Version 4.00 RC1 Hotfix 1 (features subject to change, additions or removal prior to release)
Page content:
- Documented changes (official notes from Egosoft) are listed first.
- Undocumented changes* are listed below the official notes.
*Based on player notes; may be inaccurate.
Documented changes (official notes from Egosoft):
Version 4.00 RC3 (208311)
• New Feature: Bulletin board system to keep track of offered missions.
• New Feature: Beta 3 Major overhaul of external view (enabled menus, target elements, external view in highways, and more). Feedback welcome.
• New Feature: Beta 4 Economy logging and statistics (feature now fully functional).
• New Feature: Beta 4 Time acceleration using SETA (feature now fully functional, any SETA obtained before this release will be removed on loading).
• New Feature: Beta 3 New mission to obtain player ship jump drive (feature now available).
• New Feature: Beta 3 New missions to hack stations and obtain rare or valuable items.
• New Feature: Beta 3 You can now find and craft rare weapon modifications that increase your weapon's stats when installed.
• New Feature: Flight School tutorial.
• Added 'Fly to position' order selecting a position via map click (Replaces 'Fly to Zone' order).
• Beta 3 Added ability to access various features (event monitor/info point interaction, comms, mission/trade offers, etc.) while remote controlling drones.
• Beta 3 Added event monitor and ability to open menus while remote controlling a torpedo (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Added ability to claim ownerless capital ships by placing NPC on platform.
• Beta 3 Added current target as default destination for autopilot hotkey (Shift+A), uses mission objective as before if no target set.
• Beta 3 Added new Nyanae ships to Omicron Lyrae, replacing the Gigurum ships there.
• Added heat damage from engine jets.
• Beta 3 Added new "very hard" difficulty level.
• Beta 4 Added navigation skill influence on effectiveness of AI pilots.
• Beta 4 Added efficiency influence on cooling rate so that some weapons (e.g. Pulsed Maser) don't stop building up heat when damaged.
• Beta 4 Added mouse look for camera rotation in all external views and in the cockpit (default is middle mouse button).
• Beta 4 Added new M-sized traders to Republic of Cantera faction.
• Beta 4 Added notification if a player squad drone was lost or killed.
• Beta 4 Added missing ion and plasma resource fields to Maelstrom.
• Beta 4 Added weapon modifications as possible but rare mission rewards (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Added BBS functionality to more missions (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Added voice recordings (in English, German and French) for texts that are new in 4.0.
• Beta 5 Added new options to legacy main menu (for new features introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Added NPC population to player owned stations.
• Beta 5 Added indication of unread entries to encyclopedia.
• Beta 5 Added mouse-over tooltips for various conversation options.
• Beta 5 Added option to switch mouse look button to be a toggle rather than having to hold it down (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Added status report notifications during boarding.
• Beta 5 Added new variation to mission where player must clear an area of explosives.
• Beta 5 Added jump drive and fuel storage to Xenon I.
• Beta 5 Added in-game links to tutorial videos.
• Beta 6 Added axis labels to holomap.
• Beta 6 Added NPC flee and retreat maneuvers based on skills.
• Beta 6 Added drones launching from stations depending on Defence Officer skills.
• Beta 6 Added revealing of NPC skills when they are hired.
• Beta 6 Added new achievements (currently all named "Coming Soon", to be updated later).
• Beta 6 Added money statistics for employees (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Added autosave once per hour if no docking autosave takes place in that time.
• RC2 Added several new in-game tutorials.
• Beta 6 [HoL] Added new Generic Mission 'Scan Anomaly'.
• Beta 6 [HoL] Added new mission chain in Toride.
• Added savegame compression.
• Beta 3 Removed option to replace a working architect, which broke the both of them!
• Beta 4 Removed legacy shaders.
• Beta 7 Removed restriction on number of entries in station shopping lists.
