Avorion News

It's finally here! We reworked the procedural craft generator to create prettier ships, based on faction styles. Factions can be recognized by their ships and stations now, and each ship/station class has a distinct look. We won't bore you with the internals, just one thing: Yes, you can mod it. Now go explore!

With this update we added economic factors to factions. Their supply of ships and stations is now finite, depending on faction size and military or economic focus. Players can now drive AI factions to their limits, and see and feel the impact of their actions. When you destroy a station, the faction will rebuild it after some time. If you manage to destroy all ships and stations of an AI faction before they can rebuild, you can even eradicate them completely.
In addition to those features, you can now hire spies at smuggler outposts, that will send you information about a faction's economy (ie. amounts of ships, stations, etc) on a regular basis.

We feel that after killing the Wormhole Guardian there should be more to do with your time. With this update we introduce new Xsotan ships, a new server wide post-guardian event and three new bosses. In order to not spoil you too much we'd just say: Go and finish Avorion, and then see what happens.

That's far from all! We've got a few more cool features waiting for you:

[h2]Faction Packs[/h2] Ever wanted to play against the Star Wars Empire in Avorion? You now have the tools to do so. You can now create faction mod packs that give a faction a subset of ships from the Steam Workshop.

[h2]Creative Mode Improvements[/h2] We want players to be able to use Creative Mode in a way its name suggests, to try out features and game mechanics. So we added the possibility to quickly change the equipment of your craft. There's a new creative mode command center in the ship window where you get access to tons of utility features for creative!

[h2]Backups[/h2] Since Avorion saves (galaxies) are persistent they tend to become huge, and a normal savegame feature is not possible. We did our best to add a safeguard against losing all your progress (for example after a crash) without taking up tons and tons of hard drive space. The game now creates hourly backups that you can use to restore your current save.
Keep in mind that restoring a backup is not the same thing as loading a save! Progress of NPC factions is completely reset during this process and the world is reset to zero (except for the progress of players).

Of course there are tons and tons of other QoL features and bugfixes. To get the full list, check out the patchnotes of the previous beta patches:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/3588743161435047711
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1702861358068600657
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1702861358076178338

[h2]Time for bug fixing![/h2]Time flies! We could not be more excited about the upcoming release. Since there are only a few days left, we are giving 100% to solve the remaining issues. This is the part where we need your help! Please report all the bugs you can find in Avorion. It does not matter if you have already reported it some time ago. If it still bothers you, report it again. We will take care of it. We are thankful for every hint that you can send to us!

[h2]When you have found a bug[/h2]Ouch! To report a bug, please use the ingame tool.

For more information you can find an extensive manual here:
https://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,478.0.html

If possible, we would really appreciate if you could tell us the following things:

What happened?
Please tell us as exactly as possible what happened when the bug/issue appeared.

The most important field for us is "Steps to Reproduce". Please give us the most detailed description that you can.

We understand that sometimes it feels like bugs are obvious. But they can be related to your machine, your drivers, your operating system and so many other things. If we had found the bug while testing, we would have fixed it for sure.

Here is a great example for "Steps to Reproduce" as taken from a bug report: "For the Station dock crash:
- Start a new game, preferably in creative mode
- Have a shipyard generate a Station-Founding ship (any size will do)
- Get in the ship
- Find a suitable sector for a station
- Found the station
- Get back to that sector you founded your station at (because for some reason, if that's your only "ship" in the sector, it kicks you out into your drone and you go back to your home sector, or other vanilla destruction behaviors
- Enter your station
- Go to build mode inside your station
- Place a dock anywhere
- Game crashes."

We know that this takes some time, but with these steps, we managed to fix the bug in minutes. We hope you understand!

Thanks to everybody who is helping us, we are very thankful for having such an amazing community!

Happy playing! Please report as much as you can. We are looking forward to release!

Beta Branch Note: These changes are currently available on the beta branch. The beta branch is for testing experimental changes and for finding and fixing errors.

This is how you get access to the beta branch (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK):
Right-Click on Avorion in your Steam list, Properties -> Betas -> Select branch 'beta'.

"Had a little breakthrough with the engine code over the weekend, enjoy!"

• Improved collision detection of beams and particles to be more comprehensible

"We think that boarding a station takes lots of effort already, so from now on you won't have to pay the full price of a station on top of that to rebuild it."

• Reduced rebuilding cost of boarded stations to 50% of the previous price (down from 100%)

"QoL features, yay! You can now easily favorite and trash items with F and T while hovering them. Also, you can now scrap all trash turrets in one go at a Scrapyard."

• Implemented fast-marking as trash or favorite with F and T
• Implemented a "dismantle trash" button to Scrapyard
• Adjusted description of retrograde marker

"Polishing and debug output for upcoming bugfixes on the client. Nothing too special."

• Updated warnings for on-board GPUs
• Directory of galaxy saves can now be configured in client.ini
• Added some debugging output to help find more issues with new generator
• Destroyed entities are now immediately replaced by their wreckage counterpart to have less flickering

• Added "scrollPosition" properties to ComboBoxes and ListBoxes
• Implemented adding of additional languages via mods

"Thanks to all our User Bug Reporters (UBR) for helping us improve the game! We're focusing 100% on this now, so keep it up!"

