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'.

"These will be the last major features that will make it into the new game. Along with some more quality of life improvements."

• Added a new block that displays the name of the ship it belongs to
• Added a new charred wreckage block
• Added an editor for creating an emblem for your alliance
• Added a new alliance emblem block
• Added more encounters with enemies
• Added possibility to transfer torpedoes between ships
• Added new introduction missions for combat and trade
• Updated "Battleship" achievements. They are now called "Flagship" achievements and are simplified
• Added "Transfer Squad" buttons to Transfer Crew/Goods/Fighters UI
• Gates now change their owner if the faction that own the sector they lead to changes
• Valuables detector upgrade now shows flight recorders in wreckages
• Added blueprinting functionality to turret factory
• Added the ability to switch crafts and interact from the Strategy Mode
• Added more radio chatter
• Replaced factions like "The pirates of ___" with "The buccaneers of ___" to avoid confusion with always-hostile pirate factions
• Added story and lore fragments and logs for players to find
• Added a "Repair" order
• Alliance ranks can now have icons assigned

"Almost only quality of life stuff and maybe something to do with bug fixing."

• Removed obsolete ToggleHangars control setting
• Alliance's resources are shown while Alliance Diplomacy Tab is opened
• Drone is now shown as last entry in ship selection of "switch to ship in sector"
• Filter text box of the buy/sell map commands is no longer case sensitive
• Reworked several icons
• Added a hint that is shown when a player manages to crash the drone in a way that it turns unflyable
• Added a tracker to track your current mission
• Added several "nothing-to-see-here" texts that are displayed instead of the meaningless void that are empty lists
• Ie. Smuggler's market now shows 'You have no stolen goods' if player has no stolen goods
• Added a check box to Galaxy Map for toggling the "notes" icon
• Add HOME and END key functions to multi line text box
• Weapon groups now show their bound key in "Current Ship" tab and Turret Controls, not just a number
• Improved several texts and descriptions
• Added an extra dialog layer to "Give me all your cargo" that doesn't immediately worsen relations
• Price of turrets is now shown in their tooltips
• Changed the DPS value of tooltips to Omicron, we kinda just wanna see how you guys react
• If you like the above change, write "Banana" in the comments as feedback
• If you don't, write "Lemon" in the comments to confuse people
• Added separate sliders to building mode for non-uniform scaling
• Added input boxes for entering the scale
• Smugglers market's unbrand text field now doesn't allow higher numbers than the player has
• Building stats now show the amount of small, medium and large fighters that can be stored in hangar
• Added size to Modify Whole Ship window
• Ship stats overview now uses human readable number system for HP and Shields
• Selections are now mirrored
• Improved performance of several menus and HUD elements
• Galaxy Map: Craft portraits can only be selected with Left Mouse so you cannot accidently select a ship while setting a route
• Improved visibility of valuables detector upgrade arrows
• Squads of fighters can now be moved up & down in UI
• Added tracking of ingredients list of Turret Factory

• Adjusted volume of Mining Lasers of Drone
• Adjusted volume of point defense chainguns and lasers
• Added toggle for 'No Turning' in Mouse Steering
• Added a new snapping mode that snaps all corners of a block into a global grid
• Added an option to mute sound when focus of the window is lost

• Improved clarity of color window tooltips
• Added color picker button to colors window
• Added combo box to colors window to switch between used colors first and normal order

• Added chat message when player enters a hazard zone
• Reworked several texts

• Renamed TorpedoLauncher:getTorpedoes() -> getNumTorpedoes()
• Added nextQuadraticRect() to Listers
• TurretTemplate can now be constructed from other TurretTemplate objects
• Added Tab.isActiveTab property
• Fixed an issue where sorting in InventorySelection wouldn't work when it wasn't filled with content from a Player's inventory
• Added access to tracked missions
• Added SystemUpgradeLoot class
• Added moddable weapon sound effects

"Bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. I think there is a clear tendency visible in the list below, and we're not planning on stopping. Keep it up guys! :)"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with gates leading to sectors without gates
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with wreckages getting duplicated
• [UBR] Fixed a bug when pressing Escape while moving a window
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where Railguns with 0 firerate could be created
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where players would be put into their drone on relog
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where english would be used instead of the chosen localization
• Fixed several issues where wrong factions were used while interacting with alliance ships
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the Adventurer and Boss Swoks could spawn in the same sector
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where text field scrolling would scroll too far
• Fixed a client crash when jumping into a sector with a craft by a different alliance, i.e. not the alliance the player is in
• [UBR] Fixed several errand missions sending players over the barrier
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where selling to your own smuggler's market would not make you any money
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the crew quarters delta wasn't displayed in building stats
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where shooting down persecutors and drones could create hazard zones
• [UBR] Fixed color loot still being around
• [UBR] Fixed valuables detector icon still being shown even after there are no more valuables in the sector
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where selecting ships and more in the Strategy Mode would not actually select them after exiting the mode
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where high-material turrets remained even after transforming its block material too low
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the Strategy Mode action menu wasn't updated when selecting via the overview list
• [UBR] Fixed a very bad hang in server while saving/loading
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where too many crew problems were shown
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where rifts that are only one sector wide weren't shown on the map
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where time stamps in logs weren't working
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships would chase each other out of a sector indefinitely
• They still do chases, but no longer indefinitely
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the artifact from the exodus mission could be dropped indefinitely
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where focus events of window weren't properly handled
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where "Target selected" sound was played a lot while drawing a rect-selection in Strategy Mode
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where travelling merchants didn't have enough cargo space
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where "Ship Problem" icons overlapped
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ship icons would overlap with command icons on the Galaxy Map
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where both attack and salvage fighters were used for salvaging
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ads for reconstruction tokens were shown on Hardcore and above
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where Hyperspace Engine efficiency hint was displayed when Hyperspace Engine was disabled

"We still have tons of things to do, we know that and we're working hard on it! Please keep reporting bugs as you're already doing. You guys are awesome!"

It's finally here! We reworked the procedural craft generator to create prettier ships, based on faction styles. Factions can be recognized by their ships and stations now, and each ship/station class has a distinct look. We won't bore you with the internals, just one thing: Yes, you can mod it. Now go explore!

With this update we added economic factors to factions. Their supply of ships and stations is now finite, depending on faction size and military or economic focus. Players can now drive AI factions to their limits, and see and feel the impact of their actions. When you destroy a station, the faction will rebuild it after some time. If you manage to destroy all ships and stations of an AI faction before they can rebuild, you can even eradicate them completely.
In addition to those features, you can now hire spies at smuggler outposts, that will send you information about a faction's economy (ie. amounts of ships, stations, etc) on a regular basis.


We feel that after killing the Wormhole Guardian there should be more to do with your time. With this update we introduce new Xsotan ships, a new server wide post-guardian event and three new bosses. In order to not spoil you too much we'd just say: Go and finish Avorion, and then see what happens.

That's far from all! We've got a few more cool features waiting for you:

Ever wanted to play against the Star Wars Empire in Avorion? You now have the tools to do so. You can now create faction mod packs that give a faction a subset of ships from the Steam Workshop.

We want players to be able to use Creative Mode in a way its name suggests, to try out features and game mechanics. So we added the possibility to quickly change the equipment of your craft. There's a new creative mode command center in the ship window where you get access to tons of utility features for creative!

Since Avorion saves (galaxies) are persistent they tend to become huge, and a normal savegame feature is not possible. We did our best to add a safeguard against losing all your progress (for example after a crash) without taking up tons and tons of hard drive space. The game now creates hourly backups that you can use to restore your current save.
Keep in mind that restoring a backup is not the same thing as loading a save! Progress of NPC factions is completely reset during this process and the world is reset to zero (except for the progress of players).

Of course there are tons and tons of other QoL features and bugfixes. To get the full list, check out the patchnotes of the previous beta patches:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/3588743161435047711
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1702861358068600657
https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1702861358076178338

Time flies! We could not be more excited about the upcoming release. Since there are only a few days left, we are giving 100% to solve the remaining issues. This is the part where we need your help! Please report all the bugs you can find in Avorion. It does not matter if you have already reported it some time ago. If it still bothers you, report it again. We will take care of it. We are thankful for every hint that you can send to us!

Ouch! To report a bug, please use the ingame tool.

For more information you can find an extensive manual here:
https://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,478.0.html

If possible, we would really appreciate if you could tell us the following things:

What happened?
Please tell us as exactly as possible what happened when the bug/issue appeared.

The most important field for us is "Steps to Reproduce". Please give us the most detailed description that you can.

