Alright guys and gals,

Italy should be live soon if all goes according to plan (cross fingers). There is a note to be made about this large patch besides the special steps necessary for installing it.

The major notice is that we are not considering Italy finalized. Our team agrees with many of the testers that additional time may be needed to make additional improvements or modifications. We were running on a very tight testing schedule and really do wish we had more time available.

As such, we are highly encouraging users to continue providing feedback for additional testing in the Test Server Discussion forum. We hope that with the test team's continued assistance we will see further improvements to this exciting new addition to NF.

Speaking of new additions, there has been talk about why we are not providing a safe haven for displaced Japanese NF players. As much as it pains me to say it, the decision against this was already made by head SDE leaders and NFJP. There appears to be a legal contract blocking what we (GMs) agree would be a welcome boost to our servers. There is no way around this that I can see, and it is plainly unfortunate to put it kindly.

One other rumor related issue that could use addressing has to do with Nexon and the fate of NF2 and the NF that we all hold dear to our hearts. I've asked for some clarification and have received word that nothing is completely decided just yet. While Nexon may assume publishing rights for a region of NF such as Japan, there has not been any finalization concerning the publishing of NF2 for the NA region. In addition, SDE is still fully committed on continuing to run and support NFNA even after NF2 launches. In short, we are not going anywhere and we hope our fans continue to stick with us as we continue improving the game.

Now, on to update news:

1) The new ECV stats should be up shortly on the site with this latest update.

2) The Premium Olive Trade system is scheduled to be ready by summer at the latest. If things go accordingly we should see it ready before then.

3) From the poll results we see that players seem to be in favor of changing the fleet penalty system. We will request this change be made for next month.

4) There has been increased talks concerning our stance on "border humping" and whether or not we would consider officially making it illegal. For the time being we simply do not condone these actions and will be punishing players who are reported for it. Please send us your reports so we may take action on them.

5) Viewing old forum data is not intuitive and can be quite annoying. We will ask our web dev to see if we can change this and possibly make it show in a separate tab for example. 

This is all for the moment.  Stay tuned for further updates and as always, feel free to let us know what you think.

-Randy