We have had to roll back a few hours of the database but everything is back to normal now. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Our data centre is without power right now and we will be offline for the next several hours. Apologies for the inconvenience. We will post an update when service is restored.

From 9pm Thursday 19th October to 6:30am Friday 20th October, UTC, there will be a maintenance window. Players will be unable to connect during this window. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Our systems will be offline for a few hours from late Wednesday night (21st June) UTC to Thursday morning. Players will be unable to connect during this time. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Our game servers have had some issues contacting people with gmail email addresses. This is now resolved - you should no longer have any problems with email. We apologise for the inconvenience.

We're working on a new client update which will include:

• A new engine version, the latest stable available to us meaning performance, visual and stability enhancements
• The new "Procedural City" system for displaying colonies.

Due to power infrastructure maintenance, Ascent servers may be offline for periods between 02:30-03:30 10-March-2023 UTC.

Your NPCs can now develop an exploit for an operating system. This is a difficult task requiring InfoSec theoretical and practical knowledge. The task gets harder for higher level operating systems, however it's easier for operating systems you have a copy of, and even easier if you have the source. Exploits will later be used for hacking. Developing exploits against your own operating systems will make upgrading your OSes to higher levels easier - making them harder to hack for other players.

New NPC Missions have been added:

• InfoSys education job at universities (used to install software etc)
• Install Operating System job

There is a new NPC mission type: Develop New Operating System You can (so far) only have one OS per player account, but with upgrades will come many versions. Exploits and upgrades are next!

In the first of a number of updates, there are new NPC missions available for training: [olist]

Information Security [/olist] These skills will be used in offensive and defensive Information Security missions within Signals Intelligence. Intel missions build (or defend against) Intelligence Networks which are used in other missions. Up until now only HumInt missions were available. SigInt will comprise all aspects of Intelligence from intercepting EM (radio) signals through Information Security and hacking.

[ 2022-12-22 04:41:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update: This situation has been resolved. We have restored the service without needing any rollbacks and everything is operational again. Once again we apologise for the unexpected unavailability period. Our game servers are temporarily inaccessible right now. This outage is unplanned, but we hope to restore service soon. We expect resolution today so don't panic. Update #1: ETA to resolution is about 12 hours from now. (It's 10:34 UTC now) The problem is a faulty storage controller, and those are always lots of fun. The good news is we're able to recover the live data, which means no rollbacks, the bad news is that this is a slower process than reverting to yesterday's backups. So nobody loses anything except playing time, but we're going to be offline a bit longer than expected. Apologies for the inconvenience!

After testing some different build options, we have found a combination that appears to resolve network issues some players were experiencing. We were never able to reproduce the problem ourselves, so this was a bit of a nightmare to resolve.

A series of missions have been added for your NPC crew. You can now send crew on missions away from your ship. At one of your colonies or any other player's colony, new missions can now appear under your "ship and crew management" tab. Crew sent on missions can develop their skills and attributes. Some missions are designed specifically to develop NPC skills and attributes, while others can have a lasting impact on the colony. [olist]

• Biocomputers now increase ship traits 5% faster than regular computers
• Window opacity has been increased for most UI windows for readabilitys sake
• The physics response to collisions has been toned down in some circumstances to make landing easier and reduce issues people were having with Customs Patrols colliding with them on warp-in
• Some in-progress work to the Crew Away Missions system (not usable by players yet)

Ships can now earn special traits when you fly them and undertake activities in Ascent. So far players have discovered three:

• Miner - gives a small bonus to yield and a significant one to mining beam range per level
• Fast Turner - gives a bonus to turning speed for large ships
• Tough - gives different bonuses to combat resilience at each of the first three levels

Ascent's power infrastructure will be undergoing maintenance from 20:30 27th June UTC to 01:30 28th June UTC. The window starts at 4:30pm 27th June for East Coast USA or 1:30pm west coast. (see UTC timezone conversions for your time zone) During the window we expect some disruption to Ascent's server infrastructure during which time your game client will not be able to connect to the servers. Otherwise, playing during this maintenance window should be considered safe as the game servers persist all important information without delay. So if you can connect, you can play.

