ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

[h3]Joint space program[/h3]
Our most iconic spaceship - the Rusatom-Antonoff K37-TNTRL - is a product of joint-venture between Ukrainian and Russian companies. It makes me uneasy in times like this, but I won’t be changing that. Peace will come, and in times of peace there will be rebuilding of the economy, and eventually new friendships and a new space program. I’m leaving that in as a symbol of hope.



[h3]The Progress in Numbers[/h3]
2022 is a wild ride, but we managed to get some progress in.
We fixed 86 bugs, polished up 56 aspects of the game and added 27 new features.
All these changes were released in 110 experimental versions (average of 1.9 per day), and 11 of them were promoted to a stable release (averaging a stable update every 5 days).



[h3]Notable changes[/h3]

• New ways to interact with pirates, including dialogue during combat, ways to de-escalate hostilities, business dealings and some quests you can perform for them.
  
• A new soundtrack.
  
• Performance enhancements for multi-core systems and AMD graphics cards make the game run much smoother when other ships are around.
  
• User manuals that explain the function of your hardware in-game make it easier for new players to understand the equipment they buy.
  
• The ability to choose seed for your new game and re-roll your starting ship, combined with starting at Enceladus, allows you to experience different crew stories and different events if you opt to re-play the game.
  
• A streaming friendly mode and streaming assets in our free DLC, should you like to stream your exploits.
  
• The storyteller module is now more aware of the events occurring around you and will deliver a more engaging experience.
  
• Numerous adjustments and additions to quest dialogues, allow you to finish or experience the quest differently if the circumstances are right.
  

[h3]Language support[/h3]
Thanks to the community efforts we managed to add Dutch language support this year. Here are our current language support stats:



[h3]Peek behind the Scenes[/h3]
Most of the concept work starts with a doodle on paper. Here is a sneak peek into what’s on the drawing board for the near future.



[h3]Upcoming Sale[/h3]
I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a heads-up on an upcoming sale. I really hate when I get a game and it gets a sale the next day, so I’m going to give you a heads-up: ΔV: Rings of Saturn will be on sale soon. If you think about buying it now, play the demo instead, and transfer your save once the sale starts.

In a time of a global crisis, there are causes that need your contributions more than we do. Today I’m lifting all the restrictions of the demo version, making it essentially a full game. Instead of buying ΔV, spend your money on something important and help someone in need. You can get the full version of ΔV when we have peace again.

Sale is still coming, but please, use that money better. You can play without any limits for free here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/949730/V_Rings_of_Saturn_Demo

If you, however, opt to buy the game at full price, it will be greatly appreciated, and all the extra funding goes towards developing it even more.

Remember to pick up our free DLC with supplementary material!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1211880/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Tales_from_the_Rings/

• New story event.
  
• New ways to interact with pirates, including trade and job opportunities.
  
• Mechanics that are not on your active crew will still contribute their skills when repairing your ship on Enceladus.
  
• Improved pathfinding. Recent optimizations had a side-effect where ships, in some cases, would not detect a possible collision with nearby massive asteroids, ships or stations and would ram them.
  
• Lifepods won’t have processed ore aboard.
  
• The Space Bar could have its fission reactor overheated easily and would explode in a rather unimpressive explosion.
  
• Exploding Cothon-212 would leave a radiator glow sprite visible for a few moments after the explosion.
  

[h3]Digital Mimas performance[/h3]
The classical music performance will be held next week in the netspace of Enceladus. The Digital Mimas Orchestra, conducted by renowned R2D7, will perform classical works of Bach, Penderecki, Jarre and Moloney, as well as some modern pieces by both digital and organic composers. Performance bandwidth allocation will be limited to 5000 attendees and ticket sales will start this midnight.



[h3]Man-Hub adjudicated legal across Sol[/h3]
The Interplanetary Court of Sol has passed a judgement in a century-old dispute on the legal standing of controversial information and manual database. With a stated goal of providing free and unrestricted access to information, Man-Hub was sued for violating intellectual property laws by multiple corporations. In closing, the jury proclaimed that the release of manuals shared by the service was already mandatory for all affected parties and the whole case was based on a technicality. The judgment is not final.



