Hi all! I decided to set this week aside for a major update to the loading code, QoL improvements suggested by the community and a number of urgent fixes. No screenshots this week, just a bunch of things you've asked for that I needed to "get done". Here are the updates and fixes. Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

UPDATED: Improved loading speed when moving between areas.
UPDATED: Autosaves now take place before transitioning between areas.
UPDATED: Autosaves are now displayed at the top of the load/save menu under the quick-save slot. You can no longer overwrite or delete autosaves.
UPDATED: When saving over an existing save game, that save games current name is displayed by default with a new time stamp in the save confirm dialog.
UPDATED: Increased the animation speed when swapping weapons.
UPDATED: Ship equipment merchants will always carry at least one mining laser.
UPDATED: NPC ships can now be intercepted when micro-warping.

UPDATED: Added new logic for approaching NPC ships so you follow at a distance once in range. This should make intercepting ships in star systems much easier.
--Reduced the speed of NPC ships that are micro-warping to destinations so you can intercept.
--When you are micro-warping and you target a ship and press the "Approach" icon, you will now approach that ship and match that ships speed once you are in attack range.
--If you target another ship or stellar object, you will accelerate back to full micro-warp speed.
--If the targeted ship arrives at it's destination while you are following the ship, you will drop out of micro-warp in range of that ship.

UPDATED: Increased the frequence of drops for several rare mods (Frequency Modulators and Projectile Weapon Barrels).

UPDATED: End turn options now have dedicated key binds:
[1] - Delay Turn - If you have a full bar of AP, this option will let you delay your turn in the turn order.
[2] - Defend - A chance to reduce or completely mitigate the next attack on this character.
[3] - End combat turn

UPDATED - When you are ready to end your turn, you can now press [SPACE] a second time to end your turn so you do not need to manually select a end turn option. This is the same as selecting the new keybind [3].

UPDATED: Another tweak to the number of ships traveling to/from systems.

FIXED: Fixed a rare random lockup when transitioning between areas. This includes a major overhaul of the loading code when transitioning between areas. If you have any issues moving between areas, please post on the bug forums. I've tested this heavily and everything seems to be working as intended. I'll keep an eye on the bug forums over the next few days to make sure the new system is working as expected for everyone.
FIXED: A rare bug related to high faction levels not populating the system object list (upper left menu when in space) correctly.
FIXED: A rare bug related to high faction levels not displaying correct faction information in faction UI on the star map.
FIXED: The names of equipped devices are now correctly displayed when rolling over the icons on the tool bar.
FIXED: Particle systems were not triggered when launching to space when you first recieve your ship.
FIXED: If a rollover tooltip is visible and you leave a menu using the ESC key, that tooltip is hidden correctly.
FIXED: A visual glitch in the new game cinematic when exiting the crio-chambers.
FIXED: When starting a new game, after the intial cinematic, you will not be able to edge scroll until your implants are activated. You can also recenter the camera on your crew with the "Q" key and access the help menu "H".
FIXED: You can no longer select the end turn option "Delay Turn" if you do not have a full bar of AP.