• RC1 Removed CVs from ship list in trade deals menu (new feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Replaced "Broadcast" order with orders for multiple selected ships in the Property Owned menu.
• Improved small ship AI to use boost in combat situations based on pilot skills.
• Improved behaviour when following mission target using autopilot.
• Improved HUD toggle now toggles more elements and works in more cases. Feedback welcome.
• Beta 3 Improved speed of medium sized ships.
• Beta 5 Improved gate transitions for capital ships, with better entry positions and a queue system.
• Beta 5 Improved missiles cycling, skipping missiles for which you currently have no ammunition.
• Beta 5 Improved event monitor display when picking up multiple containers in space at the same time.
• Beta 5 Improved SETA, no longer stops when steering and stops less often in highways (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Improved balancing of NPC ship group sizes in Hard and Very Hard difficulty.
• Beta 5 Improved max skill engineers so they can now repair hull up to 100%.
• Beta 5 Improved balancing of weapon mod statistics (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Improved weapon mod UI (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Improved visualization of jumpgate directions.
• Beta 6 Improved quality of local lights.
• Improved mouse accuracy in menus.
• Improved station manager logic to better coordinate multiple owned ships.
• Improved FXAA colour-correction.
• Beta 3 Improved highway entry/exit sounds.
• Beta 3 Improved crash reports to indicate whether game has been modified.
• Beta 3 Improved balancing of ship prices (increased price of container transporters by 50%, reduced other medium sized ships by 25%).
• Beta 3 Improved NPC behaviour when flying through Jump Gates to clear the area.
• Beta 3 Improved accuracy of combat damage calculations when player is not present.
• Beta 4 Improved balance of pirate wings for easy and normal difficulty.
• Beta 4 Improved auto-aim behaviour when not firing at cursor.
• Beta 4 Improved docking behaviour of ships.
• Beta 4 Improved guided missiles flight behaviour.
• Beta 4 Improved target selection using gamepad controls.
• Beta 4 Improved text quality for smaller fonts in some rare cases.
• Beta 4 Improved readability of target element texts.
• Beta 4 Improved event monitor to show information about environment object in drone mode (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Improved cargo capacity of Nyanae traders in Omicron Lyrae slightly (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Improved behaviour of ships trading with warehouse stations.
• Beta 7 Improved station drone launching.
• Beta 7 Improved mission reward balancing.
• Beta 7 Improved AI pathing.
• RC1 Improved crafting of weapon mods (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Improved mission bar positioning and appearance.
• RC1 Improved holomap presentation.
• RC1 Improved balancing of rewards for new Clear Explosives mission variant (improves feature introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Improved balancing, timing and behaviour of Pirate ship groups.
• RC1 Improved shielding of drone launch pad for Balor.
• RC2 Improved visibility of target arrows in external view on bright backgrounds. (new feature in 4.00)
• RC2 Improved radar range of all CVs from 12km to 32km.
• RC2 Improved mission guidance.
• Beta 7 [HoL] Improved Toride mission chain.
• RC1 [HoL] Improved balancing of number of water traders in Home of Light, Cold Star and Toride.
• Changed default setting for menu display from "Side Console"-mode to "HUD"-mode.
• Fixed trade ships assigned to stations not respecting their new commander's subordinate range.
• Fixed being able to issue multiple transfer orders for the same wares when using ware exchange with a station.
• Fixed another scenario that could lead to incorrect amounts of unavailable units.
• Fixed incorrect quantity of bought fuel cells on 'Refuel' order if the ship had already some fuel.
• Fixed several bugs with Marauder Pirates not being able to steal dropped containers from their targets.
• Fixed several cases resulting in ships getting stuck when following other ships out-of-sector.
• Fixed missing command info for mining drones and for transport drones picking up ware containers.
• Fixed stations complaining when player destroys an ownerless ship.
• Fixed broken game controls after interacting with a trade offer while controlling a drone.
• Fixed aim-at-indicator being displayed incorrectly when remote controlling a drone.
