Version 0.716

UPDATED: You can now center on crew during an enemies turn using the "Q" key. "Q" is the default for the follow camera and will always center on the selected crew member.
UPDATED: Refactored saved options xml attributes for consistency and to avoid duplicate attribute names in legacy saves.
FIXED: A number of bugs related to capital ship debris persistence.
FIXED: A rare edge case where Zabin Morbain at the research station would not enter dialog.
FIXED: Spamming the end turn key very quickly could result in crew members or enemies skipping turns. A second click on the space bar will no longer end your turn. You must select an option by clicking or pressing keys 1-3 or ESC to clear the end turn state.
FIXED: Ending turns quickly with the psionic amplifier equipped could result in the end turn options displayed behind the the amplifier skills bar.
FIXED: A lockup if dialog in space was initiated with a NPC and the crew manager or help screen were visible.
FIXED: The display of available Azimuth effects and totals of these effects were incorrectly displayed on rollover of various UI elements if crew size was reduced below 4 active crew members. The effects themselves were always applied correctly.
FIXED: When shared experience was enabled, crew members were gaining experience when crew size was smaller than 4 crew members.
FIXED: It was possible to use right click or double click to equip weapons in combat from shared inventory, avoiding the 4AP weapon swap penalty.
FIXED: Trying to equip a weapon that you did not have the skill to equip would still cost 4AP.

Version 0.720

This update brings the updated mining system, fixes, advanced options and QOL changes.

Updated mining system:

The old mining systems was pretty much click and forget. That's still the case with wrecks, however, asteroid mining has changed. The new system uses "heat". As the turret pulses, the asteroid is heated. You have control over how much power you allocate to your turrets, which in turn controls the ideal temperature of the asteroid. You can only target asteroids with a single turret. Attempting to target an asteroid that is being mined will generate an error message in the log. Increase power to your turret to quickly heat the asteroid. As you approach the ideal temperature, back off a bit on the power until turret pulses remain between the "sweet spot" brackets. The bottom bracket will extend downward as you gain more mining experience making it easier to keep asteroid heat under control. Some asteroids are bit more unstable than others and the amount of energy required to maintain ideal temperatures will vary. Overheating asteroids will quickly deplete the asteroid and result in lower yields. If the asteroid is too cool (temperature below the bottom bracket) less ore is produced. You can see the remaining amount of ore left in the asteroid in the circular progress bar. The bar is also color coded - red=too hot, yellow=ideal, blue=temperature too low.

When mining wrecks, you can target all turrets, so, no major changes in salvaging these objects. There are a few changes: Reduced the amount of ore produced by wreckage. Increased the number of ship repair components harvested. Changed the color of the mining turret beam when mining wreckage.

FLT fast travel

You can now choose to fast travel in FTL space. There are two limits: You cannot fast travel to nearby star systems. There is a maximum range for fast travel.

To fast travel, enter FTL space. Choose a target star system by either selecting the star system on the Universe Map, or if a story/mission location, select the mission in the objective tracker. The upper left panel will display the targeted star system. There will be a new icon that can be selected that will move your ship near the selected system. There is a short delay while universe data is generated when traveling between star systems using the fast travel icon.

Advanced gameplay options

I've added advanced gameplay options to the options menu. These options are only visible when in a loaded game - not at the main menu. These are not global settings and only apply to the save game they are set in. You can reset these advanced settings at any time. All gameplay options now have rollover help.

If any of these options are enabled, the game will stop tracking Achievement progress. Resetting the advanced options to default will re-enable achievement tracking Currently the game is tracking a number of things like enemy deaths, ships destroyed etc. Any progress in existing saves will reward achievements when achievements are enabled later in the roadmap.

