Hi all! This week's update is HUGE! The most important change for this update is players will now have the ability to [b]directly pilot their mobile stations[/b]. Simply enter the rocket adapter or command core, and you will be able to use WASD to move, and QE to rotate! That's right, you can finally rotate your mobile stations! I've added rotation controls to the control panel UI as well. We think being able to directly command your ships make them so much more fun and easy to use. Please let me know your feedback! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/85951a0760fdad565628748eea6cd1c59d29b477.png[/img] Another major change is that mobile stations will now default their reference structure to Command Cores, if one is on the ship. This will drastically reduce confusion with programming mobile stations, as 99.9% of the time you will no longer have to worry about the reference station, it will always be the command core. In the case of multiple command cores on one station, you will be able to select one as the reference structure as before. We're also making significant changes to make the game less opaque and more usable. We've added proper sorting to the craft panel to make items much easier to find. We've fine tuned the available slots UI. We've cleaned up old UI indicators that were confusing. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/9aed1c57f4c0e5f205e6781df6e641ad99e61168.png[/img] Next, we're launching the MVP version of our lighter tutorial. You will be able to select it in the New Game Panel when starting a game. The old tutorial remains, and is now designated as the "hand hold" tutorial. We know many people love the tutorial as it is, but there's a large cohort that do not like how hand-holdy the old tutorial was, so we thought we could have our cake and eat it too but having both as an option. We've also added LIGHTS! These are purely decorative for now, and cost no stability (but 1KW of power). You can turn them on and off, and set their color. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//43547551/bd79816049f293fd684567427cf314ad4e52c2d0.png[/img] There's a bunch of big balance changes, we've fixed a ton more bugs, and improved performance drastically for large bases. So definitely read all the patch notes below! Again, release is super close now. If you're a playtester, I can't tell you how much your efforts mean to me. [h3]0.17.0.16-21 Patch Notes[/h3] [b]Mobile Stations[/b] [list] [*] Players can now drive their mobile stations when riding them via WASD / QE. [*] Added ability to manually rotate mobile stations in the command UI panel as well as when driving [*] Command Cores are now always set to be the reference structure for mobile stations, assuming one exists [*] When turning off a mobile station, it will properly leave the queue of any stop it's currently at [/list] [b]Usability[/b] [list] [*] Added factorio-style subcategory sorting to the craft panel to make it easier to find stuff [*] Added new "Standard" tutorial option to the game [*] Valid slots UI will no longer show for an edge if a direct connection station needs more adjacent slots than are available [*] Removed outdated and confusing connection indicators on research centers, exploration centers, and singularity power stations [*] Added warning indicator on research stations when no research is selected [*] Added an interface option to toggle this on/off [*] The blueprint panel now shows truncated blueprint names for better readability [*] Reduced the size of the image in the blueprint panel preview [/list] [b]Logistics Bays[/b] [list] [*] Logistics Bays now have 2 inventory slots [*] Logistics bays now function as splitters [/list] This should give more flexibility to players, especially making more compact builds, or when needing a 2x1 junction [b]Singularity Power Stations[/b] [list] [*] Singularity stations now take into account power transmission when determining how quickly to consume fuel [*] Singularity station inventory converted to a standard inventory with 3 slots, so that it can hold its own fuel buffer [*] Added tooltip entry that shows how much power an item will provide in a singularity power station [/list] [b]Inserters and Cargo Drones[/b] [list] [*] Make inserters return to pickup if there's no dropoff. Make inserters properly only pick up one item type at a time [*] Temporarily removed the ability to ctrl+click a cargo drone to take its cargo (will restore this in an upcoming patch) [/list] [b]Enemies[/b] [list] [*] Increased base enemy damage by 40% [/list] [h3]Performance[/h3] [list] [*] Drastically improved performance of the construction task assigning logic, which should allow for thousands of remote construction bots in end game bases [*] Drastically improved performance of the logic controlling defense platforms. Players who have lots of defense platforms should see a huge improvement [*] Updated backtrace and burst to the latest version [/list] [h3]Bug Fixes[/h3] [list] [*] Fixed a bug preventing dyson spheres from producing exotic matter [*] Fixed a bug in the blueprint panel where the image would display things in incorrect positions [*] Fixed a crash related to removing connectors after taking items from them via ctrl click [*] Fixed a bug where enemies who spawn near origin would do no damage [*] Fixed a bug where players couldn't use the drag functionality to drop things in their inventory [*] Fixed a bug where construction bots would get stuck when trying to deposit or pick up items from a networked storage hold [*] Fixed a bug where hauler stops would get copied when trying to copy any property from any structure [*] Fix issue where cargo ships wouldn't properly be marked valid for placement after going through a logistics bay [*] Fixed bug where inserters could hop along connectors facing in the same direction [/list]