<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Combat on Big Bang Smugglers</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/tags/combat/</link><description>Recent content in Combat on Big Bang Smugglers</description><generator>Hugo</generator><language>en-us</language><copyright>© 2024–2026 Protovision Games. All rights reserved.</copyright><lastBuildDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://bigbangsmugglers.com/tags/combat/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>Combat</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/guide/combat/</link><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/guide/combat/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Combat is instant and automatic. You engage, the server resolves the whole
fight in one shot, and you read the report. There is no round-by-round input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="before-the-dice-the-gates"&gt;Before the dice: the gates&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Every engagement runs the same checks, in this order:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not yourself.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Safe territory.&lt;/strong&gt; Federation territory and flagged safe zones are an
absolute block — they override even a PvP-enabled galaxy.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The galaxy has PvP enabled.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Same sector, same galaxy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The target isn&amp;rsquo;t cloaked&lt;/strong&gt; — a cloaked ship reads as simply not there
unless your effective StarNav is 4 or better.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not in your corporation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The target isn&amp;rsquo;t landed&lt;/strong&gt; on their own or their corp&amp;rsquo;s planet.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Neither of you is under PvP immunity.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Engaging costs &lt;strong&gt;1 turn&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v2.3.0 — You Asked, We Built It</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-09-22-v2-3-0/</link><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-09-22-v2-3-0/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Most of this release came straight from the Discord. Thank you to everyone who reported, tested and argued about it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="planets"&gt;Planets&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Auto-collect.&lt;/strong&gt; Each production cycle&amp;rsquo;s output now goes straight into your planet&amp;rsquo;s storage, up to its cap. No more flying around every cycle to press Collect. If a planet&amp;rsquo;s storage fills up, the planet screen and your &amp;ldquo;while you were away&amp;rdquo; summary tell you so.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Planet XP.&lt;/strong&gt; Building structures now earns experience. The amount scales with the structure and the level you reach: a level-1 warehouse pays 60 XP, and a level-5 citadel pays 900. Colonizing pays 1 XP per worker.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; missions that asked you to upgrade a planet could never complete.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; leaving a season now releases your planets for others to claim.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; collecting right after a cycle boundary could skip a cycle&amp;rsquo;s production.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="mines"&gt;Mines&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Each captain can now deploy up to &lt;strong&gt;500 mines&lt;/strong&gt; across the galaxy, up from 50.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sectors where you own a planet allow 50 extra.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="smuggling-rebalance"&gt;Smuggling rebalance&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Market-priced contraband.&lt;/strong&gt; Black Market prices now follow the local market instead of a flat rate. Selling back to the same fence earns a modest, safe profit. The big money is still in lawful space, at real risk.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;100 per purchase.&lt;/strong&gt; You can buy up to 100 units of any contraband type in one purchase.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hidden compartments stay hidden.&lt;/strong&gt; When a patrol catches you over your hidden allowance, it now takes only the overflow. The fine is based on what that cargo cost you.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NPC traders&lt;/strong&gt; now charge more than a Black Market for contraband, never less.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="alignment"&gt;Alignment&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jettison workers is live.&lt;/strong&gt; Dump mining workers from your hold for −10 alignment each. It&amp;rsquo;s the fast road toward the pirate side.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat"&gt;Combat&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Defenders loot.&lt;/strong&gt; Beat someone who attacked you and you take a cut of their wallet. Banked credits stay safe.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bounties pay both ways.&lt;/strong&gt; If a wanted captain attacks you and loses, you collect their bounty.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No self-sieges.&lt;/strong&gt; Corps can&amp;rsquo;t siege their own ports.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No sieges under immunity.&lt;/strong&gt; Captains under immunity can&amp;rsquo;t siege ports or plant limpets.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cloaks break when you act.&lt;/strong&gt; Sieges, raids, Black Market deals, banking and ship purchases now drop your cloak.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; equipped hull plating was increasing hull damage instead of reducing it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; mines could hit your replacement ship right after a fatal ambush.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="navigation"&gt;Navigation&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Warps charge their full cost up front.&lt;/strong&gt; If you&amp;rsquo;re stopped partway, the turns for the hops you didn&amp;rsquo;t fly come back.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; warp interrupts with no contact.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed:&lt;/strong&gt; arriving hidden after a wormhole jump while landed on a planet.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Warp exploration now counts toward missions and goals.