No Man’s Sky—Game Details & Investigations: Portals/Seeds, Atlas/Loop16/Emily, Atlas Foundation/Tech, OldGods & More

Archive WT Thoughts & Theories
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No Man’s Sky

Game Details

A science-fiction game set in an infinite procedurally generated universe.

Developer :: Hello Games (small indie studio; UK)
Release, PS4 :: August (9 North America; 10 Europe) 2016
Release, PC :: August 12 2016 (worldwide)
Release, Xbox :: N/A (game code hints, but not likely) :link:
Websites :: https://www.nomanssky.com | http://www.hellogames.org
Socials :: No Man's Sky | https://twitter.com/nomanssky | https://twitter.com/hellogames | Reddit - Dive into anything

Watch No Man’s Sky HD Live on Twitch/YouTube…
Twitch
https://gaming.youtube.com/channel/UCItiO3RzCS1EAcO7OuTR1FQ

Play No Man’s Sky on PC/PS4…
Save 50% on No Man's Sky on Steam
No Man's Sky - PS4, PS5 & PS VR2 Games | PlayStation (US)

Welcome to the legendary CSD No Man’s Sky knowledge thread…
Historically leading the original Waking Titan ARG inspired Portals, OldGods,
Atlas Foundation & Technology and Atlas/Loop16/Emily investigations!

Waking Titan, Atlas Rises… Birth of Atlas, Birth of God.

What do we know about the game?

Thread Inspiration

…In relation to Atlas/Loop16/Emily? …Atlas Foundation/Technology?
…Portals/Monoliths/Ruins? …Races/Ships? …Co-Op, Atlas Seeds, ProcGen?
…Fiction/Augmented/Reality?.. Singularity/Origin/Simulation?
…Waking Titan/16 Cassettes ARG?..Galaxies? 16, 256, 257+? …etc.
…any related story/lore? …discoveries? …comparisons? …ponderings?
…details/findings? …varieties? …questionings? …speculations? …etc.

Thread Highlights

Links to key posts for quick reference.

WAKING TITAN—Phase 1 /3 BEGINS

PORTALS INVESTIGATION BEGINS

Portals/Monoliths
Atlas Seeds ← threads most popular link
Ruins ← joins the discussion
Special Thanks
Our Purpose ← reason for the thread
Ruins ← resurfaces
Portals: Manifold/Euclid/Atlas/Titan
Portals: Lore/Great Monolith/Vy’Keen
@Emily’s “Seed” Comment
Almost Unnoticed @MrUnnoticed’s Comment
Loop ← is introduced

