Space can be a lonely place, what with it being – as a wise man once famously put it – so vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big and all. Which is where No Man’s Sky new Voyagers update comes in. Now, those long treks across the infinite expanse needn’t be quite so lonely thanks to the introduction of multi-crew space ships you can build, pilot, and stroll around with friends.
Customisable ships – not to be confused with No Man’s Sky’s existing customisable freighters, which essentially serve as gargantuan deep space bases – have been at the top of many a fan’s wishlist for quite some time. And today’s Voyagers update look to deliver and then some. After progressing to a certain point in the story, players gain access to a hangar-like workshop where new Corvette spaceships can be engineered both outside and within. Customisable components include hulls, wings, landing gear, engine parts, thrusters, and weapons, and all can be arranged to suit players’ whims.
And then there’s the habitable interior. “Add sleeping quarters,” developer Hello Games explains, “and you are ready to welcome a crew of friends on board. Add a mission radar and you are ready for adventure. A teleporter and you have an away team.” There’s also talk of med-bays and war rooms, or you can just add a window and watch the universe go by. And for thrillseekers, it’s even possible to flip open the Corvette’s airlock and go for a space walk together or, once within a planet’s atmosphere, sky dive to the ground.
While newcomers to No Man’s Sky won’t have immediate access to Corvette construction given its unlock requirements, they’ll still be able to experience the feature in a brand-new limited-time Expedition. Alongside the usual array of cosmetic rewards, this’ll also unlock some ship parts players might find useful when trying to build their own vehicles in the core sim.
Hello Games says it’s had to rework “almost every part” of No Man’s Sky to accommodate Corvettes and their relative spaces, and to ensure crews can still roam their ship’s corridors and continue editing during the likes of warp jumps and planetary approaches. Much of the tech, it says, is shared with its upcoming Light No Fire, which will feature vast oceans players can similarly explore together on a single boat. This isn’t the first time No Man’s Sky has adopted technology implemented for Hello Games’ Earth-sized planet sim.
And it sounds like Hello Games is still far from done. “The most exciting thing about Voyagers for me,” writes Hello Games’ boss Sean Murray, “is the possibilities it opens in the future for No Man’s Sky, and I can’t wait to see where the team takes it from here.” And if you want to know more about No Man’s Sky’s Voyagers update, full patch notes can be found over here.