An update in under 3 months? Who'd have thought it? Again, lots of work on the codebase that you might not appreciate now, but there are a handful of shiny new things:
- The Backwards mission is back! A simulator repair job with a twist...
- We now have civilian jobs that you can do for credits but no mission points. If you're stranded on a foreign planet and can't afford the ticket back, these'll help.
- Cargo flights have resumed to Livingstone, New Southampton, Eden and New Lyon. Those starports have also been significantly expanded to handle the new traffic.
- You can now drag some items that are too heavy to carry... corpses, motorbikes, large ladders and so on.
- The Basic and Intermediate Combat simulations are now free for everyone, not just cadets.
- Warrant Officers and above can now access a new message board in the Officer's Club. Keep an eye on it for lucrative testing opportunities!
- We now support blindfolds, earplugs and gags, if you're in to that sort of thing.
- If you've been turned into a duck by a senior officer, be careful flying over water because when you turn back, you might not be able to swim...
- You can no longer sit, stand or mount people who are sitting, standing or mounted on you.
- A few actions have been retired because no-one used them, and a few common myacts have been promoted to real actions useable by all players. Say goodbye to the likes of asmile and tm, and hello to such delights as jig, stab and yank.
- The matcher now prioritises unworn and unwielded equipment. So if you're carrying a uniform and wearing a uniform and you type throw uniform, you'll throw the unworn one.
- Next time you're at the beach, why not go for a paddle?
- ...and plenty more bugfixes, tweaks, improvements and minor features!
The Combat system is long overdue for an update, so we've started improving that, too. You can now wield two weapons at once if you wanted, though there's no benefit to doing so yet! You can also now hold shields instead of wearing them, letting you use shields even with bulky clothing like spacesuits and the like. On the downside, you can't wield things you are wearing anymore (sorry) and it is now a rather harder to raise your combat score to superhuman levels.
The justice system has been given a bit of a tweak, too. Military staff will take a dim view of you being naked and on duty, and gendarmes in New Lyon can have you deported if you're caught in the city without suitable paperwork!