NMS Production Clock

[|SHERIFF|SmoKey]

So I'm just wondering how this works if the game is closed. Perfect example would be growing crops for stasis farming, or atmospheric gas farm and harvest. How does the game do this if it's closed or even when turning my PC off? I planted some solanium crops and went to run around town for things and when I came back and booted up, the crop was ready along with others.

Just wondering is there some process that runs in the background when the game closes and what about when shutting down and rebooting PC? Makes me wonder if there is a process when powering back up again, does it cross check some things with the system clock? Tried googling and there is nothing on the topic afaik. Just a general inquiry, any ideas?

[Dirak2012]

It simply checks the system's clock. You can actually manipulate the game by changing that clock.

[|SHERIFF|SmoKey]

Originally posted by 76561197979965672:

It simply checks the system's clock. You can actually manipulate the game by changing that clock.

I tried and my solanium still wasn't fully grown and ready for harvest. Is it just manipulating the system clock? I went a day ahead and it didn't work.

[ihleslie]

In the save file all times are in what I cal Unix time. The number of seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970. Maybe the game checks the server if it can to get a new time.

[|SHERIFF|SmoKey]

So can I open it with notepad and just roll the time forward? What is the path/name of the save file?

[Captain.Jartyk]

The save files are located here.
C:\ Users\ (name)\ AppData\ Roaming\ HelloGames\ NMS\

But you can not use Notepad on those files, you need a JSON editor.

But then you have the problem of finding the particular thing you want to change among many thousands of other things, and without doing anything that will crash the game, and moreover, the game may not want to load the changed file at all, after you have been tinkering with it.

An easier way to go is to use a mod that shortens the time on those farms.
for example, https://www.nexusmods.com/nomanssky/mods/1866

[ihleslie]

There is a free program called the NMSSaveEditor. It's on github and the author is goatfungus. However, it seems as if NMS updates all the times, either when it loads or saves. If the latter, then editing might work. But, as noted above, there is a lot to look through.

[|SHERIFF|SmoKey]

Thanks guys :D

[Johnny in the Clouds]

I think each object that is built has a time value like the UTC thing mentioned above. Plants presumably are also objects but must have a time flag that keeps track of those 'growth' times. Different plants have varying times. Some might be 3 hours to full growth others half hour. It's quicker to fly down to planets and gather them.

The game is about exploration so if you simply carry all the plant types and top them up as you do other things, missions and so on you never run out and always have an excess for when you need them. The game rewards playing more than grinding and it is easy to forget with so many fun distractions the game throws at you.

Also now at the Anomaly it is easy to visit other player bases and plunder the crops.

[|SHERIFF|SmoKey]

I thought taking crops from other travelers bases wouldn't work of their settings were set right. Or is there a way around that too?