Avorion News

[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!

[h2]Changes and Improvements[/h2]
We (and you, we know) aren’t completely happy with the way independent targeting is handled at the moment, so we went ahead and implemented some direly needed changes. Let’s start off with the most important change: turrets set to auto targeting will no longer deal -50% damage! The 2.0 Update will allow you to set a certain number of turrets to independent targeting, based on a slot system. We also made it easier to keep an eye on the turret slots you have available, showing which turrets need multiple slots and what kinds of slots are still unoccupied.


[h2]PDC Turret Slots[/h2]
PDCs no longer use up military slots but are put into their own PDC slots, called “Defensive” slots. There will be specific subsystems that increase the number of PDCs you can install, but most other turret control systems will also add defensive slots. All PDCs will automatically have independent targeting enabled, so you won’t have to trade any slots or other firepower for defensive weapons.

Stay tuned for another Update 2.0 news flash next week!

[h2]Inventory and Tooltips[/h2]
We also added more colors to the inventory. Now it is much easier to keep track of your items of different rarities and everything has a more concise look. The window itself got a sleeker, more metallic style and the tooltips received a new paint job.



[h2]New HUD[/h2]
Avorion’s GUI received some direly needed sprucing up and we’re very happy with the results. We freshened up the HUD, pulling the bars apart and adding icons to the individual bars for more clarity.



[h2]New Subsystems Tab[/h2]
The old design simply did not have the high-tech look you would expect from a space game. But the new tab is not only more pleasing to the eye, it also explains much better how the volume of the ship limits the processing power and therefore the number of subsystem slots.

[h2]Further Changes[/h2]
We know that our old GUI was difficult to read for people who are color blind. The 2.0 Update will introduce an option to change the color palettes of Avorion, allowing players to choose between different colorblind modes.

Over the next few weeks we will be posting more Update 2.0 news flashes, so stay tuned!

The entire Boxel Team wishes you a Happy Easter!