1.49.2 - Birds of Foraging

Latent Behavioural Imperatives Found

Once deemed a failed project due to unexpected social behaviours among the drones, the Nakamura-Titan Mining Companions are making a comeback. These refurbished autonomous mining drones were originally sidelined when they exhibited complex social interactions that hampered operational efficiency. Recent breakthroughs in adversarial neural network manipulation now permit a small-scale reassertion of their original behavioural imperatives, potentially restoring their intended capabilities.

Mitsudaya-Starbus Grinder Recall

Mitsudaya-Starbus has launched a recall on grinder tips of their Prospector-series ships, including the widely-used Eagle Prospector. Now coated with industrial-grade diamond, the new grinder tips are designed to endure the most extreme mining conditions. Mitsudaya promises to double the lifespan of previous models, effectively addressing the durability issues highlighted in a recent class-action lawsuit.

H.475 available for Recon Craft

The H.475 codec, recently introduced to reconnaissance crafts, now incorporates AI-driven algorithms to enhance the compression and clarity of high-dynamic range video. This development is pivotal for missions near high-glare asteroids and moonlets, ensuring detailed and artefact-free imagery that greatly aids astrogational accuracy.

Maintenance Logs

• Improved lighting shaders. This release features a new way to process lighting on objects in the game. It should have the same performance as before, but now it will remove some noise and shimmering artefacts when you view big, detailed entities (like moonlets) with your camera zoomed out.
• You can issue more orders to mining companions.
• You can now restock the propellant on a Nakamura-Titan Mining Companion that is in your cradle arm.
• A new tuning setting was added to control propellant transfer to the mining companions.
• When your mining companion is out of propellant in an autonomous mining mode, it will ask you for instructions instead of returning to the station immediately. You'll have an option to order it to return to your cradle for resupply instead.
• Increased velocity of the mining companion docking protocol.
• You can now order your Nakamura-Titan Mining Companions to perform a cargo transfer protocol.
• Your Nakamura-Titan Mining Companions will now reverse the polarity of their grinder when executing the ore transfer protocol.
• NT Mining Companions that you ordered to return to Enceladus will not call you immediately back, inventing an excuse for why they are leaving.
• When you order a drone to dock to your ship, its tactical marker will disappear immediately after the docking is complete.
• You cannot hail mining companions that docked with you and powered down anymore.
• You can attempt to hail a ship or drone again that did not reply to you. Earlier, a lack of reply would lock you out from subsequent tries, even if that specific NPC had something to say later.
• Attempting to hail a Mining Companion just as you release it should not cause it to ignore you for 10 seconds anymore.
• Asteroid grinders are now better at grabbing (smaller) rocks and doing more damage. Success in grinding larger rocks still largely depends on their shape and your ability to get a good grip on them.
• Picking up an entity with active transponder into your cargo bay will now immediately remove it from your pilots contact list.
• Racing team now has a separate conversation option when their drone is not operational, and will not schedule a race nobody can win.
• Additional Racing Team encounter.
• The bearing and distance to identified contacts will now be exposed in your Pilot tab.
• Fixed Virtual Flight Service access in the Tuning menu when using a gamepad or keyboard. Moving downwards with MVFS selected will now put you on the first tuning item, as expected.
• Fixed POI descriptions overflowing the Astrogation window if you scrolled them by dragging the scrollbar with your mouse.
• Fixed line-of-sight in the Space Bar being rendered wrong in one of the corners if you got close enough.
• Fixed a bug that caused ore to vanish if your Nakamura-Titan Mining Companion left the detailed simulation range with cargo inside and then came back near your ship. In such cases, that cargo would vanish immediately after it left its cargo bay during the Cargo Transfer Protocol.
• The interior of the space bar now properly blocks you from astrogating away and hides your exhaust and laser flares from the visual feed.
• Updated translations & credits.