Ships 1.5 beta update - Patch notes

Hey everyone.

Here are the patch notes for the 1.5 „Ships“ beta build. Remember to give it a really good test and leave your feedback here and your bugs here.

NEW CONTENT/FEATURES (1.5)

• Added Asp Scout
• Added Viper MkIV
• Added Federal Corvette
• Added Imperial Cutter
• Added Keelback
• PC/Mac: Added Bobbleheads!!!
• Added Imperial Fighter to CQC
• Added new missions
• Don't die missions
• Don't get scanned missions
• Multi-stage missions
• Missions can be received in space
• Assassination variants
• Contact missions
• Unique cargo missions - you have to deliver what you are given
• Timed window missions
• Added new open space scenarios:
• Search and rescue scenarios
• Wrecked ships scenarios
• New deep space salvage scenarios
• Distress call scenarios
• Alliance vip escort
• PC/Mac: Updated French, German and Russian translations
• Added more player group sponsored minor faction descriptions
• Master Chefs rare good added
• Renamed various planets
• Local emergency rescue NPCs added
• Spanish localisation added - a big shout out for the Spanish community for their hard effort on this!

STABILITY FIXES

• Xbox One - Show gamertag for Xbox One players who have 'discovered by' tags
• Swap the order that some conditionals are checked in to fix an error that can happen when searching certain systems names
• Added sanity check when selling commodities
• Don't crash when we try to eject all cargo and we either: have no cargo hatch, or the cargo hatch is shutting down
• Fix crash trying to xtract the cargo canister's root physics skeleton before it is loaded
• Fix an error than can happen when your squad leader is joining and leaving matchmaking in rapid succession
• Xbox One: Fix some errors suspending and resuming a CQC match
• Make sure that th stellar manager on the server shuts down correctly
• Fix potential crash when spawning NPCs
• Fix crashes reported for missing D3D buffers
• Fix crash caused in Alliance space where the music track was given the wrong action name
• Stellar system evolution shouldn't create negative mass
• Fixed a softlock that can happen if a player joins a CQC game while it is in the game initialisation state
• Avoid softlock loading into CQC if the ship object isn't ready yet
• Made CQC handle the player being logged out while playing
• Fix crash when using multiple mining lasers
• Fixed a memory leak in audio occlusion
• Fix memory leak on ship destruction

