ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

Some players argued that ΔV is brutal and hard on the start. This update aims to help with that. It adds an insurance to cover your initial losses when you learn the ropes of the game, and it completely overhauls how the autopilot works.

None of the underlying physics and simulation changed - it's just that some of the on-board system are smarter now.

Changes:

• Complete autopilot overhaul for keyboard+mouse control scheme. Target-locking an object will now cause the autopilot to aim for it automatically, and your movement will be oriented to the object. You can move closer and away from it, and side movement will move you around it. As previously, you will automatically match velocity. It makes it much easier to dig.
  
• Changed the way camera pans around - it will now show more in the way you are pointing towards (as opposed to showing more in the direction you move), and you can pan around a bit by pointing your mouse at a target. It will also try to maintain anything you target-lock in the shot.
  
• Added an insurance to cover the repair costs for initial damage of your ship. You need to start a new game to take advantage of it.
  
• OMS will now work correctly when tutorial is playing.
  
• Stability improvements. Fixed couple of spots that might cause crashes.
  

You might have noticed that the game comes in three flavors, selectable from your Steam client. Here is what they are all about:

• The default branch contains the version of the game that I think is best suited for general public. This is, as named, the default - and if you don't know what to choose, you should use this.
  
• The beta branch contains the features that will be soon available, but still need some testing. It's usually a day or two ahead of the default branch and serves as a buffer, so a bug I miss doesn't affect just everybody. Use this branch if you want to see the latest features as soon as I make them. You can opt-in to a #beta-feedback channel on our discord. It's open to anyone who asks, but might contain spoilers. Just ping me if you want access.
  
• The experimental branch contains features that I'm not sure if they'll make it to the game yet. Game in experimental branch is pretty stable, but contains features that might alter the gameplay dramatically. Experiments usually last for a day or two as I gather feedback, after which this branch will revert back to the default build. Watch the experiments and vote on them on #experimental-feedback channel on our discord.
  

Questions? Just ask.

With the release of Early Access you played more game-hours of the game in a single day than our entire betatesting team is able to do in a month. You did find some bugs and some crashes, and this is a first release addressing that.

It's really challenging to find a bug when all I have to work with is "game crashes" - I'm flying blind. I did take a long careful look at the codebase and managed to find some potential issues. Since I had no reliable way to check it, I cannot be sure it helped your case - but I certainly hope they did.

Thank you for your patience, and please let me know if you experience any more bugs. I'l do my best to patch them all up shortly.

Changes:

• New camera controls, giving you more control over manual zoom and doing better job at showing you where are you going.
  
• Game will no longer crash if you return to main menu and re-load the game.
  
• Game will not crash if your LIDAR beam hits a asteroid that is just fracturing.
  
• Game will not crash if beam weapons (lasers, microwaves) hit asteroids that are fracturing due to reasons unrelated to the hit.
  
• Various other checks for rare conditions that could cause crashes.
  

This release improves the mineral market. Changes:

• Mineral market charts will now update if you spend time on the station.
  
• High and low prices are now always displayed.
  
• Future is now to the right.
  
• Added price predictions.
  

This is a content patch. Changes:

• Ships have transponders now.
  
• You can encounter ships multiple times now, and they will remember you.
  
• Lifepods have transponders now.
  
• Fine-tuned bounty hunter story elements.
  
• Fine-tuned conspiracy storyline elements.