Update v0.8.4 - Admiral Vance, the Salvage Race and Your Own XO

Sector 1 now has a story thread and a rival who talks back, Salvage battles are a race, your XO gets a name and a face, and every new map spreads its battles more evenly. Fleet Command, Fabricate, Upgrade and Equip get a round of improvements too, along with many battle fixes. Map and story changes apply to new expeditions and newly generated maps; an expedition already under way keeps the map it has. Story details below are hidden as spoilers.

New

• Admiral Vance. On a new expedition, Admiral Edric Vance, the Alliance commander, answers your Sector 1 victories with transmissions of his own, with his own portrait and an ALLIANCE tag in the comms window. He is heard again on every new expedition. Once you are halfway to Greywall he announces an assault fleet, and a Defend battle against the Alliance follows. In the demo that battle is still the finale, and the DEMO COMPLETE screen now quotes his reply.
• Sector 1 story objectives. A new expedition marks one Sector 1 story objective at a time instead of all of them at once, and an objective you fly past is retired instead of blocking the next one. The thread runs Take the Watchtower, Bring the Quota Home, Destroy the Drone Factory, then Vance's assault, and in the full game Silence the Beacons and the stronghold. The convoy escort and, in the full game, the Beacons are now fought against the Alliance, and their briefs say what Vance wants from them.
• The Tutorial is a planet. On a new expedition the Tutorial is a planet beside START with no warp lanes, and Sector 1 opens on the Watchtower alone. Click the planet from any system, as often as you like: the trip spends no warp, your fleet returns to where it was, and its reward is paid once per expedition.
• Choose your XO. The PROFILE screen has a new XO tab where you name your XO (up to 14 characters) and pick one of 24 portraits. A new profile chooses its XO in a CHOOSE YOUR XO window before its first launch. Comms messages now show a large portrait beside the speaker's name, the default XO is CMDR. KOVAR, and automatic profile names now read Admiral 1, Admiral 2 and so on.
• Mark unwanted ships and modules. Every card in Fleet Command's INVENTORY has a trash can toggle beside the favourite star, and the Equip window and the Trade Post's SELL tab have a Mark unwanted button. SCRAP MARKED in Fleet Command or Sell marked at the Trade Post then clears everything you marked in one confirmed step, replacing the old SCRAP selection button. Favourites and ships in your active fleet are protected, and Hide unwanted, which starts switched on, keeps marked items out of your lists.
• Compare before you build. In Fabricate, a ship's preview has a Compare button that sets the new ship beside any ship in your active fleet, stat by stat. A new Availability dropdown opens on UNLOCKED so you see the recipes you have unlocked, and hovering FABRICATE explains the 1% chance of a build coming out one rarity higher.
• Upgrade comparison. The Upgrade tab now lists your ships or modules on the left and compares the selected one on the right: its current and next rarity, a table of what changes with Current, After and Gain columns, and the cost for that item alone. Ships and modules already at the highest rarity no longer appear in the list.
• Orders by double-click or drag. In the ORDERS tab, double-click an unlocked Order to equip it in the first empty slot, or drag it onto the slot you want.
• Your empire on the map. Your empire's name is now written across the territory you own on the galaxy map, and empire names can be up to 32 characters long, up from 18.
• Perks in Inspect. The battle Inspect panel has a new PERKS section listing the perks that change how a ship fights, such as Screen or Backstab, with each perk's card text on hover.
• Extra battle rewards. On new maps, a battle can pay a second piece of hardware on top of its normal reward: a ready-made module, a module blueprint or a ship blueprint. Elite battles pay it more often.
• Pulse Laser blueprint. Every profile and every Roguelike Endless run now owns the Common Pulse Laser blueprint, so you can fabricate more of them from the start.
• New Expedition rules. Hovering NEW EXPEDITION on the main menu now explains what a lost expedition keeps and what it resets.

