Free 2D space exploration sim Endless Sky v0.10.0 adds new factions, gets better AI

If you love free and open source games keep an eye on the 2D space sim Endless Sky, which just got a new Beta release with version 0.10.0 giving some fresh gameplay improvements. Currently in Beta, so it's not quite a full release yet.

As a reminder on what it is: Endless Sky is a 2D space trading and combat game inspired by the classic Escape Velocity series. Work your way up from a relatively wimpy shuttle, cargo ship, or fighter, to a highly upgraded and customized flagship or to a massive fleet of warships or freighters.

Here's an overview of what's new in v0.10.0 Beta:

Breaking changes:

• The accompany objective on mission npcs no longer implicitly sets the save objective. Plugin missions that had "accompany" but not "save" should be changed to include "save" if the intention of the mission is that the npcs live.
  • This is a change that was made in v0.9.16, reverted in v0.9.16.1, and has been reintroduced.

Content and features:

• Two new alien factions, the Gegno and Bunrodea.
• A plethora of new conditions and new ways to use them, including the introduction of "global conditions" that can be set and accessed across save files.
• Improvements to how ship AI behaves, more intelligently making use of the range of their weapons. More AI improvements will come in the future.
• An overhaul to how cargo and outfit scanners function, causing scanning to take overall longer to complete.
• The jobs board can now be sorted on various metrics, including how much the job pays or whether it has a deadline.
• Improved mouse control while in flight, including the ability to select secondary weapons by clicking on their ammo icons, and a toggle for controlling flagship aiming and firing with the mouse.
• Reverted the heat damage change from v0.9.15, and reduced the buffs provided to afterburners from that same update.
• Added a deadline to bounty jobs so that they cannot be stacked infinitely and finished passively. In exchange, bounty ships now don't spawn as far away, and bounty job payments are increased.

If you want to download Endless Sky you can grab it as a Flatpak, an AppImage from GitHub or from Steam. You can grab the Beta from their GitHub or from the Betas section on Steam.