0.538.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Engine upgrade. The game engine was upgraded to Godot 3.5, which should bring stability and performance improvements across the board.

Feedback Focus: As with each engine upgrade, there might be quirks in systems that I didn't look into. The engine is the fundamental part of the game infrastructure, and while I did not find any bugs in my testing, it can affect multiple things, some of them which are really well hidden. Please be on the lookout for any quirks and report anything weird going on.

0.538.2 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Fixed lag spike when instancing ships, most noticeable when you entered Enceladus, switched simulations in the Tuning and Upgrades menu, and when new ships approached you during the dive. You should experience a smooth station boot now.
- Improved debug system. The debug logs will now try to capture more data if a crash occurs and should use up significantly fewer resources.
- Updated translations.

Feedback Focus: Performance and stability. The new debug system should record more information if you encounter a crash, so if you do, please make sure to submit a bug report so I can isolate it and fix it. We are still expecting some glitches from upgrading the game engine to Godot 3.5, so please also report anything that just looks off.

0.539.1 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- The LIDAR display on the Pilot tab will now use the same reflection data as your ship.
- AI is now able to pick the lesser of two evils, improving collision avoidance.
- Targeting a ship with an autonomic autopilot will now give a "follow" order, instead of trying to excavate it.
- New burnfinder for the AI, including the autonomous autopilot, is able to position ship in a way that optimizes thrust for a selected manoeuvre.

Feedback Focus: AI behaviour and autonomous autopilot performance.

0.539.4 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Increased the range in which AI and autonomous autopilots consider collisions. This makes them navigate much better, but does increase the performance requirements for CPU. Hopefully, with recent improvements in the performance, the net result will be smarter AI and smooth performance.
- NPC will now try to avoid small rocks moving at high relative velocities.
- AI is now able to smoothly transition from "hard burn using most effective thrust" to "coast towards the target". This will make both AI and EIAA-1337 perform much fewer manoeuvres when parking.

Feedback Focus: AI behaviour, performance.

0.539.6 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Fixed a bug that caused all tuning settings to be ignored by semi-autonomous weapons and point defence turrets.

Feedback Focus: Release candidate. Please report anything that works worse than in the current stable branch.

0.534.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Geologist mineral and value filtering configuration is now saved in the save file and will be persistent.
- Fixed a number of bugs that could cause crashes when around AI or using autonomic autopilots.
- Fixed a bug that caused the performance degradation when operating AR1500 Manipulator to pick up a lot of ore.

Feedback Focus: Due to stability and performance enhancements introduced in this release, I'm naming it a release candidate. Please report anything that works worse than in the current stable branch.

0.541.1 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Additional collision visualisation for EIAA-1337 autopilot.
- Fixed a bug that caused ships to think that they were at a different location than they were, causing strange collisions.
- Collision prediction with moving objects is now much more reliable, which improves both autonomous autopilots and AI collision avoidance.
- New algorithm to avoid collisions takes into account the capabilities of the ship and will not plot a course that does avoid damage but is impossible to execute.
- You can now turn off the "Ignore obscured targets" options in Point Defence system tuning.
- Price limiting sliders in the Geologist tab will now start with correct, stored values.
- Updated translations.

Feedback Focus: EIAA-1337 autopilot and in general - AI behaviour.

0.542.0 late night patch hit the experimental branch yesterday, featuring:
- AI and autopilot are able to detect even more asteroids on their immediate path without sacrificing any performance. This gives them more time to adjust courses when travelling with higher velocities.
- Improved collision visualization for EIAA-1337 autopilot.

Feedback Focus: EIAA-1337 autopilot and in general - AI behaviour.

0.542.1 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Staying at hotels is now recorded in your ship/company logs.
- Fixed gamepad and keyboard control over selling owned ships.
- Updated translations.

Feedback Focus: Release candidate. Please report anything that's worse than the current stable branch.

0.542.2 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- AI burnfinding performance enhancements. I disabled an obsolete collision avoidance routine that used up a lot of resources but produced results mostly redundant with recent general collision detection improvements. As a result, you should experience better performance without any drawbacks.

Feedback Focus: AI behaviour, performance. While removal of the obsolete code should not affect AI flight patterns in any way, this is a complex system and unexpected results could happen. Please report any you encounter.

0.542.3 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Improved performance of the events where you encounter a lot of drones.
- Reworked the ringrace. You don't get a reward by bringing in the drone unconditionally, but rather you get it from the drone, with additional dialogue. The drone is also able to detect a failed start, and the use of the dialogue here opens up the possibility of expanding the race arc with multiple tiers of difficulty in subsequent releases.
- Fine-tuned AI parameters for the racing drone to make races more interesting.

Feedback Focus: Ringracing!

0.543.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Additional tuning setting for EIAA-1337 autopilot, allowing it to ignore low-energy collisions. This is useful to make the system more careful or more reckless, and will also help when using things like haul drones, which throw objects into your ship and might trigger a collision avoidance response.

Feedback Focus: EIAA-1337 autopilot performance.

0.545.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Separate setting for physics framerate and rendering framerate. While physics framerate controls the accuracy of your in-game physics and stresses your CPU, the rendering framerate controls how fast your display updates, provides a smooth video experience and stresses mostly your GPU. With separate settings, you can now choose the performance option that is best for your system. The recommended setting is 60FPS physics framerate and unlimited display framerate, combined with vertical synchronization turned on. Limiting framerate might be useful if you are playing on a laptop and want to conserve the battery or limit heat.
- Added physics interpolation, which allows the physics engine to work on a different framerate than your display. The game will now add extra non-simulated frames between the physics ticks to preserve the illusion of smooth movement.
- Improved performance of ship spawning.
- Improved performance of internal damage and power sensor simulation.
- Improved wording for "0 fps" meaning in the menu. Now the options are called, respectively "no limit" and "no animation" to make it clear what you are choosing.
- Extended the lower bound of framerate that Dynamic Temporal Simulation Simplification can take. This will improve performance on slower systems, and the new physics interpolation feature should have no noticeable effect short of improved performance.

Feedback Focus: Performance, especially on systems that were CPU-bound. As with any physics engine adjustment, please be on the lookout for any physics quirks.

0.546.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Suppressed miner curiosity near the edge of the rings. You will still encounter the same number of ships on the rim, but they should be mostly minding their own business now.
- Fixed the Enceladus menu display on very small monitors - the main menu will not cover the in-game time indicator anymore.
- Previews of the HUDs in the Equipment menu will now display complete interfaces in all resolutions.
- Fixed physics framerate selector resetting to 30 when picking values over 60.

Feedback Focus: Performance, miner encounters.

0.547.0 just hit the experimental branch, featuring:
- Enhanced strategic layer of AI. NPC ships are now able to take additional risks if they perceive targets as worthy of them. This will prevent standoffs from persisting.
- Personal reputation and faction disposition of NPC ships you encounter for the first time will now have some variation over the default faction standing.
- Lasers now deal the correct amount of damage when you set the framerate limit to "unlimited".
- NPC Miners will now retain some curiosity even on the rim and might talk to you if you get close enough.
- Updated translations.

Feedback Focus: NPC encounters.