Drifter 0.3.x Release Notes

The following are the historical release notes for Drifter 0.3.x (code name "Duane Dibbley").

Release Notes

• 0.3.1 introduces two big changes in flight dynamics. Slipstream has been removed from the main physics engine so it is no longer affected by the engine's upper velocity limit. Base Slipstream velocity is now 10x your ship's maximum velocity. As well, while Slipstream is no longer useful as a combat tactic (which it was never intended for) this build also introduces Afterburners which boost your ship's velocity and acceleration by 2x at the expense of energy in your capacitor. Afterburners are activated by holding the B key by default.

• NPC AI has been overhauled to take into account these flight dynamics changes as well as generally improving AI behavior in a number of situations including combat.

• If possible, on startup, the game will now check to see if there is a new version available and alert you if there is.

• The damage and delay on the Plasma Cannon has been increased. The effective DPS is similar but this has the overall effect of decreasing the rate at which Plasma Cannons drain energy.

• There has been some more information added to the Galaxy Map overview when you click on a star system which now displays the technology level and government type.

• There have been improvements to the visual effects for weapon projectiles.

• The blending on the right HUD indicators has been changed so it's not impossible to see when overlaying bright background elements.

• When launching your ship, if you have to wait for a docking bay to become free the camera will focus on the station with a message letting you know that you are waiting to undock.

• There is also a number of bug fixes which are noted below.

Previous Build Notes

0.3.x introduces Ore Processing which the player can use to convert raw ore from asteroid mining into saleable goods. Only stations in Mining systems have Ore Processing facilities. Additionally, though not available in 0.3.0, Material Processing will be introduced soon to allow you to build ship equipment (including ship equipment not available to buy) using raw materials.

As well, there are a number of improvements to the star map and bug fixes from 0.2.2 which are listed below.

Additional Notes

• You now must click the "plot course" button in the star map to set a destination and add it to your nav computer.
• You can now search for star systems by name from within the star map.

Bugs

Fixed Bugs in 0.3.x

• Titanium was missing from Ore Processing. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• Missile behavior has been improved. Previously missile trails would behave erratically based on fluctuating frame-rates. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• It is possible to activate your jump drive immediately after jumping if you activate it before the jumping-in animation completes. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• NPC mining ships occasionally stop mining and do nothing. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• Saving inside stations still does not work properly. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• Re-docking your ship after attempting to launch from a station while waiting for a free bay to launch from would cause your ship to get duplicated in the ship bay. This has been fixed for 0.3.1.
• Docking with movement controls active would cause the ship to not undock properly. This has been fixed in 0.3.0.
• Slipstream state is preserved through jumps; it should be set to off after jumping. This has been fixed in 0.3.0.
• A problem with galaxy map jump routes occasionally resulted in a non-existent system being selected after jumping. This has been fixed in 0.3.0.
• Marking missions complete in the order that they appear in the Active Mission List can corrupt the data in missions that appear further down the list causing a crash. This has been fixed in 0.3.0.
• Sometimes when undocking your ship would get stuck in the undocking queue. This has been fixed in 0.3.0.