The most recent release appeared tonight, with a variety of others over the last few weeks:

VO 1.8.667
- A player forfeits their active duel if they fly into a NFZ, and cannot challenge or accept a duel while inside a NFZ.
- Fixed some Lua errors related to the UI.

VO 1.8.666.1
- Fixed a bug with a Linux version, where some devices might randomly choose the prototype Vulkan renderer over the GL4 renderer, on first runtime.

VO 1.8.666
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Added calibration curve options to arbitrary joystick axes on Linux, located in the "Calibration Settings" button of each axis.
- Training stations are no longer included in the Daily Trade Reports.
- The virtual keyboard no longer disappears when a mission update appears on the HUD while typing.

VO 1.8.665/.1
- One new custom-made mission.
- Added history logs to Access Keys, recording who gave/revoked keys and changed access rights.
- Fixed Account Conversion menu being too wide with some languages.
- Fixed title of Guild Log menus to properly show the page number.
- Queens will no longer mine asteroids that are extremely far from the sector center.
- Fixed Border Engagement advertisement mission's countdown timer.

VO 1.8.664.1
- Fixed issue with iOS version not showing navmap backgrounds.

A lot of other development has been occurring in the background. Hopefully we can start to post more about that sometime soon.

Several releases appeared last month:

VO 1.8.664
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Changed /givemoney failure message to "No pilot named <X> is currently within range."
- Added UI settings to set the name of players under their ships on the HUD when in 2D square target selection mode, located in Options -> Advanced -> Interface -> HUD Settings.
- Added ability for plugins to add additional lines of text to the name of players under their ships by setting AdditionalHUDText["character name"] to a string to display. The character name needs to match exactly (case sensitive), and the info is not saved when plugins/interface are reloaded or the game is restarted.
- Fixed issue with Linux Vulkan driver crashing if keyboard/mouse input is received immediately after startup.
- Removed unnecessary Vulkan synchronization API call on Linux.
- The Linux Vulkan driver no longer chooses software CPU devices.
- Removed Left/Right stick calibration curve settings on Linux because they are not functional.

VO 1.8.663.1
- Updates to support new Android App Bundle update.

VO 1.8.663
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Added experimental Vulkan video driver to the 64bit Linux version.
- Added analytics to the Android version to detect problems with downloading additional assets.

VO 1.8.662.1
- Fixed issue with Strafe Up/Dn HUD buttons not working on touch screens.

VO 1.8.662
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Added option to Touch devices to change the left HUD touch region's Y axis to control Strafe up/down. Defaults to off, can be changed in Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Touch and is called "Use Touch Thottle as Strafe Up/Down".
- Added options for Android devices to use the accelerometer tilt to control Throttle. Defaults to off, can be changed in Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Tilt and is called "Touchscreen steering, tilt for throttle".
- Added options for Android devices to change the deadzone settings of the accelerometer. The settings are also located in Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Tilt.

A variety of releases have appeared over the last few weeks:

VO 1.8.661.1
- Major changes to the Android game install, optimizing the initial download experience for new players.

VO 1.8.661
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- The Linux version now defaults to OpenGL 4 on first run.

VO 1.8.660
- The Linux 64bit Updater now uses GTK 3 instead of GTK 2.

VO 1.8.659
- Three new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Fixed issue with guild members not being notified of their guild being disbanded when they log in.
- Added modal Menu warning guild leaders that the guild will be disbanded due to insufficient council members when logging in or docking just after the countdown started.
- Guild leaders will be notified with a warning 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 10 minutes before the guild is disbanded.
- Fixed Linux crash in XRandR if the primary display does not have an output defined.
- If XRandR enumeration fails with a crash, it will no longer be used in the future.

VO 1.8.658
- Three new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Multiple recipients can now be selected from group or sector lists when giving Access Keys through the Give Owner/User Key menus.

Although these notes are pretty terse, some of these changes are really significant, and encompass months of work. More details will appear in the future.

VO 1.8.657 includes:
- Two new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- The /+turbo command now automatically turns off when turbo is disengaged when typed in.
- Fixed crash when using the +ActivateTurrets command and you are in a turret of the ship you are currently piloting.
- The first-person jump-out animation no longer moves the player's ship in the wrong direction in non-VR mode.
- The first-person jump-into-storm animation now spins the ship as it does for the third-person mode in non-VR mode.
- Lua Error dialogs and the console no longer allow the HUD to be placed in front of them.
- A 'Docking...' dialog has been added when docking to stations and capships in the Training Sectors.
- Added a set of Chat Abuse Reporting menus to the Oculus Quest version, accessible from the 'Report User' button in the app's dashboard via the Oculus button on the controller.

A number of requested changes from the Suggestions and Bugs Forums, along with some mandated platform updates. We've had a whole epic list of unrelated "mandatory" updates coming due over the last few weeks (like the above Oculus change), across a variety of different platforms, which have dragged us a bit off of our intended development course. We hope that will wrap up this week.