GROUND COMBAT: Increase/Decrease enemy damage Increase/Decrease enemy health Enable/Disable enemy missile launchers Enable/Disable enemy grenades

SPACE COMBAT: Increase/Decrease enemy ship damage Increase/Decrease enemy ship shields Increase/Decrease enemy ship armor Increase/Decrease enemy ship systems (boarding systems)

EXPERIENCE MODIFIERS: Increase/Decrease general experience rewarded Increase/Decrease space skill experience rewarded Increase/Decrease support skill experience rewarded

VENDOR PRICES- Note that any modifiers adjusted are applied after faction and charisma bonuses. Increase/Decrease vendor prices for items sold by vendors Increase/Decrease vendor purchase prices for loot and gear Increase/Decrease ship prices at vendors

QOL Items You are now warned if you enter a star system or a ground combat location that is well above your crews average level. Date and time have been added to save games. This is not retroactive and only new saves will register the date and time. Sorting options have been added to the cargo hold column headers. Repairing equipment only requires a single click now and will repair items as long as repair components are in your inventory. Increased ship repair components rewarded when mining wreckage. The number of components harvested are not displayed in the log.

Things that didn't make it Crew missions did not make it into this build. This system needs more time in the oven before I can release it. I'll get this done as soon as I can and release a patch when it's ready.

Added: When on the FTL map, you can now fast travel to star systems within a certain range. If fast travel is available for the selected star system, a new icon is displayed to the right of the "APPROACH/ENTER SYSTEM" icon under the selected star system panel in the upper left of the screen. This allows players to move quickly through FTL space to story mission locations and other star systems. Whether or not you use it is up to you. Azimuth does not recharge in FTL space when fast traveling. Piloting experience is not granted when fast traveling. (See piloting EXP below)
Added: Date and time added to load/save interface. This is not a retroactive fix. Saves that have no date/time data associated will display the date as "---".
Added: You can now sort alphabetically, by value and quantity on the ship cargo screen [K] by selecting the column headings.
Added: If you unintentionally stray into a star system that is above your average crew level, a message is displayed to the screen and your log letting you know you will be annihilated forthwith.
Updated: Repairing equipment now requires a single click and will automatically complete the repair process for the selected item if enough materials are available for the repair.

Updated: Jump point models.
Updated: NPC ship navigation updated for better collision avoidance with planets and other objects. They will now prioritize avoidance with planets adjusting course as necessary.
Updated: NPC ships are less likely to ram you in space combat.
Updated: Piloting EXP is no longer earned by entering or leaving FTL space. Instead it is calculated by distance traveled over time both in star systems and on the FTL map. Piloting EXP rewarded from space combat has not changed.
Updated: Increased overall ship repair components when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: Asteroid mining now uses "heat" to determine yield of asteroids. Keeping the asteroids heat levels within acceptable tolerances increases the yield of asteroids. If the asteroid is cool (below the bottom bracket) less ore is generated. If the asteroid is too hot (above the upper bracket), the yield is lowered and the asteroid is destroyed faster.
Updated: Only one turret can be targeted to an asteroid now with the changes to the heat system. You can mine multiple asteroids at the same type by selecting the turret and targeting asteroids. If an asteroid is already being mined by a turret, a message is displayed to the screen that the asteroid cannot be mined by more than one mining turret.
--If you are too aggressive with heating, asteroids can get in a state where they are very hard to cool. You may need to stop mining the asteroid and let it cool down.
Updated: Reduced overall ore yield when mining ship wreckage. Note that you can target all mining turrets to wreckage.
Updated: Changed beam color to blue when mining ship wreckage.
Updated: When awarded ship repair components, the number of components rewarded is now displayed in the log.
Updated: If your ship is not moving, you will take additional damage in space combat. Some ships may be able to tank this additional damage if they have excellent shields and armor equipped.
Updated: Reduced general EXP gain from space combat applied to crew in ship station slots.