We understand that sometimes it feels like bugs are obvious. But they can be related to your machine, your drivers, your operating system and so many other things. If we had found the bug while testing, we would have fixed it for sure.

Here is a great example for "Steps to Reproduce" as taken from a bug report:
"For the Station dock crash:
- Start a new game, preferably in creative mode
- Have a shipyard generate a Station-Founding ship (any size will do)
- Get in the ship
- Find a suitable sector for a station
- Found the station
- Get back to that sector you founded your station at (because for some reason, if that's your only "ship" in the sector, it kicks you out into your drone and you go back to your home sector, or other vanilla destruction behaviors
- Enter your station
- Go to build mode inside your station
- Place a dock anywhere
- Game crashes."

We know that this takes some time, but with these steps, we managed to fix the bug in minutes. We hope you understand!

Thanks to everybody who is helping us, we are very thankful for having such an amazing community!

Happy playing! Please report as much as you can. We are looking forward to release!

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'.

"Had a little breakthrough with the engine code over the weekend, enjoy!"

• Improved collision detection of beams and particles to be more comprehensible

"We think that boarding a station takes lots of effort already, so from now on you won't have to pay the full price of a station on top of that to rebuild it."

• Reduced rebuilding cost of boarded stations to 50% of the previous price (down from 100%)

"QoL features, yay! You can now easily favorite and trash items with F and T while hovering them. Also, you can now scrap all trash turrets in one go at a Scrapyard."

• Implemented fast-marking as trash or favorite with F and T
• Implemented a "dismantle trash" button to Scrapyard
• Adjusted description of retrograde marker

"Polishing and debug output for upcoming bugfixes on the client. Nothing too special."

• Updated warnings for on-board GPUs
• Directory of galaxy saves can now be configured in client.ini
• Added some debugging output to help find more issues with new generator
• Destroyed entities are now immediately replaced by their wreckage counterpart to have less flickering

• Added "scrollPosition" properties to ComboBoxes and ListBoxes
• Implemented adding of additional languages via mods

"Thanks to all our User Bug Reporters (UBR) for helping us improve the game! We're focusing 100% on this now, so keep it up!"

• [UBR] Fixed a wrong cargo shuttle launch error message in factory
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with clearing and scrolling of List and ComboBox UI elements
• Scripting API: Fixed an issue where callbacks of Wormhole entities weren't sent
• [UBR] Fixed font not being moddable
• [UBR] Fixed a few issues in fleet commands mission
• [UBR] Fixed non-steering players being able to execute hyperspace jumps
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where AI ships were having trouble hitting parts
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where pure-holo entities weren't getting deleted properly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where auto-turrets would target holo blocks
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where tractor beams were sometimes invisible
• Fixed a few issues where headquarters and military stations would get cranes and containers randomly generated all over the place
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with hyperspace recharge hint being displayed for too long
• [UBR] Fixed flickering in Alliance Tab when a search text was entered and then new items are hovered with the mouse
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where hints would be displayed for UI elements that are invisible

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'.

• Ships can now be classified and renamed in "Current Ship" tab
• All colors are now always available, not just in creative
• Military Outposts now have fighter squadrons
• Holding the interact button inside the light line of a station dock now fires up tractor beams for the player
• Slightly reduced randomness of new ship generator
• Improved the ending of the "Transfer Vessel" mission
• Creative Mode Command Center now adds a captain on "Add Crew"

• Cargo shuttles now transport cargo amounts depending on their own size (still always at least 1)
• Cargo shuttles are now more expensive the larger they get (not the other way round like all the other fighters)
• Reduced maximum speed of enemy AI ships on lower difficulties and in the outer regions of the galaxy
• Adjusted likelihood of several missions on stations

• Tuned bloom and general brightness to be less obnoxious

• Clicking into the colored frame of an entity now reliably selects it
• Added a "Browse" button to Singleplayer game window

• Added a isMapFaction() function to Galaxy
• Version can now be constructed from strings
• Added entriesPerPage property to ComboBox
• Added a getModsModifyingFile() function to ModManager to query all mods that modify a given file
• Added a "atype" function for gathering type or avorion type of an object (similar to type() function)
• When reading a dependency without an explicit version from a modinfo.lua, version is assumed as *.*, not 0.0