GENERAL TWEAKS & FIXES

• Added a hitcheck box to the capital ship laser turret turntable so that there is something to hit for the energy weapons. Also fixed the hitcheck so that everything is aligned to the barrels
• Changed the seats in the Imperial Clipper to be the white imperial ones
• Add shadow distance override for cockpits where it's been missing
• Capped a few holes in the FDL hitcheck that was causing lasers and bullets to sometime go through the ship without hitting it
• Added Front LandingGear Doors to the Viper so you cannot see the LandingGear appear/disappear anymore
• The Eagle's rear landing gears no longer intersect with the landing pads
• Fix the galaxy map search returning systems that dont end in -0 when a search ends with -0. Also when an array of results is returned, make sure that we start iterating at the first element in the array
• Galaxy search - Make sure that when we are searching a region for a name match that the name matches the name of the region, otherwise it will end up looking through every star in a region without it being able to match anything
• Paint job tweaks and improvements
• Shipyard no longer shows 'filler text' during flicker animation on first visit
• Added NPC Police paintjobs to the Anaconda ship, so that the police forces in the game now all has the same livery when they respond to situations
• Added Keyboard toggle for orbit lines
• Fix the cancel binding causing you being unable to select that binding again until reloading the bindings menu
• Commodities market 'Demand' field can’t fit 8 or more digits fixed
• Having a extremely large amount of credits causes errors when buying commodities fixed
• Unable to return to the sort on categories in outfitting for modules when you have scrolled down the menu to the Back option fixed
• Resolved an issue with disappearing ship icon in the Functions panel
• Fixed geometry hole in the cockpit chair near the camera
• Now that the Mac client has a BORDERLESS mode, accept this setting if it is found in the display config. file
• Give 'out of range' message for the mining laser
• Changed damage types and made sure outfitting has the correct stats too for the plasma accelerator
• Vulture decal placement fixes
• Updated in conjunction with dirt and tweak edits to improve panel definition and wear and tear on Fer-de-Lance
• Fixed missing damage section on Anaconda
• Got rid of faint white border from Alliance logo
• Made more space for digits in confirmation popup when discarding cargo
• Increased brightness and placement of hyperjump lens flare and removed unneeded drive bone to prevent an error
• Moved shader preparation option out of the graphics quality group as it is not affected by the quality preset
• Don't save if we're dead. Saving our ship in this state makes no sense and the server already knows all it needs to know from an earlier commander/death request
• Fix AIs not spawning close to stations
• Increased the width of the textField containing the module name to the maximum width to avoid text cutting
• Added icon for new 'IllegalSalvage' mission icon
• Adjusted a couple of the Anaconda loadouts to make sure all Anaconda's have turrets of some sort
• Removed back button from New Commander Screen
• The CQC outfitting hangar now has the name Attilius Orbital on the back wall
• Fixed the 'Friends' text header disappears after opening a friend's Gamercard
• Added NPC stranded behaviour - they need refueling!
• Improvements to NPC traders
• Those spawned near stations (who will normally dock with that station) now pick their starting cargo from that station's imported goods, rather than a random station's exported goods
• If spawning docked they pick from that station's exports to take away with them. When buying cargo after docking they also use the station's exports
• Added 'terrorist' NPC archetype
• Fixes some hitcheck which was letting ships clip through heatsink rings on the front of the O'Neill station
• Added oculus reset to F12 to controller configs where they were missing
• CQC: Scorecard - Added an extra column for 'Game Mode'- specific scores
• Fixed hitcheck so you can hit targeted weapons on the Fer-de-Lance
• Re-Exported Eagle to fix broken hardpoints. Also fixed wrong material applied to hardpoint doors
• Increased text size of 'viewing' text on CQC death screen
• When Attempting to Change Loadout on Death in CQC an Option Was already selected fixed
• Stop spurious button audio in powerplay UI
• Powerplay rating tab: highlight the current rating you are in white on the right hand list of ratings
• Shortened the text field in wing panel slightly to prevent cutting off of wing locations
• Art fix for Eagle LOD issues
• Extended text field so that ship's stats description fits in German
• Hitcheck tweaks to the Anaconda, Federation Gunship, Type 7 and Type 9 to make sure a small railgun can fire from every hardpoint
• Swapped hit layouts around for Cobra's small hardpoints
• Moved the Small hard point from the underside to the side, so the hardpoints can fire without shooting into them on the Federal Assault Ship
• Fixed landing gear clipping on Type 9
• Tweaks to Hangar cameras, decals and baked greebels on Anaconda
• New chatter tables added for new scenarios
• Search and rescue NPCs added
• Landing gear no longer disappears before landing gear doors close on Vulture
• Cash reward for routing a capital ship is now 150000 instead of 50000 to bring it in line with other increases in combat bonds
• „Unable to complete Transaction“ screen stuck on Commodities market fixed
• Fix for Top/Boost speed in the Shipyard being higher than expected
• Reversed text on baked texture on Fed Gunship fixed
• Decals made to be more intergrated with the hull to follow contours on Federal Dropship
• 'Back' button in Galactic Powers menu functions as 'Exit' when clicked with the mouse fixed
• The powerplay GUI will sometimes load up another power when clicking back instead of exiting galactic power standing screen fixed
• Added „back“ buttons to the news and standings pages of the powerplay menus
• Galaxy map view is not centred when opening the map the first time fixed
• 'Surge detected' text transposing onto canisters
• 'None' Filter for Economy in Show by colour in the galaxy map does not work fixed