• Fixed rare cases where objects showed incorrect outlines.
• Fixed encyclopedia display of maximum speed for capital ships.
• Beta 3 Fixed player ship sometimes jumping positions when changing zones while flying on autopilot.
• Beta 3 Fixed engine ambient sound volume and pitch not working correctly during autopilot.
• Beta 3 Fixed autopilot stopping when following a ship that changes zones.
• Beta 3 Fixed autopilot continuing when entering a remote-controlled drone.
• Beta 3 Fixed remote controlled missiles not moving while entry animation is running.
• Beta 3 Fixed AI roll rotation in several flight behaviours.
• Beta 3 Fixed small AI ships ramming into the player when boosting in some combat situations (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed event monitor hints overlapping the "Press F" text on the HUD eventmonitor.
• Beta 3 Fixed capital ships boosting backwards or sideways.
• Beta 3 Fixed broken aim indicator when controlling a drone.
• Beta 3 Fixed station owned in Empire Builder not being able to replace Construction Vessel.
• Beta 3 Fixed plot Construction Vessels being boardable.
• Beta 3 Fixed station managers losing their account when involved in ware exchange trades.
• Beta 3 Fixed ships on autopilot sometimes not accelerating to full speed (e.g. when player ship leaves a highway).
• Beta 3 Fixed player ship getting stuck at the exit of a highway if a menu is open.
• Beta 3 Fixed Xenon fighters being capturable.
• Beta 3 Fixed being able to shoot dumbfire missiles backwards in external view.
• Beta 4 Fixed broken jumpdrive not allowing refuel order to be given (still not allowed if jumping required to refuel).
• Beta 4 Fixed garbled text on target elements in Russian localisation.
• Beta 4 Fixed accumulating highway ad signs.
• Beta 4 Fixed calculation error with recommended budget resulting in value sometimes being too high.
• Beta 4 Fixed incorrect flight orientation on AI drones and Xenon fighters.
• Beta 4 Fixed wrong rotation on the mining movement of medium miners.
• Beta 4 Fixed player ship auto-roll when menus are open and the auto-roll option is off.
• Beta 4 Fixed capital ships flying too slowly or getting stuck when avoiding other ships.
• Beta 4 Fixed certain ships not being able to pick up collectables.
• Beta 4 Fixed Active Missions menu getting stuck during tutorial.
• Beta 4 Fixed dark or black loading screen when pressing ESC quickly after starting a new game.
• Beta 4 Fixed player being able to click on invisible UI elements, such as while HUD not displayed.
• Beta 4 Fixed several missions not cleaning up properly.
• Beta 4 Fixed traders having too much scrap metal.
• Beta 4 Fixed hack panel missions telling the player to return to ship when docked.
• Beta 4 Fixed case where jump drive mission would not show mission objective to jump to a jump beacon (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Fixed case where jump drive mission would not end because an objective got stuck (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Fixed problems with the player auto pilot going through jump gates.
• Beta 4 Fixed tumbling highway ships when the player exits highway.
• Beta 4 Fixed production resource consumption not being calculated correctly in rare cases.
• Beta 4 Fixed double "Cr" in logbook messages for money transfer for Fuel Cells.
• Fixed area damage increasing with lower framerates.
• Fixed issue where a 'static' effect remained over the event monitor during the plot.
• Fixed Particle Repeater weapons building up heat slower at higher framerates.
• Fixed player ship not being able to enter highways with an open menu.
• Fixed rare case of missing highway/gate/ship group target elements after starting/loading a game.
• Fixed rare case of non-working input controls after starting/loading a game.
• Fixed interact menu not always being on top of other target elements when using mouse/gamepad controls.
• Fixed current target not always on top of all other target elements.
• Fixed target elements not always on top of other target elements which are further away.
• Fixed rare cases of clicking on a target element actually targeting another object.
