Server-side Release

Tonight's server-side update includes the following:- NPC AI path-finding and refinement has been generally improved.- NPCs are less likely to get stuck against asteroids.- Experimental NPC AI-navigation test-sector in Bractus P-1.Plus various other tweaks, including a lot of new NPC and AI related development statistics and metrics that are being reported via the Analytics system we mentioned in the last newsletter. This is a big help, as it allows us to easily visualize and note undesired outcomes, or recognize particular problem sectors, etc.The point of this work is to help refine the NPC navigation, so it's more robust with larger and more complex sectors, as well as larger numbers of bots. After all, there isn't a lot of point in a big Universe Redux, if the NPCs don't behave in an optimal manner.The experimental sector that is (temproarily) in Bractus P-1 is really just a development testbed, where we'll continue to experiment with different quantities of bots under varying conditions. We have this running on internal development servers as well, of course, but there's also some value to testing things on the production game cluster.Have a great weekend, everyone!

Vendetta Online 1.8.504

VO 1.8.504 includes:- The keychain list now directly shows what content each key may access.- Added Audio options to disable engine and/or turbo sounds.- When a new livery is purchased along with the ship, it now notes this in the response message.VO 1.8.503 previously included:- Fixed blank screen error when gamepad menu is closed on first run on Windows.- Gamepad menu should no longer show up for HOTAS setups on Windows.Happy New Year to All!