The Orville - Interactive Fan Experience News

v1.0.18 Public Beta 2 is now live! To access, select the "Beta" branch in Steam Library properties.

Major Fixes this build:

• Fixed issues when spawning enemy ships
  
• Krill ships should now fight back AND blow up real nice.
  
• Fixed Mission System not showing updated task/mission status
  
• Fixed issue with Threat Mission Task falling out of QD before actually arriving at the threat
  
• Threat mission will now randomly have either type of enemy (Kaylon OR Krill)
  
• Multiple improvements made to the Tuhroz-Ghul event
  
• Fixed issue with repair parts disappearing when storage room unloads
  
• Fixed issue where player interactions with chairs, etc. would break after flying to moons/rocky planets
  
• Added corridor maps to the main stairwell and to more junctions on F-K decks. Feedback is welcome!
  

Minor Fixes:

• Fixed HUD hull status issue upon respawn after player dies in shuttle
  
• Mesh, panel, and lighting improvements all OVER the place
  
• Union Station no longer reflects Orville's alert status.
  
• Additional strings set up for localization, and some have been translated already. More to come!
  

Many of these issues were reported by our fantastic beta community -- THANK YOU! As a reminder, you can submit a bug report to us by pressing F3 inside the game. When filing a bug report, please DO provide as much detail as you can about what you were doing prior to the problem occurring. If we don't know how it happened, we often can't reproduce it to fix it.


Known Issues This Version

• Visual artifacts may still occur in exterior windows after returning to the ship in a shuttle. We're investigating.
  
• E-Sims remain offline for now. Hopefully soon!
  
• Outer hull can be breached in a few scenarios. While we work to fix the collision map, knock yourself out looking for them. :)
  
• Steam Achievements may not apply properly; we're currently debugging this.
  

As before, please remember that DX11 is being deprecated; we can't remove the option yet because the current public branch (v17) still needs it, but please don't report cosmetic issues (such as wonky meshes, gaps, lighting issues, etc) if you are running the game in DX11 mode.
Last note -- you may have noticed our development pace is not as quick as it once was. Life has been busy of late. We hope to be able to keep a steady pace going forward as we continue to refine v18 towards full release. Thanks for your patience!

INFO: The beta is available if you right click the game -> Properties -> Betas -> Select "beta" in the dropdown menu at the top.

Following a small 2 year gap, we are proud to announce that our newest update is finally upon us, with a brand new PUBLIC Beta!

We are intentionally not launching this to everyone, as we are aware of a few lingering issues. Nevertheless we want to hear what you think! If you find any bugs, you can report them either on our discord along with general feedback (Invite here).

For bugs we are now introducing an in-game Bug Reporter. Simply press F3 and fill in the details to let us know of any issues you find!

• Game has been updated to UE5.3, necessitating an update to the minimum system requirements. DX11 is no longer supported, and will be removed in the full release. You may encounter significant visual deformities if launching with DX11. Please do not report these.
• New sensor system added to Stellar Cartography and Isaac's bridge station. Interact with objects to zoom in and out, or use controls in the keyboard area. Set a course to enable travel via Quantum Drive! Travel time varies based on distance.
  
• New Mission System! Use Talla's bridge station comms panel to contact Union Central and receive a mission. Complete tasks to win missions, compare yourself to others using Steam Leaderboards, and even earn achievements!
  
• New shuttle take-off and landing system. Shuttles can now be flown in and out of the bay manually, and can land on the Union Dockyard and some uninhabited planets!
  (Planetscapes are an early version which we’ll expand on in the future)
  
• Updated the repair system. Many repair panels now require replacement parts to complete the repair. Spares can be found in nearby engineering storage rooms.
  
• Replaced the previous HUD Map with Hallway Directories on B-J decks for more immersive navigation.
  
• You can now spawn Krill ships to fight against from the Session Menu.
  
• New Areas to Explore:
  
  • Shuttle Maintenance Bay has been added to the aft end of Decks F & G. Here you can repair shuttles or switch them around. You can also transfer shuttles up to the main bay using the consoles in the Shuttlebay Control Room on Deck D.
    
  • New Aquatics Lab added to the fore end of Decks G & H.
    
  • New areas added to the Union Dockyard, including lifts and a Shuttlebay.
    
  • New procedural crew quarters have been added throughout Decks C-G
    
  • New Life Support Equipment rooms can be found throughout the ship
    

• Interactive scanners added to Isaac’s Station on the bridge, Shuttle Maintenance on F Deck; Particle Physics & Geo Labs on Deck G; Soil Lab, Botany Bay, Aquatics Lab, and Pathology labs on Deck H; and Astrophysics Lab on K Deck. Setup/Calibrate the system and then use different scanning modes to find patterns. These work standalone, or as part of specific mission tasks.
  
• Minigames added to Security Chief’s Office on Deck A, Medical Bay and Stellar Cartography on Deck B, Dysonium Injection on Deck G, and Sensor Control Room on Deck H. These work standalone, or as part of specific mission tasks.
  
• New graphical Damage Control display added at the bridge engineering station. The repair list has been moved down into the keyboard area for better accessibility.
  
• Added new power mode and repair team secondary inputs to the helm/nav console to make ship’s functions easier to access for single-player use.
  

[h2]Layout Changes[/h2]

• We’ve done a re-factor of the ship’s corridors to simplify them, better align the ship with canon where we understand it, organize the ship, and improve performance. To make navigation easier, we’ve also simplified the lift network, extending the main lift all the way down to K deck, and minimizing redundant lifts.
  
