ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

[h3]Runasimi released facelifted LIDAR chip[/h3]
Runasimi Inc, the leading supplier of white-label LIDAR signal processing hardware, released a facelifted version of their R68050 phase-processing chip. Increased base frequency and improved noise filters promise to improve the LIDAR detection range even on existing hardware, and an additional bandwidth allows integration of the output image into up to three additional workstations. The new chip will reach the storefronts on Enceladus within a month and is already available for pre-purchase.



[h3]Launch fee tax evasion exposed[/h3]
The ERS exposed a tax evasion scheme in the docking ring of Enceladus, abusing vague regulations on recording the launch fees, environmental damages and ship supplies. Starting today, strict recording of any and all of the launch fees is mandatory. The tax audits on the ring are in progress, and ERS officials anticipate legal action.



[h3]Radioactive leaks across the station[/h3]
A number of coolant leaks were detected across the Enceladus Prime station. While venting radioactive coolant into the void of surrounding space poses little risk to shielded habitats, the station authorities issued a station-wide inspection of the coolant loops. All major leaks were patched as of today, but the station staff continue to monitor the coolant lines for anomalies.



[h3]Maintenance Logs[/h3]

• Revised asteroid generation code. Recent improvements in the physics simulation performance and AI performance made it feasible to extend some limits imposed on the physics engine.
  
• The geologist panel now contains a LIDAR overlay with range markers, so you can position the detected veins easier.
  
• Improved contrast of the nearby items on the LIDAR screen inside the OMS menu.
  
• Launch fees will now be listed in the ship logs.
  
• Installed hardware is now visible in the Hardware menu without opening the sections.
  
• Fixed a memory leak that was triggered by storing a dive output. It caused performance degradation and corrupted ship initialization, causing ships with illegal equipment to be spawned.
  
• Fixed a bug that could crash the game when loading a save. All affected saves will be automatically corrected.
  
• You could hail some derelict ships and send your crew on an EVA mission while being far away.
  
• Fixed a memory leak that caused memory consumption when spending time on Enceladus to increase each day you spent there.
  
• Fixed a lag spike that happened on Enceladus when a day passed.
  
• Improved memory management of the Hardware and Tuning menus.
  
• After visiting the Tuning or Hardware menu once, the Dealer would start listing new ships much slower.
  
• Adjusted the event frequency of some very rare events to not be so rare.
  
• Improved performance of the Dealer.
  
• Support for 120Hz monitors.
  
• On small screens, such as Steam Deck, the dive summary screen could lose focus, requiring you to use a touchscreen in order to sell your output.
  
• Pressing the Cancel button on the keyboard (Esc key) or gamepad will now collapse an open section of upgrades in the Hardware menu.
  
• Updated translations.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

ΔV: Rings of Saturn doesn't use a classic roadmap, where the developer outlines the list of things they think they'll be doing next. We just found that these don't work, as new ideas come in daily and the actual work drifts further and further away from the initial post. This is why we opted to expose our internal working documents - the Kanban boards - so you can see in real-time what we work on.

[h3]Kanban boards[/h3]
Our Kanban boards reflect all the work that needs to be done and the stage it is on. All work is written down in "issues", and each issue travels on the Kanban from left to right. We have multiple Kanban boards that are useful for different ways you can inspect the project, but they are all based on the same data. A good starting point to explore them is the Roadmap Kanban Board.



[h3]Development workflow[/h3]
There are several stages an issue can be at, reflected by the columns on out Kanban:

• Open issue is one that was suggested and recorded, but it was not assigned to any other stage yet. This is our main backlog - the place where we record all the ideas so that we don't lose track of them. New feature ideas, by default, land up here. This is where the player-submitted ideas from our discord end up first.
• 2.0 collects the issues that are considered for the 2.0 release of the game. These are issues I want to work on once we leave Early Access.
• 1.0 collects the issues that should be done before we exit Early Access. Any reported bugs end up here by default. If you want to know if "by full release, will game have xxx?", this is the place to look for.
• ToDo is my immediate task list. Every time this list drains down to zero, I pick ten features from the 1.0 list and put them here. Outside of critical issues and some exceptions noted below these are the things I will do next.
• Doing shows the thing I'm literally doing now. Expect to see it released in the Experimental branch today.
• Closed are the issues already done.

[h3]Workflow and exceptions[/h3]

• An idea can be promoted from Open to 2.0 and to 1.0 if it's advocated enough and I feel it makes sense. I try to not do that much, as this results in extending our release date - but if you feel that there is something that should absolutely be in 1.0, our discord is the place to talk about it.
• I am working on this game 6 days a week, Saturday to Thursday. Friday is my Freeday - meaning that I am either not working on the game and resting, or if I feel like coding, I'll be picking stuff out of the order. On Fridays is when you can hit some surprise features.
• Bugs are fixed before features. This is why the Experimental branch is, on average, more stable than the Stable branch. It already has all the known bugs fixed.
• Critical bugs - the bugs that prevent people from actually playing - are fixed before everything else and hit the ToDo list immediately. We don't have many of these.
• When picking which issues from 1.0 should be moved to the ToDo list, I see the most recent vote results over our discord. Check the #votes channel if you want to participate in this.

[h3]Explore:[/h3]

• Roadmap Kanban Board
• Experimental branch changelogs
• Stable branch changelogs
• Upcoming milestones
• Development statistics and release estimation
• Full Kanban board Koder is actually working with
• All the features that were ever suggested