As you may know, some time ago we started the experiment with the “Official Community Servers”. During the Covid-19 lockdown, we provided some servers for free, to be run by the community. We marked them as “Official Community Servers”, to indicate that these are special, always-on servers managed by the community. After evaluating your feedback and all the statistics, we, unfortunately, came to the conclusion that it did not work out the way we planned it. We’re still working on some performance issues, and we realized that we gave a wrong impression by marking them with the word “Official”. Additionally, we had quite a few requests from passionate dedicated server hosters, saying they wanted to be part of the program as well, but with their own, private servers.

After having evaluated everything, we came to the conclusion that there is another, better way! So here is a little preview of our future plans.

In the next few weeks, we will transfer the "Official Community Server" program into a "Verified Servers" program. We have many dedicated hosters who host private, well-functioning servers at their own costs. We want to reward these people for their efforts and give them the opportunity to get a blue checkmark as well.

The current "Official Community Servers" will remain online and with the current hosters, but for the time being the blue checkmark will be removed. Alternatively, we will give everyone (who runs a server) the opportunity to apply for the “verified” checkmark. All of you, who have already invested hours in their own servers and gained experience are invited to apply for the “Verified” checkmark once the program starts over the next weeks. Of course, this also includes the servers now marked as "Official Community Servers".

We are still working on how exactly and under which conditions this will be possible. More detailed information will be available soon. So stay tuned!

We are super proud and happy to announce that the first Avorion expansion, the Black Market DLC, is now available on the Steam Store! There are many exciting new tasks and missions waiting for you, so look forward to the new hacking feature and discover hidden dealers to trade illegal and stolen goods on the black market! You can join a convoy on its expedition to the center of the galaxy, make new friends or decide to attack the explorers. Shipbuilders and battle-hardened veterans can also look forward to exciting new legendary weapons which they can use to go into battles or simply equip their favorite ship.

All this and many more new features await you in the Black Market DLC, so don't lose any time and dive into new space adventures!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357160/Avorion__Black_Market/




We would like to thank our community members who have been diligently testing the beta version! With your support and feedback you have helped us a lot and we are happy that you are a part of Avorion!

"Docking's here! The feature is actually pretty straightforward. Slap a dock block on your ship and go have fun! :)"

• Ships can now use Dock blocks to dock other objects
• Docked objects are shown in building mode
• Docked objects can be taken with you through gates, wormholes and hyperspace jumps
• (Nearly) every object can be docked
• Added a 'Transport' mode for stations
• Stations must be in 'Transport' mode to be docked and moved
• Stations in 'Transport' mode lose their station-specific interactions and passive abilities (Shipyard, Equipment Dock)
• Factories that are docked to each other can now directly transfer goods between them (direct partners only)

"Aside from a few shady features that sneaked in from the Black Market DLC, we got Legendary Turrets, prettier asteroids, and a new, strange Xsotan Wormhole Device that seems to open wormholes to your Reconstruction Site."

• Added new containers that can be hacked or taken to a smuggler's outpost to be opened
• Added a new sector type with many containers and asteroids
• Added the possibility to bribe ships that inspect you
• Added the possibility to inspect & get bribed by AI traders that can now carry illegal goods
• Added special, legendary turrets
• Some turrets will be available immediately, some only for DLC owners
• Turrets are dropped by bosses and other strong enemies
• More turrets to come over the next weeks
• It is highly recommended to try them out before judging them :)
• Added a new Xsotan Wormhole Device that opens a wormhole to your reconstruction site
• You get the item from the Adventurer after changing the Reconstruction Site or progressing with the story
• 10 Minute cooldown, infinite usages
• Has a few other limitations so it can't be used during immediate combat
• Improved visuals of asteroids with resources
• Developer Note: Asteroid shapes have been fine-tuned to ensure they have the same amount of resources as before
• Some factions now always have bad starting relations (not as bad on low difficulties, very bad on high difficulties)
• On higher difficulties, bad initial relations can trigger immediate war with factions the player hasn't met yet
• When switching sectors, players are only placed in ships that are idle or passive from now on (unless otherwise specified) to not interrupt AI orders
• Objects in sectors towards the middle are spread out a little further
• Seeking projectiles can now lead very fast targets
• When a warzone is called out or a freighter is raided, nearby players are notified
• Reduced camera shake of sector jumps
• Added edge & corner crew quarters blocks
• Added a front-facing torpedo launcher block
• 30s repair restriction no longer applies when the damage was self-inflicted
• Pirate encounters now respawn after 24h of playtime (newly discovered only)
• Pirate encounters now reset after some time when players flee (newly discovered only)
• Xsotan now turn hostile when ramming them
• Added a note to headhunter attacks showing which faction attacked the player
• While attacking, ships try to roll in a way that their strongest turret side faces the enemy
• Stashes now drop their items instead of just giving them to players

"We improved several aspects of the AI, like pathfinding, aim and salvage & mining AI."