• Geo Lab & Particle Physics have been relocated to G Deck along with Dysonium Injection to better utilize the space.
  

[h2]Quarters Customization[/h2]

• New Class D Quarters Foundation available.
  
• The quarters customisation library has been expanded by two new categories: Paintings and Bathroom Decor!
  
• Comm Scanners are now available under the "Desktop Items" category.
  

[h2]UI Improvements[/h2]

• A new help screen (F1) has been implemented to help players understand how to use the ship’s interactive systems.
  
• Loading screen tips have been updated.
  
• Three all new loading screen backgrounds!
  
• Lift UI has a better look.
  
• All new Subtitles for the Halloween and Unknown Sector Events.
  

[h2]Fixes and Tweaks[/h2]

• Added keybinds for Weapon Power Up/Down and Emote Wheel. Removed redundant and obsolete keybinds.
  
• Added a new backdrop to Character Customization for added immersion.
  
• Expanded our localization options, and added support for Dutch (30% complete atm)
  
• Tweaked ship and shuttle flight behaviors.
  
• Fixed pinsetter, bowling ball behavior, and lane labels in E-Sim for better gameplay (coming soon)
  
• Bathrooms have an all new look (and there’s less of them now)!
  
• Doorbells added to some doors.
  
• Simplified the Halloween event criteria
  
• Updated the bridge and shuttlebay exterior insets to Season 3 design
  
• Achievements are achievable once again.
  
• Adjusted NPC settings to better match ship areas, crew complement, and duty shifts.
  
• New Music! The brilliant Patrick sets the scene for the Astrophysics lab, the new Aquatics lab, as well as new space locations and planetscapes!
  

[h2]Graphics and Performance[/h2]

• Updated to DLSS 3.7.20 and added FSR 3.1.1.
  

We also fixed a lot of issues (over 300 just on our new tracker) but the vast majority have not made it into these patch notes, as we don't want to drag this announcement out. There will also be higher minimum requirements and we will be using beta to figure those out.

We hope you can enjoy this update! We are still hoping to add a Mac version of v18 in the near future, but this initial build won’t include it. Also, please note that E-Sims are unavailable in the initial beta build. We expect these to return later in beta.

The reports of our death are GREATLY exaggerated.

It's been more than a year since our last release, and I'm sure that's led to a lot of speculation about the status of the project, especially since the PREVIOUS year saw several releases corresponding with the ramp up to New Horizons.

In short -- life happens. Several of our team have taken on new professional endeavors within the industry. They are definitely still with us, and help out as their schedules permit...we save the really hard stuff for them! ;)

The other thing that happened was the series itself going on hiatus. Without a new season deadline, the urgency fell off, meaning we can take our time to ensure quality, AND all have better balance with our lives. (Bear in mind, this is a passion project -- we're all volunteers!)

But even at a slower pace, v18 development has continued. Among the big things that's making it take so long was making the move to UE5. That was a huge adjustment for us, and broke literally everything. The good news is that it's almost all completely back together (just one big thing left on the major issues list at this point).

We've also added a bunch of new stuff for v18. I won't spoil it by listing it all, but suffice to say, we're adding more to DO aboard the ship, more places to GO, and more to SEE. Our goal has always been to bring the Orville to life, and our hope for v18 is that the ship will feel fairly complete, as a living, breathing entity. There's a rhyme and reason to how things are laid out, and while we've taken educated guesses, we think what we have makes sense.

With any luck, the new features we added will make you want to revisit it again and again, not just immediately after an update.

So please continue to bear with us. If you want to know when beta hits, join us over at our Discord. Or follow our socials, and this feed, as we'll be making announcements in all the usual places.

We’ve made a number of performance and aesthetic updates to our New Horizons release, including:

• Boosted helm performance to improve donkey hugging at normal power allocation
  
• Fixed issues within the bridge navigation station affecting Quantum Drive usage
  
• Fixed room loading/unloading issues, NPC spawn issues, and external window issues
  
• Improved lighting (including alert lighting) throughout the ship
  
• Fixed repair system issues, and improved the overall repair mini game experience for low graphic settings
  
• Fixed e-sim chip functionality issue
  
• Fixed music not obeying volume controls in certain circumstances
  
• General cleanup of the mini map and room labels to make finding things easier
  
• Cleaned up a variety of mesh and panel issues throughout the ship
  

What's next? We're on to v18, which includes an update to UE5.0!

MORE THAN JUST A NEW PAINTJOB!
The Orville: New Horizons introduced a completely overhauled look for the interior of the starship.

This is our interpretation of those changes, including –

• A simplified internal layout. Were you getting lost? Didn’t know where to go? Well now it should be a little easier to get around, and a little harder to hide away from Admiral Christie!
  
• Entirely New Engineering room, including the wondersome Quantum Core. Bask in the glory of the rotating sphere of beauty!
  
• Astrophysics Lab. It seems that Isaac outgrew his old lab and now spends most of his time in the beautiful new Astrophysics lab down on the lower decks of Deck K.
  
• The Main Bridge didn’t escape an overhaul, more blue lights! New command chairs! New display panels! What more could you want?
  
• The Shuttlebay and new Shuttle! We bid adieu to the bubble-shuttles of olde, and welcome the expertly designed new Planetary Union shuttles. Why not take one for a spin?
  
• No more carpet and padded square walls in the hallways! We’re all about that metallic look now!