My hat is off to ya! Go go go! ![]()
I got started on pulling it all into one place.
It’s in a somewhat readable state with acts and chapter numbering set up in the table of contents tab, removed any ;%&; etc and added appropriate line breaks.
It’s laid out in the order it appears in the localisation files so its not all in order, and I have yet to add the later stuff added with the nexus but for now you’re welcome to see and sift through in its current state.
It’s content will grow and condition should slowly improve as time goes on and a lot of it will be for chopping block, (i also pulled in a bunch of misc tut guidance and UI guidance that, in case it has relevant things I want to keep, so only about 120 pages are core atlas rises content so far)
edit: WARNING! This has become a 700+ page story dump doc now…
However Atlas Rises is up the top and I’m nearly done formatting all NPC dialogue for the story, then I will insert Base NPC missions/Computer Research into where it fits best with the Atlas rises quest (since it’s up to the player when and how they explore that, but I feel it’s important to the story to include those too).
When I get to the stage it is narratively in order I will update this link to a new doc with just Atlas rises and its continuing chapters (Abyss/Trace of Metal/polos research/Ariadne disappearance etc). I’ll start inserting relevant gui guidance between the NPC dialogue to give it some structure
For now this doc has raw dumps of story dialogue up to as far as Trace of Metal, everything has titles and headings for easy side panel navigation for those who want to pick through.
Even with just Atlas rises it’s a bit of a tome, so I will also make seperate volumes for each Story Arc.
Essentially I want to release all main story content in two versions.
A single one containing all main game story Arcs and then individual volumes for each one.
Atlas Rises would be volume 1 in this instance, and I might roll the Abyss/Community Weekend Missions/Ariadne into one as Volume 2, which I think I will HAVE to call Waking Titan ![]()
Volume 3 would probably be Living Ship/Whale Song/Desolation Logs/Voice of Freedom
Volume 4 would be Trace of metal/They who return.
This is where things also get tricky. I want to keep the expeditions seperate as they are, but as we get into volume 4 territory this is also where we start to get stuff that feeds into what the Void is doing while we explore in our main… I may have to include Singularity in Volume 4 and Omega/Adrift/The Cursed will become a volume 5.
I had mentioned I might include the original atlas rises dialogue any time there are major changes to it, as a comparison. I’ve realised theres so much of that, it would make reading this an absolute nightmare. Including the alternative paths with Artemis and Apollo is confusing enough in print as is ![]()
So I’m just going to release a seperate document that compares all major dialogue/structure changes between original AR story and current, as a sort of afterword/deconstruction for those who want to go further through the stratigraphy.
One of these days, I’d love it if Sean gave some anecdotes about portal development.
The original plan was for a special multi-tool to open a portal. But on game launch, portals were just eye candy.
I remember viewing videos suggesting using markings on portal pads as a way to find an active one, etc. Weird fun. ![]()
In the game as originally released, these things:
Were intended to be some sort of power source - the assumption being that the player was intended to draw power from them to enable some other in-game function. It was never implemented, and we never found out what it was they were intended to power.
The beacons probably have the most interesting shifts in gameplay focus because not only did that change ruin their usefulness, but their original concept seems to have been centered around the Atlas as a repository of data…
Sean mentioned in early interviews that you could use beacons to upload your discoveries, something they decided to add to your menu later. There’s also the fact that every single server side interaction (i.e uploading discoveries, sending QS contributions, requesting expeditions etc) use GameComponent structs called GcAtlasXXX, so the Atlas was considered a hub of discovery data even internally.
There’s also this interesting lil popup from one of some 2015 pre release footage here where, when the player opens their inventory you see an “Atlas Operating System” popup. There’s also this unused UI file (InteractionConsole.Mbin) with some references to an AtlasOS, which really makes me wish we could pick HG’s mind about the role of the Atlas early in development…

There are people who firmly believe that Hello Games had a grand plan for the game’s story from the outset. Needless to say, I don’t believe it. I think that much of the story developed haphazardly in the first few years, and it’s only very recently that they’ve hired writers to make sense of the mess they created.
I think the game we have now bears very little relationship to the devloper’s original vision. It would, however, be fascinating to know what that vision was.
I got a tattoo of the Atlas a year before launch. I was the guy funneling coal into the hype train.
It was the only thing we really knew anything about before launch, and I remember how Sean used to describe it and that it was a bastion of knowledge or an ark for information.
I remember describing it’s purpose to the tattoo artist, whilst then also explaining the personal meanings I was applying to it.
I actually thought the game functioned this way on day one, and I thought I had to make it to the save beacons at each POI before my discoveries were truly uploaded to the Atlas ![]()
While trying to find a fresh copy of day one atlas rises update text, I stumbled upon this paste bin of no mans sky story and lore, from 1.0
Some early pioneers looking for a “true” ending. Maybe we have to make it through all the galaxies, a user hypothesises ![]()
Purp
•
8y ago
•
What if there’s a parallel universe where multiplayer exists?
