*Top News*: Many updates and changes have happened over the last few

months! A few of the most significant:

*Multi-player Ships*: Players with Behemoth and Atlas class vessels may

now take several other players onboard, who can help by controlling

onboard turrets. Up to four players may share a single Behemoth!

Implementing this and working out the inevitable kinks has been a major

stepping stone towards our long-awaited goal of Player Capital Ships.

*Dynamic Warfare*: After a lengthy period of testing and tuning, we've

rolled out dynamic sector conquest to the Deneb system. The Itani and

Serco (and UIT, on either side) are be able to take part in series of

continuous weekly battles for territory, with 177 sectors falling to one

side or the other in a bid for the resources of Deneb. Four different

types of battles, from fighters-only up to massive fleet engagements,

permit varying play styles as well as allowing people with older

computers to participate. This new gameplay feature has just been

released a few hours ago (Friday); but as ever with software

development, unforeseen bugs may yet remain, so we ask for patience with

any issues that crop up. Eventually the intention is to roll out this

type of conflict between many of the minor factions in Grayspace,

creating a constant flux and a shifting balance of power as regional

disagreements burst into small-scale Corporate Wars. On top of this, a

privateering system using Letters of Marque will allow players to

plunder the convoys and resources of their chosen enemies.

*Friendly Fire Restrictions Removed from Gray*: Grayspace is now

entirely without any friendly-fire restrictions, people of the same

nation may attack one another at will. Eventually, these restrictions

will also be dropped from most of Nation space, but this is an interim

solution.

*Reworked New Player Experience*: New specially-created Training Sectors

and a rewritten tutorial system should provide a smoother introduction

for new players. Training Weapons reduce the chance of player-on-player

injury, while still permitting PvP training. A new system of Training

Sector, Capitol System and Nation Border defenses create a decreasing

level of safety as one heads towards the greater risk and rewards of

Grayspace.

Changes still in the works:

- Major Economic Redux. Among other things, we're refactoring the trade

routes to have the greatest profit tend to be through Grayspace. Trading

in safer locations will still be possible, but with reduced profits.

Mining and trading will both be impacted by this, and will play into the

greater "universe redux" which has been cooking for some time.

- Universe Redux. We're re-defining the universe with much greater

asteroid densities to better reflect the type of interesting

environments we would like to have, and also the advancements in

computing performance since our game was released in 2004. As part of

this, we'll also be re-mapping all the ores and minerals in all

asteroids, and creating several new rare types. This re-mapping of

resources will then play a major part in forward-looking Dynamic Warfare

as well as the upcoming version of "crafting", which we call

Manufacturing. Other fun stuff also falls out of this, like the

deprecation of Ion Storms in favor of statically-located foggy "reefs"

of asteroid sectors, yielding interesting chokepoints for piracy and

warfare (a few Ion Storms will continue to be scattered around, but will

be much less common).

- Event Registration. This new web-based system will allow players to

register times and locations for upcoming Events, as well as requesting

Guide involvement if needed. Officially "Approved" Events will then be

announced via a new email list. Special "Event Arenas" are also being

constructed, allowing players to defend a particular area of territory

while a player-organized event is run.

- Faction System Updates. We're continuing to clean up and improve the

faction system, and the many, many areas of the game that it touches.

This includes advancements to friend-or-foe determination on ship radar,

improvements standing loss and recovery mechanics, unaligned

player-characters, and other changes.

- Player Owned Stations. Yes, this is still coming, and still quite

important to us. We've made a lot of headway on this, and we expect it

to play a major part in the "Manufacturing" (crafting) system, as well

as the high-level Trading/Mining endgames. Dynamic Warfare between

player factions in an expanded ring of Grayspace around the existing

galaxy will also hopefully create some fascinating large-scale PvP

interactions, completely driven by players and player-organizations. On

the more peaceable side, stations will allow players to post missions,

which may be fulfilled by either player characters or NPCs; delivering

resources for pure trading, or to be manufactured by expandable station

modules into other, more refined goods.

- Player Owned Capships. As mentioned above, the recent achievement of

multi-player ships is a major step forward towards implementation of

player-owned Capships. We expect player capships to be an important part

of our large-scale trading, mining and combat endgames.

- Piracy, Pirate Clans, the Return of Bounties. We have a lot going on

in these areas. The delineation of Nation Space by defense turrets has

temporarily corralled some of our pirates in Gray, but we intend to give

them a lot of New Stuff To Do, as well as some intriguing new mechanics

for avoiding the authorities. Most major new content, moving forward,

will take place in Grayspace or require some interaction there. There's

a lot to do, but we're looking forward to it.

That's all for now, everyone. We hope this message finds you well, and

you're able to stop by and check out some of our recent work!