Catching up with posting releases from the last few weeks:

*** Vendetta 1.8.754
- Added a sector load time client-side analytic to help detect long sector loads.

*** Vendetta 1.8.753
- Corporate Sector Run now has a level 3 combat requirement to play.
- Reduced the amount of mission information sent to players when they log in, speeding up login time.

*** Vendetta 1.8.752
- Updated the client mission cache to improve login behaviour on some latent connections.

*** Vendetta 1.8.751
- Fixed a Quest crash in cases where the game and the Launcher are started at the same time.
- Fixed Quest crash if the game is quit very early in the loading process.
- Mission-based NPCs no longer aggro if the ship they're defending is hit with a repair gun.
- Fixed issue with changing Capship Access rights not being applied to all of a player's capships if they are in the same sector.

(Note, we're still tracking and trying to fix some intermittent Quest problems that have been challenging to debug).

Catching up on posting a variety of older updates from the past year.

*** Vendetta 1.8.750
- Fixed crash on Quest in cases where the app gets backgrounded on startup. Clicking on the launch icon will bring the app to the foreground.
- Fixed crash on Quest in cases where the app starts up with a saved state instead of the Updater starting up.
- Removed NFZ in Pelatus D-11.

*** Vendetta 1.8.749
- Fixed issue with ship collision responses against the turrets of other ships.

*** Vendetta 1.8.748
- Updated Windows code signing signatures.

*** Vendetta 1.8.747
- Fixed issue with not being able to enter an email address when converting Google SignIn accounts.
- Fixed Android crash when attempting to display too many unicode characters.
- Fixed Android crash if errors.log file could not be opened.
- Fixed illegal instruction crash on certain Android devices.

*** Vendetta 1.8.746
- Updated/improved localizations for Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Italian, and German.
- Removed Voice Chat from the Android x86_64 version due to lack of 16k page alignment. All other versions continue to have voice chat available.
- Unaligned Pirates should no longer choose the Artemis swarm sector in Latos.
- Fixed issue with restored character missing capship access keys.

Catching up on posting a variety of older updates from the past year.

*** Vendetta 1.8.745
- Fixed 32bit Android HD crash due to misaligned pointer.
- Fixed missing planet textures in Asteroid tutorial on Android HD TVs.
- Fixed issue with Android HD vesion running out of memory on 32bit.

*** Vendetta 1.8.744
- Updated Android version using the latest NDK and Clang compiler.
- Android version now uses EASTL instead of the system STL library.
- Updated Discord Relay with additional debugging capabilities to help track down any future issues.

*** Vendetta 1.8.743
- Mission list filter setting is now saved per-character, and defaults to 'All' for new characters.
- Updated Russian translations, mainly tutorials, faction descriptions, and voice-overs.
- Fixed bug with item descriptions not being translated if the language is changed.
- Added missing localization support to a specific tutorial mission.
- Updated client-side mission cache.

*** Vendetta 1.8.742
- Fixed NPC behaviour issue for the "Brief negotiations" mission.
- MacOS updates including threaded shader loading, third-person improved fixes, other bug fixes already released on other platforms.
- Fixed issue with the MAcOS version crashing on ARM macs running in Vulkan fullscreen mode.

*** Vendetta 1.8.741.1/2
- Fix for random crashes and freezes on starup on Android.

*** Vendetta 1.8.741
- Vulkan and ES3 shaders are now compiled in another thread for Android/Windows/Linux.
- Updated Italian translations, and tweaks to other languages.

Catching up on posting a variety of older updates from the past year.

*** Vendetta 1.8.740
- Fix for Spanish UI issue, and tweaks to other languages.
- Updated Spanish and Italian translations.

*** Vendetta 1.8.739
- Improved analytics for Google Sign-In user experience.
- Updated app to satisfy new Play Store requirements.

*** Vendetta 1.8.738
- Fixed issue with Google SignIn failure causing a UI loop that prevents the user from logging in.
- Fixed issue with Google SignIn failing due to missing email address. Requires App Update, pending Google approval and release.

*** Vendetta 1.8.737
- Buddy location sharing is now off by default for new buddies.
- Buddy and Guild invites now expire after 30 days and cannot be re-sent for 7 days after expiration or rejection.
- Guild invites now continue to be available for acceptance for the entire 30 day period, persisting across player logoff.
- Buddy and Guild invites are only sent once while the invite is active for a given character.
- The Ignore feature now blocks Buddy and Guild invites from ignored characters.
- Added analytics to track the status of Buddy and Guild invites.

*** Vendetta 1.8.736
- Improvements for reducing Android ANR-stall issues on startup.

Catching up on posting a variety of older updates from the past year.