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="fixes-you-reported"&gt;Fixes you reported&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Corp bank.&lt;/strong&gt; Deposits and withdrawals now show up instantly for the whole crew.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tavern intel.&lt;/strong&gt; Results no longer run off the screen.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Buying a ship.&lt;/strong&gt; Hulls with bonus cargo space no longer destroy cargo that would have fit.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prices you&amp;rsquo;re shown now match what you&amp;rsquo;re charged&lt;/strong&gt;, including StarNav and drive faction discounts, trade fees, and the port price board.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Screens now show real numbers.&lt;/strong&gt; Wormhole destinations are real, ambush recaps no longer invent &amp;ldquo;50% even odds&amp;rdquo;, and planet production rates are correct.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Corps.&lt;/strong&gt; Rosters update live, and you no longer appear offline while connected.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="under-the-hood"&gt;Under the hood&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Security hardening&lt;/strong&gt; around docking and port services.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Console improvements:&lt;/strong&gt; bulk bans, and version updates from the Broadcast desk.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cleanup:&lt;/strong&gt; idle, never-played seats now free themselves.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many smaller consistency and race-condition fixes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description></item><item><title>v2.2.1 — Bug Sweep</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-29-v2-2-1/</link><pubDate>Sat, 29 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-29-v2-2-1/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;A bug sweep from captain field reports.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat--missions"&gt;Combat &amp;amp; missions&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Defeating an NPC that ambushed you — mid-move or mid-warp — now counts toward mission objectives and goal ladders (&lt;em&gt;Scourge of Pirates&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Terror of the Lanes&lt;/em&gt;). Previously only fights you initiated counted, even though the kill showed in your stats.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Made of Money&lt;/em&gt; now progresses: bank deposits were never counted toward the goal, for anyone.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="ship--inventory"&gt;Ship &amp;amp; inventory&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Supply shop purchases (Sentry Drones, mines, turrets, buoys, cloak fields) appear on the Ship screen&amp;rsquo;s Ordnance card immediately.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Recalling your own nav beacon returns it to inventory, as the confirmation promised. Destroying someone else&amp;rsquo;s still grants nothing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="navigation"&gt;Navigation&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Nav tab lists every ship in your sector, including offline captains (shown dimmed, still targetable) — it now agrees with sector scans and StarNav counts.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="stats--leaderboards"&gt;Stats &amp;amp; leaderboards&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Settings player stats card shows real season numbers — K/D, missions, goals, bounties, trades — instead of zeros.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Planets claimed, distance traveled, and streak milestones are now tracked, count toward lifetime career totals, and the planets season award is winnable for the first time.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Overall leaderboard scores are labeled with XP and credits.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Counting starts from this release — earlier kills and deposits show in your stats but predate the counters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v2.2.0 — The Premium Market Opens</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-23-v2-2-0/</link><pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-23-v2-2-0/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The smuggling career gets its missing half, and a rare cosmic dead end gets repaired.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="smuggling--the-premium-market-opens"&gt;Smuggling — the premium market opens&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Contraband can finally be sold the way the career was designed:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hot Cargo&lt;/strong&gt; — at any port outside a fence sector, sell contraband at street premium. The trade screen quotes the real price per unit and the region&amp;rsquo;s customs detection risk before you commit; get caught and the goods are seized plus a fine.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fence it flat&lt;/strong&gt; — Black Market ports now have sell cards with real quoted prices. Flat rate, no scan, no questions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fixed: contraband cargo volume was counted wrong outside the black market, so your holds could read &amp;ldquo;free&amp;rdquo; while buys said &amp;ldquo;full.&amp;rdquo; Hold math is now honest everywhere — ship screen, trading, loot, and planet transfers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat"&gt;Combat&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The battle result screen now shows the real numbers: both ships&amp;rsquo; fighters, shields, and torpedoes, each side&amp;rsquo;s losses, and combat power — for PvP and NPC fights alike. No more rows of zeros.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v2.0.8 — Standing Restored</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-04-v2-0-8-standing-restored/</link><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-04-v2-0-8-standing-restored/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Changelog for v2.0.8.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="standing"&gt;Standing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Clean customs scans now award standing, with an on-screen confirmation.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Daily, seasonal and ad-hoc missions carry standing rewards (lawful positive, underworld negative).