible blueprints for special ship parts, craftable paint for paint jobs, etc. (The reason I only want minor chip customization is that it still leaves a reason for the ships to be procedurally generated. If we could completely customize our ships, what would be the point of procedural ships spawning anymore? I think minor changes, like paint jobs and small additions/subtractions to ship parts would be great and still give purpose to the ships being proedurally generated.)

– Roaming NPCs (NPCs in NMS right now don’t really interact with the universe much. I think having them actually leave their ships when landing at a planet, space station, freighter, etc. would make them feel much more like they belong and live in the NMS universe.)

– Aesthetic mode: A mode that either periodically teleports the camera to different random points in the universe ^{(sort of like a procedural screensaver lol}) or lets the player explore with no other purpose than exploration (I’ve wanted a mode like this for some time. I realize the two descriptions I gave are basically two completely different modes, but I’m just looking for a mode that lets me see the procedural universe freely. Whether that’s a random location generator or a mode that lets me roam as a disembodied camera doesn’t matter to me. I’ve seen some requests for this over the years as well, so I know I’m not alone.)

– Fauna overhaul (I detailed this a bit above, but I’m putting it on my wishlist as well. Overhauled fauna would really make planets with them feel a lot more alive. If not in Beyond, I hope HG releases some sort of fauna update in the near future)

– Faster pulse drives: maybe sigma/theta/tau upgrades (This is something I’ve wanted since day 1. Waiting upwards of 2 and a half minutes to get from two far reaching planets is painstakingly long. On average its too long. Having upgrades to make them go faster would be a godsend and a half)

– New planet types: gas giants, lava planets, completely underwater planets, etc. (I think we’re overdue for some more biomes. I’d love to see some unexpected additions that no one had previously thought of. The update that introduced anomalous planets was a great, unexpected addition. I’d love to see more of that from HG in the future.)

I can’t think of any other wishlist features, but if I do, or if I see anything particularly interesting in the comments, I’ll add it below this text.

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Anyway, thank you all for reading, I realize it was quite long. I’d love to hear what you guy think is coming in the Beyond update and also what’s on your own wishlists!

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Formatting explained:

Section

Section Divider

Divider description

– Feature: feature description/examples (reasoning/thoughts)