*** Vendetta 1.8.735
- Improved Android UX issue when aborting the initial offline training tutorials.
- Fixed a variety of potential bugs revealed by updated internal testing tools.
- Further expanded and improved the game translations, particularly Portuguese.

*** Vendetta 1.8.734.1
- Fixed RequestPostNotificationPermission lua error.

*** Vendetta 1.8.734
- Expanded and improved game translations, particularly Portuguese.

*** Vendetta 1.8.733
- Prototype notification system being experimentally rolled out on Android.

*** Vendetta 1.8.732
- Stability improvements to the Android version.
- Updated client-side cache files.
- Fixed incorrect AndroidTV analytics.

*** Vendetta 1.8.731.1
- Fixed crash in the Offline Rings Tutorial on Windows and Linux.

*** Vendetta 1.8.731
- Updated the client-side mission cache to reduce login times for players with higher ping times.
- Fixed Third-person Improved camera mode on Windows and Linux, Mac update is forthcoming.

Catching up on posting a variety of older updates from earlier this year..

*** Vendetta 1.8.730
- Fixed formatting issues with the gamepad menu on iOS.
- Fixed crash on HTC Vive Focus devices.
- Added analytics to track down login stalls.
- Fixes for Third Person Improved control model on iOS forthcoming in the next App Store update.
- Improvements for reducing Android ANR-stall issues forthcoming in the next Play Store update.

*** Vendetta 1.8.729
- Fixed crash on Quest devices when the headset is removed.

*** Vendetta 1.8.728
- Updated German, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian translations.
- 2D box selection around group members on the HUD is now yellow for easier visibility.
- Fixed issue with remote capship powercells becoming discharged when undocking from commanding the capship.
- Fixed issue with missing localized characters not rendering properly.
- Refactored shader loading code to reduce ANRs on Android.
- Fixed various Lua errors.

*** Vendetta 1.8.727 Server update
- Improved Persistent Events to support localization of private messages from NPCs.
- PCC missions now choose a sector that is already in use, if no empty sector can be found.

VO 1.8.727 includes:
- Two new Persistent Events have been launched, and will start on Saturday the 22nd in Ukari and Helios.
- Translated 50 early missions into 19 additional languages.
- Fixed issue with ActivateTurrets and triggered turrets not working after ReloadInterface() is called.
- Fixed crash on Android when the game is backgrounded and the system decides to terminate it.
- Updated German and Ukrainian translations.
- Input mode is automatically changed when switching between touch and gamepad on Android.
- Added resolution options for MacOS version when Retina support is not enabled.
- Added more font options for Cyrillic languages.
- The list of font options now only includes fonts that support the selected language.
- Fixed issues with certain characters not rendering properly in some languages.

A lot of work has gone into this, which may not be immediately obvious. For instance, we had to build a whole mass-translation tool for the missions, which has gone through a dozen or so rounds of improvements and fixes over the last few months.

Please post any issues you find to the Bugs forum, and have a great weekend!

VO 1.8.726 includes:

- Improvements to Persistent Event Missions and management of bots in non-running sectors.
- Reduced possibility of ANR stalls on Android during initialization of shaders.
- Added a message when disabling plugins that recommends to restart for the change to take full effect.
- Added debugging code to track down mismatched ship health numbers in different menus.
- Updates to some SDKs in mobile versions, coming in next App Store versions.
- Added debugging code to track down certain Android crashes.
- Started the process of translating a few more missions into all 19 languages. More next week.

Please post any problems on the Bugs forum; have a great weekend everyone!

VO 1.8.725 includes:
- Added '/beacon drop' command to allow players piloting capships to drop navbeacons.
- Updated Spanish translations.
- Fixed crash on exit after viewing Buddies list.
- Fixed issue with chat sometimes going to channel 0 while moving between sectors.
- Fixed issue with NPCs attacking other friendly NPCs that are on the same mission.
- Added more analytics to help track down client issues.

We're still trying to track down some other persistent bugs that have been eluding us, and we appreciate the reports and feedback we've been receiving on the Bugs Forum.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.724 includes:

- Fixed crash on Android when exiting.
- Added more analytics to help track down client issues.

This may seem pretty like a pretty light update, but there have also been some non-game improvements over the past week:

- Fixed errors preventing people with browser translation from logging into the website. Other, related site improvements are still on-going.
- Substantially improved Newsletter deliverability and email infrastructure.

Sending email Newsletters has never been an easy thing to manage, and some players complained that our message from last month showed up in their Junk folder, so we've done some updates to potentially improve that throughput for the next one. We'll probably be sending out more Newsletters throughout the coming year.