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with head hunters where they could be hired by any nearby faction (including pirates)
• [UBR] Bottan's smuggler can no longer be abused for early Trinium gain
• [UBR] Fixed no economy overview appearing in trading upgrade of alliance ships
• [UBR] Fixed some issues where fleet tab wouldn't refresh
• Fixed an issue where "armed" fighters could be created without weapons
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in fighter tooltip where production effort always had a red down arrow
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where PDCs of enemy AI ships would shoot the player even if they are marked as "Friend"
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where turrets of any material could be created at the turret factory
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships that were recovered after crashes would all be squished into each other
• Fixed several issues with effects of arriving ships
• [UBR] Fixed some performance issues on the galaxy map
• [UBR] Fixed some performance issues with the save size calculation in Singleplayer Window
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with the "Fleet Commands" mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the Adventurer and Swoks could spawn in the same sector
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in the "Free Slaves" mission where pirates wouldn't attack
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where repair turrets with both shield and hull repair wouldn't actually repair both
• Fixed several crashes and other minor issues in many scripts
• Fixed a crash in new ship generator
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships and stations spawned with empty shields
• Added lots of debug logging to find the cause of some more issues
• Fixed an issue with infinite loops in order chains
• [UBR] Fixed an issuwe where camera shake didn't going away in build and strategy mode
• Fixed some issues with larger Xsotan attacks

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, tons of stuff is coming together, so it might still be a little unstable. But that's what the beta branch is for anyways, right? Right? Please report all the bugs you can find."

• Added ancient gates to exodus end sectors
• Added camera shake in several situations when ...
• boosting
• getting hit by torpedoes
• a nearby ship jumps into hyperspace
• a nearby ship arrives from hyperspace
• Camera shake intensity can be configured in settings
• Added an animation for ships arriving from hyperspace
• Added a new block shape

"We reworked the procedural craft generator to create prettier ships, based on faction styles. Factions can be recognized by their ships and stations now, and each ship/station class has a distinct look. We won't bore you with the internals, just one thing: Yes, you can mod it."

• Reworked the craft generator
• Added distinct styles for ships: Ship (default), Miner, Freighter, Carrier
• Added distinct styles for each station type
• New styles will only appear in newly discovered sectors
• Most aspects of the craft generator are now controllable via scripts
• Players without any saved designs get 5 procedural ship designs of varying size that they can use

• Limited maximum hyperspace cooldown to 5 minutes
• Hyperspace cooldown is always at least 5 seconds (instead of 0) to avoid server issues

"We feel that after killing the Wormhole Guardian there should be more to do with your time. With this update we introduce new Xsotan ships, a new server wide post-guardian event and three new bosses."

• Added a massive, server wide, regular event in the center of the galaxy that happens after killing the Xsotan Wormhole Guardian
• Added new types of Xsotan
• Summoner: ??
• Quantum: ??
• Adjusted spawn timings of Xsotan Wormhole Guardian
• Added 3 new Endgame Bosses
• Boss Project IHDTX
• The Big Brother
• 5468 6520 4149

"With this update we added economic factors to factions. Their supply is now finite, depending on faction size and military or economic focus. Players can now drive AI factions to their limits, and see and feel the impact of their actions."

• Factions now have a limited amount of military ships available in a given amount of time
• The amount depends on the faction's size and how aggressive or peaceful they are
• If lots of military ships are available they might send more when sending reinforcements
• Military ships are replenished over time
• Relations now worsen when taking over a sector from an AI faction
• A faction is now considered eradicated if it controls no more sectors and has no stations
• Eradicated factions are marked in the Diplomacy tab
• Factions now rebuild lost stations
• Construction sites are not built in hazard zones
• Each faction has a capacity for building construction sites, depending on the faction's size
• Capacity is replenished over time
• Smuggler Outposts now have spies that uncover data about neighboring factions
• Total stations, military ships and construction capacity are then visible in the Diplomacy tab
• This data is always visible for allied factions

"Ever wanted to play against the Star Wars Empire in Avorion? You now have the tools to do so."

• Added new type of mod, "Faction Pack"
• Faction packs allow modders to create factions with coherent custom ship and station designs
• Supported ship types: Ship, Freighter, Carrier, Miner, Fighter
• Supported station types: All basic station types
• Size and material are adjusted automatically
• Added combobox to select the type when creating a new mod

"We want players to be able to use Creative Mode in a way its name suggests, to try out features and game mechanics. So we added the possibility to quickly change the equipment of your craft."