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Surviving a pirate ambush awards defensive standing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Warp arrivals surface patrol inspections; previously the contact expired unused.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="world-tick"&gt;World tick&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The four-hour cycle ran twice per boundary. Port upkeep, delinquency accrual and market restock were applied twice each cycle; now applied once. The backup trigger remains in place.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="trading-and-ships"&gt;Trading and ships&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Cargo could not be sold while carrying contraband of the same commodity.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ship capacity upgrades (holds, shields, fighters, torpedoes) were unreachable from the starport.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Hull repair was unavailable when shields were full; repair results now report actual restoration.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ship rename reported failure on success.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Restock, rename and upgrade prices now come from the server catalog.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Repairs no longer refill fighters and torpedoes; munitions come from restock.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="planets-and-stations"&gt;Planets and stations&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Planet ownership checks failed for all owners; owner-only features were unreachable.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Garrison staffing, starbase construction and trading posts were not connected to the current backend.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Trading post income was accruing with no way to collect it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Planet rename and corp-internal deed transfer added.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat"&gt;Combat&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Defense contracts no longer permit attacking while protected.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A lost fleet strike no longer overwrites a purchased contract.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fleet kills apply the same alignment, statistics and immunity consequences as solo kills.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Respawn protection applies after every death.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Named NPCs retain damage between engagements and regenerate over time.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Losing an engagement no longer awards experience.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="progression"&gt;Progression&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Player level is derived from the season curve at every write path.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Mission completions count toward the missions leaderboard.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Event progress accrues without opening the Events screen.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Maximum-tier scanners reported empty sectors.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Starting sector is marked visited on join.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Provisions charge only for turns delivered; cloaks last a fixed duration.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="other"&gt;Other&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Economy pricing corrections.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Security hardening across the API and live connections.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Leaderboards no longer expose exact player balances.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Migrations: galaxy tick boundary claims, ban revocation notifications.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v2.0.2 / v2.0.3 — Launch Weekend Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-02-v2-0-3-launch-weekend-fixes/</link><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-08-02-v2-0-3-launch-weekend-fixes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;The first weekend of 2.0 brought real players, and real players find real bugs. Two patches went out in response — thank you to the captains who filed reports. You know who you are, and soon the galaxy will too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="v202"&gt;v2.0.2&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Defense contracts now mean it.&lt;/strong&gt; A purchased contract grants full combat immunity for its window — NPC pirate and patrol ambushes are suppressed, not just player attacks. If you bought two hours of peace to trade, you get two hours of peace.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Honest trade numbers.&lt;/strong&gt; Your cargo now tracks what you actually paid for it (weighted average, taxes and fees included), so sell screens report true profit — including negative profit when you dump at a loss. Fee and tax estimates now come from the live market instead of guesses.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The feed tells the story.&lt;/strong&gt; Combat outcomes, port and planet captures, arrests at dock, and more now appear with real names and details in the galaxy feed and the &amp;ldquo;while you were away&amp;rdquo; recap, instead of generic labels.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fixed a crash when expanding Recent Sectors, and added an app-wide safety net so a single broken screen can no longer blank the whole app.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="v203"&gt;v2.0.3&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ship tiers display correctly.&lt;/strong&gt; Owned ships showed &amp;ldquo;Tier 1&amp;rdquo; no matter the hull — and that phantom tier was blocking warp drive installation on tier-2+ ships. Your Tristar Hauler is, and always was, Tier 3; now the game admits it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fixed a crash when engaging an enemy&lt;/strong&gt; from the sector view.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Engage intel is real.&lt;/strong&gt; Enemy fighters, shields, and torpedoes now show actual values in the engage dialog (win estimates were being computed from zeroed stats).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New: the Hull Whisperer insignia&lt;/strong&gt; — a season honor granted by the GM to players whose bug reports shaped the season. It burns with the season, like all insignia. Earn it the hard way: break our game and tell us how.