Release Notes for Star Control®: Origins

Patch 1.40 (20 June 2019)

Visuals

• Updated planet surface textures to be more detailed.
• A small improvement of the terrain rendering system to improve the frame rate.
• Improved lighting of the planet surface
• Improved the textures on many props (glowing tentacles, glowing mushrooms, bones )
• Make the Bull critter appearance a bit brighter
• Improved the lander texture to make the windows stand out better
• Updated the magma hazard visual effect to improve performance

Bugs

• Listener orientation is no longer backward in a true 5.1 setup
• Fix for some particles not being properly aligned to the surface
• Fix for particle sorting and disappearing issue
• Fixed several crashes related to the particle effects trying to escape the bounds of known reality.

Lore

• The "Observers" are now known as the "Arilou"

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Patch 1.32 Hotfix (22 May 2019)

• Fix for Lexite breadcrumb quest objective not showing up if you don't start it in order.
• Fix for "setting up defenses" quest getting stuck if you made the Pinthi mad by being evil.
• Mukay now spawns in Alpha Tigris if you finish Mukay questline in-between Brisas and Alpha Tigris.
• Reduced wander speed of alien ambush ships so they're easier to chase down

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Patch 1.32 (09 May 2019)

• Earth Rising Part 2 - hours of new adventures, new ships, new aliens and new weapons, the second part of Earth Rising fills out the bustling universe of Star Control further.
• Earth Rising: Part 1 dialog to clarify the story and fix typos
• Improved Lander handling so that it feels less bouncy
• Reduced duration of Ink Blob to 15
• Reduced duration of the Tywom Turret to 10

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Patch 1.31 (09 May 2019)

• Increased Rear Dual shot energy cost
• Enemy Super Nukes are a lot more deadly
• Cargo meter per pip increased so the bar doesn't look out of place
• Fuel consumption decreased slighting
• Solar system thrust decreased
• Hyperspace thrust increased
• Ship inertial increased
• Fuel cost is slightly cheaper
• The Vindicator can now use the Speed Burst weapon
• Changed planet Ashogus to Mud
• Adjusted the scale of some of the building parts.
• Increased the size of the Tywom Battlecruiser
• Slightly reduced scale of the Super Nuke
• Fixed missing thumbnails for the Weakened Harmony ships.

Aftermath:

• Fix for post-Wymdoo and post-Bloa pop-ups which appear miles away from where they should be.
• Typo fixes

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Patch 1.30 (12 December 2018)

• Uncover the rumors of a Scyve super weapon that can destroy planets, and seek it out before they can use it against you
• Evasive manuevers! Improved controls on the Vindicator make it feel more responsive to your inputs
• Investigate alien ruins and crashed spaceships to discover powerful new weapons for your ship
• Preapre to fire! Several new weapons have been added to the Crafting Menu, including the Frag Missile, Rapid Laser, Flame Thrower, and the Heavy Gatling Laser
• Added option to disable AI fleet coordinator for fleet battles before a battle starts. You only get to pick once as after that things are all setup and there is no UI again.
• Added a "replay battle" option when you lose a campaign battle thus allowing you to continue the game without doing a reload. Also works if you surrender.
• Increased the deceleration of the Vindicator, making it more responsive and less drag.
• Increased the rotation speed of vindicator by 25% in Solar System/Hyperspace.
• Increased rotation speed of Vindicator (in combat) and the free pickup ships to make them feel more responsive.
• Added new weapons that can be found by investigating alien ruins and crashed spaceships throughout the galaxy
• Added new weapons to the Crafting Menu including the Frag Missile, Rapid Laser, Flame Thrower, the Heavy Gatling Laser, and more.
• Fix for a broken/crashed Jeff.
• Fix for a scripting bug with the Free Trandals where you could leave their initial conversation
• Added additional inventory popups when you get a Pink Lorris Egg.
• Adding a popup to notify the player their crew is replenished when they visit human colonies.
• Correcting typos
• Added more detailed Captain's Logs for new human colonies.
• Fixing a minor Objective bug for a Free Trandal quest.
• Reduced collision box of Harmony ship.
• Added hints of a Scryve super weapon that can shatter planets.

