over 4 years ago - Hello Games - Direct link
Hello Everyone,

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who has already spent time playing the Synthesis update and letting us know about any issues you’ve experienced.

Steam users are able to opt-in to the Experimental Branch, where we have pushed a rapid patch to fix a number of crashes and other problems seen since release. We’ll be rolling out these fixes to other platforms as soon as possible.

To play in Experimental, right-click on No Man’s Sky from the Steam library page and select “Properties”. Among the available tabs will be the “BETAS” tab. Enter “3xperimental” in the textbox and press “CHECK CODE”, then select it from the dropdown menu.

The patch notes are as follows:

Experimental Branch Update 13/12
  • Fixed an issue where the camera postition incorrectly when taking a base screenshot.
  • Fixed an issue where submerged relics were destroyed by the terrain manipulator.
  • Fixed a rare issue where interacting with base parts could result in the wrong interaction.
  • Fixed a crash in base power grids.
  • Fixed a crash when interacting in multiplayer.

Experimental Branch 11/12
  • The Galactic Trade Terminal in the Space Station now defaults to buying, rather than selling.
  • The ability to edit terrain in a multiplayer game is now its own permission setting, alongside the permission to edit a base.
  • Restored the ‘Friends Only’ multiplayer permission setting, distinct from people in your group but not in your friends list.
  • Fixed an issue where freighters bought before the Synthesis Update would be limited to 4 tech slots.
  • Fixed a hang that could occur when comparing freighters.
  • Fixed an issue where upgraded starships always rolled the worst possible stat ranges for their class. The chosen stat is now based on the unique seed for that ship.
  • The upper bounds for some starship stats has been increased on haulers, fighters and exploration starships, so that exotic ships are no longer guaranteed to the best at each specialisation.
  • Added the ability to see a starships’ stats through the Analysis Visor, including the difference between ‘core’ and ‘upgraded’ stats.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the displayed shield strength stat of a starship to be incorrect.
  • Fixed an issue that added one shell to the Position Ejector’s clip size when adding reload speed upgrades.
  • Fixed an issue with GTAO that caused many planets to appear slightly too dark.
  • Added a new ‘Ultra’ setting for GTAO on PC.

  • Plants placed in a base now get slightly bigger as they grow.
  • Interactive objects that have been used are now hidden on the compass and in the Analysis Visor.
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent players from using their secondary weapon if they only have one secondary weapon installed.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to equip weapons in a number of circumstances where weapons are not allowed.
  • Made a number of fixes to Nexus missions, including: reducing message spam during pirate-hunting missions; preventing missions from marking depots that have previously been destroyed; and preventing base-building missions from selecting planets with extreme Sentinels.
  • Added a multiplayer message when collecting mission-critical objects.
  • Vortex Cubes and Submerged Relics are no longer destroyed by the Terrain Manipulator.
  • Fixed an issue with the Exocraft camera that made it difficult to aim weapons.
  • Fixed an issue that caused newly installed Exocraft weapons to be unavailable until cycling weapons.

  • Unavailable options in the build menu are now greyed out rather than removed.
  • Fixed an issue that prevent players from deleting base parts while a wire is being placed.
  • Fixed a number of animation issues with the solar panel.
  • Improved the icon for the Teleport Cable.
  • Fixed an incorrect icon in a mission from the Abyss update.
  • Fixed an issue that caused some hostile plants to have incorrect HUD labels.
  • Fixed a number of issues with warning arrows and health bars in non-HD resolutions.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause players not to receive the correct rewards from Apollo’s contact.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the planetary hazard reading to be in degrees when on an anomalous world.
  • The amount of rust and other junk substances found in damaged planetary machine has been reduced.

  • Fixed a rare crash in the Build Menu.
  • Fixed a rare crash in the planet generation system.
  • Fixed a PC-only crashed related to getting player names for base parts.
  • Made a number of minor optimisations to the texture caching system.

The disable mods flag was reset for the Synthesis update because changes to the data structure were made and caused many mods to be incompatible.

We are tracking an issue where some players have incorrect controller bindings after updating the game. If you have this problem please restart the Steam Client to correct the issue.

As always, thank you to all players who use Experimental and take the time to report any issues you encounter.

Please note there is the possibility that experimental builds may introduce new issues that haven't been caught in test. We'd like to recommend that all players back up their save files, by making a local copy of the st_[userid] folder found here: %appdata%\HelloGames\NMS\

Note that we don't anticipate any issues here. However, performing your own backups could mean the difference between resuming play immediately, or waiting for the next patch.

If you decide to opt out of experimental and return to the main branch, we strongly recommend resuming from a backed-up save from the main branch, rather than taking an experimental branch save back to main, which may cause unexpected behaviour.

Feedback and reports of new bugs/issues being found on Experimental are welcome, so please reply to this thread or submit a ticket to https://hellogames.zendesk.com/ with the phrase "Steam Experimental" in the ticket title. If you are running any mods for the game, please list them along with your bug report.