⚖️ Balance Change
- We’ve completed a full balancing pass across every craftable piece of ship equipment, bringing each item’s build cost into line with its market value. Two things changed. First, the high-end power reactors — from the Dark Matter Injector up to the mighty Apex Infinity Reactor — were previously worth far less than they cost to build, making them a money-loser to craft. Their values have been raised to match, so building and trading them is now properly rewarded.
- Second, a number of items — most noticeably the mid-to-high tier mining lasers, plus a few older reactor cores and industrial modules — could be crafted far more cheaply than they were worth. Their recipes now call for more raw materials so the build cost matches the value. If you craft mining gear, expect higher ingredient requirements than before. Nothing was changed in performance and no values were lowered — this is purely about making “what it costs to build” match “what it’s worth” right across the catalogue.
📋 New Feature
- The galaxy just got a lot busier. Sixty new mission contacts have taken up posts across starbases, ports and colony worlds throughout settled space — twenty Procurement Specialists buying raw mined ores and gases, twenty Materials Engineers after refined alloys and compounds, and twenty Supply Officers stocking up on manufactured trade goods. Each is an experienced Level 2 contact, so their delivery contracts pay noticeably better than entry-level work — a solid step up for captains ready to range further afield. You’ll find them dotted across more than fifty systems, from the high-law core out to the mid-law frontier, each with their own background and story. Dock somewhere new, take a stroll around the promenade, and see who’s hiring.A new kind of work has opened up across the galaxy: Security Transfers.
Seek out a Security Marshal — twenty-one of them now operate from stations and colony worlds across settled and frontier space — and they’ll contract you to escort a convicted criminal to a distant system to stand trial. Each transfer hands you a single named prisoner, booked into a holding cell aboard your ship (they take up a passenger berth, so larger hulls can shoulder more work). Carry them three to five systems out — sometimes deep into lawless space — and hand them over to the authorities in person via the Mission Hand-in screen; a quiet dock won’t discharge the contract. These are among the most lucrative runs on the board, paying four times a first-class fare plus a flat bonus, with more for every system of distance. Find the Marshals at law-and-order hubs galaxy-wide and start clearing the courts’ backlog — just mind your cargo. A prisoner lost to a boarding action is a contract failed.