Avorion News

The building UI structure has remained mostly unchanged over the years, getting more complicated over time. Feedback from you and our experience at GamesCom, Dreamhack etc. confirms that it has a steep learning curve. To tackle this problem we went back to the drawing board. Almost every element of the UI has been reviewed with usability, discoverability and meaningful placement in mind. A lot of work has been put into improving the building UI and we hope you like it!

We brought together what belongs together. All the tools are now listed on the left: Blocks, Turrets, Colors and so on. We implemented advanced features and convenience functions, e.g. transforming all selected blocks with one click.

The stats on the right were tidied up as well. By default only the most importat stats are shown. Each category can be shown or hidden. The influence of crew and energy problems and installed Systems can now be configured. This means you can see the final stats of your massive ship before you have its complete crew on board.

Furthermore, the performance of building operations was greatly improved on both server and client.

• Entity: Renamed getPlan() to getFullPlanCopy() to improve understanding of the function's performance impact
  
• Plan: Added getNumBlocks() function
  

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where players couldn't enter values to negotiate with factions when playing creative
  
• Fixed a crash when a player is inside a craft that's not his nor his alliance's
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where "Transform Block" wasn't applied when selecting a block
  
• Fixed a potential crash when selecting crafts in strategy mode
  
• Fixed various issues in tutorial missions
  

For the a detailed discussion of the new interface and the full list of all changes, check out the patch notes of the beta branch update:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1598143152348481191

"The building UI structure has remained mostly unchanged over the years, getting more complicated over time. Feedback from you and our experience at GamesCom, Dreamhack etc. confirms that it has a steep learning curve. To tackle this problem we went back to the drawing board. Almost every element of the UI has been reviewed with usability, discoverability and meaningful placement in mind. A lot of work has been put into improving the building UI and we hope you like it. There might still be some rough edges. Please let us know what you think!"

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'.

The old Building Inventory has been broken up into separate specialized windows:

"Being able to quickly find and select the desired block and material is extremely important. Also, for new players, discovering the button that opens this window should be easy."

• Added big "Blocks" button that shows the current block to the top left
• The window now always shows all the blocks
• Unavailable blocks in the current material are shaded
• Scrolling changes the material
• All available shape variations for the current block are shown below
• The blocks selection can be filtered
• Transform and Match functions can be toggled in the blocks window
• Implemented new advanced block functions:
  • Select all blocks of the current type
  • Transform all selected blocks

• Added big "Turrets" button below the "Blocks" button that shows the current turret
• Added "Mark Installed Turrets As Favorite" button to make them easier to find e.g. when they temporarily need to be removed from the ship

• Added big "Colors" button below the "Turrets" button that shows the current color
• Implemented new advanced color functions:
  • Select by color
  • Apply color to selection. With these functions color schemes can be changed quickly

• Block-by-block repairing can now be enabled by pressing the button in the top left of the repair window

• Templates have now moved to the "Saved Designs" window
• Designs can now be saved and loaded from the clipboard
• Added combobox to change the material of a design
• Added filter bar
  • Workshop designs can be filtered by tag
• Designs can now be renamed

"Most of the time, always seeing the FULL stats of your ships was both overwhelming and unnecessary. To improve this we added several options for you to configure. Influence of Crew and Energy problems can be toggled, as well as the influence of System Upgrades. This means you can see the stats of your craft in full glory, even if you don't have the full crew yet."

• Stats are now configurable
• Categories can be shown or hidden
• Only the most important stats are shown by default
• Improved colors to better differentiate between minor changes and potential problems

"This is the thing at the bottom of the screen."

• The Quick Selection supports Blocks, Turrets and Designs
• It can be filled via Drag & Drop or by pressing a number when hovering a Block, Turret or Design
• The most common context-sensitive shortcuts are shown above the quick selection

• Grid Size and Scale Step can now be set via text boxes
• All View options are now combined in a small View Settings window
• Same goes for Mirroring options

"Your prayers have been heard. Building performance has been greatly improved on both server and client."

