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'.
Tutorial
"In this update we greatly improved the basic tutorial. It is now much more streamlined with less text to read and more to do. Wherever possible the new tutorial now features interactive sequences."
Added new Tutorial parts that explain missions, fighting and ship destruction (and reconstruction)
The Tutorial can now only be played in Singleplayer - set the checkbox to true while creating a new galaxy if you want to play it!
Player now starts Tutorial with a ship fully equipped to play
New missions that follow on from the tutorial to explain more advanced game mechanics
Story
"The Story in Avorion has always been rather a loose thread than a real story. With this update we introduce a more streamlined approach that helps players to find and complete all story missions."
Greatly streamlined the story missions with more subsequent missions
Added additional "guide" mission for story missions
Added shortened version of credits that is played when the story is completed
Galaxy Map
"We completely reworked the UI for commanding ships over the galaxy map. Enjoy!"
Reworked the UI for commanding ships over the galaxy map
Ships are now listed on the right of the map
Routes of ships through gates and wormholes now have different colors
Fixed several issues when rendering routes and icons on Galaxy Map
Gameplay
When founding a station, the style of the faction it was bought from can be used to create a plan for it
Camera settings of different ships are now remembered
Military ships of AI factions now respawn
Alliance privileges are now checked when transferring content between ships
Repair docks can now also restore ships for a player's alliance and vice versa
Fixed persecutors not spawning correctly in sectors without players but with player ships
Optional ingredients now double production speed of factories when used in a production
UI
Improved UI of trading upgrade
Squads in Hangar tab can now be moved around by Drag n Drop
Added text boxes for exact values to several sliders
Hire Crew UI now shows your current crew
FPS limiter combobox is now disabled when vsync is on
Display refresh rate can now be configured when using fullscreen
Added combobox to select the display to graphics settings
Common resolutions are now made available in windowed mode for convenience
Added a confirmation message box when disbanding an alliance
Added scrollbar to cargo tab
Alliance emblems are now shown in diplomacy tab
Added a bar to show how much cargo is on the ship
Fighters tab in Equipment Dock is hidden when player is outside Trinium regions and his ship doesn't have a hangar
Illegal, dangerous, stolen or suspicious trading goods now have a different color in the sales UI
Added tooltips for optional ingredients in factory config UI and what they do
Client
"We added localization for Chinese (Simplified), Russian and Spanish. Additionally, we improved performance of several particle systems and fixed a few crashes related to those."
Added first official support for Simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish
Some texts are still missing, but will be added over the next weeks
Improved performance of thruster particle effects
Improved performance of loot & wreckage particles
Particles are now no longer spawned when they would be too far away
Cargo loot changes size depending on amount of cargo
Loot packets that float around now merge together over time to improve performance
Improved visibility of rare turrets and upgrades floating around as loot
Server
"In order to make administrating a (community) server a little easier, we added logging about which resources are being exchanged between players."
Added a "script-threads" command line argument
Improved logging of servers
Servers log when players enter the galaxy center for the first time
Server now logs the items and resources (not text) sent within mails
Server now logs when a ship from a disbanded alliance was claimed by a player
Server now logs boarding of ships
Server now logs alliance vault transactions, and other actions like joining, founding, disbanding, etc.
Server now logs which items and resources are exchanged in a player trade
Added option -t to /playerinfo command which prints last online time and total playtime of all players
Added option -p to /playerinfo command to display resources and other info of players
Added a /profile command that records a profiling benchmark for the next 30 seconds and then saves it to a file
Use this if your server / game has bad performance or lags and you want to help us fix it. You can send us the file alongside an explanation as to what happened.
Profiling & Performance
"In order to fix some very annoying performance issues, we revamped our diagnostics system to a more centralized approach. You can help us greatly by using these easy-to-use tools and sending us the collected data!"
