archaeogaming
The Base Paradox of Beecham’s Pearl Island
Ty Beecham’s Pearl Island was built in May 2017, two months after the release of the Pathfinder update in No Man’s Sky. When constructed, the base was built on a literal […]
Ty Beecham’s Pearl Island was built in May 2017, two months after the release of the Pathfinder update in No Man’s Sky. When constructed, the base was built on a literal island on a paradise world, Hesperides. Hesperides, however, was yet another casualty of the 1.3 update, Atlas Rises, becoming a barren world. The planet also became home to a paradox concerning bases and base units. Barren worlds do not have any structures on them, although as seen in other Galactic Heritage sites, player bases do remain in various states of disrepair. On this world, however, not only did I find an empty, habitable base marked by a communication station, I also found Beecham’s Pearl Island in three different iterations: absent (but marked by a ring of comm balls), present in its original location (but floating), and present in a new location (grounded at the site of the habitable base found earlier). I have yet to explore a Galactic Heritage site that did not yield something strange.
May 17, 2018
When I arrived in the Consilii system and performed my initial scan for player bases, I was not greeted by any positive indication, even though a floating base had been recorded a few months ago by another player after Atlas Rises updated the game. I flew to the planet, and found the telltale cluster of communication stations, all floating about 50 m above the ground. Two new stations had been placed on a nearby rock by Galactic Heritage (a marker and a second ball from that player’s other account). Their placement on the planet’s new surface indicates their recent arrival when compared to the floating comm stations placed between March and August 2017. The floating balls were arranged in a ring surrounding an empty space, and messages about a “great base” confirm that something was indeed here.
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After taking my photos and video, and recording the disposition and contents of all 21 comm balls, which included markers for now-nonexistent trading post, crashed ship, and monolith, I discovered an anomaly. Barren worlds like this never have habitable base units, but I found one by virtue of its nearby comm station. I recorded it as well as its base ID. Satisfied with the data collected, I decided to restore from my current save-point in an effort to re-generate the ruins of Ty’s pearl farm, clearing the idea first with the Hub Heritage official.
I restored the game, then flew to the system’s space station, teleported to an earlier location, teleported back, all to make sure that the save-point had worked. Upon flying back to Ty’s planet, a scan revealed the base’s marker flag, and upon arrival, I was met with the base floating in mid-air.
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The unusual things about this is that the base re-appeared in a state of disrepair without the underlying base unit. When I accidentally restored bases elsewhere, they reappeared in different locations fully restored. In this case the ruins appeared in their original location, and as ruins. Note also that by walking underneath the ruins, one can hear the sound of a door opening underground, indicating the original base unit.
May 18, 2018
I returned to the planet only to find that the pearl farm had relocated itself to the site of the base unit I discovered last night, placing itself on the ground instead of in the air (see opening image).
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Each of the 16 domes contained 16 Albumen Pearl plants, which, when harvested, can yield up to 4 million units (just like on hollyworks’ farm). Think about that when considering dig funding. The relocated base is almost due west, a 2-hour walk.
There are a few differences between the original and restored builds as can be seen in the image above, and from the description in the NMS wiki:
- The original base had three geobays for all exocraft. The discovered base only has one.
- The original base has 211 Albumen Pearl plants, but the base as discovered has 256.
- The original planet was renamed “Hesperides”, but that name has reverted to a procedurally generated one.
- Note the presence of two cubes containing message stations on either side of the landing pad in the discovered base.
- The lush, watery paradise has become a lifeless wasteland of rock, devoid of any life.
Base Description
As discovered (once relocated), north of the base unit is a landing pad flanked by two glass chambers each containing blank message pods. A signal booster sits in front of the landing pad. A walkway leads to the base units sole entrance up a ramp covered by an Atlas diamond decal. Inside there is a Vy’keen blueprint vendor and the base ID module as well as a functional trade terminal, Exchange 13S/Q34-MM2. Up the central ladder is a hydroponic dome containing 16 Albumen Pearl plants. Around the outside of the base unit are decals of “Pikachu”, a blob, and decals for Gek and Vy’keen races. A Nomad geobay lies south of the base unit and in front of the ring of 15 other hydroponic domes. As I was there, the sound of ships trying to land was constant as they patiently circled waiting for me to lift off.