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Patch 1.10.54010 (26 October 2018)

• Important: Due to the scope of these changes, this build may break any local mods that you have.

Gameplay

• Added new Flee mechanic. After winning your first round, you can flee the battle. However, note that the enemy fleet will be fully healed when you fight them again.
• Added a new System Scanner component that highlights planets with "interesting" things.
• Added mouseover info for planets
• Added mouseover to the "fleet picker" in Fleet battles for ships in your fleet
• Adjusted lander physics to feel more weighty
• Planet mineral balance pass.
• Ship AI changes:
• AI makes better use of wormholes
• Smarter about hunting for wrecks (e.g. powerups)
• Better at evading
• Improvements to how the AI interacts with incoming projectiles
• Improved AI behavior for Tywom turret placement
• Added new unique weapons: Flank Blasters, Rapid Laser Dual & Gauss Cannon
• Distributed new weapons among existing alien ships for better combat variety
• Added new race of minor aliens in the Fang Cluster
• Added new pheromones aliens encounter
• Added tough new alien interactions in 4 systems
• Changed the type of hyperdrive you get from Kzanti in Sirius A so that Star Control accepts it for Colony ships.
• After meeting Wymdoo on Triton, a beacon now points the player towards the training base
• Adding some Captain's Logs to the scared Tywom quest giver NPC.
• Fix for a hitch with the Mukay Ice World prank the Menkmack play on them. All Ice Worlds are despawned when the prank is caught.
• AI now taunts you in Fleet Battles
• Moving the planet Vrooms in Alpha Mensae much further into the system to stop some weird behavior when the player tried to land on it and went into hyperspace instead.
• Moving some planets in Arcturus a little closer to the star, so that players can actually land on them.
• Reduced cost and increased efficiency of lander components
• Increased the cost of powerful nuclear missile variants
• Reduced the selling price of some weapons that can be looted
• Increased the cost of late-game ship components
• Earthship energy regen rate increased from 7 to 9.
• Changed some ships to the human faction to allow healing.
• Default Lander Crew increased from 5 to 6.
• Deflector Mark II reduced from 20% to 15%.
• Reduced cost of overpriced lander components.
• Reduced the selling price of some of the "random" pick-up weapons.
• Fixed some ships having too small RU value.
• Increased cost powerful Nuke variants.
• Overmind Deflector reduced from 25% to 20%.
• Slight nerf to stacking deflectors.
• Planet mineral balance pass. In general, the higher the risk, the higher the reward!
• Minor balance changes to Norast ship and Battlecruiser since you can now heal them.
• The game now despawns mercenaries when you hire the Mercenary Captain.
• Measured/Phamysht/Boscan Transport won't bother the player after winning
• All ships can now be recrewed from Star Control base
• Urlon convoys now use the proper ship in combat.

Audio

• Added new voice for the Freed Trandals
• Fixed streaming settings for new Scryve music
• Adding Earthling Cruiser weapon variations
• Added canister bomb weapon fire variations
• Added Scryve space exploration 1 song.
• Added audio event for planetary investigation

Interface

• Improved remapping of keys and controller inputs
• MP Lobby no longer shows the wrong Fleet after ending a match
• Right-clicking on AI button in fleet battles setup now moves backward through the opponent types.
• Starbase Buy/Sell Panel no longer loses focus sometimes
• Fix the possibility of users being able to select options whilst "are you sure you want to surrender" prompt is up
• Resolved issue with pressing B button on controller causing popup dialogs to cancel but not call any button functions!

Graphics

• Improved some planet buildings and props that weren't set in the ground properly
• Improved appearance for many planet props
• Updated visuals for the bug and worm critters
• Optimized shaders to increase perf. on planets
• Added a configurable frame limiter in the settings file
• Fixed some very pixelated Red Stars in hyperspace
• Updated the Xraki, Greegrox, Trandal and Jeff leader screens visuals
• General animation polish/fixes for the Menkmack and Mercenary Captain
• Added animation to the Trandal leader background
• Added a bigger explosion when you defeat the final boss
• Compressed planet models textures to save space on disk (and small perf. bonus to boot!)
• Slight performance improvements to stamps

Foreign Languages

• Added Commander voice over for German, Russian and Chinese languages.
• Updated galaxy object names for non-English to improve translation and better match quests.
• Added translations for Portuguese-Brazil and Spanish (Spain).
• Updated translations for German, Russian and Simplified Chinese with lots of fixes/corrections.