• Improved performance of the ship editor
  • Greatly improved performance of multi-block operations (remove, add, colorize, change block type)
  • Greatly improved performance of undo, redo and repair
  • Greatly reduced the performance impact of all of those operations on the server
• Decreased network traffic for fighters and general position updates
  

"Modders rejoice: We finally got around to adding a search function in the Scripting API docs!"

• Added a search function for the scripting docs
• Several building-related callbacks now support batch processing. The functions in question were renamed and now have variable arguments for the affected block indices
  • Renamed onBlockAdded to onBlocksAdded
  • Renamed onBlockRemove to onBlocksRemove
  • Renamed onBlockRemoved to onBlocksRemoved
  • onBlocksRemoved now transmits all the removed blocks, including their removed orphaned children, as opposed to onBlocksRemove, which only transmits the blocks chosen to be removed by the player
• invokeFunction can now be called with script path or index
• Fixed an issue where client sector's invokeServerFunction() was directed to the player, not the sector
• Renamed runRemote[Entity,Faction,Sector]Code and invokeRemote[Entity,Faction,Sector]Function to run[...]Code and invoke[...]Function
  • Improved documentation of these functions
• invokeEntityFunction now optionally accepts a table instead of two arguments name and factionIndex
• Added search function to documentation

"Bugs marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks to everyone for reporting and keep it up!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where turrets could be selected even if they were obscured
• [UBR] Fixed some events starting even though game is paused
• Fixed an issue with remote sector calls crashing the server
• [UBR] Crew payment timer is only reset to 0 on payment or destruction, no longer on crew leave
• [UBR] Fixed upgrades sometimes being invisible in system upgrade overview
• [UBR] Fixed some issues with ship AI and docking to stations
• Fixed possible server hangs on login
• Fixed player events starting even though game is paused
• Fixed an issue where the ship builder's safe-mode permitted deletions even if they would remove additional blocks
• Fixed potential crash when boarding

Note: We rolled out a hotfix, fixing crashes in combat and, most importantly, a crash when deleting blocks or pressing Ctrl-Z after coloring a block

• [UBR] Fixed some events starting even though game is paused
  
• Fixed an issue with remote sector calls crashing the server
  
• [UBR] Crew payment timer is only reset to 0 on payment or destruction, no longer on crew leave
  
• [UBR] Fixed upgrades sometimes being invisible in system upgrade overview
  
• [UBR] Fixed some issues with ship AI and docking to stations
  
• Fixed possible server hangs on login
  

We always strive to make Avorion more accessible for new and returning players. To achieve this goal we have designed new tutorial missions. These missions will be unlocked during the game and explain more complicated mechanics such as how to use R-Mining Lasers, Torpedoes, Fighters and how to coordinate your fleet.

In addition to the tutorial missions, long-term quests are introduced. They are given to the player by the adventurer after completing the first dialog and guide the player through the galaxy.

As usual this update also contains a bunch of bug fixes. See the full patchnotes here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/partnerevents/view/1566616051169010324

With this update we want to help ease the learning curve of basic game mechanics. With several new tutorial missions the Adventurer helps the player to understand new block types and weapons.
In addition to the tutorial missions, long-term quests are introduced. These are given to the player after first meeting the Adventurer.

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'.

"The Adventurer is the players' introduction to the story. Additionally the Adventurer now gives the player long-term quests that guide through the game."

• Added new tutorial missions for introductions to
  
  • R-Mining
    
  • Torpedoes
    
  • Commanding Fighters
    
  • Fleet & Map Commands
• The first dialog with the Adventurer is now forced (instead of hail) to reliably introduce players to the story
  
• Added new missions that accompany the player through the game, specifically for
  
  • Crossing the barrier
    
  • Finding Avorion
    
  • Reaching the center of the galaxy
    

• Particles and effects are now paused in pause mode
  
• Added torpedo space to ship stats overview in ship menu
  
• Added a tooltip line for consumption of energy when upgrades are permanently installed
  
• Removed option for mailing items from alliance inventory since it wasn't possible anyway
  
• Activating items from the alliance inventory is no longer possible
  
• "Mission Updated" etc. texts no longer overwrite each other when multiple missions are started simultaneously
  