As I've been saying for some months: larger development work is evolving in the background. However, releasing major updates is a lengthy process that involves a lot of iterative testing and staged rollout. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

As always please post any ideas to Suggestions and any problems on Bugs, and we'll do our best to continue improving things every week.

VO 1.8.656 (August 24th) included:
- Eight new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Added weapon cooldown indicator bars to the HUD addon icons. When controlling a turret, it is located below the center of the screen. The indicators can be turned off in the HUD Settings menu.

VO 1.8.655 (August 17th) included:
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Enduring titled ships now record player-owned capship kills in its history. The owner of the Enduring ship must be in the same sector when the capship is destroyed.

A lot of additional background work has also been happening, which will be announced with future versions. Stay tuned.

VO 1.8.654 includes:
- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Conquerable station defense NPCs now leave the sector and new ones are launched when the station is conquered.
- Fixed issue with not being able to dock with the capship that is specific to your active mission.

VO 1.8.653 included:
- Six new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- Players can now scan their own capships from any distance within the same sector.
- Added a 'Plugins' setting to Game options to enable/disable plugins.

VO 1.8.652.1 included:
- Fixed issue with Linux X RandR choosing a non-connected device, and the fullscreen window moved to the correct location if the primary display is to the right of a secondary display.
- The OpenGL Reference driver now chooses a default resolution that is the size of the primary monitor, instead of 800x600.

VO 1.8.652 included:
- Two new custom-made missions in various trees.
- Fixed issue with Linux X RandR crashes.

A wide variety of changes and fixes released over the last couple of weeks. Additionally, several major projects are moving forward in the background, and should come to light before long. Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.651 includes:
- Seven new custom-made missions in various trees.
- Daily Trade Report now reports most profitable trade routes for the non-Latos economy.
- Fixed issue with backslash "\" escape code not working in latest LuaJIT.
- Linux version now uses X RandR extensions to enumerate full-screen display modes in addition to the historical XF86VidMode extension.
- Fixed issues with transitioning between window and full-screen modes on Linux.
- Added some common window-mode resolutions to the Linux version if they aren't found.
- Mitigated problem with large-inventory player-capships under attack: optimized updating of UI tree-control lists, including the player's inventory list.
- Fixed issue with player-owned remote capships not persistently dying after being destroyed by strikeforce.
- Fixed incorrect timestamp in Chat Abuse Report menu.

Larger projects continuing in the background. Please continue to post any problems on Bugs, or potential improvements on Suggestions. Have a great weekend!

VO 1.8.650 includes:
- 5 new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- The "CLICK! Out of missiles!" message is now limited to once per minute.
- Fixed issue with the HUD radar blips in Simulated VR with certain video drivers.
- Updated client LuaJIT to the latest version.
- Player-owned capships now report when and why they stopped mining.
- Player-owned capships now stop mining when the asteroid temperature reaches 10,000 K or the owner leaves the sector.

Please continue to post any issues on Bugs, and possible improvements on Suggestions. Many of the above changes came from the Suggestions Forum.

In the meantime, development continues on a number of big projects in the background, along the lines of what we've previously outlined on the "Game Development Direction" forum thread.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.649 incudes:

- Eight new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- PowerCell Blaster auto-aim has been reduced slightly, mass increased from 100kg to 300kg, shot and hit effects are now pink. See Suggestions thread for details.
- Client-side references to missions that can only be taken once every 24 hours have been properly changed to once every 22 hours.
- Fixed issue where a bounty reward would be given to a player if a strike force attacking them kills someone else that has a bounty.
- Fixed issue with system notes and mission history not being saved for characters with slashes in them.
- Lua code inside of system notes is now loaded in an empty environment.
- Fixed issue where credits would disappear when given to a player's remote capship or proxy fighter.
- Fixed issue where a player would get bounced back to their previous sector if their destination sector just shut down.
- Improvements in the robustness and fault-tolerance of the official channel-100 Discord Relay (see discord.gg/vendetta).
- Enhanced server-side logging and analytics to help improve game and service reliability.
- Additional fixes for potential crashes when quitting the game.

Please report any issues on Bugs, and any thoughts about future improvements on Suggestions; have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.648 includes:

- Four new custom-made missions, available in various trees.
- Fixed potential crash if server name lookup fails.
- Fixed potential crash when quitting the game.
- Fixed crash if a plugin attempts to redefine the dofile() function.

Not the most exciting patch, but we're working on several of the bigger goals mentioned in the "Game Development Direction" sticky post at the top of Suggestions, and we need to get some of this work done to be able to move forward on other rollouts.

