Update, November 27: A promised update to No Man's Sky has arrived—and perhaps earlier than expected. The vague promise of the patch's arrival "this week" turned into "this weekend" thanks to the patch's launch on PlayStation 4 on Sunday. (The NMS 1.1 patch will be coming to PC players at a later date.)

A six-minute video from Hello Games, posted above, explains what players can expect. Though the update had been teased primarily as a "base-building" update, it also includes two new default modes: survival and creative. The former jacks up difficulty and forces players to scrounge even more for survival-related items, while the latter turns the difficulty way down to let players explore at an even more leisurely pace.

And, yes, players can now use resources to build bases on a planet's surface, which can be filled with resource growth pods, alien helpers, and inventory storage units. Even better, players can now create and maintain a giant flying frigate, which works pretty much exactly like a surface base but can also travel from space system to space system.

The video also mentions tweaks to planet generation algorithms, anti-aliasing, and motion blur—and shows off a ridiculous amount of blue lens flare, if you're into that sort of thing. New quick-access menus will let players dig into inventory systems on the fly, as well. There's even more going on, including the ability to set up camp in a pinch and a slew of new resource types (you should really dig into the patch notes), and it actually seems to add up to what the developers promised on Friday: a substantial update to make the current game run a little more efficiently, but also one that clearly builds toward other potential updates.

The news was good enough to get game director Sean Murray out of hiding, who broke his months-long Twitter silence about the game once the patch went live: "We're getting better as quickly as we can for the players who invested in us. Thank you for sticking with us."

Original report, November 25:

Two months of silence from the makers of No Man's Sky ended on Friday with news that the game would finally receive a substantial update "this week."

"We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come," an unnamed author posted at Hello Games' official development blog.

The game's creators at Hello Games did not describe how players will build bases in the space sim, nor how said bases will change or affect travel between planets. No Man's Sky currently revolves around exploring and abandoning planets in order to travel long distances across a galaxy—meaning, there's currently no easy way to return to something like a frequently maintained and updated base of operations.

The news post addressed players who have complained that they were sold a different experience than the underwhelming, repetitive game that launched in August. "The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic," the developer wrote. "We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about. Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard, and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone."

Hello Games are clearly teasing more content to come and insist that this forthcoming base-building content "will not be our biggest update, but is the start of something." Exactly what that future content will be remains to be seen. Having played my fair share of the game, I can only hope the updates include improved combat, additional quest-like activities, better inventory management, more sandbox or content-creation systems, and, hey, maybe an actual ending.

Listing image by Hello Games