• A ship now waits for its fighters to land before flying through a gate
• Improved aim of AI ships
• AI ships can now aim with coaxial turrets
• Strongly improved aim of AI ships for Expert+ difficulties
• Salvage & mining AI now picks new objects to harvest close to the last one
• This way the behaviour is more consistent when objects break apart
• Salvage & mining AI now keeps fighters active while collecting loot
• Salvage & mining AI no longer keeps firing at tiny fragments that have negligible amounts of resources left
• Salvage & mining AI no longer bothers collecting extremely tiny amounts of loot
• Improved pathfinding when surrounded by many obstacles

• Adjusted fines for smuggling
• Slightly increased amount of petty upgrades being dropped in the outer regions
• Slightly reduced amount of legendary upgrades being dropped on low difficulties
• Railguns now always penetrate at least 3 blocks
• 5-slot turrets aren't automatically coaxial any longer
• Instead of every turret, only 25% of 5-slot turrets will be coaxial turrets
• Explosive shots no longer deal potentially infinite amounts of damage through AOE, but are capped at 200%
• Pulse Cannons now have a much higher shield penetration rate compared to other weapons with ionized projectiles
• Increased projectile speed of 2+ slot turrets
• Relation loss by damaging shields is now relative to maximum shields of AI crafts
• This reduces relation loss for high-damage weaponry in late game
• Relation loss by damaging hull through shooting is now at max 3000 points per second
• This reduces relation loss for high-damage weaponry in late game
• Increased repair speed for crew to 40min for the entire craft, from 60min
• Reduced firepower of tesla turrets by 33% and reduced their range to 2.5km - 3.5km (from 3km to 4.5km)

"Let's face it: Shields are way too powerful for what they cost. They provide lots of HP that recharge extremely quickly for free and they protect all blocks at the same time. Shields are also more or less obligatory for combat, and this means that players avoid combat in the early game. We want to break free from these limitations and give players more means to fight early on. We're nerfing shield generators, but at the same time buffing integrity blocks & armor a lot. Keep in mind that these are experimental changes and we'll see how they fare. Please share your feedback with us on this!"

• Buffing Integrity Blocks & Armor
• Reminder: Integrity fields reduce incoming damage!
• Increased damage reduction of integrity fields from 50% to 75%
• Increased HP of armor blocks to 25 per 1 volume, from 15
• Nerfing Shields
• Increased cost of shield generator blocks by 50%
• Reduced shield durability gained from shield blocks to 50 per 1 volume, from 70
• Developer Note: In total, existing ships with shield generators and integrity blocks protecting armor will get:
• -27% shields
• +233% hull HP for armor
• +100% hull HP for other blocks

"We're seeing a lot of playstyles that abuse exploits that are ending up in guides and that are degenerating from how Avorion was originally designed. In addition to fixing exploits, we're adding some experimental changes through which we want to shift the gameplay a bit. We want to reintroduce the feeling of 'safe haven' sectors and the risk of venturing out. We do realize that this might take some comfort away but we think it's healthier for the game in the long run. This playstyle will also require a little more planning from you, which is why we're only enabling it on new galaxies. We'd love to hear your feedback and we'll monitor the situation closely!"

• Building and repairing are now only possible without enemies attacking and only if the ship wasn't damaged in the past 30 seconds
• New Saves: On Normal+ difficulty, Generators and Hyperspace Cores will need a neutral or friendly shipyard in the sector to be added to your ship
• Applies to new saves only
• Applies to ships, not stations
• Does not apply to Creative
• Can be turned on/off with a server.ini setting
• Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y and scaling will still work without a shipyard
• Repairing is still possible without a shipyard
• Sectors with smuggler hideouts now have a shipyard
• Sectors with resistance outposts now have a shipyard
• Added an item that lets you return to your Reconstruction Site from anywhere (details see above)
• Reduced cost for changing Reconstruction Site by 80%
• Reduced cost for reconstructing without tokens to 80% of the ship's value, from 120%
• Reduced cost for repairs at repair docks to 35% of ship's value (from 75%)
• Reduced cost for founding a shipyard by 17.500.000 credits
• Reduced cost for founding a repair dock by 7.500.000 credits
• When reconstruction tokens are disabled, reconstruction site can still be set
• Hyperspace engine now has to reboot and goes on cooldown after its range is changed

"We've massively tuned the Strategy Mode to make it a much more polished and easy-to-use feature. Enjoy!"

• Added vertical lines to objects for a better sense of depth
• Improved grid-plane for a better sense of depth
• Camera can now be rotated and moved up/down
• Pressing space centers the camera on the selected object(s)
• Double click now centers the view, Ctrl-click toggles the selection
• Player's current craft now has a player icon in the strategy mode overview list
• Selection groups are now shown in overview list
• Claimed asteroids are now shown in overview list
• Added colors to sector ship overview list in strategy mode
• "Fly through gate"-order is now visualized with a line to the gate
• Mine and salvage orders issued via right click now start harvesting the clicked object (not the closest to the ship)
• Improved button feedback

• Added ISS shilhouette for comparison
• Transform Block tool's block orientation can now be rotated by holding R
• Added "Show Templates Folder" button to blocks window
• Turret designs can now be applied to all selected turret bases with one click
• Implemented new, detailed tooltips for blocks
• Improved transparency rendering of green box
• Added a preview of integrity field size
• Added a check box to hide/show green arrows in build mode
• Added the option to only repair all missing blocks, without ship health

"More UI and QoL improvements."

