[Origins] Cave fauna not spawning

[Flash Hendricks]

Started a new game for Origins. After about half a dozen planets, I'm unable to find a single cave dweller, even those marked "common -- always active" just aren't showing up. Am I being impatient, or is this bugged? Are others finding underground critters OK?

[Joe Pascal]

I might have this issue too. I have x2 species listed as Rare/Underground. I've spent 3 hours flying around this damn planet and going into caves but nothing. I reckon I saw it when I first arrived... a kind of tentacled creature flailing around, but then it disappeared before I could record it and I haven't seen it since.
Also I have never seen any critters at all in caves.

[Bowi]

It's a bug. Yes. Fill a bug report, please. https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests

[Flash Hendricks]

Thanks. I did that. I have since found one underground species, so they seem to have gone super-shy rather than disappearing completely, but I think that’s still a bug

[Aurumworks]

I did find a cave species underground yesterday. Just not inside a cave. I had to dig down some 70 units to get there and they were outside the tunnels I dug, one just barely clipping through the wall enough that I could scan it. The only time I find them actually in caves is when the cave has been opened up to the surface and you have a wide area of cave biome spreading under the sky. Definitely bugged.

[Ashkael]

I'm having the same issue with ocean fauna, myself. Three species marked as "common- always active" and I spent about two hours in the submarine without ANY marine fauna.

[Elowan]

I've written this elsewhere before, but the spawning mechanics have /always/ been super wonky. At least they tell you where/when/what is missing now, it used to be a complete crapshoot.

Cave mechanics have always been my personal pet peeve. If you can find one of the "open to the surface cave areas," which sometimes show up against mountains, that's probably your best bet for forcing underground spawns. They absolutely /can/ show up in the actual underground, but it's super unpredictable.

Once you've found an "open underground" area, use this tried and true technique:

1. Arrive in your new area. Observe the spawns (or see if anything spawns at all). If nothing is present,

2. Place down a save point and do a manual save, then

3. Reload the manual save immediately. Grab your save point. Wait a minute and observe the new spawns. Reloading seems to force the game to actually start spawning things, but it sometimes takes a minute.

This technique actually works everywhere, including underwater.

[Bowi]

Do you need to place the save point inside the underground area or outside?
(I honestly hope they'll fix that wonky mechanics.)

[Elowan]

if you want underground creatures to show up reliably, you should do it /in/ the area. You should be standing in an area that is part of the underground in order for the spawns to show.

Sometimes the game gets wonky and lets both ground AND underground stuff to spawn at the same time. I've also had planets where if you walk from the darker 'underground' land 1 meter over to the lighter 'ground' land, the underground spawns will vanish, and the ground ones will show up. It's unpredictable.

[Bowi]

What do you mean, "darker underground" and "lighter ground"?

Are you saying I should avoid being too close from the ground level?

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Now... If only they could fix the bug with extinct creatures.

Damn... I need some statement from Hello Games. I want to escape playing No Man's Sky, instead all I get is high blood pressure. :(

[Elowan]

There is a distinct look to the underground areas on planets. On most (if not all), they are darker than the 'regular ground' on the surface. This is particularly noticeable when you get one of the "underground open to the surface" areas, you can really see the distinct line. Standing on this darker underground makes you "in the underground." When things are working properly, standing on the regular planet ground should not allow underground spawns (like I said, sometimes things get wonky, but in general this is true).

The extinct bug is listed as fixed in experimental, so hopefully when they push that to a regular release, it will be gone.

[SirProsik]

Last night went through my base teleport list, ok half cause there are a bunch, and the predominate creatures are flying ones. Only one planet had surface creatures to be found in the list. One had one underground creature which I was not fast enough to scan. And only two had underwater creatures out of about 20.

I would rather the "extinct" list just not exist. I am running experimental and have not seen an "extinct" animal alive to clarify. But I do have in my list of creatures the "extinct" ones listed.

[Bowi]

Elowan, I tried Experimental and it didn't fix it.

[Elowan]

Originally posted by SirProsik:

I would rather the "extinct" list just not exist. I am running experimental and have not seen an "extinct" animal alive to clarify. But I do have in my list of creatures the "extinct" ones listed.

There are two separate issues here. One is that /all/ previously discovered creatures on previously discovered planets have been moved to the "extinct" list, and the creature list has been repopulated based on the new biomes etc. Any planet you had previously been to will have extinct creatures.

Completely separately, there is a bug in the current release (supposedly already fixed on experimental) where one or more creatures on /brand new/ planets will literally be standing in front of you with a red dot, ready to be scanned, you scan then, and they instantly pop onto the bottom of the creature list as being "extinct," even though you are literally looking at them. This prevents the planet from being completed, because that "extinct" creature isn't checked off the list of live ones.

[Greyhaven]

I really want to love this game but in my eyes, it’s still in beta. All of these bugs that still haven’t been fixed after all these years, especially related to trophies, is just not cool at all. I tried the saving game and coming back to it “fix” but it doesn’t fix anything. I’m still deep underground looking for the elusive LAST fauna that I know will never show because Hello Games still hasn’t fixed the bugs.

Cyberpunk wasn’t this bad. Sure I had crashes but I would gladly take those crashes over trophy breaking bugs. I need one more fauns and this is ridiculous. Same with underwater fauna. They just don’t show at all. They say rare/uncommon, but surely after traveling this many cave networks underground SOMETHING should show, especially with this amount of time playing and looking.

I’m on PS4 by the way. I’m just gonna stop playing the game for now until they sort this mess out. That and graphic quality, objects not loading for a looooooong time, freezing when connected to multiplayer, horrible clipping and everything else just makes this game unplayable. Wish they would get out of beta already.

[AmberAnvil]

Since Origins, some critters listed as "Underground" are not cave dwellers....