NMS Worlds - Lore Discussion (spoilers)

[toddumptious]

Was re-reading the Freighter logs concerning Humans.

Logs from an Unknown Wreck, Iteration I-X

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration I

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: It began with an idea, a simulation… The Korvax wished to know what would happen to the universe in the future. They wanted to confirm what had occurred in the past. We were part of their great effort, delivering vast quantities of Nanite Clusters across the galaxy.

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: The simulation shows me my child as if they are alive, taking their first steps for a second time.

It shows me their death. It shows my own.

I ask the Korvax to stop this. They refuse.

Datestamp %DATE3%<> :: The Korvax shut down their machine. The experiment is over. They claim that the universe is multiversal, cyclical, without origin or endpoint, at least based on available data.

In some worlds, there might be Korvax. In some, no Gek.

In some, we never existed, or if we did, we destroyed our world long before other galactic powers could find them. I do not like the tone with which the Korvax speaks.

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration II

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: The crew speak of mutiny. Hah! Let them try. Let them see how I earned my position as the greatest commander this - kzzkt<> -

[ TRANSCRIPTION NOTE: AUTOMATIC AUDIO LOGGING RECORDED GUNFIRE, MIXED SCREAMING ]

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: We hung their heads from the lamps above the canteen. Everyone has seen them. Everyone is complicit now. There is no turning back.

Datestamp %DATE5%<> :: Where next? The whole universe awaits…

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration III

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: This will be my last year running this trade route. I - kzzzkt<> - I have a child at home to look after now, or so I am told. My travels must come to an end.

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: I look around my crew and ponder their families. The Gek are spawned in vast numbers, knowing their parents’ identity, but by necessity they are unable to form any meaningful bond. Theirs is a life of competition from the beginning. Perhaps this is what gives them their nature as traders.

The Korvax have no children at all, apart perhaps from the artificial intelligences they create for various experiments. Only the family units of the Vy’keen resemble our own, small units of parents and a number of sibling children, raised as warriors.

Our entire history is one of war and hatred. We are so similar to the Vy’keen, and as I look at my child, I wonder…

Never mind. I will know soon enough, and there is business to take care of before I am home.

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration IV

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: We are returning home, carrying data backups of the echoes.

The crew don’t like it. All those souls creep them out. I tell them it’s nothing to worry about. Those rich enough to survive death didn’t care about us in life, and now we have their backups.

They need us now, in case there was an accident, or someone switches the main site off. Who’d want to do that, I wonder?

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: We made first contact with the Korvax before all others. They found us, they showed us what we could - kzzkt<> -

Datestamp %DATE3%<> :: They too have ‘echoes’, though the translation is imperfect. Their Convergence is a repository of all those who have ever lived. Ours is a mausoleum of vanity, a monument to the fear of death and nothing more…

Datestamp %DATE4%<> :: … … - kzzzkt<> - … …

…

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration V

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: The Traveller wished to dock without a ship. They claimed they could help us restart our engines after the - kzzzkt<> -

I took the risk, even if Hicks threatened to report me. Help is help.

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: They are strange beings. They do not appear interested in food or water, never leaving their so-called ‘exosuits’, even in habitable environments.

They ask many questions about our history, about the Atlas, and the visions of old. I tell them what I know, although it doesn’t seem to help them.

Datestamp %DATE5%<> :: We were those who saw the crimson face …

We were those who were uplifted from an orb of dirt and rubble to the stars themselves …

The Traveller claims that none of it is real? Who are - kzzkt<> -

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration VI

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: Freighters stretch ahead before us, a vast caravan herding our species across the stars.

We have deserted our past. We have left every colony behind. We go towards the - kzzkt<> -

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: The Korvax shared their discovery before they departed. They told us that the universe was going to come to an end. That every universe did, in time…

We would be wiped away, our purpose complete, and the Atlas would start anew. No-one would ever know what we did or who we were.

Datestamp %DATE3%<> :: I will continue in my duty. Faith or doubt, submission or resistance… the end or a new beginning.

