Investigation into recently released “new” Nakamura-Titan Mining Companions revealed that the Companions are in fact refurbished autonomous mining drones from a failed early 23th century Autonomous Ring Excavation project. While no record of undesired companion behaviour exists at this time, captains that choose to purchase these devices should remember that the ARE project was cancelled due to emergent social behaviour of the drones involved.
The Hunt Is On
In response to accusations of misconduct, a spokesman of the Vilcy independent bounty-hunter organisation released a statement today claiming that it will now be mandatory for all members to log all communications, with the records available to independent investigators.
Counseling for Habitat Operators
Obonto Habitats are making counseling free of charge for all the employees of their habitats. While there is no official statement from the company, our reporter reached following recording, allegedly from SRA-01 station:
“Governor? I'm concerned about O'Reilly. Don't you think he needs some time off?" "How much time off does a guy need? I gave him last Sunday. What's so hard about answering the phone?" "Well, he's all alone up there, sir. All the time." "And?" "I found this transcript..."
Comm operator TK421:It's okay. My sister was the quiet type, too. Unidentified contact: (Silent 24 seconds.) Comm operator TK421: Look, we all have things, people in our lives that are hard to deal with. But you can't give up on them. Unidentified contact: (Silent 12 seconds) Comm operator TK421: It'll be okay. Why don't you tell me why . . . uh, hold there for a moment, Dorothy, might want to correct your vector, you're close to our microwave defense range. Wouldn't want anything to happen. Unidentified contact: (Silent 13 seconds) Comm operator TK421: Dorothy, you really might want to back up a little . . . please, Dorothy, it isn't sa--NOOOOOOOOO! Unidentified contact: Lost contact at 12.28.12:35.0477
"...and?" "Sir, visual logs indicating that he was talking to six metric tons of ice." "..." "SIR." "Fine. Fine, weekends, whatever. You deal with finding the shift to replace his weekends."
Maintenance Records
Added more replies to Vilcy dialogue trees.
NPC ships will now estimate their combat capability better
New Mining Companion equipment available
Removed faces from comms of artificial intelligences.
NPC ships that have no offensive capability will now dig using their excavators and grinders alone.
Improved visuals of the microwave beam which looked strange when the beam hit something closeby.
Autonomous drones that you lease on Enceladus will now have consistent names.
Memory management and performance improvements, especially if multiple NPC ships are around and when mining extensively.
Initial dive fuel costs were computed incorrectly if you tuned your Xenon drive usage.
Adjusted display of Dealer screen to work better in lower resolutions. This fixes a bug that caused the dealer interface to stretch beyond screen size.
Salvage Manipulator was visible through clouds of ringdust and explosions.
NPC ships can now be aware of multiple pending collisions simultaneously, which will prevent them from crashing into one object when avoiding another one.
Increased search-and-rescue ship side thrust to be more useful when maneuvering.
Habitats will now prompt you again if you don’t respond for a while.
Fixed a bug in the conversation system that caused entities, especially habitats, to attempt to start conversation with floating rocks. It caused worse performance and some of the conversations being cut short.
Ship Dealer will now show which systems are damaged on ships you browse.
Onboard Maintenance System and in-flight equipment lists will now show correct activation keys for unusual systems, like nanodrones and mining companions.
You can now command some of the NPC ships via dialogue options.
When you bring a pirate lifepod from the rings, you will get a bounty paid for him.
0.300.12 - A dinner in Hell
Racing team fined
Ringracing team was fined for reckless flying. Acting upon numerous complaints from independent subcontractors Enceladus Corp dispatched a private investigation on so-called ringracers. Flight log analysis found them guilty of numerous accounts of reckless flying. A bounty of 3 million enceladollars was posted and as of today it was claimed by independent Vilcy subcontractor.
Planck’s time revised
Recent experimental results in the applied field physics revealed that the framerate of our universe is different than predicted. While scientists are excited by the breakthrough, experts advise caution, as experiments were not replicated yet.
Insect extermination notice
Performance optimizations, improving performance across all systems.
Fixes in physics simulation, which could accumulate error when you traveled for a really long time without using astrogation.
Some of the upgrade icons suggested they need more power than they really do.
"Insufficient power" icon will now be displayed on hardware you have already installed.
Some of the pirate encounters were repeating too often.
Bald Eagle HUD charts improved: power shortage icons won’t flicker all the time when your computer is damaged, performance charts of the HUD will display properly when your internal sensors are damaged.
