This update focuses on improvements to make the ship blueprint editing and testing gameplay loop smoother. All existing changes from the beta branch are now also included in the main branch.

New functionality:

• Added options for fleet test battle to reduce need for manually setting up a desired scenario every time. The level size, enemy fleet, and fleet deployment distance can be chosen from a new dialog.
  
  
• Added the existing fleet generator tool to fleet editor.
  
• Game overlay (damage, resources etc.) enabled and opacity settings are now persisted in game settings file automatically. The values are separate for sandbox battles, normal battles, fleet editor, and ship editor.
  
• Position and visibility of ship editor dialogs is now retained until the whole fleet editor screen is closed.
  
• Enabled configuration modding of shield parameters like size, energy use etc.
  
• Ship mirror tool now uses existing movement group assignments of actuators for mirrored actuators instead of always recalculating all movement groups so any manual assignment effort is not lost. The logic tries to smartly utilize the existing assignments based on mirror axis and movement group direction, but may yield worse results than full reassignment.
  
• Added settings for maximum overlapping shield opacity to the game settings file, but no UI. The limit can be lowered to see the ship's modules better under overlapping shields. Separate values are used for the fleet editor and battle.
  
• Fleet editor: Added option to include only the selected ships into the fleet save dialog. This is primarily meant to enable a ship / fleet testing workflow where one or more ships are saved from current fleet to use as enemy fleet in the test battles.
  
• Added file deletion button to all file open and save dialogs.
  

Notable fixes:

• Debug overlay: Improved visibility of certain debug texts by drawing a black background under them.
  
• Fixed configuration modding of shield modules.
  
• Fixed / refactored beam weapon firing logic to use electricity and generate heat at the start of each firing burst.
  
• Improved "first use" UX of the fleet generator tool by hiding the fleet listing and "Add ships" button until a fleet has been generated.
  
• Fixed fleet generator tool dialog not resizing correctly to content when the dialog was first dragged, and then a fleet was generated.
  

Career mode related:

• Renamed the "Campaign mode" to "Career mode" as that matches the idea of sandbox overworld mode with persistent fleet better. There likely won't be any story-driven or scripted "campaign" to play through.
  
• Start battle dialog in career mode now shows a listing of the enemy fleet content.
  
• Added option in ship blueprint browser (in fleet editor) to show only currently buildable blueprints. This is based on available modules in fleet and module production capability (including purchase price and resources needed) if docked to a station.
  
• Fleets defeated in universe battles now automatically jettison cargo and slow ships to escape their attacker.
  
• Empty fleets are now "scuttled" to debris instead of just deleting them, which releases any carried resources to the universe.
  
• Player fleet motion planning now uses "stop and go" solution if it is significantly faster than the smooth one.
  
• Fixed ship rebuild logic not assigning movement, weapon etc. groups, which would sometimes cause rebuilt ships to be immobile in battle.
  
• Fixed fleet rebuild getting stuck in a temporary empty fleet state. This would happen when fleet's only ship needs to be fully dismantled to then build another ship from scratch.
  

Highlights of features previously available only in the beta branch:

• Limited modding support via configuration files.
  
• Many additions and improvements to the career sandbox, including:
  
  • Roaming pirate fleets
    
  • Basic playable station battles
    
  • Improved fleet motion planning and added fleet evasion logic.
    
  • Several UI functionalities related to resource transfer, starting and escaping battles etc.
    

Please see previous announcements for some more info.