Community Update #2 - Oct 24 - Jan 25

Happy new year!
As we start 2025, we’re excited to share progress we've made on Cove 4.0.

We’ve recently released the following upgrades and features, as promised:

Enhanced search functionality

We've upgraded both the functionality and user interface of our search tool. You can now search for features, authors, and challenges with ease. On mobile, filter options automatically collapse for a cleaner, more intuitive experience. 

My stats

Your Cove 4.0 “My Profile” now displays activity counts at the top, including logins, articles read, comments made, and more helping you to track your progress, compare with friends, and to achieve your next milestone.

Next Challenge activities

In your 'My Advance' menu, you’ll now find the next activity for your challenges making progressing through a Challenge much easier.

My goals

A new dedicated interface to set and view your goals replaces the previous drop menu, making it easier than ever to maximise XP earned.

And these are just for starters. Other enhancements include:
•    Improved My Advance menu
•    Numerous UI improvements, especially for mobile users
•    Notifications when your avatar is approved 

What’s next?

We have big plans for 2025! While we’re keeping some details under wraps, we’re committed to enhancing your experience on The Cove and introducing new ways for you to engage with PME and reward your participation. Keep an eye out for the next phase of major features that will customise your Cove experience even more!

Thank you to everyone who has made Cove 4.0 a success, and if you haven't already, sign up today!

Leaderboard Winners - Oct 24 to present

The last quarter saw some fierce competition! On our Cove leaderboards, K1MSU took out first position in October, EJMorris stormed into top spot in November, and That Cove Guy took out the coveted position for both December and January. Congratulations to all our winners, some great prizes coming your way (for the Defence Verified Users - verify your Cove profile as an ADF/ADO member to be eligible to receive prizes).

Community Update #1 - Aug - Oct 24

Is it October already? What a year it's been so far for The Cove! 2024 has proven to be one of the biggest years for us, with the launch of our most ambitious upgrade in The Cove's life: Cove 4.0! 

To keep you informed on ongoing developments with our newest features, create a space for feedback, and announce new roll-outs, we'll be releasing a new entry into this Dev Diary on an ongoing basis. Stay up-to-date with everything Cove 4.0 and more, right here.

We are extremely happy and proud of the success of Cove 4.0 - and it's all thanks to Covesters and PME enthusiasts like you.

Since launch, The Cove has seen over 1100 new sign-ups! This is a fantastic result, and we look forward to seeing this community grow further in the months to come.

On 1 August 2024, we rolled out the first gamification features for The Cove. The goal was to show what’s possible with gamification and see how well it works. Inherent with these features was the ability for Cove users to create their very own Cove profile that tracks progress and unlocks new features to enhance your user experience.

The new features in our initial launch were:

• Achievements

• Challenges

• Goals

• Leaderboards

• User Accounts/Profile Pages

• Defence Verification for User Profiles

When it came to enhanced user experience, we didn't stop there. In September we re-launched one of our most popular Features: #KYR - Know Your Region. #KYR is one of our most popular resources, and it has been given a facelift with an all-new interactive map interface. Additionally, we added key info about each country and a dynamic map to help you explore the Indo-Pacific region we live and operate in.

New features to #KYR include:

• Interactive map

• Mini map

• Landing page for each country

• Additional information for each country

After rolling out so many updates, we had to take a moment to tackle some lingering issues and tie up loose ends. October was all about hotfixes for small bugs and making minor UI tweaks. But we still squeezed in some new leaderboard features!

New features launched in October:

• Historic leaderboards

• Monthly leaderboards (refresh at the start of each month, so you can compete month-to-month)

• Leaderboards for verified users

First Winners & Prize Giveaway!

Speaking of leaderboards, we are happy to announce our first prize winners for Cove 4.0, ever!

Congratulations to users PadreDaz, Sergeant SLAMMER, Luke.McClay and John Williams! For reaching the Top 3 spots on our Global Leaderboard and being a Defence Verified User, they have won a prize pack of Cove merch and gift vouchers!

Want to be eligible to win similar prizes? Sign up to The Cove today and verify your account!  

...but that's not all

We don’t want to give too much away, but we've got some big things in the works. That said, we're all about getting new stuff to you fast! Along with a few cosmetic bug fixes, we’ve rolled out some exciting improvements.

Coming features:

• Enhanced search functionality

• Activity counts (like logins and article reads) to help you hit your next achievement

• The "Next Challenge" activity added to your My Advance panel

Thank you to everyone who has made Cove 4.0 a success, and if you haven't already, sign up today!