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Android: version 2.0.3 is rolling out on Google Play. Web players at &lt;a href="https://play.bigbangsmugglers.com"&gt;play.bigbangsmugglers.com&lt;/a&gt; are already on it.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.22.0 — Planet Parking, Active Defenses, and Mission Alerts</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-07-01-v1-22-0-planet-parking-active-defenses-mission-alerts/</link><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-07-01-v1-22-0-planet-parking-active-defenses-mission-alerts/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.22.0 makes your planets meaningfully harder to crack, adds a full in-app ship catalog, and pushes reminders before your missions expire.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This release also closes several mine-behavior bugs and tightens up combat rules that were leaving gaps in what sector defenses actually covered.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="planet-parking-and-citadel-defense"&gt;Planet Parking and Citadel Defense&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ships can now land on planets you own. While landed, the full citadel defense stack — shields, garrison fighters, deployed mines — applies before an attacker can reach your hull. Your planet has to fall before your ship does.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.21.0 — Tactical Deployables, Defense, and Economy Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-19-v1-21-0-tactical-deployables-defense-economy/</link><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-19-v1-21-0-tactical-deployables-defense-economy/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.21.0 expands tactical options, tightens several combat and defense rules, and removes some stale UI and backend paths that were getting in the way.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This release improves how deployables work in the field, restores clearer upgrade access in port UI, rebalances planet economics, and fixes a cluster of state and defense bugs uncovered after the v1.19.0 and v1.20.0 releases.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="tactical-deployables-and-intel"&gt;Tactical Deployables and Intel&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Limpet Trackers are now more usable as an actual intelligence tool instead of a one-off novelty.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.19.0 — Fleets, Garages, and Ship Destruction</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-17-v1-19-0-fleets-garages-ship-destruction/</link><pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-17-v1-19-0-fleets-garages-ship-destruction/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.19.0 is a major systems release focused on making ship ownership, corporation coordination, and combat consequences much deeper.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This update adds ship destruction with escape-pod recovery, multi-ship ownership with garage and Starbase storage, corporation fleets and shared fleet rewards, private corporation chat, Tesseract Drive travel, stronger planet export income, and a long set of combat and interface fixes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="ship-destruction-and-escape-pod-recovery"&gt;Ship Destruction and Escape-Pod Recovery&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ships can now be destroyed instead of lingering in a repairable zero-state, and depleted defenses warn you before you cross that line.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.18.0 — Planets 2.0</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-13-v1-18-0-planets-2/</link><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:13:44 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-06-13-v1-18-0-planets-2/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.18.0 is the largest planet update in Big Bang Smugglers history, paired with cinematic travel moments, new combat systems, and improvements across trade, navigation, and corporation management.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="planets-20--claim-build-and-defend-your-worlds"&gt;Planets 2.0 — Claim, Build, and Defend Your Worlds&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Planet development is fundamentally richer in v1.18.0.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The planet economy is now config-driven with up to 2.5× production output, so a well-developed world produces far more than before.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Planets can now be taken by force. The new siege combat module lets you assault rival planets and capture them for your own. On defense, build a Barracks to produce fighters and garrison your planet, then cap it with the Citadel — a high-tier capstone structure that boosts both production and defensive strength.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.14.4 -- Combat, Intel, and Sector Stability</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-21-v1-14-4-combat-intel-and-sector-stability/</link><pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 22:01:00 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-21-v1-14-4-combat-intel-and-sector-stability/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.14.4 is a bugfix release focused on keeping moment-to-moment sector play cleaner and more predictable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This update fixes sector traffic clustering, duplicate pirate encounters after wins, overlapping combat result screens, broken Sector Intelligence reveals, missing Federation reputation gains, stat cap mismatches in the shipyard, and missing player and ship detail in sector presence displays.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="sector-traffic-cleanup"&gt;Sector Traffic Cleanup&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Federation patrol ships now distribute correctly instead of crowding into a single sector.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.13.0 — Progression, Combat, and QoL</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-08-v1-13-0-progression-combat-qol/</link><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:15:00 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-08-v1-13-0-progression-combat-qol/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.13.0 is a quality-of-life release focused on progression clarity, cleaner combat feedback, and fewer frustrating edge cases in trading, movement, and corporation flows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="cargo-hold-milestones"&gt;Cargo Hold Milestones&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cargo hold upgrades now use a clearer five-tier milestone system.