VO 1.8.191 includes:

- New and improved textures for the Centurion.
- Centurion mesh now looks correct on Android.
- Higher resolution textures for the Behemoth.
- Texture efficiency improvements to the Trident, Teradon, Constellation, Vulture and Warthog (not a visual change).
- Higher resolution nebulae for space backgrounds.
- More memory-efficient startup logos and other images.
- Some flare, sun, and effect textures mildly improved.
- Game logo is now shown in loading screen between sectors.
- Floating crates will now persist for 15 minutes, regardless of sector shutdown.
- Player-owned capships no longer have any factional docking restrictions.
- Audio limiting effect is now performed on all platforms instead of only Windows.
- Music volume setting is now applied at startup.

Graphics Updates - The upcoming wide-area release of Vendetta Online for Android handsets (phones) has pushed up the priority for any graphical changes that are generally desired or beneficial in the short-term. We don't want to push 40MB of patches to every new phone person, especially if there are a lot of them, so we're avoiding the issue by pushing the changes in advance of launch.

Some of these changes have been requested for some time, others are simply a good idea to improve performance, efficiency and memory utilization (across all platforms). The upgraded background nebulae has been requested for years; the background changes can be a subtle change in some systems, or quite noticeable in others. The updates are most visible with the "Super High" background settings.

Owing in part to the modem era in which we started, we have historically erred on the side of smaller downloads, as opposed to using the highest resolution textures or opting for the most performance. The pendulum has swung pretty strongly the other way in recent years, and while we're always going to try and maintain a modest total download, we are now beginning to dial up the detail on some of our available graphics assets.

Not all of these changes will be striking. Many will not be noticeable at all, but will be easier and faster for video chips to process. You may expect some further graphical changes in the near future, before we freeze the assets once again and commence our handset rollout.

Game Changes - The new persistency of cargo drops is no small thing. It makes a lot of other gameplay possible (eventually), like the caching of drops by users in specific locations, raiding the mining-cache of a hive, or discovering random "treasure". For the moment, cargo is still all treated the same as before, with a 15-minute timeout. Eventually, we would like to roll this into more of a cargo-class based timeout, expiring "trivial" drops more quickly than unique, valuable or crafted items.

We're still working on the convoy and NPC related issues that have been reported. We've identified the problem and are working towards a solution, but it's not a trivial issue, so please bear with us there for a little longer. We will apply more resources to ongoing game improvements once this issue has been resolved.

That's all for now, please post any problems on the forums. Thanks for your support, and have fun!

Interesting update.

Cool, the sound fix works. Flying along a stack of swarms on Linux no longer produces a deafening roar so loud that it clips. :)

But... but... I LIKED the roar of a swarm stack! I didn't even know Windows was any different.

I must go log in and find out whether you've just ruined VO.

YOU'VE RUINED VO!!!!

Please make this "feature" optional.

Don't believe my neighbors, they actually do enjoy it when I make the building shake, they just won't admit it. Big speakers FTW.

I approve of the rest of the stuff though, what I've seen of it so far anyway. Firing the 5-minute empty-sector gremlins will make my job easier :D

I guess it's a little late to bring this up, but I liked having the music at startup even though I normally have it off. It was something of an immersive palate cleanser.

That aside, congratulations on continued evolving existence.

Floating crates will now persist for 15 minutes, regardless of sector shutdown.

Thank fuck.

Actually, instead of making the audio level stuff just optional, give it a sensitivity slider.

The persistent cargo doesn't seem to be completely working. If I buy 8 different commodities or addons, drop them off in an empty sector and return 6 minutes later, only the item I purchased last is still there when I return. The other 7... poof!

Consensus on new (and improved...) Centurion textures?

@Sraer: I couldn't tell the difference.

I notice that the racetubes are rather.... different looking. Don't know if that's intentional or a bug, so thought I'd mention it. I kind of like the new look, but I liked the old look too. Maybe you cold mix-'n-match.

I couldnt tell the difference at first either, the changes are subtle but it does look better

The other 7... poof!

Of course the only substantive change in the game is the one that's borked.

FYI, Ray fixed it yesterday.

- Higher resolution nebulae for space backgrounds.

I have waited many years for that.

Good update. Keep it coming...