• Galaxy Map: Pressing space centers the camera on the selected object(s)
• Galaxy Map: Selection groups can now be used the same as in Strategy Mode
• Galaxy Map: Notifications can now be disabled on the galaxy map
• Galaxy Map: Added input hints
• Mails: Mail buttons stops flashing for good when mails window is opened
• Mails: Mail list updates when a new mail is received
• Mails: Mail window's 'Delete' now takes all attachments first
• Improved UI for selling items
• Added various filtering, sorting and favoriting options
• Favorited (starred) items can't be sold, dismantled or researched accidentally any more
• Added assignable icons for ships
• Weapon base damage variation is now reflected in tooltips
• When founding a new ship, "Alliance Ship" is now greyed out when not in an alliance
• Pressing B while in drone now opens the ship founding dialog
• Player ships in the same sector now share their scanner data
• Added total crew salary to player and alliance fleet tabs
• Trade AI errors are now sent by the ship and contain the name of the ship in the chat message
• Adjusted size & position of server browser so that it's well visible on lower resolutions
• Added a basic mission marker instead of no icon in mission list
• Economy messages by the alliance are now marked as such
• Players can now choose if they want to receive economy notifications from their alliance
• Added activity logs for alliances
• Tooltips of uncollectable loot are now shown when aiming at in in mouse steering mode
• Speech bubbles are now rendered transparent when aiming at them in mouse steering mode
• Added community chatter messages

• Added more loading screen tips
• Playmodes Normal & Creative Mode are now considered scenarios
• Added more infos about savegames in singleplayer window
• Added a checkbox to override a galaxy's mod settings
• If not ticked, the save's previous mod config is used
• Added a news window to the main menu
• Added a warning window for loading a galaxy with a too high version
• Added a warning window for loading a non-beta galaxy while on the beta branch
• Added categories for assignable controls
• Default controls layout of immediate (mouse) steering changed:
• Free Look is now on right mouse button (was Ctrl)
• Torpedoes are now fired with G (was right mouse)

• Improved visuals of swirly weapon beams

"While tons of things were improved, the most important change is that the scheduling of the server update has been completely rewritten. A single slow sector no longer slows down the entire server. We also added quite a few new settings to tune your server to your perfect PvP settings."

• Restructured the entire internals of the server
• A single slow sector no longer slows down the entire server
• Shenanigans of players no longer slow down the entire server but only the sector they're in
• Developer Note: This doesn't mean that the server now magically supports 100 players. Avorion is not an MMO, and will never be one because it was not designed as one.
• Simplified callback handling & improved stability of the server
• Increased time that sectors are initially loaded from 15s to 30s
• Renamed server option "authenticate" to "vac-secure"
• Renamed server option "isPublic" to "isMultiplayer"
• Added a server.ini setting to allow/forbid boarding
• Added a server.ini setting to enable saving of runtime stats (players, tick times, memory, sectors loaded, etc) into a .csv file
• Added a server.ini setting to configure the amount of networking threads
• Added a server.ini setting to configure minimum ship size
• Added a server.ini setting to configure maximum ship velocity
• Added a server.ini setting to configure maximum number of stations in a sector
• Added a server.ini setting to configure shipyard-bound building

"A lot changed here, so we won't be listing every little change, but only the most important ones - especially when they might break existing mods."

• Added class DockingClamps
• Added class HyperspaceEngine
• Added a new Sector callback "onPlayerArrivalConfirmed" which fires once the client has finished its loading screen
• Added more possibilities to work with Mails
• Added conversion from scancode to keycode and back (modders: See SDL2 docs for that)
• Developer Note: Modders: This might be important for you if you were using the Keyboard. We changed our internal structure from SDL Keycodes to SDL Scancodes
• Entity:getDockingPositions() now returns a table
• DockingPositions:getDockingPositions() now returns a table
• DockingPositions:getDockingPosition(id) now returns a table
• Removed Entity:getRandomDockingPosition()
• Removed obsolete Entity:getWormHoleComponent() function
• Renamed Durability.setMaximum -> Durability.maximum
• Callback "onMailReceived" is now called "onMailAdded" on server, same as client
• Modder Request: Most properties of TextField are now readable as well
• Added functionality to drop VanillaInventoryItem and UsableInventoryItem loot
• Massive improvements to structuredmission.lua
• Fixed an issue where scripts registered for updates before being restored
• Fixed an issue where Galaxy:findFaction() didn't correctly return Player, Alliance, or Faction object depending on the internal type
• Fixed an issue where some components in Entities created by Sector:createEntity() were missing
• Fixed a crash when not passing a color to addShipProblem
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to directly set the Seed value
• Use tostring() to get and assign the string to set
• Improved API documentation