Refactored profiling to find performance issues more reliably
Client: Press F10 to save performance stats of the past ~30 seconds to a file
Use this when you got consistent FPS problems
Server: Type /status to save performance stats of the last ~30 seconds to a file
Important: Set profiling=true in your server.ini for this to work
Server: New /profile command that records a profiling benchmark for the next 30 seconds and then saves it to a file
Use this if your server / game has bad performance or lags
Scripting API
Added AllianceEmblem class
Added a onSectorArrivalConfirmed callback when the client finished loading a sector
When a player enters the center of the galaxy for the first time, a value visited_center is set
Added a fullLogId property to players that prints a string fully identifying the player
Added fullLogId to client Player, client Alliance, Faction, Player, Alliance
Added a tagDescription property to TradingGood
Added a color property to TradingGood
Adjusted Y sizes of labels that are created with only a vec2 and not a Rect
Added controlPressed, shiftPressed, altPressed, modifierKeyPressed to Input class
Added lookAtSmooth function to GalaxyMap
Bugfixes
"Bugfixes marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks to everyone who reported! You can report bugs from within the game in the pause menu."
Fixed several issues in scripts
[UBR] Fixed an issue where turret designs could get lost when merging blocks
Fixed an issue where the rotation arrows of the turret brush pointed in the wrong direction
Credits can no longer be scrolled back infinitely
[UBR] Fixed an issue where fighter orders weren't applied when leaving a sector without them and then returning
Fixed several issues where turrets could be placed on blocks where they shouldn't be placed
Fixed an issue where turrets could get duplicated
[UBR] Fixed an issue where the ship name could protrude from its texture
Fixed an issue where transform mode was disabled when clicking the block button or pressing its keyboard shortcut
[UBR] Exodus mission corner sectors can now be found even if the mission is not active
Fixed several issues with translations
[UBR] Fixed an issue where flat corner blocks couldn't be placed back-to-back
[UBR] Dangerous transformations to holo blocks are now prevented
[UBR] Fixed an issue where width and height were swapped in craft stats
Fixed an issue where the "You need X, Y, Z resources" message could contain negative values
Fixed an issue with refreshing the servers list
[UBR] Fixed an issue where collecting cargo could crash the game
Fixed an issue where "loot collected" sound effect would sometimes be played when loot despawns
[UBR] Block brush: Fixed an issue where the block size was messed up when rotating in voxel grid mode
Fixed a crash when lots of particles could be seen on screen
[UBR] Fixed an issue where no traders could spawn at first when founding a new station
[UBR] Fixed an issue where trading overview upgrade could display wrong values for the first sector after first relog
Also fixes the "sell price: error getting supply demand factor: 3" error message spam (which was not critical)
Fixed an issue where AI factions would rebuild the wrong factories after they were destroyed
We are happy to share good news with you today! Our official Community Servers are now assigned, and you can already explore the galaxy together with other players! The verified servers are clearly marked with a blue checkmark and are accessible to everyone without a password. The servers are provided free of charge in cooperation with 4NetPlayers and are managed by selected administrators. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the numerous applications! Unfortunately, we could not assign a server to everyone, so some applications are still on the waiting list if a server becomes available again in the future. We will continue to work closely with both 4NetPlayers and the server administrators to ensure that you get the best performance from the servers.
We would also like to inform you that our friends from Stray Fawn Studio are releasing their game Nimbatus - The Space Drone Constructor! Today at 18pm CEST it will leave Early Access! 😊 For the launch there is a discount of 25% for everyone until 21.05.2020 9am PST! Take a look, because for all who love space games, it's definitely worth it!
Concerning an update, we would also like to inform you that we are working on it with determination. Unfortunately, we can’t give you an exact date yet. We ask you for a little patience and understanding. In any case we will keep you always up to date! 😊
This small update is the next step in bringing you our official servers. For more details please read our previous announcement.
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'.
