HIGHLIGHTS

• Tension and Stability - corporate players can destabilise Frontier systems administered by rivals and maintain control of their corporation's systems
  
• Crises - destabilising a Frontier system triggers a Crisis, during which the system's Station is vulnerable to attack
  
• New Frontier Stations - revised and expanded Stations that serve as the focus for control of Frontier systems in crisis

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ability System revision - Abilities now treated as 'software' for ships, new System Map versions of several Abilities
  
• Emplacement testing - help us test and balance Station defences for the Faction Conflict system, coming in our next Update
  
• Market updates and fixes - Tax changes and Order matching
  
• HUD improvements - improved visibility of shields, energy visible on System Map
  
• Ship models resized - the relative sizes of different ships now better match their mass

Event Start/End

Event Rewards:

GENERAL

• When a character is deleted, their name will now also be deleted, allowing the same name to be reused on a new character
  
• As part of the above change, all names that up until now had been taken by deleted characters should now be available again
  
• All icons and bindings that open a window should now act as toggles - using them while the window is open should close the window
  
• The cockpit view (default hotkey [noparse][U][/noparse]) is now persistent - if you leave a Sector while in the cockpit view, you should still be in cockpit view when you next enter a Sector
  
• Various aspects of client rendering and physics have been optimised and you may see an increase in performance, depending on the specification of your computer

CARTELS

• All basic Cartel functionality has been revised, and should now function correctly, including invites, the Cartel window and Cartel chat
  
• The locations where Cartels can be created vary according to the faction status of the player
  
• Independent Pilots can create Independent Cartels at any Station
  
• Corporate Pilots can create Corporate Cartels at the Corporate HQ Station of their megacorp (Arenev for Renon, Ichetic for Transgate and Borra for Shoten)
  
• Pirate PIlots can create Pirate Cartels at any of the three Independent Stations
  
• All Cartel members should be able to see the Cartel member list and Cartel chat
  
• The text colour of the Cartel chat channel has been changed to improve visibility
  
• Cartel membership should no longer be wiped when an Update is applied to the game

CARTEL LEADERBOARDS

• Cartels have been added to the Leaderboards
  
• Click the 'Cartels' button in the Leaderboards to see the rankings for Cartels, click the 'Players' button to see the rankings for individual players
  
• In this initial implementation, Cartels are ranked in the same categories as individual players, based on the total accomplishments of all players in the Cartel

MARKET

• When fulfilling an existing Buy Order, Station Tax will now be deducted from the income from the sale, rather than being charged 'up front'
  
• When an Order you created expires or is cancelled, you will now be refunded any 'unused' Station Tax you paid when creating the Order (note that this only applies to Station Tax - Market Fees for creating an Order are non-refundable)
  
• It is no longer possible to undock from a Station while you have items awaiting collection in the Station's Market Warehouse - all items awaiting collection must be removed from the Market Warehouse and placed in cargo, your personal warehouse on the Station, or discarded before you will be given clearance to undock (if you buy something, be sure you have somewhere to put it or the Credits to buy more space for it)
  
• When fulfilling an existing Buy Order by clicking on the Order's 'Sell' button in the Demand pane, items in your warehouse on the Station should now be recognised as available to sell, in addition to items in your cargo hold
  
• Several aspects of the Market GUI have been revised and updated
  
• When the Market window is opened, it will default to showing all existing Buy and Sell Orders at the Station
  
• The display of Orders can be filtered by clicking the Categories and Subcategories on the left-hand side of the Market window to select and unselect them - the Supply and Demand panes will update to show only the orders than match the currently selected categories and Subcategories
  
• Clicking on a column heading in the Supply and Demand panes will now sort the currently displayed orders according to that column (click on the same heading a second time to reverse the sort order). The column currently being used to sort the orders (and the order of the sorting) is indicated by a small white arrow icon
  
• The Supply and Demand panes of the Market window will now show scroll indicators when there are more orders than can be displayed at the current window size
  
• The 'Sell' buttons for existing Buy Orders in the Demand Pane are now highlighted or greyed according to whether you have any of the appropriate item type in your cargo hold or warehouse on the Station (note that items in Secure Cargo are not counted, in order to prevent the accidental sale of Secured items)
  
• The display of Market Fees and Station Taxes in the Order Creation and Order Fulfilment pop-ups has been clarified
  
• When you fulfil an existing Sell Order, the Order Fulfilment pop-up window now has three buy buttons - the first buys the items and places them in the Market Warehouse for collection, as before, while the other two allow you to buy the items and place them directly in your current ship's cargo hold or your warehouse on the Station, assuming you have enough space available
  
• Whenever you have items awaiting collection in the Market Warehouse, its icon will flash

CHAT

• It is now possible to resize the Chat window by clicking and dragging its upper-right corner (it currently gets reset to default when changing area, but this will be addressed in a future update)
  
