Frontiers is No Man’s Sky’s 17th big free update, and it’s now available on all platforms.

You’ll be the Overseer of your own procedurally constructed alien settlement in this game. You will make decisions, manage your citizens, construct new structures, and defend your people from the Sentinels while in this role. You can also use the big overhaul to base construction to create your own unique base.

The Frontiers update has added populated settlements to the world, and you can choose to assist them, “ensure their future success and happiness,” and eventually turn these starting villages into towns and even larger urban areas.

If you choose to be the Overseer of a community, you can build new structures to help your town flourish and attract new residents. Citizens will rely on you to assist them in solving difficulties, making crucial decisions, staying safe from Sentinel radars, and defending against drone attacks.

More information about Settlements, changes to Base Building, graphic enhancements, save streaming, and a list of bug fixes can be found in the patch notes below.

SETTLEMENTS

• Procedurally generated planetary settlements can be now found on inhabited planets all across the universe.
• Settlements are found naturally via a new mission that occurs after a small amount of post-tutorial progress.
• Settlements can also be found with maps purchased from the Space Station Cartographer.
• Mission Board missions that involve locating NPCs can also take players to settlements.
• Players may submit their credentials to the monument at the heart of the settlement. If accepted by the citizens, they will become Overseer of the settlement and may choose its name.
• Every settlement and its layout is unique. Each building is procedurally generated, using only parts available for player base building.
• Settlement status can be seen and managed from the central monument. Once players have constructed their Overseer’s Office, they can also manage the settlement from the terminal in their office.
• Settlements have five key stats: productivity, population, happiness, upkeep costs, and Sentinel alert level.
• Improve their stats by researching new technologies, attracting new settlers to the town, constructing new buildings, setting settlement policies, and more!

BASE BUILDING

• The base building menu has been replaced by a new grid of all available parts.
• The grid allows a quick and easy preview of all existing parts, as well as offering quick access to part selection.
• From the grid, players can select a part to place or go straight to edit mode.
• In placement mode, players now have quick access to scale, colour, material and rotation options.
• In placement mode, players can quickly cycle between related parts, or can return to the parts grid to choose their next construction module.
• A new ‘free placement’ mode has been added. This disables snapping and allows parts to intersect with each other and still be valid to place. It also allows players to freely place parts in mid-air.
• From placement mode, or direct from the parts grid, players can enter Edit mode and adjust any existing parts. Simply target the part and select the appropriate option.
• From edit mode, parts can be duplicated for rapid construction.
• Or, pick up a part to fine tune it before putting it back in place.
• Over 250 new base building parts have been added, from decorative to structural.

VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Space skies have been significantly improved, with all-new visuals for generating nebula effects.
• Visual effects across the entire game have been significantly improved – destruction, environmental, combat and much more.
• The mode select screen has been updated with a new set of images from the community. Thank you to all the dedicated No Man’s Sky photographers!
• Fixed an issue that caused a single black frame during a teleport.
• Fixed a number of rendering issues with stars in VR.

SAVE STREAMING

• The save/load system has been overhauled.
• On console, each save is now treated as its own object, rather than all five save slots being bundled together.
• All existing saves have been automatically backed up.
• A number of crashes that could occur when saving or loading large and lengthy savegames have been fixed.
• The number of possible save slots has been increased from five to fifteen. The save select screen now supports scrolling to see additional slots/start a new game.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

• On the Discovery screen, improved the clarity of the button that is used to register completion of all creature discoveries on a planet.
• The reward for discovering all creatures on the planet has been significantly increased.
• The clarity of the end-of-expedition countdown has been improved.
• Season Three will begin soon, and will bring an exciting range of new rewards…

You can find more detailed images and notes on the official website.