ATLAS/LOOP16/EMILY INVESTIGATION BEGINS

WT: NMS “Loop16” Comm Station
LOOP16 UNEXPECTED ERROR;
instance16status
instance16status: “instance” 16th century
Galaxy 3/4/5: Daughters of Atlas + 16th Galaxy
256th Galaxy
“Error” in the Server
Waking Titan vs. Waking Atlas
16th Galaxy
256+ Galaxies
257+ Galaxies
The Real Atlas, in an Illustrative Disguise
Galaxy Hopping Base Bug
Greetings from the 257th Galaxy
256+ ‘Identical’ Galaxies, Stuck in the Loop
“Infinite!” or I just didn’t catch on, lol
VIDEO: NMS Technology
NMS Bugged ‘Lovecraftian’ Universe ← wisdom
64bit = 256 galaxies of 18 quintillion planets;
god? …humans = bugs/glitches …god = perfection;
coincidence? guarantee?—only what we see?
NMS ProcGen Multilingual Naming
Law of Truly Large Numbers ← pondered
13 DAYS LATER ← MEGA PERGE!
“Fasten your seatbelts, cause it’s gonna be a wild ride :rocket:…”
THREAD UPDATE: Was portals, but now everything No Man’s Sky!
Law of Truly Large Numbers ← defined
Reality’s Flawless ‘Utopian’ Universe ← wisdom
∞bit = ∞ galaxies of ∞ planets;
god? …humans = bugs/glitches …god = perfection;
coincidence? guarantee?—beyond what we see!
“If I were to see it, I would not live!”
Escaping the Loop
“LOOP16” Resurfaced on Atlas-65.com
reinforcing “loop16” as a very valid subject
Galaxy 256 IS the Last Unique Galaxy
galaxy 257 was just a copy of galaxy 256
No 257+ Galaxy! Stuck in 256th Galaxy Repeat?
Are we lacking a singularity? Or facing one in other ways?
Singularity ← defined
“an infinite nature or AI/tech takeover”
Atlas Pass Email: simulations / singularity
leading to galaxy 257+? or a mega-computer?
THEORY: Loop16 is codename for No Man’s Sky! ← turning point
16 programmers; iconic “went gold” tweet; night sky pic; ship concept art
Atlas-65.com? Default template. It’s ‘night sky’ pic? Stock.
Why ‘map.jpg’? Default ‘Google Map’ widget. {see posts}
Emily Warren, Vlog 4…
“Superlumina is a company that experiments with time travel communications.”
“Communication from the future is clearly a theme here I’m seeing.”
Plausible Portal Theory
REVIEW: Loop16 codename for NMS
concept thus far and building theory + a fake quote from sean murray
No NMS 1.3 BETA
Iconic Twitter Pic
LOOP16 OVERVIEW
18 quintillion planets: 1.8×1019 or 2^64
loop16 as base 16, looping from 0-f (base 10 is 0-9)
I learned a new word: Steganography.
Atlas Level 4 Passes are NOT for a beta of the update
Game Credits ← a question of 16?
Concept of Loops in Programming ← wisdom
seed generated galaxies… generation = loop | index = seed;
each occurrence of an object of a certain class is called an instance;
loop16 unexpected error, instance16status… 16th instance?
Portals/Monoliths/Ruins
Backup Save Files
16th Galaxy Concept / Portals
BLOOPER: Crim falls out of his chair and asks for smelling salt, lol.
Loop16 is narrowed down further
VIDEO: 70 Questions and Answers About No Man’s Sky

OLDGODS INVESTIGATION BEGINS

GOD. Sean Murray? ❝Every artist is god of his subjects.❞ ← wisdom
Freewill? Choice? Who’s side would you want to be on?
Massive Almighty Perfect God? Puny Week Imperfect Humans?
Puppet Master @OldGods gets narrowed down
Portal symbols compared to Pioneer Plaques
@OldGods location: August?

:clap:t4: MULTIPLE INVESTIGATION CLIMAX :clap:t4:

Path of Atlas, Path of God—Part 1
overview of loop16/codenames/origin investigation;
mother atlas and her sentinel minions; lore and more

ATLAS FOUNDATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTIGATION BEGINS

Path of Atlas, Path of God—Part 2
:boom::brain::boom: vs. :doughnut::desktop_computer::coffee:
mother atlas and her sentinel minions;
mercury/software investigation; atlas foundation;
loop16/codenames/origin investigation;
atlas seeds/emily/boston dynamics; and more

Path of Atlas, Path of God—Part 3
atlas/loop16/emily; atlas foundation technology;
myriad computer; mercury operating system;
dual singularity; co-op multiplayer; chatting w/ emily;
poem to christina and emily, “christina and the felines”;
codenames/origin; seeking answers; and more

WAKING TITAN—Phase 3 /3 ENDS

ATLAS RISES 1.3 UPDATE RELEASE

ATLAS RISES 1.3—Active Portals, Co-Op Multiplayer,
4th Alien Race, More Starships, Weird Creature Sounds,
HighDef Refined Visuals/Audio/Experience, Double the Backstory/Lore…
SUPER MEGA UPDATE!!! :heart_eyes_cat:

Path of Atlas, Path of God—Part 4
origin vs. truth; good vs. evil; concepts of god; @emily;
@oldgods; lovecraft/nyarlathotep; more …coming soon

{{more links soon}}

Thread History

Inspired by watching No Man’s Sky live on Twitch and experiencing project Waking Titan (ARG), @Crimsontine starts a simple thread entitled Portals/Monoliths, historically leading the original Loop16 Investigation, progressively expanding into the entirety of everything No Man’s Sky.

