No Man's Sky Orbital update finally adds an editor to make fully custom starships

Hello Games is back with another major update to No Man's Sky. The sci-fi exploration sandbox has been receiving new content continuously for free since its launch in 2016, and today's one is a pretty major one. Dubbed Orbital, the update carries features like fully customizable starships, procedurally generated space station elements, providing guidance on fleet missions, and much more.

To start off with the big news, No Man's Sky players will now find a Starship Fabricator in space stations, letting them create a custom fighter, hauler or explorer starship from scratch, part by part, and painted however they want. However, parts to fabricate these custom starships will need to be bought or found, with the latter using the game's salvage mechanic to loot specific components.

"For a while now, players have dreamed of the ability to create their own starships in their dream configuration," says Sean Murray from Hello Games. "This new function enables you to combine parts of salvaged ships together in a near-limitless array of permutations to create brand new form factors."

Moreover, space stations themselves have been completely overhauled to make use of procedural generation much like this universe's planets. Everything from the gigantic exterior modifications to interior designs based on the regional aliens are now generated by the game dynamically, making each space station a unique space for players to explore.

Frigates in fleets can now call home for player input on various decisions as well. These can range from asking for advice on various situations the fleet is facing, and Hello Games says the choices will impact the mission the fleet is currently attempting to accomplish. There may even be moments where the player will be requested to jump in and intervene directly with a situation.

The update also carries improved Guild rewards, reputation-based discounts from vendors, a demand-based market trading system for profit-chasing players, as well as screen space reflection rendering optimizations and a bunch of bug fixes. The full patch notes can be read here.

No Man's Sky update 4.6 - Orbital is now available across PC (Steam and Xbox app), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch systems.

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