Afternoon,

If you're interested and want to see the first US manned spacecraft to be launched in almost a full decade, you can tune in here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjb9FdVdX5I

At the time of this post, the launch is happening in 42 minutes.

They'll begin loading propellant soon and they've retracted the crew loading arm. Weather is looking sketchy, but they're hoping for a flight.

Greetings programs,

In an article published yesterday on Minecraft's news site, we are now given access to the seriously nostalgic past of Minecraft Classic from 2009. Back when we only had 32 blocks to choose from and the entire world was made up of bright greens and bright browns and wools of other very bright colors.

The browser game is available for free to everyone and comes complete with multiplayer.

The news article is available here[www.minecraft.net]. And the actual game is available here[classic.minecraft.net].

Enjoy! Take screenshots of your builds!

As aforementioned in the previous announcement, this post will go over the Chapter 4 update changelog and pin point what I thought to be the most interesting, important, and/or funny notes about this newest update.

The most notable of the update

• Discoveryt Scanner upgraded to include the new FSS (Full Spectral System) mode
  
  • Used to discover all stellar bodies, phenomena, USSs, scenarios, distress signals, mission targets, and more.
    
  • This changes the game to only have one discovery scanner that is very similar to the basic discovery scanner. If you've got other variants installed, you will receive a credit refund.
• New planet probes
  
  • Probes can be fired at planets to collect sellable data
    
  • Probes can also be used to pinpoint high metal asteroids in RESs along with POIs on planet surfaces
    
  • Each stellar body has a "probe efficiency target"; if the player maps 100% of the body using the same or less than that target, they are awarded a bonus.
• Bodies mapped to 100% are change in Universal Cartographics to say "First Mapped By: " for everyone to see
  
  • You cannot map Sol, Achenar, or Alioth for obvious reasons.
• Changed the look of the pop-up when selling exploration data
  
• "Added new things to find!"
  
• Orrery View is a thing now

It's like an encyclopedia!

• Added a codex to the ship's internal panel (RHP)
  
  • Codex contains:
    
    • Commander Stats (Player stats, game events, text and audio logs from narratives, audio logs are playable in the improved Playlist feature)
      
    • Discoveres - houses rumored, discovered, or reported discoveries from all over the galaxy; composed into 3 differing categories (stellar bodies, bio or geo, and civilizations (erm, what)
      
    • Knowledge Base - Various articles (in detail) on the Elite universe history (stuff like super power stories and notable characters/corporations). Articles can be played like the Galnet news.

New faction stuff

• Factions can now be in multiple different states
  
• Economic and Security states added
  
• War, Civil War, and Election states are now a 7 day conflict wherein players will engage in system events/activities in an attempt to gain favor and beat their opponents
  
• Factions have a "Happiness" level now
  
• There's a new civil liberty state (Part of security state)
  
• Added factional information to the Status tab in the RHP to aid player management

Megaships! OMG

• They added new megaships
  
• The megaships also move around about once a week

Events stuffs

• New scenarios; these are found via USSs, megaships, installations, and conflict zones
  
• Conflict zones are now round based (ties into a war state)
  
  • Side objectives can appear, points boosts are awarded on completion
    
  • New rounds begin after short pauses on prior round completion
• Combat specific ambient chatter added
  
• This new chatter is all over the place, not just stations
  
• There's about 3000+ lines of ambient chatter

Pretty colors...

• New dynamic exposure lighting model
  
• New Night Vision mode for when you're in dark areas (behind planets, in a valley, etc)

Gotta have that nice UI

• LHP Changes
  
  • Combined the clear and set filter options in Navigation
    
  • Transactions now have filters
    
  • Combined sub-targets and inventory in a new Target tab (has filters too)
• Comms Panel Changes
  
  • Reordered some of the tabs
    
  • Added combining of chats (and splitting)
    
  • Added ability to interact with all other commanders in a chat (invite, block, report, etc.)
    
  • New social tab includes combined invitations and multicrew parts
    
  • Squadron Feed added
• RHP Changes
  
  • New "Home" tab - replaces status tab
    
  • Fire Groups are now A, B, C, and not 1, 2, 3 (appearently people were getting confused about their keybinds?)
    
  • New "Ship" tab that replaces Functions. Includes stuff like ship preferences, pilot preferences, and ship stats
    
  • Inventory tab now has icon filters instead of text filters
    
  • New and improved refinery layout
    
  • Status tab is now like, supah-detailed
    
  • New playlist system that allows players to queue all sorts of media from the new codex to galnet articles and logged events.

TEXT CHAT, YEAH!

• New system wide chat
  
• New profanity filter (Watch yo profanity)

You manage those friends you

• Improved layout
  
• Last online note
  
• Search function
  
• Improved friend visiblity states (online + mode, offline, blocked, etc.)

Woot, woot!

• These are a thing you can make now (for a fee)
  
• Play style tags can be applied
  
• Can be aligned with a super-power and a faction
  
• Can participate in leaderboards
  
• New ranking system for inter-Squadron heirarchies

Dude...rocks.

