The extent of the No Man’s Sky universe is well covered; the procedural algorithms are capable of generating over 18 quintillion possible planets. If you’d visited one a second since the Universe came into being, you’d be under halfway done by now. With so much variety in the planets, flora, and fauna of the game – and the possibility of being able to name all of it in whatever manner you deem fit – it’s no wonder one would seek a No Man’s Sky naming convention.

The temptation is real. You, the Traveller, come about in some until-now unexplored corner of the galaxy. It’s likely that less than 1% of the No Man’s Sky galaxy will be collectively explored, so the opportunity to leave a real mark on it is enticing.

In this post is a personal No Man’s Sky naming convention – which I’ll call “Odin’s Convention”, for the sake of simplicity – for various objects in the game. I’ll also be considering some of the procedurally generated characteristics of these objects and reveal a little about how it’s all organised within the game itself. Unsurprisingly, Odin’s Convention is tightly coupled with the game’s internal representation of objects.

If you read through this and have some suggestions to improve, please get in touch or leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.

Mutisz did just this and has created a web app to generate names using this convention! How cool!

Things to Name with a No Man’s Sky Naming Convention

Things that one can name with any given No Man’s Sky naming convention fall under the following categories (click through for Odin’s Convention):

There are things in the game which have names that can’t be changed, including galaxies and regions (above the “systems” level at which players can begin having an influence).

What I’m going to describe in this post is the way I go about naming these things myself. Feel free to do something similar yourself, but I’m by no means suggesting everyone do it this way. Indeed, that would make the galaxy a little less interesting! That said, I’d love to hear your thoughts-and-feelings on the topic, so leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

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