No Man's Sky Orbital Update brings full ship customisation and a complete space station overhaul

rockpapershotgun.com:

Is there a developer more fiendishly dedicated to giving fans endless returns on their initial investment than No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games? It’s not a competition, mind, but they’d surely be a strong contender if it were. Despite dropping the Omega update just last month, and unveiling fantasy survival game Light No Fire at last year’s Geoffies, the Horsham team are back once more with the Orbital update. It looks to be a sizeable one too, with ship customisation and a “complete space station overhaul” among the new features. You can read the full patch notes here. I hope it includes a note about how much sleep they’re all getting, because I’m starting to worry.

The space station tweaks include new shops, activities, and different overall themes based on species and locale. Improvements to the engine allow for “vast interior spaces,” and a visual glow-up. Meanwhile, the new ship editor looks to be a nifty and approachable solution for crafting and painting your own sleek or ridiculous vessels. This doesn’t end at the editor either, as you’ll also be able to scavenge wrecks found on planets for parts, then use them in your designs. You can see more in the trailer below:

As usual, a new NMS update means a fresh one of those great paperback cover images they do for all their updates. I’ve dabbled in NMS myself, though I’m saving the game proper for an unspecified time in the future, possibly when I own a very expensive VR headset. Even as someone who doesn’t get all that much out of the specifics of these patches, though, I’m always keen to check out the book covers. Meanwhile, the studio’s next game Light No Fire remains elusive, as we haven’t seen North nor South pole of it since its announcement trailer at the Game Awards. We do know that it features dragons, massive birds, and baby skeletons though, and I’m personally very intrigued to see Hello Games focus all their procedural nous on a single planet.