Update to revision 160c6c3680c0eb1bfe6d382c1bee36bc5008be9a (+110)

Features:
- R&D has been redesigned to use a tech tree mechanic in which players will use research points to unlock higher level ships over time. This is currently in beta on the dev server and a full release is planned for 2018
- Space combat beta has been released for fighters, gunboats, and corvettes. You may fight bandits that you find in deep space asteroid fields. Most fighters have had their stats updated to perform an initial round of damage balance
- Creature husbandry has been introduced. You may now breed any two creatures you own, to create unique cross-breeds. More details are available on the rules page. We look forward to seeing Squall Dragons and Rancor Berries
- Prime matchmaking has been added to Derra. Players who now verify their cell phone number and reach level 30 will be eligible for special PvP drops

Rules:
- You may only use images for your avatar that match your character's race. The Spying Rules have been updated to reflect this
- New gender options have been added to reflect the diversity in the SW Universe. You may now also choose between male, female, both, neither, non-binary, stargender, attack helicopter, navy seal, Rick Astley, and Iron Fist
- In-game actions will no longer award XP. Instead it will be given out through a community voting process. See the Life and Death rules for more information
- The HP equation has been updated to account for high level players being effectively invulnerable to artillery and Krayt Dragons. All HP has been divided by 10. See the Life and Death rules for more information
- Hyper travel times have been increased by an average of 250% to balance against combat, see the Movement rules for more information
- All sniper rifle damage has been increased by 10%
- Due to balance problems for low-level players, the HP equation has been rewritten again. All entity HP has been increased by a factor of 10. See the Life and Death rules for more information
- The Diplomacy/Trading skill has been renamed to Speechcraft
- All combat skills have been merged and renamed to Warcraft

Tweaks:
- Production automatically multinames entities. There is now a checkbox to control this behavior. Default is to not multiname. (#3009)
- Added ability to interact with actions that can be paused/aborted/resumed via inventory to Inventory/Entity/Property resource. (Web API Forum)
- Added show_room_map property to facilities which controls whether the room map is visible on the rules page
- The sector boundaries have been updated to be "smoother." This should not have affected the sector membership of any systems
- Unionization has been added for medical items. Only players who have spent more than 40 hours logged in may use medical items. Medical factions may enter into union negotiations with galactic government approval to change this
- Lightsaber damage has been removed. Lightsaber attacks will now kill players in one hit
- Ewoks have returned as a playable race that can only be selected after returning from a ban
- All sniper rifles now deal 10% less damage

Forums:
- The Suggestions forum has been closed and all posts will be archived. Game suggestions should be posted on the bug base and Force suggestions should be DMed to Mikel von Bianchi
- The forums have been disabled for iOS users
- Players who answer incorrectly in the "Questions for Admin" forum will receive a one week forum ban

Bugs:
- Foray Blockade runners have been fixed and can now actually run blockades (i.e. go through shields, taking 10-100% hull damage, randomly)
- Updated desktop notification code to work in Safari, Firefox and Chrome without needing plugins (#3616)
- Wrecked ships will no longer regenerate ionic capacity or shields (Unreported)
- NPC-owned wrecks can be tractored without needing to be assigned to them (Unreported)
- Undefined index in forum search (Unreported)
- Forum SQL Error for invalid search type (#4297)
- Fixed an issue where race multiplier affected HP. All races now correctly have the same HP (Unreported)
- Recycling gives XP to current pilot rather than character who started the action (#4296)
- Inventory/Entity incorrectly lists tags (Unreported)
- Stations do not show weapons in inventory (#4286)
- Using bacta ryfills with a bacta tank affects the player who put the NPC into the tank rather than the NPC (#4290)
- Can tractor things not at your location (IRC)
- Arrest and execute has been removed. This was a test feature intended only for the dev server that should not have made it to main (IRC)
- removed unnecessary padding from room map background
- Can access character skill reset via NPCs under level 3 (#4287)
- Faction undefined in Inventory/Entities resource (Unreported)
- Action timers have been removed because they were causing too many errors. They have been replaced by a tick system that runs every 3 minutes and performs an accurate quantum simulation of 10 seconds of the game universe(IRC, email, bugs #100-175, and several drunk voicemails from Syn)
- More descriptive errors added to WS for ease of tracking down bugs (Unreported)
- Can combine power of PGs under construction and use it to power additional facilities (#3380)
- Some NPC-only races weren't listed as eligible custom NPCs (#4276)

This is a really exciting sync for us because we are releasing a rather unexpected feature. A sort of space combta beta has been added, wherein you may hunt down bandits who spawn in asteroid fields and destroy them in fighters, corvettes, and gunboats. Ship stats for these entities have been updated as a first pass at making this fun to do, but they are not balanced for long term PvP yet, and the PvP rules will require additional design as we extend combat to include capital ships. Repair on space ships will be required for any damage you take, and destroyed ships will leave behind wrecks that can be recycled.

I'm also thrilled to announce that we have signed a book deal to publish a hardcopy of the SWC rules on Amazon, with the first edition being printed in mid summer and retailing for $59.99. The book will feature a pencil and paper version of Ellias's Production Calculator, it will include more than two dozen relocatable filler pages for future errata, and comes with a 3 inch pewter Gorn Veynom figurine. We're finalizing the cover art and expect it to look like

Update: Most of the sync was part of an April Fools' Day joke, however several real items were included in a sync that was done at the same time. The sync report has been updated with the fake items striked out.