Avorion News

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

In this patch we're fixing a few bugs and improving usability. Cargo Bay UI is now clearer. Overheating Bars are now next to the turrets they refer to and are not shown when not necessary. The Scripting API has been extended for turrets.

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'.

• AI ships, turrets and fighters stop attacking a ship when it's being boarded by own faction
  

• Increased maximum speed of fighters
  

• Added hints for when there are no boarders but shuttles and vice versa
  
• Added loading screen tips for boarding
  
• Updating tags of workshop designs is now possible
  
• Cloning and Academy UI is now hidden when not required
  
  • It is still possible to unqueue members when the capacity is zero
    
• Added a "Rebuilding Geometry ..." text while red checkerboard overlay is active
  
• Improved Cargo Tab
  
  • Added icons to cargo tab
    
  • Cargo is now colored, depending on if it's stolen, illegal, etc.
    
  • Cargo is now sorted alphabetically
    
• Overheating bars are now rendered next to the turrets that are affected
  
• Overheating bars are not shown when not necessary
  
• Fixed indicators of complex or L-shaped stations being outside their block structure
  

• Added a function getLoadedSectors() in Galaxy that returns coordinates of all sectors in memory
  
• Added Turret component interface
  
• Added TurretAI component interface
  
• Added TurretController component interface
  
• Extended ShipAI component by several functions to find or check enemies
  
• Added a getDeployedFighters() function to FighterController component
  
• Implemented a LoadTurretDesignFromFile function
  
• Added ClientSettings class for reading settings
  

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports! Thanks for reporting and keep it up!"

• Fixed an issue in onDestroyed() callback
  
• Fixed a crash in scrapyard related to a mod example
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where remote-editing small ships would make them disappear
  
  • For technical reasons, remote-editing ships is no longer possible with neutral editor
    
• [UBR] Fixed red "block removed" mesh not disappearing when remote building a small ship
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where unbranded reconstruction tokens could be bound to non-ships
  
• [UBR] Fixed reconstruction tokens not being transferred to alliance with ship
  
• Fixed a crash when upgrade generator lua file is destroyed by mods
  
• Fixed a crash when mods modify several weapons
  
• Fixed a rare crash when shutting down server
  
• Fixed several minor crashes in scripts
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where some upgrades would not update their UI functions because callbacks were missing
  
• Fixed missing translations when tags mismatch
  
• Fixed an issue where the amount of queued members in the academy was wrong on the client
  
• Fixed tooltips of battery weapons
  
• [UBR] Fixed Xsotan not turning aggressive when another Xsotan ship was destroyed
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the displayed number of died boarders could be too small
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where too many attackers were removed from a ship when starting crew shuttles
  

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'.

"We added boarding! In order to board another ship, you must first damage it and then launch fighter squadrons that transport your boarders. Boarders will then fight on the other ship until the enemy crew is beaten."

• In order to board a ship or station, its hull must be below 30%
  
• Boarding is done with boarders and crew shuttles
  
  • Crew shuttles transport up to 10 boarders can fly to the target in multiple waves!
    
• Squadrons with crew shuttles can now be issued a "Board" order, which transports Boarders to the target
  
• When boarding, the attacking boarders will fight the (entire) defending crew of the other ship, until one of the two is gone completely
  
• The defending crew fights in this order:
  
  • Defense Systems
    
  • Security & defending Boarders
    
  • Normal Crew
    
  • Officers
    
  • Captain
    
  • Captain and higher ranked officers will put up a final fight before the attack is over
    
• During the attack, the craft is damaged severely
  
• When boarders win, the attacked craft is transferred to the boarding faction
  
• Added Defense Weapons (System Upgrade), which can be installed to help defend the ship when boarded
  
  • When beaten during an attack, Defense Weapons are only deactivated until the next attack, not destroyed
    
• Boarding a station destroys its production (or other) facilities. They must be rebuilt to work
  
• Cargo of boarded ships/stations 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 and train crew on your ships and stations!"

• Added Cloning Pods Block (starting at Xanion)
  
• Added Academy Block (starting at Xanion)
  
• Crewmen can now be cloned on the ship
  
  • Cloning costs a small fraction of the crewman's salary
    
  • Cloned crewmen are untrained
    
  • Cloning requires at least one other crewman on the ship in order to work
    
• Cloning a crew man takes 15 minutes, more Cloning Pods Blocks increase the amount of parallel cloning capacity
  
• Crewmen can now be trained on the ship to be specialists
  
  • Training costs a small fraction of the crewman's salary
    
  • While crewmen are trained, they're not part of the working crew
    
• Training a crewman takes a fixed time (30 - 60 mins, depending on job), more Academy Blocks increase the amount of parallel training capacity
  

"Destroying freighters now has an impact on the economy of a sector."

