ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

[h3]Mining Companions[/h3]
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.



[h3]The Hunt Is On[/h3]
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.



[h3]Counseling for Habitat Operators[/h3]
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."

[h3]Maintenance Records[/h3]

• 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.
  

[h3]Racing team fined[/h3]
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.

[h3]Planck’s time revised[/h3]
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.



[h3]Insect extermination notice[/h3]

• 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.
  

[h3]Predatory pricing revealed[/h3]
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.

[h3]Incoherent Light[/h3]
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.



[h3]Used ship policy[/h3]
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.

[h3]Improved digital safety[/h3]
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.



[h3]Leaks Patched[/h3]

• 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.
  

[h3]Standardize autopilot capabilities[/h3]

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.
  

[h3]Colindo RVM released new mass driver[/h3]
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.

[h3]Mineral Processing performance audit[/h3]
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.


[h3]Salvage reclamation bill[/h3]
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.

[h3]Excavators Life[/h3]
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.


[h3]Quantum phenomena corrected[/h3]

• 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.
  

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.