Landscape
The landscape of the planet gently slopes and is cut by shallow canyons. The ground is littered Mars-like with small rocks, and is punctuated by occasional short (5m) pillars of rock. Low hills are never far away. Occasional caves open up to the surface. There are no plants or animals, nor is there water. No “alien” structures remain.
Anatomy of Umiddalr Geynna
Planet: Umiddalr Geynna
Base Name: Beecham’s Pearl Island
Discovered/Built by: tbeecham
Legacy Hub (formerly Galactic Hub)
System: Consilii-NMSL
Type: “Low Atmosphere” planet
Weather: Moderate
Sentinels: Passive
Flora: Nonexistent. According to the Discoveries log, 1 plant specie (“common”) was discovered. No plants exist on the planet now.
Fauna: Devoid. Also based on the Discoveries log, 14 animal species once existed on the planet, but no animals survive.
Economy: Mining // Balanced
Dominant Lifeform: Vy’keen
Conflict Level: Low
Planet Base Coordinates: OLCH:0804:0083:0804:012B (from the base’s signal booster)
Portal Coordinates: There are no portals on this world anymore.
Resources (according to the log): Star Bulb, Emeril, Copper, Heridium
Exterior Temp: Range between 105.6 F, 0.8 Rad, 6.5 Tox (day) and 2.3 F, 1.8 Rad, 18.2 Tox (night)
Storms: none
Length of Day: 1 real-time minute = 45 minutes on Horner. 32 real-time minutes = 1 day on Umiddalr Geynna.
Sunrise: 0400
Sunset: 2000
Circumference: ca. 5:30 minutes (330 seconds) at 4756u/s = 1,569,480u or ca. 1,569ku
Diameter: ca. 499ku
Volume: 6.54 x 107 u = 65,400,000u
The Earth’s moon has a circumference of: 10,921km (or nearly 7x that of Umiddalr Geynna)
Waypoints: 5 Waypoints discovered, dates ranging from May 9, 2017 to May 15, 2017:
1 discovered by tbeecham on May 9, 2017
4 discovered by himshieland on May 15, 2017
Dates indicate when they were uploaded to the Online Services (Atlas server). Waypoint names were not changed by the players.
Comm Stations
| No. | Color | Placed By | Text | Notes |
| 1 | orange | Matthew71NSW | I came about that S38 Explorer…. | |
| 2 | blue | Galactic Heritage | This is an official Galactic Heritage site | |
| 3 | orange | unknown | Hi, Ty. It’s like home from home | floating |
| 4 | orange | unknown | Comm. Tree | floating |
| 5 | orange | unknown | WIDJ:0803:0084:0804:0067 Metropolitan NMSL | floating |
| 6 | orange | unknown | fde excluding to measure up there from | floating |
| 7 | orange | unknown | Happiness is here and now ❤ | floating |
| 8 | orange | unknown | From Dweller NMSL ! | floating |
| 9 | orange | unknown | Thanks for the fish! | floating |
| 10 | orange | unknown | We are made of Stars | floating |
| 11 | blue | unknown | Great place! Hold down the fort good buddy | floating |
| 12 | orange | unknown | Ty Ty for pearls | floating |
| 13 | orange | unknown | Glad everyone’s welcome. Even Guiney Pigs. | floating |
| 14 | orange | unknown | Nice base you have here! | floating |
| 15 | orange | unknown | Love the new location! | floating |
| 16 | orange | unknown | Greetings Ty awesome base | floating |
| 17 | orange | himshieland | Where is the interaction? | buried |
| 18 | orange | unknown | This is a monolith | floating |
| 19 | orange | unknown | Trading Post | floating |
| 20 | orange | unknown | Crashed ship 001 | floating |
| 21 | orange | Ruuddog | Taxi take me hom._._.Brings me here!! Ha | At base unit |
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Note that a few comm balls mention structures that are no longer observable on this world. They stand as markers to what was, even though their initial placement was completed as a help to fellow travellers. I did travel to the address given by one of the comm stations, but arrived at a hostile, barren world without a base to discover. Chances are good that it is on a nearby planet.
—Andrew Reinhard, Archaeogaming
Archaeogaming
Archaeogaming is a collective of gamers who are interested in applying archaeological methods while exploring game-worlds. We are interested in the evolution of gaming worlds and in the use of archaeology while in-game. Archaeogaming was founded by Andrew Reinhard on June 9, 2013.
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