Wings and Words Update

New

Squads and chat

• Squads. Group up with up to 8 pilots. The leader sends invites, also from the menu on any pilot's name. Squadmates show in a column on the left of the HUD with their live shield, armor and hull, where they are, and Message and Warp to buttons. They also appear on the map and in Tactical, and the squad gets its own Squad chat tab.
• Private messages that wait for you. Private messages are now conversations in their own PM tab, with unread badges and 90 days of history, kept even while you are offline.
• Player menu and blocking. Click or long-press a pilot's name to whisper, block and more. A blocked pilot's private messages and channel lines no longer reach you, and they can't invite you to a squad. Manage the list in Settings > Gameplay > Blocked pilots.
• Item links in chat. Share an item in chat as a clickable [Item name] that shows its tooltip.
• Resizable chat. Drag the chat window to the size you want. The Aa button now holds Text size and Blocked pilots.

Languages

• Ten new languages. The whole game is now available in Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Pick yours in Settings > Gameplay > Language; it switches at once, without a reload. The names of ships, items, places and characters stay in English, so pilots can trade and talk across languages.
• The website, too. The xetodus.com website is published in the same ten languages. Use the language picker in the site footer (or the phone menu); your choice carries into the game.

Combat

• Module activation modes. Set each module to Manual, Auto on damage (with a start threshold) or With Engage from its slot. Shield boosters, armor repairers and hull repairers now default to Auto on damage at 70%, so they start on their own.
• Weapon fire modes. Guns and launchers fire With Engage (the default) or only by hand. A target-size filter limits automatic fire to warships and up, ships of the line and up, or behemoths. Each launcher can hold fire when its selected ammo runs out, or fall back to base ammo.
• Missiles expansion. New launchers and missile types, the Missiles skill now goes all the way to level 99 with ordnance you can build as it rises, the Ordnance Workshop synergy for Missiles and Industry, and each ship remembers its own ammo loads.
• Weapons safety. Every pilot now has a weapons safety: Safe (the default), Allow suspect actions or Allow criminal actions. On Safe, a shot that would make you a Suspect or a Criminal is stopped before it happens, with a message saying what it would cost. The HUD shows your level.
• Suspect, Criminal and Wanted on the HUD. Your law status now shows on the HUD with a countdown.

Ships and fitting

• The Longsight. A new Solari Accord tier 3 pathfinder: a needle hull threaded through a giant warp coil, built for going past the last charted world.
• Ship builds. Save a fit in Market > Builds, then Buy this build to buy the hull and every missing part from the market in one go and fit them where you are. The death screen and the hangar offer Buy last ship, and the hangar adds Strip all modules.
• Replacement cover. The Keelwright Mutual now sells replacement cover. When an insured ship is lost, the insurer buys the same hull and fit on the market and delivers it to your home station. If the market is short, your claim waits in line until it can be filled.
• Fitting slot badges. Every slot says what it takes, such as Fixed S, Turret M, Launcher S or Mid, and explains why a module won't fit.
• Battery balance. The Fitting window, the hangar and the HUD show whether your fit's battery holds or how long until it runs dry.

Trade and rewards

• Merit Stores. Merits finally have a use. Every Accord, Syndicate and Dominion station runs a Merit Store with faction-issue modules, kits, blueprints and liveries. Pilots of another faction pay 25% more Merits.
• Market reach. You always see prices at every market in your own system. Trading perks extend that by gate jumps, from Dockside Gossip (1 jump at Trading 10) to Trade Horizon (10 jumps at Trading 95). Past your reach, the market still names the nearest station that sells or buys an item, with Set route.
• Move cargo in bulk. The station inventory is now a grid: select many stacks and drag them between the hangar and your hold at once.
• Unload all. One button (or Shift+U in the Hangar) moves your whole hold to the station. Keep ammo, on by default, leaves the ammo your fit uses aboard.

Flight and travel

• Route guidance. Every plotted trip opens a panel with the destination and its security, the jumps left, an approximate arrival time, what your ship is doing now and next, and a strip of the systems on the way with Contested and Lawless hops flagged. Pause, resume or cancel from the panel.
• Bounty sites. Bounty Office quarry packs now wait at each system's Bounty Site I and II, far from belts, stations and gates, so you can mine in peace while holding a task. Task cards offer Set route.
• Hunting task outlook. Before you accept a task, its card shows the security band it sends you to, the ships in the pack and how dangerous it is for your current ship.
• Home station. Choose your home station from the station header. It is where you wake up after a loss and where rewards are sent.
• A starter laser after a loss. If you lose your ship and own no mining laser, your replacement Sparrow comes with a basic one, once per pilot.