• Added a notification when a player is assigned to be the new leader of a group
• Tons of small optimizations all over the place
• Improved performance of performance measuring (yes really)
• Improved several dialogs
• Improved translations
• Added a few new bugs
• Added an introductory chat message when playing on the beta branch

"As always, bug reports from the community are marked with [UBR] (User Bug Report). Thanks for reporting and keep it up! You'll be seeing quite a few more of these over the next weeks!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where torpedoes in Equipment Dock weren't as different as planned
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where trading posts and factories didn't have enough cargo space
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where introduction missions got stuck when playing them in Alliance ships
• [UBR] Fixed a few performance issues when opening the Equipment Dock menu while inventory is full
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where the server could crash when being sent garbage over network
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the emblem of alliances weren't sent to players correctly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships wouldn't keep their orientation upon sector change
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where some chat commands could crash the server
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in fighter tutorial mission where having more than 3 fighters didn't advance the mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where escort AI would falsely attack friends
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where armor blocks sometimes didn't stop penetrating projectiles
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships would chase each other out of the sector indefinitely
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where reconstruction token value of a ship would decrease when ship is built smaller
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where players without alliance vault permissions could trash/favorite alliance items
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where turrets were jittering while aiming with the mouse
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where collision damage wasn't taken into account for relation changes
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where shots of ships owned by players, but controlled by AI would cause reputation losses when hitting the wrong target
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where Swoks' friendly/enemy behavior didn't work for alliances
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where MAD Science Lab's friendly/enemy behavior didn't work for alliances
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where sectors with only destroyed ships would be included in limited simulated sectors of a player
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where it was possible to select a turret with the ships tab
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where client-sided independent turrets would shoot ships and stations that were being boarded
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where anchors of permanently installed upgrades were visible through UI
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where 'Transfer Vessel' mission couldn't be completed if the vessel was to be delivered to a ship instead of a station
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where pirates from pirate shipyard sectors didn't count as pirates for pirate problem mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships lost upgrades when destroyed while not in the same sector as the player
• [UBR] Bad cargo warning is no longer shown when only a few unimportant ships of another faction are present in the sector
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where ships could be healed by adding large stone blocks
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where operation exodus dropped too many artifacts
• [UBR] Fixed a desync issues when commanding ships over the galaxy map
• Fixed an issue where chat messages sent by server didn't get their format strings filled in correctly
• Fixed an error message that was sent too often to alliance members with insufficient permissions
• Fixed an issue where turrets from the ship, when compared, would show up as blueprints
• Fixed highlights of list entries in singleplayer window not working
• Fixed several crashes

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'.

• Adjusted strength of pirates when hacking

"We improved the behavior for losing relations due to stray shots. We had to find a good balance between 'not punishing shooting things accidentally too much' and 'consequences for blowing up half a station'."

• Reworked relation loss for hitting the hull of AI ships/stations
• Relation loss per shot is now higher, but you can't lose more than 3000 relations per second through shooting only

• Building Mode: Added new visualization when using the transform blocks tool
• Building Mode: Added new input hints about the rotation status of the Transformation Brush (keep orientation / overwrite orientation)
• Added a news window with most important changes
• Added a log entry for alliance ships being destroyed
• Tooltips of uncollectable loot are now shown when aiming at in in mouse steering mode
• Speech bubbles are now rendered transparent when aiming at them in mouse steering mode
• Improved clarity of container cracking UI
• Targeters of docked stations are now always shown
• Added community chatter messages

• [UBR] Fixed a wrong warning about sectors not being simulated when a ship was destroyed there
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where being tractored by stations while having objects docked didn't work
• [UBR] Fixed a desync issues when commanding ships over the galaxy map
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where pre-1.2 stations couldn't dock objects
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where boarded stations couldn't be docked
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where transport mode of stations confused traders
• Fixed several server crashes
• Fixed an issue where sender of a chat message was always replaced by the entity title
• Fixed AI backup in boss fights arriving looking in the wrong direction
• Fixed several issues in scripts
• Fixed several issues in texts
• Updated localizations

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'.

• Factories that are docked to each other can now directly transfer goods between them
• While attacking, ships try to roll in a way that their strongest turret side faces the enemy
• Stashes now drop their items instead of just giving them to players

• Adjusted damages of some new turrets

• Build Mode: Hold R to set the orientation when using the transform tool
• Added a basic mission marker instead of no icon in mission list
• Economy messages by the alliance are now marked as such
• Players can now choose if they want to receive economy notifications from their alliance
• Added activity logs for alliances

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where blocks weren't correctly mirrored when using the transform tool
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where anchors of permanently installed upgrades were visible through UI
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in rendering in build mode when green arrows are disabled
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where transfer vessel couldn't be completed if the vessel was to be delivered to a ship instead of a station
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where pirates from pirate shipyard sectors didn't count as pirates for pirate problem mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships lost upgrades when destroyed while not in the same sector as the player
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where operation exodus dropped too many artifacts
• [UBR] Bad cargo warning is no longer shown when only a few unimportant ships of another faction are present in the sector
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where camera wasn't resetting behind the ship correctly when exiting building mode
• [UBR] Fixed several issues with chat commands not finding the right players
• Fixed several crashes and other issues in scripts
• Fixed & adjusted several textss
• Fixed a few crashes in scrapyard due to new variables and people using old saves

