NMS Origins

@Crimsontine Sand-worms you say? Also the image rising out of the ground, bursting through the crust and sending a cloud of dust for metres around.

I mean, it could be a sand-worm, if you squint a bit. Or another type of plant.

So my predictions, that will be totally and utterly wrong, are sand-worms, running plants, and gas giants. Also scarfs. Also, isn’t the scarf guy holding a handheld gaming device :laughing:

More likely different biomes, maybe even planets with split biomes. And finding the original atlas. Is there one? The one that started it all?

We will found out soon enough. Thursday?

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Someone stated the thing scarf/cape traveller is holding looks similar to the menu interface in VR…? I would not know. Also, I believe the flying worm/dragon thingy looks very similar to the concept art @Crimsontine shows above. I also believe the reveal by @MacForADay is also portrayed in the center biome…I am actually holding my breath for this update. It is not supposed to be a huge update though…What day do you think? Before Friday and the normal weekend event timing? Or on Friday?

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@sheralmyst I was guessing Thursday, but I forget the (very good) reasons why I came to that conclusion. :crazy_face: Friday at the latest, though maybe some parts won’t become “live” until the weekend?

Haven’t seen the @MacForADay video as prefer patch notes to leaks. Idle speculation is fine though.

It probably is just the VR device the scarf-person is holding, but they did release ByteBeat, so nothing is impossible!

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Mac mentioned that some one told him that there is volcanos and changes to weather. No mention of lava, just volcanos. I wouldnt doubt it however Lava would be difficult to implement but its not impossible.

Remember that a leaker mentioned things we didn’t believe would happen(crossplay, on-foot combat, weekend events, what the summer update will be about). So if the leaker’s info is correct again, we are getting tweaked procgen planets, flora and fauna and orbital mechanics as well as weather and biomes based on proximity to the sun along with a few other little things here and there likely. For anyone who didnt see it, here it is(just remember that it could still be wrong and even if this is genuine, features get taken out sometimes too):

If there is anything we can solidly take away from the cover photo for Origins, its that it implies exploring/adventuring. No weapons, no explosions, just three travelers exploring. So it does feel like procgen really is in the works.

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right now the weekend events are done…the writer who wrote them said on twitter there was 15 weeks he wrote in total.

I believe week 45 was his 15th week. so I believe it was always the intention to stop there, and lead into whatever this new update brings.

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That information does seem to all make sense in light of things.

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The once-promising (now questionable) Osiris: New Dawn had a functional giant sandworm in-game. It wasn’t overly complex, but it’s basic behavior was more than enough to create a very memorable encounter. Search “Osiris New Dawn sandworm” on YouTube for some fun reactions (most NSFW language).

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Well, it does have drawn cover art, so it’s at least supposed to be one of the “game changing” ones, not just about adding an additional feature.

The thing is… HG knows that variety has been a problem for a long time.They never said anything about it. And that’s because… well, here comes the speculation.
There’s two things about procgen at play here. First, you cannot update the algorithms gradually to get more variety. Or rather you could, but every tweak would have rather significant impact on the gaming world. Any tweak to terrain algorithms would basically mean a reset. Palette swaps could probably be done without affecting the terrain, depending on how the seeding works. Adding variety to flora would be somewhere in between.

Now, the other thing is, that you have to gradually update procgen algorithms. Wait, did I not just say that you couldn’t? Well, you can tweak the algorithms, but you can’t release them before you’re sure they hold up. And tweaking them is a terribly tedious, longwinded and incredibly fiddly process, which many people that don’t work with procgen don’t realise (like, it’s insane. You finally render your first landscapes and think "ok, everything works, now let’s tweak those algorithms a bit, and maybe add a couple more to have some variety, and befre you know it you have been tweaking that crap for longer than it took to write the engine, and everything still looks like crap).
Now, we have gotten quite a bit of content since beyond, but… not enough to account for a year of work for a team of that size. This may well be because HG diverted resources to other areas like last campfire and that new thing they are working on, buuuuut… It’s also possible that they have been working on variety the entire year, but not released any of it yet, because… you know, people were kinda starting to complain about the resets.

Now we have a new update that HG considers “a new beginning”, and while I don’t think it’s as big as beyond or next, HG considers it significant enough to put it on a level with them. Also, the art clearly implies biome variety/distinction. So right now, the above assumption is my working theory.

There’s another thing that plays into this, and it’s the infamous superformula. We know that NMS isn’t using it, because there would have been hell to pay if they had. We also know that they were playing with it during development and were preeeetty taken by the results. The thing we don’t know is why they didn’t end up using it. What we do know is that the patent has expired, so if the patent had anything to do with the decision to not use it… If they kept paralleling a branch that had superior procgen thanks to it all this time, and it really is as powerful as Sean thought it was in that interview… Basically, in such a scenario, all the bets are off. But that turns into really wild speculation.