• Fixed target elements jumping when interacting with it while controlling a drone.
• Fixed rare cases of crosshair showing weird animations.
• Fixed rare cases of UI issues when switching to/from external and/or drone view.
• Fixed cases where weapon panels showed startup animation in cases other than entering the ship.
• Fixed various trade price discrepancies in menus due to incorrect rounding.
• Enabled radar while remote controlling drones.
• Fixed target elements being visible through the player ship and player drone in external view (new feature in 4.00).
• Fixed aim-at-indicator being displayed in external target view mode (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed missing target elements when switching from target view to external view (new feature in 4.00).
• Fixed heat damage from engines applying to the ship the engines belong to (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed heat damage from engines still being applied when engine is wrecked (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed heat damage from engines not being applied after ship changes zone (new feature in 4.00).
• Fixed incorrect truncation when displaying money in menus (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed case incorrectly allowing player to target objects in external target view (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed black cockpit monitors when undocking from a station/ship while in external view (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed bad flight paths that sometimes could occur when NPCs navigate through areas with dangerous regions (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed occasional graphical flash on entering a highway (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 3 Fixed clothing on some character appearring black (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Fixed game over not showing player ship explosion sound or visual effects.
• Beta 4 Fixed game starting in non-default full-screen resolution when running it for the first time.
• Beta 4 Fixed voice samples for several encyclopedia entries in German localisation.
• Beta 5 Fixed excessive marine loss when attack strength slightly higher than defence strength.
• Beta 5 Fixed Transfer Wares order not working between small/medium ships and Construction Vessels.
• Beta 5 Fixed very rare cases where target elements were missing or being displayed when they shouldn't be.
• Beta 5 Fixed missing drone docks on warehouse stations (new feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Fixed inconsistent checkbox state on certain menus (new feature introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 Fixed double sound effects in certain menus.
• Beta 5 Fixed ship capture chance ignoring hull state.
• Beta 5 Fixed various issues with economy statistics (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Fixed several cases of small ships stuck and not following other ships into Highways.
• Beta 6 Fixed line selection in sector map with many zones.
• Beta 6 Fixed hitting a destroyed lock on a lockbox blowing up the lockbox.
• Beta 6 Fixed some cases of drones flying far away before docking on their launchpads.
• Beta 6 Fixed loading of buy/sell configuration for trade wares from savegame.
• Beta 6 Fixed case of production not progressing to next possible item if current item is blocked.
• Beta 6 Fixed drone resource cost (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Fixed upgrade resource calculation (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Fixed multi-sell on small ship trade (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Fixed Weaponsmith achievement (new feature in 4.00).
• Beta 6 Fixed partial wrecking of certain ships.
• Beta 6 Fixed blending at screen edges with FXAA.
• Beta 7 Fixed cases of ships fleeing while docking or executing trades.
• Beta 7 Fixed target loss and failure to target in certain cases.
• Beta 7 Fixed ships being able to rotate with all engines destroyed.
• Beta 7 Fixed incorrect mass-traffic for Xenon station.
• Beta 7 Fixed stuck ships at highway entrances.
• Beta 7 Fixed problems with station supply delivery.
• Beta 7 Fixed stations warning the player when attacking ownerless ships.
• Beta 7 Fixed several cases of small and capital escort ships not shooting or being stuck.
• Beta 7 Fixed several cases of capital ships not boosting flying between zones.
• Beta 7 Fixed capital navigation issues due to bad alignment to the boosting orientation.
• Beta 7 Fixed cases where ships cross jump gates and only use them after turning back.
• Beta 7 Fixed some cases of capital ships not defending themselves when being attacked.
• Beta 7 Fixed some cases of mining ships not collecting tagged asteroids on Mining mode.
• Beta 7 Fixed hacked ships still being able to use their jump drive.
• Beta 7 Fixed several cases of ships being invisible, or appearing and disappearing (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 7 Fixed issue with activating auto pilot from a menu while near a large object.