We travel to meet our maker. We travel to complete our great work. It is not for me to judge such things… It is beyond all of us.

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration VII

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: I had a dream, last night… I saw all the worlds we had once inhabited, all the places we had once walked, and there was nothing left of it. Just dunes… just sand and rot and mud, stretching as far as the eye could see.

What if we don’t come back? What if the Atlas decides we are no longer worthy of existence? It would be as if we had never been…

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: I tell the crew all that I have learned in my travels, committing multiple acts of treason and heresy in the process. I ask them what they think, how they feel, what they hope for.

Datestamp %DATE3%<> :: The decision is unanimous. We will turn back. We will join with the Vy’keen in their exodus, leaving the centre to the worshippers of the Atlas.

Perhaps we can still survive, even if the rest of our species perishes…

Datestamp %DATE4%<> :: Something is happening. Please, wherever you are, do not stop reading, do not - kzzzkt<> -

Sixteen - kzzkt<> - there are -

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration VIII

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: The Traveller found us once again. We have killed them eight times already, and still they show only kindness, only gratitude at an opportunity to converse.

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: What have we done? I cannot help but feel - kzzkt<> -

Datestamp %DATE3%<> :: They tell us that they are not like the others of their kind, just as we are not like the others of our own species. They survived beyond the end of all things. They committed terrible deeds, of that they have no doubt, but what are ethics in the face of an existential fall?

Datestamp %DATE4%<> :: Universes come and go. Civilisations rise and they end. And through it all, the cycle continues. But even that must one day cease. Nothing lasts forever, not even time itself.

And in those final moments, in the decay of all that is or will be, the boundaries between worlds will fall. Our time will come again, if only in brief.

We will be seen, we will be heard, and our ship? Our freighter?

We will live again, in all our multiplicity, in all human worth… We will live again because someone, somewhere, will read our words for a final time.

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration IX

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: I say goodbye to the officers. I have served with them for years. There is no-one else I would rather end my life with.

One of them says they had a child. So did I. So do many…

Datestamp %DATE2%<> :: All ranks mingle in a great and final night. We speak of the sights we have seen, of alien warriors, of traders, of beings whose minds we could never hope to comprehend.

We say goodbye to it all.

Our sensors tell us there is not much time now. The stars blink out, one by one.

Goodbye, my love.

Goodbye.

Log of an Unkown Wreck, Iteration X

Datestamp %DATE1%<> :: … … - kzzzkt<> - … …

…

… …

Is - kzzkt<> -

Anyone - kzzzkt<> - …

It’s not - zkzkzkt<> -

Nothing ends. Don’t you see it? Nothing - kzzzkt<> -

Nothing -

I wonder if it’s possible to meet them in the world of Glass? Or talk to a memory of one? Or perhaps another race that got the boot when Atlas started focusing on the Triad? Lots of exciting possibilities could be waiting for us in the purple void.

[sheralmyst]

just got this during my missions to help my scientist, after disconnecting his core and then reconnecting him

This is when we get the blueprint for Living Glass…

[DevilinPixy]

I had them listed with ‘source’ included back when I still made those lore dumps:

NMS Lore & More (SPOILERS!) - version 1.38

Death, Permadeath, Death Quotes - NMS_LOC1_ENGLISH

Death, Permadeath, Death Quotes - NMS_LOC1_ENGLISH

ID Value (text) Various DEATH_COLLECT Restoring lost inventory DEATH_MARKER Grave DEATH_STARTUP Initialisation… Voluntary death DEATH_VOLUNTARY Life became too hard VOLUNTARY_DEATH_OPTION Restore to last save Other death DEATH_POLICE Death by Sentinel attack ship. DEATH_ASTEROID Death by asteroid collision. DEATH_LANDING Death by high speed ground-impact. DEATH_FREIG…

[toddumptious]

Could the Korvax inhabitant be Nada ;0;

Was reading the original Nada and Polo interactions and I forgot he is only divergent while he researches his simulation theory while seeking the Atlas.

