No Man's Sky

📌 All instructions are specific to Linux (Steam Proton). Adjust for other operating systems as needed.

⚠️ Work in progress

Finish an expedition that's ended

ⓘ These steps are to finish an expedition that has ended which you've already started but not completed

👉 The only way to play an expedition that's ended is offline, so you won't see any other players or player bases

Back up NMS data directory

ⓘ This can be used to revert your profile if you accidentally start the game without disabling i

⚠️ If you start the game after an expedition's ended without doing the steps to go offline first, your profile will be edited and you won't be able to resume the expedition. Maybe it's possible to remove ExpeditionContext from your save? If you've made a

Run this from the directory where you wish to create the backup:
```
cp -av ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/275850/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/HelloGames/NMS NMS
```
Edit SEASON_DATA_CACHE.JSON
1. Edit this file:
  
  ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/275850/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/HelloGames/NMS/st_STEAM_PROFILE_NUMBER/cache/SEASON_DATA_CACHE.JSON
  
  ⓘ Replace STEAM_PROFILE_NUMBER with your Steam profile number
2. Replace EndTimeUTC with something far in the future, e.g.
```
2893423600
```
  (2061-09-08)
Prevent the game from going online

ⓘ This will prevent the game from overwriting the file we just changed and ending the expedition

Add this line to /etc/hosts:
```
0.0.0.0 merged-nms-auth.nomanssky.com
```
(Optional) Play an old version of the game (see below)
Start the game
Before loading your save, make sure you see:
1. Near the top left, you should see a message like this indicating that the game is offline:
  
  No Man's Sky Servers:
  Connecting
  
  If you don't see this message, exit the game, double check that you correctly modified the hosts file, and try again
2. The save should say Community Expedition and shouldn't change when you mouse over it. If it changes to Previous Expedition when you mouse over it, the game has already ended the expedition. Try exiting the game, restore your backup of the NMS directory and try again
When you're finished with the expedition, remove the line you added from /etc/hosts

Play an old expedition

Use the same steps as the previous section, except download SEASON_DATA_CACHE.JSON from here:

https://cwmonkey.github.io/nms-expeditions/

Play an old version of the game

(Can you choose which version of a game to play on Steam?, Install Older Version of Game)

Open Steam
Go here and find the version you want to play:

https://steamdb.info/depot/275851/manifests/
- You can correlate the version with the releases and dates here: https://www.nomanssky.com/news/
Copy the manifest ID by the version you want to play
Click Open Steam console in the popup
Paste the command into the Steam console once it loads
Wait for the download to finish

Wait for Depot download complete in the Steam console, or run a command like this to watch the progress:
```
while true; do du -sh ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamapps/content/app_275850/depot_275851/; sleep 600; done
```
(Optional) Rename depot directory

ⓘ Steam uses the same depot directory for all versions of the depot, so if you want to download more than one version you'll need to move or rename the directory so it doesn't get overwritten, e.g.
```
mv ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamapps/content/app_275850/depot_275851/ ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamapps/content/app_275850/depot_275851_7253617562963782987
```
(Optional) Back up the current version of the game

ⓘ This can be helpful to restore the current version in case a new update comes out, that way the update may be smaller
```
cp -av ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky/ ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky.bak
```

Copy the old version over the current version

ⓘ This will need to be re-run every time a new update comes out as updates can't be skipped and will override the older version of the game

cp -rv ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamapps/content/app_275850/depot_275851/* ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky/

Or if you renamed the depot directory, e.g.

cp -rv ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steamapps/content/app_275850/depot_275851_7253617562963782987/* ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky/

If there's a new update

If you backed up the latest version of No Man's Sky, exit Steam and copy it back

cp -av ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky.bak/* ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/No\ Man\'s\ Sky/

Open Steam and allow the latest update to download
Validate the game files

Right-click the game in the list of games on the left > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files

ⓘ If you don't do this, when you click Play Steam may validate the game files after you've copied the old version
While Steam is still runnning, copy the old game files back again (see above)

Troubleshooting

`SYS_FATAL_ERR_TITLE`

This started appearing during the Voyagers update for some players. It seems to be the same error as the Beacon update just with the all text replaced by placeholder text.

It's just a generic error message, and the prompt is for whether or not to verify the Steam game files to resolve the issue. See below for more information.

The game has encountered an error and will now shutdown

It seems this started appearing during the Beacon update for some players.

Click Yes to verify the Steam files if you want
If you're playing on Linux with Proton, I've found:
- The game crashes with Proton GE 8 and maybe Proton Experimental?
- I get a black screen with Proton GE 10
- Proton 9, 10 and GE 9 all seem to work
See here for more help: https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213596929-Game-crashes-when-it-starts-PC

If you get a message that you're running an old version of Windows

If you're playing on Linux with Proton:

Run protontricks 275850 winecfg
Select Windows 10 or greater for the Windows version

bmaupin/no-mans-sky.md