ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

[h3]MLF Haul Drone recall[/h3]
Following a number of lawsuits from independent mining contractors, Minding LF issued a mandatory recall on their popular Haul Drone systems, replacing a faulty neural processing chip. Company stated that while the old chip performed within required operational parameters and MLF can’t be reasonably held accountable for ship damages caused by mishandling, they are releasing updated safety imprints as a gesture of goodwill.



[h3]THI Cargo Containers facelift[/h3]
Titan Heavy Industries released a facelifted version of their signature Cargo Containers this week. Improvements include direct interface with geology station using both SANBUS interface as well as dedicated Titan Heavy Bus, which gives much finer control over the semi-autonomous storage and transport system to its operators.



[h3]Special deorbiting fee[/h3]
After the M374-A moonlet incident, in which an intoxicated crew of a “Retrograde Burn” pushed that moonlet out of the plane of the rings, causing a persisting gravitational ripples across the A-ring and an estimated 13 billion damages in lost potential mining profits, Enceladus Corp introduced special deorbiting fees to be incurred on attempts to destabilize the moonlets. The fee is set at flat rate of 1 milion E$ per incident and the enforcement will begin next week.



[h3]Maintenance Logs[/h3]

• New MLF Haul Drone behavior takes into account movement of your ship in relation to ore in front of you, position of your excavator and if it’s open.
  
• New control options over THI Cargo Containers on your Geologist tab. You can now choose which container should take which minerals, get ability to manually pump them out to your ship cargo hold for trade and see a detailed breakdown of processed mineral storage.
  
• Mineral pumping speed in and out of THI Cargo Containers raised from 100kg/s to 500kg/s, resulting in faster habitat mineral trade.
  
• THI Cargo Containers will not leave 500kg trading mineral buffer on your ship anymore. You can opt to pump minerals back to your ship on-board storage on the Geologist tab of your OMS.
  
• Updated simulations for drone systems in the Hardware menu to showcase new MLF Haul Drone behaviour better.
  
• The default minimum range of the drone systems is reduced to 0m, as the new heuristics are able to handle ore next to your ship gracefully.
  
• When taking some of the dialogue options you could end up with a Vilcy Drop Point that would vanish every time you visit it, instead of waiting for 30 days for you.
  
• AI would ignore any object that could not be held in a cargo hold, like moonlets and other big items, when computing collision avoidance, resulting in both NPC ships and EI1337 autopilot ramming them.
  
• In some cased long-lasting audio would slow down during adrenaline events and not speed up again until you released the button.
  
• Unpausing the game using the “resume game” button, rather than ESC keypress, would leave the muffled filter on music activated.
  
• Adjusted the position of the EMIE HUD Augmented Reality cargo hold display when installed on the Vulture Prospector to not obscure the grinding area.
  

The Original Soundtrack of ΔV: Rings of Saturn was just updated with two extra tracks. If you got it already - either from the stand-alone purchase, or through the Tungsten Edition, your music should update automatically.

[h3]New tracks[/h3]

• A Horse Named Fission
  
• Big Damn Heroes
  

If you don’t have the sound track yet and you are looking fine music - and to support development of ΔV - you can find it on sale here just now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127590/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Original_Soundtrack/

[h3]Modified ships approved[/h3]
Multiple ship modifications, including both factory modifcations and aftermarket kits, were approved this week for operation and sale on the Enceladian station. Among the approved models were the Conlido Cothon-211 and 213 variants, the Mistudaya-Starbus Vulture Prospector and post-facelift versions of the Rusatom-Antonoff K37.



[h3]Another Digital Mimas performance[/h3]
After the success of their previous classical music performance, The Digital Mimas Orchestra will hold another concert in Enceladus netspace. Tickets for the previous performance sold out in 2.4 minutes, so for this event performance bandwidth allocation will be raised to 15000 attendees. Ticket sales will start at midnight.



[h3]Information boards at docks[/h3]
Due to a recently net-famous mixup at the docks, in which a mixup led the captain of the Stupendous Identity to board the Stupendous Idiot(and his subsequent mauling by the captain’s pet ocelot), Enceladus has mounted displays at each ship berth. These render the ship’s name and flight status clearly visible, regardless of the poor lighting available at the docking ring. Enceladus has not responded for comment on the claims that they were primarily mounted in preparation for delivering targeted advertising to ship captains.



[h3]Maintenance Logs[/h3]

• Added ship hull variants. The ship hulls you can purchase at your local Enceladian Dealership have now multiple variants. You can find pre-facelift models, dedicated modifications made by companies or long thrusterbase versions of your favourite crafts. A total of 7 ship variants were added in this release for a grand total of 12 playable ships.
  
• Reworked Dealer interface to present new data about the ships in a more organized way and work better on smaller displays. The ship description now occupies a prominent space, and ship statistics were moved to the Examine Ship tab. Ship name, model and price are now displayed above the tabs.
  
• New ship comfort gameplay mechanics. Some ships are just comfortable, and flying them is a real joy, while others are a pain to operate and affect crew morale negatively. A happy crew will perform better and are less likely to ask for raises.
  
• Added an additional soundtrack.
  
• Reworked lighting at Enceladus station. There are fewer flashing lights now, and these that remain turn on and off gradually for a less jarring experience.
  
• Information billboard on the Enceladus station, showing primary data about your ship.
  
• The model of the ship you are purchasing is now prominently displayed on the Dealer screen.
  
• When you begin a crew quest related to a particular habitat and already have their coordinates, the crew will acknowledge that.
  
• Crew quests events are now more frequent.
  
• The ERS2205 torch used 12MW of electrical power instead of 120MW, as the description claimed.
  
• Friendly ships now keep 50% longer distance from you and will approach you 50% faster.
  
• If your ship runs out of propellant, but you manage to eject a cargo container before rescue is dispatched, you will retain the cargo that returns autonomically.
  
• Added stiff rotation limiter to Eagle Prospectors grinders to prevent them from being pushed into the cargo hold with energetic impacts.
  
• When you bring multiple lifepods to collect bounty to Vilcy HQ, you will get separate bounties for each of them.
  
• Added additional defences to Vilcy HQ.
  
• Re-visiting a known location will display a notification when your astrogation coordinates update.
  
• Fixed a memory leak that caused a permanent performance degradation when you owned a lot of ships.
  
• When defusing hostilities with the Ganymedean station in the middle of combat, the station could offer you a truce and still immediately open fire again.
  
• Some ships had unlisted ammo compartment seals, corrupting the purchases of other ammo compartments in the Hardware menu.
  
• When playing with a gamepad or keyboard alone, the smart camera could position itself to make parts of your ship go off-screen.
  
• Both Repair menu and Crew menu stats will now account for mechanics that are not currently active crew but still help repair your ship.
  
• Improved performance of Enceladus station background.
  
• Updated translations.