• Added "Creative Mode Command Center" tab to Ship Window
• Players can add crew, guns, system upgrades, different fighter squads, torpedoes and goods to their current craft
• Relations to AI factions can be manipulated
• Amounts of turrets in building mode are now hidden as they are infinite anyways

"Since Avorion saves (galaxies) are persistent they tend to become huge, and a normal savegame feature is not possible. We did our best to add a safeguard against losing all your progress (for example after a crash) without taking up tons and tons of hard drive space."

• While playing, the game will now create hourly emergency backups
• You can restore emergency backups from the settings menu
• You should only restore backups in case of an emergency (ie. savegame corruption, by a crash or mods)
• In order to avoid exploits, backup creation can't be manually controlled by players
• (If you really want to mess up your galaxy and then revert it, copy its folder and then go nuts)
• IMPORTANT: Restoring from a backup is not the same thing as loading a save:
• Only player progress is saved during the backup
• When a backup is applied, the galaxy is almost completely reset and backed-up player progress is reapplied
• NPC factions are completely reset on restore of a backup

• Added dimensions preview when placing block templates in building mode
• Improved visuals of hull polarization effects
• Hologram blocks now light up their surroundings
• Reduced overly bright AO lighting
• Added more crash diagnostics to client

• Added a command line option to restore from a backup

• Documentation is now sorted alphabetically
• General documentation improvements
• Added getSectorView() function to Galaxy
• Added setMaterialTier() function to BlockPlan
• Added intersectBeamRay() functionality to intersect beams the way that a weapon would behave
• ShipAI: Added new function setPassiveTurning() to allow an entity to turn and shoot while staying in place
• Made Thrusters component available in scripts: Get / set turning speeds of entities
• Made Torpedo component available in scripts
• Made DirectFlightPhysics component available in scripts
• vec2, vec3 and vec4 can now be constructed with a single value: vec3(1) == vec3(1, 1, 1)
• Several improvements to passing/reading tables to/from engine
• utility.lua: Added multimin/max utility functions

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are User Bug Reports! Thanks to everyone who reported those, and keep it up, especially now that we're in the polishing phase!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where salvagers and miners stopped randomly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue with stacked windows in main menu after changing the language
• Scripting API: Fixed an issue where Server:getPlayers() didn't return anything
• [UBR] Fixed dimensions preview of block brush being numbers like 1.49999999 instead of 1.5
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where "Immune" text would be shown too often
• Fixed an issue where wreckages were duplicated
• [UBR] Fixed a bug when pressing Escape while moving a window
• Fixed missing caption of resource depot
• Fixed missing icon in cargo transport license merchant
• Several smaller stability improvements
• [UBR] Fixed a potential source for regular server hangs
• [UBR] Fixed a rare issue with Building Mode geometry not reloading correctly

"Thanks Tradinoko and all others for pointing out that we forgot to add the new damage types to torpedoes! We immediately set about correcting that oversight and here you go!"

• Added damage types and their application to torpedoes

• Torpedoes now have a damage type property

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are User Bug Reports! Thanks to everyone who reported those!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue with missing names in Sector Overview
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with pirate encounters that lead to script crashes
• [UBR] Fixed only one pirate becoming aggressive in some pirate encounters
• [UBR] Fixed issue with one pirate encounter where chatter was shown on player ship
• [UBR] Fixed radio chatter being shown on ships that are currently flown by the player
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in Transfer Vessel mission
• [UBR] Fixed typo in German localization

It's official! We're happy to break the news that Avorion will be leaving Early Access on March 9th, 2020!

Until March 9th, there are a few more things to do:

Feature Freeze at Boxelware! This week we have started focusing on polishing things up. All the most important features are now in (at least in our dev-build) and we're polishing things up. Fixing bugs, adding more QoL features and balancing. We will dedicate 90% of our time until release on that to bring you a product that has 1.0 quality and not just Early Access quality.

We're currently finalizing the most important update of all: The generator update. We want to set it live as soon as we can to get tons of feedback and to see if everything works fine. In case you don't know what the update is about, check this out: https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/3455884364089992667

We wanted to release it this week, but sadly we won't make it. The generator itself is working perfectly fine, but there's some stuff around it that still needs some work (factions saving their own styles, shipyards, etc). We're hoping to bring it to you next week on the beta branch!

