Elite Dangerous 2.1 Beta 4 Patch Notes
Hi commanders, we've applied an update to Elite Dangerous 2.1 beta today. Below are the changes for beta 4 on the PTS.
 
We expect for the PTS to be down for up to two hours.
 
As always, thanks for your bug reports! If you've found an issue or bug with this update, please post it to https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=178 - thanks!  
 
Stability Fixes
Fix audio crash for when in SRV when in srv and not loading the network component
Protect against working on a string that doesn't exist or is empty
Safe-guard against the render system returning a null texture, if one couldn't be allocated
Added a failure state that will abort a portrait request after a large period of time waiting for a texture to be provided, so the system won't be stalled indefinitely
Crash fix for when a projectile weapon turret on automatic hit an object that doesn't know what hit it
Crash fix when firing a projectile from a weapon equipped to a thing without a targeting system
Fixed a crash caused by trying to lock on to a target that is dying
Fixed server error when issuing mission rewards to player's without sufficient storage space
Fix crash when the location is shutting down and a drone exists without any asteroids
Crash fix when trying to check ammo prices for restocking a vehicle but the bay is not in an expected state
Increased rarity values for ice mining commodities so that ice mining
Fix a server crash generating an unknown body
Prevent a crash when (somehow) trying to preview a recipe on an incompatible module
Fix crash if control input is spammed while applying an upgrade
Fix the cargo spawning so that it replicates the data needed to spawn its cargo, if it gets authority transferred before spawning cargo
Fix a crash from an ill timed shutdown of UI during the supercruise transition
Fix memory leak in ambient AI spawning
Outfitting: fix for crash when viewing vehicle bay inventory
 
 
 
General Tweaks & Fixes
Fix issue with renaming a generated system changes the system composition
More changes to address space bound players being matchmade with those on the surface
Defaulted the main audio output device to XAudio2 as WASAPI seems to cause issues with audio driver exclusiveness (stops the game silencing other apps when it shouldn't)
Unhide control binding option for rotational correction
Scanning sound gets stuck if you target something else mid-scan fixed
Scanning nav beacons will now also trigger the scanning sound
Fix silent shield break/reform sfx and ship voice lines "Target shields Online/Offline" on none npc ships
Powerplay background icon smaller than expected fixed
Fixed issue where UI focus could get lost when navigating the power contact screen without a mouse
Comms chat history no longer disappears
Bound UI Back to right mouse button by default
Adding retreat and investment in galaxy map state filters (and removing anarchy as it it is unused)
Fixed slight discrepancy between mouse/gamepad input when using the steppers on the munitions screen
Switch Contacts and Universal Cartographics so that webserver can enable/disable them on a per-station basis
Galaxy Map: Fixing xml defining jump range in navigation panel
Galaxy map remembers previous route calculation setting (low fuel / fastest) properly again. Boost mode is not written in the backup value though, so it will reset to economical
Fixed Silent resources collected GUI
Fix for Nav beacon morse transmissions being audible in galaxy map
Various text fixes
 
 
 
Missions
Updated the Faction (Inf,Rep,State) Rewards and Penalties for completing/failing missions
After getting the Nav Beacon wrinkle during an Assassination mission and meeting the contact, the contact gave me a Target Body of "Currently Unknown. Scan Required" fixed
Some optimisations for mission generation
There is now always at least 2 targets in a massacreskimmer mission
Fix lack of failed mission icon
Removed placeholder text from Altruism missions
Modified text in 'target killed' inbox messages on assassinations so they refer to the target rather than the target's faction
Collect mission details do not update in Transaction Tab after getting New Destination Wrinkle fixed
Make military rank progress a bit easier
Changed the point reputation is removed when the mission is failed - there is now an instant progress that links to the rep change, and to the Failure panel state
Fix double mission icon in massacre skimmer
For piracy flag targets, if the target is not a mission target, check if it has a leader and whether that leader is a mission target
Removed some spurious debug output that was causing a slight stall when opening the mission details popup
Trimmed the mission complete animation - now much snappier
Fix an issue where scannable shipwrecks would ignore the fact that they were in a settlement. This meant they didn't link correctly to the tip off for their location
Add a faction government test so the pesky democracies don't make my greedy corporation shout "For Democracy!"
Fix the method that determines whether we can see planetary missions
Added in a massacre rank scalar - targets are now scaled by the rank and the rep, to match other massacre templates. You now get 12-24 targets to kill on elite
Made it so that a ship spawned for a mission USS will have the correct amount of mission cargo and the cargo will not be marked as stolen if the mission says it should be abandoned
Added some missing text
 
 
 