Social media has become increasing bizarre over the last decade, to the point where reaching our own followers has become infeasibly expensive, and as a result, direct email is effectively the only way we can actually talk to our own players anymore (other than Discord). So, if the Newsletters are something you want to receive, be sure and add the "noreply@vendetta-online.com" address to your personal Address Book, that usually helps.

For anyone who missed last month's Newsletter, you can also find it online here:

https://www.vendetta-online.com/newsletter/12.2024/newsletter.12.2024.html

VO 1.8.723 includes:
- Dropping an 11th nav beacon now replaces the oldest beacon instead of preventing it from being created.
- Added a "/beacon clear" command to remove all of the beacons you created.
- Fixed issue with HUD chat text color not being applied when chosen from the color picker swatch.
- Added more analytics to help track down client issues.

This release includes a few small player-submitted improvements from the Suggestions and Bugs forums, along with a lot of under-the-hood fixes.

Beyond the topics list above, we're also fixing problems with our custom mission localization (translation) software, so we can hopefully expand our multi-language mission support to include more languages and advanced gameplay.

We do have new content in the works, but we've needed to dedicated an unexpected amount of time to fixing problems over the last few weeks. Some of these issues were practically invisible to existing players, but impacted thousands of new users every month.

So, while game-content changes are still in development, we also want to help these (many) new players have a better initial experience, and also understand the areas where they're struggling, which will also help guide our next-generation User Interface design.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.722 includes:

- Added an Overscan option for Android devices, defaulting to 1% for most devices, and expanding to 3% if cutouts or rounded corners are detected. The setting can be changed in Options -> Advanced -> Video options.
- The next iOS App Store Update will include Overscan detection for curved-corner iOS devices, to attempt to resize the input area to better fit the physical space instead of the actual rendered display.
- The Training mission arrow indicator is now hidden when a mission is active and the Mission Log menu is visible, and points to the Mission Log when the Missions list is visible and a mission is active.
- Added several analytics to try and help us track down multiple new user problems that have recently emerged.

Another week with a lot of testing, fixes, and trying to solve reported problems. We do have gameplay enhancements in the works as well, but addressing bugs and other challenges were the priority. Have a great weekend, everyone.

VO 1.8.721 includes:

- Touch devices now default to Third-Person Improved mode for new installs.
- Small tweaks for some translations for Russian, German, Spanish, and Ukrainian.
- Increased the size of the Login menu on TV Consoles.
- Added an arrow to the station interface in the Training sector to direct players to the Missions menu.
- Streamlined the initial game controller menu on TVs with only a remote.
- Increased the default dead-zone range of Nintendo Switch Pro controllers to reduce drift.
- Fixed issue with missing background image when cancelling from the offline tutorials.
- Fixed wrong camera angle for Third-Person Improved mode.
- Added support for more fonts for most European languages.

Beyond this, the next iOS App Store update (whenever Apple approves this) will include a couple of major fixes:

- Fixed issues with rendering Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text.
- iOS missions now use the correct Text-To-Speech voice language with non-English locales.

Furthermore, we added more debugging and analytics to help track down issues that have appeared over the last few weeks. Larger projects are still in the works, but there has been a lot to test and fix of late.

Please post any issues on the Bugs Forum. Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.720 includes:

- Fixed issue with 'Docking...' incorrectly appearing, in different circumstances.
- Fixed issue with cargo tractor beam incorrectly activating if the ship is over-full.
- If assets files are missing or become unreadable during game runtime, the user is notified of the issue and re-install is suggested.
- Fixed various Lua errors and NULL pointer references.
- Added instrumentation to track down certain rare client crashes.

This is a sizeable bugfix release to manage some issues that were reported over the holidays. Larger changes are planned for next week, but would have taken too long to test for this release.

Please report any problems on the Bugs forum. Happy new year!

Further updates and improvements from last week, building on the major release of the week before.

VO 1.8.719
- Fixed issue with 'Docking...' message briefly appearing while flying a capship.
- Improved customized localization for Russian and Spanish, button references properly use the translated button names for all languages.
- More Missions are now localized into more languages.
- Addressed problem with localized missions not appearing in some cases, due to server state.
- Fixed recent bug causing the incorrect tutorial type to be chosen for Gamepad users on TV hardware.
- Fixed issue with not being able to log in with existing VO accounts if Google Sign-in had been used previously.
- Account Setup and Connect buttons now expand to fit the translations.
- On Android devices, if a prerecorded Client Tutorial voice-over is not available for a language, the Google Text-To-Speech service is now used.
- Increased the font size of initial offline training tutorial dialogs for touch devices.
- Fixed issue with incorrect expiration times of User Access Keys.

As always, please report any problems on the Bugs Forum. Happy Holidays all!