I'm always amazed at how quickly December comes around each year. I
guess its because I'm always busy rolling out the next update or trying
to keep up with the next 'Festive Event'. We sure do cover a fair few of
them over the period of the year.2013 didn't seem that long but
we got a lot done. Level Six Settlements was released bringing with it a
plethora of new items. We added Player made Ships via level Six SMC's
and player crafting for Starbase Hubs (that's kept many of you busy this
year).The Genesis Project came to fruition with the first
Genesis Planet being fully formed and explored. From there the first
Genesis Land Management plots were placed on offer and Grabbed up by
early adopters. You can always grab more Genesis Points at any time and
start a GLM plot when ever you feel ready. The second Genesis Planet
will likely pop early next year I suspect.Those Pesky A.I's have
been nosing around and being a general pain in humanities backside.
Throughout the year they have pushed more and more into human and
Verecian Space. They now have a solid presence in every system where a
Nebula exists.The Coalition and Privateers have rallied more than
once to push them back from various systems and planets but still they
come. It is hoped that the Genesis Planets can generate enough automated
military hardware this coming year to turn the tide and through the use
of a 'to be announced' War-board be able to push the AI off the planets
they have a hold on and out of the systems and back into the Nebulas.Mean while the Galactic Research Project keeps working on new technology in a hope to level the playing field against the AI.During
2013 the Ship Crew system was released. Whilst its still only in its
initial format it has proven very popular with players and the current
crew mission count stands at well over 44,000 completed missions. This
system will mature in 2014 as we add more facets to it.2013 saw
us move from 180 day inactive accounts to 365 days. That means you can
leave your account with us for up to 365 days of inactivity before it
moves to the deletion queue. This was due to a fairly large influx of
'returning' players, so we thought why not.This year saw the
invention of Zero Point Items, this has spread across a fair amount of
the Structure point based systems and offers players both supporting via
the store, and via the Festive Store in game, to grab Zero Structure
point items.This year also saw a fair amount of stores opened up
to the Player Settlements. The addition of a few like the GBM and Sven /
Boris were happily received.Fuel Depots were expanded on and
more were added through the Galaxies making it that much easier to get
to your Fuel depot account and siphon off some of that much needed
supply.Settlement license locations were extended adding another
30 this year to cope with the demand and offer some expansion where it
was needed. Whilst we loose the odd settlement here and there we still
manage to hold a solid level of lively and active settlements. Currently
the figure stands are 252 open settlements.The Naristo opened a
buy back scheme for captains with items (non Misc) to purchase back for
the local Talas Currency. Look them up in the finder.The
Explorers League managed to negotiate permission from the Central
Heritage Fund to allow the collection and trade of Archaeology
Treasures. Up till then these were only collected by the Central
Heritage Fund when they were sold off privately by Captains.This
lead to the Explorers League offering Transfer Offices to all
Settlements Level Five or higher. These offices Trade High Tech Loot
types for specific Archaeology Treasures.The collection Point was
extended to a 30 day period. Makes for an easier life when you don't
have to worry about a 7 day shelf life of items. The GBM began offering
a filtered service to display your fellow guild mates.During
2013 we opened up the option to 'build your own Derelict'. The process
is not easy and takes dedication and time but we had some great entries
and we currently have a number in the queue for moderation.Of
course hot on the heels of that was Derelict Combat and Planet Combat.
Close Quarters Combat opened up yet another facet to Core-Exiles and I
know many of you have been having fun with this initial foray in to CQC.Advanced
Refinery Management was added, allowing captains to begin utilising
Advanced Merlin Refineries. These are fed by using the new Advance
Automated Mining drones. These mine all the higher elements from an
Asteroid field and drop them into a central store that the Penworthy
Faction has worked out with the Refinery companies.The end
product is advanced higher elements required for some of the really
advanced builds to come in 2014. It is hoped that these along with the
QMG elements added this year and the AI resources being collected will
aid humanity in the fight against the AI threat.Lets not forget
that during this year we have seen the addition of the Genesis Project
Faction and the Penworthy Faction. Both of these taking their places
next to the other 16 factions you can gain ranks and titles in game.Coming up in 2014�We
can expect the war between humanity and the AI to ramp up. If the
player base pulls together and Genesis Plots are fully utilized, and
players work to gather QMG, AI and Advanced Merlin Resources they might
just pull it off.The War-board will come in to action allowing
players to deploy their hard crafted defences into the systems under
attack. Players both new and established should then be able to work
together to start to chip away at the AI.It's likely that the
Coalition will agree on star base licensing and that we will see the
first Starbases owned and ran by players begin to populate our systems.
Of course before that I suspect that our Alien allies will agree to let
humanity open Settlements within the Expanse of course if they ever
finish Project Next Step.A number of in game facets will be given
an overhaul or simply added to as the year goes on. Guilds, RAID
combat, ships crew and pets will all be given some TLC at one time or
another.So as much as 2013 has been pretty non stop for me 2014 will be just as full.Thanks
for taking the time to read this and if you're still awake, have
yourself a very merry Christmas. If your around for the Christmas week
think about joining us in chat or in the Mech Battle that will be taking