Hello, hello! It's been a while since my last report and there is a very good and justifiable reason for that...I didn't want to. (Editor's note: That's a joke.) The real life hammer hit me faster than expected and I had a lot happen over a short period that impacted my ability to do anything really DJB related. But, recovering from that period now and ready to get going!

You might be wondering when the next content drop is coming. The answer to that is Soon(TM). Initially we planned on doing a "Rise of Fallen Mandalorian" update but after the size of our last release and its duration, this one is even bigger so...yeah, not doin' that. Instead, we're looking at breaking it up into smaller chunks and doing more releases in a short window rather than one big release. We're about 70% done the first content drop, so look to see that sooner rather than later.

Now, if I'm not dropping a change log the size of a small moon on your head, then what is the point of this report? Well, upgrades is the point! The first release of the upgrades deploy is coming! We've looked at how we're going to handle other items, but Space Vehicles is the complicated red-headed stepchild and it needed to come up first. Many thanks to the team under Evant that prepared the initial groundwork that we have built off of into this full release. Timeline wise, members should expect us to enter a partial maintenance window this coming weekend. In that time, we will be closing the space vehicle store and they will be unavailable for purchase while we make this change.

Now you may be asking what exactly this change is...and that's what we're going to talk about!

Table of Contents

• What to Expect: Upgrades
• Future: Clan Holdings Expansion
• Important Links

What to Expect: Upgrades

Upgrades is a major change to the Possessions system that has been a long time coming. It's less of a change as it is a realignment to what Possessions was always meant to be. However, this will be a departure for those that have grown accustomed to the current system. The first and biggest change is best shown, rather than told:

Yes, giant red X's! All aspects aside from Cosmetic are being removed from all member space vehicles. In its place, space vehicles will have item slots assigned to them based on a variety of factors. These slots include modifications, weapon hardpoints, and launcher variants. We will then be reintroducing a Modification aspect that will be non-functional in nature to cover non-Upgrade related changes. That is to say, you want your ship to have a giant closet full of capes? This is your guy. You want to add more dorsal fins because more edges equals more speed? Your friend is this guy! But it will no longer be used for functions.

Now, it is important to realize that aspects functioned in a specific way. Each positive needed a balance. With upgrades, since you're purchasing them, you get the positive and the only balance is you can only slot so many at a time. There is no downside baked into the upgrades themselves. And yes, I said "purchase". We will be introducing a new specialized store that offers all space vehicle upgrades in a single location for purchase.

Welcome to Synergy Starship Outfitters!

This is where you're going to be heading to peruse our wares. Every single type of upgrade will be available for purchase within this item store. You will be greeted with tiers of upgrades that are categorized by type and rarity. These types/rarities coincide with the slots made available on the ships. A higher rarity ship can have higher rarity upgrades slotted. For anyone who has worked with Clan holdings, the slotting process should be familiar. You just manage the item and use the slot button which will give you a list of items valid for slotting from your possessions. Then you just pick the item to slot. For those unfamiliar, it's pretty simple and you'll get the hang of it quickly.

Now, here's the basic idea of the slotting for you:

• Common ship: No Slot
• Uncommon ship: 1 Basic Slot, 1 Possible Basic Hardpoint or Launcher Slot
• Rare ship: 3 Upgrade Slots (more types), 1 Possible Hardpoint and/or Launcher Slot
• Epic ship: Same as Rare but access to Epic quality upgrades
• Legendary ship: Same as Rare but access to Legendary quality upgrades

The attentive amongst you might be aware that we have very few Legendary class ships, which potentially closes off an entire section of upgrades. That's a future problem with a potential solution. We're currently exploring the best approach to being able to convert a lower rarity ship into a Legendary ship, giving them access to the Legendary tier upgrades. This is still in open discussion with a couple possible implementations, but we want to be sure to find the best option for the member experience we are cultivating.

So, that's basically it. Hopefully it's straightforward but we can field any questions that may come from this. Please note, you will lose your existing aspects when this is implemented. If you have a current Modification Aspect that you'd like to try to convert to the new Modification Aspect slot, I recommend saving it ahead of time.

Future: Clan Holdings Expansion

Now, this is less informational and more of a teaser. I've got some of my staff working on the initial brain dump for my long desired Clan Holdings expansion. The intent of this is to add more options for Clans to add their holdings to Possessions. This will range from military structures to additional space stations. As an example of a Legendary clan holding, some might recall a certain planetary scale shield from Rogue One. That's the kind of thing we're looking at. Maybe you want the anti-ship ion cannon from Empire Strikes Back. This is the expansion that will include those.

Obviously, with a major addition to Possessions like this that will take over some of what used to just be "written in", we need to evaluate everything from pricing to what funds the Clans have available and handle it accordingly. We don't happen to have the solution readily on hand, as this is early stages, but sharing the thoughts we have on the matter. Know that this is something we're looking into with an eye to the future.

Important Links

• Item Research
• Item Stores
• Item Aspect Approval Policy
• Item Prototype Approval Policy
• Suggestion Box

Thank you for reading and remember: any questions relating to the Possessions system, item mechanics, or features can be emailed to me directly at [Log in to view e-mail addresses].