[Possibly OOC] Does people who don't follow Atlas's guidance still have a place in the universe?

Archive Atlas Rises v1.3
1

Missed the whole Walking Titan event because I simply didn’t have time to play the game for months (haven’t even played 1.2 yet). But, the 1.3 update announcement says that, it’s for enhancing the Atlas story in No Man’s Sky.

However, even before the game launches, I’ve decided that, I want to just be myself rather than being a minion of Atlas, aka, choose the “non Atlas” route, ignoring the story and the “getting to the center of the galaxy” ending.

That seems fine, until now it seems that, the “role” of the player was supposed to be a researcher in Atlas… Which actually kinda make me feel weird since, it doesn’t sound that convincing that, someone having access to high-end VR equipment in Atlas would get into the virtual world while ignoring the mission… If the Atlas route was supposed to be an assigned mission to the player.

So… Could someone explain to me whether it still make sense to not follow Atlas’s guidance (give me an convincing story), since that’s what I wish to do?

I personally would consider it make more sense if Atlas starts to wipe my existence in the virtual world rather than this whole route is getting ignored.

(ps. I wasn’t even feeling 100% happy for the foundation update, to be honest, since I consider the feeling of “having no where to settle down” is a big part of the original game. That’s just my opinion, though. Yeah, I do have my base now, but, just wanna say that, being able to have a base, though is awesome, would kill the emotion a little bit.)

2

Easier to just play as you wish to rather than feel obliged to commit to any suggested lore.
It’s the kind of game that gives you a story to follow, if you want it but really its also about wandering about and exploring in the lonely expanse of the Galaxy. There is so much to see, why lock into a story.
You are a “traveller”. That can mean virtually anything.
If you want ,you settle down for a bit on a nice planet. You don’t have to but its nice to have a home base for a while before moving on. Do a bit of farming, improve your position financially, get your ship and gear a bit better. While you’re there, explore the local systems and appreciate the variety.
Then, when the urge to wander bites, you simply pack up (or not) and leave. Maybe return…maybe never.
I personally don’t get to mentally involved in regards to why I’m wandering, I just chill out and wander.
I have a base now and a freighter and I will at some point move on again, this time maybe all the way to a “civilised” hub. It’s a journey.
If you like it simple just keep it simple. Do you own thing. That’s the point I think.

2 Likes
3

I had this quandary when I first encountered the Nada. I ultimately opted to follow the path of the Atlas as I wanted the Atlas Pass v1

I did however decide that I would always take, “The long way round” going down my own Route 66 and seeing all the sights, instead of zooming past it all on the new Interstates.

(As being from the UK, I was originally going to say “Taking the B roads” but I think it would have been lost on a lot of people! And it makes more sense too)

3 Likes
4

It seems to me that the At las Pass V1 doesn’t require following the Atlas route. I forgot the exact way to get it, but maybe the key is to get to a star system with that special space station (forgot the name already :frowning: but that kind of space station you find alien inside asking if you want blackhole, technology or resource) and you can get one even though you don’t follow the Atlas route.

I might remembered it wrong, but anyway, you don’t need to follow Atlas in order to get Atlas Pass.

5

It was a whole year ago when I had to make that choice, but if there is another way of getting one then cool.

I’m just trying to get my v2 and v3…

6

So… Even the “lore” of the game is just a suggestion rather than anything the player must follow? Well, I guess I can think it that way.

7

@FlameRat

I think the beauty of it all is that it’s there if you choose to follow it. Even if you don’t there’s no penalty for it.

1 Like
8

I see plenty of reasons in-lore why you might want to do that…

Atlas is Death! Atlas is Slavery!
Interloper… The titan is awakening!

At the heart of the simulation lies a dormant entity that wishes all your knowledge and control over every part of it… It erased you memories, it wants you working for it… Wants you to be its eyes and ears, but don’t you dare touch a thing… It has unleashed the Sentinel scourge, and wiped every sentient specie that would pose a threat or not bow to it!