• Beta 7 Fixed pre-selected line in menus not being on-screen in all situations.
• Beta 7 Fixed mouse steering being active initially when starting a game in some cases.
• Beta 7 Fixed text overlapping mission objective bar.
• Beta 7 Fixed muffled exterior sounds after loading a savegame while on a platform without quitting to main menu.
• RC1 Fixed some zones not being visible from inside nearby highway.
• RC1 Fixed visibility range of huge asteroid in Verdant Profit.
• RC1 Fixed external camera view on mass traffic ships aborting when zooming out too far.
• RC1 Fixed external target view being zoomed out far too much on some ships.
• RC1 Fixed cockpit camera movement not working directly after loading a savegame.
• RC1 Fixed missing icon for selected mass traffic ship in external target view in some situations (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Fixed obstructed target elements when docked at Teladi capital ships.
• RC1 Fixed several issues with mission guidance involving highways.
• RC1 Fixed stations not always being connected to each other with mass traffic if there is more than one highway nearby.
• RC1 Fixed case where having the auto pilot follow a jumping capital ship could make the player end up in an invalid position.
• RC1 Fixed engines on small ship wrecks sometimes appearing not to be wrecked even though they are wrecked and do not function.
• RC1 Fixed relative movement when entering the Skunk's back room.
• RC1 Fixed trading menus not remembering previous sort settings (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Fixed equip drone/missile trades not updating when scheduled.
• RC1 Fixed rounding issue in trade price display.
• RC1 Fixed escape pods immediately self-destructing (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Fixed ships assigned to a commander not working after receiving a new Captain.
• RC1 Fixed lockboxes dropping useless Boarding Experience seminars (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC1 Fixed upkeep missions to transfer credits not completing if the wanted amount was reduced.
• RC1 Fixed Game Paused message text not being centered.
• RC1 Fixed throttle feedback sound being played when pressing "full stop" key while in a menu.
• RC1 Fixed menu crash when viewing certain modules of R&D Chem Labs in the Encyclopedia.
• RC1 Fixed huge savegames caused by economy statistics data (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC2 Fixed external view camera getting too close to the player ship (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC2 Fixed incorrect throttle setting when returning from the Skunk's back room while being dragged along by a capital ship.
• RC2 Fixed trade ships remaining passive when new planned trips are added while undocking after last planned trip.
• RC2 Fixed capital ships losing combat drones that tried to follow enemies into highways.
• RC2 Fixed erratic autopilot movement when flying near station's surface elements.
• RC2 Fixed inventory ware entries not being marked as read in the encyclopedia (new feature in 4.00).
• RC2 Fixed 'Withdraw from Battle' order not properly working in some situations.
• RC2 Fixed several cases of lost combat drones launched from capital ships.
• RC2 Fixed player owned escort capital ships having wrong behaviour when their commander's captain is replaced.
• RC2 Fixed rare cases of ships teleporting after giving new fly orders if they were moving previously.
• RC2 Fixed some cases of area damage not working correctly.
• RC2 Fixed follow behavior for squad ships, where occasionally bumped the Skunk.
• RC2 Fixed Minimum Recommended Budget for drones/missiles sometimes not updating correctly (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC2 Fixed builder ships not being able to receive wares from stations in high attention.
• RC2 Fixed transport drones taking too much time to reach their destination.
• RC2 Fixed rare cases of incorrectly positioned elements in menus.
• RC2 Fixed cases where no mission target was displayed.
• RC2 Fixed crosshair not showing mission target arrow.
• RC2 Fixed targeting issues in gamepad mode.
• RC2 Fixed several issues with event monitor during campaign.
• RC2 Fixed too frequent "Incoming missile" warnings.
• RC2 Fixed various cases of ships and other objects that moved too far away from any known zones.
• RC2 Fixed issues with certain savegames taking an excessively long time to load.
