Zapeth: The offline name is hardcoded in the .exe file.

Changing it is very easy, just search for the ASCII string "Explorer" in the NMS.exe file using any decent Hex editor (some advanced text editor might also work but I wouldn't recommend it) and overwrite the letters with the name of your choice.

If your name is shorter than "Explorer" you need to overwrite any existing letters of that string with NULL characters.
If its longer than "Explorer" you should be careful not to overwrite the data after that string, it seems like there is space for a maximum of 15 letters (excluding the final NULL character).

I can't guarantee if this works reliably or if any issues might arise with an existing savegame (at least your name in the menu screen changes properly) so you should be doing this at your own risk.

Also this is probably obvious but you'll need to redo this every time you patch the game (or if the .exe file gets updated).
And it might not work for the Galaxy/Steam version if the integrity of the file gets checked every time you launch it (but this shouldn't be applied to those anyway).

Socratatus: Is it possible to give any more details? When you say exec you mean the NMS icon in the game file that starts the game, right?

Zapeth: Yes. Maybe you accidentally changed the wrong string? Because there is an "Explorers" string somwhere before the one referring to your name ingame (no other occurrences).

To be specific, it should be at address 0x0133D268 (for what I presume to be version 1.07, its at other addresses for other versions but probably still in that area somewhere), thats pretty much all the info I am able to give.

GogCurt: Offline a lot lately. I have my sad theory that they are being DDOSed and otherwise harassed by the haters. That's the usual state of affairs in PC gaming. Even less controversial games are under constant assault. A theory only though, I have no evidence.

GogCurt: Offline a lot lately. I have my sad theory that they are being DDOSed and otherwise harassed by the haters. That's the usual state of affairs in PC gaming. Even less controversial games are under constant assault. A theory only though, I have no evidence.

Red_Eagle_LXIX: This certainly seem plausible, although the very worst of the connectivity issues appears to have cropped around the same time they deployed the most recent PC patches on both Steam and GOG.
Pretty much been flaky since Friday.

Up and down more than a cheap lady of the night when the seamen come in on shore leave with wallets of cash.

I'm beginning to think it is another part of the game, the connectivity to the online services is procedurally generated. :)

masterluck: So it's not just me. It's very annoying, I need the connection to find the last Atlas Station system I visited. Scan for discovery doesn't function without connection to the servers. And I can't find it myself while it is just four systems away.^^