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 a note to headhunter attacks showing which faction attacked the player
• Repairing at a repair dock is no longer possible during combat
• The default repair rules apply same as in building mode
• Docking & stealing wreckages in scrapyards is now illegal
• Stations no longer automatically undock from other stations when transport mode ends

• Reduced firepower of tesla turrets by 33% and reduced their range to 2.5km - 3.5km (from 3km to 4.5km)

"We're currently fixing things in the DLC content that got reported during our closed beta. Thanks for reporting and keep it up! To avoid spoilers we won't be listing story-related fixes here."

• Fixed several reported issues in DLC-only content
• Fixed several issues where NPCs wouldn't interact with players
• Improved tooltips of new upgrades

• Trade AI errors are now sent by the ship and contain the name of the ship in the chat message
• Turrets can no longer be dismantled while favorited
• Turrets & Upgrades can no longer be researched while favorited
• Messages of containers when being abducted are more robotic
• Added black market logo to main menu when black market DLC is owned
• Adjusted news window to less obnoxious, especially on lower resolution
• Adjusted size & position of server browser so that it's well visible on lower resolutions

• Added a DockingParent class

"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are user bug reports. Thanks for taking the time to report stuff and keep it up!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where Swoks' friendly/enemy behavior didn't work for alliances
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where MAD Science Lab's friendly/enemy behavior didn't work for alliances
• [UBR] Strategy Mode: Fixed an issue where the grid plane prevented shots and beams being rendered below it
• [UBR] Fixed cultists not aggroing when trying to steal their precious asteroid
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where tractor beams weren't working correctly
• [UBR] Fixed several issues related to station docks
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where sectors with only destroyed ships would be included in limited simulated sectors of a player
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where brake thrust and rotation wasn't calculated correctly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where it was possible to select a turret with the ships tab
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where client-sided independent turrets would shoot ships and stations that were being boarded
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where hyperspace engine was always recharging after a relog if an upgrade was installed
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where mirroring of front-torpedo launcher didn't work properly
• [UBR] Fixed some issues with being able to click through news window
• Fixed several issues & crashes in scripts
• Fixed several issues & typos in texts

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'.

• 30s repair restriction no longer applies when the damage was self-inflicted
• Flinging asteroids into stations now holds the ship that threw the asteroid responsible for damages
• Added the option to only repair all missing blocks, without ship health
• Pirate encounters now respawn after 24h of playtime (newly discovered only)
• Pirate encounters now reset after some time when players flee (newly discovered only)
• Xsotan now turn hostile when ramming them

"So far, docking has been a huge success and we're very happy with the results! You got really creative with what you could do, and sadly that's where we had to make some adjustments since you broke the game in far too many ways :("

• Gates can no longer be docked in Normal (still in Creative)
• Several story-relevant objects and characters can no longer be docked
• Turrets of docked objects are now dependent on their parent's turret slots
• Added little chatter messages when containers are being abducted
• AI ships that don't want to be docked will now undock themselves
• Added a 'Transport' mode for stations
• Stations must be in 'Transport' mode to be docked and moved
• Stations in 'Transport' mode lose their station-specific interactions and passive abilities (Shipyard, Equipment Dock)
• Increased pulling force of dock blocks
• It's now possible for docked objects to jump and take their parent with them (if they belong to the same faction)

• Relation loss by damage is now relative to maximum HP/shields of AI crafts
• This reduces relation loss for high-damage weaponry in late game
• Increased repair speed for crew to 40min for the entire craft, from 60min

• Improved transparency rendering of green box in building mode
• Added explanation for size of docking blocks and pulling force
• Added a preview of integrity field size in build mode

• Galaxy Map: Added input hints
• Strategy Mode: Grid plane is now more transparent
• Strategy Mode: Camera can now be rotated by just holding right mouse, shift doesn't have to be held
• Added a check box to hide/show green arrows in build mode
• NewsWindow is now invisible while ModsWindow is visible
• Added a little green icon that tells the player they can build advanced blocks in the sector

• Added an introductory chat message when playing on the beta branch
• Reduced RAM requirements while calculating background AI faction economy

• Added several missing Player callbacks on Server side
• Removed obsolete Entity:getWormHoleComponent() function

"Thanks for reporting tons of issues! We're still working through the reports, and this is the first bunch of bugfixes that we've finished."