Superformula or not, the assumption that they invested significant resources into overhauling the procgen without releasing any of it is not implausible. Especially since it would occupy a very specific part of the development team whose “superpowers” weren’t really used that much in any of the updates we’ve seen this year, which were mostly pretty straightforward content updates, with maybe the exception of desolation.

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I was wondering for a long time by now how comes that we get to purchase all those pre-set biome items in the Anomaly even though they are mostly present on every planet of their respective biome.

My guess from the beginning was that, at some point, they won’t appear naturally anymore, because of a major procgen overhaul that makes them way more rare and / or diverse.

I am not convinced though of the idea of there being a reset, since it would’ve been communicated by HG way beforehand.

Still, the fact that SM announced the update a week prior makes it seem to be quite a substantial update, definitely larger than the previous three. Also, the cover art for the update implies significance like Atlas Rises, Next and Beyond.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it is some sort of variation update (which I’ve been hoping for since Beyond was first announced) and that the following updates (Quote: “Start of something new”) go the same direction.

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Thanks @MacForADay! I always give you a like in YT. :wink:
@jedidia, I hope the super formula thought is correct. Though I do not understand it very well, just watching SM explain it way back when was so exciting!
Hoping the release is Wednesday. I have that day free.
Whatever is in this update, I am excited! Can’t wait!
Also love @MacForADay 's thought on the Void Eggs. There is a Living Ship featured in the artwork so there could be a connection. I mean, they are living ships so there should be some history there and an Origin story about where they come from.

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Subnautica: Below Zero - Ice Worm.

If I were a developer, I’d want to put up an update early in the week so that I didn’t have to work on the weekend.

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I figured the same thing. At first I felt that the flora quick silver items were lame. I never purchased them. But then after a few released I started to think, “hey maybe these are to be like mementos. Reminders of places we’ve been and how things were?” And then this Origins update gets announced and now I feel more convinced.

I mean the final title, “Everything procedural” in the QS item list was a big hint. But what about “Dreamer” and “Lonely”? I wonder if the creatures in the eggs “dream”?

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Well, I do hope they drop the trailer tomorrow… I want to know what this thing is about! :thinking:

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@jedidia
Dropped Trailer :grin:

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Ah yes. This is the one. Much better than the last one. :joy:

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Sand Planet & Worm/Snake

Procedural ‘Windbound’ did it, and Hello games did tease us with a snake in The Last Campfire.

Here, I’ll jump straight to mid-video…

Obviously, Sean’s tweet, “Sand worm on an alien planet,” is NOT portrayed in the released book cover image. However, it would appear that the “sand planet” part of his tweet just might be. After all, those 2 particular two-legged fauna DO share a striking resemblance to the fauna featured on the sand planet which was portrayed at the end of that old 2014 NMS teaser trailer.

Just fast-foreword to the end of the video…

Dragon/Whale & Mega Fauna

I think Beau Lamb’s half dragon / half space whale mega fauna creature MAY just be portrayed in the image, as there is a striking resemblance, and I think that it COULD actually be portrayed twice…

  1. In the lower planetary atmosphere
  2. In space, among the asteroid fields

We need a bigger, clearer and more detailed image - preferable a trailer - or preferably the update.

Analysis Visor

That devise being held by the Traveller alien wearing a red scarf, I’m quite certain it’s an Analysis Visor. I took the above early photos of Artemis for preservation, which was way back in November, 20 2017.

Why would this be fitting?

Because presently there is the issue that when Analysis Visor is held to face, it can not be seen…

  1. Not in 3rd person perspective
  2. Not in VR - And…
  3. Not when viewing another player

Btw, here’s the Reddit discussion…

And yeah, hopefully that’s a crab claw busting up through the ground, on the left. :crab: But yeah, I agree, chances are that it’s probably a plant. - Right? - :volcano: And I’ll pretend the red ground liquids are LAVA.

You reckon the red astronaut in the middle is red to signify his covering the volcano behind him?

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Could just be a fashion choice. Those guys are giving me Zoolander vibes.

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Of course…

There is the other type of ‘Sand Worm.’

Quickly renames discovery, ‘Abyssal Worm.’

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Honestly, I think that’s just a rock formation…

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SPECIAL.MYSTERYEGG

If the ‘Crab Claw’ on the left is just a simple rock formation (and likely so), then…

  1. Might the ‘Void Egg’ formation on the right just be a plant or rock, as well?
  2. Or - Could something hatch from this? - Perhaps that dragon/whale thing?

These are some mysteries I look forward to exploring once the update releases.

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