Hi there and welcome to update 1.12. It's quite a large one so take a seat and get comfy.
Compatibility Note:
Custom keybindings have been reset in this update so you're gonna have to redo those. Old galaxy save files should work fine however.
New Stations
The old stations are completely gone and have been replaced by new, modular ones that allow for buildable stations.
Station Modules
There are currently only 5 large station modules, just enough to get everything in working order. More are coming very soon.
What makes these modules different from the rest is this, they:
- have a tougher neutronium hull that is a magnitude more durable than the usual materials, but is also substantially heavier making them unviable for ships
- require the station power grid to function properly and will only turn on when attached to a station
- extend stations with unique services and menus

The
Station Core is the central hub for all station appliances and houses a large reactor to support the rest. It's also what the stations are started with - but more on that later.
The
Residential Bridge is a nifty connector to expand the station while providing a bunch of attachment points for other modules.
While still in development, it's also where the station crew and visitors will be able to live once that's added.

The
Module Construction Factory (or the Terminal) is a large facility for module construction via 3D printing (now
also animated). As you probably guessed, this is what enables the construction menu.
The
Repair Station works pretty much the same way as the old one, repairing any ship in its vicinity as long as it's on good terms with the station.
The
repair effects have been updated as well.
Both of these two let you use the ship loading/saving menu as well.

The
Office is the counterpart to the old station core, letting you access the galactic stock exchange.
Radial Menu
As the old station icons are gone, there's a new way to interact with stuff - the radial menu.
It can be opened on all ships and space stations by
holding down C while hovering over the vessel with the mouse. Then you can pick an option like you normally would with these types of menus and
release C to confirm.

One can open all station menus with it, demagnetize derelicts, initiate chat with ships and stations, transfer fuel (cargo transfer isn't quite done yet), etc.
Getting your own Station
A new station is made by grabbing a
Station Core with the mouse and releasing it into space.
Creative:
In creative, all station modules are grouped under the far right filter called "Other". Here you can demagnetize all stations regardless of their affiliation with you.
Campaign:
Station modules aren't craftable and cannot be bought at the Terminal. Instead you need to source them from already existing stations via several methods.
At the moment there are three major ways of getting your own station:
- finding a derelict station, demagnetizing it and reassembling
- attacking a neutral station and shooting of all of their weapons so they surrender, giving you a friendly station instantly
- attacking a neutral station and destroying all of their cores, which will explode the station and drop the remaining modules
It's probably worth noting that unlike the old ones, these new stations don't appreciate being shot at.

You can ferry the modules by attaching them to your ship, but they won't turn on in this configuration and they're really really heavy.
Basic Crafting
Having your own station and paying it to construct stuff for you doesn't really make sense does it?

So now once you have a Module Construction Factory at your station you can use it to construct modules from
ore in your or the station's cargo containers.

You can also scrap modules for ore now, even the ones attached to your ship:
Station Liveries
Having just one type of station hull becomes terribly boring quickly, so there are also multiple liveries with which stations spawn and some you can switch to yourself.
The stations in the Outer Rim are all rusted from the near-hull safety air layer and unmaintained.

The rest of the stations in the Industrial Sector and beyond are currently either stock or one of these two corporation liveries:

Once you own a station there's a control panel menu called the
Dashboard which among other things, lets you switch the livery.

Be careful however, as the changing process is
very bright.
Building System Upgrades
Working with the new super large station modules, some issues with the building system have become more pronounced - finally letting us fix the overlapping bugs for good. So, no more funny business there.
Another bug, best put by Amurka:
[quote=AMURKA]Inconsistency with rotation while placing. It apparently depends on the orientation of the block you're putting it on, even if two identical blocks are next to eachother and LOOK the same, one might be rotated 90 degrees and then it forces you to re-rotate a block while placing on both.
[/quote]
has also been fixed, with rotations now no longer relative to the node you're placing it on.
New Abilities

The
Delete Floating Objects is a creative-exclusive ability that lets you remove all free floating ship modules, ores, and other particles to clean up the playing space. (this one was quite overdue)
The rest are tractor beam abilities that have been in the game code for a while but weren't yet added and are pretty self-explanatory.

Abilities now have tooltips as well.
New Icons
The old icons have been replaced with slightly more sleek ones that will be hopefully more visible in nebula systems as well.

That about wraps it up for the update, with some other minor things in the changelog below.
Changelog:
Additions:
- radial menu for ship and station interaction
- brand new modular stations
- you can now chat with all ships and stations
- friendly stations are now displayed on the galactic map
- ship and station names no longer repeat inside a single savefile, with a whole bunch of new ones added
- abilities now have tooltips
- creative clear freefloating ability
- two new tractor beam abilities
- two new music tracks
Changes:
- removed old stations
- station menus are now accessed through the radial menu
- ship and station names should no longer repeat inside a single savefile
- screenshot key is now rebindable
- added a wallpaper to the loading screen
Fixes:
- collector blades not showing up sometimes
- building system rotation directions are no longer relative
- no modules can overlap when building
- screenshot key is now rebindable
- fixed mouse clicking under chat gui elements
- critical issue that nobody ever noticed, the galaxy map not updating on loading a new game
Thanks for reading and have a good one!
[ 2017-09-24 15:28:03 CET ] [ Original post ]