Avorion News

Hello everyone!

This time we would have loved to show you some fancy new screenshots but sadly we’re currently in a development phase where we can’t show any because the assets aren’t ready yet. Instead, we’d like to show you our development progress towards the 2.0 update!

These are the most important things we want to have in update 2.0, and at the same time our development progress.

[h3]DONE:[/h3]

• Better UI visuals
  
• New progression system based on knowledge for different materials
  
• Scenario: "Classic Avorion" without the new progression
  
• Improvements to Independent Targeting
  
  • Removal of the 50% damage penalty
    
  • Amount of independently firing turrets can be increased with various existing and new upgrades
• Less micro-intensive commanding of ships
  
  • 10 new or updated commands (ie. go fly a trade route, go salvage, go explore)
  • Captains with classes & perks
  • Improved performance for remotely operating ships
• Bounties on Bulletin Boards
  
• More civilian ships for improved flair
  
• Improved visuals for busy sectors
  
• Tons of QoL

[h3]IN WORK: [/h3]

• More diverse faction areas on the galaxy map
  
  • Central vs. outer regions where different rules apply
• Player Profile w/ Milestones
  
• Crew Improvements
  
  • QoL; Sergeant, Lieutenant, etc. will be ranks within professions and no longer separate professions
• Hyperspace Jump Improvements
  
  • QoL; Improvements to game flow, jumps, reduction of waiting times
• Fighter Improvements
  
  • QoL; Fighters will be remote controlled, will support boosting, will be cheaper to build but require stricter preconditions to have them on the ship
• Autopilots

[h3]TODO:[/h3]

• Scenario: "Free Play" that can be configured to your individual liking
  
• Torpedo loot drops
  
• Improvements to the tutorial
  
• Listing of build mode features & "tricks" in the encyclopedia
  
• Various community-requested & QoL features
  
• Polishing, Bugfixing

We know you’re all super stoked (we are, too!) for a release date, and we will announce the date once we know for sure that we can meet it. The update is set to release in Q2 2021 and our 5 people dev team is working hard to achieve that. The reality is that we’re still working from home (thanks Corona) and game development is a highly iterative and sometimes unpredictable process. In the past we’ve experienced that trying to meet deadlines by force leads to crunch, stress, exhaustion, and thus poor quality and bugs. We as a studio want to avoid all of the above for the 2.0 update (and also in general, d’uh) so this time we’ll take a “when it’s done” approach. We want this update to be amazing and live up to the hype! We’ll continue sharing progress about the development over the next few weeks!

See you then!

When you scroll through the Avorion Workshop, you will find an insane collection of creative, unusual and very funny ships! You constantly have new creations and impress us with your ideas again and again!

Therefore we would like to make a little competition out of it and reward the coolest constructions!

The theme for your ships should be the following for this event:

[h3]“Food”[/h3]

Create the most delicious hot dogs or the most amazing sushi rolls, whatever comes to your mind, we are looking forward to it! Let your creativity run wild and surprise us with your ideas!

At the end of the event, we will raffle Avorion merch worth 50€ to the best ship design, so it's worth participating ;)

The event will take place through our Discord server, so join quickly: https://discord.gg/ebwtqkQ

As soon as you have built your ship, upload it to the workshop and post the link in the --Event-Entries-- channel.

And that's it!
The event will end on 30.06.2021, so everyone has enough time to put the finishing touches on their masterpiece. The winner will be officially announced in the Discord Channel and notified via DM.

We are looking forward to your ideas and your participation! Let the Food War begin!

[h2]Captains & Commands[/h2]
With the introduction of the new captains, we also improved the way you can give orders to your ships. Whenever you order your captains to carry out a command, you will need to select an area for them to work in. They will analyze that area and they will predict how successful they will be. This depends on several factors such as the individual abilities of the captain, the likelihood of the ship being attacked in that area, and whether the area is suitable for the specific command in general.

To see the pictures in full resolution, right-click on them and select "Open Image in new tab"!


[h2]More Work for your Captains - Less for You[/h2]
You will only need to give one order to get a captain to carry out a complex task, for example when you command a ship to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other. Depending on the equipment of the ship, you can order your captains to go mining or salvaging, and you can tell them how long they should be gone for and which materials to return with. If the ships have ores on board, the captains can take them to a refinery for you, and if they have torpedo storage, they can go and acquire torpedoes.
Are you simply curious about what might happen to your captains if you just send them out into the great unknown? You can give them the order to scout in a new region or send them on an expedition and they will tell you about their adventures and share their loot with you when they get back.
Those of you that are ready to build up a trading empire can use their captains to procure certain goods or to sell some of the wares they already have on board. And if you already have a bunch of stations, your captains will be able to supply them with goods that the factories require to produce.


[h2]Escorts and More[/h2]
We know that there are some quite dangerous regions in the galaxy, and your captains don’t need to brave all difficulties on their own. You can have your ships escort each other, making it less likely to get attacked while carrying out a command. And then you will be on your way to having the most effective fleet in the galaxy!

[h2]Building Knowledge[/h2]
Today we’ll give you some info on the new progression system! We want the journey towards the center of the galaxy to be more challenging. From now on, you’ll have to unlock Building Knowledge about each new material (starting with Naonite, you’ll start out with knowledge about Iron and Titanium) before you’ll be able to use it for ship building. Unlocking the next material will also unlock the ability to build bigger ships with higher subsystem socket numbers.

There will be different ways to get your hands on above Building Knowledge. In any case, we want players to prove themselves in a new area before they can unlock the next building tier. You can get the knowledge for the next material by either beating a boss in the area or a difficult pirate encounter. In case you’re not the fighting type you can also buy the building knowledge at a shipyard from an allied faction in the specific region.


[h2]Processing Power Revisited[/h2]
Building Knowledge will not only allow you to use the materials, but the higher-material knowledge you acquire, the more functional blocks you will be able to add to your ships. Adding functional blocks will not only increase the processing power but also the number of subsystem sockets of your crafts. This has always been part of the game, but now we’re visualizing it better. While taking a hard look at the processing power requirements for subsystem sockets we realized that some number tweaking might be necessary, so from now on you’ll unlock new upgrade sockets earlier (less processing power required)!

[h2]Existing Saves & Avorion Classic Scenario[/h2]
Finally, the new progression will only be active for newly created galaxies. All your old savegames will remain the way they are. In case you’re not a fan of the new progression and prefer the more sandboxy approach, we are also going to introduce a new “Classic Avorion” scenario which allows you to play without the new progression. Whenever you create a new galaxy you will be able to select the option in the main menu.

[h2]Captain’s Classes[/h2]
We noticed that hiring captains used to be a bland affair that was necessary but rather boring. This did not go in accordance with our vision of the game. The new captains will have up to two classes, for example “Merchant”, or “Scavenger”, with their own individual capabilities. Captains will gain experience when completing commands, and leveling up will make them even more effective.



[h2]Captain’s Perks and Quirks[/h2]
To show that each captain has their own personality, we also added character traits that make each captain special. These traits influence how well a captain is able to perform a certain task, so always make sure to put the right person on a certain job! Which captains you will be able to hire depends on at which stations you look for them and how much you are willing to pay. But don’t worry: none of the new captains will be able to do less than the old captains, but many of them will be capable of doing so much more!

Stay tuned for another Update 2.0 news flash next week!