We have several Endgame related features in the making that will be released soon (maybe at the same time as the generator rework). These include faction economy and faction eradication, as well as more more bosses and one major, galaxy-wide end-game event. But we don't want to spoil too much just yet, so stay tuned!

Probably the most important thing for the majority: We're far from done with Avorion! After 1.0 we're planning on releasing both free updates and a few larger DLC updates. We plan on developing new content updates for the game for at least one year, and supporting the game for at least one more year after that. Much longer if things go well. We love working on Avorion and we love the engaged community that formed around the game! We don't want to just let all that go away.

As such, one of the first updates to come after 1.0 will be a free update where we're implementing tons of small "feature-creep" features that have been suggested by the community and that we really loved, but that just didn't make it into the 1.0 version.

We added a few new ways how hulls and shields react to different damage types. Some of these "changes" are things that were already in the game, but not explicitly highlighted. Weapons now officially deal different types of damage: Basic Physical and Energy, and then Antimatter, Electric, Plasma and Fragment damage, which are specializations of Physical and Energy damage.

• Physical and Energy are the 'vanilla' damage types
  
• Antimatter deals increased damage to hull
  
• Plasma deals increased damage to shields
  
• Fragment deals increased damage to Torpedoes and Fighters
  
• Lightning deals zero damage to Stone

Some weapons have those fixed, ie. Bolters: Antimatter, Plasma Cannons: Plasma (duh). Other weapons, like Chain Guns, have a chance of getting a specialized damage type. These damage mechanics were already in the game, but now we are explicitly highlighting them for better clarity. It also makes the code less obnoxious to work with. Ahem.

What's new now, is that enemies can have special additional resistances and weaknesses against nearly all damage types. On top of that, we added some special, tougher enemies that have increased HP and damage. These new, tougher enemies will appear alongside normal enemies and can have 3 levels of toughness: Tough, Savage and Hardcore, each having more HP and dealing more damage than the previous.

To improve the flow of the exploration part of the game, we made some changes to the hyperspace jumping system. Waiting for your hyperspace engine to recharge while in an empty sector isn't really a lot of fun and slows players down unnecessarily. So, to speed up travelling through empty sectors, hyperspace recharge time is now increased by 200% while travelling through clear space (a sector with alliance/group/your own ships and nothing else counts as clear space).

Next up, doing a hyperspace jump will only drain your hyperspace engine for the percentage distance you jumped, in relation to its reach, but always for at least 50%. This means that, with a 40 sector reach, jumping 30 sectors will drain 75% power (instead of 100%), but doing a jump for 10 sectors will still drain it for 50%. Your hyperspace engine still has to fully recharge in order to do your next jump.

On the flip side, we didn't want to make it too easy to escape a fight, so we supplied enemy ships with hyperspace distorters. While you're being attacked by enemies (not just enemies present, they have to want you dead), they will distort your hyperspace engine, reducing its recharge rate to 25% (as well as its energy consumption, btw). Keep in mind that while exploring, most enemies will not attack you immediately on sight any more (see below). This basically makes it so that once you've committed to a fight, you can't weasel out as easily.

Don't you love it when you're exploring a yellow-blip sector and once the loading screen disappears there are 25 pirate ships fully loaded with torpedoes waiting for you? No? Then we have some good news for you!

In order to make those encounters fairer and less frustrating, most enemy encounters in yellow-blip sectors no longer attack on sight, but only after you get too close or provoke them. They also no longer spawn all at the same time, but in a handful of waves, with each wave stronger than the one before it. Defeat all waves to have a special strong enemy spawn at the end with some shiny loot!

We spiced up Equipment Docks a little: They now have regularly changing special offers waiting for you. These special offers have an overall better rarity than the rest of the supply and are always -30% off.

Speaking of Equipment Docks, all Equipment Docks now always have a supply of basic upgrades to get new captains started a little quicker:

• A Turret Slot Upgrade
• A Radar Upgrade
• An Energy Upgrade
• A Hyperspace Upgrade

• Improved pirate dialogues
• Reduced time between entering a yellow-blip sector and being talked to by waiting pirates
• A selection of basic upgrades is now always available at Equipment Docks
• Boss Fidget is now only stunned by Electric damage (from before all weapons with Energy damage)

• Added coloring of Hyperspace Engine UI depending on which kind of buff or debuff is currently active
• Added icons telling players which (de)buffs are currently active

"These changes are in relation to the Hyperspace Rework as it was active on the beta branch. Some of them won't be relevant for you if you didn't play on the beta branch. We listened to your feedback and adjusted some things."