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This makes ship progression easier to understand at a glance and gives hold growth a more structured sense of advancement instead of feeling like a flat list of incremental purchases.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="trading-wallet-and-upgrade-accuracy"&gt;Trading, Wallet, and Upgrade Accuracy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several economy and upgrade edge cases were cleaned up in this release.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.12.2 — Season &amp; Trading Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-06-v1-12-2-season-trading-fixes/</link><pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-06-v1-12-2-season-trading-fixes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.12.2 is a stability and accuracy pass across seasons, trading, combat, and exploration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="season-setup-accuracy"&gt;Season Setup Accuracy&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Season setup screens now display correct counts, combat stats, and Past Seasons data. Previously, certain values could drift out of sync — this release ensures the numbers you see match your actual season record.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="trading-and-pirate-combat-fixes"&gt;Trading and Pirate Combat Fixes&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Edge cases in trading and pirate combat that could mis-handle cargo quantities or credit totals have been resolved. Transactions and combat loot now settle correctly in all scenarios.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.10.2 — Combat Stat Fix</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-02-v1-10-2-combat-stat-fix/</link><pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:35 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-04-02-v1-10-2-combat-stat-fix/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.10.2 is a targeted combat fix.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This update corrects a bug where significant stat advantages were not carrying their expected weight in battle. Ships with heavy shields or large combat power leads were still suffering total defeats against much weaker opponents — an outcome that should have been rare but was happening too often.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat-outcomes-now-reflect-stat-gaps"&gt;Combat Outcomes Now Reflect Stat Gaps&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The core issue: shields were providing little to no actual damage mitigation, and attrition losses were not scaling with the actual gap between combatants.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.9.5 — NPC &amp; Bounty Stability Update</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-22-v1-9-5-npc-bounty-stability/</link><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:25:00 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-22-v1-9-5-npc-bounty-stability/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.9.5 is a stabilization update for the new NPC engagement and faction bounty systems, plus a long-overdue wiring fix for stations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This release focuses on making the systems introduced in the recent major updates work reliably in live gameplay.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="npc-combat-button-fixes"&gt;NPC Combat Button Fixes&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several attack buttons in the new NPC interaction flows were sending the wrong parameters to combat initiation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This prevented combat from resolving correctly from multiple modal paths. The wiring is now corrected across the affected NPC interaction screens.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.8.0 — Combat Overhaul</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-21-v1-8-0-combat-overhaul/</link><pubDate>Sat, 21 Mar 2026 21:58:00 -0400</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-21-v1-8-0-combat-overhaul/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.8.0 is a major combat overhaul release.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This update reworks how combat feels across the game. Ship tier still matters, but fighters, torpedoes, shields, stealth, environment, faction behavior, and NPC interactions all matter much more than before.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat-formula-rebalance"&gt;Combat Formula Rebalance&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The underlying combat formulas have been retuned so consumables and loadout decisions are decisive instead of marginal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This includes:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;reduced ship base power dominance&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;much stronger fighter, torpedo, and shield weighting&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;shield-based attrition reduction&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;torpedo shield penetration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;fighter superiority shifting win odds before the main combat roll&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The result is that stocked ships, better prep, and better tactical choices matter much more.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Combat System Highlights: v1.2.6 through v1.4.3</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-combat-system-highlights/</link><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-combat-system-highlights/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Over the past couple of weeks, combat has seen the most significant overhaul in Big Bang Smugglers history. This is a quick summary of what changed and why.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="shields-are-now-the-only-thing-you-repair"&gt;Shields Are Now the Only Thing You Repair&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Before v1.4.0, repair was a blurry concept. The starport would try to restore fighters, torpedoes, and shields all at once, but the math was inconsistent and the display was confusing. More importantly, it didn&amp;rsquo;t make a lot of thematic sense — you don&amp;rsquo;t &amp;ldquo;repair&amp;rdquo; bullets.