Just thought I'd fill everyone in on whats coming in the next patch which is still a week or so away.
Players will be able to pick up stunned life forms with their planet lander. You can still use the transporter which will transport the life form directly to your fleet saving you cargo space on your planet lander.
All ship types except the battle cruiser will be getting a 2nd bay item. All of the additional bay items will have 4 levels just like the others.
The cargo ship will be getting a Charge Drone. This will immediately give the targeted ship's weapon and bay item's recharge a 10, 20, 30 or 40% increase over what it currently is at. For exampe the targeted ships main weapon is at 50% and you use a level IV booster it would then go up to 90%! The other weapon and the bay item would also go up by 40% too! Anything that results in the recharge being above 100 will be capped at 100 but can then immediately be used.
The Science Vessel will get a virus probe. This will randomly infect one of the two weapons which will drain it's recharge back to 0. The higher level ones will also have a chance to drain the bay item and stop any special ability the targeted ship is currently using (except for Cloak of course). This will now make the science vessel a much better ship to have during combat.
The Transport ship will be able to use a Shield Generator on a friendly ship. This will create a shield around the targeted ship for 2, 3, 4 or 5 seconds depending on the level. While a ship has this shield the first shot that would have damaged the ship is rejected but the shield is then destroyed. This will make transports a bit more important during battle.
The last is the Fighter Carrier. It will now have the ability to launch a missile barrage. Unlike all other attacks which are resolved immediately, the missile barrage will act more like the fighter squad. After you launch it you can control it's direction just like a fighter squad. It will be much faster than the fighter squad but can be destroyed by the enemy with a single hit. It will do 10, 20, 30 or 40 damage depending on the level. It will explode upon impact on any ship or fighter squad (friendly or foe) or turret that it makes contact with. So be careful using it around your ships.
Those are the biggest highlights. Look for it the middle of July!