Hello Games is definetely listening to us when we say we want to be able to customize our own ships and I believe the Voltaic Staff was not only a new thing they wanted to add but also a way for them to test a system for us to actually customize something part-by-part and then by color.

I thought the system worked well except for having to create a whole new staff if you found a new part. There’s also the state of contention on whether or not it’s better to unlock parts permenantly like in the player customization system or if the parts should be as they are, cosumable. I know why they chose to make them consumable, HG doesn’t want to do anything to harm or discourage players from exploring No Man’s Sky. Their procedural, 18-quintillion planets is their top selling point and it needs to be explored and all things involved or added should not only encourage exploration but compliment it.

That being said, I think if ship customization is added, the parts should be found through missions and exploration, like the current voltaic staff customization, but due to the vast, growing types of ship and their parts and colors, they should be permenantly unlocked upon discovery.

There is also something I’ve been feeling that I may be alone in but the newer ship-types(sentinel, solar, living, and the new expedition ship) all have unique upgrades and animations that are beginning to overshadow the use and cool-factor of the original types. If ship customization is implemented should it only be for the original types or for all types and if for athe newer ones as well would that then make them less special or even lesser than the latter by way of not being able to customize them?

Food for thought. Penny for yours. I’d love to see what the community thinks about this.

Long ago, NMS only allowed players to own a single ship, making it a major decision on which ship type a traveler should go after. However, realizing this felt clunky, updates have been made over the years, ship slots increased, new tech modules, and new features added. This was a great call, but it did leave one mark: the distinctions between each ship didn’t matter anymore; Haulers don’t even have the benefit of additional cargo space, since all S-class ships can have the same total number of slots.

I was talking ship perks with someone, and it got me thinking that perhaps it would make sense to introduce new strengths to less used ship types. As I was mulling it over, I realized that some of these changes would have to be pretty potent to stand up to current-day standards — poor Shuttles, their only real signature is that their takeoff price is reduced, made obsolete by the auto-recharge modules. So I decided to spitball a few ideas trying to stay true to the ship’s purpose while taking 2024 NMS in mind, and see if the following suggestions are strong enough to make you think “oh yeah, I’d definitely want to own a [ship type].”

Shuttles:

1. 25% faster flight speed than others while in-atmosphere.
2. 100% faster Pulse Drive speed.
3. Takeoffs and landings are quicker and snappier.

Haulers:

1. Cargo slots are double-sized, just like Freighters and storage containers.
2. One storage augmentation slot unlocks two slots when used to unlock cargo slots.
3. When the Teleport Receiver is installed, Hauler item teleport range is unlimited within the same star system.

Living:

1. Increased chance of finding Space Encounters while pulsing. Alien Traders completely removed from encounter pool (Frequency 12 > 0). Odds of Rogue Black Hole and Relic Gate events tripled (Frequency 1 > 3).
2. Eating food while in a ship refuels the ship’s hyper drive, pulse drive, launch thrusters, and damaged shields.

Explorer:

1. Scanning one planet scans every planet in the system.
2. Hyperdrive chain jumps. When setting a waypoint on the galactic map, can directly jump to that waypoint as long as the Explorer would have enough fuel to reach there, or up to 5 jumps (aka 5x listed hyperdrive range).

Let me know if these are along the right lines, and whether you’d fly one of these if they had these perks.