Engineers
To help players find crafting resources, UI's displaying Engineer recipes now have a 'tooltip' for each ingredient
Fixed the 'removed effect' box sometimes not appearing on crafting UI
Added loc strings for 'Where are my pinned recipes' helper popup
Added popup explaining where pinned recipes can be found
Fixed flickering UI when showing engineer popup with a face/text combo
Added text field to the level progress to describe the unlock condition e.g. "Buy Modifications"
Added an appropriate spinny 'wait' UI state while the modification is being rolled
Fixed crafting UI not rendering text in Russian
Add a resistance to heat-adding weaponry (Thermal Shock and Retributors primarily) so that the hotter the target already is the less effective they become, one or two weapons are still effective, without 6-8 being totally out of the park. It should still be fairly easy (though harder) to push ships into module damage, as they start reaching hull damage diminishing returns will kick in severely. becoming immune to these effects at 300% heat or higher, preventing the 8000%+ cases we've seen
Added some schematics for Engineer bases
Added Engineer ident audio
Help information on the Potential Outcome menu does not disappear if you exit completely out of the screen by pressing 'B' fixed
Recipes should now be referred to as blueprints
Don't show progress bar when at maximum level - now applies in commander log as well as workshop UI
 
 
 
Weapons
Assorted buffs/fixes/rebalancing to missiles:
Speed of Seeker missiles increased from 450 to 625.
Speed of drunk (packhound) missiles increased from 400 to 600.
Speed of Dumbfire missiles increase from 600 to 750.
Blast radius of small seekers and dumbfires increased to be in line with mediums (50% boost).
Hardness piercing of small seekers & dumbfires plus drunk missiles brought up to intended levels and consistent with medium (100% boost).
Base damage and hull/module split of all missiles increased as intended, approximately a 40% increase to hull damage and 120% increase to module damage.
Missiles now take an extra two point defence shots to bring down, but are still easily shot!
Some impact effects rebalanced in light of new material change
More optimisations (Cannon in particular)
Slightly increased damage and fire rate of turreted weapons so that they're more in line with the damage progression from fixed to gimballed
Fixed the missing confusion stat from the new gimballed weapons we recently added
Buffed cannons effectiveness without changing their DPS.
Remove damage fall off completely. They'll now do their full damage up to their maximum range
Slightly increase projectile speed so they're easier to use at range
Increase armour piercing so they get to apply they're full damage to even larger ships than before
Slightly increase their chance to breach the armour and increase the module/hull damage split when they do
 
 
 
 
Outfitting
Updated Outfitting resources to point at the correct UI icons per module
Fix shield optimal strength always being reported as 100 rather than the correct value
Changed the Outfitting to use 3 rows instead of 4 and updated item styling to accommodate those changes
Changed Mining Launcher Category Icon to make the text on top of it more readable
No Indication is given that a installed module on a ship is "modified" in outfitting fixed
 
 
 
NPCs
Adjusted the shield-down flee behaviour to be less frustrating
Don't put CG commodities in NPC cargo holds
Stop hitmen being sent after the player for no reason
Ignore drones when pirates work out the value of cargo a player has; if players only have drones, pirates will let them go on their way
Rebalance the tutorials to be reasonable with the new AI
 
 
 
Avatars
Improve the time it takes to generate avatar portraits
Female Theocracy jacket now has military shoulderpads fixed
Fixed accessories on female Independent and government constraints
Blue avatar lighting fix
 
 
 
POIs/USSs
Don't spawn materials when it should be seeds
Load the correct physics soundbanks on datalinks/points
Added in a greater variety of commodities to the POIs so the players see something other than tea
Fix where the POI search can get stuck between the terrain bounding boxes and unable to progress beyond the initial placement
 
 
 
Ships
Display three colour decals correctly (not as two colours)
Paintjobs assigned correct colours for Crimson Eagle
Various art fixes for Imperial Eagle
Fixed minor LOD issue on the Anaconda
Fixed landing gear audio issues
Fix for voice lines overlapping
Fix for bobblehead sound issues
Fix for ships sometimes being silent
Rebalanced cockpit lighting after materials were recently upgraded
Huge optimisations of cockpit lighting in some ships. Lots of fps claimed back without impacting visuals whatsoever
Warning lighting improved
Fixed the freefall shepherd tone sound
Fixed broken paintjobs on the Imperial Cutter
 
 
 
SRV
Fixed some issues with the turret HUD
 
 
 
Ports/Stations/Bases
Updated Hangar cameras to fit the new Engineer hangars
Fix for settlement/port voice volumes
Fixed and edited geometry to hide clipping meshes/bounding volumes on hangar interiors
The Dweller - Gap under the large biome fixed
Added Lights to Breakers Yard
Rocks seen at the back of Felicity Farseers Engineers base in large landing pad hangar fixed
Fix various pad issues at Pater's Memorial
Fix engineer rock formations not having the correct colour in supercruise
Fixed hitcheck on small engineer landing pad
Reduced volume on one of the loud settlement alarms
- Mix fix for Independent 01 Station Voice
 
 
 
Orbital Cruise
Audio: Fix a broken altitude ratio rtpc that was causing some weirdness in the glide sequence
Optimisations to OrbitalHUD UI
 
 
 
Render
Asteroid billboard optimisations to bring performance back in line with the old forward rendered billboards
Star rendering optimisation      
 

Star rendering optimisation