Website

• Public market. Check the cluster's prices without signing in at the market page, with a page and 30 days of price history for every item.
• Game Guide. A new 13-chapter Game Guide explains how the game works, with screenshots and tables taken from the live game data.
• A new site menu and FAQ. Every page has a new menu, and the FAQ answers two more questions: what XETODUS is, and who makes it and when it launched.

Improvements

Interface

• Desktop has a new HUD bar with your most-used windows, a grouped More menu and the Settings gear. Touch screens keep the familiar five-icon bar and menu.
• Clearer names: Hunting is now Bounty Office, the Job Board is Missions, and Account settings is simply Account.
• Rankings has a new Endgame tab.
• Tactical and the target card always stay on screen. Other trackers live in their own stack that scrolls, folds and pins.
• Station services sections can be collapsed, and Quests now opens from the station list.
• Filter chips work the same in every window: a click shows only that chip, and Ctrl or Cmd+click, Shift+click or a long-press adds or removes one.
• The module menu opens right beside the module instead of at the top of the screen.
• Every munition's description now lists its damage type and stats.
• The galaxy map's Security drawer, the Almanac and the jump screen explain what each security level means for Marshals and pirates.
• Orbit and keep-at-range can now be set to your weapon range, up to 50 km.
• The "Click the view to take the stick" hint only shows when it helps.
• A Tone mapping choice in graphics settings. The default look is unchanged.

Combat and safety

• Stray fire on a Marshal is now graded: a crossfire hit while you're locked on a lawful target is a warning, and only repeated or heavy fire makes you a Criminal.
• World bosses, elites and strongholds show where each big attack comes from, how long until it lands and, when aimed, who it targets.
• NPC reinforcements now wait between waves, give a 15 second "Hostile reinforcements inbound" warning, arrive at a distance and only so many engage you at once.
• Bounty fights are one at a time: a quarry pack won't join while other hostiles are on you, and NPCs hold fire for 5 seconds after you arrive by warp or gate (firing ends it).
• Attacking a civilian NPC trader or miner outside Lawless space now makes you a Suspect for 5 minutes, with a warning on the first shot.
• Skipping a hunting task is free once a day, and up to 5 times a day when the pack is Hard or Deadly for your ship. Bounty Offices add Replace.

Phones and tablets

• Settings now has tabs, search and a Touch tab: stick size, button size, opacity, a left-handed layout, haptics and look speed.
• Emergency Warp on touch is a hold-to-confirm button, so a brushed finger never ends a fight by accident.
• Pilot select fits a phone held sideways.
• Button labels fit on phones and tablets, with larger touch targets.

Account and updates

• Deleting a pilot now takes 24 hours, and you can restore it until then.
• New passwords need at least 8 characters. Existing passwords keep working.
• When an update needs a reload, the game now brings you straight back to the pilot you were flying.
• Restart notices announce a quick update, and the game reconnects on its own.
• Travel buttons used while docked now play the normal undock before the warp starts.
• Smoother planet landings, and faster texture loading in Chrome and Edge on Mac.
• If your browser refuses 3D graphics at first, the game tries again on safer settings before showing a help screen.
• Some exploration sites, salvage holds and items have new names, such as Uncharted Signal and Derelict Ark Hold.

Fixes

• Fixed clicking a colony in the Colonies window: it now opens that colony's details instead of stacking empty copies.
• Fixed windows that reopened as an empty title bar after being minimized once.
• Fixed the maintenance countdown covering window tabs.
• Fixed long cargo and hangar lists being cut off in wide station windows.
• Fixed landed ships sinking into slopes or snapping into place after touchdown. Hulls now rest on their real underside.
• Fixed Marshals re-engaging a pilot in a loop after their timer ran out, and smoothed their pursuit.
• Fixed email verification, email change and recovery emails.
• Fixed the Trading skill text, which now matches the fees it really lowers.

Balance

• Bounty Office pay retuned so every band meets its target: Odo Varga's bounties pay much more per head, Ada Quell's a little less.
• Ada Quell's tasks now stay in Secure belts with packs of three ships at most.
• Replacement cover claims are priced more fairly against market prices.
• Singularities: new accounts must be 12 hours old to cross. Every crossing limit and its daily reset is listed in Almanac > Singularities and the Game Guide, and a refusal tells you which limit you hit.