• Re-enabled terrain detail effects with a workaround for the issue they were having
• A small, intermittent bug with combat explosions was fixed. Probably.

A number of new skills have been added to Ascent to enhance gameplay and reward varied play over and above monotonous "grinding" behaviours.
[olist]

Version 1.5021 of Ascent is out, and includes a series of visual improvements, a small engine update and a significant look-and-feel update for Asteroid Mining.

• The Game engine has been updated to the latest stable compatible version. It's likely this fixes bugs, crashes, and performance problems, including ones we don't know about...
• Shaders have been updated throughout the game to add detail to models where possible. This will make new and old ships, in particular, look a little more detailed
• New nebula visuals have been installed in Vulcan Space, Ceres Space, Apollo Space, and the main menu backgrounds. The stars in these areas have also been adjusted.
• Asteroid Mining has received a large look-and-feel overhaul. Asteroids now shatter into more than two thousand pieces with a satisfying kaboom, with a shockwave that shakes your whole ship, debris and dust flying everywhere. This is a big improvement to the look and feel of our most popular feature.
• Some other minor visual improvements and bug fixes are included in this update.

After years of lobbying by players we have released a Silicon Filter DLC for mining. The Silicon Filter removes Silicon from mining yields, increasing yields of other minerals. This is aimed at experienced, established players who do a lot of mining. We decided to release this mini-feature as a DLC for the following reasons:

• Would not have been worth developing for free as this feature alone is unlikely to bring in new players.
• It's very much optional, people have mining for seven years without this :)
• Funds further development

• A quick fix for an issue some players were having accepting the EULA.

A major new version of the Ascent game client has been released to all players after extensive testing and development with our Beta group. The new client enhances all aspects of gameplay and ties in with the new server infrastructure to provide you with a greatly improved game experience. The visual look and feel of the game has been updated, and a large number of Quality of Life fixes and bug fixes have been made. The new client and server architecture are ready for the next phase of development, but more about that soon.

Enhancements and QoL improvements

• The game engine has been upgraded to a new version. This means everything from the physics system, loading times, stability, memory managements, visuals, audio, and networking performance have all been improved
• The game server has also been upgraded from libraries current in 2013 to libraries current today. Most server-side operations are faster as a result, and several long standing server-side issues have been fixed
• The game server infrastructure has also been upgraded. The main effect is greatly improved performance for large player-built colonies and starbases.
• New shaders and effects system means every frame looks better than previous versions.
• Graphics quality settings have been bumped up. What is now "Fantastic" is significantly more expensive to render than it used to be. The old "Fantastic" settings have been demoted to "Beautiful" for players with older systems.
• A computer command has been added to delete structures in colonies and starbases. This is intended to interface with third party colony planner tools, which will need to be updated to work with it.
• The elected player Senator for a system now displays when you are near the star in space. The system used to show governors at planets (and still does) but now Senatorial seats are displayed in the same manner.
• NPC trading in particular and daily batch processes in general have received a number of enhancements with this release.
• Large colonies and starbases are now much faster to update server-side as a result of a combination of infrastructure upgrades, library upgrades and code review.
• Programmable habitat domes now process a bit faster server-side making them a little bit more intuitive to use. It should be a tiny bit easier for new players to configure a breathable atmosphere, the right temperature and gravity ranges etc.
• Autopilot EOD camera and map visuals have been updated. These should now look better and be a bit easier on the eye
• Ships you have parked in space (either because they are a carrier and you undocked, or by mounting a Hawk on them and undocking into the Hawk) now have their own Autopilot category and icon, making them easier to find.
• The effect of overloaded mass on Hawks and Carrier-borne ships has been reduced. This should make switching between your carrier and smaller craft, or a larger craft and Hawk much more convenient and viable for regular gameplay.
• Available zoom-out distance for larger ships has been increased by player request
• Zoom levels no longer reset when you hyperjump or use a jump gate

