Oh boy, time flies. Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far. BETA 1 is taking longer than expected, and it's entirely on the content at this point. There were a few minor "can't forget about this part" moments, summer time stuff, and just the fact it's shaping up to be lots of work. But we've got our eyes on the BETA 1 Pre-Release, and are at the point where everyday we say "is this ready yet?". So, soon(tm). With that out of the way, because of the delay, we've (well mostly Stuffie) has been cooking some good stuff. Over the last year we've accumulated a whole bunch of feedback as well as cultivated our own opinions on things, including UI. That's why BETA 1 will see some fairly significant UI improvements. Among these changes are the inventory layout. This panel will be a bit wider, making better use of available space, as well as how the individual cargo bays are viewed. Quality of Life stuff like sorting (with several sort types) has also been added. We've taken another look at Manufacturing. The last time it was significantly changed was Alpha 5 (I believe?), so it's been a while. We're changing how the labs are selected, and how the recipes are displayed. Recipes will also now be able to include multiple outputs (in part to support the material changes mentioned in the last new post). We think this will be a better use of space than the existing layout, and also be a bit more straight forward in useage. Finally, the other addition to mention in this news post is: item mass. Items now have mass. They affect the mass of the object carrying them. Cargo bays will have a mass reduction modifier. This means you can still carry whatever you want, but it will probably affect your flight characteristics. It also means AI ships will often fly differently depending on what they're carrying as well. To prevent the player from being accidentally bogged down with weight, item pickup will now be an activated action. No more physically ramming items, instead, be within a certain radius, press the "pick up items" key, and they will flow into your inventory. In the situation when two or more players try to pick up the same item, whoever presses the key first wins--assuming everyone is within range. That's it for now. We'll have that Pre-Release and resulting BETA 1 in your hands as soon as possible.