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

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'.

• Sector "name" property is now writable
• Due to technical reasons the new designation is only sent whenever a player enters the sector
• Changing the name while players are in the sector won't change the name for those players
• Implemented a function in DockingPositions to delete asteroids and wreckages in docking ranges
• miningfield.lua and startsector.lua now delete obstacles in docking routes
• Client-side Player can now send inventory items via script chat message, and to different channels
• Function "onMouseEvent"'s parameter "pressed" is now a boolean instead of an int

• Renamed caption of "Return" key to "Enter"
• Adjusted behavior of Numpad Enter to function the same as primary Enter
• Insta-Installing Upgrades from Systems Tab is now done with Shift
• Pinging upgrades in chat from Systems Tab is now possible using Ctrl
• Pinging turrets in chat from Ship Menu is now possible using Ctrl
• Pinging turrets/upgrades in chat from Equipment Dock is now possible using Ctrl

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with backslashes in printed out profiling data
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where exiting build mode would sometimes not unpause the game
• [UBR] Adjusted Solar Panel and Light block durability to no longer be more cost-effective than other blocks
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where starting a new galaxy would regularly start with the drone being in a super-lit docking beam
• [UBR] Fixed a broken plural translation for Smuggler's suspicious goods
• "Too many messages" chat message restriction no longer appears in Singleplayer
• Fixed an issue with map search function and alliance info display
• Fixed a crash in server when start up fails

Hey guys,

Good news! We've rolled out the beta of our Avorion Mac Version. This beta will be available for all upcoming versions and will also be available for BOTH the beta and the default branch of the game!

Please remember that this is a fresh version of Avorion for MacOS, so there may still be some bugs or other problems around. If you encounter any issues, please report them to us:

https://avorion.net/bugtracker/report.php

We need your hardware specs and OS version, as well as a detailed description of what happened and what you expected to happen.

Other than that, please try out the Mac Version and if everything goes well, we'll set it live officially in the store soon!

Happy playing!

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'.

• Improved performance when shadows are active
• Added a profiling graph for client + server (admins only)
• Pressing F10 now prints out a JSON graph of the last few client frames, viewable in Chrome
• When inviting a player to your group, an info message pops up for the invited player
• Renamed "Leave Galaxy" button to "Main Menu"
• Added a description to scanner booster to what scanners actually do
• VSync and FPS limiting are now mutually exclusive
• Added social media links to main menu

• Server doesn't start when mod loading fails

• Added a "layer" property for script UI elements
• Reworked code of singleinteraction.lua
• ScriptUI component just calls "showDialog" when calling "interactShowDialog" with the dialog window already open
• Avoids camera tilt on interact when already interacting

• Fixed an issue where ships would get built faster than intended in shipyard
• [UBR] Adventurer only hails the player if they didn't already speak
• [UBR] Fixed lots and lots of cargo loot entities being created when dumping cargo
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where traders weren't spawned when players founded stations in remote sectors
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where stations that were set to "don't buy/sell" would still trade with players
• [UBR] Fixed some issues with the Bottan smuggling mission
• [UBR] Fixed several other exploits
• [UBR] Fixed several smaller bugs/crashes in scripts

• Added a mod Dev-Mode check box for disabling file caching and other things
• [UBR] Fixed some performance issues when mods are enabled
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with transfer of crafts to alliance

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'.

• Added scriptPath() function that returns the path of the currently executed script
• Entity is now serializable
• function Sector::belongsToFaction() now accepts strings as entity id
• Added Sector::exists() function
• Added note to docs about double-registration of callbacks

• [UBR] Fixed turret beams and shots not being visible in some cases
• [UBR] PlayerId is now useable in scripts
• Fixed an issue where scraps of higher metals could be transported in freighters

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'.

• Independent turrets no longer fire when target is obstructed by allies
• When turrets are set to "Attack Target" and target is gone, they behave as if set to "Defensive"
• Applying empty plans is no longer possible because it would delete the ship

• [UBR] Fixed tooltip layering issues in GalaxyMap
• [UBR] Fixed tooltips of saved ships rendering over ship costs in saved designs window
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where plans with double indices could get loaded cause problems
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where edge blocks were incorrectly merged
• [UBR] Fixed a performance issue in Galaxy Map
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where harvest fighters would try harvesting asteroids that were impossible to harvest
• Scripting API: Fixed Sector and Player not being able to receive tables as arguments when adding scripts
• Fixed several budget updates not being visible to players
• Fixed an issue where reconstruction tokens weren't properly removed from player's inventory

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 we're introducing massive, massive changes to the asset loading system and the lua engine. We can't possibly test everything that could maybe go wrong, so please help us test and brace yourselves for more patches!

Even though these patchnotes might not look like much, a lot has been going on in the engines roots. This update is probably the one that we spent the most work on in the last 12 months.

"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."

