ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

Titan Heavy Industries released a semi-autonomous Cargo Container series. Your container stays attached to the ship and takes over all your processed minerals. When you are nearly full, you can release the container which will shortly power up and return to the Enceladus station on its own.

When you hire a miner wingman he will actively assist you with the dig and give you all the output he gathers on a digsite. Ships are now able to follow you through astrogation jumps, making wingmen much more useful.



[h3]Military Retrofits[/h3]

Nakamura Dynamics released patch 1.06 to it’s Military-grade autopilot, unlocking the much anticipated firing solutions module. Tactical overlay now shows ranges and coverage of all compatible mining tools. Nakamura released the patch free of charge via OTA upgrade.



[h3]New Safety Protocols[/h3]

Due to new safety regulations, all on-board life support systems have to be equipped with adrenal purge modules. While many pilots enjoy the benefits of on-demand stimulation there were a number of accidents related with adrenal overstimulation. Purge modules are able to clean pilots' bloodstream to immediately relieve crew from any adverse effects.

With numerous accidents reported as a result of pilots retrofitting incompatible gimbal systems with cargo containers, gimbal systems must now be mounted with a thruster safety system, limiting gimbals to safer angles while in close proximity to cargo, ships, and personnel.

To ensure safety of crew, it’s now mandatory for cargo bay monitoring software to include audible feedback when a new object enters the cargo area. Audio has to be broadcast on priority ship intercom.



[h3]Extinct Bugs[/h3]

Recent patches to the universe have eliminated a number of glitches in the simulation. This time I managed to exterminate all the known bugs. If you want to have more bugfixes in future releases, someone needs to find new bugs.

List of bugs fixed and minor adjustments:

• Patched a number of memory leaks that caused the game to run slowly with time and crash when you left the title screen on for an extended period of time.
  
• Improved performance of background rock particles.
  
• When your crew goes on a leave, they will be removed from the crew immediately after you agree and will return automatically when their leave ends.
  
• Fixed file description and metadata of Windows executable.
  
• There were a number of problems with docking arms not being able to adjust to heavy ships or using too much force. They interface with your ship computer now and will release you automatically when you apply thrust or engage the autopilot, and the interface allows proper assessment of your ship mass.
  
• Numerous fixes to NPC AI - they won’t blow their traps now, are able to follow you more closely, are better at mining and fighting.
  
• Excavators and grinders are drawing power now, and using that power to be much stronger than before, being able to hold your cargo with ease.
  
• Improved all autopilots memory, allowing them to process not only current thruster load, but also past one. This allows much more precise maneuvering and prevents thruster flutter.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused parts of Enceladus station menus to be unclickable on small screens.
  
• The rocket equation computing the amount of propellant you need to reserve for fast burn to Enceladus had an error, showing roughly twice as much as was really needed.
  
• AI is now able to avoid big objects, like space habitats or phage stations.
  
• Sparks caused by microwave discharge are darker now and will not throw the auto-exposure of your reconnaissance drone camera off so badly.
  
• All mineral processing units were re-balanced. Most units will process ore faster, but also require much more energy to do so.
  
• Added verbose warning when you are near the rim of the rings to prevent accidental returns to Enceladus station.
  
• Fixed a graphical glitch of ion drives which was causing a spike of light to shine backwadrs from the plume.
  
• Nuggets that contain 100% of water will be processed by MPU now.
  
• If you sold your output to a habitat in the rings, a dive summary would still pop up upon return, prompting you to store or sell nothing.
  
• Fixed a race condition that caused the game to freeze for up to a couple of minutes sometimes.
  
• Discovered points of interests in the dive map were disappearing in some circumstances.
  
• Increased your chance to find and trade with space habitats.
  
• Fixed all head-up-displays that were displaced by a couple of pixels, causing all the data following physical objects to bit off-center.
  
• Point Defence will not try to mine habitats and space stations anymore. Unless hostile.
  
• There were a number of issues if you leveled your crew to level cap, including rare crashes, ability to repair fully repaired hardware and other weird effects.
  
• Adjusted all the ship physical models to not be so bouncy and absorb part of the impact energy.
  
• Propellant won’t leak out from cold and docked ships anymore, including your ship at Enceladus station.
  
• Cargo area of K37 was bit off, which caused some ore that was touching outside of the excavator being treated as captured, which disengaged autopilot tracking.
  
• Removed obsolete [pay xxx E$] tags that were left in some dialogue files. All choices that affect you in any way are now clearly decorated.
  
• Changed the way Ganymedian Anarchy views the player to make sure that they always hail you when you get near. Their defences were re-balanced to not be so accurate and deadly.
  
• It was possible to open two menu screens on Enceladus if you clicked fast enough.
  
• You could get the same conversation from the ring-racing crew if they were curious at first, but you spooked them after they talked to you.
  
• Hitting a habitat with a microwave now produces the correct visual effect.
  
• Fixed a dialogue loophole that could lock you out from all interactions with miners if you were just a little nice to them.
  

