3.85 Patch notes

STARSHIPS

• A new class of starship has been added, the Solar Sail ship.
• Solar starships come in a wide range of procedurally generated variations. They can be found all across the galaxy, but are more common in outlaw systems.
• The Solar-class starship comes with unique technologies for a fast and efficient Pulse Engine.

• All ships now come with a high-capacity cargo inventory. The starting size of the cargo inventory varies according to ship type and class.
• The ship cargo inventory can be upgraded at the starship salvage station.

• The maximum number of saved ships has been increased from 6 to 9.
• Players may now change their primary starship from the quick menu while in the freighter hangar.
• The companion management quick menu option has been moved into the ‘Utilities’ section of the menu while flying a starship.
• Summoning other ships, including the freighter, now has its own dedicated sub-section of the quick menu.

• While on a planet, players may occasionally see groups of frigates enter the atmosphere and pass by on their own missions across the universe.

• An audiovisual cockpit alarm has been added to the ship, to alert pilots to dangerous situations.

OUTLAW SYSTEMS

• A number of star systems across the galaxy have been taken over by pirates. These systems can be identified on the galaxy map with a Conflict or Economy scanner.
• Outlaw systems have a unique space station, with their own assortment of NPCs.

• Visit a Bounty Master aboard an outlaw station to undertake a range of procedurally generated piracy missions and earn unique rewards.
• Purchase illegal goods from the black market traders aboard outlaw stations. Illegal goods can be sold for a large markup in regulated space.
• The maximum stack size for all trading goods, illegal or otherwise, has been increased.
• In regulated systems, space station authorities will periodically scan incoming ships for illegal goods. Sentinel interceptors may be deployed to deal with non-compliant pilots.
• A new technology is available, the Cargo Probe Deflector, to attempt to fend off unwanted cargo scans.

• Earn Forged Passports while working for pirate factions.
• These counterfeit starship registration documents can be used at Station Cores in regulated space to increase or reset reputation levels with the system authorities.
• Outlaw stations cannot be warped to directly from regulation space stations, and vice versa.

• Outlaw stations have their own technology merchant, specialising in suspicious aftermarket upgrades.

• The rewards for destroying starships – freighters, Sentinels, pirates or traders – have been diversified and improved.
• The rewards for saving a freighter from pirate attack have been improved.

• A new series of narrative missions have been added for outlaw systems. Complete these missions to earn unique customisation and title options.

CLOTH SIMULATION

• Support has been added for cloth simulation.
• Fully customisable cape and hood options have been added to the Appearance Modifier. Some options are available by default, while others must be earned via missions or expeditions.

EXPEDITION: THE BLIGHTED

• Expedition Six, The Blighted, will begin soon.
• The Blighted expedition will take players on a treasure hunt across a distant galaxy as they trace the routes of these mysterious pirates.
• The Blighted expedition offers the chance to earn an exclusive starship trail; pirate-themed base decorations; your own personal wayward cube/Geoff; a unique cape customisation, and much more besides.

SPACE COMBAT

• Sentinel, pirate and trader ships now have energy shields that must be depleted before the ship itself can be damaged.
• Different grades of ship come with different strength shields, and shields that recharge at different rates.
• Player starship weapons deal different damage levels against shielded or unshielded targets.

• The starship combat flight model has been improved for in-atmosphere combat.
• Pirates can now attack while the player is flying within a planet’s atmosphere.
• Sentinel interceptors will now respond to crimes committed while flying in a planet’s atmosphere.
• Pirate ships will occasionally make attacking runs on planetary structures. Players who drive off or eliminate these raids will be rewarded.

• Space combat has been rebalanced to allow for more challenge for high-end players while remaining accessible to those in starter or non-combat ships.
• Players now have the option to enable a combat autopilot for the starship. This setting can be found within the Controls section of the options menu and can be used as a hold (to apply additional alignment assistance towards your target on request) or as a toggle (to constantly apply auto-alignment towards your current target).

• The heat capacity of the Phase Beam has been increased.
• The Phase Beam can now leech shield energy from hostile ships and transfer it to the player’s shield.

• The Photon Cannon now cools down faster after overheating.
• All starship weapons now decay heat much faster if the burst is stopped before the weapon overheats.

• Fixed an issue that caused the name and visuals of hostile ships on the starship target screen to be incorrect.
• Fixed an issue that caused the shield bar on the starship target screen to be incorrect.
• Fixed an issue that caused the heat bar on the starship weapons screen to be incorrect.
• Fixed an issue that caused the cooldown bar for the Infra-Knife Accelerator to be invisible.

• The Positron Ejector has had its base firing speed slightly reduced.
• The Positron Ejector has had its heat capacity reduced.
• The Positron Ejector now deals slightly ineffective damage to starship shields.

• The Infra-Knife Accelerator has had its base firing speed slightly reduced.
• The Infra-Knife Accelerator has had its range and base damage increased.
• The Infra-Knife Accelerator now deals additional damage to unshielded targets.
• The Infra-Knife Accelerator has had its heat capacity reduced, but now cools down significantly faster.

• The Cyclotron Ballista has had its base fire rated reduced.
• The Cyclotron Ballista has had its dispersion reduced and its heat capacity increased.
• The Cyclotron Ballista now deals extremely high damage to starship shields, but low damage to starship hulls.
• The Cyclotron Ballista now disables hostile starship engines on hit, causing them to drift slowly.

