The space between ports used to be just distance to cross. Not any more.
Scan the gaps
Eight deep space contacts now hide in every system. Press V, or click the right stick, to fire a scan pulse. Most scans come back empty, but an empty scan still gives you a bearing toward the nearest one. Run it down for Titanium, Research, Credits and salvage.
Restore the Survey Array
A derelict Observatory drifts in every asteroid belt. Bring it back online and it opens a survey of the whole system at a glance.
Your guns, your trigger
Combat is manual now. Hold left click to fire; selecting, moving and orbiting moved to right click. Auto-Fire is still there in Options if you liked the old way.
Also new
Boost leaves a trail and compresses the starfield. Interstellar jumps now spool the gate and run a star tunnel instead of a one second cut.
A guided opening and an objective tracker for new pilots, plus hit stop and heavier shake in combat.
Fixes
Colonies stop growing at 70 percent of housing instead of packing out to 100, which used to park every world on the worst happiness score.
Enemy difficulty rebalanced: less raw health, damage scaled to what you can actually take.
Ship turning no longer jitters, and your own hull stops collapsing to a rectangle when zoomed out.
Ardent and Hollow Crossing, one run. All of it is in the demo.