Fixed: The in-game guide is now accessible in the middle of space combat and will pause the game. This also applies if space combat is currently paused with the [P} key.
Fixed: Collisions with objects in FTL space and in star systems now return control to player much faster.
Fixed: When loading a save game in a star system, NPC ships could spawn in the center of the sun.
Fixed: In some cases, mining beams were not displayed when mining ship wrecks.
Fixed: In some rare cases, it was possible to spawn in the wrong universe position when first launching your ship from the planets surface.
Fixed: If stun immunity through Azimuth was active, and NPC's used stun grenades, crew members were partially stunned leading to various UI elements not working as intended.
Fixed: Initial ground exploration camera rotation values could be set to zero, locking the camera from rotating in new playthroughs. This required players manually set the camera rotation value in the gameplay options menu.
Fixed: Incorrect display of pooled experience toggle in options menu selection box.
Fixed: Crew member in ship repair slot was not receiving general experience from space combat.
Fixed: Crew member combat state was not completely cleared after combat in rare cases resulting in various errors. Most visible was that crew member was stuck in combat idle stance with no weapon in hands.

Thats all I have for now. I'll keep an eye on the forums and address any issues that pop up. Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics!

Version 0.721

Fixed - Cargo inventory was not being displayed correctly. This was a display only issue and did not affect the items in your cargo. Let me know if you see any further issues related to ship cargo not being displayed.
Fixed - If an asteroid was clicked rather than actually targeted by first selecting a turret, the asteroid would incorrectly think it was already targeted and could not be mined.
Fixed - In some cases, stopping mining could leave an asteroid in a state where it could not be targeted by other mining turrets.
Fixed - Asteroids were rewarding ship repair components - ooops!

Version 0.722

Fixed - Ship repair components should not be rewarded from asteroids - really - I really hope so this time :)

Fixed - When mining, the asteroid "heat" bar would flash and disappear when mining.

A bit of tuning on the new mining system:

--The "Lower" indicator of the "sweet spot" when mining is decreased further with mining skill. At higher levels of mining skill, it was possible that an asteroid could be depleted before it even warmed enough to enter the "ideal heated" state.

--Increased the amount of ore generated overall when mining. The new system feels a bit slower because asteroids are being depleted at a slower rate - however, the amount of ore mined is greater than before over the same amount of time. Increasing the amount of heat (changed above) and increasing the amount of ore generated should bring things back to where they were before - if not better.

--Increased the amount of heat generated during a pulse.

--I should mention, some asteroids are "clunkers". This is by design. You can usually tell when you crank the energy on a turret to max and after a few pulses, it has not heated significantly. It's best to stop mining that asteroid and move on...

Version 0.722b - A few fixes for various issues reported recently.

Fixed: Cargo volume on the "Ship" screen was not displayed correctly when various sorting filters were applied.

Fixed: Ship equipment on the "Ship" screen did not display the correct quality indicators in the cargo list.

Fixed: If you had very high skill in mining, and perks selected (+Mining speed), it was possible that you could depleted an asteroid before fully heating the asteroid. I adjusted the minimum bracket scaling to compensate for this.

Version 0.723

I'm posting few fixes and updates in todays patch before I lock everything down and start integrating the chapter 3 content. I've completed all assets for the new content update and it's time to put everything together.

This update adds pre-caching for all space content. You will notice that resources are being loaded when the game launches. This means a longer load to the main menu of the game, however, load times to space while in the game with be much faster. I also did a bit of work on load times for transitions between ground locations and will continue to work on this.

You will also find a new "Dark Space" option to video options screen. This will set a single high resolution sky throughout the game. I felt this was a good option for players who would prefer a more realistic experience when fly through space. If you enable this at the main menu, loading a save will apply the new setting. If already in the game and in space, you will need to save and reload to see the changes.

