Version 1.0248 includes the following improvements:
- Shield array deployables now require minimum distance (3000) from station modules.
- Radar total hostile counter now only counts enemy capital ships when they are in radar range.
- In some barren uncharted systems, respawning could result in mismatched faction ID affiliations for AI ships, fixed.
- Certain building operations in the engineering lab could result in 0 quantity items remaining in cargo or hangar bays, fixed.
- New 'Scuttle Module' option added during build process to allow player to destroy a module being constructed before it is finished.
- Regional news reporting system updated to properly align for increases/decreases in FDN controlled territory.
- Navigation lights added to ships, red for left, green for right, visible when viewed from front of ships.
- Evasion of carriers by AI ships updated for smoother behavior and improved movement.
- Animals would generally not animate when shadows were turned off, fixed.
Notes:
The new nav light system renders two forward facing light effects color coded to a ship's orientation using the standard format of red for the left and green for the right. The lights are fairly soft and dim, so not overly bright, just bright enough to visually discern a ship's orientation at a distance. The new light effects are also customizable using the \ships folder and the filenames navgreen.png and navred.png. The flash pattern can also be customized by creating a text file in the game's install folder named 'navlight.txt' and entering a value in the first line from 0 to 4. 0 will render the nav lights with a double pulse flashing effect. 1 will render the nav lights with a single pulse flashing effect. 2 is the default mode and will render the nav lights with a slow fade flashing effect. 3 will render the nav lights always on at full strength. 4 will hide the nav lights.
For the new scuttle module option, simply close the build console after starting the build process. The scuttle module button will appear in the middle right of the screen and includes a timer to indicate how much time is left before the build process is finished beyond a point where the module can be scuttled. The scuttle option will be linked to the first module you start building (only one scuttle link can be active at a time), so if you want to have the scuttle option for a module you build, make sure to build one at a time unless you are certain you want to keep multiple modules in selected locations that you build simultaneously. If you scuttle a module, you won't get the metal ore back as the module will be destroyed, but it will allow you cancel the module entirely in case it is worth it to you to remove it and/or rebuild it in a different location.