At the risk of accusations of fanboi-ism, I'd like to say a big thank you and offer a massive thumbs up to the devs for their progress so far.
Tonight is the first opportunity I've had to play 2.02, and the stability improvements seem to be a massive leap forward. Admittedly I've only hopped on for an hour or so, and I've just been hammering back and forward between Aulin and Chango with progenitor cells, but both the hyperspace and supercruise seem a lot nippier without any of the 'floating around' issues I was having before.
Similarly, there is much more opportunity (at least at the moment!) for trade, with a return leg between the two sites netting me a tidy 30k cr profit. Looking forward to the mass-opening of systems which the proper Beta will bring. I even had an interdiction by Easte Eggleston, which gave me a reasonable 2-minute fight (after reassigning my firegroups which appear to have dropped in the patch, but hey ho). Slightly annoying was the ~2k cr fine for being the one to shoot first and blow him up, but hey - he threatened me first!
On that note, the gimballed weapon incremental changes are superb - not as powerful as they used to be, requiring a little more skill and thought in use - but that can only be a good thing. With the other classes of weapons in a much better working state I'm now considering doing some experimentation with combos, rather than the 'instant win' gimbals used to be.
Lastly, I note there are various threads decrying etiquette at the letterbox, with people not obeying the traffic lights. Personally, I like this feature exactly as it stands. It punishes people for not behaving in a civilised fashion and rewards you for being a decent human being, allowing bigger slower ships to go first and take their time.
As I was launching from the pad in one of the runs, I saw some idiot in a Sidewinder decide that, even though an Anaconda was easing his way through, hammering through the tiny gap left at full pelt would be a good idea. The predictable happened, with the last thing going through the Sidewinder pilot's mind probably being his backside. The Anaconda seemed to shrug it off, and I could almost see the pilot's bemused expression as he coasted in above his pad and landed nice and gently on vertical thrusters.
So yes, all in all - a great step forward and everyone down at that office deserves a great pat on the back for their work so far. The improved communication of late and the rapid pace of patches is absolutely brilliant.
Tonight is the first opportunity I've had to play 2.02, and the stability improvements seem to be a massive leap forward. Admittedly I've only hopped on for an hour or so, and I've just been hammering back and forward between Aulin and Chango with progenitor cells, but both the hyperspace and supercruise seem a lot nippier without any of the 'floating around' issues I was having before.
Similarly, there is much more opportunity (at least at the moment!) for trade, with a return leg between the two sites netting me a tidy 30k cr profit. Looking forward to the mass-opening of systems which the proper Beta will bring. I even had an interdiction by Easte Eggleston, which gave me a reasonable 2-minute fight (after reassigning my firegroups which appear to have dropped in the patch, but hey ho). Slightly annoying was the ~2k cr fine for being the one to shoot first and blow him up, but hey - he threatened me first!
On that note, the gimballed weapon incremental changes are superb - not as powerful as they used to be, requiring a little more skill and thought in use - but that can only be a good thing. With the other classes of weapons in a much better working state I'm now considering doing some experimentation with combos, rather than the 'instant win' gimbals used to be.
Lastly, I note there are various threads decrying etiquette at the letterbox, with people not obeying the traffic lights. Personally, I like this feature exactly as it stands. It punishes people for not behaving in a civilised fashion and rewards you for being a decent human being, allowing bigger slower ships to go first and take their time.
As I was launching from the pad in one of the runs, I saw some idiot in a Sidewinder decide that, even though an Anaconda was easing his way through, hammering through the tiny gap left at full pelt would be a good idea. The predictable happened, with the last thing going through the Sidewinder pilot's mind probably being his backside. The Anaconda seemed to shrug it off, and I could almost see the pilot's bemused expression as he coasted in above his pad and landed nice and gently on vertical thrusters.
So yes, all in all - a great step forward and everyone down at that office deserves a great pat on the back for their work so far. The improved communication of late and the rapid pace of patches is absolutely brilliant.