Your dive target could be sliding sometimes even when you had the “optimize dive costs” option turned on.
Dive window will now display how your crew affects your dive costs.
Cargo bay microseismic focus tuning available again.
All NPC ships are now more careful when maneuvering around other ships.
Ships that are hostile towards each-other won’t be confused by equipment obstructing the line of fire.
Updates superconducting magnetic energy storage descriptions to make it clear that powers listed are for charging and discharging.
Morale and salary icons will now be visible in all screen resolutions.
Fixes to final dialogue trees in ex-pirate quest.
Enhanced the quest module to grant more uniform quests across crew.
Entire upgrade slot header is now clickable in the upgrades menu.
Habitat trade was causing logs to be flooded with individual trade packages.
0.299.4 - The Salvage Conspiracy
Predatory pricing revealed
Independent investigation revealed a predatory pricing conspiracy of several salvage operators in the Enceladus region. Undisclosed entities offered excessive prices on salvage arms in an attempt to drive independent competition out of business. Enceladus Monopoly Agency is said to investigate the subject, but as of today, no charges have been filed.
Incoherent Light
Recently discovered glitch in Coherent Light pulse laser hardware could cause excessive power to be pumped into the laser medium, causing discharges that exceeded all safety limits. While exact effect on crystal longevity was not disclosed, recall has been issued on all CL-600P mining lasers. This development severely impacted sales of the newly released CL-200AP, driving the prices down.
Used ship policy
In an attempt to even out the second-hand ship market, Enceladus Corp issued a used ship bill that regulates ship offers. All offers now have to include a list of all key equipment installed on ship - this includes total thermal output of the reactor, installed ultracapacitor arrays, but also secondary elements like autopilot retrofits or paired reconnaissance drones.
Improved digital safety
In a surprise sweep ATLAS operatives have apprehended a rogue AI operating on Enceladus station. Two independent edgerunners were involved in operation, but details of operation are not disclosed to the public at this time. Independent sources claim that the operation was related to station record backups.
Leaks Patched
Fixed a number of typos
Save files now have backups and are saved in a way that ensures that even power failure during save won’t corrupt data.
Microwave beam will now dissipate gradually when it hits something close to the emitter.
New Coherent Light CL-200AP mining laser available.
Kinetic damage of pulse lasers was much too high.
Text in the dealer menu will no-longer overlap on small screens.
Dealer lists much more details about the ship he sells.
Additional notifications will pop-up for story related events and salvage events.
In-ring trade events are now in logs.
Fixed replacement price for salvage arm which was higher than purchase price.
0.297.8 - Stationwide Audits
Standardize autopilot capabilities
Due to multiple complaints, autopilot developers are now required to use standardized equipment descriptions on their product. Enceladus Corp has approved following standards:
ARL - Antipodal Reaction Limiters improve propellant efficiency by cancelling out opposite thrusters automatically, without changing effective thrust.
AAL - Angular Adaptive Thrust designates a system that is able to dynamically designate a thruster to perform a rotation maneuver, improving performance but using extra propellant.
RTC - Rotational Thrust Computation allows the autopilot to constantly observe the effect it’s maneuvers have on cargo, adapting to mass shifts.
FBW - Fly By Wire systems routes all manual input through the autopilot computer, taking advantage of autopilot capabilities even when performing seemingly manual maneuvers.
Colindo RVM released new mass driver
The new semi-autonomous AEMD14 mass driver released by Colindo RVM blurs the line between manual and autonomous mining equipment. Promising a new era of mining safety protocols, this device can autonomously correct the aim of human operators, but still requires him to pull the trigger manually, combining the performance of class-1 artificial intelligence with the superior judgement of a human.
Mineral Processing performance audit
Complaints about the unreliable performance of Mineral Processing Units sold throughout the station triggered a station-wide audit. At least four proprietors were charged with false advertising, claiming higher than actual performance of their products. Class action lawsuit from the miners guild is to follow.
Salvage reclamation bill
Enceladus Corp has declared that all ships found in the rings with inactive transponders are considered legitimate salvage by default. This unprecedented statement caused an uproar in miners guild, but Enceladus representative claims this bold move will eradicate the piracy threat.
Excavators Life
The eighth episode of “Excavators Life” is to premiere on the Enceladus Entertainment Network. “In the Shadow of Singularity” dives deep into the dangers of artificial intelligence.