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.4.3 — Combat Loss Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-3-combat-effects-fix/</link><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-3-combat-effects-fix/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.4.3 fixes a series of bugs where losing a fight had no real consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat-losses-now-stick"&gt;Combat Losses Now Stick&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When you lost a fight, the defeat recap screen appeared correctly but nothing actually changed. Your shields, fighters, and credits were untouched, and your ship was never disabled. This happened in two different ways:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For non-aggressive NPCs, the combat commit was fire-and-forget — if it failed silently, you&amp;rsquo;d see the recap but no effects applied. The fix: the app now waits for the commit before showing the recap, and surfaces an error if something goes wrong.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.4.1 — Starport Weapon Purchase</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-1-starport-weapons/</link><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-1-starport-weapons/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.4.1 finishes the weapon purchase system introduced in v1.4.0 and fixes a loot calculation bug.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="weapon-purchase-in-tristar-shipyard"&gt;Weapon Purchase in TriStar Shipyard&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Fighter Bay and Torpedo Bay are now available inside the TriStar Shipyard &amp;amp; Maintenance Bay at any starport. Use the quantity stepper to buy as many fighters or torpedoes as you want at flat prices — 75 credits per fighter, 150 credits per torpedo — up to your ship&amp;rsquo;s maximum capacity.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.4.0 — Combat Overhaul</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-0-combat-overhaul/</link><pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-10-v1-4-0-combat-overhaul/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.4.0 is a significant overhaul of the combat system and how you manage your ship&amp;rsquo;s weapons and defenses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="attack-vs-defense"&gt;Attack vs Defense&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Combat power is now split into separate attack and defense calculations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shields&lt;/strong&gt; are pure defense. They have no effect on your attack power — only on how hard you are to damage or disable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fighters&lt;/strong&gt; are pure attack. They deal damage but contribute nothing to your defense.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Torpedoes&lt;/strong&gt; are pure attack with a heavier punch than fighters. One torpedo is worth roughly 2.5 fighters in attack power, but costs twice as much to purchase.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.3.6 — Combat Rewards Fixed</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-09-v1-3-6-combat-writes-fixed/</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-09-v1-3-6-combat-writes-fixed/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.3.6 fixes a significant bug where NPC combat had no real consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="what-was-broken"&gt;What Was Broken&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After the instant combat changes in v1.3.1–v1.3.4, none of the combat results were actually being saved. Win or lose, your ship took no damage, you received no loot, and disabled ships stayed active. The battle recap showed the correct outcome — but nothing behind it was real.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two separate bugs combined to cause this:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background execution:&lt;/strong&gt; Cloud Functions v2 does not reliably run code after a response is sent. The previous architecture used a &amp;ldquo;fire and forget&amp;rdquo; pattern to apply combat effects after returning the move result to the app. In practice, this meant the writes were silently dropped.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.3.4 — Flee Now Works</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-4-flee-fix/</link><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-4-flee-fix/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.3.4 fixes a bug introduced with instant combat in v1.3.1.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="flee-no-longer-damages-your-ship"&gt;Flee No Longer Damages Your Ship&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When you encountered a non-aggressive NPC and chose to flee, your ship was still taking damage and could be disabled — even though you never attacked. This happened because combat was being resolved and written to the database the moment you entered the sector, before you made a choice.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now combat is computed instantly as before, but the result is only committed when you actually hit Attack. If you flee, nothing is written and your ship is untouched. Ambush encounters (where flee is not an option) are unchanged and still resolve immediately.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.3.3 — Feed Privacy Fix</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-3-feed-fixes/</link><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-3-feed-fixes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.3.3 fixes a privacy bug in the Galaxy Feed and cleans up the feed layout.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="feed-privacy-fix"&gt;Feed Privacy Fix&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Private NPC combat messages — the first-person results like &amp;ldquo;Dread Jackal disabled your ship&amp;rdquo; — were appearing in other players&amp;rsquo; feeds instead of only the player who was attacked. This was caused by a query in the feed search path that wasn&amp;rsquo;t filtering by player. Three layers of protection are now in place: backend query filtering, Firestore security rules, and scoped real-time listeners on the client. Private messages are now only visible to the player they belong to.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.3.2 — Instant Combat</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-2-instant-combat/</link><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 01:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-08-v1-3-2-instant-combat/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;v1.3.2 is a significant architecture improvement to how NPC encounters work.