• Added a minimum number of visible stars to galaxy map for edge case where none are displayed
• Player does not see own name in Squad list when the Squad Leader is selecting a game fixed
• Adjusted animation on large gimbal so it doesn't rotate as far to avoid the large cannon clipping through the floor
• Toggling between Economical and Fastest Route on Galaxy Map doesnt change the plotted route fixed
• Added in loadouts for the Bounty Hunter Viper MkIV and added in a crime scanner to one of the standard Viper loadouts
• Added in loadouts for military Viper MkIV's and Asp Scout's, also fixed missing Class 5-E drive text
• Updated the Alliance Viper military loadout to have mediums on it's mediums
• Added NPC loadouts for Miner Asp Scouts and Keelback
• Stop dancing stars near stars with the lensing effect
• Add dynamic overrides for menu group GUI labels. When in supercruise, the GUI now says „Disable supercruise“ rather than „Enable…“.
• Added NPC loadouts for Smuggler Asp Scouts and Keelbacks
• Fix for the CQC stats screen showing 0% progress once the player's hit Elite, should show 100% for a warm sense of completeness
• Rename duplicate authored system Khan to prevent conflict with generated system of the same name
• Removed translated ship names that shouldn't be translated
• Xbox One: Selecting current location on Galaxy Map isn't saved upon closing map fixed
• HIP and HD numbers in Galaxy map should not have commas in them
• Inconsistent Galaxy Map search method in Powerplay fixed
• Xbox One: Opening galaxy/system map with radial menu causes target panel to open when map is closed fixed
• Xbox One: Closing the system map with the B button brings up the galaxy map or vice-versa fixed
• Make sure that not having a microphone doesn't stop you using voice comms completely (i.e. listening)
• Add some significant events from recent history to various system descriptions in the galaxy map
• Superpower reputation progress bars added (plus minor redesign to improve layout)
• The icon for pledging to a power is still visible on the Power Standing screen after leaving the power fixed
• Fixed physics issue on the Viper
• Fix wing beacons disappearing after after 150s. Also fix wing beacons not appearing on the radar
• Fix for being allowed to attack ships that have bounty before scanning them enough to see it
• Updated damage decals for ships
• If the player gets into a conflict zone where the factions aren't hostile to each other, don't allow the player to join a faction and show „ceasefire“ where we would show „choose faction“
• Fixed a problem in old planets that makes the normal map to be misaligned for one frame
• If two NPCs in an interdiction finish with one of the objects not live, don't try to make an FSD wake since we can't cache that ship
• Xbox One: If QoS times out after joining a friend's game (which shouldn't normally happen), neaten up the error message flow
• Two Zero-length vector fixes for velocity during interdiction - could have been causing odd directions
• Assigned a proper shipyard hologram for the Imperial Eagle
• Xbox One: Fix a matchmaking issue where players that had previously failed QoS with one game may be kicked out of another game they later joined successfully
• Fixed some issues with localised number formatting
• When the game is paused and we take a high-res screenshot, don't unpause it again afterwards
• Xbox One: Disable Friends menu options when we have no network, because the FriendsManagementScreen will just kick us out anyway
• Fix an issue with entering the reference frame of a space station while on the surface of Lave 2 by shrinking the station's reference frame size
• Wing beacons are now visible whenever the caster is in the same system and you can't see their ship
• Removed gamepad references from control schemes so that they'll show up when a gamepad isn't plugged in
• Fix the required SKU for the Cobra GamesCom paint job
• Stop AI ships blowing themselves up due to overheating when firing weapons
• Galaxy Map Info panel is consistently blank, regardless of selection fixed
• Xbox One: If you pause the game while on Outfitting screen and Open Help → controller focus remains on Outfitting under the help UI
• CQC - Text Chat - Squad chat is labeled as Wing chat in team matches fixed
• Make empire/federation faction skill have a minimum of 0.01 and a maximum of 0.2 (if there is any) so that faction ranking is slightly easier
• Modified the way that containment radius is calculated so that for small moons close to their parent they don't end up with a containment radius intersecting their parents surface
• Fix incorrect game miode being shown in comms panel
• NPC's constantly flying into asteroids in resource extraction sites improvements
• If a squad invite for CQC gets declined the person who invited them is not informed fixed
• Add some additional checks to ensure that permits are loaded in correctly
• Stagger the creation of ring cells within a ring, to avoid creating many cells in the same frame
• Reduce memory overhead from cached asteroid physics
• When choosing targets for AI hyperspacing, check that targets aren't blocked by a body
• Cockpit was being attached slightly out of place causing the exterior cockpit chair to be in view from normal player camera in the Vulture
• Pioneer rank decal is listed as Starblazer fixed
• Ensure that the AI ambient spawner always generates enough NPC archetypes to satisfy the ideal number
• Moved chat box to the bottom right corner to not obscure main menu descriptions
• Fix for billboard asteroids not converging on the Oculus Rift and having different orientations in any 3D mode when stereo rendering is not enabled from the start of the game session
• Render the bottom of the planet rings for bodies in system map - you can move to see this side with HMDS
• If we are overriding the cargo of a ship, change the allocations of illegal/legal/stolen so that all cargo allocation is either legal or stolen
• Stop NPC ships from using paint jobs from wrong ship types
• „Target acquired“ message stays when attempting to scoop new cargo fixed
• Miner NPCs spawn with a random mix of minerals from the asteroid field they're in; if they're not in an asteroid field, pick minerals from the station lists, rather than just random commodities as before
