Greetings Pilots! Little late to the party as a few bugs and real life got in the way, but I kept going trying to get things to a servicable state and now, here we are. I have plenty more to do, so I'll get to the point:

Overhauled context menu - the radial menu, which you can open with a right mouse click looks very different now. It is way more flexible, you can select whom to order around (be it a single ship, your wing or other wings under your command), and it can support special commands, such as for looting or mining. The final phase for this will be controller implementation, so look forward to that.

Hovering your mouse over each icon explains what each command does.

Research - This is a big one, as it is one of the promised features I laid out on my future features list. The purpose of this system is to bring a combination of player choice and progression into the game. The Network is a world that has plenty of potential for technological breakthroughs, but it needs the proper influence.

This means the player will be able to outright contribute and change what tech both he/she and other pilots have at their disposal throughout their piloting career. Currently it's in a more demo-ish state, but once this feature gets completed, you will not only be able to research and unlock new weapons, ships and equipment but also control a tech's distribution and adoption process. Want to research a gun and make a profit out of it? Sell a blueprint to a faction/corporation for large profits and see the traffic around systems controlled by such groups (eventually) produce and install it. Worried that a specific missile being developed could cause problems in your operations? Disrupt freighters carrying supplies for research stations and prototypes of said tech or raid research stations to slow it down. The outcome of how the world evolves will be up to you.
But that is left for next year. For now, there is a new station oribting Tena I which will allow you to assist scientists developing a new piece of equipment which will require some fuel, chemicals and credits to complete:

Shielding system - the Network can be a wild and dangerous place, and everybody agrees that anything that can keep you safe is considered valuable. This mountable uses shield emitters powered by a ship's reactor, which get evenly distributed around said craft, forming 4 main directional segments which absorb projectiles and missiles. Each segment can keep several shots from hurting you, but take time to recharge (which can be sped up by diverting power). Once you get the proper resources together to have it unlocked, you will have it installed automatically.

Please note: due to time constraints, shields do not save yet. If you load a previous profile with this tech unlocked, you need to re-install it at the nearest station. I'll have this fixed ASAP.

Mining - before you ask "Hey, what is this doing in a space combat sim?" let me explain. The extraction of raw resources will be a feature the player can voluntarily partake in, however will mostly be done by the AI. This will fully use the previously implemented cargo system and will allow the player to mine, and to eventually raid and pillage mining operations done by other corporations/factions. Currently, it is in its infancy and will need further assets implemented.
So how does it currently work, you ask? It's relatively easy when you know the procedure: You buy a Scavenger drone (which needs to be assigned in your wing!) fly out into the nearest asteroid field (Tena II's orbit has plenty), target an asteroid with ores, then use the context menu to order it to mine your target. Once you waited long enough, your drone will tell you it finished its operation and you can then sell your newly-acquired goods at the nearest station.

Wingmen can loot - This was not implemented in the previous update (due to time constraints once more), so I corrected it. If you disabled a ship that carries something valuable but you have your pockets full, you can now order one of your wingmen to nab the poor sod's cargo. This also leads to another point:

Every owned ship can buy/sell commodities on stations - Your wingmen can now act as a pool of loaded commodities. When you buy or sell, the cargo gets loaded properly as long as there is enough room.

New assets - the aforementioned drone can be purchased in stations and a smaller capital ship has been added to both freelance and fleet spawn tables. Expect both to be key ships for this game's development.

Overall, pretty exciting stuff, and is only going to get better each month. I have been putting plenty of time into this and am planning on pushing it of all its worth for the end of the year. My next update will make some NPCs a bit more talkative, some more cooperative, and some more aggressive, so stay tuned for more.
If you're interested in this project, be sure to follow it! I have something to show every month and I'll try to be a bit more on time for december.

Finally, let me just drop the full changelog here:

• Updated Unity to version 2018.2.14f1
• Added basic mining drone
• Added Corvette class ship to spawn table
• Added command for wingmen to loot ships
• Added command for drones to mine asteroids
• Added research
• Added research station orbiting Tena I
• Added shielding systems
• Added text filter function in store/research/commodity UI
• Added additional details to save profiles

• Improved radial menu for wingman commands
• Commodity store can now (un)load crates from other ships in player wing
• Fixed missiles not assigning in loadout (ouch)
• Fixed cycling targets spawning random ships (double ouch)

Thank you for reading! See you next time!