Progress on getting the Stellar Nomad demo ready to release is proceeding rapidly - I only have a few tasks left on my polish list and almost all of them are not programming or art related, they're just stuff like 'finish writing all ship descriptions' or 'polish mission text'. It'll take some time and work, but it's getting really close. As such, the update list today will be long, but no major features have been added since the last update; it's all polish work and bugfixes.

Bugfixes and balance tweaks:

• Fixed an issue in the options menu that was causing refresh rate and resolution dropdowns to fail
• Fixed an issue with the Gazelle's engine FX
• Visual pass on all starsystems, fixing moon/planet alignments and overbright stars
• Added IsMissionCritical flag to ships being escorted, so you can't dock them, sell them, or change their weapons
• Fixed an issue in the fleet view panel that caused certain controls to resize oddly
• Some writing that was previously terrible has been improved
• Fixed the placement of turrets and gun hardpoints on a handful of ships to not look ridiculous in the outfitter view
• Greatly expanded lists for player name generation
• Greatly expanded lists for ship name generation
• Ship names are now generated by faction
• Increased payouts on most mission types
• Added text parsing for pursuing faction tags
• Increased average number of available missions based on tech level of planet
• Fixed an issue that could cause bounty targets not to get special names
• Fixed an issue that caused space station names not to appear in mission text, ever
• Fixed an issue that could cause mission display names to be truncated in the mission BBS
• Fixed a text issue in the escort mission template
• Mission text now properly parses the player name
• Changed how shields and armor values are managed to make them more UI friendly
• Fleet status panel can now rename ships
• Added fleet weapon and cargo info to fleet window. needs polish but is nearly 100% functional now
• Fixed an issue in the bounty mission type that could cause the game to go into a bad state
• Removed the button that would instantly disable my ship - lol
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the main menu from appearing after the player ship is disabled
• Fixed an issue that would cause the shield/hull critical notification from appearing
• Moved a moon in the Nashira system outside it's host planet
• Fixed an issue that could cause ships to fly WAY faster when their engine component script was disabled (cause the update function limits the actual speed of the ship)
• Added stars to the hangar environment, reduced lighting level overall. need to find some way to get the star light out of the picture in station environments still
• Fixed an issue that caused your ships armor and shields to be charged to inappropriate values after changing ships via the hangar, shipyard, or as a mission reward
• Fixed ship modifications. Still not available for purchase anywhere, but at least they goddamn work
• Generated new icons for every ship in every faction color, and every weapon
• Hooked up new icons in shipyard
• Hooked up new icons in outfitter
• Added display names to all fixedguns
• The outfitter now uses DisplayName instead of TypeName in all appropriate places
• The outfitter now supports purchasing weapons for any fleet ship
• Fixed a bug in the trade panel that would cause it to show the wrong ship when opening occasionally
• Improved readability of the 'Clear Route' button and the 'Route Cost' display in the map
• Balanced weapon audio
• Ships now have a Crew stat, that determines how much it costs per jump for that ship, as well as its odds of successfully capturing a boarded ship. These are initial guess numbers and will be balanced more later on
• Fixed an issue that could cause your weapon changes to not be saved until after you jump