Vanguard Permits, enemy scans, bulk listing and a job queue

This update adds Vanguard Permits, a tradeable way to give or get 14 days of Vanguard Charter, and a new Vanguard page that lays out every plan. Scan an enemy to see how to beat it, list a whole stack of items on the market in one go, and queue up to 100 industry jobs. Combat gets a big pass: your ship aims its guns where they count, each weapon can pick which targets it fires at, and the weapon tray shows cooldowns and ammo as you fight. Steam players can sign in with Steam, and you can rebind your keyboard.

New

• Vanguard Permits. A permit is an Exotic item worth 14 days of Vanguard Charter. Redeem it yourself, keep it, or trade it with other pilots on the market and in contracts. Packs come in 1, 10, 20, 50 or 100 from $2.99 for a single permit, and bigger packs cost less per permit.
• Buy and redeem in the game. The Vanguard store has a new Permits tab: pick a pack, collect your permits at any station and redeem as many as you like. Newly bought permits can be traded after a short hold of up to 72 hours.
• Vanguard page. The Vanguard page compares Free and Vanguard side by side, and shows the bigger Vanguard limits: 200 market orders, 50 open contracts, 20 active missions, 5 pilot slots and a monthly Aether stipend of 200. Free pilots keep 25 market orders, 6 open contracts, 10 active missions and 3 pilot slots.
• Sign in with Steam. Create an account or sign in with Steam from the login screen on the website and in the Steam app. Link Steam once and it signs you in automatically from then on. Account settings shows Linked or Not linked with your Steam name and the link date, the same way it does for Google. In the Steam app, sign-in happens in the app window and never opens your browser.
• Gnatmill L. A large short-range turret: a rotary grinder that tracks anything inside 3.6 km and shreds small hulls and strike craft. Its damage falls off with target size, so it does very little to big ships. It uses a lot of battery and Kinetic Slugs. Buy it at military stations and pirate bases, or manufacture it.
• Enemy Scan. Press Scan on the target card, or the backslash key, to study a hostile. A scan reveals its damage types, weapon classes, resists and, for bosses, their special abilities, in tiers. It costs a little battery, and the pilot you scan is notified. The Fitting window keeps a Scouted enemies list with fit hints, so you can adjust your ship before the fight.
• Market List many. A new tab in the Market "List Many", you can list multiple items at once. Select items, choose List on market, and set each price from the average market value, the lowest ask or an undercut percentage. Fees and your order slots are shown before you confirm.
• Industry job queue. Queue up to 20 jobs as a free pilot and 100 with Vanguard. Queued jobs start on their own when a slot frees up, and canceling a job refunds it. The limit of 100 cycles per job is unchanged.
• Weapon Targeting. Each weapon can now be set to fire at any target, small targets only, or up to medium. Set your Gnatmills to small targets and they clear the small hostiles while your other guns work the big one.
• Remappable keyboard controls. Rebind your keys in Settings > Controls > Keyboard. Conflicts are flagged, you can reset to the defaults, and you can export and import your layout.
• Multiple station windows. On desktop, keep several station windows open side by side. Turn it off in Settings > Gameplay if you prefer one at a time. Phones keep one sheet at a time.
• Partial stack moves. Move part of a stack between your hold and the hangar: choose how many, or use quick buttons for a quarter, half, three quarters or all but one.
• Exact refine and dismantle amounts. Type an amount, drag the slider or use the quick buttons, and see what you get before you confirm.
• Average market value. Item tooltips show the average price from recent trades, or N/A when there have not been enough trades yet.

Improvements

• Engage faces the target. Ships with turrets and launchers now point their front guns at big targets instead of circling with the broadside turned away. Ships built around fixed guns still attack head on. Prefer the circle? Choose Orbit.
• Autofire in every movement mode. Orbit, Hold range and Approach now fire at a locked hostile ship, the same way Engage does. Neutral pilots, friends, police and stations are never fired on, and your manual-only weapons and size filters still apply.
• Firing arcs. A new overlay shows where each weapon can reach. Turn it on in Settings > Gameplay > Firing arcs.
• Weapon tray. Each weapon shows a cooldown ring and a flash when it fires, and ammo counts for guns and launchers update live during a fight.
• Store links open in a new tab. Checkout and billing open in a new tab with a small return page, and the game tab shows a waiting banner until you are done.
• Wrecks show what is worth taking. Tactical tags a wreck that still holds loot with LOOT, empty wrecks sink to the bottom of the list, and a Hide empty chip clears them away.
• Auto-mining Next ore. With Next ore on, your miner now takes the closest rock of any ore it can mine.
• Market page. The screenshot at the top of the public market page now has room to breathe.

Fixes

• Repair and shield modules and battery. Modules on Auto no longer burn through your battery near the floor. They wait until a full cycle is affordable, never cut a cycle you have already paid for, and tell you once when they stop.
• Salvage Rush. Progress no longer counts backward when a cache is refilled, and looters get credit for the event quest.
• Public rankings. The pilot standings table on the public rankings page fills in again, and the Universe First records board lines up its columns.

Balance

• World boss loot scales with difficulty. Tougher bosses drop better rare loot, and the Tellurion Keel Charter only comes from the hardest bosses.
• Aether Vouchers are now a very rare drop. Only the hardest bosses can drop one, each redeems for 100 Aether, and each is bound to the pilot who finds it.

Thank you to every pilot who reported a problem or suggested a change. Questions and feedback are welcome on Discord. New to the plans? The Game Guide explains how Vanguard and the economy work.

New to XETODUS? The Game Guide explains how the game works, chapter by chapter.