Fixes

• Stock markets will no longer display player buy or sell orders where the player can't afford to buy the goods anymore or does not have space in their warehouses to fit the goods.
• Numerous small annoying issues with stock markets and batch processing have been fixed
• A rare issue with displaying player-made jump gates has been fixed
• Some minor fixes to NPC commands have been made. Specifically, the text queries for the NPC's current route, ejecting cargo, querying their passenger quarters
• A rare issue with seeing other ships (NPCs, other players, and your own parked ships) where it would display multiples of the same ship has been resolved
• Parked ships were sometimes initialising with the wrong set of colliders, making it hard to dock with or interact with them
• Parked ships sometimes didn't follow planetary rotation properly, meaning they would blip away from you instead of remaining in place when grav anchored around a planet
• Other minor bugs with the dock/undock process for Hawk and Carrier operations
• Numerous other minor fixes have been implemented

Known Issues

• Night vision mode is not applying to all objects in this version of the client. A fix may be available in the near future

Server upgrades are now complete. There will be no further interruptions to service.

Over the next 120 minutes we will be performing server upgrades on Ascent, including fixes for several small server-side bugs. Players will experience some interruption to service during this time, but you will not lose any progress. Incidentally, this is the first interruption to our service since 2013! We will post a new notice when the upgrades are complete.

President RAM has instructed the UNCA controlled local markets to accept the following new goods:

• Beer at 600 credits
• Wine at 650
• Graphene at 1,100
• Cigars at 700
• Electronics at 800
• Mech parts at 750
• Mining robots at 980
• Farming robots 980
• Gems 100,000
• Tritium 3,000
• Deuterium 30,000
• Uranium 15,000
• Magnesium 7,500
• Antimony 20,000
• Gold 40,000
• Tobacco 200

President RAM has instructed the UNCA controlled local markets to accept the following new goods:

• Beer at 600 credits
• Wine at 650
• Graphene at 1,100
• Cigars at 700
• Electronics at 800
• Mech parts at 750
• Mining robots at 980
• Farming robots 980
• Gems 100,000
• Tritium 3,000
• Deuterium 30,000
• Uranium 15,000
• Magnesium 7,500
• Antimony 20,000
• Gold 40,000
• Tobacco 200

We're faced with a stark choice for their latest Presidential elections. A candidate by the name of Donald Trumpet, or a more established player named Leprosi. Donald Trumpet aims to “Make the Inner Nine Systems Great Again!” by building a wall to keep pirates out and making the pirates pay for it. He plans to fix the economy “I have the best economic plans” although it is unclear how any of these goals will be achieved. Promising to grab Developers Fluffy Kitten Studios “by the kitten”, Trumpet suggests he will force the developers to fix more bugs. Previously completely unknown to the playerbase and with no apparent government or political experience, Trumpet is pitching against against establishment candidate Leprosi, who has been a Star System Senator for several terms and has numerous achievements and alliances within the community. Presidents can approve gates to and from the inner nine systems, change the prices paid for resources there, and designate a system to be guarded by UNCA dreadnoughts - eliminating piracy in that system. Check out the politics forum for these candidates and others.

We're faced with a stark choice for their latest Presidential elections. A candidate by the name of Donald Trumpet, or a more established player named Leprosi. Donald Trumpet aims to Make the Inner Nine Systems Great Again! by building a wall to keep pirates out and making the pirates pay for it. He plans to fix the economy I have the best economic plans although it is unclear how any of these goals will be achieved. Promising to grab Developers Fluffy Kitten Studios by the kitten, Trumpet suggests he will force the developers to fix more bugs. Previously completely unknown to the playerbase and with no apparent government or political experience, Trumpet is pitching against against establishment candidate Leprosi, who has been a Star System Senator for several terms and has numerous achievements and alliances within the community. Presidents can approve gates to and from the inner nine systems, change the prices paid for resources there, and designate a system to be guarded by UNCA dreadnoughts - eliminating piracy in that system. Check out the politics forum for these candidates and others.