• The Chat window log can now be scrolled, to view earlier messages
  
• Channel selection in the Chat window is now persistent - you will stay in the same Channel when moving from one area to another

BUG FIXES

• Fixed bug that could cause character data from previous character to appear for the next character after logging out to character selection
  
• Fixed broken Void Gates (we think we got all of them, but please let us know if we missed any)
  
• Fixed Medical Supplies having 'Refuel' option
  
• Fixed Cooldown behaviour for toggle abilities
  
• Fixed Cargo Scanner on System Map
  
• Fixed broken resizing on several GUI windows
  
• Fixed NPC AI bug that could cause NPCs in the same group to 'aggro' on each other

GENERAL

• Corporate NPCs can now attack and be attacked by Pirate players in Developed (green) star systems (note that this change does not affect the PvP engagement rules, just the PvE engagement rules)

SYSTEM MAP - SENSORS & DETECTION

• A new Sensors & Detection system has been implemented on the System Map
  
• All ships and other objects on the System Map with sensors have a Sensor Radius. The larger the Sensor Radius, the longer the range at which other objects can be detected and identified
  
• A ship's Sensor Radius is based on its Sensors rating
  
• All ships, uncharted ('temporary') Sectors and other detectable objects on the System Map now have a Signature Radius. The larger the Signature Radius, the easier an object is to detect
  
• A ship's Signature Radius is based on its Mass (which increases Signature Radius) and its ECM rating (which decreases Signature Radius)
  
• Your ship's Sensor Radius is displayed on the System Map as an orange dashed circle around it, and its Signature Radius is displayed as a blue dashed circle around it
  
• When your ship's Sensor Radius intersects the Signature Radius of another object on the System Map, your sensors will Detect the object and display its position as a 'blip' on the System Map
  
• When the distance between your ship and a 'blip' gets low enough, your sensors will Identify the object, and you'll see full details about it
  
• Once an object has been Identified by your sensors, it will remain Identified while it remains 'in sight' on the System Map
  
• Ships that remain stationary on the System Map are significantly harder to detect - 5 seconds after coming to a halt, a ship's Signature Radius is reduced, and remains at the lower level until the ship moves again

MISSIONS

• New Delivery missions have been implemented and can be found on the Missions Boards at all Stations
  
• Delivery missions require you to deliver passengers or freight from the Station where you accept the mission to the Station in another system
  
• Accepting a Freight Delivery mission will place a freight item in your ship's cargo hold (note that you must have enough cargo space available for the freight or you will not be able to accept the mission)
  
• Accepting a Passenger Delivery mission will place the passengers aboard your ship (note you must have enough Passenger Capacity available for the passengers or you will not be able to accept the mission. See Ships - Passengers & Cabins, below, for more details about passengers)
  
• Delivery missions are completed automatically on docking at the Station in the appropriate system, with the freight and/or passengers aboard
  
• Delivery missions have a Delivery Time
  
• Completing a Delivery mission within the Delivery Time will award Freight or Passenger Rating points and earn a bonus to the mission rewards, depending on your current Rating (see Delivery Ratings, below, for more details)
  
• Completing a Delivery mission 'late' (after the Delivery Time has expired) will not award any Freight or Passenger Rating points, and will earn only the base mission rewards
  
• A Delivery mission can be failed by aborting the mission, losing the freight or passengers by being defeated while they are aboard, or (in the case of freight deliveries), discarding the freight item
  
• The 'Clear Sector' missions have been revised and are now called 'Defeat Raiders' - to complete one of these missions, find the Mission Sector in the target star system and defeat the listed enemies
  
• The 'Find a Thief' missions have been removed (they will be replaced with either a new mission type or an improved version in a future update)

SHIPS - PASSENGERS & CABINS

• Ships now have a Passenger Capacity, which determines how many paying passengers the ship can carry
  
• Passenger Capacity is displayed at the bottom of the Cargo window (default hotkey [H])
  
• All current ships have a base Passenger Capacity of 0
  
• Passenger Capacity can be added to a ship by purchasing and installing Passenger Cabins
  
• Passenger Cabins are Hull modules that convert Cargo Capacity into Passenger Capacity by installing cabins in the ship's hold, and come in three 'sizes', offering +1, +5 or +10 Passenger Capacity
  
• Passenger Cabin modules are supplied by Stations in all Developed (green) star systems (although Shipyards will typically have the highest supply)
  
• Once a passenger boards your ship, they will remain in the ship until you either abandon the Passenger Delivery mission, are defeated in combat, or complete the Passenger Delivery mission

DELIVERY RATINGS

• All characters now have two Delivery Ratings - one for Freight and one for Passengers - which rate the character's reputation and reliability for performing deliveries of the appropriate type
  