If you love the soundtrack of the Rings, you can now grab it on special sale:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127590/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Original_Soundtrack/

Curious about the game as well? Check out our Tungsten Edition, which is on sale too, with soundtrack included!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/11230/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Tungsten_Edition/

This is a re-balancing update, changing the underlying mechanics of the game in order to make it more enjoyable. Changelog:

• Simple autopilot system now has an additional HUD overlay option, making it much more useful for beginners.
  
• AI system controling Point Defense Turret can now forgive and will not be bent on attacking a faction after you settle your score with them.
  
• Crew morale system was re-balanced, so you will not hit upper and lower cap as quickly.
  
• Docking clamps can now adjust for your ship mass, making it possible for heavier ships to dock into rotating stations.
  
• Size of Eagle Prospector cargo bay was adjusted. It's now bit thinner and bit shorter.
  
• Obonto Habitats now have hostile dialogues. You can now pay for caused damages or escalate.
  
• You can now remove your HUD completely.
  
• Hiring or firing crew will now immediately update POI visibility and dive costs.
  
• Moved central PDT forward so it will no-longer hit your own excavator.
  
• PDT now has lights that illuminate what they are pointing at.
  
• Excavator of your ship will now be open in the upgrades menu, when testing drone systems that attempt to move ore into your cargo hold.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused sparks appear in thin air (really thin, as it's in the rings).
  
• Targeting beam will now ignore your own cargo.
  
• Fixed a number of typos.
  

[h3]Trading Outposts[/h3]
More trade options had opened up in the rings with the introduction of trading outposts. Habitats will now request specific minerals and pay you extra if you deliver. Obonto habitats got significant upgrades, with new docking arms, dedicated point defence systems and ion thrusters capable of maintaining both speed and desired rotation.



[h3]New Upgrades and Playable Ship[/h3]
Point Defence Microwave Generator is a brand new, fully autonomous defence tool that selects and disables threats automatically, by either cracking incoming rings ice or disabling hostile ships.

Voyager Fabricator MP/RSLS is a new, specialized hybrid of Mineral Processing and Rapid Selective Laser Sintering Unit. It is capable of refining raw minerals to 3d-printable metals and use them to fabricate ammunition and drones on demand.

The Bald Eagle racing ship is now available for sale. Custom built, one of the kind ship won't be available at the dealer, but will have to seek out the previous owner instead. Expect the price to be steep.



[h3]Miscellaneous Improvements and Bugfixes[/h3]

• There were a number of problems with background and foreground rocks floating around your ship. Part of them were unlit and nearly invisible, some of them went missing after you flew away from the initial approach. After I fixed these bugs parallax background is back and again can be again used to determine both ice fragmentation and gravimetric density.
  
• I changed navigation in the Onboard Maintenance System screen. It’s now much easier to navigate between jury-rigging systems, dialogs and navigation using keyboard or gamepad.
  
• Microwave visual effect is now more pronounced.
  
• Upgrade screen shader got an overhaul. Now it’s much easier to see thruster exhaust and beams firing.
  
• The cargo value estimation was very imprecise, relying mostly on your geologist skills. Now it uses the on-board computer with direct link to Enceladus mineral market to give you much more precise estimation.
  
• Cargo baffles mounted on Eagle Prospector could be dislocated in a way that introduced artificial torque on the ship.
  
• People you encounter now have slightly animated faces, with visible breathing and blinking.
  
• Game was using dynamic shader compilation, which caused slight lags on some of the systems, when a special effect (like an explosion, jet of stones and other accelerated effects) was displayed for the first time. I created a shader cache and all that compilation now happens on loading screen for a smoother gameplay experience.
  
• Crew can now be on leave, and will come back on your ship automatically when their leave ends. When they are on leave, you’ll find details in your crew menu.
  
• Certain events in the game will raise crew morale, increasing their performance for a couple of days.
  
• Fixed a number of typos.
  
• Bodies in a destroyed habitat will not spawn in again after you collect them.
  
• Toggling a system with a hotkey on the OMS screen will now move the knob.
  
• If you had a lot of upgrades installed and a really small display, the pre-flight inspection could appear off-screen.
  
• Adjusted AI of Ganymedian Anarchy station so you’ll get a chance to talk before they decide to open fire.
  

[h3]Remember to grab our free DLC![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1211880/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Tales_from_the_Rings/

As a Christmas gift for all players ΔV: Tales from the Rings now contains “K37 TNTRL Operation and Service Manual” - a digital art/lore book.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1211880/V_Rings_of_Saturn__Tales_from_the_Rings/

ΔV: Tales from the Rings is a completely free DLC containing supplemental material set in the universe of ΔV: Rings of Saturn. Browse your K37 operation manual through a brand new digital artbook, dive into the background of Vlicy in "Howling at the Stars" and decorate your desktop with original 4k wallpapers

[h3]Artbook[/h3]

• "K37 TNTRL Operation and Service Manual" - an Digital Artbook (pdf)
  

[h3]Short story[/h3]

• "Howling at the Stars" by Eric Eshleman (pdf)
  

[h3]Wallpapers[/h3]

• 6 original 4K-resolution wallpapers.