Avorion News

Good news for everyone who thought "Ugh, how exactly does this work again?" in the past: We've added an Encyclopedia Tab to the player menu, where you can (re)read about the most important mechanics of the game. It features a basic overview over the game's features so you don't have to look up every single thing on the wiki. It also has entries for various story-related characters that can be encountered. It's also spoiler-free: As players progress throughout the game, more entries get unlocked over time.


We added speech bubbles to the game to improve the general flair of the game and add some more life to everyday space life. Speech Bubbles can contain everyday jibber-jabber but also hints for beginners, game mechanics or story progress. There's also going to be speech bubbles when a player in the same sector types text in multiplayer.


You can now easily compare turrets to see which is better or worse! Just hover the cursor over a turret and press 'E' for a quick and easy comparison. Also works for upgrades, torpedoes and fighters!


We added some more missions to flesh out the content of the game. You can expect more missions, events and content over the next few updates.
And of course there are many more improvements and fixes. To get a list of all changes, check out the patch notes of the beta branch updates:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/2707145128897298018
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/2707145128911803302
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/2707145128915565379

We're adding the possibility to compare upgrades, some Quality of Life and balancing updates and also a few crash fixes.

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'.

• Upgrades can now be compared
  
• Upgrade tooltip texts are slightly darker to be easier on the eyes
  
• Added a loading screen tip for comparing objects
  

• Reduced amount of free goods being delivered to player-owned consumer stations
  
• Defense Weapons Upgrades are now randomized
  
• Loot Collector Upgrades are now randomized
  
• Transporter Software Upgrades are now randomized
  
• Reduced drift of stations
  

• [UBR] Fixed a crash in Boarding check if an entity is boardable by another faction
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where a station deleted by a player would cause a sector to be turned into a hazard zone
  
• [UBR] Fixed torpedo names being messed up in equipment dock
  
• Fixed an issue where it was possible for alliances to board their own members' ships
  

In this patch we're fixing several bugs and a very annoying multiplayer crash, when selecting the ship of another player. Some quality of life changes also made it into this one.

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'.

• Removed rebind option of pause menu key
  
• Updated encyclopedia
  
• Fighters can now be compared
  
• Torpedoes can now be compared
  

• Added specific error messages for salvaging and mining when the material tier of the weapons is too low
  
• Added context to several translations that are spread over multiple lines
  

• [UBR] Fixed an issue in crew board menu where sliders for captains weren't working as intended
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in turret factory where the required amount of ingredients could become a floating-point number
  
• [UBR] Fixed a crash when selecting a ship
  
• [UBR] Fixed a few issues when faction details are required on client but not yet sent by server
  

We're adding an encyclopedia to the player window, where you can read about all important game mechanics. Other important features are speech bubbles, a few new missions and, last but not least, a feature where you can compare turrets. We've also included tons of bugfixes, some new bugs and a lot of extensions to the Scripting API.

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 order to keep everything organized and clear, we're adding an Encyclopedia Tab to the player menu, where you can read about important game mechanics, characters and other content of the game."

• Implemented an Encyclopedia as a tab in Player Window
  
• Encyclopedia serves as a log where you can (re)read about the most important mechanics of the game
  
• It also has entries for various characters that can be encountered
  
• More entries are unlocked while players progress in the game
  

"We wanted to add more life to the galaxy and at the same time give players useful hints on what to do with the story. Those are still experimental, and we will tune them in case they are annoying. Feedback appreciated!"

• Added speech bubbles for stations and ships flying around, to add more life
  
  • Speech bubbles include jibber jabber, hints to game mechanics, bosses, artifacts, etc.
    
  • Speech bubbles are displayed when characters talk, or when players send chat messages
    

"We added some more missions to flesh out the content of the game. We'll be adding more and more missions and events over the next few updates. Missions will also grow in complexity in the future!"

• Added a new mission where the player must cover the retreat of a fleet during a losing battle
  
• Added a new mission where the player must deliver goods
  
• Added a new mission where the player must protect settlers who want to found a new colony
  
• Threatening ships increases the hazard zone score of a sector
  

"Lots of QoL features, and most importantly: Compare Turrets by pressing E!"

