hey everyone! since the release on itch (0.6.0), I've quietly revved AUTOGRAV mini 12 times. the full changelog is just too huge to post, so here's a quick summary of 0.7.5's highlights:

• tons of UI changes, improvements, and reflow. I mentioned previously that this is not a top priority for mini since it largely exists as a proving ground for big autograv features. nevertheless, I've cleared up things here and there that were bugging me personally or felt particularly egregious.
  • the 'rumors' menu on racers (data broker) is much better than it once was.
  • you can now jack out of the sim and launch creative mode in the same world, and vice versa.
    • this was always intended to be possible, but I evaded it at launch since I had planned to do more with the transition narratively & mechanically before making it a core feature. now, though, I accept it (and the unchecked ''cheating'' it enables) as a fun and sometimes educational ability.
  • I added some onboarding material to immersive mode.
    • a new MFD bootup sequence loosely steps you through the main interactive elements, and the notebook now progressively reveals itself via a collection of optional 'goals'.
    • these goals are intended to communicate what kinds of things are possible in the world (who you can be), not lock the player in to any specific role. they can be erased at any time without affecting the notebook.
  • finally got around to fixing [most of] the annoying selection fiddliness. text on pilots / races / jobs is now selectable in addition to the pin itself!

• you can now swap blades between multiple pilots that are signed with you, e.g. to promote one of your pilots to a higher racing class, or to develop their general experience / give them cross experience in multiple vehicles.
• you can now sell 'empty contracts' (blades you own but nobody is flying), and manage contracts with pilots who are off the loop. this requires the garage, which can be purchased from the broker.
  • this a big improvement from before, but contract negotiation + deal making remains unimplemented, so the management arc is still rough.
• you can now mod your blades! this is much shallower than I would like, but it gets the basic point across. most categories of performance are moddable, and increase in cost as you go deeper down the rabbit hole.
  • on high skill courses, a modded lark can pretty consistently dump the zoeker if you have a good enough pilot.
• you can also rename blades in the garage if you own them.
• you can now 'coach' pilots who have signed with you, setting their training and studying strategies in addition to suggesting / arranging matches.
  • I'm not happy with how this owner-pilot relationship is structured and communicated, but I wanted to at least get this part of the system exposed to the player.

• made a few balance changes. everything is cheaper. only one gambling house (long road collective) is made available at world start. generated loops are now 'slower' (more challenging) overall. pilots no longer self-balance their training/studying regimen by default. pilots joining the loop in late game (era 2-3+) are more likely to be completely inexperienced. diamond house members spend more.
• you now have the option of jacking in with higher starting z, making more choices available at world birth and deprioritizing gambling as a growth strategy.
• cleaned up the dominance/exploration stats a bit and added tooltips.
• fixed a handful of bugs.
• updated the status section on the itch page.