No Man’s Sky and the Cosmos Update

While I was away last week Hello Games popped up and finally launched the long expected 10 year anniversary update for No Man’s Sky.  Welcome to Cosmos!

No Man’s Sky – Cosmos

This was heralded by Sean Murray posting the martini emoji on social media (no doubt a cosmopolitan, or cosmo) for several days before it the launch.  But we knew what it was going to be called already, as they gave us the hint back at the end of the Voyagers expedition when the game hit its official 10 year anniversary.  Certainly there was a lot of speculation based on the name over on Reddit.

But now we have it… and it sounds like it might have been good to be away when Cosmos first dropped as there were some teething issues.  It happens, and all the more so when you’re coordinating an update across multiple platforms.  I haven’t checked, did the Switch 2 even get the update yet?

My guess back at the start of the year was that we would get an update to bases and base management.  My guess turned out to be wrong.  Instead we’re getting more stuff in space… which is good too.  The brief guide at login says the following:

The Cosmos Update in Brief

When I logged in for the first time I found the game prompting me to become a space station director.  They clearly hadn’t been paying attention to me record as a settlement director.

Do you want to run a space station?

You just have to go to the station core and select the new “claim station” option.

Make your choice

So yeah, I was in.  I selected the option.  And then I found out that, unlike settlements, they aren’t just handing out space station directorships to just anybody who asks.  There are tasks to accomplish.

Just complete these tasks and we’ll process your application

That seems doable… but I wasn’t going to do it just that minute.  Instead I undocked and jumped around a bit to see the new space mapping feature.  It was always strange that you could have a star map but not a solar system map, but now that has been fixed.

Viewing the Aciushuw system

I like it.  I will have to spend more time with it for sure.  But it was also BlizzCon weekend so my attention was elsewhere.

The high levels details from the expansion were posted as follows:

Deep-Space Mapping

• A map for the local star system is now accessible from the Quick Menu, displaying local celestial bodies, the space station, and other deep-space points of interest.
• Added an array of new deep-space points of interest, including rocky and icy asteroid belts, inhabited and infested deep-space outposts, procedurally-generated variations of deep-space hulks, debris fields, and asteroid platforms.
• Implemented a point of interest at the star(s) of a system, which hubristic Travellers may fly to if they choose…
• Many deep-space points of interest can be stripped and mined for valuable resources, including comet dust, gelatinous fibres, and contaminated metal. Process raw materials at a deep-space outpost to convert them into lucrative items to sell on the Galactic Trade Network, or utilise in space station construction.
• Points of interest will begin to appear on the star system map once a save has reached the Space Anomaly for the first time.
• Added a light tutorial mission, Signals, to introduce the star system map and navigation around deep-space points of interest.
• Outposts are managed by an alien quartermaster, who trades in maps and salvaged materials.
• Outposts also house a salvage & delivery terminal, offering deep-space contracts to adventurous space explorers.
• Added a number of new player titles earned for accomplishments at deep-space points of interest.
• Several deep-space anomalies now have a chance of granting rare station decoration blueprints to visitors.
• Converted the Dream Aerial to a reusable product, which can now be crafted and consumed multiple times to locate individual living frigates.
• The Living Ship encountered during the Starbirth mission chain now patrols around infested outposts, and can be actively sought out during the mission.
• Added several new music tracks for visiting locations in deep space. These include ambient tracks when near asteroid belts, stars, hulks, or space outposts, and more dramatic music when the structural integrity of a hulk begins to fail.

Shipbreaking

• Space hulks often house lucrative items, but they are volatile, and are likely to melt down and explode if their structural integrity is disrupted.
• Added a new Corvette utility part, the Tractor Beam, to gather physical cargo into the Corvette hold.
• The Tractor Beam can be purchased alongside other Corvette parts at the Corvette Workshop in space stations.
• Improved control handling, animations, and crosshairs for the Gravitino Coil.
• The Gravitino Coil may now be equipped in Space Stations.

Space Station Directorship

• Prove yourself to the local authorities to become director of a Space Station, gaining rights to shape its external decorations, interior layout and ancillary compartments.
• Earn colossal exterior decoration modules and place them around the outside of your station.
• Directors can remove and adjust existing station decoration.
• In addition, the full range of existing base parts are available to reshape and redecorate the interior of the station.
• Directors can expand their space station by adding additional rooms to the main hangar, which they are then free to decorate as they please.

Galactic Alliances

• Station directors may found their own alliance and seek like minded travellers to join their collective.
• Join an alliance by visiting any of their owned space stations.
• Quickly access your alliance’s systems via the teleporter.
• Players may join up to three alliances.
• Alliances are graded by the activity of their members. The largest and most active alliances are visible on a leaderboard at the space station core.

Orbital Constructions

• Construct orbital bases anywhere in space – utilising natural asteroid platforms as a starting point, or staking your claim on any empty volume of space.
• Added a number of new corridor base parts, buildable in orbital constructions.
• A huge number of new station decoration parts have been added, unlockable from the Construction Research Terminal aboard the Space Anomaly.

Spacewalking

• Added an eject button for non-Corvette starships, accessible from the Quick Menu.
• Deepened and expanded spacewalking, adding true six degrees of freedom movement, including roll.
• Improved the transition when landing on and taking off from objects with gravity in space.
• Explosions in space will now knock the player back.
• Spacewalking drains the cold protection technologies in the exosuit, unless in close proximity to other hazards, such as hot balls of glowing gas.

There is an update trailer as well, to give you a peek at what Cosmos has delivered.

There is also a “deep dive” video which runs twice as long as the one minute and twenty second trailer, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for depth I imagine.  But people are impatient and you might have seen how I reacted when EverQuest Legends suggested I watch a 30 minute video before I started playing!

So there we go.

There is also an expedition coming up to go with the Cosmos update.  We will probably see that in a week or so, once everything settles down and all platforms are good to go.  Called Our Journey Continues, the 23rd expedition will offer the following:

• Expedition Twenty-Three will begin shortly and run for approximately six weeks.
• This special event celebrates 10 years of No Man’s Sky, and journeys through the history of its evolution since launch.
• A developer’s commentary read by Sean Murray is available for each milestone of the expedition, permanently accessible in the Collected Knowledge section of the Catalogue once unlocked.
• Nostalgia-themed rewards include framed commemorative art, decals and titles, a golden edition of the original Rasamama 36 starship, an astronaut bobblehead, the Starbound v0.27 multi-tool, and a vintage Interceptor ship and diplodocus pet as seen in early trailers.

When that lands I am sure I will have dug myself out of my current backlog of things to do in order to join in.

Related:

• Hello Games – Cosmos: Introducing Update 7.0
• Hello Games – Cosmos 7.01 Update
• Hello Games – Cosmos 7.02 Update