Hey everyone!
Today I'm uploading the second mid-NextFest update, again focused on feedback points collected over the last few days.
Tractor mode has been added. This new button to the left of the stat bar enables you to view surrounding loot in a similar way to sensor contacts. If you click on the "reel in" button, the loot will fly to you. This uses the same functionality as material and currency pickup, so if you're in the process of flying away from the respective item, it will take longer to arrive. Loot should be fast enough to catch up with cruising ships that have not been otherwise speed-enhanced. Note that regular contacts will not be displayed while in this mode; to see them again, toggle it using the same button. The tutorial has been updated to reflect this change.
Several UI tweaks have been made. The Repair button has been resized and moved. A new "kill drones" button has been added, which will kill all your drones - this is to regenerate them should they get stuck or be otherwise problematic. A new small permanent range display has been added to all enemies for convenience. A cooldown timer has been added to the cruise cooldown display.
Enemy density has been reworked. Now, ambient enemies can spawn almost anywhere on the map. In addition to this, the radius of enemy ambush triggers has been increased dramatically, and their spawn rate has also increased. Together, these changes should lead to more dense and more spread out enemies in encounters, providing more opportunity for players to hunt single enemies and more engaging moments during travel.
Camera recentering has been implemented for the chase cam, and can be toggled from the pause menu. This option will reset the chase camera (default when selecting modern control scheme) to its default position behind the player ship after 1.5 seconds of no camera movement.
There are also bugfixes, notably the issue where damage from projectiles could sometimes apply twice has been resolved.
I hope you enjoy this update!