Build 138 : Drones, Targeting and Ship Editor.

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Devlog 104 covers a few new additions and a number of tweaks over this past month. I hope you enjoy it over this holiday season.

I have added a new mechanic to the targeting panel. It will allow you to instantly re-target your active modules to any active target on the list. When you mouse over an active target on the targeting panel. 2 small icons will appear. These will give you a bit more control in combat,making it easier to assign modules to a target.

Drones got some love this update. Drones now have stances. This will control how the drone behaves. These work in a very similar way to the Merc tactical stances. There are 3 modes, Defensive, Neutral, and Aggressive.

The Defensive mode will cause the drone to remain in orbit of your ship, while working their target. The drone must be in range of the target to complete it's duty, otherwise it will just hang out until your ship is close enough for the drone to engage.

The Neutral stance functions much as drones used to... with one major difference. They will remain within their range. As they break the range barrier (on their way to the target) they will return towards your ship until they are in range again. They will hold this pattern an not extend their range outside of the drone base range.

The Aggressive stance is almost identical to how drones worked before. They will charge at the target, and do what they do regardless of range.

This allows for a few new ways to play with drones. I had fun testing them. I hope you do too. I also fixed a number of little annoying bugs. The merc crate bug. Merc cargo panel bug along with a handful of other.

I didn't make a number of tweaks to a variety of 'game knobs' that control the progression on the campaign map. Big changes coming on that front.

Stay tuned for a special video coming soon, and then perhaps a new devlog at the end of this month / year.

Build 0.0138
- Fixed part scaling issue with loaded ship on the hangar market.
- Fixed text overflow on active target items and prescan items on targeting panel with long names.
- Fixed issue wih drone dock distance being set lower than the drone orbit distance, prevent drone docing on larger ships.
- Fixed NPC Merc Overview panel buttons for autotask not showing proper mouseover when over the icon image of the autotask button.
- Fixed NPC Merc cargo panel capacity bug when first opening a new mercs cargo panel for the first time. Now shows proper capacity.
- Fixed NPC crate collect autotask spamming the notifications when the Merc cannot remove oversized cargo from the crate.
- Fixed UI panel showing on top bar when using larger than average resolutions.
- Fixed a number of spelling error on the drone tutorial script, and a small tweak to the combat basics tutorial.
- Fixed bug where 3d tool widget would show after using whip editor then loading the structure editor.
- Fixed scripting file spelling error on missions_debt_collection.txt and one on the missions file.
- Fixed bug allowing for merc cargo panel to remain visible after assigning the merc to a service position at the station.
- Adjusted NPC merc crate collect autotask. AI now will check the crate for any items it may be able to fit before returning to ship.
- Adjusted the descriptions , base level and skills point rewards for all collection missions.
- Adjusted the way passive modules bonuses are stacked up when applied to each ship stat bonus.
- Adjusted target sorting code on the targeting panel.
- Adjusted drone stats for all salvage drones, leech and burglar drones.
- Adjusted stats of a number of passive resistance modules in the items database.
- Adjusted all base sizes of the life support items in the database.
- Adjusted NPC base crate item drop chance when checking for loot drops when NPC ship explodes.
- Adjusted a number of default world options for better balance when starting a new campaign save.
- Adjusted a few UI elements on the targeting panel list items with raycasting issues preventing proper mouse clicks on active targets.
- Adjusted UI scale slider to allow for larger settings when using 4k or higher resolutions.
- Adjusted mining and salvaging drone stats.
- Adjusted UI elements on hotkeys options panel. Removed (left alt W S pitch controls).
- Added new sort drop down filter for the targeting panel to replace the sorting cycle button.
- Added new dropdown options for autopilot panel. Orbit distance has dropdown (And manual entry).
- Added dropdown menus for orbit angle and orbit speed. (no manual entry).
- Added dropdown filter for sorting cargo panel inventory.
- Added filters for Trade Good, Document, and Usable to the cargo filter dropdown options.
- Added new mouse over info onto targeting panel list items for all Stations, Structures, Warpgates, Crates and Ships.
- Added (All Modules to Target) on targeting panel list. You can now set all active module to a target without changing your ship's target.
- Added (Travel to) button on targeting panel. You can now set autopilot target without changing your ship's target.
- Added new ship directional pie plate to the ship editor in ModTools.
- Added a toggle for direction pie plate on ship editor bottom panel.
- Added new ui layout to bottom right panel of ship editor. Controls for camera views, zoom.
- Added new Controls in ship editor for lighting and engine effects. Toggles for both of these have been added to the new Ship Editor Options panel.
- Added color hightlight to the parts selection panel. Select parts now hightlight the button green.
- Added new save image option to the ship image preview. No longer will the image be replaced instantly, confirmation is required.
- Added drop down sorting for the Ship editor types on the Load Ship panel. This has replaced the old button list.
- Added new camera control system to the ship. now matches setup of garage, main space and ship details window.
- Added new pie plate to the Garage, Ship Details and Ship yard ship cameras. Each can be toggled off.
- Added ability to use skillbooks when docked at a station.
- Added drone tactical stance system. Allows for control over how the drone behaves when active.
. Defensive stance will keep the drone in orbit around the parent ship, only performing it's action when target is within drone range.
. Aggressive stance will cause the drone to head out after the target, and continue to do so even if the drone goes out of range.
. Neutral stance will let the drone move around freely within drone range, but will not stray out of range to chase a target.
- Added drone tactical stance cycle button to the drone icon on the Drones Command Panel.
- Added new beam effects for ranged mining, salvaging and combat drones.
- Added garage camera focus on active modules when managing ship upgrages in station garage.