• Added more chatter lines for ambushed pilots to stop repetition
• Robigo system listed as „Terraforming“, but it's actually Extraction fixed
• Reduce the shadow depth bias settings for Medium/Ultra inside the cockpit to fix the gaps showing at the cockpit glass struts
• Check we have an available pad before trying to spawn capital ship fighters
• Make sure massacre mission branches have reasonable timeouts
• Add training video section to front end
• System map should show distance from entry point for planets (similar to starports)
• Classified Camera Toggle control input remains after selecting the „Empty“ controls scheme fixed
• Mass Lock cockpit indicator not turned off on entering new system fixed
• OSX: Fix for mouse click detection and cursor positioning issue when using Retina resolutions
• Fix NPC pirate wings not accepting dropped cargo to stop their attack
• Missions now check in advance that the player's ship is eligible to dock at all stations/outposts required for multi-stage missions
• Wrong Economy information for Devakak system fixed
• Fix an issue where dark side lighting on planets wasn't working in supercruise
• Player cannot pay fine when Black Market is accessed fixed
• Added a small amount of weapon drain to the plasma repeater to stop people leaving it on 0 pips for extended periods of time
• Disable local chat in CQC. Also show a more specific error message when blocking a direct message to a followee
• Corrected animation error on viper underside hard point doors
• Stop NPCs from trying to flee as a result of scanning when they are on the shared docking path
• Fixed a pop between the deploy and stow also fixed the intersection between the medium Pulselaserburst Turret and the ship
• Mirrored the location of the tiny hardpoints on the Hauler so that they're the right way around
• If we don't have mic focus (because the party app does), then show all channels as muted
• Raised Top Hardpoint bone to prevent the gun shooting through the hull on the Imperial Eagle
• Restructured front end training menus
• Fixed Custom Decals not showing on LODs on Python
• Fix some framerate sensitivity issues that caused partial frames of weapon recharge between shots to be ignored, resulting in lower than intended fire rates at low frame rates
• Give auto-bounties to powerplay pirates, the same as normal pirates
• Capped holes between Exterior hull and cockpit on Vulture
• The galaxy map, system map and powerplay screens are now closed when the player receives damage or hostiles appear
• Fix „repair paintwork“ not working
• Make target time and target time range contract elements stop you from accepting a mission if the time range is going to be over within 10 minutes
• Massacre missions cannot be given by system owners now
• Hide Refinery tab if the refinery doesn't exist
• Changed message given to players trying to fit a shield generator that can't support the hull mass of the ship
• Chaff and Heatsinks will no longer be launched when deploying hardpoints by pressing one of the fire buttons if they are assigned to one of the active fire groups
• Don't snow nav/proximity warnings when your landing gear is down - you're probably trying to „hit“ something intentionally
• Elite/Founder missions are now only available at the Founders World
• System Map: Removed long description line from system UI data
• Xbox One: Kick user out of voice comms (with dialog prompt) when entering CQC
• There was an area below the galaxy map popup where rolling over a star/planet wasn't possible. This is now fixed
• Positioning of star map popup is smarter and more flexible. Popup will stay contained to the screen bounds
• Xbox One: Change message to not use (possibly truncated) name when we can't find a chat target
• Made the system map rollover more forgiving - smaller objects no longer require precision mouse movements to see the popup
• In mining, player unable to eject minerals from the refinery hopper fixed
• Fixed missing doors on Federal Dropship
• Added tabs to system map - System, Info, Points of Interest
• Fixed tiny hardpoint placement and tweaked hitcheck on Federal Assault Ship
• Turning off 'Show star names' in galaxy map doesn't clear existing labels fixed
• System map popup positioning tweaked - now avoids overlapping other bodies in the same row
• Option added to disable head look focus mode on Comms and Info panels
• Adjusting position of Skirmish tutorial to bring it out of the planets pull
• SMAA workaround while core issue is investigated
• Moved tiny hardpoint bones so that the assets don't clip through the hull
• Made the matchmaking lobby check to make sure the server is updating it correctly and disconnect if it is not
• Set the hit sphere to the correct cargo hatch under the anaconda
• Don't let players choose a decline button on a mission branch if the message is no longer relevant
• Added a vent button to the refinery hopper
• If we accept a CQC invite while loading into CQC, don't return to the main menu
• Cockpit shadow fix for the Federal Gunship
• Rebalance of shield cell heat gain
• The heatsink projectile now simulates physics properly, and is susceptible to collisions and gravity
• Hull reinforcement health increased
• Modules now have boot up times
• OSX: Added support for up to 8 mouse buttons
• Server optimisation for StellarForge lookups - reduces system lookup times when hyperspacing
• Stop shadow casting spotlights from remaining after the owning activity has been destroyed
• Do allow remaining hopper items to be moved to bins after we've filled a canister. This fixes a bug where remaining items would get stuck in the hopper even though there's an empty bin available
• Significant improvements to blocked-shot testing for turrets, mostly aimed at settlements but will help elsewhere
• Small chance of spawning rescuer AI when player runs out of fuel in supercruise if in sufficiently populated system, not an anarchy, if player is ffriendly with controlling faction. Spawned AI acts like a hunter passive, so it will approach the player and then drop out, waiting for the player to follow
• Render the radar in world space as FOR shifts now are frequent avoiding relative positioning issues

