0.297.8 - Stationwide Audits

Standardize autopilot capabilities

Due to multiple complaints, autopilot developers are now required to use standardized equipment descriptions on their product. Enceladus Corp has approved following standards:

• ARL - Antipodal Reaction Limiters improve propellant efficiency by cancelling out opposite thrusters automatically, without changing effective thrust.
• AAL - Angular Adaptive Thrust designates a system that is able to dynamically designate a thruster to perform a rotation maneuver, improving performance but using extra propellant.
• RTC - Rotational Thrust Computation allows the autopilot to constantly observe the effect it’s maneuvers have on cargo, adapting to mass shifts.
• FBW - Fly By Wire systems routes all manual input through the autopilot computer, taking advantage of autopilot capabilities even when performing seemingly manual maneuvers.

Colindo RVM released new mass driver

The new semi-autonomous AEMD14 mass driver released by Colindo RVM blurs the line between manual and autonomous mining equipment. Promising a new era of mining safety protocols, this device can autonomously correct the aim of human operators, but still requires him to pull the trigger manually, combining the performance of class-1 artificial intelligence with the superior judgement of a human.

Mineral Processing performance audit

Complaints about the unreliable performance of Mineral Processing Units sold throughout the station triggered a station-wide audit. At least four proprietors were charged with false advertising, claiming higher than actual performance of their products. Class action lawsuit from the miners guild is to follow.

Salvage reclamation bill

Enceladus Corp has declared that all ships found in the rings with inactive transponders are considered legitimate salvage by default. This unprecedented statement caused an uproar in miners guild, but Enceladus representative claims this bold move will eradicate the piracy threat.

Excavators Life

The eighth episode of “Excavators Life” is to premiere on the Enceladus Entertainment Network. “In the Shadow of Singularity” dives deep into the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Quantum phenomena corrected

• Re-balanced mineral processing unit to make them more diverse.
• New semi-autonomous mass driver that can correct it’s aim in a narrow cone in front of your ship.
• Re-balanced autopilots. Their capabilities are now not a straight upgrade path, but they rather take flavors, so you have performant autopilots and economical autopilots.
• Fixed prices for some torches - their replacement was more expensive than buying a new one on the market.
• Multiple typos fixed across many languages.
• Physics engine adjustments to some of the excavator properties, so they act more like big chunks of metal.
• Hitting someone with a beam from a long distance is more likely to be considered an accident now.
• Lifepods emergency radio volume curves changed, making it easier to locate lifepods by their radio alone.
• Total dive income now presented at dive summary screen.
• Your cargo containers will now communicate with you.
• Initializing a cutscene when your cargo container is released but not yet despawned was causing it to snap back to your ship.
• Crew won’t ask for a raise now if they are happy from a previous raise.
• Performance improvements, especially visible when rate of time changes.
• Upgrade activation button in upgrade menus now much more visible.
• Autopilot mouse controls now are independent of screen resolution, making autopilot controls much more responsive on high-resolution displays.
• Fixed a number of warning levels in upgrades to better match actual requirements of hardware.
• Ships that were afraid of you, but had no direct weapons refused to open comms.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a hostile or friendly space station astrogate after you.
• Multiple fixes in dialogue systems.
• You can now bring pirate ships back as salvage.
• Fixed a bug that could cause savegame corruption after salvaging damaged vehicle. Game will automatically correct all corrupted saves.