Bugs

• In fleet battles, the enemy purple engine trail now matches the player trail's in length and size
• Fleet battles now have space backgrounds in hyperspace
• Pulsar weapon now has a description
• Fixed some transports not giving the right RU bounty when destroyed
• All misc salvageable ships now use the human pilot animation in combat
• Using the Observer cloak ability in MP will no longer cause the ship parts of the affected ship to sometimes have very bad transforms
• Ship acceleration indicator on inventory and starbase screens now use correct value rather
• Fixing some incorrect popup descriptions for Engine rewards
• Autonav to a starbase will not drain your fuel while you're there
• The Tywom will now properly deduct any superfluids from the player.
• Tywom Fuel Rescue guy will no constantly respawn further away when you enter combat (coward!)
• If your Vindicator is full, collecting an item no longer deletes it permanently
• The "sell conventionals" button is no longer disabled if you didn't have a common resource in your cargo.
• Fix for the alien who can't be ignored in Alpha Mus.
• Fixing an incongruous movie for a building on Iota Aspis B II.
• Fix escape when using surrender from escape menu in Fleet battle (campaign) causing the game to unpause.
• Fix for various bugs with strange Measured obelisks quests
• Modified marketplace to deal with an issue where you could lose fuel by selecting the same component in the list.
• If your main ship mysteriously disappears, we'll give you a new one
• Urlon ships no longer look huge in hyperspace
• Deleting a ship design will now correctly select the first design in the list afterward.
• Ships are no longer stuck on the edge of the Arcturus system.
• Maelnir trader in Arcturus is no longer stuck inside the star.
• You can longer get stuck running out of fuel during the final fight
• Fix for incorrect Game Over a few days later if you stop the Xraki from destroying Earth after they arrive.
• Removed collision from trees and small rocks because hitting trees wasn't fun
• Fixed a controller hang issue when dismissing auto nav dialogs quickly.
• Adjusted Controller UI dead zone value as it was overly sensitive.
• Fixed difficulty checking boxes in gameplay tab of options
• Fixes issue with acceleration and recharge being identical in Melee config screen
• Fixes various problems with interacting with a planet after interacting with a ship
• Fixed floating rocks on Beta Wendigo I
• Fixed bad placement of village on Wastear in the Lacaille 8760 system.

Fleet Battles Balance Changes

Tywom

• Despite being the first ship players get access to in the Adventure Mode, it’s incredibly powerful and one of the best. The incredibly rapid fire rate of the main gun made it too good at bursting enemy ships down. In particular, the Spawn Turret mechanic could be quite exploitative and anti-fun by encouraging the player to avoid the enemy spawning turrets and never engaging directly. These changes will make the Tywom play more actively and make it feel like more of a starter ship.
• Tywom Bolt cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25
• Turret duration reduced from 30 to 15
• Max turrets reduced from 5 to 3
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Greegrox Swarm

• The Greegrox was far too difficult to hit with projectiles due to the tiny Collision box combined with instant direction changing. These changes will make the Greegrox easier to hit.
• Collision box increased from 0.25 to 0.30
• Acceleration reduced from 18 to 12
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Measured Response

• The Measured Response could be very frustrating to play against due to the permanent slows and difficulty to hit due to high acceleration, small hitbox and instant direction changes. It will be easier to hit and its weapons are getting toned down to justify its 7 points cost.
• Red Tape now only temporarily slows instead of permanent slows
• Acceleration reduced from 20 to 14
• Invitation damage reduced from 10 to 8

Terran Cruiser

• The Earthling Cruiser was too fragile and too clunky too control. These changes will make the Terran Cruiser stronger and more fun to play
• Health increased from 19 to 24Turn rate increased from 75 to 85

Lexite Interceptor

• The Lexite Interceptor was far too strong to justify its low 9 point cost.
• Points increased from 9 to 11

Trandals Frigate

• The raw power of the Trandal Weapon was too much, especially when combined with its massive mobility allowing it to flank enemy ships or pickup all the salvage easily.
• Laser Ribbon Bola damage per second reduced from 150 to 110

Scryve Probe

• Like the Tywom Bolt, the Scout Shot was able to burst targets down far too quickly despite also having the dangerous self-destruct.
• Scout Shot damage reduced from 6 to 5
• Scout shot cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25
• This is intended to also affect other ships using Scout Shot.