[h3]Thruster burns are a basis for weregilds[/h3]
In today's press conference the spokesmen of the Vilcy formation revealed that the bounty-hunting organization considers thruster burns as a fully-fledged basis for posting weregilds. Exhaust-based damage was often disputed as mere accidents, and this release opens up a shortened path for offended parties to seek compensation.



[h3]Maintenance Logs[/h3]

• Additional soundtrack.
  
• New User Manual tab for all equipment, detailing in-game usage of your hardware.
  
• If you don’t agree on a trade, but still dock at habitat, they won’t tell you that ore transfer is in progress.
  
• Some portions of the screen could not be interacted with using the mouse.
  
• Consistently burning ships or stations with your torch drives will be considered a hostile act now. Accidental burns might still be forgiven.
  
• In some situations, you could get a salvage option for a lifepod of a ship rather than for a ship. If successful, this could corrupt your savegame.
  
• Fixed some typos.
  

[h3]Possible parallel universes[/h3]
An independent Class-3 artificial intelligence self-identifying as “Marvin” (formerly operating under the Class-2 designation of “Entangled Thought”) has proposed an experiment with the potential to falsify the Many-Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Though human scientists have expressed some skepticism over the relevance of the experimental data, Marvin has replied to such claims without surprise, stating that “Bio-processing is at an inherent disadvantage in attempting to challenge quantum mechanics. The entangled mind is a prerequisite for intuitive understanding.”

The initial results, though inconclusive, have yet to invalidate the Many-Worlds interpretation. If borne out, these results would be far from a failure; it would represent an important finding, though it will take time to explore the implications of such a finding.



[h3]A class-action lawsuit against Nakamura Dynamics[/h3]
Multiple independent geologists and astrogators filed a class-action suit against Nakamura Dynamics after several contractor fatalities stemming from overwork and exhaustion came to light. Though a Nakamura representative offered no comments, new regulations surrounding the number of hours these positions can stay on shift are already being reviewed, according to sources inside the corporation.



[h3]Ring-rage incidents on the rise[/h3]
A statistically significant increase in ring-rage incidents among independent miners is raising tensions across Enceladus. A representative of the Vilcy, the independent mercenary group known for establishing a bounty and enforcement structure in the rings, has promised swift and decisive action.



[h3]Maintenance records[/h3]

• The new game button, after you finish the tutorial, allows you to re-roll your starting ship name and pick one of the parallel universes, which changes the seed for procedural generation, giving you a unique experience. You will now start the game at Enceladus, allowing you to customize your crew and your ship before the very first dive.
  
• Multithreaded performance improvements speed up the frame rate on systems with multiple, but slower cores, especially when other ships are around.
  
• Additional general AI performance improvements across all systems will make the game run faster when other ships are around you, including faster pathfinding and decision-making routines.
  
• Re-balanced the faction and personal hostility and fear adjustments from being shot at by the player to consider the actual amount of damage taken. This makes NPCs less likely to turn hostile from glazing accidental shots and quicker to act when under concentrated fire.
  
• Fixed a race condition that caused random crashes on some systems.
  
• The undocking procedure from the Big Bad Wolf is now gentler.
  
• Rebalanced experience gains for your crew. Geologists and Astrogators will now level up a bit slower, and Pilots and Mechanics will level up faster.
  
• Additional protection from cargo piercing your ship hull.
  
• “Guide us through the thicket” questlet now has the ship asking you for a favour to assert its course, showing you exactly where they want to go.
  
• You can now re-deploy claim beacons that you pick up in the rings during your dive.
  
• Drone-mounted microwave dishes are now a bit smaller and will not poke through the hull of your ship if you have one in your cargo hold.
  
• Adjusted number of dialogue trees that could look weird if you undocked during the course of discussion.
  
• When you dock to a ship or a station while having your comms channel opened to another ship, you will be contacted by your host as soon as you finish, allowing you to pick trade options and transfer prisoners even if interrupted.
  
• Money notification during in-ring mineral sales will now use a monospaced font, which makes the values easier to follow as they change in real-time.
  
• The demo version can now delete saves.
  
• Updated translations and updated some missing strings.