Dataminers pouring through the files of No Man's Sky's all new Foundation Update are discovering assets that hint at the upcoming release of terrestrial vehicles.

A flurry of activity is coming out of No Man's Sky developer Hello Games this past week, the first activity from the studio since its game's release and subsequent controversy. While the focus of the activity has revolved around No Man's Sky's first major content update, the Foundation Update, the studio has also revealed further plans to release more free content. Clever fans immediately began work scouring the Foundation Update's files looking for clues as to what's coming next. They struck gold – cars, or more specifically, buggies.

Dataminers didn't have to dig very deep. Within the patch files is a folder titled "BUGGY" which contains all the evidence necessary to show Hello Games is working on driveable cars. The files therein included a  texture file for a while, fully modeled wheels, as well as a 2D animation of a rotating buggy with the wheels being highlighted. While these files by themselves don't prove the existence of in-development vehicles, their inclusion in the patch and the fact they're entirely inaccessible in-game indicates there's more to be shown.

Since inaccessible game files aren't as persuasive as in-game assets, one game modder went the extra mile and put the files in-game himself. The recording he provided shows a rack of tires on one of No Man's Sky's procedurally generally planets with a terminal nearby displaying the 2D animation. It's nothing extravagant, but seeing the objects in-game should let players envision the possibility of buggies being added in a more realistic way.

[HTML1]

While the likelihood of buggies being added to No Man's Sky is increasingly certain given the evidence at hand, it's perhaps good to question whether buggies would be something fans would be excited about. With No Man's Sky's Foundation Update, the game now includes player-built home bases. Additionally, changes were made to make resources easier to hunt down based off of scans. In other words, a terrestrial vehicle like a buggy which would allow players to comb the surface of a planet and return the resources to a base would be useful.

On the other hand, spaceships in No Man's Sky are already extremely maneuverable and a priority for players' investment due to the necessity of a ship for space exploration. To make a terrestrial vehicle like a buggy useful, Hello Games would probably want to give it a variety of utility. That's not just in terms of extra storage or even weaponry. Rather, perhaps some amount of automation would make it viable. For instance, the ability to call down a buggy from a player's freighter and to have the buggy come to a player like Batman's Batmobile.

No Man's Sky is currently available on PlayStation 4 and PC. The Foundation Update was released just recently and Hello Games is already working on future content updates.

Source: GamesRadar