This was a big patch so bear here are the details:
First, there are 2 known issues that we are working on and will be fixed in the next patch (Monday or Tuesday). They are both in the fleet combat. The first is if you have a pirate ship in your fleet the graphic does not show up, The ship shows in the ships list and is in the battle just no graphic.
The second is the launch time for the first set of fighter squads at a pirate outpost or starbase is not being set correctly. The pre-battle screen gives you one time and once the battle starts you get another time.
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Now for the cool stuff in this patch:
Increased the length of nebula encounters by about 5 seconds, and added a yellow static charge that will briefly appear about 1 second before a lightning strike is going to strike in that area. The static charges are harmless but will give players time to better aim their shots or move their shuttle craft. This should allow players to gather more gas extract as these were a little too difficult to accumulate.
Added a ‘Disperse Crew as Needed’ button to the edit fleet screen. This will move crew from transport and fighter carriers to battle cruisers, research vessels and cargo ships in need. Battle Cruisers are filled first, then cargo and then research vessels. The crew comes from either a transport or fighter carrier. They must have over 33% of their maximum and it takes it from the one with the higher crew count.
Planet Landers now have auto fire and this can be increased using the Engineering Stat.
Added a text showing how many open ship slots a player has while in combat. This was something the player would want to know for the purpose of capturing enemy ships.
Fixed a bug which was allowing ships to move after an enemy action before they were supposed to.
Fixed various typos.
Lowered the damage done by Chemical and Vaporizer Bombs as they were a little too powerful.
Added if a ship device module is stackable or not to all ship device module tooltips. You can still add multiple Modules that are NOT stackable to a ship but only the strongest will be active during battle. This means that players can have a backup just in case one is disabled or destroyed during a battle. For example, you could have two Weapon Generators so you can continue to get the recharge boost if one is destroyed or disabled.
The sound effects in the intro screen will now use the volume set as the player’s preferences. These are saved each time the player enters the esc menu.
Fixed an bug that causes the game to crash while using keyboard or hybrid controls during a star lane jump.
Fixed an issue where you could see the movement path of a cloaked enemy ship and see where it was if you put your mouse over it.
You are now allowed to continue to collect resources while exploring a planet if your fleet cargo becomes full and your planet lander’s cargo is NOT full. The excess will go into the jettison chamber when you return. You will still get the audible message that the fleet cargo is full as a warning.
Made the armor and crew gauges on the ships list in combat a little wider to make it easier to see.
Last but most definitely not least is the new star map lens system. This is addition to the existing search functionality found at the bottom of the star map.
This will work very similarly to Civ 6. In the lower right corner is a list of check boxes for each of the 8 things listed below. The list will have an icon that will match the icon that will show around the star system that meets the criteria. This icon can be clicked on and you will see the rings around those star systems that meet the requirement. Just like pressing the find button when using the advance search functionality.
Next is a check box to enable or disable the filter. Then is the name of the criteria. There is also a button to check or uncheck them all.
The icons will appear around the star system with only six that you will see at the same time. Here is a list of the lens’:
These first three will all share the location directly on top of the star. This is because they all are related to each other and only one will ever be totally accurate.
Discovered ----> Visited ----> Totally Explored
As you can see, you must first discover a star system. Then you will visit it. And finally you can explore each and every encounter.
The others are:
Wormholes (before they are turned into a star lane)
Research Units (This will include anomalies, comets and gas planets with RU's left on them)
Space Stations (This one will also have an icon next to it that shows what type of space station it is. Green $ for trade center, blue beaker for research station and so forth)
Civilian Outpost
Hostiles (this will include pirate outpost and races or rebels that dislike you or worse.
Thats it!