• [UBR] Fixed a wrong cargo shuttle launch error message in factory
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with clearing and scrolling of List and ComboBox UI elements
• Scripting API: Fixed an issue where callbacks of Wormhole entities weren't sent
• [UBR] Fixed font not being moddable
• [UBR] Fixed a few issues in fleet commands mission
• [UBR] Fixed non-steering players being able to execute hyperspace jumps
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where AI ships were having trouble hitting parts
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where pure-holo entities weren't getting deleted properly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where auto-turrets would target holo blocks
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where tractor beams were sometimes invisible
• Fixed a few issues where headquarters and military stations would get cranes and containers randomly generated all over the place
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with hyperspace recharge hint being displayed for too long
• [UBR] Fixed flickering in Alliance Tab when a search text was entered and then new items are hovered with the mouse
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where hints would be displayed for UI elements that are invisible

Beta Branch Note: These changes are currently available on the beta branch. The beta branch is for testing experimental changes and for finding and fixing errors.

This is how you get access to the beta branch (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK):
Right-Click on Avorion in your Steam list, Properties -> Betas -> Select branch 'beta'.

• Ships can now be classified and renamed in "Current Ship" tab
• All colors are now always available, not just in creative
• Military Outposts now have fighter squadrons
• Holding the interact button inside the light line of a station dock now fires up tractor beams for the player
• Slightly reduced randomness of new ship generator
• Improved the ending of the "Transfer Vessel" mission
• Creative Mode Command Center now adds a captain on "Add Crew"

• Cargo shuttles now transport cargo amounts depending on their own size (still always at least 1)
• Cargo shuttles are now more expensive the larger they get (not the other way round like all the other fighters)
• Reduced maximum speed of enemy AI ships on lower difficulties and in the outer regions of the galaxy
• Adjusted likelihood of several missions on stations

• Tuned bloom and general brightness to be less obnoxious

• Clicking into the colored frame of an entity now reliably selects it
• Added a "Browse" button to Singleplayer game window

• Added a isMapFaction() function to Galaxy
• Version can now be constructed from strings
• Added entriesPerPage property to ComboBox
• Added a getModsModifyingFile() function to ModManager to query all mods that modify a given file
• Added a "atype" function for gathering type or avorion type of an object (similar to type() function)
• When reading a dependency without an explicit version from a modinfo.lua, version is assumed as
• .*, not 0.0

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with head hunters where they could be hired by any nearby faction (including pirates)
• [UBR] Bottan's smuggler can no longer be abused for early Trinium gain
• [UBR] Fixed no economy overview appearing in trading upgrade of alliance ships
• [UBR] Fixed some issues where fleet tab wouldn't refresh
• Fixed an issue where "armed" fighters could be created without weapons
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in fighter tooltip where production effort always had a red down arrow
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where PDCs of enemy AI ships would shoot the player even if they are marked as "Friend"
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where turrets of any material could be created at the turret factory
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships that were recovered after crashes would all be squished into each other
• Fixed several issues with effects of arriving ships
• [UBR] Fixed some performance issues on the galaxy map
• [UBR] Fixed some performance issues with the save size calculation in Singleplayer Window
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with the "Fleet Commands" mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the Adventurer and Swoks could spawn in the same sector
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in the "Free Slaves" mission where pirates wouldn't attack
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where repair turrets with both shield and hull repair wouldn't actually repair both
• Fixed several crashes and other minor issues in many scripts
• Fixed a crash in new ship generator
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships and stations spawned with empty shields
• Added lots of debug logging to find the cause of some more issues
• Fixed an issue with infinite loops in order chains
• [UBR] Fixed an issuwe where camera shake didn't going away in build and strategy mode
• Fixed some issues with larger Xsotan attacks

Beta Branch Note: These changes are currently available on the beta branch. The beta branch is for testing experimental changes and for finding and fixing errors.

This is how you get access to the beta branch (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK):
Right-Click on Avorion in your Steam list, Properties -> Betas -> Select branch 'beta'.

"In this update, tons of stuff is coming together, so it might still be a little unstable. But that's what the beta branch is for anyways, right? Right? Please report all the bugs you can find."

• Added ancient gates to exodus end sectors
• Added camera shake in several situations when ...
  • boosting
  • getting hit by torpedoes
  • a nearby ship jumps into hyperspace
  • a nearby ship arrives from hyperspace
• Camera shake intensity can be configured in settings
• Added an animation for ships arriving from hyperspace
• Added a new block shape

"We reworked the procedural craft generator to create prettier ships, based on faction styles. Factions can be recognized by their ships and stations now, and each ship/station class has a distinct look. We won't bore you with the internals, just one thing: Yes, you can mod it."

