VO 1.8.583 includes:- Four new missions: "Dragon Variations", "At the Heart of It All", "Nemeses" and "Safari Cruise".- New capital ship command-set help, by messaging "help" to a capship that is owned by the player.- Expanded Russian localizations on Android, including Gamepad controls and configuration.- No Fire Zones in Nation space no longer allow any weapon to fire (including PCB or repair-gun). Mining is allowed. Special "unlawful" weapons may become manufacturable that will be able to circumvent this barrier, and require smuggling across borders.- Added a notification when attempting to use weapons or turrets inside the NFZ of stations in Nation space.- Improved "highlight" features for Missions to more easily display control information, for new Tutorials.- Added "highlight" arrows that can point to the nearest docking bay, in space and on radar, for updated Tutorial usage.- Additional Tutorial analytics, to help determine when new players run into difficulties during tutorial missions.The NFZ changes were initially suggested by the userbase, to simplify handling of cases, including:- A player hiding within a hostile capship's docking bay, in the NFZ, and using the Strike Force to attack the capship. - A troll "attacking" new players using PCBs or Repair Guns to trick the new players into firing back and getting themselves Temp KoS'd.But, aside from this, the new change also drastically simplifies the new-user tutorials, which is part of the current goal-set. Explaining the old NFZ system was challenging, and the prospect of then trying to translate that explanation across many languages was even more of a concern. Simply "locking out" weapons is a hell of a lot easier, and seemed to help mitigate a variety of problems.VO is still fundamentally a "no absolutely safe place" game, and we may eventually offer special "black market" weapons that can be Manufactured in grayspace, and used within lawful No Fire Zones to attack, for instance.. in assassination type missions. But, this will at least be a controlled and rare case, compared to trolls taunting newbies, or various other challenges.As always, everything here is a "work in progress" and shouldn't be taken as cast-in-stone. If problems emerge with the new system, we'll continue to evolve it. The "Suggestions" and "Bugs" forums are available if people want to contribute constructive (and respectful) feedback around any of these issues.The current Russian localization can sometimes push the "old-style" interface out of alignment a little bit, due to longer words or phrases. It's still functional, but not ideal. The new-style interface is still in development, but we needed to start actively testing with translations, so this should all settle out and improve over time.That's all for now, Happy Holidays!
VO 1.8.582 includes (11/20):- New "Hive Queen Mining Beam": a new capital-class mining beam that is a rare drop from Hive Queens.- New AndroidTV dialog, on devices with no gamepad or other input, allows re-scan for new input devices.- Fixed problem with swapping right/left touch region inputs in Advance Options on Android.- Additional Russian translated content on the Android version.- New tutorial missions on Touchscreen devices.- New disconnection dialog on Android, makes it easier to reconnect to the server.VO 1.8.581 included (11/12):- New experimental/prototype Russian localization for Android.- Mission-based HUD Notification text is now displayed in the upper left over the chat region on Android.- Mitigated issue with Deneb Border War and Hive Skirmish missions not giving out awards.- Clarity and stability changes to some missions.- More anonymous analytics on the Android version.- Added support for localized missions.Russian support on Android marks our first "prototype" localization. This is not finalized, at all, and a lot of text is still going to be changing as we release the new user-interface, so expect that perfect translations are not the immediate priority. We will be seeking player input on translation quality, as things get further along.The new Hive Queen Mining Beam is the result of a Suggestions Forum thread, and now makes its way into production. These addons should further amplify the capabilities of capital ships for mining operations. But, the "drop" nature of the addon will likely keep it in demand for some time, and add further value to Queen Hunting.As always, please let us know of any problems via the Bugs Forum. Thanks much!
A lot of changes in the last couple of weeks..VO 1.8.580 includes (11/5):- New tutorial missions in initial rollout on touchscreen devices, will eventually be coming to other input models.- Improved client-side mission list refresh and update latency.- Replaced Dentek Collectors with Orun Collectors in the Training Sectors.- Players who take a Deneb Battle or Hive mission, but never participate in the battle, are no longer awarded any XP or credits.- Changed jump-in point selection to reduce the chance that players end up inside or beyond the asteroid ring in Sol I-11 and other sectors with asteroids near jump-in points.- Added ability for tutorials to highlight various HUD elements.- Various PCC mission editor improvements and new features.- Updated to Android Billing API v4.- Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" is now the minimum required to install Vendetta Online from the Play Store, for a variety of technical and stability related reasons.VO 1.8.579.4 included (11/4):- Touch-selection now works through the new Touch-Throttle and Touch-Look input modes. Quickly tapping an item in space will select it.VO 1.8.579 included (11/2):- New Touch-Throttle input mode for Android Touch devices. It is enabled for new installs, and disabled for existing installs. To enable, go to Advanced -> Controls -> Touch and press the 'Defaults' button.- Streamlined Android Touch-based initial offline training simulator, changed voice-over sounds.- Updated client-side mission cache and start requesting mission info for missions not in the cache earlier in the login process, allowing the mission list to be populated more quickly when logging in.- Added more anonymous analytics to the Android version.VO 1.8.578 (10/27):- Brakes now set the Flight-Assist Throttle when released on Android for new installs. Existing installs retain the previous functionality of resuming the set speed. A setting has been added to change this setting in Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> General -> Braking reduces F/A throttle.- Added features to be used in future missions.- Added more anonymous analytics to the Android version.VO 1.8.577 (10/22):- Two new Missions for beginner-level players.- Player and NPC ships should now be less-likely to jump-in very close to asteroids.- New mission-editor mechanics to better illustrate controls in tutorials (PCC).- Game Website Support-Ticket system now prevents accidental double-submission of tickets.- Game Website Support-Ticket system now uses a more mobile-scalable web design.- Changes and improvements to the administration interfaces of the ticket and other internal systems.- Game Website Forums now prevents users from editing or deleting posts after 15 minutes pass from the time the post was initially made.- PCC members may now only "bump" very-old threads (greater than 6 months) on the restricted-access PCC Forums.- New (anonymized) analytics to help assess new-user progress through tutorials, broken down by localiz