🚀 New Feature
⚒️ The Deepforge, Our First Capital Ship
The first capital ship in ForgedSpace has arrived for review. You will find the Deepforge in the Item Database, where you can study its full specs ahead of release. We are still fettling a few of the finer elements, so treat what you see as close to final rather than set in stone.
A Corporation Ship
The Deepforge is a corporation build, designed for corporation use. It is not a solo hull. Its strength lies in what it does for the captains flying alongside it, and a corporation that brings one into the field will feel the difference straight away.
Built for Mining Fleets
While a Deepforge is in the field, corporation members mining there pull 35% more ore from every cycle. Its own mining lasers reach 50% further, and its repair gear reaches twice as far, so it can keep the fleet patched up from the middle of the belt. It carries no combat weapons at all, so it will need friends to watch its back.
The Corporate Ore Hold
The Deepforge carries a huge 40,000 unit corporate ore hold. Corporation members can pull alongside it in the field and transfer their ore straight into the hold, which saves the long trip back to a station. When the Deepforge docks, the hold unloads into your Corp Store, and every load is logged against the captain who mined it.
Where It Can Go
Capitals work the dangerous end of the galaxy. The Deepforge can enter asteroid fields and pirate outposts at Law 8 and below, and it can travel through any system on its way. It mines only with the new Deep Core Lasers, which we will tell you more about very soon.
Have a good look through it and let us know what you think. We cannot wait to see the first corporation fleets gather around one of these.
💎 Super Dense Ores and the Deep Core Lasers
Four new ores have been found in the most dangerous asteroid fields of the galaxy. Ferronite, Coresteel, Corellium and Abyssium are super dense ores, packed so tight that an ordinary mining laser cannot cut them at all. The rarer the ore, the deeper into lawless space you will have to go to find it.
Deep Core Lasers
To mine super dense ore you need a Deep Core Laser. The first of these is the Odin Deep Core Laser, and its blueprint is in the Blueprint Store now under Mining Weapons. It needs Mining level 32 to fit and Manufacturing level 28 to build, so it is a goal for our most seasoned miners.
A Deep Core Laser is a specialist tool. It is designed for super dense asteroids and it mines ordinary ore at a reduced rate, so it will not replace your usual lasers out in a normal belt. It fits only the Prospector, the Stripminer and the Deepforge.
What You Can Do With Them
Super dense ore cannot be refined and mining drones cannot touch it, so every unit comes from a captain working the rock by hand. NPC traders will not buy it either. Its value is in your hands, set by what captains will pay each other on the Exchange.
The Odin is the first of a family. Watch the skies for more Deep Core Lasers in time, and happy hunting out there.
🔧 Bug Fix
🤝 My Trades Is Back
Thanks to Porrima for spotting this one. The My Trades page on the Exchange had stopped showing anything at all, for every captain, so your open buy contracts and your listings looked as though they had vanished.
Nothing was ever lost. Every contract and every listing was safe the whole time, the page simply could not load them after a change we made to how blueprint listings show their builds left. That is fixed, and My Trades now shows everything you have on the market again, each with its Cancel button.
⛏️ No Mining Laser, No Mining
Thanks to Elkhorn for this one. If you flew into an asteroid field with only a salvage laser fitted and clicked on a rock, you were told that every mining laser was already cutting, which was a little confusing when you did not have one at all. You will now be told plainly that you have no mining laser equipped, and that salvage lasers cannot cut asteroids. Pop a mining laser in your Mining bay and you are good to go.
✨ Improvement
🛠️ Item Database and Fitting Tidy Ups
A few smaller changes to make ships and gear easier to read.
Limitations and Fitting Notes
Ships in the Item Database can now show red Limitations and Fitting Notes beneath their bonuses. Limitations tell you what a hull cannot do, and Fitting Notes tell you about special gear it can take. You will see them on the Deepforge, the Prospector and the Stripminer, so you know what you are getting before you build.
Clearer Hover Notes
The little notes that pop up when you hover over things in the fitting screens now match the look of the game, instead of the plain boxes your browser drew. When something cannot be fitted, the reason now shows in red so it is easy to spot.