Patch 0.3.1: Civilians, Mercenaries and Turrets

NEW

• Civilian ships now roam the galaxy. They are ordinary people with their own ships and their own colours, not tied to any faction.
  
  
  
  • Every faction station is home to 2-4 civilians, depending on its population. (Requires a New Game for a full population, existing galaxies fill up over time)
    
  • Civilians mine, trade, carry couriers' goods, scavenge wrecks and hunt bounties, and they fly between sectors to do it.
    
  • They defend themselves when attacked. Only Corsairs and the Vigil hunt them.
    
  • When a civilian dies, a new person with a random job leaves their home station a few minutes later.
    
  
  
• Hire civilians as mercenaries: hover a civilian ship and press H.
  
  
  
  • The fee and salary depend on the ship, its modules, its level, its rarity and its pilot.
    
  • A mercenary flies in your fleet and takes your orders, but the ship is not yours: you can't sell, refit or paint it.
    
  • You can hire up to 5 mercenaries at first. Five new Commander skills raise the limit up to 50.
    
  
  
• Factions hire civilians too. A contracted civilian shows its employer in its name, like "[Federation] Name".
  
• Turret items: 12 turret types you can craft at the Module Works and fit on your ships and stations.
  
  
  
  • Right-click any turret mount in the Ship Preview, or on your own station, and pick Change Turret. The picker shows every turret you can reach, which ones fit, and a preview of each.
    
  • Heavy turrets hit as hard as the best of their class. The old turret comes back to you as an item.
    
  • A ship's trade value now includes the turrets fitted on it.
    
  
  
• Ship versions of the nine station batteries: ship weapons with the same feel as the station guns (piercing, splash, ion, flak, homing silo), sized to the hull. Craft them at the Weapon Forge, MK I to MK X.
  
• Faction warships of Frigate size and up now carry the new heavy turrets, on new spawns and on shipyard shelves.
  
• New pilots start with their home faction's turrets on their starting ship.
  
• Combat drones: right-click a combat drone in its hangar to choose "Equip Point Defense Weapon" or "Equip Normal Weapon", for one drone or for all of them. The drone lands and relaunches with the new gun. The weapon it flies with right now is shown in green.
  
• Every faction capital now always sells MK I station gear (Refinery Bay, Repair Bay, Station Reactor and the rest). Higher marks still come from kits, blueprints and loot.
  
• Galaxy map: an "Asteroid Rush" switch in Layers hides those sectors and their gate lines. A Rush sector you are in, travelling to, or have ships or contracts in stays visible.
  
• Galaxy map search: a "Whole words only" tick, so "Tin Ore" no longer finds Platinum Ore.
  
• Supply Construction Sites: a new "Then supply my next site" option, on by default. When a site is fully supplied, the ship flies to your next site that still needs materials, and goes home when none are left.
  
• Run Supply and Gather Here can now carry Packed Hulls from your storage to another station's storage or hangar.
  
• Restock Power Cells per ship: Fleet setting / Always / Free only / Never, under "This ship's own rules" and in the ship's right-click menu.
  
• Station Production filters: rarity, item category, and "Only what I produce".
  
• Stockpile: right-click a group for "Production Reserve (keep N of each)". It covers goods that arrive later, and a reserve you set on a single good still wins.
  
• Stockpile: hover a good and press Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V to copy and paste its settings.
  
• Set a good's stock order (keep, for sale, use in production...) from its Production recipe, before the first unit is made. A group For Sale rule no longer sells it.
  
• Auto-Scrap and Auto-Destroy: right-click any item next to Never Pick Up. Your ruled items are scrapped or destroyed the moment they land in your holds or storage. Fitted gear, locked or enhanced items, contract cargo and the ammo and Power Cells your ships need are never touched. Manage the list in Fleet > Settings.
  
• Crafting has a new Station tab. It lists the station modules and station weapons whose blueprints you have found.
  
• "Bring a ship from a save" now shows a real progress bar while it reads your saves, and you can leave the screen at any time.
  

CHANGED

• The game now pauses during every autosave, including the first one after loading, so nothing moves while it saves. In co-op, every pilot holds still during the host's autosave.
  
• Paint now follows each ship's real panels much more precisely.
  
• Station paint: the Faction & Stations paint tab now paints your stations. The switch is now called "Paint all my ships".
  
• Factions go to war a little more often before the Five-Power Accord, and rivals that sat at neutral for a long time slowly drift apart.
  
• Once the Vigil are beaten, the six powers' united front ends. Old rivalries slowly come back, and wars start again in the late game.
  
• Station traders and fleet traders now use their own Warp Drive to jump past blocked roads (like a Corsair capital) instead of saying "no route available".
  
• Fleet miners with Cargo Sorter ore filters go to the fields that are rich in the ores they keep.
  
• An insured station worker that is rebuilt goes straight back to its old job, with no extra replacement hull.
  
• A Top Priority recipe now ignores input reserves, and "Set Target for All" also covers recipes you learn later.
  
• You can now take over an officer post straight from the Assign picker.
  
• Funding a faction or brokering a ceasefire is refused under the United Front, and the tooltip says why.
  
• Vigil hull blueprints and locked drone looks now explain what they are for.
  
• Starter gear can no longer be scrapped for more than it sells for.
  

FIXED

• Fixed a rare crash that could end a long session at a random moment (reports pointed at pickups, asteroid respawns, guard patrols or the Skills tab). The cause was deep in the game's entity engine and is now gone for good.
  
• Fixed several more crashes: the navigation tab text, picking up loot, delivering at docks with many carrier drones, the dismantle cache, ships entering a jump right as they died, and some saves that failed to load.
  
• Fixed the game starting a new galaxy at very low FPS for the first minute. Loading now does that work behind the loading screen.
  
• Fixed a Nexus or other upgraded station falling back to an Outpost after loading a save.
  
• Fixed enhancing station production modules (Fabricator Bay, Ammo Plant...) showing the work speed going down. Every level now makes them faster, and the tooltip shows the real speed.
  
• Fixed Autonomous Fleet Commander reinforcements flying straight through Corsair sectors when you set them to avoid danger.
  
• Fixed a tax message for an unfinished faction station.
  
• Fixed Point Defense on shared or crewed mounts not shooting down rockets.
  
• Fixed a weapon mount showing free space when the next weapon would not fit.
  
• Fixed the Repair System not raising the Firestorm Leviathan's repair.
  
• Fixed ships getting stuck inside stations, derelicts stuck in depots, and building wrecks that could not be salvaged.
  
• Fixed the 6th Mining skill working before it was unlocked.
  
• Fixed "Never Pick Up" goods: they now show unticked in the Loot Filter, and ticking one allows it again.
  
• Fixed Codex Market Prices courses: clicking a station now shows a notice and says when your ship will undock.
  
• Fixed Esc closing every window before the pause menu. It now resumes from the pause menu first.
  
• Fixed item tooltips staying open after you moved on to another item.
  
• Fixed station shops hiding stock: every shelf held back its faction's whole kit need. That need is now shared once across all shelves.
  
• Fixed carrier drones causing big lag spikes in Huge galaxies.
  
• Fixed missing sounds on the new ship versions of the station guns.
  
• Fixed the layer switches on the galaxy and sector maps: clicking one row switched its neighbour too. Every row now turns on and off by itself.