• Hyperspace cooldown is no longer static
• Hyperspace cooldown over 3x as quickly when jumping into an empty sector
• While enemies are attacking, Hyperspace Engine is being distorted and can only recharge with 25% speed
• Hyperspace Engine must only recharge based on the jump distance relative to the max distance, but always for at least 50%
• Doing a jump of 15 sectors with a 20 sector range will only drain your engine for 75% instead of 100%
• Doing a jump of 2 sectors with a 20 sector range will still drain your engine for 50%

"Several of these changes are in relation to the last beta patch and might not be relevant for you if you didn't play on the beta branch."

• Reduced amount of waves in enemy encounters for outer sectors
• Reduced ratios of high fire rate and high damage specialty bonuses
• Reduced bonus damage for plasma weapons against shields

• Added an option to enable adaptive VSync, can be set while the game is running
• Added blinking to energy bars for when energy is low or energy usage is high
• Added tooltips for Hyperspace and Energy UI bars
• Added info about resistances and weaknesses of enemies to bottom-right HUD display
• Improved tooltips of enemy variation damage types
• Improved Singleplayer Window and added more information about saved galaxies

• Fixed a very prominent server hang
• Fixed an issue where hyperspace cooldown could become very large
• Fixed several issues with wave encounters
• Fixed several issues in missions
• Fixed an issue where "Immune" would be shown too often
• Fixed a crash in shop UI
• Fixed an issue where some bulletin missions weren't working
• Fixed a crash if player loses torpedo launcher during torpedo tutorial
• Fixed a bug where electric weapons could damage stone

A lot has happened since the release of Avorion into Early Access on January 23rd, 2017 - We've come a long way since then. This trailer highlights the most important changes since the Early Access release three years ago, while also showing off the classics of Avorion for all those people who don't know the game yet.

Note: Depending on when you're watching it, the trailer may contain unreleased content, such as the ship generator rework.

The list of improvements since the Early Access Release of 2017 is quite long by now:
A revised (turret) building mode, massively improved procedural ship & station generation, new sound effects, torpedoes & PDCs, specialized enemies, improved faction territories, new blocks, new weapons, new upgrades, boarding, completely revised economy based on supply and demand, improved faction behavior & diplomacy, commanding ships over the map, more missions & events, UI improvements and much, much more!

As promised in last week's announcement, there are still some updates in the pipeline that will be released before the transition from Early Access to 1.0.

AI Factions will soon have limited resources available (instead of unlimited resources), based on their territory size on the map and their economical strength. But don't be fooled: The amount of resources they have available will still be a lot.

This has a few implications:
1. They will have to rebuild their military ships over time and if you're quick enough you can make them run out
2. They will be able to rebuild stations
3. You will be able to completely eradicate factions from the map

As you may have noticed by now, we're in the middle of a rework of the procedural ship & station generator of Avorion. Ships are generated based on so-called "Faction Styles". Our goal is that players can recognize a faction by their ships. That means that all ships of a faction have similar visual properties. That includes the color and structure of the ship, and also visual features like spikes. In addition, a faction can have multiple types of ships, which among themselves are very similar to each other, but not completely alike.

Compared to the old ship generator (not shown here), the new generator can create much prettier ships that are very distinguishable from each other. The new generator will also be moddable.

While the new generator is mostly finished and ready to use (as seen in above trailer), it's still a little rough around the edges and doesn't support as much variation as we'd like it to. But we're confident that, if everything goes well, a first implementation may be available for testing on the beta branch towards the end of January, start of February.

There are some more things coming before release: We want to add more End-Game content after you beat the final boss. That includes new really hard bosses and a few large-scale events. But we don't want to give away too much here, yet.

Starting in February, we're going to go into a polishing phase where we will focus a lot less on new features and content, but instead on fixing as many issues and bugs as we can. We're also revisiting some older code to improve performance.

Alright, that's it for now, stay tuned for the next updates!