New Audio:

• Audio for Imperial Fighter
• Audio for Federal Corvette
• Audio for Imperial Cutter
• Audio for Keelback
• Audio for CobraMKIV
• Audio for ViperMKIV
• Audio for Asp Scout
• Audio has been added to new damage model decals
• Adding LFE thump to cockpit breaches and FSD transitions
• CytoScrambler Laser has a sound!!

Audio Fixes:

• Weapons: Fixed Collector drone GUI „blip“ sound triggering on all ships in the area. Now they only trigger on the drone owner's ship.
• Weapons: Improvements to missile mix
• Weapons: Missile explosion tweaks.
• Weapons: Improved Capital/Station Broadside Guns.
• Weapons: removed the falloff of volume over time when firing multi-cannons continuously.
• Physics: Raised the volume of cannon/plasma/railgun impacts on other ships that the player causes.
• Ships: Mix tweaks to Eagle, PG_Eagle Empire Eagle and Dropship to improve volume consistency across all ships.
• Ships: Fixed some clicks in Dropship drives.
• Ships: Fixes to Asp orientation.
• Ships: Fixes to Diamondback's boost.
• Ships: Fixed missing sound on Federal Dropship Boost.
• Ships: Improvements to occlusion on ships.
• Ships: Empire Eagle landing gear tweaks.
• Ships: Added boost fail volume curves, so not too loud when game is quiet.
• Ships: Added missing „Clunk“ on other ships docking/undocking at stations.
• Music: Enabled streaming on some music – memory optimisation .
• Music: Fixed a possible problem with music being faded out in the CQC menu.
• GUI: Fixed behaviour of docking offense and heat alarms, to avoid getting stuck on.
• GUI: Evened out the volumes on the rank up anims.
• GUI: Updates to CQC GUI.
• GUI: Tweak to CQC results stingers.
• GUI: loads of menu GUI tweaks.
• GUI: Fixed missing scanner sounds when losing a regaining line of sight.
• Voice: Added new CQC voice line „Enemy has the lead“.
• Voice: Changed CQC welcome announcement wording.
• Set up occlusion on non-player ship impacts.
• Fixed joypad rumble to not rumble on nearby ships landing.
• Used our Pooled Audio Object system in a lot more places. Reduces voice count and improves performance.
• Plugged some holes in Pooled Audio Object system.
• Fixed some minor bugs in Soundbank Management.
• Optimised memory assignments for soundbanks.