Official Community Servers
Official Community Servers are now marked in the server browser
Added "Rent A Server" button to the multiplayer menu which opens the website of our official server hosting partner 4NetPlayers
Server
Added configurable motd to server.ini that is displayed when a player logs in
One admin can now join over the maximum player limit to enable better supervision
Bugfixes
"Bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Keep it up guys! :)"
[UBR] Fixed an issue that caused automatic miners and salvagers to get stuck
[UBR] Fixed an issue where the tutorial wasn't playable in creative mode
We are happy to announce that official community servers are coming! Due to the current Covid-19 situation, we are all encouraged to stay at home and we want to help you through this time. We have already made all the necessary arrangements and are currently working on the final touches to get the servers live. After consulting with many server hosts, we have found out, that it works best if each community plays according to their own ideas. That's why we provide you with the servers for free and you can administrate and lead them the way you want! We only set some ground rules to ensure that everyone is treated fairly. You can decide how you run the servers, which community you want to build, how often the servers will be wiped and so on.
How is this going to work?
We have organized servers for you via 4NetPlayers, which we will provide to you for free. There will be several servers and it is important for us to work closely with you together, to get the best possible experience for you and to achieve improvements! The servers will be marked separately so that you can clearly see which ones are official and verified. If you are interested in administrating a server, send us a quick application with the following content to server@boxelware.de :
- Your name - A link to your Steam profile (must be public)
And please answer the following questions in your application:
- Are you already hosting a server or do you have experience in game server administration? - How long have you been playing Avorion? - Do you already have a community? If so, how big is it? - How many administrators would manage the server? - Please tell us, which kind of server you would like to have. For example, PvP or PvE? - Why would you like to administrate a server, what is your motivation?
Please note that you must be a member of our official Discord Server, so please let us know your Discord ID in the email. Here is the link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/ebwtqkQ
Short Q&A
Will there be a charge for the servers? - No, the servers are provided by us free of charge. We host them, you can use them.
Where will the servers be located? - We will provide servers in the EU and the US.
Will we be able to mod our servers? - For now they will be unmodded.
Will it be PvP or PvE servers? - Both will be available, we have not yet determined the exact distribution.
What are the rules? - In order to provide a good experience for a broad majority of players, there will be some ground rules set by us. Server admins are free to extend the rules, as long as they don’t revoke ours.
We are looking forward to hearing from you and we hope that we can assign the first servers soon! :)
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'.
Gameplay
We're releasing a small patch that should fix several issues that have come up over the past two weeks. In the meantime we're hard at work for the next free update, so stay tuned!
Order chains are now started when the galaxy map is closed and Shift was still held
UI
Added warning text about potentially losing turrets next to the apply button in ModifyWholeShipWindow
Blueprints are now called "Blueprint" in tooltips
Turret blueprints are now rendered with a blue background in shops
Adaptive Vsync is always used first, when trying to enable vsync. If it fails, normal vsync is enabled.
Fighter order buttons can now be toggled back off when clicked a second time
Added a notification for when there are not enough slots to activate all turrets
Newly received items are now always sorted up
Added a "Tools" title to the tool buttons on the right side of the building mode
Added "repair" and "repair target" orders to map commands
Added warnings for mod version changes that will break compatibility
"Transfer to Alliance" button is now invisible while not in an alliance
Client
Reduced volume of background music vs action music
Server
Several backend performance improvements for servers with many AI factions and players
Added a chat message for when player enters 0:0 and the guardian was already beaten and has to respawn first in multiplayer
Xsotan swarm event can now be limited to a configurable amount of sectors with players
Misc
Added more debug logging to find more issues
Client-sided mod version compatibility check with server only checks "major" & "minor" version numbers, to allow "patch" version to be used for backwards compatibility
Scripting API
Added new Sector/Entity callbacks onScriptValueChanged, onAllScriptValuesChanged, onScriptAdded, onScriptRemoved