• Sectors where a lot of ships get destroyed are tagged as a hazard zone (if there are witnesses)
  
  • Hazard zones will return to peaceful after some time of no ships being destroyed
    
  • Traders and other civil ships avoid war zones
    

"The Xsotan never really felt like a threat, and we don't really like that. We increased their damage, but to compensate for that, they will move on to another sector when not provoked for a few minutes."

• Increased damage of Xsotan ships by 100%
  
• Xsotan jump out of the sector after at least 2 minutes of not being provoked
  
• Increased volume of sector defender ships by 50%
  
• Increased damage of sector defender ships by 100%
  
• Xsotan attacks happen less often in the outer regions of the galaxy
  

"We're reworking the way energy weapons work. Sometimes energy weapons were basically unusable due to the cooling mechanic. We're reworking energy weapons to have a battery now instead."

• Reworked energy consumption of turrets
  
• Energy turrets now have a battery that has to be recharged, instead of costing more and more energy to work
  
• Battery of turrets is recharged using the ship's energy
  
• Damage of turrets with low battery is reduced
  
• Energy turrets can now use "Power Unit" trading good to increase battery charge in turret factory
  

• Added Defense Weapons Upgrade
  
• Fighter Squads now have distinct categories for easier handling (esp. for AI)
  
• Boarder and security can only level up by fighting
  
• Refine AI can now collect refined resources without depositing ores in the same run first
  
• Improved robustness of refine AI
  

• Security and Boarders now have a workforce of 1, independent of their level, for better clarity
  
• Adjusted hire costs of Boarders to 2000
  
• Adjusted salary of Boarders to 1500
  
• Military outpost only has crew available that is related to fighting
  
• Rebalanced damage of Bolters and Pulse cannons so their cooling no longer reduces their damage
  
• Increased damage of Pulse Cannons by 50%
  
• Pirate-infested sectors are scaled down in outer & beginner areas
  
  • They are at full strength again at 370 sectors distance to the galaxy core
    

• Added a Sector:getEntitiesByScriptValue() function
  
• Added Sector and Entity callbacks onBoardersLand, onBoardingFight, onBoardersDefeated, onBoardingSuccessful
  

• "Weak Ship" ship problem isn't shown in beginner areas where there are no persecutors
  
• Removed "not yet implemented" tooltip text for Boarding
  
• Reworked CrewUI to be more compact and show a lot more information
  
• Warnings and Errors are now also displayed in the "Chat" channel of the chat window
  
• Empty squads are greyed out in the controls on the left
  
• Updated Game Credits
  

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks everybody for reporting and helping us, and keep it up!"

• Fixed an issue with the window that shows the most important, latest changes
  
• [UBR] Fixed wrong Sector constructor call in searchandrescue.lua
  
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in crew hiring UI where numbers could overflow
  
• Fixed an issue where clicking order buttons in strategy mode interfered with the selection
  
• Fixed an issue in strategy mode where the stop order didn't clear the visible line of the last order
  
• Fixed a crash in scrapyard script related to a mod example
  
• Fixed a crash when upgrade generator lua file gets messed up by mods
  
• Fixed a rare crash when shutting down server
  
• Fixed a crash when mods mess up mining lasers
  
• Fixed an issue where ships without captain would jump when ordered via map commands
  
• Fixed an issue where gyros with different orientations could be merged
  
• Fixed a rendering bug where Xanion and Avorion overlays weren't rendered correctly for some blocks
  

After several weeks of testing, Avorion Workshop support for mods is now live on the default branch! This update introduces big changes in the game's bowels to make modding as easy as possible for both modders and mod users.

We believe that a sandbox game is only truly a sandbox when players have the ability to mod it. So we spared no expense and effort to bring you guys this update. We did our best to make it as easy as possible to use and create mods.

To download a mod, simply subscribe to the workshop item. In the main menu, there is now a new window in Settings -> Mods, where you can enable all downloaded mods to your heart's desire. Keep in mind that mods can corrupt saves!


Creating mods can be a complex process, so we spent weeks and wrote a lot of guides for all you modders:

General Introduction: https://wiki.avorion.net/Modding
Modding Guide: https://wiki.avorion.net/Writing_your_own_Mod
Mod Examples: https://wiki.avorion.net/Mod_Examples
Avorion Internals Guide: https://wiki.avorion.net/Avorion_Internal_Architecture
Modding Pitfalls: https://wiki.avorion.net/Modding_Pitfalls
Debugging: https://wiki.avorion.net/Debugging_Scripts
Best Practices: https://wiki.avorion.net/Best_Practices


Dedicated servers download workshop mods configured in a new modconfig.lua file. Clients that connect to those servers will download mods automatically (without subscribing).
More about that: https://wiki.avorion.net/Using_Mods_on_Dedicated_Servers


If you want to know everything about modding and using mods, check out the following patchnotes:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/2894038190196982550
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1610512829589688080
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1599255098332107149
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1603759965330512367
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1600382809820613220