Welcome starchasers! Demo 1.9 is another major update, this time bringing the content scope and file size more in line with what will (eventually) be the final version of the demo. As always, please make note of the known issues, and enjoy the skies.

KNOWN ISSUES: 

• Cockpit model textures are currently placeholders.
• Station interior models and lighting are all currently placeholders.
• Joystick and controller support vestigial and more or less not implemented and having a controller plugged in can introduce weirdness.
• NPC chatter happens much too frequently. 
• Initial loading times are still long and the game might freeze up during it, please be patient.
• Fading transitions might sometimes be interrupted or sudden.
• Campaign and quest dialogue is currently unvoiced or temporarily voiced.
• Some minor music errors might occur during play.
• Mission 2 can be started, but due to the nature of the demo, you cannot leave the system.
• Karbelle’s quest can be repeated at the start ad infinitum. 
• When transferring 58gb of files and not telling the devs you are while you’re playing, looping sound issues might occur.
• Some UIs might double-up once at first.
• Double billboards will duplicate ads.

NEW FEATURES:

• Dialogue, including piracy, directions, and NPC information, can be queried on any NPC now.
• Ships spawn along laneline routes and can be disrupted.
• New dialogue features, including ships being able to generate stories as to what and why they’re doing what they do.
• New storm hazards, including ghost ships and better colored rifts.
• All vignettes given proper descriptions.
• Ship customization UI and the ability to buy vanity items for your ship.
• Small new lines for some traders.
• Two small new quests that run concurrently to the main quest, allowing you to better comprehend your own character and his relationships.
• Station UI now has animations and custom UI.
• Expanded your party member’s dialogue, and party members now work fully, with you able to summon them to battle and to grant you bonuses.
• New graphical features for storm exteriors.
• Shield graphics redone completely, slightly increasing performance. 
• Guns now have restricted firing angles, and won’t fire if they can’t pivot to that angle. 
• Bigger ships now have big explosions and leave behind debris.
• Global alert system! Commit enough big badbads against Johnny Law, and he just might send capships after your pirate self to atone for your many sins.

CHANGES:

• Greatly reduced filesize.
• Somewhat reduced loading times due to reduced filesize.
• Game properly restricts demo-only content.
• Quests, missions, trading routes, etc, will offer generic missions.
• Tutorial system completely rewritten to be far more concise.
• Storm colorings redone completely to match the regions they’re in.
• Ballden characters reanimated slightly to have rigged eye meshes. 
• Pausing the game suspends certain sound aspects here and there. 
• Changes to spawning positions and codes for areas around the homeworld, much more reliable and much less ships spawning inside planets. 
• Shift + Clicking on UI inventories can quickly commit actions on them, such as transferring cargo, buying cargo, or similar. 
• Switching between UI windows is more efficient and works faster and better.
• UI windows can be turned on and off via button presses.
• Fishing ships redone, optimized, and have new textures for their cranes.
• Graphics slightly improved on the main menu.
• Repair prices on stations are now affected by inclement weather. 
• Ship models added to shipyards, because that’s where ships go.
• Billboard UIs redone.
• Performance improved due to redone laneline LOD. 
• Ship styles are now integrated into roll chances for things like piracy and directions.
• UI is more informative, displaying best prices on the station UI and such.
• Large ship smoke effects redone.

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed multitudes of crashes related to savegames.
• Fixed issue where buffs from things like armor or scanners would improperly calculate 
• Fixed several memory leaks coming from mining tech.
• Fixed issue where station prices were inconsistent with their actual calculated value.
• Fixed several UI issues in the inventory relating to pricing. 
• Various optimizations for the navmap, ships, etc.
• And so so so so so so much more. It’s been about six months and I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.