Added new Player callbacks onScriptValueChanged, onAllScriptValuesChanged, onScriptAdded, onScriptRemoved
Added new Galaxy callbacks onScriptValueChanged, onAllScriptValuesChanged, onScriptAdded, onScriptRemoved
Renamed all "Multiplicator" occurrences to "Multiplier"
Left in "Multiplicator", those are now deprecated and will be removed in future versions
Bugfixes
Fixed an issue where crew quarters delta wasn't shown in building stats
Fixed an issue where the turret factory ui wasn't correctly refreshed on show
Fixed an issue where non-turret items could be added to the turrets window in building mode
Fixed an issue where crew morale was not saved correctly
Fixed several issues with german translation
Fixed loop-order button not being shown when ship does not yet have some command running
Fixed an issue where trading overview didn't list new turret factory supplier goods
Fixed some issues where turret designs would get removed during modification of entire ship
Fixed some issues where turret designs would get removed when merging blocks
Fixed some issues with torpedo UI when auto-loading is enabled
Fixed an issue where players of newly founded alliances wouldn't be immediately known as such as members of the alliance
Fixed an issue where the AI wouldn't attack an alliance's ships
Fixed several crashes in lua scripts
Fixed a rare hang when collecting cargo
Fixed an issue where map ship icons would be shown in the wrong place
Fixed "Show in Workshop" button for mods not working
Fixed too narrow list entries for mod paths
Fixed some issues with respawning of asteroids
Fixed default respawn not being triggered due to non-obviously mineable asteroids being present
Fixed respawn not being triggered once all asteroids have been wiped from the sector
Fixed an issue where camera shake would continue while paused
Fixed an issue where disabled turrets would fire in out-of-sector simulations
This fixes an issue where ships with repair turrets and armed turrets would hurt their target instead of repairing it
Fixed an issue where the crew transport ship wouldn't bring enough crewmen
Fixed an issue where trading posts could sell for less money than they buy for
Trading post prices are now affected less by their stock
Fixed an issue in building mode where transforming only the orientation didn't work
Fixed an issue where "Transform all selected blocks" would reset the orientation of the transformed blocks
Fixed an issue where turret designs on edge blocks were positioned incorrectly when the craft plan changed
Fixed an issue where stations wouldn't have enough cargo space to be able to trade/produce
Fixed an issue where hailing text would be displaced on MacOS
It has been three weeks since we were able to celebrate the release of Avorion 1.0! We are incredibly happy that everything went well, and that the post-release stress is starting to fall off our shoulders. Now we will focus on new ideas, innovations, and improvements! There are a lot of things in Avorion that we can’t wait to get our hands-on. We want to thank everyone who sent us one of the many great suggestions that we received!
Boxelware, Corona, and Home Office
We're not getting spared from the Corona crisis either. Due to the current situation the entire team is now doing home office so that we and all our friends and families can stay safe. Of course, this also means that our workflow isn't as great as in our official offices and that some things will take longer than usual. But we hope that you will understand this and that you and your families are well!
Nomination for the DCP (German Computer Games Award)
Great news! Avorion has been nominated in two categories for the DCP 2020: Best Debut and Best Expert Game. It is an honor to be nominated and we are incredibly happy! So please keep your fingers crossed for us. 😊
Sadly, the news article is only available in German, but you can check it out here:
FYI: The DCP was first held in 2009 and each year the best computer games made in Germany receive awards in a number of categories. 590.000 Euros total of prize money is distributed among the winners, which makes it the German video game award with the most prize money.
What's up next?
Right now, we are putting most of our time and energy into the next free update! There are some really good ideas that just didn’t make it into version 1.0 and we're looking forward to adding them! Over the next few weeks we'll keep you posted with more news on the upcoming update!😊
Here we are, 1.0! We're incredibly happy that we made it this far. The entire Boxelware Team wants to thank everyone who supported us. Our families, our colleagues, partners and most importantly: You! Thank you for buying Avorion and helping supporting us, you're awesome!
What's next?
Avorion is now at the level that I (Konstantin) imagined it years ago when I first had the idea for it. That's the reason why now, it's time to go from Early Access into 1.0. But that doesn't mean that we're done with it. Over the next weeks we'll be sorting out the inital launch chaos, and after that we'll start working on the first free update. It'll contain 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.
