ΔV: Rings of Saturn News

This is a customary post-release hotpatch fixing couple of bugs that slipped the release process.

The most important change of this release is fixing a glitch in the tutorial that made it really hard to progress past first few steps. If you missed the tutorial and would like to see one, you can re-enable it in settings menu and start a new game to see it hands-on.

Changelog:

• Conversations will not end prematurely when you fly away from the place they started in.
  
• Mineral processing units will now visibly vent minerals that don't fit in the processed mineral storage.
  
• Nanodrone systems will now work correctly when you are flying with high relative velocity.
  
• Torbernite is now easier to collect.
  
• AI ships will now have AI lifepods.
  
• Tutorial fixed.
  

[h3]Storms are coming[/h3]
With excessive unsanctioned use of microwave mining and following increasing local density of rings atmosphere, the ringstorm phenomenon has become more common. Ships captains are advised to stay clear of the affected areas.


[h3]Crew experience[/h3]
Your crew will now gain experience during flights, honing their skills. Some of them might even use the downtime at the station as an opportunity to improve their education.

[h3]New tuning options[/h3]

• Ability to turn off the fly-by-wire system in advanced autopilots.
  
• Minimum and maximum range for tug and haul drone systems allows configuration where multiple systems will aid each-other for improved mining experience.
  

[h3]Miscellaneous improvements and bugfixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused projectiles and beam to be blocked by dense exhaust gas.
  
• Mass drivers will now correctly apply thrust to projectile if your ship spins.
  
• Using fly-by-wire system while holding the autopilot engaged with mouse will no-longer cause the autopilot velocity to increase to maximum.
  
• Adjusted mineral colors in mineral market and microseismic scanners to be easier to distinguish.
  
• Re-balanced on-board computer damage. It will be easier damaged by small impacts, but is able to withstand much more damage before failure.
  
• New visual effect for microwave beams.
  
• Switching ships with different number of drives will now update the upgrade menu accordingly.
  
• Added carbon and calcium microseismic readout for objects that contain the minerals.
  
• Cargo manifest is now sorted by quantity of cargo aboard.
  
• Gravimetric drone readouts displayed data shifted by 3 to 4 km.
  
• Changed the cargo value estimator system to be computer-based and independent of hired geologists, making the estimation much more accurate.
  
• Ring density map was changed to include more variance.
  
• New post-processing graphics filter to improve contrast and color of the display.
  
• RCS thrusters are not so noisy anymore.
  
• Improved default autopilot tuning options for default ship to make it easier to fly for new players.
  

Labor of Love award is for games that are out for a while, but devs still continue to nurture and support their creation.



ΔV: Rings of Saturn entered Early Access 15 months ago. Since then we squashed 553 bugs, added 415 new features (many of which were suggested by our players on our discord.gg/dv), released 883 bleeding edge and 30 new stable versions. We came a long way and we still aim to improve at a steady pace.

Nominate us!

This is a path release re-balancing some minor aspects of the game to make it more enjoyable. Changes:

• All mass-drivers and disposable nanodrone systems now come with 100kg built-in ammo storage, so you can test them even without a proper ammunition upgrade.
  
• Increased minimum range for astrogator and geologist skills, so even most unskilled ones are now useful in rings.
  
• Adjusted fractures of small asteroids to prevent escaping cargo hold if you manage to load up whole one.
  

[h3]Running the Edge[/h3]
Edge Runners - operatives of Artificial Threat Location and Apprehension Specialist units have been seen in the rings. Artificial Intelligence in hunt of rogue AI's roam the rings with their unique ship, providing humanity the first and best line of defense against rogue agents.

This update marks start of development of second major storyline of ΔV. What stance will you take in AI vs AI conflict? More events will follow.

[h3]Improved drives[/h3]
We re-balanced some Reaction Control System drives. Primarily electric propulsion systems - the nuclear assisted ion drives - have now much higher durability, making them more suitable for long dives. You will also find that vectored thrusters perform much more reliability when using fly-by-wire system or the autopilot.

[h3]Bugs fixed and miscellaneous changes[/h3]

• Increased rotation limit of FBW system to match the autopilot setting.
  
• Racing drone is now much better at avoiding obstacles and will power-down should you catch it.
  
• FBW will utilize reaction wheel to greater degree now.
  
• Big story events won't happen next to each-other now.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused story not to progress during your first dive, if you had tutorial disabled in options.
  
• Raised the excessive relative velocity alarm to 150m/s.
  
• Warnings in upgrade menu for AGILE thrusters were off and showed you lacked power even when you had more than enough to power them.
  
• Simulation window in Upgrades didn't refresh if you installed empty upgrade in a slot.
  
• Increased frequency of crew-based story events.
  
• Fixed brightness of the microseismic scanner, which was displaying all the minerals as very similar, bright dots.
  
• Encountering racing drone will no-longer cause combat music to play.