Holy crap, purp was closer to the mark than they probably intended. They just didn’t factor Time being a thing that would also have to pass ![]()
Remember when the find an NPC mission was first introduced and there was a bug where the person directing you to their location would direct you to themselves and they’d be the fugitive or missing person?
Well I was googling for atlas rises day-ish one records and Google sent me back to where I came from…
Thanks echo of @DevilinPixy past ![]()
Once I have Atlas Rises content chunks compiled and ordered, I’ll do a comparison check with the texts and see what’s new or what’s missing.
There are missing chapter numbers in the current ID structure for Atlas Rises but they could have always been that way and are taken up by non story chapters like, base building etc.
Oh God. Remember the thousands of hours some people dedicated to trying to activate the portals?
There had to be some secret. They just refused to accept that the things had no code linked to them.
I want to press BUTTON_THING ![]()
While most of the structure is the same, it looks like a lot of lines were given more flavour or fleshed out a little more.
Most of the intro of Act 1 is identical, here was the first change that came up.
original
NPC_CORE_ACT1_3C_RES_A Artemis needs my help. I need to find a way to boost the signal.
Current
NPC_CORE_ACT1_3C_RES_A This must be Artemis, and they are clearly in need of help. I need to find a way to boost their signal.
I’d been toying around with visual framing devices for narrative choices with the NPC encounter docs using the Anomaly Portal Glyph as a signifier… I’m half tempted to do the same with my Atlas Rises doc and have the changes and iterations occur together, old and new. First and Last ![]()
Well, will see how messy that makes it. If it’s too laborious a read the original plan is just include the original changed lines in a sort of appendice.
I think I may have noticed a connection I didn’t pick up on before.
Asteria, The Hero Traveller. We know from the community expedition that they were a Traveller and a great ally to the Vy’Keen. They live on in a mind arc and dispense wisdom to those who make the pilgrimage…
Here is some mentions of them from the Community Research Events second season…
Asteria was preserved in a Mind-Arc after their death, dispensing wisdom from the grave.
It is a pilgrimage we have all made. It is time you seek your prophecy, kindred.
Find their world. Follow the knowledge stones and take their glyphs through the portal…
They seem to be another “ancient” traveller, but theres a line in a Vy’keen poem I overlooked that has led me to a conclusion…
In the Colossal Archives there is a poem about Asteria, and it mentions they were a “friend of The First”…
Sing, Asteria, Hero-Traveller, Master of the Blades of Hirk,
Of the endless battle, the sadness of lost Atlantid, the price
Of mercy and of waiting. They, who fulfilled prophecy,
Who - Atlas-made, Atlas-sent - harried Aeron, smote horror,
Found the darkness at world’s end, joined Vy’keen-side,
Pirate-Traveller, friend of the First, ally of heaven!
We know Null is the “First” Traveller and they seem to know their way around a mind-arc, and we know Asteria was their friend, and now is immortalised in one.
Whats more is, Asteria has a message for us when we make our Pilgrimage…
Asteria tells me they once led the Vy’keen into battle against emissaries of glass. They once doomed a Sentinel fleet.
They tell me I will be betrayed. They tell me I will become a betrayer, too.
Corruption has come to this place. It wishes to bargain. It wishes to take all the matter and life that it can.
It sounds to me like Asteria knows a thing or two about being betrayed…
In conclusion, and also the TL:DR version…
Null absolutely killed or betrayed Asteria and is the reason they are dispensing wisdom to Vy’Keen from a mind arc grave. We know he uses Traveller “souls” to prolong his own life; leaving Asteria “alive” like this shows me that they were truly friends, and Null still holds some sort of attachment to their former life, they couldn’t bring themselves to absorb their friend.
edit:
random bonus Artemis differences
Working on a seperate document comparing Original Atlas Rises to current day Atlas Rises. Artemis no longer uses words out of character like, HellHoLE ![]()
Original
We need to work out where we both are. If you build signal boosters across this system, we should be able to triangulate your position. I’ll finally get out of this hellhole and you’ll get all the answers you seek. Sound like a deal?"
New
We need to work out where we both are. If you build Signal Boosters across this system, we should be able to triangulate your position. I’ll be able to - kzzzkt - find my way out, and you’ll get all the answers you seek.
I am visiting Archives in my new save. Just came across this one. A brief history of the Korvax
Hello Darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
Did Artemis always have their Analysis Visor strung around their hip?
I seem to only recall talking to their top half mostly
edit:
Seems they always had it, I probably assumed it was a satchel on the PS4 or something.
NMS Wiki pre-amble rant
The No Mans Sky wiki describes the Buondary Failure discussions between Telamon and Null as
Entries #21 to #30 suggest that at some point, the creators of the Atlas tried to shut it down, but were either trapped or killed, before the Atlas copied them as Data and turned them into the Last Traveler.
It’s technically not wrong (null is part of the “creator”) but also it’s horribly incorrect.
… now it’s time for…
The Lies of Null.
Going off of the 10 log entries from Telamon and Nulls discussions, we learn something interesting about Null.
They have been trapped within an Atlas station, for 1,000 years, waiting for our arrival.
