Detailed Changelog

[Echo 7-7]

And considering all the changes, why wasn't it just identified as v5 instead of a minor update version number?

Because mod versions have always progressed in this manner.
Eg. from v4.79 ... all the way up to v4.86 now.

It's also to do with server hosting: Every different mod needs to have a different version number, in order to prevent a player with a different mod trying to log on to a different server. Each Freelancer mod has a 'range of version numbers' allocated to it by common agreement; as far as I know, Discovery has reserved the number from 4.xx (something) to 4.999.

The Freelancer game engine can't distinguish between different mods; it only sees the host server's version number when it brings it up on the server list.

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There was a sig here, once.