Every Colony and Outer Star Base with a population has a Mayor. Every populated planet has a Governor, and every populated star system has a Senator. There is one Colonial President. The President can change the prices the inner 9 systems offer, and as of this term direct one fleet of UNCA Dreadnoughts to one system, eradicating and preventing further piracy in that system. Mayors have authority to change colonial laws. Governors can rename planets. Senators can rename systems, plan and approve Player Constructed Gates. The President can plan and approve gates to the inner nine systems and has a direct line to both UNCA in game and developers outside of it. Senators and Governors of large populations of players are also considered to be representatives by developers. Elections for all seats are now open and remain open until the 7th of this month. This includes all Mayor, Governor, Senator seats, and the Colonial Presidency. Please head over to the politics forum (read the rules!), announce your candidacy and platform for each seat (above Mayor) you intend to contest.

Every Colony and Outer Star Base with a population has a Mayor. Every populated planet has a Governor, and every populated star system has a Senator. There is one Colonial President. The President can change the prices the inner 9 systems offer, and as of this term direct one fleet of UNCA Dreadnoughts to one system, eradicating and preventing further piracy in that system. Mayors have authority to change colonial laws. Governors can rename planets. Senators can rename systems, plan and approve Player Constructed Gates. The President can plan and approve gates to the inner nine systems and has a direct line to both UNCA in game and developers outside of it. Senators and Governors of large populations of players are also considered to be representatives by developers. Elections for all seats are now open and remain open until the 7th of this month. This includes all Mayor, Governor, Senator seats, and the Colonial Presidency. Please head over to the politics forum (read the rules!), announce your candidacy and platform for each seat (above Mayor) you intend to contest.

• Game Engine updates - should reduce some of the memory leaks and crashes some players have experienced
• Radar now notifies you with a text popup when it detects salvageable wreckage - this should help people searching for wreckage
• Reports of gem clusters hiding from radar have abated - likely a recent patch has resolved this rare issue
• Some small bugs have been fixed

• Game Engine updates - should reduce some of the memory leaks and crashes some players have experienced
• Radar now notifies you with a text popup when it detects salvageable wreckage - this should help people searching for wreckage
• Reports of gem clusters hiding from radar have abated - likely a recent patch has resolved this rare issue
• Some small bugs have been fixed

[img=http://www.thespacegame.com/Leviathan_5-800.png]

[img=http://www.thespacegame.com/Leviathan_5-800.png]

Ascent has LEFT THE BUILDING. Well, Early Access. Sales so far have been great, and we're also seeing our Wishlist score growing at the same time which is always positive. Best of all, my inbox is buried with press key requests :)

In addition, 1.4036 is now in Beta.

• Numerous small bug fixes and performance optimisations
• Several new Audio files of Dave and Susan Steele have been activated, and should help guide our new players onto the right paths.
• Megatextures have been live since 1.4034 - you can turn these on in the Options menu. Megatextures demand a huge amount of CPU, RAM and will slowly fill up your hard drive - but for people with a powerful PC they're the ultimate Ascent graphical experience. If you stay near an outer planet long enough, it will build and cache a Megatexture set, which will load whenever you fly back to this planet. Megatextures are extremely high resolution, and mean that the transitions between textures and terrain engine are invisible even on huge monitors.

TERRAFORMING.

Ascent has LEFT THE BUILDING. Well, Early Access. Sales so far have been great, and we're also seeing our Wishlist score growing at the same time which is always positive. Best of all, my inbox is buried with press key requests :)

In addition, 1.4036 is now in Beta.

• Numerous small bug fixes and performance optimisations
• Several new Audio files of Dave and Susan Steele have been activated, and should help guide our new players onto the right paths.
• Megatextures have been live since 1.4034 - you can turn these on in the Options menu. Megatextures demand a huge amount of CPU, RAM and will slowly fill up your hard drive - but for people with a powerful PC they're the ultimate Ascent graphical experience. If you stay near an outer planet long enough, it will build and cache a Megatexture set, which will load whenever you fly back to this planet. Megatextures are extremely high resolution, and mean that the transitions between textures and terrain engine are invisible even on huge monitors.

TERRAFORMING.

The HyperMegaUltra update is here!

