I may be missing something obvious but, the Game's Read Me is very scarce. I am trying to figure out how the newest version of whatever I have is different from the manual, if at all.

I am especially curious about combat. I bumped in several posts that go on and on about how the combat is vastly different from what the Gold Edition Manual specifies on pages 69-71, something about degredating shields and guaranteed defenses instead of the random 0-whatever attack roll vs. the 0-whatever defense roll. Any guidance of what the truth is or where I can look would be very much appreciated! Thanks!!