0.431.8 - Freefall

Custom craft approved for mining equipment

This week several custom-build kitcrafts were approved by the Enceladian Safety Committee to install standard-issue mining hardware, most notably the popular in “Bald Eagle” racing modification of Eagle Prospector. While limited cargo bay of modified craft makes using it for mining questionable, the racing crews are excited by an option to cushion lithobraking manoeuvres.

Unrest in the industrial ring

The recent discovery of unusually high residual radiation in the Industrial Ring of the Enceladus Prime station led to protests blocking out the transfer pillars. The residents of the Industrial Ring blame Enceladus Corp for obscuring the buildup of radiation. At the same time, the Enceladus representatives quote that the industrial section of the station was never approved for habitation. As of 2273, over 21,000 residents currently occupy the low-gravity environment of the Industrial Ring, making up over 12% of the station population.

Nakamura Dynamics Recall

Popular nuclear thermal propulsion manufacturer issued a free recall on its Pulsed Nuclear Thermal Rocket. Service includes refurbishing vectored thrust chamber and new propellant pumps, lowering the power requirements of the torch. Nakamura’s PNTR won "Torch of the Year 2251" and remained a common propulsion choice thanks to its cheap maintenance costs and impressive durability.

Maintenance Logs

• Bald Eagle now can mount mining hardware on its low-stress hardpoints. Cradled equipment is not available.
  
• The geologist tab in the OMS now features a cargo hold display, including processed cargo storage and cargo estimations.
  
• I extended the demo. You can now load saves as long as less than 30 days have passed in the game.
  
• ND-PNTR torch rebalance. It's now capable of vectored thrust, making it much more helpful for ships that lack serious RCS rotational thrust.
  
• Default Cothon-212 configuration adjusted to feature Nakamura autopilot required to make good use of the vectored thrust of its stock PNTR torch.
  
• ER42 racing autopilot now has Fly-By-Wire capability.
  
• Added a short-range propellant tank, taking 15,000kg of propellant, dedicated to shuttles and large drones.
  
• When your comms screen was already full with dialogue, when a new ship approached you, the window sometimes did not scroll to reveal all reply options, showing only the first one. While you could still scroll down with a mouse, keyboard or gamepad to display the remaining replies, some players missed that.
  
• It's now easier to pay off your entire bounty if you accumulate one.
  
• Vilcy sometimes called you with combat dialogue when there was a bounty on you, requesting your support instead of asking to pay up.
  
• Rescuing a stranded friendly ship or a friendly lifepod now counts as a friendly action and will improve your faction standing.
  
• Abducting a pirate ship or turning a pirate lifepod for bounty will make pirates dislike you.
  
• Stealing drones not owned by you and selling them at Enceladus is considered a hostile act now.
  
• Removed lag when selling a lot of ores at once.
  
• Fixed a bug in the individual disposition system that caused individual ships never to be genuinely hostile towards you.
  
• Fixed missing Elon Interstellar Model E cabin lights.
  
• Grinders of Eagle Prospector and Mining Companions are now visible inside caves.
  
• The Space Bar will not offer you drinks before you dock.
  
• Hostile actions against a faction have diminishing returns now, so you won't turn everyone in a given faction against you when you get into combat with one of their members.
  
• It will take a bit longer to build up faction confidence when assisting them in combat.
  
• The shortcut key display in the Equipment menu is visible again.
  
• When you agree to meet someone in a week, the event won't trigger if you go there immediately.
  
• Improved visuals of PNTR torch. It's now easier to spot the warmup stage and direction of the thrust.
  
• When your crew talks to you about derelicts and you don't respond, they will get impatient and ask again.
  
• Miners will now return the money they owe you faster and stop bugging you after they do.
  
• Tampered drones are not considered prisoners anymore.
  
• Radiators of fission ships about to breach containment will radiate brightly as they desperately attempt to eject heat.
  
• Improved performance for Elon Interstellar Model E HUD.
  
• Ships equipped with EI1337 autopilots could override commands given in dialogue. That resulted in some recovered derelicts mining the rings instead of returning to Enceladus immediately.
  
• THI Cargo Containers that the player does not own will not initiate docking comms.
  
• The new texture compression format included game binaries aimed at GPUs and drivers that cannot properly process our previous format, decreasing video RAM requirements on some cards.
  
• Autonomic systems and weapons now have hard-coded targeting directives and will always engage pirate ships while never fighting legitimately-owned vessels.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused drone and claim beacon dialogue to glitch out if you stayed 100m or closer to the beacon, causing a claim drone to automatically cancel your claim even if you choose an option and pay.
  
• Derelict ships are now marked as independent, and shooting at them will not cause other derelicts to be mad at you.
  
• Updated translations.