Update#8

It felt odd moving away from the weekly updates, but looking at this version moving to monthly updates was 100% the best decision as the weekly updates put a lot of pressure on completing any new features within a much shorter time period whereas this time I could take my time to implement something, test it and adjust it to make it the best it can be.

I'm slightly gutted that I couldn't get this version out for the GDWC2017 as this version is significantly better than the one I submitted. Nevermind.  Here's a video of the beast in action.

And here's what's been added this time:

Added bloom effect
I'm a big fan of shaders and I'd been wanting to add some shader effects for a few versions, but I couldn't justify implementing them when there was so much left to do with the mechanics of the game. Anyway, I've now added a full screen bloom effect which makes everything look a bit nicer.  there are some other shader effects in the planning, but I'm saving them for later versions.

Chaged thrust line into a sprite.
As a result of implementing the full screen shader, the line drawing function I was using to show the direction of thrust no longer worked. So I've changed from using a line to using a sprite.

Fixed orbital movement of all elements.
So I haven't been happy with the orbital mechanics for a few versions, but I wasn't quite sure how to fix it.  So for this version I spent a long time re-checking the equations and adjusting some of the constants.  The mechanics are now a lot more robust and generally feel like proper orbits.

Added escape pods to collect 
Having watched a few Elite Dangerous videos I really liked the idea of being able to find escape pods drifting around the system. Plus having played through the game I felt only getting crew when you visited a planet was a little clunky. So I've added escape pods to the random encounters which you can collect which have a random chance of gaining new crew.

Two new parts
 - deconstructor.
The deconstructor gives you the ability to scrap unwanted parts for additional resources.
 - escape pods
So since there are escape podsyou can collect in-game I figured you should have the option of having your own escape pod.  The escape pod gives you the ability to abandon ship before it is destroyed and it adds your current cash and science to your next play-through.

Animated three parts.
So to give the parts a bit of life I've animated three more of the existing parts.

Changed how part animation's are handled
Previously the part animation were simply looped, but i felt this make some of the parts look like they're glitching.  So I've changed the animation to not loop and instead the part animations are randomly triggered to run once.  I'm still not 100% happy with this either as some parts actually work better with looped animations so I've be tweaking this again in the next version.

Added a welcome/thank you message when a crew member joins you.
Since we have the ability to rescue crew now I felt they should react to being rescued and thank you for doing so.

Added way to fire crew from the roster.
Since the game now enables you to collect crew at a faster rate now there needed to be a mechanism to release crew if you no longer want them.  This is nothing ground breaking, I've just added an "X" button to the crew list which you can press to release them.

Increased oygen depletion rate 
One thing I noticed after a few play-throughs was that I was never running out of oxygen.  One of the core experiences I wanted the game to provide was that sense of being worried that your oxygen might run out.  With it never running out it was basically a pointless resource.  So to make this resource more valueable and to try and restore my original core experience I've increased the rate at which your ship depletes oxygen.

Added keyboard navigation for main menu.
Because I'm quite lazy I added the ability to switch through the menu using keys rather than the mouse.

Changed how part upgrades work.
Originally upgrades were implemented by adding scripts to parts and running these scripts when the parts are used.  While this worked, it was a little slow and made it difficult to immediately see what the effect on the part was.  So the script method has been removed and replaced by simply duplicating the part and modifying the parameters directly.  This way is faster and also immediately gives you feedback on what has been updated.

Added part import/export for continuous play-throughs
As a result of changing how the upgrades work I needed to add an export/import function to retain the parts created by the new system.