April Fools

Hey space captains! I hope everyone will get a chance to play on April 1st, because I've got something fun planned for your officers... it might even be a hint at a future possibility (and a common player request)!

Internal Damage / Shipwreck Stories

Part of the recent work on shipwrecks has been to improve their "stories": what kind of ship is it, who built it, what happened to them, why is their ship a "wreck" anyway?

You can get some of this information through the new scanning feature, but you can now get a lot more by going in there and poking around.

But beyond the remains of the former crew, and the aftermath of whatever disaster befell them, you can now see messages from their last moments! Who was involved? What were they doing? Did they have any warning?

There are currently 10 categories of "internal damage", each with subcategories and specific handling. maybe they caught a disease and it got out of hand? Maybe one of the crew was trying to defect to the enemy? FIND OUT!

New Docs

I will be spending some time writing Steam Documentation on all the new "shipwreck repair" features. I know there's a lot to learn and remember, so this way you can keep the information handy.

When it's done, it will be available directly from the "DOCS" link on the main loading screen.

Shipwreck Overhaul Complete?!

Shipwreck overhaul has been my focus for *months*, and the progress has been transformative. Everything has been reworked from the ground up, and hundreds of new items have been added to give each room a specific feel and purpose. You can now interact with intelligent aliens onboard, sometimes aiding them, other times receiving warnings or ultimatums.

Each shipwreck is now a unique self-contained experience. And even when you're *done* with a shipwreck, you have options! Blow it up for parts, tow it to a station and sell it, or even, in some cases, USE IT AS YOUR OWN SHIP!

Is it done?

Almost...

There are still some kinds of damage I need to write stories for (and that includes "external" damage, which mostly refers to combat, and I haven't even touched that yet). There is an entire new system that I never ended up adding, and that was puzzles. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do that right now.

But forcefields still need something more interesting inside them than just credits... (And please note I said "interesting" not necessarily "better".)

But there's still a lot to do in 1.7 (remember the Star Map?) and I'll take feedback while I tie up my work here with shipwrecks. And don't worry, it doesn't mean I'll never work on them again, only the *focus* will shift.

Favoritism

Are you tired of accidentally selling or salvaging your best equipment? ME TOO! That's why I (finally) incorporated the concept of "favorite items":

It only works with the mouse for now, but a keyboard interface will be made.



Anyway, if you right click on an item in your cargo (or any other window where it appears), it will become "favorited", and display with an asterisk "*" at the beginning and in a nice golden color. Then you will always get an "are you sure" warning about anything that would destroy a favorite item.

Other Changes

• You now get a log message when officers get paid out of your income.
  
• Fixed a problem where "dormant / asymptomatic" diseases were still having an effect.
  
• You can now detect Hypno-Flowers on planet scans.
  
• THERE ARE 15 NEW MONSTERS!
  
• ...and 8 new monster powers...
  
• Shipwreck repair readout has been improved.
  

Enjoy!