• Fixed several typos
• [UBR] Fixed a script crash when ordering ships to salvage/mine through interaction window
• [UBR] Fixed a few issues when multiple docks are pulling the same object
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where collision damage wasn't taken into account for relation changes
• [UBR] Fixed a few issues where weapons with high omicron would cost tons of reputation even though they hit a station that didn't even lose 1% HP
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where important artifacts weren't in the inventory of mobile merchants
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where stations would try pushing away their docking parent
• [UBR] Fixed several issues in controls settings
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where shots of ships owned by players, but controlled by AI would cause reputation losses when hitting the wrong target
• [UBR] Fixed stations pushing obstacles while they're docked to something
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where script commands that required Sector() access didn't work (ie. /addcrew)
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where interacting with a docked station would result in strange displacement of both objects
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where hidden resource asteroids had only a few resources
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where hazard zone being called out had string placeholders
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where all patrolling ships would fly to the same point in space and get stuck
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships wouldn't follow docked objects if set to escort
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where docking heavy objects sometimes didn't impact the ship's physics
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where modifying docked objects didn't impact the parent ship's physics

We appreciate your feedback regarding the current beta version. With your help we have been able to adjust and optimize some features before the next update. If you have any suggestions, you can tell us about them in the #beta-feedback channel on our Discord:

https://discord.com/invite/avorion

Besides the beta and our hype about the upcoming Black Market DLC, there are a few other new features we would like to share with you.

On our Youtube channel and on the Black Market store page you can watch the new official trailer for the DLC. We'd be happy to hear your feedback!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357160/Avorion__Black_Market/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sN0Na8m4DU

We really appreciate your ideas and your enthusiasm to be a part of Avorion's development. That's why we went through your suggestions in our forum (ATTENTION: The most recent ones are not included here yet!) and put together a small feedback list for you. On this list you can read which of your suggestions are doable, which ones we are still thinking about and which ones are, unfortunately, on the "won't make it into the game" list.

You can find the list here:

https://forum.avorion.net/index.php?/topic/6734-suggestions-review/

You're welcome to continue to post your ideas in the forum. We will update the list regularly.
To vote you can follow this link:

https://forum.avorion.net/index.php?/forum/8-suggestions-idea-voting/

As a thank you to you, the greatest community in the galaxy, we would like to give something back to you! That's why we're giving away some Avorion Keys next Thursday, 29.10.2020 so that you and your friends can jump into new adventures! You can take part on our official Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/avoriongame

That's all for now, stay safe and stay healthy!

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'.

"Docking's here! The feature is actually pretty straightforward. Slap a dock block on your ship and go have fun! :)"

• Ships can now use Dock blocks to dock other objects
• Docked objects are shown in building mode
• Docked objects can be taken with you through gates, wormholes and hyperspace jumps
• (Nearly) every object can be docked

"Aside from a few shady features that sneaked in from the Black Market DLC, we got Legendary Turrets, prettier asteroids, and a new, strange Xsotan Wormhole Device that seems to open wormholes to your Reconstruction Site."

• Added new containers that can be hacked or taken to a smuggler's outpost to be opened
• Added a new sector type with many containers and asteroids
• Added the possibility to bribe ships that inspect you
• Added the possibility to inspect & get bribed by AI traders that can now carry illegal goods
• Added special, legendary turrets
• Some turrets will be available immediately, some only for DLC owners
• Turrets are dropped by bosses and other strong enemies
• More turrets to come over the next weeks
• Added a new Xsotan Wormhole Device that opens a wormhole to your reconstruction site
• You get the item from the Adventurer after changing the Reconstruction Site or progressing with the story
• 10 Minute cooldown, infinite usages
• Has a few other limitations so it can't be used during immediate combat
• Improved visuals of asteroids with resources
• Developer Note: Asteroid shapes have been fine-tuned to ensure they have the same amount of resources as before
• Some factions now always have bad starting relations (not as bad on low difficulties, very bad on high difficulties)
• On higher difficulties, bad initial relations can trigger immediate war with factions the player hasn't met yet
• When switching sectors, players are only placed in ships that are idle or passive from now on (unless otherwise specified) to not interrupt AI orders
• Objects in sectors towards the middle are spread out a little further
• Seeking projectiles can now lead very fast targets
• When a warzone is called out or a freighter is raided, nearby players are notified
• Reduced camera shake of sector jumps
• Added edge & corner crew quarters blocks
• Added a front-facing torpedo launcher block

"We improved several aspects of the AI, like pathfinding, aim and salvage & mining AI."

• A ship now waits for its fighters to land before flying through a gate
• Improved aim of AI ships
• AI ships can now aim with coaxial turrets
• Strongly improved aim of AI ships for Expert+ difficulties
• Salvage & mining AI now picks new objects to harvest close to the last one
• This way the behaviour is more consistent when objects break apart
• Salvage & mining AI now keeps fighters active while collecting loot
• Salvage & mining AI no longer keeps firing at tiny fragments that have negligible amounts of resources left
• Salvage & mining AI no longer bothers collecting extremely tiny amounts of loot
• Improved pathfinding when surrounded by many obstacles

• Adjusted fines for smuggling
• Slightly increased amount of petty upgrades being dropped in the outer regions
• Slightly reduced amount of legendary upgrades being dropped on low difficulties
• Railguns now always penetrate at least 3 blocks
• 5-slot turrets aren't automatically coaxial any longer
• Instead of every turret, only 25% of 5-slot turrets will be coaxial turrets
• Explosive shots no longer deal potentially infinite amounts of damage through AOE, but are capped at 200%
• Pulse Cannons now have a much higher shield penetration rate compared to other weapons with ionized projectiles
• Increased projectile speed of 2+ slot turrets

"Let's face it: Shields are way too powerful for what they cost. They provide lots of HP that recharge extremely quickly for free and they protect all blocks at the same time. Shields are also more or less obligatory for combat, and this means that players avoid combat in the early game. We want to break free from these limitations and give players more means to fight early on. We're nerfing shield generators, but at the same time buffing integrity blocks & armor a lot. Keep in mind that these are experimental changes and we'll see how they fare. Please share your feedback with us on this!"