Changed

• Salvage is a race. Salvage battles are now a race to 100 points. Ten wrecks are scattered across the battlefield, a wreck takes two rounds of cutting to claim and scores 20 points, and reaching 100 first wins the battle on the spot. If the enemy gets there first the battle is not lost: the objective fails, no more wrecks can be claimed, and you win by destroying the remaining enemy ships.
• Salvage drones. Each side now flies four free salvage drones that choose their own wrecks, so no ship has to sail to a wreck any more. A destroyed drone returns two rounds later, and a strip beside the score shows every drone on both sides. Enemy salvage drones now stay hidden in the fog, your ships pass straight through salvage drones, and the drones no longer count as fleet ships for Fleet Link or Lone Wolf.
• Salvage rewards. The victory screen's BATTLE EARNINGS now list what your claimed wrecks pay, and a lost race still pays for the wrecks you claimed before it ended.
• Battle variety on new maps. Systems in the same band now offer different battle objectives wherever possible, and every new campaign map includes each battle objective except Destroy the Nest at least once. Endless maps do not get that guarantee.
• Battle objectives arrive in stages. Sector 1 now introduces battle objectives a few at a time, from plain battles and Claim the Derelict at the start to the Shield Generator, Silence the Beacons and Destroy the Supergun late in the sector, past where the demo ends. In later sectors and both Endless modes, a Shield Generator never appears before band 5.
• Nests and the Hive. Destroy the Nest is now a Hive battle only, and only some Hive systems become one, so a map with few Hive systems may have no Nest. Hive systems no longer host Silence the Beacons. In the full game, the Cultist factions no longer host Nests and field the same battles as the Alliance.
• Sector 1 layout. On a new expedition the guaranteed Sensor Array and Extractor outposts are gone, so those two systems get a battle like their neighbours. In the full game, Sector 1 enemy fleets now step up in order: Elite fleets are capped below the Mini Boss fleet, which is capped below the stronghold's, and both of those are larger than before. In the full game, one Mini Boss now stands before Greywall instead of two.
• Minelayer. A Pirate Frigate you control now places its Minelayer by hand: click a point within range, turn the line of two mines, and click again to launch. A spot whose blast would reach a friendly ship is refused without costing the cooldown.
• Caltrop Wall. The Pirate Starbase's Caltrops ability is now Caltrop Wall. Instead of a ring orbiting the Starbase it places a 1000 m wall that neither fleet can move through. The wall blocks enemy shots while its owner's fleet shoots over it, damages enemy ships that touch it, and stays until it or its Starbase is destroyed.
• Mines stop shots. A direct shot aimed at a ship now stops at the first mine in its path. The mine takes the hit and explodes if it is destroyed, whoever laid it. Piercing and area weapons are unchanged.
• Capture zones. Stations, outposts and the derelict Orbital Weapon are now held from 400 m away instead of 300 m.
• Screen and dodging. The Frigate perk Screen now protects allies within 300 m, up from 150 m, and the Frigate blocks the shot in flight instead of the shot turning toward it. Dodging ships start their sidestep the moment the shot is fired, and the thruster bursts on both are brighter.
• Aegis Surge. Aegis Surge now only rushes the Frigate to an ally and heals it. It no longer reduces the damage both ships take.
• Ship power. Every ship class has 10 more base power: Scout 50, Frigate 65, Destroyer 80, Carrier 100, Capital 100, Titan 115 and Starbase 120. Enemy ships get it too.
• Carrier and Pirate drones. Every Carrier now starts a battle with one Kinetic Drone instead of two drones of random types. Pirate ships launch Kinetic Drones only, even from drone modules of another type already fitted to them.
• Outpost guards. Enemy ships guarding an outpost such as the Watchtower are no longer fixed in place. They move freely within 800 m of the outpost to engage attackers they can see.
• Perk cards. Backstab, Execution Clause and Prize Crews now state their numbers: 50% more damage from behind, 25% more damage against a target with no friendly ship within 400 m, and 4% more resources for each ship carrying it, up to 24%.
• XO briefings. Your XO now explains each battle objective once, the first time your profile meets it, and stays quiet on later battles of that kind. When several messages are waiting, the comms window stays open and moves to the next one, with a MESSAGES counter and CONTINUE until the last.
• Lessons stay in the Tutorial. Combat lesson popups such as Orders, stances and AUTO-FIRE no longer appear in ordinary battles. They are taught only in the Tutorial, and REPLAY TUTORIAL appears only there. The ORDERS bar is now on the battle screen from your first battle.
• Fleet Command and Empire. The FLEET COMMAND button has moved from the galaxy map's top bar into the header of Empire Overview. The top bar's Empire button now shows your empire's name, and the empty gap beside ABANDON is gone.
• Equip filters. The Equip window's filters are now one row: TYPE, RARITY and STATUS dropdowns plus Hide unwanted and CAN EQUIP toggles. It opens on UNEQUIPPED with CAN EQUIP switched on, so you first see the modules this ship can take right now. Switch CAN EQUIP off to see the modules that do not fit.
• Fabricate. The FABRICATED window now shows the new ship's portrait, durability and starter modules, it opens faster after you press FABRICATE, and building now plays only the button click, apart from the sting for a lucky higher rarity.
• Trade Post stock. Trade Posts and the Trade Shop no longer sell a blueprint you already own, or the ready-made ship or module built from it. A shop can show fewer offers when little is new to you.
• Layout and art. Building icons on the galaxy map sit just outside each planet's art, flagship markers are larger and draw above the objective and selection rings, the selected ship's picture in Fleet Command is lit per hull, rename and close buttons use drawn icons, and the COLLECTION tab opens on what you have unlocked.

Fixed

• Victory blueprints. A ship blueprint won in battle is now a hull of the faction you fought. Before, an Alliance fleet in Sector 1 could pay a Reapers Scout blueprint. Alliance victories also no longer pay Gravity weapons.
• Rescue rewards. A Rescue system now shows the ship you will rescue in its inspect panel and in the HOSTILE CONTACT prompt.
• Roguelike Endless opening. The first three warps of a Roguelike Endless run now field only Scouts and Frigates, and a Starbase fleet can no longer open a run.
• Stance buttons. After you move a ship, the stance buttons act on that ship again instead of staying on a ship you inspected earlier.
• Structures and fleet bonuses. Orbital Weapons, stations, outposts and deployed turrets no longer receive Fleet Link, Lone Wolf, Coordinated Volley or Pack Tactics.
• Engine hits. An engine hit is now judged against the way the ship is drawn. Before, a ship that had moved in the fog or been pushed could take one on its nose.
• Missiles and zoom. Missile explosions and damage numbers stay on their target when you zoom while the missile is in flight.
• Battle endings. When drones land the final blow, the ending camera now waits for every drone shot to play.
• Movement in crowded battles. Ordering a move in a crowded battle no longer stalls for seconds while the route is worked out.
• XO messages and enemy turns. Leaving an XO message open for a long time no longer makes the waiting enemy ship skip its turn.
• Menu clicks. Buttons that open a slow screen no longer play their click twice.
• Translations. Aegis Surge now goes by one name in every language, the Inspect panel names the Commander the same way as the Commander tab in Japanese, Russian and Ukrainian, and three Korean XO lines with wrong characters are corrected.