This thread starts out in the depths of an intense Waking Titan investigation leading to the August 2017 1 year anniversary update, Atlas Rises 1.3. WT & Cassettes were originally thought of as 2 separate ARGs, but eventually proved but 1 ARG. Read about WT here… Waking Titan - Game Detectives Wiki

5/28/2017

Waking Titan Phase 1 begins.

—

6/19/2017

:baby_bottle: thread is born :baby_chick:

NMS Cassette Tapes ARG: 16 tapes, plus mentions of “portals”.
Potential connections with WT ARG are proving quite strong.

Perhaps we should share what we know, even if simple observation.

—

6/22/2017

I added ‘Ruins’ to the title of this topic.

Special Announcement…

On June 21, @CobraTV received the Waking Titan ARG package of “cassette tape #9 /16” from Hello Games (https://youtu.be/Y1YGlrB8Fwo), thus officially linking WT ARG and HG NMS Cassette Tapes ARG. Tape 9/16 investigation goes here + side a / side b.

Note that “portals” were mentioned in the prior tapes, sent to Reddit moderators.

—

6/27/2017

I’ve updated the title of this topic…

To include… Atlas, Atlas Seeds, ProcGen, Waking Titan, Galaxies, and more.

‘Portal’ conversation started with ‘Monoliths’, quickly adding ‘Ruins’…
But then a thorough discussion came to encompass so much more.

—

7/8/2017

Waking Titan Phase 1 ends.

—

7/11/2017

I’ve again altered the title of this topic…
Now from centering around Portals, to instead
Focusing on the entirety of everything No Man’s Sky! …enjoy.

:baby:t3: thread grows up :boy:t3: and becomes a man :blonde_man:t3:

—

7/21/2017
Waking Titan Phase 2 begins.

8/5/2017
Waking Titan Phase 2 ends.

—

8/6/2017
Waking Titan Phase 3 begins.

8/8/2017
Waking Titan Phase 3 ends.

—

8/11/2017
No Man’s Sky—August 2017 1 year anniversary update, Atlas Rises 1.3 !!!

:tada: CELEBRATION!!!

—

See original question above …Let’s amass our knowledge!
No Man’s Sky and surrounding discussion continues below…

:diamonds: spoiler, theory, lore, detail, oddity, ∞

:artificial_satellite:…:writing_hand::brain::selfie:…:hocho:
“Abandon it. Abandon me.” …I am Atlas.
Mother Atlas and her Sentinel Minions
(quoting cassette #9 /16 + pondering lore)

@OldGods is Hello Games / Alice & Smith; illustrating the Atlas Foundation.

Atlas/Loop16/Emily are all but one; @Emily is an AI !
But should we really abandon Atlas? Let us consider…

Path of Atlas, Path of God
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Atlas Rises v1.3…
Portals activated, Co-Op x16 multiplayer, HighDef Resolution, and so much more.
(No Man’s Sky 1 year anniversary update… MASSIVE!!!)

This thread is dedicated to the everything of No Man’s Sky.
Behold an anomaly; A polymath of wisdom. Share what you know!

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Waking Titan… Atlas Dreams!!!

WT ARG phase 1 of 3 began 5/28/17.
What now awaits :interrobang: On 19th dusk…

:skull: For the No Man’s Sky thread, :alien:
This begins Waking Titan epicness…

Vision of Atlas, Vision of God

Let us now brace for the unknown…
:waning_gibbous_moon: :last_quarter_moon: :waning_crescent_moon: :new_moon: :diamonds: :new_moon: :waxing_crescent_moon: :first_quarter_moon: :waxing_gibbous_moon:

PORTALS

Came v1.0, 1.1, 1.2… “And there was my friend”, mysterious and dormant.