• Co-Op combat is now live. You can see numerous pirate encounters in the outer systems, up to an including ones you should bring a fleet of friends along for.
• New single player campaign combat quest line is in, with more to follow soon.
• New ship - the Class 14 Heavy Cruiser known as the Ophan. This behemoth is ideal for combat. Which is handy because pirates seem to be multiplying.
• Deep core mining and Gems are now in game
• New asteroid and new metal added
• You can now build modular palaces on your colonies, the ultimate in-game status symbol for the super successful player. They also give useful bonuses.
• Upgraded to Unity 5, with new shaders for most items in game - huge graphics boost
• Replaced almost every interface in the game with new UI by an industry professional. Less clunk, more wow!
• So many bugs have been fixed it's ridiculous.

The HyperMegaUltra update is here!

• Co-Op combat is now live. You can see numerous pirate encounters in the outer systems, up to an including ones you should bring a fleet of friends along for.
• New single player campaign combat quest line is in, with more to follow soon.
• New ship - the Class 14 Heavy Cruiser known as the Ophan. This behemoth is ideal for combat. Which is handy because pirates seem to be multiplying.
• Deep core mining and Gems are now in game
• New asteroid and new metal added
• You can now build modular palaces on your colonies, the ultimate in-game status symbol for the super successful player. They also give useful bonuses.
• Upgraded to Unity 5, with new shaders for most items in game - huge graphics boost
• Replaced almost every interface in the game with new UI by an industry professional. Less clunk, more wow!
• So many bugs have been fixed it's ridiculous.

[img=http://www.thespacegame.com/carrierbridge.jpg]

• Added Boomerang, the first true Carrier in the game
• Added IVA (lets you walk around inside the Carrier and later other ships)
• Added Mac and Linux versions. Feedback needed - try them out please!
• Windows now has a 64bit build, which will automatically be what Steam installs on 64bit systems. Hopefully.
• Core sample maps will now show blobs or boxes by request
• Core sample maps can now filter for specific resources
• Core sample maps can now be manually offset by the user to correct their inaccuracy, using the offsetoverlay x,y command
• The game client is now better at hiding NPCs that should be far, far away from you (doesn't load them at all which means they have virtually zero impact on performance now)
• Fixes for missing paint on other people's ships
• Possible improvement for Mac font filtering after 1.3163
• Some small sample map overlay memory usage and bug fixes
• Many small bug fixes

Melbourne (Australia - Victoria) Friday, 13 November 2015 at 3:00:00 PM AEDT UTC+11 hours Washington DC (U.S.A. - District of Columbia) Thursday, 12 November 2015 at 11:00:00 PM EST UTC-5 hours San Francisco (U.S.A. - California) Thursday, 12 November 2015 at 8:00:00 PM PST UTC-8 hours Corresponding UTC (GMT) Friday, 13 November 2015 at 04:00:00 Will be messing about in the game, answering questions as they come up in twitch chat. Will give away 4 full retail keys during the event. Rumour has it, I may be showing off a partially completed CARRIER. 1. Screenshot competition - post to the facebook page, entries close 3 hours before the event 2. Best Question about the game 3. Best Question not about the game 4. Best paint job (find me in game during the stream to show off your ship) http://www.twitch.tv/jamfks https://www.facebook.com/events/1660910444194028/

• Added ice layer visible and detectable by core sampling to the game
• Fixed searching for banned goods within a certain range
• Fixed no refresh cargo holds display when changing ships
• Fixed stock market entries' cached name now changes during the batch process if the colony name has changed
• Added /ignore and /report server side chat commands
• Numerous small fixes to NPC traders
• Fixed several other small bugs

• Chat now has multiple channels with a drop down to select between them. /join (channelname) and /part (channelname) to join or leave new channels
• Stock market interface finally has pages!
• Fixed some small bugs

• Fixed bug with tilted OSB structures
• Fixed bug with NPC locations getting reset when they get confused
• Fixed ultra low framerate with problematic customs patrol
• Fixed a bug when buying stellar credits when you had none to start with
• Fixed stock market skybeams so they're gold instead of green
• Fixed invincible guardians (they're now totally vincible!)
• Fixed numerous small and annoying bugs
• Added short purple skybeams for entertainment centers to make them easier to find
• Added more variation in jump-in point initialisation to reduce the number of player-player collisions, especially when ejumping
• Added another possible workaround for losing the "send" button at huge colonies
• Hawks no longer suffer as much from being overloaded

[img=http://www.thespacegame.com/guardian.png]

• You can now instruct your NPC pilots to Patrol one of your colonies. They will scan anyone's cargo they intercept, and confiscate anything illegal. Unless they get bribed. Shh.
• Smuggling is now "feature complete". I will probably add some more little options and flourishes to it, a LOT of balancing (it might only be profitable for newbies at the moment for example) and inevitable fixes as we go forward.
• Many small bugs have been fixed. And some large ones.
• Next major feature - MEGA CO-OP COMBAT.