When Nada has proven it, they mention they are going to return to the convergence.

That earlier iteration of Nada was a bit of an a-hole

There’s a bunch of logs littered throughout the game that seem to touch on their time before they met and leading up to their meeting, I wonder if we can include the above image you posted as part of that collective.

edit:

Maybe someone can solve a query for me, I was trying to find a text transcript of these logs someone put up WITH the dates, so I can see if they’re the same for everyone or randomised per player. No such luck.

The lang files just list em as %date1% throught %date4% for each unique Freighter Log entry,for every instance a date should be used. Not sure how it knows which date to pull (it’s like this in expeditions too, for those I have a theme, %date% %value% and %amount% I’ve just been replacing with 161616, I want to avoid this with the main story docs if I can though)

I was going to leave as is but I’ve noticed they may be using them to display odd time fluctuations experience by the crew.

I am going to copy over all the dates manually from within my game by checking the wonders catalogue , but before I do I thought I’d check to see if the dates are the same for everyone. Here’s what I get for first page of Crashed Freighter Logs

[sheralmyst]

[toddumptious]

As I expected, randomised, but that first one does have a similar thing happening with the dates going backwards for the third and fourth.

There are 3 or 4 other entries that also have this issue with the dates going backwards, and they all seem to be related to encounters with the anomaly, a traveller or the sentinels.

Could all be pure coincidence but knowing the numbers are different is enough to convince me I don’t need to write all these down to transfer for input, I can just do “replace all 16161716” and move on

Thanks again for all your help <3

Edit:

I’ve gone with the idea of opening with a prelude, I like the idea of having that ship introduction run into the artemis mission. NPC base stuff I will just keep important revelations and cut out any fetch quest filler. I’m primarily interested in some of the stuff the overseer says, the Hirk and Nal revelation with the ExoTechnician and some scientist things. Farmer and Weapon guy probably won’t get a look in.

I realised the Exosuits Initialisation sequence would make for a nice page between the title page and where the prelude begins.

So I’ve taken that even further and gone with major artistic license and used the “Initialisation” Boundary Break Log as the start of the Document

Looking at it now… I’d like the text readout on the right to appear reversed, so it’s like we’re looking out through it. Going to see if that’s possible with google docs text editor, if not, be an easy image to make up.

[Clemm]

@toddumptious

They claim that the universe is multiversal, cyclical, without origin or endpoint, at least based on available data

Ahhh. An approach eminently suited to No Man’s Sky.

@toddumptious re:
“I’d like the text readout on the right to appear reversed, so it’s like we’re looking out through it”

1. Screen cap
2. Flip horizontally
3. Maybe change to a semitransparent white background (as if seeing though fogged GLASS) with black letter areas?

[toddumptious]

[Clemm]

I prefer both the Garmin stand alone GOS and my phone maps to a car mapping system. A friend with a Lexis agreed.

[Clemm]

Let’s see how well Google translate does on THAT!

[Clemm]

So I tried a grab text feature of the mirrored text. … An interesting result. Then I wanted to know what it looked like if I flipped the result horizontally.

An even weirder letter look… Almost like a foreign alphabet.

[DevilinPixy]

@toddumptious

As I expected, randomised, but that first one does have a similar thing happening with the dates going backwards for the third and fourth.

Does appear to be random, but we never really know what the variable represents, as those are handled in the executable.

@toddumptious

I can just do “replace all 16161716” and move on

Please don’t replace with a string that is used regularly already. I prefer to actually know the variable, or at least know it is a variable. Making it 161616 gives it meaning it never had and who knows we figure out there was more to it?

[toddumptious]

I’m just doing it to amount/total in the expeditions where it’s kill x of x or gather x of x

There won’t be much of that going on with the main story docs, the dates in logs might be the only thing I do it with.

Oh and in the expeditions all %planet% and %system% are replaced with Edison or Etarcia. I wanted to include all the milestone guidance and actions to pad those out so those variables occur often in those docs.

Haven’t touched any variables in main story doc yet but with the way I’m editing those, not much variables are making the cut, they tend to mainly show up in gui guidance and I’m dropping all of that for these edits.