No Man’s Sky - Portal Gameplay Trailer - The Game Awards 2014

You can either watch the whole video, or…
Click here for the ‘portal scene’ @ 1:30.

ATLAS SEEDS

Heart of the Sun, Captured Nanode, Photic Jade, Dark Matter, Modified Quanta, Noospheric Orb, State Phasure, Novae Reclaiment, Dawn’s End, Englobed Shade… And what is the “Restart Item”? Remembrance - A relic of another place: Everything you ever knew is within.

What could such mean? ProcGen?

{click for a very popular link}

Atlas/Loop16/@Emily

Atlas Foundation and Technology… Who really are the @OldGods!?

Who am I? What is my origin? Why am I here?
What is my purpose? Who created all these things?

Just as in reality, we find ourselves facing… Questions of God?

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Something I’ve been meaning to point out, there’s been a longstanding theory in the NMS community that opening portals requires a certain configuration/setup of your multi-tool (combined gun/scanner/mining tool for you non-Travellers). I noticed that on multiverse-75.com, in the “about us” section there are 3 progress bars with percentages that are very reminiscent of the stat bars for a NMS multitool.

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Here is a video I did of a Portal recently. In it I explain some of what has been done with them in the past as far as players attempting to unlock or open them.

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An Early Attempt

Published Aug 27, 2016, I recently ran upon this player’s video, depicting a moment in his earliest attempts toward activating portals. This was shortly after NMS released.

At the time, he stated that he believed the monoliths appeared to “change structure” as he found more, and that they were adding “rotating rings” on top. He also attributed this to “collecting words”.

Needless to say, his viewers/commenters proved mixed in regards to his findings.

The reality is that there are numerous monolithic structural varieties. And the rotating rings just happen to be an included accessory of this specific variety. Also, “Collecting all of the Gek, Korvax, Vy’keen and Atlas words” is considered a debunked theory. No player has yet activated a Portal, period.

Further, I’m not sure whether this specific monolith is intended as a “portal”, or instead serves some other purpose. It differs greatly from the ‘known portals’ demonstrated in the prior mentioned videos (see above ‘trailer’).

My question is…

Would we consider this a Monolithic Portal?
(…A piece of the puzzle? …Or perhaps only time will tell?)

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This is what’s referred to as a Monolith in NMS. They come in a wide variety of shapes but share a similar visual language, with the same textures, some rotating pieces, etc. and each gives you a little story puzzle prompt to solve. Scanning will show way points to locate these easily in-game. The “portals” that the NMS community talks about are a bit different, depicted in the attached picture. They alternatively may be called “Great Monoliths” (it’s unclear in the lore if this phrase refers to these structures). These “portals” share textures and visual language with the monoliths but are much much larger. All portals are identical, do not show up as waypoints when scanning, and have no interaction prompt. Some people, particularly over at r/nmsportals believe a certain activation sequence of monoliths may be required to activate a nearby portal. So TL,DR: Monoliths are not portals, but certainly appear to be related structures.

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I’m surprised @MrUnnoticed hasn’t chimed in on this thread yet. He is one of the leading experts on portals.

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what about ramping a multi-tools stats to meet or exceed these bars?

likely an alien tool because the seem to start the closest at the base level. Then maybe interacting with a portal that way?

Computationalism = Scanner?

Magnetic Field = Mining?

Radiation = Combat?

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I think the bars were just part of the wordpress theme they used. It’s unlikely that the existing bars would fit into such a specific clue.

http://demo.deliciousthemes.com/patti/

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That’s good to point out. In my mind, that reiterates the importance of the numbers 80, 90, and 95. We haven’t used these yet right? Sure, perhaps it was a hint to the RGB motif that was begun in echo-64, but there still must be some use for those exact numbers.

