ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

Today I present you a combined content and bugfix patch. I feel that it's important for Early Access title to address all the known bugs as fast as possible, but I think it's equally important to add some new content, so players who didn't hit the bugs will get something out of it.



[h3]Additional upgrades and upgrade changes[/h3]
A big feature of Shortfall of Gravitas is addition of gimbaled engine mechanics. Thruster gimbals are the real-world technology that allows the rockets to fly - the exhaust can be tilted, providing additional layer of control. This is a multi-stage enhancement: I needed to add a other type of thruster, make sure that autopilot and AI understands that thurster and it's capabilities, and finally - research and develop actual thruster you can buy.

With version 0.186.9 you can equip your ship with Nuclear Assisted Gimbaled Hall Effect Thruster RCS. This is first in the line of vectored thrust that will come in the game. Despite being weaker than most competition and having extraordinary power requirements, NAGHET provides you with ability to vector your exhaust up to 20 degrees, yielding excellent maneuverability (for it's thrust). The downsides are higher price and susceptibility to misalignment.

Gravimetric drone got an overhaul. I made sure that gravimetric drone readouts are accurate and actually readable on all ships. You can now use the drone to guide you to interesting parts of the Rings, as it was supposed to be in the first place.

[h3]Bugs fixed[/h3]
You found many bugs, and I did my best to fix all of them. Here is the list of patches applied:

• Made the visual cues for combat/discovery subtler, so they won't obscure HUD anymore.
  
• You no-longer can fix the ship up into negative damage, causing unexpected behaviour.
  
• Fine-tuned thermal damage to thrusters, so well-aimed hit from powerful laser will not send ships spinning so easily.
  
• Jury-rig mechanics skill was re-balanced. Previously most mechanics you could hire hit the repair cap too soon, making the higher levels of skill useless.
  
• Fixed appearance of some ships, that were missing vital parts.
  
• Mouse control of menus could be obscured by invisible objects at Enceladus, making parts of the menus unusable after returning from dive, opening crew menu and similar.
  
• Fine-tuned font setting for Russian, Korean and Chinese (simplified and traditional) translations, so descriptions at Enceladus don't obscure one-another.
  
• Removed the lags from settings menu. Have lags for sale now.
  
• Fixed couple of memory leaks.
  
• Mining ships again visible on menu screen and credits.
  
• Fixed a bug in adaptive/military autopilot that caused it to behave worse if it gathered weird data for it's turning feedback loop. As result, said autopilots now fly much smoother.
  
• Tuned the Eagle Prospector HUD that could flicker if you had big remass tanks and broke your on-board computer just a bit.
  
• Fixed NPMP engine so it can be replaced now at normal price.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused guiding drone to work even if it's not mounted on the ship.
  
• Ships you bought are no-longer visible on the dealer's list.
  

Pierson's Puppeteers, Riker Maneuver or Epstein Drive (who didn't kill himself) - science fiction is full of discoveries named after someone who made it. And now you can have your own!

There is an object in the ring, not yet discovered by anyone. Find it, bring it back to Enceladus and prove it with a screenshot - and you get your name attached to it!

Rules of competition:

1. Make a screenshot of the mysterious object on dive summary screen, just as you return to Enceladus station.
   
2. Post the screenshot on Twitter, tagging it #ΔV and @KoderaSoftware - with your explorer's name you want attached. Please keep the name civil and appropriate for the game. Don't worry - if you pick something we think is not appropriate well get back to you to work something out. It's the discovery that counts.
   
3. First one to discover gets to name it!
   
4. People with access to game files - including community translators - are sadly excluded. You'd have a lot of head-start, guys!
   

In our recent community vote over discrord.gg/dv you decided that I should split my time equally between adding ship upgrades and fleshing out the story of the game. This content patch adds both.

[h3]New story elements[/h3]
With this upgrade we started fleshing out one of the main story arcs with the game. The phage station you could encounter earlier is no longer mute and will contact you, providing dialog and opportunities. This is just a introduction to new faction you can encounter now, and will be fleshed out further - in following days. There is also an additional secret you can discover in the rings.

[h3]Additional upgrades[/h3]
You can now purchase a gravimetric drone that will allow you to see the subtle differences in gravitational fields of the Rings, guiding you to denser and more interesting areas.

[h3]Bugs fixed[/h3]
As with every update, I fix couple of bugs and add some additional features:

• Fixed a memory leak in storyteller module that could lead to crashes when diving for long times.
  
• Improved performance around the phage-class stations and it's events.
  
• Fixed inconsistent upgrade descriptions.
  
• Improved compatibility for Intel-family graphics cards operating on older drivers.
  
• Fixes display of moonlet's shadow.
  
• Added new special effect for crew bio screen.

[h3]Road ahead[/h3]
We are currently filling in the content. You can expect the upgrades to be frequent and incremental, providing new upgrades, ships and story multiple times a week. With previous update the balance was tipped to the upgrade side, so you can expect that I'll focus on story elements, dialog trees and encounters for next week.

We're happy to announce that Steam Trading Cards including special backgrounds and emoticons are now available for ΔV: Rings of Saturn. Long time player? We have you covered! You should have all the cards you'd earned in your inventory already!

Collect them all, craft the badges, get unique perks and trade with the community!

This patch fixes graphical glitch that manifested itself on extra-wide displays - with 48:9 aspect ratio and above.