We're very pleased to focus this month's update on giving you more to see and do while playing Earth & Beyond!

At the heart of our changes this month is the implementation of a new system called "Push Missions" that offers missions to you without the need to visit an NPC or job terminal. The way it works is that while you're engaged in your normal activities, you may be notified of an incoming communication through the new "Message" button on your interface. Clicking the new Message button within thirty minutes of when it begins flashing triggers a mission offer from an NPC. When traveling in less populated areas, your chance of receiving such a mission increases, as there are less pilots for the NPC to choose among to make their offer. This initial iteration of push missions is intended to gauge your interest and enthusiasm and to provide us with your suggestions and feedback about the frequency and types of missions being offered. Please give us your thoughts by visiting the message boards at the Earth & Beyond website (www.earthandbeyond.com).

In addition to our new push mission system, we've revamped Vishao's Cove, Antares, and Varen's Girdle with new and more challenging encounters in both familiar and unfamiliar locations. Spawn difficulties and densities have changed and new loot is being reported. Level 75+ (overall level) pilots should find the reworked sectors interesting and challenging. We invite you to gather some friends and explore the changes.

The ability to sort your cargo and vault has been implemented with this month's update. A new "Sort" button has been added to both the cargo and the vault interfaces. Left-clicking the button will organize the area into groups. The organizational scheme used will change with each click of the button, so you may wish to cycle through all of the options. Right-clicking the button will reverse the current sorting order. Under all sorting methods, like items will be placed into stacks of the maximum allowable size and multiple stacks of the same item will be grouped in adjacent inventory slots. Presently the following sort methods are implemented:

• Sort by the name of the items (alphabetical)
  
• Sort by the type of the items
  
• Sort by the value of the items.

• Green - Trade Goods
  
• Red - Weapons/Ammo
  
• Brown - Components
  
• Yellowish-Green - Resources
  
• Grey - Shields/Equipables/Engines/Reactors

Just in from Net-7...

There Goes the Neighborhood!
Big things are happening in Vishao's Cove, Varen's Girdle and Antares according to reports filtering in to Net-7. "This used to be my favorite place to sit alone and mine" complained one Sha'ha'dem who spoke under condition of anonymity. "Now the place is crawling with all sorts of critters. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I'm going to gather some of my guild and check it out." Unverified reports of extremely dangerous conditions in the three sectors are being taken seriously by local authorities. Be careful out there!

Fragment Frenzy Continues
No one knows where the fragments are coming from, exactly, though several interesting theories have been analyzed thoroughly by top researchers and cryptologists. The frenzy to study and collect the pieces of what may be a single message have consumed the activities of thousands of pilots over the past weeks. Translating, sorting and cross-referencing have led researchers to conclude that they've found all of the fragments and the focus has turned now to the painstaking task of ordering the pieces. At least, that was the plan until this morning when new fragments started being discovered.

Columbia Memorial Joins Challenger in Glory's Orbit
Construction was completed early this morning on the new Columbia Memorial in Glory's Orbit. Somber ceremonies to dedicate the site to the memory of the Columbia STS-107 crew have been planned by a variety of groups interested in ancient Earth history.

Red Dragon Traitors
Sources within the Red Dragon Tongs report that traitors will be dealt with harshly when identified. In related news, the Red Dragon Base in Aragoth Prime has been the site of a great deal of activity and reports indicate that the defensive capability of the base has been increased.

Enjoy!

-Cerdith

Here are the details:

General

• Removed the Blue and Green tutorial and training sectors in order to re-purpose them and removed the designation "Red" from the remaining tutorial sectors. Removed gates that connect to these sectors.

• Added Push Missions to the game. The "Message" button, located at the top of the screen near the emote area, will light up when an NPC has a mission to offer you.
  
• Shortened the time between spawns for the Master Drone Controller in Aganju sector. This allows more players to complete the Landauer Drones mission at the same time.
  
• The Ketsugo Outpost will now be more liberal with who it will assign missions to.

• Reports have come in that the Red Dragons have increased the defensive capabilities of their base in Aragoth Prime. Specifically, an unnamed source has stated that the Shield Unit and Command Center have improved shields. In related news, sources close to the Red Dragons have reported that any Dragons who loot the Aragoth Base will be branded traitors.
  
• Fixed two bugs with the Red Dragon Base encounter in Carpenter. Red Dragon faction will plummet, as always intended, when the cargo pods are destroyed. In addition looting rights on the pods are now assigned to those in the group which destroys the pods.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Nova Games Arena Registrar to attack players with bad Centuriata faction. Since that mob was undamageable, the player was unable to defend himself. These mobs will no longer aggro on you if you have bad faction settings.
  
• Fixed a problem with the Tada-O Gate mobs. They appeared to be agroing on dead players, and while this was not the case, they did have an issue with their chase distance due to tethering. This issue should now be fixed.

• A memorial to honor the crew of the space shuttle Columbia has been placed in Glory's Orbit, near the Challenger and Apollo memorials.
  
• Varen's Girdle has been revamped! New and more challenging entities are now populating the sector in both familiar and unfamiliar locations. Spawn difficulties and densities have been increased, so bring some friends to help haul that new loot. Varen's Girdle is now appropriate for characters overall lvl 75 and higher.
  
• Vishao's Cove has been revamped! There are several new points of interest to explore. Spawn levels and densities have been increased and new loot has been reported. Vishao's Cove is now appropriate for characters overall lvl 75 plus. Groups are encouraged, as these new mobs are full of surprises. Enjoy!
  
• Antares has been revamped! New and more challenging entities are now populating the sector in both familiar and unfamiliar locations. Spawn difficulties and densities have been increased, so bring some friends to help haul that new loot. Antares is now appropriate for characters overall lvl 100 and higher
  
• Players should no longer experience oddities when flying to Yokan planet.
  
• Fixed a bug where the activation distances for the Gallina and Tarsis Gates in the Primus sector were too short. These gates should now have an activation distance of approx. 3K.

• Addition of sort and filter functionality for the player cargo and vault.
  
• Added an "overflow" inventory to catch lost items in certain unusual circumstances involving full cargos. When you encounter an inventory overflow message, please contact a GM for assistance. Use "Gameplay Question" and enter the term "Overflow" in your request for help.
  
• Fixed bug with Roadrunner effect not persisting across sectors or after logging out.
  
• Fixed a bug where a space vendor was too hard to target because he constantly warped around. He should be easier to target for trading. The vendor still roams from gate to gate so it may be harder to track him down since he now moves at impulse only between the gates in Saturn Sector.