I am piecing in the descriptive guidance from the UI_Step stuff in to where it belongs within the NPC_CORE strings.

The last pass will be taking out the chaptering I’m using for each step and replace it with the correct Title the quest guidance will have during that sequence.

Also dropping the Npc base sidequests for this one, they’ll have their own place in an entirely different document.

For now it is in a pretty readable state and the Epilogues are fully complete and in two sections.

Rememberance
~ New Beginnings
~ Boundary Failure
Glass
~ Abandoned Terminal
~ Crashed Freighter Logs
~ Traveller Graves

I know Epilogue is probably not the correct word for most of these… If anyone knows a more suitable term I’m grateful

Atlas Rises

[sheralmyst]

So the Base Computer Archives Missions start out at your base with messages from PRE//.US/…/R
Then the mission starts sending you to other galaxies to Abandoned Buildings where the Laylaps lore begins.

[Grohmanon]

null once said:
"I did not lie to you. I really do want to discover what’s wrong with existence. The walls between worlds are falling, and that’s bad for everyone.
(…) all their stories ending in violence. Think about it."

Although at some moments it may seem so, imo he wasn’t lying, he just didn’t tell whole truth - he wanted that we discover it for ourselves.
null saw what the average traveler could not see (with worldview considering all mentions beyond the non-material world (atlas basic simulation) as pure nonsense).
Like Einstein once said: “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

And besides, Atlas (whom he considered a deity/god) stopped communicating with him. Previously he was his Chosen one, for some reasons. But he stopped being one, now traveler-anomaly (the player) has become The One (Neo? ).
Probably this was the reason why he contacted us.

[toddumptious]

I dunno I still think Null wanted to eat our souls, even more so when they realise we’re the new Special Boy.

Unfortunately they’re trapped IN an Atlas Station so I dunno what their goal for us was, they also seem to be aware of the nature of 16 but acts ignorant of the news when we tell em near the end.

Nulls intentions as the first traveller may have been pure but he has lived a long time since and committed many foul deeds, I think they like to pull out their former self as a mask to hide the current self.

We know the Void has plans for Null and I’m thinking that’s why the Atlas won’t let them leave. Safest place from the Abyss is probably in there.

[Grohmanon]

Maybe it has plans, maybe not.
imo null is not so important, he is more like a road sign.
We learned about Null’s crimes from him - if he hadn’t wanted us to, we wouldn’t have heard it.
But null was treating Atlas as a deity - Creator of everything. And even Nada (which chose ‘Blue Pill’) knows that Atlas is NOT a god.

So in fact he is really an ignorant (too limited, ‘narrow’), and probably this was a reason why Atlas stopped speaking to him - as not longer useful to Atlas purpose.

Ignorance is sometimes a bliss, isn’t it?

[toddumptious]

Oh he’s very much a zealot, which may be the other reason the void mother has taken an interest in him, besides been the most “content complete” version of The Creator, hes drank a lot of travellers souls.

In the end he’ll be another “deities” tool and be denied his own agency once again.

Though I do hold some uncertainty on the phrase “declaring escape in the form of Null”. Generally it’s displayed as -null- but capitalising it here does make it seem like they mean the individual we know as null, and not the term. So my theory on voids plans with null arent exactly concrete.

Either way he’s a very important road sign in terms of the games mythos, being the first traveller. It sounds like they need all of us, and picking null up is like getting a game bundle on sale. I think void intends to imprison null and use him as the basis for the return of the true creator.

We haven’t seen the last of them but they won’t be a threat by their own volition, I feel by the time we meet null again theyll be a corrupted zealot for the void.

[Grohmanon]

‘Unknown Signal’

[sheralmyst]

In the main story, Leap in the Dark where you end up visiting the Atlas the first time, in the dialog where you discover there are 18 quintillion planets, the Traveller wants to see them all. I remembered the response that it was impossible. But last night, the line read, it is ALMOST impossible to see them all…why do I not remember that? Too many iterations.