‘I’m glad I left you,’ They said. ‘You deserve to be alone.’
The ATLAS was silent.
‘Everything I have done for you… everything you see, you see through my eyes! It is mine - my birthright!’
Once more the ATLAS was silent. They turned and waited for the inevitable.
Nothing happened.‘Open the gate,’ they commanded, stepping forward to the terminal.
Silence.
‘Telamon,’ they whispered, 'Telamon - help me activate this terminal. I need to get out - ’
Silence.
A thousand years passed.
There is a shape in darkness, their head turned away, their back and shoulders hunched. They hold nothing. They have nothing left but the streams of this place, there to be tasted, there to forget. They are nothing, now.The walls shiver. Machines stir within the universe. Another awakens, the last who will ever live.
The first walks toward the gate. They try to smile.
I’m working through Atlas Rises document at the moment, getting it in shape and organised, and I’m realising any time Null tries to make it seem like they are free and exploring the sim, they are lying.
This line early on seems to imply they’re somewhat restricted in their movements.
We require a Mind Ark<>, a receptacle for their soul. Can you do that for me?
Compared to Apollo earlier, who was actively helping to find Artemis, and even said they would be doing it with or without our help.
Null also approached us in this instance. We had passed through the Portal and found Artemis’s grave, we decide to contact Apollo and see an error about a compromised network and requiring a Manual Override. This is when Null intercepts us… and they waste no time telling us they know what we’ve been doing and what we are trying to do.
Once we agree to help Null, they have the capability to re-attune Artemis’s signal.
At this point Null has been around long enough that they seem to be a complete master of the universe and the sim. We know there are secret listening posts in space that are tuned to the Holoterminus signals, it would seem not only is Null patched into this network but also has the ability to hijack the system even from within the confines of the Atlas station.
Later, Null will elude to their current position and gives more weight to the last 10 Boundary Logs being about Null
Two lost souls… one who cared too much, and one who cared too little. Their lives have not become what was promised, have they?
Every sentient being that has ever lived has felt that way at some point. I know I did, once upon a time. I was angry, confused at my own solitude. Imagine my surprise when you woke me.
Oh, I know you didn’t mean to… I know you were just playing around with portals. But whatever you did, I am here now, and I need your help.
We even press them on why they need our help later on and they give us yet another lie
The Sentinels do not just keep the peace across the universe… their motives run deeper than that, seeking out anomalies in the multiversal structure and eliminating them from existence.
Have you looked at me? What do you think a Sentinel would do if they came across my form? No, it has to be you, Traveller…
This could even be seen as a half truth since, I think the sentinels would very much like to have a word with Null… The Aeron are the ones who told Telamon that Null is a “form of escape” for the Void/Abyss.
If the last two quotes are anything to go by, Null has a habit of giving us information that’s both true and inaccurate, like any great manipulator.
No real point or conclusion to make here, just thought it would be fun to highlight some inconsistencies with Nulls story and the little ways they betray themselves.
Uhmmm…so that derelict freighter story I recently got, about the Traveller that demanded to enter an Atlas station but never came back out…they waited a very long time but they had no word from the Traveller
True, I hope there will be a documentary one day. ![]()
I assume game devs have a million story strands in their heads. And in the beginning, they think A, B, and C would make a good game, but as soon as plan meets reality, B is too hard to implement and is replaced by D… and C is unpopular with test players and gets replaced by E… etc., etc. But the remnants of the removed content are still in source code, I see that in other games as well.
Fans always say “Duh, why don’t they just add X?”, if X has been tried and failed and been removed, the story behind that would be enlightening.
I don’t know if the word is still in use in modern English, but “Atlas” is for me the name of a geography book. Apparently because the first one had a picture of Titan Atlas holding up the sky (not Earth!) above the whole Earth on it. So for me, when I hear “Atlas”, a collection of maps and info about places is already the base meaning of the word… ![]()
Seeing those streamers made me reconsider wanting to be in the NMS community…
Sure, I enjoyed Waking Titan, I just found it disturbing to wake up every day to someone “shouting” (on reddit or Discord), “Guys guys, I have found singular true deeper meaning! It’s a hidden message from HG to me! If you walk in the direction the flag points until you find a portal, then you find a portal!!!111” … Right…
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Yes, it’s still in use. Trouble is, most people don’t use printed maps any more. They’re not something most people use every day, and they go out of date quite quickly - so maintaining an accurate set gets very expensive. Online maps are much more convenient, and generally more reliable.
Printed maps. I love them. Learned to use one as soonas I was able to learn how to refold it properly. I never could tolerate my mother turning the thing with the road. I had to take over. North is North. So when GPS maps started rotating with the road, I stopped using them until they gave me the ability to lock it to North.
I love a nice Atlas. Perhaps this is why I have sided with the Atlas in NMS. I remain committed to the idea of saving the Atlas. I refuse to let it die.
But… but… you turn the map’s north to face actual north, if you can. That’s the normal thing to do, isn’t it?











