ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

This is an enhancement release, expanding game mechanics, ships and story interactions. We had a community vote over our discord.gg/dv where we asked you about the direction of development - and you decided I should split my time equally between adding game elements and expanding the story. This is the first release that does so.

By popular demand, we took a close look at pirates and added ways you can interact with them peacefully. There are now options for intimidation and bribery.

[h2]We fine-tuned some core game mechanics:[/h2]

• Processed cargo storage is no longer a part of the mineral processing unit, but depends on the ship hull you are using.
  
• Ships have now new interplanetary Xenon drives that they use for transit to and from the rings with minimal propellant usage. You can choose to use your main nuclear drive for the job, cutting the travel time significantly but arriving with less propellant. Ships will now track how much reactive mass is required for a quick return burn and how long will it take to reach Enceladus if you depart now.
  The interlunar travel times - between Enceladus Prime and the Rings - were revised with new engines available. A quick burn with a nuclear rocket will take roughly 12 hours, while a xenon drive will need up to 4 days for the same travel. You can opt into faster travel times using your tuning menu back on Enceladus. This rebalances crew employment costs, as with fewer dives per month they are no longer negligible.
  

[h2]We got additional ship upgrades:[/h2]

• Eagle Prospector got an overhaul. There are two additional drone-only slots you can use, the grinder was tuned to better process ice and HUD was expanded with some additional information.
  
• Geologists now will use your microseismic recon drone, if installed. Targetting or hovering over an ore chunk will focus your crew’s attention on a specific nugget. Analysis data is now displayed progressively, as geologist first estimates ringroids composition and price.
  

As with every release, this patch also comes with performance and stability improvements and various minor bugfixes. Full list of minor changes:

• Improved AI performance.
  
• Improved particle effect performance, especially laser ablation debris.
  
• Fixed mass/weight unit conversions for Eagle Prospector HUD.
  
• AI now better aware of thruster range and its danger to nearby ships.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused crashes if you attempted to disable a system that was not installed.
  
• Tutorial was reworded to make it clearer in autopilot match velocity sections.
  

This is a enhancement release, adding new upgrades. Changelog:

• Fine-tuned haul drones to work better with Eagle Prospector.
  
• Added guiding recon drone upgrade, capable of directing autonomous drone systems to specific targets.
  
• Fine-tuned AI collision avoidance to be aware of the thruster range.
  
• Extended Rosatom-Antonov MPU to cover whole cargo hold in Eagle Prospector.
  
• Re-worded parts of tutorial to make it clearer.
  
• Processed cargo storage is now based on ship hull and no-longer part of MPU upgrade.
  
• Added two drone-only slots for the Eagle Prospector.
  
• Fine-tuned display of geologist information.
  
• Stability improvements.
  

This is a hotfix release, fixing couple of bugs and addressing other issues. Changelog:

• Adds visual feed, depth indicator and microseismic drone do Eagle Prospector HUD.
  
• Fixed a bug in AI that caused it to fly recklessly around ships.
  
• Improved performance of ship dealer.
  
• Old ships will still be spaceworthy, especially ones you encounter in the ring.
  
• Jury-rigging weapon systems works now.
  
• Fixed wear damage of engines.
  
• Availability of upgrade now refreshes every time your money changes.
  

[h2]Feature complete[/h2]
ΔV: Rings of Saturn released in Early Access 8 months ago, and in that time we have been steadily adding new features and gathering data points from you - our dear players. Now, these points of data make a beautiful line - as of today ΔV is officially feature-complete. Game has all the major features and major mechanics in place, all what's left is to hunt remaining bugs, polish up everything and - of course - add more content: ships, storylines, dialogs and upgrades.



[h2]Ship dealer is here[/h2]
The biggest new feature by far, and something everybody’s been waiting for, is the ship dealer. This is your hub for buying and selling ships to fly. Drop a pretty penny on that brand-new upgraded beauty off the showroom floor, or opt for a junker that will need a little love, but which could see you in a new ship, sooner. Even buy a ship just for that awesome name, if you like.

With the dealer in play, the Eagle Prospector is now available for purchase. A lot has gone into polishing this girl up, with a lot of community effort going into feedback and fine-tuning. The Eagle is produced in the Free States of Earth, and comes with a free cheeseburger, side of cheesy bacon fries, a pickle, and a internal combustion mass driver in the glove box. It also has its own distinct HUD that, as an added bonus, measures everything in freedom units. She also comes with a beast of a grinder on her prow that will chew up asteroids, and a cargo bay markedly larger than the K37’s - big enough to swallow some smaller asteroids whole.


[h2]Upgrade changes[/h2]
Some changes were made to the way upgrade menus work, in order to prevent exploits, and this is a change to how things have been done previously, so it’s worth explaining. Because you can buy a ship with damaged equipment for a lower cost, we can no longer let you swap out damaged equipment for the full price in the upgrade menu. Instead, we refund less money for damaged equipment and charging you time, just as if you were replacing it via the repair menu. If you switch back to that equipment, instead of getting a damaged part back, you are getting a part in pristine condition.


[h2]The road ahead[/h2]
What next? We will focus now on adding more content. The ships you can fly, upgrades you can install, story events you might encounter and dialog trees to spice up your ringdives. There is still work ahead of us, but this time the progress will be smoother, with updates more frequent - yet smaller. Every few days you should see a new upgrade or event, so make sure you turn these auto upgrades on!

[h2]Best time to dive into The Rings![/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn/

With COVID19 rampant around the world, it's really important to stay at your cockpit, limit exposure and flatten the outbreak curve. No matter how good hospitals are, each and every can be overwhelmed by the torrent of patients. The responsible thing to do is to stay home, at your cockpit, to limit that number to a manageable one.

To help with that, we are hosting a special Stay-At-The-Cockpit sale. A unique opportunity to get ΔV for half of the price.