• RC3 Fixed collision avoidance being active when controlling a torpedo.
• RC3 Fixed ships becoming invisible, especially during escort missions.
• RC3 Fixed autoaim being very inaccurate for weapons with a weapon mod (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed repair drones getting damaged by their owner's engines (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed boarded capital ship escorts continuing to escort after boarding.
• RC3 Fixed pirate station being selected for hacking mission in plot (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed tutorials placing objects in highways (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed "collectables" tutorial sometimes getting stuck (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed flight school not aborting when another tutorial starts (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed object menu layout with NPC subordinate ships.
• RC3 Fixed build upgrade selection not preselecting lines correctly (problem introduced in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed buttons in upkeep section of mission manager menu (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed trade transactions with outdated amounts (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed price and profit calculation in trade deal case (new feature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed green trade deals menu (new feaature in 4.00).
• RC3 Fixed missing text for Onil engine.
• RC3 Fixed external camera clipping through the playership in highways (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 5 [TTO] Fixed playership being immovable on first game start in very rare situations.
• RC1 [TTO] Fixed some navigation issues with NPC ships flying to Albion gate in Fields of Oportunity.
• Beta 5 [HoL] Fixed player-owned warehouses being magically filled with certain wares and configured to trade these when a manager is assigned.
• Beta 4 [HoL] Fixed capital ships attempting to trade with Home of Light CVs getting stuck.
• Beta 4 [HoL] Fixed police ships in Home of Light belonging to PMC!
• Beta 5 [HoL] Fixed missing tradeoffer locations on Home of Light builder ships.
• Beta 6 [HoL] Fixed missing dock for m-sized ships on TerraCorp HQ (completes fix not correctly applied in 4.0 Beta 5).
• Beta 7 [HoL] Fixed new HoL weapons not being taken into account for Pimp My Ride achievement.
• RC2 [HoL] Fixed transitions from local highways into superhighways in Home of Light.
• RC3 [HoL] Fixed Terracorp not having licence traders.
• RC3 [HoL] Fixed various issues with Ship in Distress and Xenon Incursion missions.
• Beta 7 [OSX] Fixed ship repairs not working.
• Fixed game freezing when quitting the game with Alt+F4 while in loading screen.
• Fixed startup issues with corrupted or incorrect DLLs in Windows system directory.
• Fixed several small memory leaks.
• RC2 Several more small performance and memory optimisations.
• RC3 Fixed more causes of crashes.
Known Issues
The following issues in this version are known and may be fixed in a forthcoming update.
• Using Alt-Tab during fullscreen video playback will cause video/sound to get out of sync (workaround: press Esc to skip video).
RC2: Undocumented changes (player notes; may be inaccurate; tending to be minor background things):
• Beta 2 Added new gates to "unknown systems" in Maelstrom and Albion (potentially DLC-related).
• Beta 2 Added 2nd Jump Beacons added to Vapor Stream (MA/DV) and Indignity (BR/MA). For Skunk and/or Unitrader? 
• Beta 2 Added mission availability to Crystal Castle and Badlands Colony via the Bulletin Board.
• Beta 2 Changed the speed of several L and XL ships (less so than M ships).
• Beta 2 Changed the name for a Manager's range setting to "Trading Operational Range" for clarity.
• Beta 2 Improved formatting of thousands along the lines of jth's recent mod.
• Beta 2 Improved organisation of Settings section of the main Options Menu (small but handy to know).
• Beta 2 Fixed missing shield generator coverage over Vulture Jump Tunnel Devices.
• Beta 3 Fixed PLASMA/JET Turrets doing substantially increased damage (problem introduced in 4.00).
• Beta 4 Introduction of a new Trade Deals menu for finding the best deals for a given ship.
• Beta 5 Improved layout of Economy statistics page (new feature in 4.0).
• Beta 6 Improved trading of stations' intermediate wares .