Welcome to Vendetta 1.7, the production use of the new User Interface layout and features. For those who were already testing the new UI, the biggest thing added in this version over the previous versions is the new tutorial and training system. For users with brand-new accounts, a short mandatory tutorial walks them through the process of purchasing and equipping their ship. Then a series of optional Training missions help introduce them to the game, culminating in a Basic Flight Status mission which gives them a boost in experience and starting money.

Hopefully these features will help give our game a more friendly face to newbies, especially those who are *not* avid gamers and may be playing an online game for the first time. For any existing players who want to try the new tutorials, start a fresh character and then immediately go into Options -> Interface and select the option to "re-take" the tutorial. This will give the brand-new-user experience.

Shortcut keys and other UI tweaks also make this version beneficial. There are also new global hotkeys in the station/PDA for:

Maximizing/Minimizing chat: "z"
Open the Bar Chat: "h"
Mission Interface: "m"
Navigation Interface: "n"

..These should work from anywhere other than a text-entry field (like typing in chat, obviously).

Changelog:

- new station and HUD interfaces are enabled now
- new first-time mandatory tutorial explaining how to purchase a ship
- new tutorial missions
- new players are no longer given a free ship and a tutorial mission. Player are walked through doing it themselves.
- missions are now abortable via 'Abort' button in Mission Log
- new characters are now selected when they are created
- fixed Reload All Ammo button
- homestation is displayed in character tab under the character's credits
- updated hotkeys for new station interface, hotkey shows up brighter in addition to it being underlined
- mouseover text for some station buttons
- when a mission finishes, it is selected in the mission log tab so players can see what it said when it ended.
- removed 'activatechattab' command
- removed ability to switch chat modes in HUD (!/@ keys)
- fixed article before station factions when they are vowels
- Logitech lcd keyboard level values weren't showing the new relative ranges
- storms no longer appear in capitol/newbie systems
- fixed stasis pod icon for newly dropped items in spy mission
- locally produced commodities are now labeled as such

Please report any bugs or problems on the forum or via the bug reporter. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.