Online play? How does this all work?

[Emjay]

Hi folks, I'm new to the game here and I'm currently playing a survival game (And dying a lot, because I can't find oxygen!).

My question is on the multiplayer aspect. How does it work? Do random people turn up or visa versa in worlds, is it all somehow connected?

And does the game mode your playing affect that?

I basically want to play with the potential for random encounters. What do I need to pick?

Thanks!

[Dirak2012]

Random encounters are not really a thing. With literal billions of planets, the chances of running into someone are basically zero.
Except in Expeditions, since everyone starts in the same planet.

However there is an online hub where you can meet and team up with people.

[Fren]

The chances of meeting someone on a random planet is very slim. I once had someone start a fresh save on a planet i was exploring. at some point you'll unlock the anomaly which is the online hub.

[manywhelps]

There are also a few community systems which are full of bases, so there are usually some people in those systems at any time. Once you have portal travel you can get to them (and one you visit will give you a new title to use because of its history in the game).

[Emjay]

Awesome, thanks.

What about game mode? Does it matter if I'm playing survival or standard etc?

[SaD-82]

Originally posted by Emjay:

Does it matter if I'm playing survival or standard etc?

Yes. Survival players are using a different instance of the universe than normal mode players. And many people are playing in normal mode - therefore chances are that you will meet people sooner when you're using normal mode, too.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

As noted: unless you specifically go somewhere where players are likely to congregate, your chances of randomly meeting another player in the vastness is close to zero. Might be a bit more likely near the galactic center but even that is going to be remote.

I have played for thousands of hours and only met one other interloper in what appeared to be a totally chance encounter in a system. They could have somehow followed me there but they seemed just as surprised as I was. So I am counting it, but that was at a point where I had invested at least 1500 hours in the game.

At this point in time, the MP aspect is essentially playing the game by yourself with company. There are almost no advantages to MP and lots of little problems like syncing weather and angry NPC events. From my perspective, the worst is that it slows my rig down and the game gets less playable with it on.

[Emjay]

Thanks everyone, this is super helpful. I also like the idea of not having to play survival. I normally like a hard difficulty, but I'm too nooby to do anything and just keep dying!

Thanks all!

[ruic]

The game works offline, the terrain keep generating when you run, you only playing offline, except if you have friends to play with.