More New Features are being tested...
I was able to identify a problem with some textures on alien UFOs. Occasionally, the levels would appear with dark areas. It turns out some of the textures I was using were formatted incorrectly, so it was actually pretty easy to fix once I found the problem.
Crashed UFOs
Probably the most dramatic change is the existence of crashed UFOs on some planets. You can enter these destroyed craft and explore then, just like the ones in outer space. You won't find the crew on board, but you may come across some other surprises.
Star Chart Upgrade
The star chart now remembers your last position when you switch back to the ship's helm. This should improve the ease of navigation a lot. There is a bug in the star chart too, if you switch back and forth between stars and sectors, or between planets and stars, occasionally the star chart will have an error, and will not know what to focus on.
If this happens, just switch back to the last working focus (i.e. if you were looking at sectors, and then switched to stars, then switch back to sectors). You may have to re-click the star or planet you are trying to zoom in to. I will continue to troubleshoot this issue, but it does not seem to cause any game breaking problems.
Sand Planets
Sand planets already existed in Star Explorers. However, they will now have some different aspects that set them apart from other planets. The new sand planets will be flatter than others, and they will be lacking grass, trees and plants, though they may still have surface liquids and aliens if conditions are right. They also will be lacking caves, but they can still have ancient ruins or crashed UFOs to discover. This is just to add a little more variety to the game's possibilities. I plan on adding more planet and terrain types in the next update.