• New Guardian model
• Fixed many small bugs
• Improved framerates on low end machines when near (or even far from) Space Stations
• Some small visual tweaks with shadows up close

• Now loading less about ships and colonies until you're right up close
• Fix for multi-eject endless racket
• Added address book (NPCs for now, Players later)
• Added up-arrow for previous text entered into all text boxes
• Added icons, dragging Ascent's interface kicking and screaming into 1985
• Batch processing is LIVE. Report any exploding colonies to support@fluffykittenstudios.com
• Support for smuggling dialogue with NPCs
• Support for customs officers. Any employee of a Landing Bay becomes a
• Customs Officer. NPC's will be individualised from the general population to provide Customs Officers as needed. Note: Several more releases are required for smuggling to be complete and balanced, but it is, as of this release, possible
• Fixed twirling outer starbase bug
• Unity version upgrade - includes from memory crash fixes
• Many bug fixes

• Ship handling and acceleration are now related to the stored mass
• Compatibility with Hawk and Bowhead Support Ship DLC
• Some small bug fixes and performance improvements
• A fix that catches and stops a rare out of control memory leak / crash bug
• Rhino replaced by the stunning Yeti
• Articulating landing gear added (Yeti)
• Articulating airlock door added (Yeti)
• Cargo now ejects into crates - these can't be re-captured but they're fun to kick around
• Ejection crates and sampling probes now interact with cargo doors properly
• Added gate sound
• Interface visual improvement
• Map view visual and usability improvements - 3D sector grid is back!
• Several minor bug fixes
• Fixes for performance and stability on low settings on low-end hardware
• Several small possible crash preventers
• More performance and visual tuning with new shadows
• Winery, Brewery and Neurostimulator Factory now researchable and constructable
• Server side compatibility with colonial laws and issues
• Fixed a silly gate bug (the silly gate was replaced with a sensible one)

• Updated Unity to a new version
• New shadows system
• New Screen Space Ambient Occlusion system
• Fixed annoying bug where low framerate would slow down colony loading to a crawl

• Deep space Outer Star Bases should now be less jittery
• Nebulae tweaks for visual effect, and added Milky Way background
• Core Sampling Probes now have a model which you can see when you eject them
• Anti jitter system now skips frames on expensive operations when a fame is already overdue
• Added night vision system (button under help) for dark scenes
• Added radar zoom to aid in locating small objects (such as wreck fragments)
• Added targeting of asteroids and on screen 3d target indicator box
• New ship shaders improve level of detail
• New camera rotation stops locking but rotates... report motion sickness if any
• Several ships now have updated models and textures (hornet, sparrow, unicorn, kraken, squid)
• Shadows should now be much improved in quality
• New gate model and effects
• Many bugs fixed
• Some memory leaks were quietly murdered

• Fixed some of the jitter near cliffs
• Added new black hole visual effect
• Added joystick button for targeting (3)
• Added axis 5 to Horizontal control (may map to rudder pedals)
• Added axis for left-right jets (axis-6)
• Added axis for up-down jets (axis-7)

• Added support for HOTAS (tested against the Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS X). Those with HOTAS setups already will need to revert to default mapping and start again, but the end result should be a huge improvement. Progressive throttle speeds, forward and reverse, roll vs. yaw, fire button fires mining beam, salvage beam and axial beam depending on context etc etc. Should help with other joysticks and controllers too.
• Added button to turn off full whiteout when using gates or hyperdrives
• Fixed bug with old computer memory storing soil samples with nobounty on
• Fixed several annoying bugs with asteroid belts and moons in binary systems where both stars co-orbit a point in space and planets orbit both stars
• Fixed recruit colonists button vanishing at random. Again.
• Fixed many other small bugs