As always, please let us know of any problems on Bugs, or any gameplay feedback on Suggestions. Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.647 included (this week):

- Four new custom-made missions available in various trees.
- The /+ActivateTurrets command will now auto-fire charge-based weapons (for example, Repair Turret) when the weapon becomes fully charged.
- Added a lua GetRegisteredCommands() function to return a list of all the commands (from community, Suggestions Forum).
- Added a /showcommands command to open a menu showing all of the available commands (from community, Suggestions Forum).
- Missions that can only be taken once every 24 hours have been changed to once every 22 hours (from community, Suggestions Forum).
- All players can now dock with the capships that are a part of their hive or border skirmish mission, even if their faction standing is too low (from community, Suggestions Forum).
- Players are kicked out of the skirmish capship if they abort their skirmish mission.
- Players who become Hated with the faction of the skirmish mission are now ejected from the mission.
- Fixed potential issue when attempting to command their capship to follow immediately after entering their mission's skirmish sector.
- Improvements to internal monitoring of the server, to improve notification of rare and unusual provider outages.

VO 1.8.646 included (last week):

- Four new custom-made missions, available in various trees.
- Fixed issue with expired self-defense warnings being reapplied to players docking to their capship.
- Advanced Combat Training group mission now reduces the number of NPC adversaries when a player leaves the group.
- Fixed extremely limited fog radar range in Deneb G-6.
- Fixed issue with player-owned capships being destroyed with no notification in simulated skirmish sectors.
- Internal improvements to game economy analytics.

Some significant projects around advanced server development and other areas are progressing in the background. More information on that later.

VO 1.8.645 included (last week):

- Added /remove_mines command to remove your mines from the current sector without detonating them.
- Whoever does the most damage to an NPC in Border and Hive skirmishes are now awarded the kill instead of who landed the killing shot when it explodes.
- Players who registered for the Corporate Sector Run and leave the sector or log out early can now re-register in the station before the race begins.
- The Android version now handles device resolution changes during runtime ("density") instead of having to be restarted. Requires Play Store app update.

The last change may be of benefit for owners of Samsung devices, where the Samsung Game Optimizing Service is causing problems by forcing a resolution change whenever the game runs. The best solution is still to disable the Samsung service on the entire device, as it yields no actual performance benefit and seems to also cause other problems (which we're still investigating). VO, like most graphically-intensive games, renders to an offscreen buffer at a resolution pre-determined by the game, so "device resolution" already has no impact on game performance. Samsung's "optimization" service forced a device resolution change in the middle of runtime, which had a tendency to screw up the UI, as the game was not expecting that during play. More information about the fundamental issue here:

https://www.pcgamer.com/samsungs-game-optimization-service-might-be-throttling-the-performance-of-over-10000-apps/

https://www.samsung.com/levant/support/apps-services/how-can-i-change-game-optimization-settings/

VO 1.8.644 included (last week):

- Navroutes are now plotted around systems that are Hated/KoS when possible.
- Player-owned capships now try to go around systems that are Hated/KoS if possible when they are attempting to come to their owner (they will warn of expected passage through hostile territory if it is unavoidable, there being no "safe" route).
- Player-owned capships now report the next two systems they will go through if they are more than two systems away and are given the 'follow' command.
- Fixed issue with mouse capture not working sometimes on Chromebooks.

Sometimes the brief lines of the changelog fail to articulate the complexity of the underlying update. In this case, reworking the server and client-side navigational jump calculations to properly include dynamic changes in factional status was not really a "trivial thing", but one that certainly was important to do (both for capship owners, and for newer players). This is another change that came from input on the Suggestions Forum.

Someday we may offer a more elaborate way to determine your capship's "remote" route (currently limited to just the "follow" command), but hopefully this will mitigate the more-common related issues.

VO 1.8.643 includes:
- Four new custom-made missions, available in various trees.
- Increased group size limit to 16. Group mining benefits are still limited to 8 members.
- Group list on the HUD is limited to 8 members, with an option in Interface -> HUD Settings to show all members.
- Sort order of group members has been changed to put all players first, followed by player-owned capships, with NPCs last.

This Group Size change has been requested for a long time, but was recently revived on the Suggestions Forum by players who enjoy participating in some of the recent Game Events. Larger player groups should improve the ability to coordinate larger participation in more complex events.

For anyone interested, you can always check out the upcoming Events on the front page of the website, or also on our Discord: https://discord.gg/vendetta

Other, larger projects are rumbling along in the background, along with further investigations into bugs and issues as they are reported. Have a great weekend, everyone!

VO 1.8.642 includes:

- Four new custom-made missions, available in various trees.
- Added option to disable 'Turret Control Online' messages in Options -> Interface settings.
- Fixed issue with gkini.ReadString2 lua function.
- Fixed issue with gunners being able to fire turrets while +ActivateTurrets also fires the turret under certain conditions.

Beyond this, we've been making progress with some larger projects in the background; more about those later.