VoidExpanse: Pariahs' Bane - Release notes and VoidExpanse 2.0 Patchnotes

[Lurler]

VoidExpanse 2.0.x Update patch notes.

Detailed list of changes:
* Added crafting system. You can use the ore you mined or purchased to produce "components". Generally if you have high level of manufacturing it is more profitable to sell components, than raw ore. Some times you can even make profits by purchasing the ore (if it's sold for cheap) and selling the components back. You can find manufacturing terminals on certain station types (for example mining station).
* Added manufacturing skills: basic manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, expert manufacturing, optimized production, optimized resource use.
* Added components (which you craft from ore): electronic, composites, control, mechanical, power and structural.
* Added 3 tiers of Station defense turrets that differ in defenses and offenses, offering better protection against pirates.
* Added station management function. You can talk to any station commander in order to enter the management menu. Currently you can spend "components" in order to upgrade station defenses (turrets).
* Improved scripts of different in-game features such as active ship devices, NPC patrols and much more.
* Improved galaxy generation.
* New character class: Industrialist that starts with several manufacturing skills.
* Improved droplists with more variety.
* A lot of bugfixes all throughout the game, including quests. We addressed everything that was reported or that we were able to identify ourselves.
* Added expansion menu to the main menu. With your help we can add more expansions and not just Pariahs' Bane
* Improved voice handling. Now instead of specifying each and every voice file it is simply enough to specify a folder. Though file names must correspond to the voice events.
* It is now possible to set up unique computer voice for each ship. Currently we use this functionality in the expansion to add unique voice for the capital ship - Revenant.
* Improved networking! All thanks to shared codebase with CryoFall. Now it's top notch!
* Improved the ability to connect to a server inside the same sub-network where you are. Before it might not have been possible due to NAT configuration of certain networks. But now the game will know the internal IP-address of the server and try to connect to it instead of "punching-through from outside".
* Improved connection and synchronization speed. Incorporated special algorythms of dynamic stabilisation of connection (again, thanks to CryoFall!). Now if you have unstable ping that goes up and down or big packet loss you will still be able to play reasonably well.
* Added new methods to Scripting-API: topic.EnableMonospaced & topic.DisableMonospaced() which could be very useful for stylistic purposes during dialogues with NPC, such as when the player uses a terminal.
* You can now provide a host name for your public game server (see <public_server_host_name> in SettingsServer.xml), by doing that people will see the host name in server list, rather than IP-address.
* Fixed a bug that stopped music playing after Alt+Tab and did not resume upon returning back to the game.
* Fixed text rendering: "Click on the map to add a new <cut>" (the text was cutting midway, now it's displayed properly).
* Fixed issue when NPC ship was firing homing/guided weapons while not locked on the target.
* Fixed a bug with server console commands processing (important for save & quit console commands).

The update to the game is released now! In preparation for the release of VoidExpanse: Pariahs' Bane expansion on the 7th of this month!




Pariahs' Bane expansion overview:
Since this is a new release, rather than a patch I won't go into details, as otherwise I would have to literally list everything that exists withing this Expansion. But I still want to give a general overview of what this expansion is about, so I will name several important features below.

* New playable faction - Pariahs with their own star system, new station, new characters, new quests and everything.
* Completely new storyline that is about twice as long as any given storyline in the original game. This storyline runs in parallel to the original story, so you are completely free to choose what to do first. This time we also tried to approach quests a bit differently to make it a bit more interesting. There are more unexpected encounters, more humor and quirky characters. It also has quite an interesting twist at the end! I really hope you will like this!
* New ships, new items, new stuff in general. But speaking of ships - we heard you and we added our first capital ship to the game!
* New music from the same great composer who created tracks for the original game!
* And more!

What is the focus of this Expansion in general? This is of course the new storyline! The Expansion adds quite a bit of new content, but our main focus from the very beginning was to create a new complete and self-contained story with a unique and unexpected ending!