• Quick-Switching of control schemes (F2) is now disabled by default (Can be turned back on in settings)
  
• Improved error messages when connection to (local) server doesn't work
  
• Server now waits for Steam network response when initializing networking, not when downloading mods
  
• Downloading mods is skipped entirely (not just download an empty list) when download list is empty
  

"Since we often ran into performance issues, we had to introduce some changes to the inventory and mail system. A frequent performance issue is the unlimited inventory size. We have limited inventory space to 1000 slots (which we think is a good compromise between performance and comfort) to see how things work out. Keep in mind that these are experimental changes."

• Limited inventory of players and alliances to 1000 slots
  
  • This prevents players and alliances to pick up or get items when the inventory is full
    
  • The limit is introduced to save performance without limiting the player too much
    
  • 1000 Slots means 1000 different items, stackable items can still be stacked to infinity
• Sending mails is no longer possible when inbox is already full
  
• Mails sent to a player with a full mailbox bounce back
  
• Increased fighter dodge recharge time to 120 seconds from 60
  
• AI ships no longer get coaxial guns
  

• Inventory():hasSlot() now ignores item type
  
• Added a maxSlots property to Inventory
  
• Added Inventory:hasSlot(item) function to check if items can be added
  
• Implemented a "addOrDrop" function for Inventory that drops the item when inventory is full
  
• Adding mails to a player is no longer inhibited by max mails limit
  
• Implemented sendCallback() function for Faction that delegates it to alliance or player
  
• Added callback to refinery for onTakeAllPressed
  
• Added more control for bullet points in mission description
  
• Upgrades of all player ships now accessible from scripts
  
• structuredmission.lua framework: Implemented a "noBossEncountersTargetSector" property for disabling the spawn of the AI and Swoks
  
• Improved docs for new properties for disabling player events
  
• Implemented properties for structuredmission.lua framework to disable player events in target sector
  
• Implemented disabling of certain player-related events in specific sectors
  
• Merged spawnswoks.lua and spawnai.lua into their own script to have random encounters in one place
  
• PlayerID's property "id" is now a string
  
• Fixed several issues when registering new callbacks while callbacks are being executed
  
• Added a setter to Hyperspace Engine for "can pass blocked sectors" property
  
• stringutility's join() now uses tostring() internally to convert values reliably
  
• Added more tags to civil ships to distinguish freighters, miners and traders
  
• Moved script updates of player communicator to update of the sector the player is in for improved performance while multiple players are online
  
  • Players' scripts are now updated in parallel for better performance
    
  • Invoking functions on players from another sector is no longer possible
    
• Implemented invokeRemoteFactionFunction() and runRemoteFactionCode() to make up for removing invoking function on players in other sectors
  

"Bugs marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks to everyone for reporting and keep it up!"

• Fixed a bug in Cover Retreat mission where the two factions didn't attack each other
  
• Fixed a bug in Cover Retreat mission where the enemy fleet didn't attack the player
  
• Fixed an issue where sellable inventory items couldn't be sold
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where fighters started from ships with AI Xsotan artifact would never need pilots again
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where destroying items in Alliance inventory wasn't working
  
• [UBR] Empty reconstruction tokens that are applied to alliance crafts now put the token into the Alliance's inventory
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with Merchant Beacon where Alliances couldn't call in merchants
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with Merchant Beacon where any faction would respond (instead of specific faction)
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with Reinforcements Transmitter where Alliances couldn't call in reinforcements
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with Reinforcements Transmitter where timer would be set wrongly when player is not in a ship
  
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where turrets weren't deleted while modifying crafts
  
• [UBR] Fixed relations of factions improving when killing their own hired head hunter
  
• [UBR] Fighters are now correctly displayed as enemies, even if their mothership is gone
  
• [UBR] Fixed "Pick up stolen Cargo" combo box not having the correct setting selected for the current ship
  
• Fixed an issue where dumping cargo could lead to bad cargo problem not disappearing
  
• AI, Swoks and Guardian can no longer immediately spawn on game start / login