Two weeks ago (in the 01.083 update), we were given the ability to remotely send our ships to various GPS coordinates we had set up, working something like autopilot. Most players were intrigued by this notion, but many of them had additions or tweaks they wish would be added at a future point. They wanted further levels of control, such as setting a maximum speed when traveling, or switching inertial dampeners off to allow for energy-saving coasting between points. Today, we were given just that.
Each GPS waypoint on the list can now be given up to nine actions to be performed. Also included was a precision autopilot mode, which makes a ship do its best to stop directly on a waypoint. Ships can now be directed between points in different directions as well. All of that sounds a bit confusing when explained separately, so I'll cut to the quick - this means that ships can be directed to remotely fly to a an outpost, land and take off again. This allows for things such as automated cargo systems.
Say you're off at some asteroid, far away from your home base. You've been mining for an hour or two, and the cargo hold of your storage vessel is full. You'd rather not spend the time to fly it all the way back and drop off its goods - maybe you have a second storage ship ready and waiting for more ore. With this new update you can send the first one back on its own, have it attach to your base via connectors to offload its cargo, and come back all while you're still digging away.
And, as always, this update also involves a number of bugfixes and small community contributions. A full list of the changes made by this update, including an embedded video explanation, are available at the Keen Software House forums here. In addition, this time the developers added a few examples of the new improved autopilot navigation systems on the Steam Workshop in both small ship and large ship flavors.
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