Drenkend Carrier

• The Drenkend Carrier was too strong to justify 12 points. The De-energizer Bolt could be quite exploitative due to it’s rapid-fire and low energy cost, which could permanent chain stun targets.
• Points increased from 12 to 16
• De-energizer Bolt energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• De-energizer bolt cooldown increased from 0.4 to 0.8

Xraki Devourer

• The Xraki Devourer was too strong at 12 points. The long range and massive energy pool encouraged the ship to avoid the enemy and fly away poking long range black holes, which also were deadly at close range. Lowering the range of the Black Hole projectile will force the Xraki ship to approach the enemy more.
• Points increased from 12 to 14
• Energy cost reduced from 100 to 85
• Black hole duration reduced from 5 to 2.5

Menkmack Negotiator

• The Menkmack Negotiator was too weak for 12 points.
• Points cost reduced from 12 to 10

Phamyst Consumer

• Invitation was far too spammable at only 10 energy as it practically had no drain on the Phamyst, given the huge range and lack of required aiming it was too powerful.
• Invitation Energy cost increased from 10 to 20

Kzanti Intimidator

• The Kzanti ship was frustrating to verse as it was overly nimble and able to knock the enemy away with Repulsor. It will now be slightly less agile and not be able to spam Repulsor on top of planting mines. Especially important as this was one of the first ships the player would encounter in the Adventure Mode.
• Points cost reduced from 13 to 11
• Repulsor energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• Max speed reduced from 6.5 to 6
• Acceleration reduced from 6.75 to 6

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Patch 1.02.53461 (09 October 2018)

Gameplay

• Quasi-Degenerate world toxicity decreased slightly.
• A couple of the starting planets have more resources.
• Yttrick Planet is wealthier
• Actinide planets are richer.
• Opalescent planet class is richer with better minerals (it's a pretty rare planet and it's so pretty).
• Sapphire planets have more mineral spawn points.
• Added some new mineral spawn points for craters.
• Reduced difficulty of Scryve Juggernaut (non-boss) and Xraki boss battles.
• Your allies recognize the threat better and will share ships with you more cheaply.
• Lowered damage of planetside Drones
• Cloud hazards do less damage but have a larger area of effect
• Boosted AI fleet coordinator
• Great Void starbase and Drakend starbases now have a fuel module to buy.
• Star labels of visited systems are greyed out in the sector map list.
• Tweaked the "visited system" label colors
• Slight camera improvement for the lander.
• Reduced the number of critters and hazards on Organic worlds

Bugs / Perf.

• Fixed crashes reported by users
• Reduced Memory usage while saving
• Fix for the Menkmack Ear Schemer not being spawned if you come by this quest from another direction
• Fixed for low machines crashing on planets with heavy visual effects (e.g. Venus)
• Improved perf of the end battle on low machines
• Improved perf for worlds with lots of vegetation.

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Patch 1.01.53103 (28 September 2018)

Balance

• Lowered salvage reward of Scryve Probe. Now less than Scryve cruiser.
• Second scryve encounter: re-added flak cannon, reduce damage on both weapons
• Increased RU awarded from battle even more to reward murderin'.
• Slight decrease in drag on your ship.
• Fleet Coordinator module's AI is smarter

UI

• You can now remap the interact button.
• The RU text on minerals and the value on Critters are now properly translatable
• The custom match screen better handles translated text that was longer other languages
• Added a warning if that your page file size is too small
• Better support for ultrawide screens (32x9)
• Added grid lines on the sector map and mini-map
• Bringing up the sector map no longer breaks auto-pilot
• Added message for when you scan a low-value planet
• The game now remembers the systems and planets you have visited and faded down the star graphic in the minimap and sector map. Labels are also faded and the line becomes green vs yellow for those visited. This change is not retroactive.
• You can no longer auto-pilot to a destination outside of your fuel range.
• Planet scan screen now shows a count of the value of minerals on the right-hand side above the minerals list.