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="instant-combat-results"&gt;Instant Combat Results&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Previously, when you entered a sector and encountered an NPC, hitting Attack triggered a second backend call that had to cold-start, look up your ship and cargo, resolve the fight, write the results to the database, and then return — all while you waited. This could take anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.2.3 — Bug Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-05-v1-2-3-bug-fixes/</link><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-05-v1-2-3-bug-fixes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Version 1.2.3 is a follow-up to &lt;a href="https://bigbangsmugglers.com/release-notes/2026-03-05-v1-2-1-performance-warp-combat/"&gt;v1.2.1&lt;/a&gt;, which introduced several regressions that made it into the Play Store before they were caught. This release finishes what 1.2.1 started.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="combat-power"&gt;Combat Power&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Your combat power was always displaying as 50 during NPC encounters regardless of your actual fighters, shields, and torpedoes. The screen data endpoint that powers the navigation screen was returning a stripped-down ship object that omitted combat stats entirely. It now returns the full stat set, so your displayed combat power reflects your actual ship.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.2.1 — Performance, Warp, and Combat Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-05-v1-2-1-performance-warp-combat/</link><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-05-v1-2-1-performance-warp-combat/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Version 1.2.1 is a performance and bug fix release. The game should feel noticeably faster across the board.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="performance"&gt;Performance&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Every cloud function call &amp;ndash; moving, trading, scanning, combat, warp, everything &amp;ndash; was force-refreshing the authentication token before executing. Firebase tokens are valid for an hour, so this was an unnecessary server round trip on every single action, adding roughly half a second to a full second of latency each time. That is removed. The whole game is faster now.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>v1.2.0 — Ship Class Overhaul and Upgrade Improvements</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-04-v1-2-0-ship-class-overhaul/</link><pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-03-04-v1-2-0-ship-class-overhaul/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Version 1.2.0 makes ship choice matter more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="ship-class-identities"&gt;Ship Class Identities&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Previously all ship classes shared identical shield values at each tier, and the differences between a trading ship and a warship were easy to miss. That changes in 1.2.0.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Trading ships&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;ndash; the Nebula Merchant line and their Smuggling counterparts &amp;ndash; now carry significantly more cargo and escape at 55%. They are not built for combat. Their advantage is in moving goods and getting out when things go wrong.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Planet Combat, Intel Brokers &amp; Starport Fixes</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-21-planet-combat-intel-starport-fixes/</link><pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-21-planet-combat-intel-starport-fixes/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;Big night. 14 issues closed across two parallel workstreams — new features going in while bugs from yesterday&amp;rsquo;s QA session got fixed simultaneously.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="new-features"&gt;New Features&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Planet Combat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can now attack enemy planets. Raid them for loot, hold them with your garrison, lose them if you leave them exposed. The planet raid system closes the loop on one of the biggest gaps from the &lt;a href="https://bigbangsmugglers.com/release-notes/2026-02-06-planets-warp-trade/"&gt;Feb 6th planets audit&lt;/a&gt; — we had colonization and production, but no way to actually fight over territory. That changes today.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>PvP System Overhaul - Sector-Based Combat with Safe Zones</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-14-pvp-system-overhaul/</link><pubDate>Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-14-pvp-system-overhaul/</guid><description>&lt;h2 id="the-problem"&gt;The Problem&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;PvP combat was broken in subtle ways:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wrong Location:&lt;/strong&gt; Battle station was a port service (why would space combat require a port?)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not Enforced:&lt;/strong&gt; The &lt;code&gt;pvpEnabled&lt;/code&gt; flag was cosmetic - didn&amp;rsquo;t actually disable PvP&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Safe Zones:&lt;/strong&gt; New players had no protection, spawned into potential combat immediately&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The result? Confusion, frustration, and PvP that felt tacked-on rather than integrated.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="the-vision"&gt;The Vision&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PvP should be sector-based, not port-based.&lt;/strong&gt; You&amp;rsquo;re in space - combat happens anywhere, anytime (when allowed).&lt;/p&gt;</description></item><item><title>Multiplayer Systems Audit</title><link>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-06-multiplayer-systems-audit/</link><pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://bigbangsmugglers.com/releases/2026-02-06-multiplayer-systems-audit/</guid><description>&lt;p&gt;This is part 2 of the February 6th audit. While one track covered missions and performance, we ran a parallel deep dive into everything multiplayer: PvP, leaderboards, NPCs, and social systems.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The headline: a lot of it was scaffolding.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="pvp-disabled-and-orphaned"&gt;PvP: Disabled and Orphaned&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The PvP combat system had been disabled — the Cloud Functions removed — but the UI was still there. Players could see combat controls. Nothing behind them worked. Combat notifications? Missing. Attacked players weren&amp;rsquo;t notified. The player detection system existed but its only consumer was the disabled combat code.&lt;/p&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>