• Starship rockets now do additional damage to unshielded starship hulls, but significantly reduced damage versus energy shields.

• The starship HUD now more clearly reports weapon heat levels.
• The off-screen target indicator has been moved to a central position around the starship reticle.
• The tethered mouse flight model has been tweaked to make ship control more precise and responsive.
• Damage potential readouts now include an additional readout for damage versus energy shields, if shield and hull damage levels are different.
• Fixed an issue that caused the speed readout on the starship screen (but not the actual maximum speed of the starship) to be artificially increased by manoeuvrability upgrades.

SQUADRONS

• Players with a freighter may now recruit NPC ships to their own personal squadron.
• Your squadron is managed from the Manage Fleet terminal on the bridge of your capital ship.
• Players may unlock up to four slots for their squadron.
• Your squadron is automatically summoned during space combat, and may be summoned or dismissed at any other time from the Quick Menu.
• Your squadron will assist in space combat, taking your lead in attacking hostile targets.
  Squadron pilots and their ships can be upgraded using nanites.

VISUAL EFFECTS

• Significantly improved the visual effects for the Photon Cannon, Cyclotron Ballista and Phase Beam.
• Improved the visual effects for the Infra-Knife Accelerator and Positron Ejector.
• Improved the impact effects for NPC ship laser impacts.
• Improved the visual effects for large ship engines.
• Improved the visual effects for NPC ship and freighter warp-ins.
• Fixed an issue with underwater jetpack trails.
• Significantly improved starship and asteroid explosion effects.
• Improved the visual impact of player starship muzzle flashes.
• Improved the visual and audio impact of the starship cockpit alarm.
• Improved the visual impact of starship cockpit hit warnings.
• Fixed an issue that caused damage effects to intrude upon the cockpit view when piloting in first person mode.
• Improved the projectile and muzzle flash effects for NPC starships.

OPTIMISATIONS & BUG FIXES

• Introduced several very significant memory optimisations, improving stability and performance especially on base consoles.
• Introduced a significant optimisation to texture memory usage.
• Introduced an optimisation to creature and Sentinel navigation.
• Introduced a significant optimisation for bases and settlements.

• Fixed a crash related to input settings.
• Fixed several threading crashes in the UI.
• Fixed a crash related to technology item popups.
• Fixed a crash related to base building.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when using a mineral extractor.
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur during warp.
• Fixed a rare crash in the Appearance Modifier UI.

• Fixed an issue that caused many underwater creatures to spawn without their correct procedural settings, dramatically reducing water lifeform variety.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent particular rare planetary creatures from ever spawning.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Livestock Unit to fail to harvest products from specific exotic creatures.
• Fixed an issue that caused the [ The Sentry ] to appear angry when shot by the player.
• Fixed an issue that caused [ The Sentry ] to report the player’s position to hostile Sentinel drones.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Sentinel Quad companion to prevent other Sentinels from spawning.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinels to stop spawning during combat, leaving no progression through the wanted levels.
• Fixed an issue where a generic ‘Evade Sentinels’ hint would be displayed during missions that encouraged confrontation with Sentinels.

• Fixed an issue that could cause bases to lose their base computer, and restored the base computer to all affected bases.
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to get stuck underneath or on top of buildings and other structures.
• Fixed an issue that could cause multiplayer bases to display in the teleporter UI when multiplayer was disabled.
• Fixed a multiplayer exploit that could allow bases to be synced from blocked players in ambient sessions.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause players to teleport outside the bounds of a Space Station.
• Fixed a rare issue that could prevent interaction with various NPCs and objects in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where summoning the Sentinel Quad companion aboard the Space Anomaly could cause desyncs with other players.
• Fixed an issue that could cause mission destinations to be desynced in multiplayer.

• Fixed an issue that caused the starship cockpit pitch indicator to show an incorrect angle.
• Fixed an issue that caused the starship cockpit pitch indicator to render incorrectly at various HUD scales.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Inventory page to auto-open onto an inventory that could not currently be accessed.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Exocraft technology tree to be clipped at the sides.
• Fixed a visual issue with the LODs at Sentinel Pillars.
• Fixed a number of UI overlap issues with the base building menu.
• Fixed a misleading ‘Attempt to Download’ message displaying on the Community Expedition UI when that was not the correct error.
• Fixed a number of issues with the UI and popups when attempting to warp to a new galaxy.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a long delay when transitioning to/from some freighter interactions, such as colour customisation.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a long delay in a dialogue sequence if the player received a new item in the middle of the sequence.
• Fixed an issue that could cause player hands to disappear when getting into the ship in VR.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Emergency Light base building objects.
• Fixed a visual glitch with door animations in several base building wall pieces.

• Fixed an issue that could cause consumable reward items to all generate the same rewards if redeemed in a short time window.
• Fixed a number of issues with NPC ships when flying close to the player, for example when using the starship communicator.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent corrupted Sentinels from spawning at scrap heaps.
• Fixed an issue that could cause mission destinations to go missing or jump to new locations after save/load.
• Purchasable frigates will no longer attempt to call the player on the starship communicator during space combat.
• Fixed a mission issue that could spawn too many Sentinel Flares into a player’s inventory.
• Fixed an issue that caused the starship to take ground impact damage when crashing into another starship.