Newcomer / Intro I've been gone for 40 weeks. What's new?

[Arm0d]

before I left there were stations being attacked by thargoids and evacuation/repair efforts, aisling duval was about to get married, and there was talk of major updates to exploration and mining.

I'm guessing there's a lot to catch up on and my exploration ship is probably going to need an overhaul.
what can i look forward to and dread now that I'm returning to the game?

 

[Chris Simon]

Several new scanners to bind and learn (if you're into exploration, mainly FSS through which you look for planets in the system (they are no longer discovered by a simple honk) and DSS which is now a gravity golf minigame, similar to Mass Effect 2 planet scanning.)
Mining got a complete overhaul, aside from the standard laser mining, you now have abrasion blasters to scrape minerals off surface, remote drills and sonic charges to crack asteroids into pieces, accompanied by a plethora of new lucrative ores and minerals.
Both mining and exploration are quite awesome, now, both as a fun activity and an actual money earner.

I'd recommend googling up a guide for your respective area of interest if you want a detail overview.
You will also need to bind about two dozens of new controls.

 

[aRJay]

Your discovery scanner got built into your ship freeing up a slot, it’s functionality got changed so using something called FSS you can scan all bodies in a system that are not obscured by a nearer body from anywhere in the system, this means that you can get anything and more that you got by flying around using the Detailed Surface Scanner without moving. This does involve lots of new bindings. Oh yes you got the money back for your old discovery scanner.

Your DSS module was transformed this now allows you to map planets and there rings, the latter is good for the new mining, from short range in super cruise again lots of new bindings.

Lots of new mining tools including a scanner, utility hard point required, stuff can be abraded from the surface of rocks, extracted from subsurface by missiles or a charge can be used to shatter the rock and several new minerals can be found this way most more valuable than painite one is the biggest cash generator in the game, but only some rocks are susceptible to these tools.

There is a new version of the Docking Computer which can get you out of a station as well as a super cruise assist module that can help you not overshoot stations and place you in ‘orbit’ around planets, the bad news is that one is a little awkward to use, the good news is that small ships were given two size one slots for them mediums and large got one.

There is also a whole bunch of systems only accessible to new starters.

Your HUD has been changed a lot so any macro shortcuts and the like won’t work, changes include amongst other things a Codex, think I-Spy book, Pilots Handbook, access to training, reworked Nav display and commas, there are now two HUD modes that we can toggle between Combat and Analysis most equipment only works in one mode, mining tools are part of analysis.

Commodities market interface has changed.

There are new ships.

Oh and the forum is on new software.