• Implemented Workshop Mods
• Workshop Mods can be subscribed to and configured in-game in Settings -> Mods
• Achievements are disabled when using mods
• When logging into a server, Workshop mods can be downloaded automatically (without subscription)

"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
• Multiple Mods can now easily modify multiple files, which is done by appending mods to the files
• Allows access to variables declared as "local" when extending files
• Many script files have been modified to support appending mods
• Assets, such as Textures or SFX, are shadowed instead of extended
• Modded files are loaded in a load order specified by mod dependencies
• ALL lua files (including library files) and almost all asset files can be modded

• Dedicated servers download workshop mods configured in modconfig.lua file
• Servers can specify mods that are allowed on clients connecting to the server
• More details: https://wiki.avorion.net/Using_Mods_on_Dedicated_Servers

• Client creates a moddata/ folder in settings folder for mods to save configs
• Added windows to configure and upload mods
• Added a window that warns when savegame altering mods are no longer enabled before loading a galaxy
• Replaced Scrapyard tab strings with icons
• Added particles quality setting
• Improved RAM management of unused resources
• Improved performance of ship preview UI elements
• Designs are now loaded on-click, no longer on-show

• Added a command line option "--init-folders-only" to only initialize folders
• Improved error handling for saving of data to files

• Logging now prints to different files to ensure no one file gets too large

"Oh boy have we some patchnotes for you guys! We're only listing the most important changes, you can find the rest in the Scripting API."

• Added a "include()" function in addition to "require()" which also loads all mod extensions instead of just a single file
• Reworked a lot of files to be more easily moddable
• Added a max depth variable to printTable()
• Added a ScriptModManager API
• Added a string.join() function
• Implemented mod-specific scripts that run in global server environment
• sendChatMessage() and broadcastChatMessage() now also accept an Entity as sender
• Added UIGridSplitter, UIHorizontalLister, UIArbitraryHorizontalSplitter UI organizer classes
• Unified pirateattackstarter.lua and traderattackedbypiratesstarter.lua in sectoreventstarter.lua
• Added missing Descriptor getters for DockingPositions and TorpedoLauncher components
• Added "craftFaction" property to Player
• Added a table deepcopy() function
• When adding scripts into the same VM, the first added script is used whenever possible
• Client offers a "createDirectory" and "removeDirectory" function for inside "moddata/" folder
• Server offers a "createDirectory" and "removeDirectory" function
• Scripting API for scripts used by the game itself (Faction Map, Generators, etc.) now use Client/Server specific API
• Creating an Entity() from an ID that doesn't exist no longer prints errors to the log
• Creating a Faction() from an index that doesn't exist no longer prints errors to the log
• Massively reduced cases in which scripts would be set to "invalid" after erroneous execution

• Increased pause between 2 independent events to at least 10 minutes from 5
• Increased amount of money in traveler's stash
• Scrapyards now offer dismantling of turrets into parts
• Reduced the AI behavior where AI ships with high reach run from player ships indefinitely
• Reduced distance based on reach that the AI tries to keep between it and its target
• Increased time interval where the AI updates the waypoints around its target

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with "invalid fighter stats" in fighter factory
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with faulty translations causing crashes
• Fixed several issues with screenshots and textures placed in non-ASCII paths
• Fixed several íssues with loading lua files or other assets from non-ASCII paths
• [UBR] Map commands jump range visualisation now works correctly for ships that can pass rifts
• Fixed some performance issues in flight AI

"Sadly, some things cannot be modded yet, because they're too deeply rooted inside the game's core engine. We're working on making those things moddable in the future as well."

• Some things like Materials, Rarities or Blocks cannot be modded yet
• We know of some issues where players experience lower FPS while mods are enabled

In the last update, we already changes some of the behaviors when your ship gets destroyed. Deaths in Avorion are harsh. We all know that. Especially new players get punished early for not knowing the game, after they invested tons of resources in their first ship and then - poof - it's just gone. That's true ragequit material, and nobody wants that. We're changing the insurance system to an equivalent reconstruction/respawn system that will be both more intuitive for everyone and more forgiving when you're just starting out.

The old insurance system was a compromise, and not a good one. Somewhat permadeath, but not really, yet you still lose enough that it caused beginners on titanium tier to ragequit. We needed a system where it is completely clear to players starting out that they CAN get their ship back, and where they DO after their first death (hence the first token is free). People try out the game, invest 3 - 5 hours in their first ship and then it gets destroyed, and it's not forgiven - at all. That's not fun, it's only frustrating. And when it's not fun, then it's not a good game.

From now on, you can buy reconstruction tokens at repair docks, which will allow you to completely restore a destroyed ship. To avoid exploits, cargo and fighters (blueprints are restored!) are exempt from this. Reconstruction tokens cost about 20% to 30% of your ship's value, and the first token of each ship is free on normal and lower difficulties.

Repair docks are getting big changes: From now on you'll be able to restore your ships at repair docks, either for Reconstruction Tokens or for your ship's worth of money. Buying a Reconstruction Token will also repair your ship for free.

We're adding some more features that should make it easier and less obnoxious to start out in Avorion. Base crew size of ships is now doubled (from 4 to 8) and ships start out with a base crew on lower difficulties.

In addition to that, we're drastically reducing artificial hyperspace calculation times (by 90%). Keep in mind that hyperspace calculation times have been introduced to mask sector loading and generation time, and it can still take a while until your target sector is ready. You should feel a drastic improvement for long jumps though!

There are many other smaller improvements in this patch: UI Improvements such as smaller notifications on the bottom right and less annoying hint boxes, as well as a new block shape!

To get the full list of changes, check out the patchnotes of this patch:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1609385662090749980