• The lowest Rating is 0 and the highest is 10
  
• Highly rated Pilots can charge a premium for their services - when completing a Delivery Mission within its Delivery Time, the Credit and XP rewards are increased by 10% per level in the appropriate rating (for example, a character with a Freight Rating of 3 earns a 30% bonus on XP and Credit rewards for Freight Delivery missions, as long as they complete the mission within the Delivery Time)
  
• Characters earn Rating points by completing Delivery Missions within the Delivery Time
  
• Characters lose Rating points by failing Delivery Missions
  
• Rating points also decay slowly over time - the higher a character's Delivery Ratings, the harder they must work to maintain their Ratings
  
• Earning enough Rating points will increase a Rating level
  
• Your character's current Freight and Passenger Ratings are displayed in the lower-right of the Journal window - the Stars show your current Rating level (half a star per level), and the numbers beneath them show your current Rating points and the points required for the next Rating level (for example, 150 / 5000 means you have 150 points and need 5000 for the next Rating level)

GUI

• Chat Window - text entry for the chat window now 'scrolls' as text is entered
  
• Journal Window - the display of Faction Reputation and Notoriety has been updated to match the style of the new Delivery Ratings

LEADERBOARDS

• The Leaderboards have been updated and improved, and should now be more reliable and accurate
  
• Two new time periods have been added, This Week and This Month, showing the totals for the current calendar week and calendar month, respectively
  
• The Leaderboards should now update at regular intervals:
  
• Today is updated every 5 minutes, This Week is updated hourly, This Month and All Time are updated daily
  
• Yesterday, Last Week and Last Month are updated at the end of each day, calendar week and calendar month, respectively
  
• Note that the previous Leaderboard data was not compatible with the improved system, and so all Leaderboards have been reset with this update

BUG FIXES

• Options settings should now save correctly between game sessions
  
• The default key, mouse and joystick/gamepad bindings should now load automatically when the game is first started
  
• The outbreak of void gremlins that had been installing cloaking devices on mineable asteroids has been viciously stamped out, and asteroids should once again be visible
  
• Fixed several issues that may have been causing or contributing to crashes and lockups that players have experienced when starting the game (if you were suffering from these kind of problems, please let us know if you continue to experience them)
  
• Fixed several issues that may have been causing or contributing to the 'FPS drop on being hit' problem that players have experienced in combat (if you were suffering from this problem, please let us know if you continue to experience it)

• Our development priorities can and will change according to a lot of different factors, one of the most important being the feedback and input from you, our Early Access players
  
• As such, everything here should be considered 'provisional'. Even after being implemented, a new feature or game system might be revised or even removed, according to how well we and our Early Access players feel it's working
  
• Similarly, this is not a complete or comprehensive list of everything we're working on or the exact order in which we plan to work on them - it's intended to highlight some of the things that we're most excited about, feel are most important, or have generated frequent questions and interest from our players

ONGOING

• Bug fixes
  
• Performance improvements
  
• Balance adjustments and tuning
  
• Improvements and revisions to existing features and GUI

UP NEXT

• Missions - new mission types, starting with missions to deliver freight or passengers, intended primarily to provide a source of XP and reliable income for 'trader' players
  
• Sensors and Detection - new sensor and detection mechanics for the System Map, intended to introduce additional tactical gameplay on the System Map and make travel and exploration more interesting and engaging
  
• System Map Abilities - new and modified Abilities that can be used on the System Map, many of which will interact with the Sensor and Detection mechanics above
  
• Faults - new 'item decay' system, intended to add long term consequences to heavy combat damage and defeat, and to ensure ongoing demand for new ships and modules from player crafters, as existing ones start to become too expensive to repair
  
• New Ships - three new ships; one of each Type (Patrol, Explorer and Merchant)

• Faction Conflict - new game system that will allow players to take an active role in the competition between the 'big three' megacorporations for the contracts to administer the Frontier (yellow) systems in the new Confederation. Intended to make the game world more dynamic and to provide a structure and framework for PvP gameplay on a larger scale, at both an economic and tactical level
  
• Crafting - new game system that will allow players to manufacture a wide variety of items from raw Resources, up to and including starships. Will be accompanied by changes to the current NPC-driven economy, with the eventual goal of the entire in-game economy becoming largely player-driven, with little or no 'NPC supply' of items. (This is a large and complex addition to the game, and so may be implemented in phases rather than all at once)

FURTHER OUT

• Cartel Bases/Stations - ability for Cartels to construct bases and/or stations (probably focussed on Wilderness systems, allowing Cartels to take a primary role in the rebuilding of the Confederation)
  
• Cartel Conflict - game systems to allow Cartels to compete for control of constructed bases or stations (probably based on similar mechanics to the Faction Conflict system)
  
• New Threats - additional types and forms of NPC opponents, events and other threats and opportunities for players to encounter