UPDATED: The game now pre-caches content when first loading the game. This results in transitions from ground to space loading much faster than before. Your mileage may vary.
UPDATED: Improvements in loading speed between ground mission areas.
UPDATED: Using the character info, inventory, log, and ship UI now pauses the game while in space.
UPDATED: Asteroid fields indicated by [AF] in the star system object list on the star map and in space are now named "Asteroid Field [AF]". [AF] wasn't good enough.
ADDED: The video options screen now has an option for "Dark Space". This will set a single space material taken from public domain imagery of the Milky Way galaxy. I'm adding this for those of you who would prefer a more realistic space background. When enabling this option, you will need to exit and launch the game again for the option to take effect.
FIXED - Raider base story location - lighting and transition from last level to previous level location.
FIXED - Crew members would occasionally spawn above floor level in some areas.
FIXED - Map zoom in/out now matches the environment zoom mouse wheel settings. In - mouse wheel forward. Out - mouse wheel back.
FIXED - Disabling autosaves from the options menu was not functioning as expected.
FIXED - In a few instances, NPC's turned hostile could end up invisible. For example, Lazlo Eklund.
FIXED - Crew members equipped with armor, weapons, devices, and shields cannot be dismissed. You must remove all gear from a crew member before dismissing them in the crew manager. This resolves a problem where the crew could be dismissed, destroying story-critical devices like the Aznari Scanner and Psionic Amplifier.
FIXED - Missing planetary description info when targeting Coven base during story content mission.
FIXED - Ship pitch control would invert when flying in certain directions while using the keyboard controls. Tuned keyboard controls so they are more responsive.
FIXED - A bug that would fail to display planetary mining node scan data.

1/9/24 - 0.724

ADDED: A new option ( "SIMPLE MINING" )is available in the gameplay options menu if you prefer the original mining system.
UPDATED: You can now press "ESC" to exit the ore refinery.
UPDATED: Added a label to the ore refinery that explains that once you start the ore refinery, you can exit the screen and refining will continue in the background. Ore refining can take place anywhere, even when exploring ground locations - as long as you have ore to refine.
UPDATED: Camera cursor edge scrolling is disabled by default. You can set the option in the options menu. If you had already set the option on or have an existing game, edge scrolling should still be enabled.
FIXED: A bug related to autosaves overwriting options settings.
FIXED: An incorrect options save parameter for the new dark space option.
FIXED: In rare cases, faction agents were not accepting completed missions.
FIXED: Faction agents could offer multiple missions in rare cases if players very quickly clicked and asked for a new mission while the originally accepted mission was still processing acceptance. This would break the agent.
FIXED: Selecting a completed faction agent mission in the objectives list would, on occasion, not select the target location when returning to the faction agent when in the return star system.
FIXED: Reduced volume of NPC ship FTL jump sound effects.
FIXED: Mission prompts and incursion requests should no longer interrupt various tutorials.
FIXED: If a med-kit is enabled when entering inventory or other menu's - the med-kit is disabled and the default cursor is restored.
FIXED: Ship speed in FTL space was being reduced/interrupted when setting a new course or selecting a new target.
FIXED: When approaching a ship in FTL space, your ships speed is reduced to match the targeted ship when you are close to the targeted ship.
FIXED: Enemy ships in FTL space cannot be attacked using the attack ship key bind.
FIXED: Many small consistency issues with UI elements.

1/16/24 - 0.725

UPDATED: Pre-loading FTL space resources at game load for faster load/stream times to FTL space.
FIXED: Turret rollovers would stay visible if set visible before transitioning to a ground location.
FIXED: "Alien relics" and "Ancient texts" contraband trade orders could not be delivered to the destination trade order location.
FIXED: Adjusted entry position away from the center of star systems when fast traveling on the FTL map.

1/22/24 - 0.725b

FIXED: FTL fast travel would overwrite star system entry point data placing the player ship in an incorrect star system position on entry.
FIXED: Targeting enemy ships when using the new simple mining system would result in losing the ability to attack enemy ships on occasion.

2/9/24 - 0.725c

HOTFIX - A very rare bug where the ship screen and cargo transfer screens would not display correctly.