• 3 New Mining processes added (in addition to standard stuff)
  
  • Surface Deposits: On the asteroid surface
    
  • Sub-surface Deposits: Below asteroid surface
    
  • Fissures: Firing the proper seismic charge into the asteroid will crack the thing open so you can get the deeper minerals
    
  • New high value minerals
• New mining tools
  
  • Pulse Wave Analyzer: Scanner used to pinpoint extraction process applicable asteroids
    
  • Abrasion Blaster: Used to break off surface deposits
    
  • Sub-surface Displacement Missile: Used to recover stuff below the asteroid surface (not exactly sure how this one works)
    
  • Seismic Charge Launcher: allows you to blow the thing up

Who doesn't like new ships?

• Krait Phantom
  
  • "With a spacious cargo hold and a relatively generous quantity of hardpoints, the Krait Phantom is a versatile ship suited to a range of roles. It has enough firepower to hold its own against larger targets, and enough straight-line speed to outpace smaller targets. The ship also offers eight internal compartments, allowing the pilot to tailor the ship to their requirements. And while it lacks the firepower and fighter bay of its sister ship, the Krait Mk II, it is both faster and lighter."
    
  • 2L and 2M hardpoints
    
  • 8 Internals
    
  • 256m/s (358 at Boost)
    
  • 8.23LY Laden
• Mamba
  
  • "Based on an unreleased racing prototype, the Mamba is one of the fastest ships in production. It can also deliver a lot of punishment, boasting one huge and two large hardpoints. This emphasis on firepower and speed means the ship can hit hard and fast, vanishing before the target has a chance to react. Comparisons to the Fer-de-Lance, also produced by Zorgon Peterson, will be inevitable, but the Mamba is in fact faster in a straight line, while being slightly less maneuverable."
    
  • 1H, 2L, and 2S Hardpoints
    
  • 5 Internals
    
  • 316m/s (387 at Boost)
    
  • 6.37LY Laden

• Starport contracts are now a grid instead of a flat list
  
• New icon for ship/SRV lights
  
• Audio Options:
  
  • Wavescanner Autoducking: Disable to hear SRV wavescanner at higher speeds
    
  • Restore Defaults button added
    
  • Volume sliders are reset when you first run 3.3

You can go read that on your own.

Seriously. Here's a link to the actual changelog: 3.3 CHANGELOG[forums.frontier.co.uk]

I will say that they report "well over 2000 fixes" for all sort of stuff. One of them was for the VR mode: "Set a 90FPS framecap for the main menu to stop HMD overheating and fixed neutron star cones only appearing in the left eye"

That's all for now, see you in the stars commander!

Greetings commanders,

Quick update to let you know that the Chapter 4 update for Elite: Dangerous is now live! It's a 7.4GB update for Steam/PC users but well worth it (and required to play, haha).

A changelog highlights post will follow.

See you in the stars!

Greetings Travellers,

Hello Games has recently dropped what I find to be the most fascinating update to date. A massive overhaul to the underwater places of the worlds we visit. I'll try to detail the important bits below. The update came with a trailer too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIrCX5PomuA

New Creatures

• Poisonous Jellyfish
  
• Snapping Clams
  
• Larger than starship size: Predator Fish
  
• "The Abyssal Horror"

Aquatic Missions
New story content ranked to last a couple of hours that give context to the discoveries found below."Dreams of the Deep" brings a new "dark narrative" to No Man's Sky.

Sunken Wrecks
Investigate deeper depths to find ancient ruins, lost cargo, and even damaged starships that you can repair.

Diving Helmet
A new customizable is available for you to equip on your character.

New Underwater Biomes
Vast new visual improvements to the underwater abode. Massive amounts of visual changes and enhancements.

The Nautilon
Personally my favorite addition - I've been waiting for, for quite a while due to my base being on an island in the middle of the ocean. The new submersible introduces better underwater navigation, combat, and mining. On top of this, the Nautilon can be summoned to any ocean on the planet and can be docked to the host of new modules that can be built. The Nautilon can also be upgraded with new specific upgrades and customized to your liking.

Submersible Building Modules
Nearly 20 new base building modules have been added to the construstion blueprints pool including a marine shelter, glass corridors, viewing bays, multistory viewing domes, and even an indoor aquarium.

Swimming Control Overhaul
Swimming movements and controls have been changed to allow more ease of direction. You can now use your jetpack underwater for that extra boost. There are new underwater emotes and swimming on the surface should be easier.

New Substances
The ocean floor has been overhauled to produce and house new substances including:

• Trident Key
  
• Living Pearl
  
• Hypnotic Eye
  
• Gloaming Glob
  
• Crystal Sulphide
  
• Hadal Core

Vehicle Shop
Extensive reworks to vehicles have lead to the appearance of a new shop in space stations allowing you to purchase these new vehicle upgrades for all exocraft.

Freighter and Frigate Enhancements
Both vessel types can now be scanned with the analysis visor and explorers can repair their friends' frigates in multiplayer.

If that isn't enough for you, you can review the complete and further patchnotes available here:

https://www.nomanssky.com/abyss-update/

See you out there traveller!