Bugs

• Fixed several startup crashes
• Reworked how autosaves are saved to prevent them from getting corrupted
• Fixed a problem where a corrupt save would prevent you from saving or loading.
• Start-up times improved on non-SDD drives. This affects starting to main menu only. We're working on a fix for new/load game times as well.
• All Achievement are now working correctly
• "First Contact" achievements should be award retroactively.
• Perf boast for the end game dialog movies
• Despawn any other mercenaries when you hire the Mercenary Captain
• The Scryve will no longer continue to expand after the Xraki reveal
• The Measured wander away if you have a peaceful exit with them.
• The codex screen no longer crashes on 4K in non-English languages
• All Measured and Phamyst NPCs are made less aggressive after the game is over.
• Phamysht no longer pursues player after Xraki reveal.
• Any dialog with Phamysht ships which ends peacefully results in the Phamysht flying away
• Fix for the Harmony fighter not awarding any RU in adventure mode
• You can hand in hyperdrives quest after beating the game.
• Moved Vrooms planet in Alpha Mensae and some planets in Acturus closer so you can actually land on them.
• Asking Measured about the Drenkend no longer breaks the game. They really don't like each other.
• Fixed a save game problem with non-english keyboards
• The Sirius quests can no longer be exploited for infinite RU. Sorry!
• Fix for typos with the Measured NPCs.
• "Removing a unidentified character on Trombley II that you can't interact with.-
• Fixing an Objective typo with the Stranded Refugees quest

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Patch 0.80.2227.1 - Beta Build (27 April 2018)

Custom Matches

• Choose "Custom matches" to enable the following customization options
• Enabled custom ships in multiplayer
• Create a private, password protected lobby for multiplayer
• Set the arena size
• Adjust the number of asteroids, wormholes, and ion storms
• Adjust the Fleet max size
• Choose from three different Arena maps.
• "Invite" friends to join your multiplayer matches

Gameplay

• New ships
• Lexite Interceptor: Dual Shot, Shield
• Mu'Kay Grasper: Harpoon, Ink Blob
• Greegrox Swarm: Microbolt shot, Heal
• New weapon components
• Heal – restores crew
• Death Ray. The name explains itself
• Dual Shot – fires a fast double shot
• Ink Blob – drops an inky blob that drains energy and crew.
• Shield – hold down to be invincible until you run out of energy
• Note: Harpoon and Microbolt are not available for custom ships.
• Full balance pass on all of the ships and their components
• Custom hull sizes have been modified for better balance.
• Changed the planet in the "Super Melee" map (the original one) to be Mars.
• Updated names of many of the ships and their components.

Graphics / UI

• Many of the ships now have custom animations for their pilots. Animations for additional factions will be added over time. Pilot animations change based on the state of their ship.
• Improved font appearance, especially on higher resolution displays.
• Updated UI to work better at high scaling factor.
• Improved appearance and framing of custom ship thumbnails.
• Adds tooltips to mounts in ship editor.
• Players are now set to "Great" graphics quality settings by default.
• Increased the length of "Ship Design Description" text field.
• Better looking 'Flak Cannon' explosion
• Ship death explosion and Scryve Flak cannons VFX are now less likely to crush your frame rate.
• Significant reduction in memory usage.
• Updated credits with help from the community.
• Updating gradient swatches for Tywom-style ship parts so the parts don't look so dull.

Bugs

• Fix for rogue gravity fields persisting between matches which were causing the universe to collapse to a singularity.
• Fixed a race condition crash in the animation system.
• Fixed a random graphics crash. Die "swap-chain" crash die!! Good. It's dead now.
• Ships with invalid components are now disabled on the fleet picker or crafting screen.
• Killing another player in multiplayer with your secondary weapon no longer has a chance of crashing the game.
• Entering and exiting the ship designer more than 8 times no longer crashes.