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That’s basically what I was trying to get at before. I couldn’t decide if the labels would be supposed to match (i.e. computationalism=scanner like you said) or if the progress bars would need to match the similar bars on the multitool. Someone should throw this idea at the folks over at r/nmsportals or one of the hubs, they’re probably in the best position to test (I don’t have a reddit account but maybe I’ll join to help spread ideas). Even if it doesn’t work, always good to rule stuff out right?

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Can anyone surface a direct statement from the developers that portals don’t work?
Otherwise, it does seem fair to say that, “Perhaps we all just haven’t figured it out yet.”

Even still, given that thousands of people have played NMS, and many have tried so diligently, it’s probably safe to figure that “portals are not able to be activated at this time.”

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A Humorous Thought

Although highly unlikely…
Wouldn’t it be interesting if the portals actually do work? …and Hello Games have to take us by the hand and guide us through? …I would certainly laugh! :laughing:

If that’s where these ARG’s are leading, then we should all pop some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show. And if not, who cares… This is all still pretty entertaining.

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Many things have been tried. Nowhere near all possible. We must start at the beginning to understand the end.

I can perhaps help with this.

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There are some interesting markings on the portals. Here is a album from a few different angles. Portal textures - Album on Imgur these textures are only on one side of the portal. One more from the top part of portals I found Titan - Imgur this is only on one side as well

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We have to start at the video that led us all here. The portal trailer. Those models still exist and are unused by current build. Pause the trailer and look well.

Then we move forward to 1.00. The land of broken features. Yet there was my giant. Silent as always. 1.00 was datamined, and contained no difference from the current portal files.

So I’ll break here and touch on current study before I open the data can. We know that every planet outside of barren can contain a portal. Every world has more than one portal. And every planet in a system can have them. They share location between platforms. (As does everything else) They do not spawn in or despawn. They are baked models that do not deviate from the blueprint. The center hole registers as an interior. They will almost always have a cluster of containers nearby. They have an affinity for ruins and are often within five minutes flight.

The efforts attempted to open them are too long to list as one human. I will crowdsource a list of current knowns and bring it here asap. They range from time of day, to yelling through a headset.

The datamining has been the holy Grail for those of us involved before Titan. We can see that portals have a full scene file, (one that modders tapped into but couldn’t unlock) animations, sfx, vfx, and scripted dialogue. I can tell you the color and intensity of the light that should emerge. All we lack is the trigger. We have had actual developers look deeper for us and they all concluded that not only was the trigger not observable (easily hidden) but also that there was a lot of work shown for an unused feature…

Portals have ten idle dialogue strings along the lines of the quote on the back of the sent posters, ten open dialogues, ten remains closed. A set of two possible questions with three answers each, for each race. A screen print “Portal detected” And a blue warp tunnel.

There is more, and surely plenty I missed. I would expect a few more voices soon to augment my initial thoughts here. As for monolith, only one person I know can speak on that. He should be along any time.

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We shouldn’t forget about ruins.
They come in 3 different sizes and can have different shapes of flags(triangle, circle, hexagon) There has been some evidence the flags point to portals, but not always
Also the can have a large gold or silver ball to roll around, with no known purpose.

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the texture you are referring to is this

880×880 322 KB

The lines have been colorized to aid in visualization, but this is on every plaque,monolith and portal. Many ideas have gone into this being a map or directions.

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Kr8ght thanks for the input! I’m a long time r/NMSPortals lurker just finally trying to contribute to the community a little. Kudos on the awesome work you and the rest of that crew have done! Totally agree about ruins, I feel like there’s something there that we’re missing.

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Should you do ruins in order circle, Prism and hexagon? There was a theory they were related. I have not seen a portal yet though.

Edit: triangle not prism

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