Is there "open multiplayer"?

[El Gustin]

I was wondering if I'm able to see, interact, maybe even trade and explore with random ppl at some point. I know you can invite friend to a multiplayer session via a NMS friend code in in the main menu but that would be a private session right? Or is this the only way to play with others?

[wkitty42]

as long as you have multiplayer enabled, you can see and interact with other players IF you come across any... in my 1300+ hours of play, i've had it happen only a few times outside of the Community Expeditions... once when i was building a beachfront chalet and suddenly realized someone else was in my base while i was adding windows to the walls... we chatted for a few minutes before they jetted off to other places... it was quite the surprise, to say the least :)

[Krash Megiddo]

You'll find other players at the Anomaly, if you have MP enabled like Kitty says.

[Geldric™]

Another “area” to guarantee other players is the weekend event system. If you drop a base or just complete the weekend event then do an autosave in the anomaly. Simply reload that autosave & when you exit the anomaly you’ll be in that same system.

[william_es]

Yes, you can see random people in the anomaly. But many of these people will be going in different directions to accomplish different things, so don't expect to play when them for long before they bow out.

Every once in a while you get people that follow you sometimes.

On one occasion I had a guy following me, and didn't find out til later that he was a super new player, and he thanked me for carrying him through a quicksilver mission. He didn't have a terrain manipulator, and I kept stopping to dig little caves in the ground to wait out superheated firestorms. He kept running into the caves with me, which I thought was weird. After a while I figured it out, and I'd stop to bored a hole in the ground. If he ran in, I figured his shields were low, and I'd make the cave bigger. If he ran past the hole, his shields were good.

The mission was to kill 78 whispering horrors, which I did that quite easily with my S class multitool. He said later on that he would have died trying to kill that many. He stayed on top the building and shot what he could.

[Rexxer]

Due to the vastness of the galaxies and universe, - outside of the Anomaly or special events (which plop everyone on the same starting planet), you aren't likely every going to run into someone. A higher likelihood would be to run into a base someone built a few years ago and abandoned.

You can strategise a non-anomaly random encounter knowing:
(1) when "born" or when spawned a the start, everyone starts on the edge of Euclid galaxy
(2) the natural goal of the game is to get to other galaxies, hence everyone will go to the center, many jumping there ASAP, skipping the vast majority of the middle of each galaxy

Therefore, since the center of the galaxy is spatially much smaller than the rest of it, being the "center" of the pie, and because everyone goes there eventually, and because everyone starts in Euclid galaxy.... the most likely place to see many bases and systems explored by other players, and possibly other players themselves, is at the center of Euclid Galaxy.

That being said, the vastness of the map ensures that running into another person may be unlikely even when positioning yourself in the middle of the freeway, so to speak.

The Anomaly however is like a multiplayer clubhouse, so if you are going to see anyone, that by far represents the best chance.

[icepurple]

Community expedition is still on for another week so far. Hop in there.

[Dirak2012]

The chances of meeting other players in the wild, outside of special events, are basically zero.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

The chances of meeting other players in the wild, outside of special events, are basically zero.

It's rare, but not zero. In the crowded areas along the outer ring and center, it's quite possible. Someone boarded by cap ship once and started hopping all over my garaged ships asking if I wanted to join him....out in the middle of nowhere. I think I disabled multiplayer at that point since it was unexpected and I was in the middle of a my own quest.

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by Rexxer:

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

The chances of meeting other players in the wild, outside of special events, are basically zero.

It's rare, but not zero. In the crowded areas along the outer ring and center, it's quite possible. Someone boarded by cap ship once and started hopping all over my garaged ships asking if I wanted to join him....out in the middle of nowhere. I think I disabled multiplayer at that point since it was unexpected and I was in the middle of a my own quest.

Going to the center falls into what I would call an special event. I avoid the core systems like the plague.
I absolutely hate seeing the icons of other player's structures.

[El Gustin]

Thanks for all the replies and the occasional tip to see more activity in the gameworld.
During my recent session I "unlocked" the anomaly so that is basically what I was looking for in this game. Gotta say after a rough start I'm actually starting to enjoy this game

[icepurple]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

Originally posted by Rexxer:

It's rare, but not zero. In the crowded areas along the outer ring and center, it's quite possible. Someone boarded by cap ship once and started hopping all over my garaged ships asking if I wanted to join him....out in the middle of nowhere. I think I disabled multiplayer at that point since it was unexpected and I was in the middle of a my own quest.

Going to the center falls into what I would call an special event. I avoid the core systems like the plague.
I absolutely hate seeing the icons of other player's structures.

That's one real issue with overcrowded systems for MP. Too many dots/icons around planets make at time impossible to target where u need to go or even find your own while flying.

Something I hate in particular is when they spam messages tools near mission targets or milestone.