I know most people don’t feel this way but I really enjoyed the early versions of No Man’s Sky. There were aliens but they were only in space stations or planetary settlements. There was an existential solitude that I enjoyed. I especially liked the Adrift expedition that didn’t allow us to access merchants or traders, the space stations had no lifeforms in it. When the Adrift expedition was done, I was hoping the universe would stay that way. But when I flew back into a space station, it was back to a normal with aliens walking around. I was so disappointed. This new mode seems to imply that you would be a singular conscious being alone in an infinite universe with no one to converse with, this is zen and existentialism taken to the extreme.
The patchnotes only had three bullet points for this new mode:
- A new option has been added to the difficulty settings that allows players to remove all advanced alien life from the universe.
- This option is only available when starting a new custom game, and cannot be changed once a save is in progress.
- This option drastically changes the play experience and will disable the story and tutorial.
For the last bullet point, I am assuming there won’t be any quests such as the Artemis storyline. I have so many questions. Will space stations not exist? Will there be no settlements such as trading posts, colossal archives, or manufacturing facilities? Will there be no random “detritus” on planets such as those green and yellow containers? Will the Nexus exist? Will the only available starship be your starter ship? Of course, I don’t expect anyone to be able to answer these questions. I’m on campus at the moment and won’t be able to play until later tonight.
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Keep us posted. I am interested in the answers.
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Something I’m curious about with Abandoned mode.
Will you see player bases if you go to a known location? Or will you only see bases uploaded by other abandoned mode players? Or will you just see none at all?
On a related note, does scanning with the Autophage scanner in Nexus show players briefly like it did in adrift? Can you even get this scanner in abandoned mode? I’m assuming most likely not.
These questions are for @Licoricemint or anyone currently playing in Abandoned mode 
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hmmm…now I may have to start an Abandoned game…though I have to admit, I build bases in the hope that someone, even though the chances are slim, will happen upon one of my bases. Has anyone ever just happened upon a base outside of the bases build on community mission planets and expedition planets?
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I came across a few when trying to find the system i started in from 2016. From other players born in the region in the years since.
Building in these outer regions where new players spawn in would be your best chance of having someone stumble upon them, or close to the centre, but it’s pretty crowded there by now I’d say, haven’t been there since 2016 
I know the last few fresh starts I’ve had it wasn’t long before I found myself in a player discovered system, I’ve even spawned in one. I’m sure I wasn’t far off from a player’s base or former one in those times.
You could gather a few points by starting new games and quickly grabbing the glyphs from photo mode and then deleting the save, exploring the regions with your main to get a good idea of where new people propogate, you may even stumble upon a starter base or two whole you’re at it. Just a suggestion based on my own encounters, there might be better alternatives or methods.
I’ve seen a few funny Reddit posts of people wondering why the system they discovered/base they built on Thursday suddenly has hundreds of bases and players and their system is now claimed by a guy named Stu, on Friday.
They just happened to be in one that got randomly chosen for the weekend QS mission 
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I have the Restaurant At the End of Euclid base which is very close to the center.
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I am currently building a base right out on the galactic rim - out where star system generation breaks down, the map becomes unreliable, and you won’t find another claimed or occupied system for hundreds of jumps.
It’s quite weird out here.
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Weird because I had a hard time finding an unclaimed system back when building that base. I went as close to the center as possible, where the stars are very thin. Then I had to jump back away from the center for a bit to find an unclaimed spot. But that was several years ago
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Did purple systems make it any more weirder or extend it in parts?
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Hard to say. It’s not clear exactly where the boundary is, and it seems to fluctuate.
There is a region where stars have names, and can be visited. Then there’s a region where they don’t have names, and can’t be visited - but you can still explore in the map, then there’s a region where everything just turns to fog, and nothing can be visited.
The boundaries between these areas, however, don’t follow straight lines. Sometimes you will find a named, visitable star well within a block of unnamed ones - and vice versa, you can be well within the region of named stars, and occasionally come across stars with no name. The fog also seems to wander about - whether you encounter it, and where, often seems to depend on the direction you’re travelling in.
So, for instance, if you travel through a region E>W, you hit fog, but if you cross the same region W>E, you don’t.
The purple stars are mixed up in this confusion, but whether they’ve added to it, I can’t say.
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Absolutely. Being very into restarts I have spent most of my 1500 hours looking like a new player…in the places new players get spawned. This leads to finding already discovered systems frequently, and enough already discovered systems inevitably leads to finding one with a base every now and then. Starting in a new player nursery zone and hitting the nearest Atlas system gives a solid chance. Those systems are almost always already discovered, and someone who wants their base to be on the beaten track may have built there for just that reason.
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If we call the spawning regions nursery zones we should start calling purple systems, retirement zones
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