Quantum phenomena corrected
Re-balanced mineral processing unit to make them more diverse.
New semi-autonomous mass driver that can correct it’s aim in a narrow cone in front of your ship.
Re-balanced autopilots. Their capabilities are now not a straight upgrade path, but they rather take flavors, so you have performant autopilots and economical autopilots.
Fixed prices for some torches - their replacement was more expensive than buying a new one on the market.
Multiple typos fixed across many languages.
Physics engine adjustments to some of the excavator properties, so they act more like big chunks of metal.
Hitting someone with a beam from a long distance is more likely to be considered an accident now.
Lifepods emergency radio volume curves changed, making it easier to locate lifepods by their radio alone.
Total dive income now presented at dive summary screen.
Your cargo containers will now communicate with you.
Initializing a cutscene when your cargo container is released but not yet despawned was causing it to snap back to your ship.
Crew won’t ask for a raise now if they are happy from a previous raise.
Performance improvements, especially visible when rate of time changes.
Upgrade activation button in upgrade menus now much more visible.
Autopilot mouse controls now are independent of screen resolution, making autopilot controls much more responsive on high-resolution displays.
Fixed a number of warning levels in upgrades to better match actual requirements of hardware.
Ships that were afraid of you, but had no direct weapons refused to open comms.
Fixed a bug that could cause a hostile or friendly space station astrogate after you.
Multiple fixes in dialogue systems.
You can now bring pirate ships back as salvage.
Fixed a bug that could cause savegame corruption after salvaging damaged vehicle. Game will automatically correct all corrupted saves.
0.292.6 - Faulty Drives
This is a bugfix release. Bugs fixed:
ERS-DFMHD-2205 and ND-PNTR torches had a bug that caused the damage to register incorrectly, leading to irreparable drives and duplicated damage.
Upgrade menu highlight colors were not changing after purchasing upgrade.
0.292.2 - Race Condition
Racing crew will now actually race you.
Upgrade and Tuning warning icons changed to be more meaningful.
Crew display on Enceladus now displays crew morale and overdue salary in more meaningful way.
Improved accuracy of mass-driver boresight display.
Fixed Voyager Fabricator on Bald Eagle.
Plasma throwers now have boresight display.
Fixed a bug that messed up dialogues after encountering entity with no dialogue options.
0.290.5 - Legitimate Salvage
Articulated Recovery Manipulator
In a surprising move, Triskelion-Armstrong released the AR-1500 series manipulator for the general public today. The sale of recovery manipulators is restricted to licenced Search and Recovery crew, so in order to obtain a sale permit the AR-1500M version has a stripped-down ship interface. Marketed as “Salvage Recovery” the AR-1500M is incapable of interfacing with ships, but shares a robust design with his older brother and is more than capable of securing and towing a derelict rivaling it’s base ship with mass.
Microseismic Jamming Exposed
Independent investigative journalists revealed that several excavation companies housed on Enceladus were abusing the tightbeam array to jam competitors' microseismic drone systems. With offenders arrested and jamming signals gone, captains report vast increases in accuracy of their survey equipment, revealing new rich veins of minerals though the rings. Obonto Micro Engineering filed a civil suit against offenders for brand damage.
Excavators Life
Seventh episode of “Excavators Life” is to premiere on Enceladus Entertainment Network. “A Cure” tells a story of neglect that caused permanent health damage, and a fight to overcome it.
Pest Extermination In Progress
Enceladus Corp issued a statement warning all citizens of ongoing pest extermination procedures. Please remain in your habitats and wear softsuits at all times. List of species under extermination order:
AR-1500 Salvage Arm now available as a high-stress mount.
Introduced ore density patterns to ore across rings.
Microseismic scanner now able to show ore inside large rocks.
New crew agenda implemented.
Maintenance drones rebalanced.
New tuning options for autopilots.
Fixed THICC and B8 being launched out when doing maneuvers.
Crew now can ask for leave time that starts after you get back to base.
Fixed a number of bugs in the conversation system.
Big ships now fly more carefully and try to avoid getting close to you.
High and low prices are no-longer visible on market prediction graphs.
Cargo containers and B8 beacons now return with you to Enceladus.
Fixed adrenaline triggering constantly for high-level pilots.
Dialogue options for raising and lowering salary now list exact change.