• Buffing Integrity Blocks & Armor
• Reminder: Integrity fields reduce incoming damage!
• Increased damage reduction of integrity fields from 50% to 75%
• Increased HP of armor blocks to 25 per 1 volume, from 15
• Nerfing Shields
• Increased cost of shield generator blocks by 50%
• Reduced shield durability gained from shield blocks to 50 per 1 volume, from 70
• Developer Note: In total, existing ships with shield generators and integrity blocks protecting armor will get:
• -27% shields
• +233% hull HP for armor
• +100% hull HP for other blocks

"We're seeing a lot of playstyles that abuse exploits that are ending up in guides and that are degenerating from how Avorion was originally designed. In addition to fixing exploits, we're adding some experimental changes through which we want to shift the gameplay a bit. We want to reintroduce the feeling of 'safe haven' sectors and the risk of venturing out. We do realize that this might take some comfort away but we think it's healthier for the game in the long run. This playstyle will also require a little more planning from you, which is why we're only enabling it on new galaxies. We'd love to hear your feedback and we'll monitor the situation closely!"

• Building and repairing are now only possible without enemies attacking and only if the ship wasn't damaged in the past 30 seconds
• New Saves: On Normal+ difficulty, Generators and Hyperspace Cores will need a neutral or friendly shipyard in the sector to be added to your ship
• Applies to new saves only
• Applies to ships, not stations
• Does not apply to Creative
• Can be turned on/off with a server.ini setting
• Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-Y and scaling will still work without a shipyard
• Repairing is still possible without a shipyard
• Sectors with smuggler hideouts now have a shipyard
• Sectors with resistance outposts now have a shipyard
• Added an item that lets you return to your Reconstruction Site from anywhere (details see above)
• Reduced cost for changing Reconstruction Site by 80%
• Reduced cost for reconstructing without tokens to 80% of the ship's value, from 120%
• Reduced cost for repairs at repair docks to 35% of ship's value (from 75%)
• Reduced cost for founding a shipyard by 17.500.000 credits
• Reduced cost for founding a repair dock by 7.500.000 credits
• When reconstruction tokens are disabled, reconstruction site can still be set
• Hyperspace engine now has to reboot and goes on cooldown after its range is changed

"We've massively tuned the Strategy Mode to make it a much more polished and easy-to-use feature. Enjoy!"

• Added vertical lines to objects for a better sense of depth
• Improved grid-plane for a better sense of depth
• Camera can now be rotated and moved up/down
• Pressing space centers the camera on the selected object(s)
• Double click now centers the view, Ctrl-click toggles the selection
• Player's current craft now has a player icon in the strategy mode overview list
• Selection groups are now shown in overview list
• Claimed asteroids are now shown in overview list
• Added colors to sector ship overview list in strategy mode
• "Fly through gate"-order is now visualized with a line to the gate
• Mine and salvage orders issued via right click now start harvesting the clicked object (not the closest to the ship)
• Improved button feedback

"More UI and QoL improvements."

• Galaxy Map: Pressing space centers the camera on the selected object(s)
• Galaxy Map: Selection groups can now be used the same as in Strategy Mode
• Galaxy Map: Notifications can now be disabled on the galaxy map
• Mails: Mail buttons stops flashing for good when mails window is opened
• Mails: Mail list updates when a new mail is received
• Mails: Mail window's 'Delete' now takes all attachments first
• Building Mode: Added ISS shilhouette for comparison
• Building Mode: Transformation brush can now be rotated by holding R
• Building Mode: Added "Show Templates Folder" button to blocks window
• Building Mode: Turret designs can now be applied to all selected turret bases with one click
• Building Mode: Implemented new, detailed tooltips for blocks in building mode
• Improved UI for selling items
• Added various filtering, sorting and favoriting options
• Favorited (starred) items can't be sold accidentally any more
• Added assignable icons for ships
• Weapon base damage variation is now reflected in tooltips
• When founding a new ship, "Alliance Ship" is now greyed out when not in an alliance
• Pressing B while in drone now opens the ship founding dialog
• Player ships in the same sector now share their scanner data
• Added total crew salary to player and alliance fleet tabs

• Added more loading screen tips
• Playmodes Normal & Creative Mode are now considered scenarios
• Added more infos about savegames in singleplayer window
• Added a checkbox to override a galaxy's mod settings
• If not ticked, the save's previous mod config is used
• Added a news window to the main menu
• Added a warning window for loading a galaxy with a too high version
• Added a warning window for loading a non-beta galaxy while on the beta branch
• Added categories for assignable controls
• Default controls layout of immediate (mouse) steering changed:
• Free Look is now on right mouse button (was Ctrl)
• Torpedoes are now fired with G (was right mouse)

• Improved visuals of swirly weapon beams

"While tons of things were improved, the most important change is that the scheduling of the server update has been completely rewritten. A single slow sector no longer slows down the entire server. We also added quite a few new settings to tune your server to your perfect PvP settings."