Rolled up patch notes 1.3123 to 1.3129:

• Added an opt out for exploration bounties to ship's computer. It's client-side so needs to be used on every PC or laptop you play on. nobounty on / nobounty off
• Added new warp, jump, and hyperjump effects
• Efficiency improvements for displaying lots of NPC pilots
• A series of EVA and full disembark terrain, collider and physics fixes
• Finalised 64bit placement of moons and asteroid belts in outer systems
• Fixed a huge bug with star 0 positioning
• Fixed huge bug with asteroid field positioning
• Reduced memory footprint of planets
• Fixed "cannot recruit colonists cos you hid the button" bug
• Many other bugs fixed

• Added new exploration system - enables exploration as a career starting with a class 1 ship
• Added new exploration bounties - allows players to set bounties on planet stats they want to be notified on. Makes exploration extra lucrative.
• Dramatically lowered the buy price of a Class 1 Hyperdrive
• Changed hyperdrive wear system. All current ships in the game wear out their hyperdrives as slowly as a class 13 ship used to. Larger ships will have a slight advantage as they arrive.
• Changed UI color scheme and some visual effects. It now looks slightly less 1990s
• Added new star surface graphics (see Janus A or any outer star)
• Added new weapon shot graphics
• Fixed some EVA suit malfunctions
• Fixed some disembark issues at colonies and added some help popups
• Fixed many other small bugs

• Exploration - more than 270 billion star systems generated with unique planets, mineral concenrations, agriculturual values and climate
  
• Farming and mining on planet surfaces - players can build their own planetary bases for resource harvesting. City simulation style play.
  
• Personal starbase construction - players can construct their own starbase to their own design. This becomes your home in space, and your centre for heavy zero-g manufacturing and research
  
• Trading - dynamic local NPC markets, player to player global market
  
• Dynamic NPC mission system - combat, trade (supply/demand), passenger transport, courier and salvage missions
  
• Asteroid mining - manual control of ship and axial mining beam. Player and character skill based.
  
• Research - blueprint fragments attainable from salvage missions allow the player to research forgotten and new ships and components, as well as enhancements to their buildings
  
• Manufacturing - every ship, weapon and utility module in the game can be manufactured by players and sold or used to customise their ships (which can also be given a custom paint scheme)
  
• Gas giant harvesting - because sometimes you need things like hydrogen and oxygen!
  
• Space combat - manual control fighter to fighter dogfighting, scales up to big ship broadside duels between cruisers
  
• Colonization of outer systems - the largest so far has over 50,000 structures and hundreds of thousands of colonists
  
• Outer Star Bases - these can also grow to vast size, open ended in 3D space just as colonies are on the surface
  
• Governments - Players who own colonies in a given system can vote for a colony mayor, planetary governor, system Senator and a colonial President. Governors can rename their planets, Senators can rename their systems and approve Jump Gate construction to their systems, and the President can approve jump gate construction to the inner systems.
  
• Player constructed jump gates - when approved by the relevant government authorities, players can band together for a community mega-project of constructing new jump gates, extending the reach of new players into the colonized outer systems
  
• NPC AI - we are implementing Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with our NPCs, giving them motivation to act within the game world. We are also developing a system which will enable them to engage in actual text chat with players (like old adventure games only we now have access to incredible new parser technology) in order to achieve their aims.
  
• Hiring NPCs as pilots - they will not be able to warp or jump unaided but that leaves a lot of capability
  
• Colonial Laws - these will enable you to outlaw or allow certain goods (e.g. alcohol) at your colonies, and lead to...
  
• Smuggling - setting up smuggler networks and sneaking banned goods into colonies for fun and profit

• Bounty hunting - tracking down fugitive NPCs, whether they are running from the law, or just their enemies
• Crime and punishment - setting up police and prisons in your colonies, and adventuring as a freelance investigator
  
• Assassination - whether blowing up the ship they're in, or tracking them to their home and pulling the trigger, you're a stone cold killer for hire