In the future we're planning on releasing free updates and a few DLCs (for bigger, content-heavier updates) for both new features and new content. So stay tuned! We're planning to support the game for at least two years. Much longer if things go well. Avorion is our baby and we love working on it! ;)
If you have any troubles or even more new ideas for the game, don’t hesitate to reach out to us or other members of the community. Check out our Discord Server or the official Avorion Forum.
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'.
Gameplay
Escorting ships can now passively shoot nearby enemies as long as their protegee wasn't harmed yet
Reduced overall bounciness of physics
Fighters can now heal their mothership if ordered via fighter orders
AI piloted ships can now heal themselves when they have repair fighters
Balancing
"We adjusted the pricing of turrets. Work in progress. There were some pretty harsh outliers, with salvaving, force or mining turrets selling for a price higher than most stations. Other turrets, like point defense cannons, almost cost nothing at all. You can still get crazy turrets for crazy prices, but it'll fit more to the kind of turret. Pricing is now more equally distributed and we removed some of the super harsh outliers, which we think is healthier for the game overall."
Adjusted prices of turrets
Pricing is now more equally distributed over all turret types
Fixed several issues with massive outliers in turret pricing
Fixed several outliers where turrets would cost / sell for nearly nothing at all
Energy suppressor now suppresses pirate attacks as well as xsotan and head hunter attacks
Reduced power of force fighters since they could be used for griefing a lot
Reduced probability of "free slaves" mission on bulletin boards
Increased damage of laser turrets
Increased damage of lightning turrets
Increased damage of tesla turrets
Increased damage of Laser Point Defense turrets
UI
Workforce bars in the Crew Tab are now correctly updated to show the influence of the current morale
Added icon for "your cargo bay isn't configured to collect this"
Added a hint to crew tab about automatic crew payments
Disabled "Situational" turret targeting since it was mostly glitchy and unintuitive
Improved german translation
Classes of own ships are now shown on galaxy map and the fleet window
Added a button to change a ship's class from the fleet window
Improved the color "Orange" (yes really)
Added warnings for when inventory is full
The "Found Ship" button on the top right gets a highlight when a player tries to enter build mode while in the drone
Added quick transfer of items between alliance and player by holding shift
Improved the IME input (still not perfect, but we're on it!)
Added new stations pictures to encyclopedia and updated some descriptions
Improved visibility of name and emblem on ghost blocks in building mode
Added loading screen tip that talks about the detailed turret tooltip option
Lost fighters are now shown in sector tooltip on the galaxy map
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'.
Gameplay
AI captains now enable flight assist
UI
Rephrased several loading screen tips
Added "Refine Ores" button to strategy mode
Updated several icons
Misc
Added more debug logging to find more issues
Added a tutorial stage that highlights the turquoise stats in the Building Mode
Scripting API
Entity: Renamed "setToFlyToLocation" to more fitting "singleFlyToLocationTick"
Format: Added a "translated" method that returns the formatted, translated string
Bugfixes
[UBR] Fixed an issue where display of hyperspace cooldown was wrong
[UBR] Fixed an issue where speed of AI ships was too high
[UBR] Fixed an issue where entering "0" was required to start a "sell" AI command
[UBR] Fixed several issues with german localization
[UBR] Fixed several issues with localization in mission descriptions
[UBR] Fixed an issue where clicking through the action buttons in Strategy Mode was possible
Fixed a client crash that could happen after a failed connection attempt
[UBR] Fixed an issue where turrets were placed on the small sides of blocks instead of the big ones
[UBR] Fixed an issue where entities weren't transferred correctly between sectors
This might lead to some one-time ship duplication where this bug already happened in the background, no way around that, sorry!
[UBR] Fixed several issues where ships could get duplicated
[UBR] Fixed an issue where "refine ores" command couldn't be enqueued