🦅 Introducing the Vulture
A brand new frigate has joined the shipyards, built for one job: picking a battlefield clean once the shooting stops. The Vulture is the idea of Orge Snorrsen, and the artwork is by Eridan Farnray. Thank you both.
The Salvage Hold
Alongside a normal cargo hold, the Vulture carries an 800 unit Salvage Hold that only salvage can go into. When it fills up, salvage carries on into your cargo hold instead of being lost. Unload it at any station with the Transfer All Salvage button in Commercial Storage.
Vulture Salvage Lasers
The Vulture is the only ship that can fit Vulture Salvage Lasers, in three marks. Unlike ordinary salvage lasers, they strip ship wrecks as well as fallen pirate bases, at long range and with a steady pull every few seconds. Click a wreck, in space or in the Nearby list, to set one laser on it, and click again to add another. They work alongside salvage drones on the same wreck, and your squad mates can see your beams.
Drones and Bonuses
With 30 drone bandwidth the Vulture can field a whole flock of salvage drones, but it flies salvage and repair drones only, so no combat drones or turrets. It makes up for that with 25 percent more shield capacity, 60 percent more shield regeneration, 12 percent more energy and 25 percent faster salvaging for both its drones and its lasers.
The Vulture and its lasers are available as blueprints now. Happy hunting, salvagers.
🔧 Bug Fix
Miners’ Passengers Now Show in Your Cargo Hold
When a miner asks you to carry a passenger and you agree, they take one of your cabins, but they never appeared in the Passengers tab of your Cargo Hold. They are now listed with the rest of your passengers, with their destination and class. Nothing changes about where they get off or what they pay.
The cabin count at the foot of that tab was wrong too. It showed 5 cabins for every ship, whatever was fitted. It now shows your ship’s real number. Thanks to Orge Snorrsen for both reports.
💬 Private Chats Stay Open
Entering an arena used to close every private chat you had open, so if someone had just messaged you, you were left guessing who it was. The same happened whenever you minimised chat. Your private chat tabs, the one you were reading and any unread markers now stay exactly as you left them, whether you head into a fight or just tuck chat away for a moment. Thanks to Orge Snorrsen for the report.
✨ Improvement
🚀 New Ships in the Spacelanes
Eridan Farnray has drawn a fleet of new ship art for us, and the first of it is flying now. Four new pirate hulls have joined the raiders you meet in open space. They are big battleships and cruisers, and they always fly at full size, so you will see them coming.
Sharper Traders
Many of the traders you pass on the NAV screen have been redrawn as well. Some of the older pictures were being squeezed into the wrong shape, so they looked shorter and stubbier than the artwork really is. They now show in their proper proportions, and they load faster too.
Bounty Marks Fly Battleships
The named pirates on bounty contracts now command proper battleships, four new designs from Eridan. Each contract you take rolls its own, so the next mark you hunt may well turn up in something you have not faced before.
The new ships appear as you arrive in a system, so the ships already around you keep their old look until your next jump. A big thank you to Eridan Farnray for the artwork, and there is more of it to come.
🏗️ Room for Outposts
Each star system can now hold up to four outposts. With 64 systems that is space for 256 across the current galaxy, plenty for now, and more systems are on their way.
Every outpost already standing stays exactly where it is. The limit only applies when a new one is deployed, and the Deploy Outpost checklist now shows how many the system you are in already has, so you can see whether there is room before you spend your licence and hub sections. If a system is full, try one of its neighbours.
🔭 A Bigger View of Space
We have scaled up a few things on the navigation map. Ships, stations and planets are all a little larger now, so it is easier to see what is around you and who is parked where. Ships also show in their proper shape, and each one has a fine dark outline so it stays visible when it is sitting on top of a busy station.
🚀 New Feature
🔬 Global Research Check Up
We spent the afternoon going through every Global Research topic, testing each boost and making sure it does exactly what it says once the galaxy completes it. With Deep Scan Calibration close to finishing, the timing could not be better. Along the way we tidied up how each boost shows itself, and made one topic a good deal more useful.
Deep Scan Calibration
When it completes, every mining laser in the galaxy pulls 25 percent more ore from each cut for 14 days. Mining drones are not part of it. This one is for captains working the rocks by hand.
While it runs you will see a Deep Scan line on your screen in the asteroid fields, and a note in your log when it starts and ends. If your corporation’s capital is in the field too, the two add together, so a Deepforge’s 35 percent plus Deep Scan’s 25 percent is 60 percent on every cut.
Assembler Efficiency Rethought
Assembler Efficiency now saves you materials instead of adding output. When it completes, every molecular assembler in the galaxy, personal and corporation alike, uses 30 percent fewer materials per cycle for 14 days, so your stockpiles go a good deal further. A badge in the Assembly Facility shows when it is running, and the material amounts are shown with the old figure crossed out, so you can see exactly what each cycle takes.
Repair Yard Subsidy
When Repair Yard Subsidy completes, every Repair Office in the galaxy takes 35 percent off hull, armour and item repairs for 14 days, whether you pay in credits or resources. It adds to your own Repair Discount Upgrades, so a captain with 25 percent already gets 60 percent off. The Repair Office shows a badge while it is running, with your total discount and both parts of it side by side.
Navigation Charts
When Navigation Charts completes, every jump in the galaxy burns 40 percent less fuel for 14 days, whether you jump at a gate yourself or let the autopilot fly the route. The Jump Gate panel shows a badge while it is running, with the usual cost crossed out beside the new one.
Research That Comes Round Again
Global Research topics no longer vanish once their boost runs out. When the 14 days are up, the topic reopens at zero, ready for the galaxy to work on it all over again, and a trophy badge beside its name shows how many times it has been completed. Your Research Experience is yours to keep whatever happens to the board, and when a topic reopens you choose afresh where to point your complexes.
Clearer Research Topics
Some of the research descriptions still carried old figures that no longer matched their rewards. Those have gone, and the reward line under each topic shows the real number.