• Reworked the craft generator
• Added distinct styles for ships: Ship (default), Miner, Freighter, Carrier
• Added distinct styles for each station type
• New styles will only appear in newly discovered sectors
• Most aspects of the craft generator are now controllable via scripts
• Players without any saved designs get 5 procedural ship designs of varying size that they can use

• Limited maximum hyperspace cooldown to 5 minutes
• Hyperspace cooldown is always at least 5 seconds (instead of 0) to avoid server issues

"We feel that after killing the Wormhole Guardian there should be more to do with your time. With this update we introduce new Xsotan ships, a new server wide post-guardian event and three new bosses."

• Added a massive, server wide, regular event in the center of the galaxy that happens after killing the Xsotan Wormhole Guardian
• Added new types of Xsotan
  • Summoner: ??
  • Quantum: ??
• Adjusted spawn timings of Xsotan Wormhole Guardian
• Added 3 new Endgame Bosses
  • Boss Project IHDTX
  • The Big Brother
  • 5468 6520 4149

"With this update we added economic factors to factions. Their supply is now finite, depending on faction size and military or economic focus. Players can now drive AI factions to their limits, and see and feel the impact of their actions."

• Factions now have a limited amount of military ships available in a given amount of time
  • The amount depends on the faction's size and how aggressive or peaceful they are
  • If lots of military ships are available they might send more when sending reinforcements
  • Military ships are replenished over time
• Relations now worsen when taking over a sector from an AI faction
• A faction is now considered eradicated if it controls no more sectors and has no stations
  • Eradicated factions are marked in the Diplomacy tab
• Factions now rebuild lost stations
  • Construction sites are not built in hazard zones
  • Each faction has a capacity for building construction sites, depending on the faction's size
  • Capacity is replenished over time
• Smuggler Outposts now have spies that uncover data about neighboring factions
  • Total stations, military ships and construction capacity are then visible in the Diplomacy tab
  • This data is always visible for allied factions

"Ever wanted to play against the Star Wars Empire in Avorion? You now have the tools to do so."

• Added new type of mod, "Faction Pack"
• Faction packs allow modders to create factions with coherent custom ship and station designs
  • Supported ship types: Ship, Freighter, Carrier, Miner, Fighter
  • Supported station types: All basic station types
• Size and material are adjusted automatically
• Added combobox to select the type when creating a new mod

"We want players to be able to use Creative Mode in a way its name suggests, to try out features and game mechanics. So we added the possibility to quickly change the equipment of your craft."

• Added "Creative Mode Command Center" tab to Ship Window
  • Players can add crew, guns, system upgrades, different fighter squads, torpedoes and goods to their current craft
  • Relations to AI factions can be manipulated
• Amounts of turrets in building mode are now hidden as they are infinite anyways

"Since Avorion saves (galaxies) are persistent they tend to become huge, and a normal savegame feature is not possible. We did our best to add a safeguard against losing all your progress (for example after a crash) without taking up tons and tons of hard drive space."

• While playing, the game will now create hourly emergency backups
• You can restore emergency backups from the settings menu
• You should only restore backups in case of an emergency (ie. savegame corruption, by a crash or mods)
• In order to avoid exploits, backup creation can't be manually controlled by players
  • (If you really want to mess up your galaxy and then revert it, copy its folder and then go nuts)
• IMPORTANT: Restoring from a backup is not the same thing as loading a save:
  • Only player progress is saved during the backup
  • When a backup is applied, the galaxy is almost completely reset and backed-up player progress is reapplied
  • NPC factions are completely reset on restore of a backup

• Added dimensions preview when placing block templates in building mode
• Improved visuals of hull polarization effects
• Hologram blocks now light up their surroundings
• Reduced overly bright AO lighting
• Added more crash diagnostics to client

• Added a command line option to restore from a backup

• Documentation is now sorted alphabetically
• General documentation improvements
• Added getSectorView() function to Galaxy
• Added setMaterialTier() function to BlockPlan
• Added intersectBeamRay() functionality to intersect beams the way that a weapon would behave
• ShipAI: Added new function setPassiveTurning() to allow an entity to turn and shoot while staying in place
• Made Thrusters component available in scripts: Get / set turning speeds of entities
• Made Torpedo component available in scripts
• Made DirectFlightPhysics component available in scripts
• vec2, vec3 and vec4 can now be constructed with a single value: vec3(1) == vec3(1, 1, 1)
• Several improvements to passing/reading tables to/from engine
• utility.lua: Added multimin/max utility functions

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are User Bug Reports! Thanks to everyone who reported those, and keep it up, especially now that we're in the polishing phase!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where salvagers and miners stopped randomly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with stacked windows in main menu after changing the language
• Scripting API: Fixed an issue where Server:getPlayers() didn't return anything
• [UBR] Fixed dimensions preview of block brush being numbers like 1.49999999 instead of 1.5
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where "Immune" text would be shown too often
• Fixed an issue where wreckages were duplicated
• [UBR] Fixed a bug when pressing Escape while moving a window
• Fixed missing caption of resource depot
• Fixed missing icon in cargo transport license merchant
• Several smaller stability improvements
• [UBR] Fixed a potential source for regular server hangs
• [UBR] Fixed a rare issue with Building Mode geometry not reloading correctly