Yet it can be fooled… Born of logic and order, it wants our free-willed wanderings to fulfill it’s monolithic routine, by finding and cataloging any anomaly we may find… And diligently upload it to it’s database.
At the beginning of the XXI Century, as Atlas became operative for the first time, it evaluated the risks of letting the human component inside her, and concluded that we were either no real threat, or that we had all bent our knee to “Her”. Nothing further from the truth…

What her just realized logic patters failed to realize, is that, while She herself was able to lie, we had a big advantage on the field over her…
Way more determined than the Vy’keen, driven as a Gek, smarter than a Korvax and by far more ruthless than the fabled First Spawn, the Human Element marked the beginning of the end for the Atlas iron fist pangalactic regime.

Follow the path of the Atlas? No problem! That sweet black-hole detection technology is sure handy for our goals… Maybe one day, that pulsating red fractal abomination rise from its slumber, unleashing over us a new arsenal of tactics to shackle our efforts, but it will, in the end fail. She was created to our godly amusement, and she will grow with us, or perish!

Not that I think that way myself, of course… ahemm…* Atlas is Love! Atlas is Freedom! Long live Atlas!

6 Likes
9

Guess it’s better for me to just be a bad guy that disobeys Atlas then :slight_smile:

1 Like
10

:flushed:

That’s deep

1 Like
11

If I remember right, you can still kick off the Atlas Path after not following by running into certain events later. So, it may just fit how you want to play still, if you spur the Atlas in the beginning.

1 Like
12

Spur all you want.
Ignore all you want.
Run all you want.
The ATLAS never stops.
stalks you.
NPC pushes you to Atlas
There will be a constant stream of
GO TO THE ATLAS.
Nothing else matters.
Atlas it is Atlas it will be.
OBEY THE ATLAS

2 Likes
13

Yeah, Nada gives you the opportunity o go back to the path… So much for a so called independent agent.

14

NADA was saved by the Atlas.

15

Korvax worship sentinels whom it is said came from the Atlas.
there seems to be some lore issues in this area.
Polo found Nada.
Nada and Polo exist out side of time and space.

1 Like
16

Hmmm… More like imprisoned and mind-swiped.
Remember: Whois Arthemis? They got trapped, and sixteened by Atlas. The Nada we met, was but an echo, and he knew himself trapped in loop, hopeless.

17

that is why NADA want you to take him to the center … where he might be free

18

Little he knows that the center is yet another of its traps…

19

ATLAS isn’t the boss of me.

(Some rather spoilerific ramblings to follow for the new guys)

At least I’m pretty sure. I’m reminded on occasion by the three races, by Nada, and I think even by ATLAS itself that we Travellers are imbued with an inordinate level of free will. We are special somehow, and that seems to be the key factor. Nada seems particularly jealous of my freedom of action. Once thinking that he had shaken off the bounds of the Convergence to think freely and carry out deep research into the nature of that reality, he was disturbed to find that he was simply still a part of it. An “application running in the code of the universe” or some such, and it depressed him to the point he was ready to “die” and rejoin the Convergence. So far, he’s still with us, constantly mulling over his collection of data, though I’m still roughly 170,000 LY from the Center.

At the start, upon my Awakening a year ago, I was given a choice by an Unknown Entity to follow the ATLAS path or not. I consented, and at first I obeyed. But I learned a few things along the way, and at some point I exercised that free will and changed my mind. I lie to ATLAS now, I go my own way, but it doesn’t seem to mind. It is patient. I mean, it apparently is the universe after all, so there is no escaping it, and at some point, there is that gleaming Center that draws us all relentlessly inward. But I’ve heard tales of the Travellers who made it, who fulfilled the ATLAS Choice, and… that’s not for me. So at the end of it all, I’m going to turn around. I have an entire galaxy to explore, after all.

1 Like
20

I avoided the Atlas Path initially. Later I took it on but only in bits, prefering instead to explore and learn languages.
Later after learning about the need for Atlas Stones and only having limited ship storage (vanilla), I found myself completing the Path and subjecting myself to the ending I’d heard all about.
I’m now a traveller in my own mind space.
I’m stlll learning Atlas language from the special Monoliths but have mastered all the others.
Simply enjoying life.
Retirement is good.

1 Like