The last few weeks have included a lot of purely server-side updates, as we've improved the robustness of the game, fixed a lot of bugs, and added internal features to give us better insights when there's a problem.Changes include:- Mitigated a bug with duplicate NPCs (Leviathans, etc) showing up in some locations.- Fixed a bug causing some NPCs to "park" in the wrong locations.- Fixed problem causing people to occasionally damage their capital ships when undocking.- Optimized performance of the game server for certain cases.- Added many new performance-monitoring analytics for the core game server.- Made purchase experience more robust to upstream payment-gateway outages.- Fixed a problem with AI path data being generated incorrectly on some sectors.- Threaded AI path generation, plus other tweaks, to improve startup time on certain complex sectors.- Added new analytics for monitoring a variety of connection and internal performance data.We appreciate all the reports on Bugs and elsewhere, sometimes it takes us a few days to track something down, but we fix any issue as quickly as we can.Newer game-content updates are slated to appear before long. It's been important that we focus on back-end stability and capacity for a little while, before the next round of content drops. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

VO 1.8.520 includes:- Players' positions are now reset if high latency transients are detected during combat situations.- Added client-side prediction to the application of explosion-force on dynamic debris.The fact that this is a "two sentence update" belies the complexity and development time that went into it.- Update 1 - Firstly, this update includes a new system we'll call "Prediction Monitoring". To put it simply, this is a system that, under a very specific and narrow set of PvP combat conditions, will begin monitoring the movements of players, and if necessary, replacing player-client derived network updates with server-enforced positioning.This should only impact people with *very* high latency (on the order of 800ms), or people who suddenly experience network dropouts (packets lost or delayed). If the server enforces a network update, the player may move or "drift" in a direction the server thinks is most appropriate based on their previously-accepted movement update. This prevents people from inducing lag that may cause them to "jump" excessively long distances, or become impossible to target.People experiencing server-enforced positioning from the Prediction Monitoring system will not be "instant kills". They'll still be moving, and their momentary periods of linear motion will still be sporadic. CHAT will also display a message to anyone who experiences server-enforced positioning, which says "High latency detected, resetting position."See the Suggestions Forum for a more thorough RFC thread on the topic, and how the system is implemented. There are a great many factors that narrow the scope of the system to the smallest number of circumstances, specifically to minimize any impact of the system outside of PvP (for instance, PvE against bots is unaffected).Most importantly, for the system to be engaged, players must currently:A) Be able to harm one another (no same-nation players in a Capitol system).B) NOT be grouped with one another. The system is explicitly disabled for group-members.C) NOT be located in a No Fire Zone (NFZs exclude the system, as it could make docking too challenging for high ping players).D) Weapons fire must be instantiated within 3000 meters of another player.If this is all fulfilled, then Prediction Monitoring will be engaged for 30 seconds on the respective players. The expectation is that each future "shot" within 3000 meters will re-engage the system for another 30 seconds, and the timer will allow the system to "turn off" quickly when not needed.Like everything in this game, the system is a Work In Progress, so real-world testing feedback is welcome on the related Suggestions Forum thread.- Update 2 - Certain sectors, like Latos F12, have been testing new physically dynamic "debris" for some time. These debris can be moved by ship impact or explosions, and will physically interact with other objects based on relative