📋 New Feature
A whole new ship tier has arrived — the Cruiser class. Sitting above the Frigate, Cruisers are powerful, high-end hulls built around a tabbed weapons bay (Combat / Mining / Auxiliary) and a wealth of equipment slots. Three variants are available, each built for a distinct role:
- The Vigilance, a combat warship with the thickest hull, heaviest shields and a five-gun primary battery
- The Providence, a passenger flagship that ferries up to twenty souls in balanced, well-shielded comfort.
- The Atlas, a heavy freighter with twin cargo bays and a cavernous hold, traded against firepower and speed. Ideal for large NPC missions.
Cruisers require Captain Level 45 to fly. Their blueprints can be bought from the starship blueprint store and crafted at any Ship Yard.
Take command of the galaxy’s most capable hulls.
⚖️ Balance Change
- Cargo Expanders above the Megafreight Container have been rebalanced. The high-end tiers — from the Stellar Expansion Core up to the Apex Quantum Vault — now carry slightly less cargo, draw noticeably more reactor energy, and require significantly higher Engineering skill to fit. The flagship Apex Quantum Vault now demands Engineering 56, turning the very largest cargo holds into a genuine long-term goal.
✨ Improvement
- Relocated the Lawless Threat indicator in co-op combat (Pirate Hideout) and co-op mining (Threat Mining). On 1080p displays the threat bar sat above the panel and clipped off the top of the screen — it now lives neatly in the left-hand info column of both screens, clearly labelled and updating live as your threat rises and falls.
- Your Mission Tracker now stays visible while mining in safe systems. By request — if you have the Mission Tracker panel open (the yellow tracker on the right) when you start mining, it now sits above the mining screen so you can watch your delivery and contract progress without closing out. Leave it collapsed and it stays hidden as before.
🔧 Bug Fix
- Fixed salvage lasers all collecting the same amount of loot when more than one was fitted. Each salvage laser now harvests based on its own tier — so a higher-grade laser pulls more per pulse than a basic one, and running a mix of tiers finally pays off when stripping a derelict.