Drill laser, switchable onboard systems, thrust by facing — and asteroids break.
- Drill laser (Orbit): built permanently into the ship. It only works in focus, and only when an asteroid sits within range at the front of the focus cone. Then the weapons fall silent, and a hot cutting beam extracts the ore piece by piece and sends it to the ship; the chunk glows, shrinks and crumbles once the vein is empty. An arc around the chunk shows how much is still inside. Short (170 px) and slow at first, it can be upgraded for ore at the trading posts in three levels (60 / 120 / 200 ore): up to 350 px, almost four times the speed, 150 % yield. Hard rock (obsidian) takes longer.
- Shooting them apart no longer pays: An asteroid destroyed with weapons now only gives about a third of the ore and ions. Drilled, a chunk gives 2.5 times its material value.
- Adjusted: The Orbit boon “Mining Laser” is now called Drill Head and makes the drill laser faster and more productive (shots still don’t get stuck on rock). The ore scanner affects both.
- Asteroids no longer explode, they break: First, bright cracks flicker across the chunk, then angular pieces in its material color spin apart, with dust and splinters — no fireball. When drilled, it crumbles into many small pieces.
- No auto-fire at rock: Asteroids are no longer automatic targets — not for auto-fire, nor for focus aim assist or auto-aim.
- Force fire: left mouse button or RT on the controller — fires as long as it’s held, even with no enemy on screen.
- Onboard systems in the ship menu (Tab → SHIP): Auto-fire, auto-aim and the drill laser are built in, don’t take up a module slot and can each be switched on and off. Your choice is saved across flights. With auto-fire off, you only fire yourself. In online co-op, the guest brings their own choice.
- Thrust by facing (Orbit): The main thrusters push at full power, the attitude thrusters less — forward 100 %, sideways 68 %, backward 52 % of top speed, smoothly in between. In Arcade, speed stays the same in all directions.
- Telemetry:
einsatz.bohrT(seconds spent drilling), balance marker 9.