• Items can now be compared by pressing E while hovering mouse over the item
  
  • For now, only turrets can be compared. Fighters, upgrades and torpedoes will follow soon
    
• Default chat channel filter is "Everything"
  
• Added a hint to /help command when a player enters a wrong command
  
• Slightly increased contrast of space backgrounds
  
• Added several performance improvements
  
• Added a context menu entry for posting an inventory object to chat
  
• Slightly reduced color brightness of tooltips
  

"Modders rejoice! We've added a lot of improvements to the Scripting API. You can now register new tabs in the player window and we've added tons of convenience functions."

• Added functionality for adding new tabs to player window via player scripts
  
• Added a UI Tree class
  
• Added a "scrollable" property to TextField
  
• Added a GameInput class
  
• Added a structuredmission.lua framework for making new missions more easily
  
• Added an API call runScript() to load a temporary script in a temporary, separate VM and execute a function in it
  
• Added more robustness to values returned in secure() (which doesn't support saving of API objects)
  
  • Uuids are turned into strings
    
  • Vectors are turned into tables with x, y, z, w components
    
  • Other objects are generally turned to nil
    
• Added dbg() function for easier debugging and printing
  
• Improved documentation for various script functions
  
• Added a Sector:exists(id) function (performance optimization, avoids a memory allocation)
  
• Added a script to bind an entity's lifetime to a specific mission of a specific player
  
  • The entity is then deleted after the mission is over
    
• Added a invokeFunction() function for client-side sector
  
• Added a new predefined function initializationFinished() which is called after initialization of a sector
  
  • And after all initialize() functions were called
    
  • After loading on server, after complete creation on client
    
• Added font and fontColor properties to TextField
  
• Added getEntitiesByScriptValue() function to client-side Sector
  
• Added a Chatter value to ChatMessageType enum
  
• Added reading of player state type to client-side Player
  
• on[Pre/Post]RenderHud: PlayerStateType of player is now passed as an argument
  
• Added namespaces to more Entity scripts
  

"As usual, bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks to everyone who keeps reporting those, and keep it up!"

• Scripting API: Fixed Sector and Player not being able to receive LuaValueEx as arguments when adding scripts
  
• [UBR] Scripting API: Added missing PlayerId to API
  
• Fixed server information messages being shown twice in "Everything"
  
• Fixed plenty of money and resource changes not being shown for players
  
• Fixed reconstruction tokens not being removed when deleting the ship in the build mode
  
• Fixed some memory leaks in async ship generator
  
• [UBR] Fixed translations of torpedo names
  
• [UBR] Fixed indicators of missions, systems, etc. being drawn in neutral editor
  
• Fixed a crash in building mode when player is destroyed while building
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the number of higher ranking members was based on the amount of workforce, not the amount of workers
  
• Fixed an issue where arrow keys didn't control the chat input bar when in strategy mode
  
• Fixed an issue when unbinding keys, added dedicated confirmation dialog
  
• Fixed dumping of cargo not working correctly due to new sorting
  

We added boarding! In order to board an enemy ship, you must first damage it and then launch fighter squadrons that transport your boarders to the soon-to-be-yours ship. Boarders will then fight on the other ship until the enemy defense system and crew is beaten. Once there is no enemy crew left, the ship is yours!

When boarding a station, its production facilities are destroyed upon takeover, and have to be rebuilt in order to work again. When boarding a cargo ship, its cargo is not marked as stolen.


Hiring tons and tons of crew can be very tiresome. In order to improve this front, we're now adding the possibility to clone crew on your ships and stations. We added cloning pods as a new block, which you can then use to clone crew on your ship. Cloning a crewman takes a fixed time, increased cloning capacity will allow you to clone more crewmen in parallel.


Since cloned crew is untrained, you will need facilities to turn your untrained crewmen into specialists. Similar to cloning pods there are now Academy Blocks, that help turn your crewmen into specialists. Similar to cloning, training a crewman takes a fixed time, and more academy blocks allow you to train more people in parallel.


There are several more improvements coming with this patch: The Cargo Tab got some improvements like coloring and sorting, overheating bars are now rendered next to turrets, Xsotan are stronger but jump away when unprovoked, reworked energy cooling, and much more!

To get all changes, check out the patchnotes of the beta branch updates:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1601510700259911187
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1600382809846349778