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Patch 0.78.18771 - Beta Build (21 February 2018)

Gameplay

• Added wormholes. Entering one end of the hole quickly takes you to another side of the map!
• Nebulas -- Drain energy from your ship
• Balance update to Scryve and Human Cruiser Ships

Graphics

• Updated ship shaders and materials to be more realistic
• Implemented shininess materials
• Implemented "Metallic" property in the shader which will tint the specular color if metallic, and not if not metallic
• Cleaned up textures and materials on all ships and parts
• The ship designer and arena now share a common lighting setup

Other Improvements

• Pass on sounds effects and balance
• Weapons, thrusters, and engines all have their own models
• Added over a dozen new ship parts

Bugs

• Provide only a speed boost for projectiles if the ship is only going in the direction it is facing
• You will not get trapped if you select ship right after other player surrenders in MP
• The Camera won't jump around so much when changing what ship is selected.
• Fixed a crash when trying to start a match
• Fixed a crash if one you left the game while the other person was choosing their next ship

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Patch 0.71.15586 - Beta Build (04 December 2017)

Summary

• Phamysht (new ship) It would be very rude not to let them eat you. They have the following attacks:
• Charbroiled - Single-fire shot that roasts enemy ships.
• Invitation -- The Phamysht make a series of very polite requests. Nearby ships' crew immediately disembark and floats towards the Phamyst ship for "dinner."
• Gameplay balance pass based on community feedback
• Player-created ships are much peppier now
• Bug fixes

Changelog

Gameplay

Arena:

• Reduced asteroid damage
• Increased arena size from 45 to 60
• Decreased max separation from 45 to 40
• Planet made slightly smaller, gravity radius increased.
• Custom ships: reduced physics drag so they behave more like the core ships.

  Drenkend

• Drag increased from none to 0.1
• Max Speed reduced from 6 to 4.5
• Turn rate reduced from 120 to 60
• Boarding party speed increased from 3 to 5.5

  Earthling Ship: The Nuclear Missile is now destroyed by AOE weapons.

  Menkmack:

• Mine radius reduced
• Boarding Ships are easier to pick up

  Mowlings: Beam Carver damage significantly increased.

• Jeff is more aggressive

  The Measured

• Renamed weapon from "Paperwork" to "Red tape"
• Updated the weapon effect
• Red tape duration increased from 10 to 120 seconds
• Increased cooldown time between allowed Demotivator bursts.

  Trandals: Increased collision area to better match the ship.

  Phamysht (new ship) It would be very rude not to let them eat you. They have the following attacks:

• Charbroiled - Single-fire shot that roasts enemy ships.
• Invitation -- The Phamysht make a series of very polite requests. Nearby ships' crew immediately disembark and floats towards Phamyst ship for "dinner."

  Scryve Scout

• Speed reduced from 9.5 to 4.5
• Turn radius reduced from 360 to 240
• Point cost reduced from 8 to 7
• Health reduced from 27 to 15

  Tywom: Turn rate reduced from 240 to 180

MP

• Ships are no longer occasionally invisible. Wasn't fair to the other life-form
• Asteroids are better synced between peer and server.
• Enemy's ship trails now always show the correct color
• Fixed a bug where the peer in Local Matches would sometimes get fully healed and charged for no good reason.

UI

• Right-clicking a ship in the Fleet configuration screen removes it from that player's fleet.
• Scale sliders in the Ship Design Editor now display as ratios of 100%
• Changed "Earth Ship" to "Earthlings Ship"
• Added word wrap to the Upload Design dialog in Crafting menu
• Increased the contrast on the crew meters' artwork so they'd show up better on certain displays (e.g. televisions)
• The '+' button no longer appears if your fleet was full.

Bugs

• Addressed several cases where the audio wasn't playing correctly on the peer.
• Fixed a crash in the Ship Design List. This crash occurred when a ship design button was clicked after the exit button had been activated.
• Fixed a bug where you could start a single player super melee game with no ships in the AI's fleet.
• Added sounds for the Drenkend and Jeff.
• Fixed pink edges on the arena planet on NVIDIA cards.
• Weird characters won't prevent you from saving your ship designs.
• Pressing "start game" while dragging a ship no longer crashes.
• Fixed a problem where some ship designs weren't appearing on the ship design list if they weren't outfitted.
• Fixed a problem where the Melee Config screen sometimes showed a '+' button even if there were no ships available to select.
• The Measured will no longer fire only in one direction if the ship isn't moving.