Ship thumbnails now reflect actual damage the ship has.
New ships and highly damaged ships are marked on the list.
Point defence will no-longer shoot at the cargo inside.
Fixed SMES capacity to match values listed.
Crew and crew bodies outside the ship now show up as shiny on lidar.
Updated equipment descriptions.
Fixed a glitch that allows unlimited money with creative equipment trades.
0.285.11 - Rusatom-Antonoff Recall
Rusatom-Antonoff issued a recall on autopilot software released in January of 2273 with popular RA-K37-TNTRL excavation craft. A miss-calibrated comfort setting could lead to excessive deceleration and power failures during initial ring insertion. If you believe your craft is affected, visit Rusatom-Antonoff dealer today.
0.285.9 - Excavation Claim
Claim Beacons
Triskelion-Armstrong released a new series of B8 claim beacons earlier this week. These fully autonomous drones are able to oversee the area of the rings and provide a stable and secure waypoint for the excavation industry. Beacons are equipped with class-1 artificial intelligence that handles cryptographic protocols, secure broadcasts and beacon security itself. In event of beacon failure Triskelion-Amstrong guarantees replacement on-site.
Astrogation Charts Update
Recent ringwide scans revealed new residential and excavations stations established in the A-ring. Due to inaccuracy of telescopic surveys captains that encounter the stations are encouraged to disclose exact positions upon encounter.
Excavators Life
Sixth episode of “Excavators Life” is to premiere on Enceladus Entertainment Network. “The Research” tells a story of a young astrogeologist on a quest to uncover why her mundane research is attracting so much unusual attention.
Autopilot OTA updates
New OTA upgrade for autopilot software is distributed station-wide. Improved spatial awareness highly improves rotational accuracy of all ships, from small mining ships to cargo freighters. The upgrade is free of charge, and captains that took the liberty to tune their autopilot settings to overcome previous shortcomings are encouraged to revert to defaults.
New Stock
This quarter the resupply run from Earth brought in extra hardware available for sale at your local upgrade shop. There are a total of three new torches available for retrofit at very reasonable prices. Reserve yours today!
Pest Extermination Warning
Outside of new stock, recent resupply runs brought in new species of bugs. Following were exterminated by pest control:
Tuning options for thrusters and torches were not respected outside of the tuning shop.
Number of fixes to the conversation subsystem, including conversations not starting, conversations ending abruptly when other ships were in the area, crashes caused by talking to dead people and missing dialogue options.
You could encounter a ship that you own and keep in the garage flying in the rings.
Search and Rescue ships tried to pick up all ships they were friendly towards with no regard if they needed help. This led the S & R team to try and pick up your ship when you were helping them.
Fixed a graphical glitch that caused the gamma slider to show psychedelic colors on Intel GPU cards.
Gamma slider helper image was adjusted to be more useful on the bright side of the spectrum.
Fixed thruster parameters for number of ships.
Swapping in and out certain reaction control systems could make you lose money.
Fixed display glitch of the mineral market that caused charts to cover the values.
Fixed cutscene bug that could cause cargo pods and claim beacons to be shot away at sub-orbital velocities if you fast-forward through the initial animation.
Actions applied by excavators now have an equal and opposite reaction.
Patched microseismic scanner software won’t show minerals that are not present in ore chunks anymore.
New audio system for the thrusters, removing number of audio glitches and improving overall audio of your thrusters firing.
Number of math fixes to bugs that caused the game to behave slightly differently on lower framerates.
Fixes to physics engine that could cause a small, fast moving object to embed inside a ship or station.
New achievements to unlock.
0.280.6 - Saturnward
Flight School
Most prominent feature of this release is an improved tutorial. I gathered first-impression feedback and changed the tutorial based on them, to make your initial spaceflight experience smoother.
If you would like to try out the tutorial again, remember to enable it in the settings menu - and start a new game.
Constant Improvement
Optimized save game format. Saves are now smaller and load faster, even when they contain the same information.
Changed the way mineral market loads and displays data - instead of creating entire market data when you enter Enceladus station, it loads it as needed - when you are browsing the market.
Gamma correction slider will allow you to brighten or darken the screen based on your individual preference and lighting conditions.
Added a separate graphics settings tab.
Fixed a bug in gamepad controls that caused autopilot to go nuts - or even crash - when you touched the right control stick just the right way.
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage systems will now report their stored energy to the ship's computer.