• Restructured the entire internals of the server
• A single slow sector no longer slows down the entire server
• Shenanigans of players no longer slow down the entire server but only the sector they're in
• Developer Note: This doesn't mean that the server now magically supports 100 players. Avorion is not an MMO, and will never be one because it was not designed as one.
• Simplified callback handling & improved stability of the server
• Increased time that sectors are initially loaded from 15s to 30s
• Renamed server option "authenticate" to "vac-secure"
• Renamed server option "isPublic" to "isMultiplayer"
• Added a server.ini setting to allow/forbid boarding
• Added a server.ini setting to enable saving of runtime stats (players, tick times, memory, sectors loaded, etc) into a .csv file
• Added a server.ini setting to configure the amount of networking threads
• Added a server.ini setting to configure minimum ship size
• Added a server.ini setting to configure maximum ship velocity
• Added a server.ini setting to configure maximum number of stations in a sector
• Added a server.ini setting to configure shipyard-bound building

"A lot changed here, so we won't be listing every little change, but only the most important ones - especially when they might break existing mods."

• Added class DockingClamps
• Added class HyperspaceEngine
• Added a new Sector callback "onPlayerArrivalConfirmed" which fires once the client has finished its loading screen
• Added more possibilities to work with Mails
• Added conversion from scancode to keycode and back (modders: See SDL2 docs for that)
• Developer Note: Modders: This might be important for you if you were using the Keyboard. We changed our internal structure from SDL Keycodes to SDL Scancodes
• Entity:getDockingPositions() now returns a table
• DockingPositions:getDockingPositions() now returns a table
• DockingPositions:getDockingPosition(id) now returns a table
• Removed Entity:getRandomDockingPosition()
• Renamed Durability.setMaximum -> Durability.maximum
• Callback "onMailReceived" is now called "onMailAdded" on server, same as client
• Modder Request: Most properties of TextField are now readable as well
• Added functionality to drop VanillaInventoryItem and UsableInventoryItem loot
• Massive improvements to structuredmission.lua
• Fixed an issue where scripts registered for updates before being restored
• Fixed an issue where Galaxy:findFaction() didn't correctly return Player, Alliance, or Faction object depending on the internal type
• Fixed an issue where some components in Entities created by Sector:createEntity() were missing
• Fixed a crash when not passing a color to addShipProblem
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to directly set the Seed value
• Use tostring() to get and assign the string to set
• Improved API documentation

• Added a notification when a player is assigned to be the new leader of a group
• Tons of small optimizations all over the place
• Improved performance of performance measuring (yes really)
• Improved several dialogs
• Improved translations
• Added several new bugs

"As always, bug reports from the community are marked with [UBR] (User Bug Report). Thanks for reporting and keep it up! You'll be seeing quite a few more of these over the next weeks!"

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where torpedoes in Equipment Dock weren't as different as planned
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where trading posts and factories didn't have enough cargo space
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where introduction missions got stuck when playing them in Alliance ships
• [UBR] Fixed a few performance issues when opening the Equipment Dock menu while inventory is full
• [UBR] Fixed several issues where the server could crash when being sent garbage over network
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where the emblem of alliances weren't sent to players correctly
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships wouldn't keep their orientation upon sector change
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where some chat commands could crash the server
• [UBR] Fixed an issue in fighter tutorial mission where having more than 3 fighters didn't advance the mission
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where escort AI would falsely attack friends
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where armor blocks sometimes didn't stop penetrating projectiles
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where ships would chase each other out of the sector indefinitely
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where reconstruction token value of a ship would decrease when ship is built smaller
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where players without alliance vault permissions could trash/favorite alliance items
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where turrets were jittering while aiming with the mouse
• [UBR] Fixed an exploit where ships could be healed by adding large stone blocks
• Fixed an issue where chat messages sent by server didn't get their format strings filled in correctly
• Fixed an error message that was sent too often to alliance members with insufficient permissions
• Fixed an issue where turrets from the ship, when compared, would show up as blueprints
• Fixed highlights of list entries in singleplayer window not working
• Fixed several crashes
• Removed unnecessary sector marker from station founding introduction mission
• Fixed 43 typos (I didn't actually count that)

We are happy to announce that the store page for our upcoming Black Market DLC is now live!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1357160/Avorion__Black_Market/

A lot of new content and over 20 new story missions are waiting for you. You can also look forward to new bosses and new upgrades and weapons! Stay tuned and add it to your wishlist to get started right on time at the release!

We can't wait and are very excited. Right now we are working hard on optimizing the last details and polishing the update.