Beta Branch Patch 0.32 - Generator Rework, Endgame Content and tons more
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'.
Important Note
"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."
Gameplay
Procedural Craft Generator
"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."
Balancing
New Endgame Content
"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."
Faction Economy
"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."
Faction Packs
"Ever wanted to play against the Star Wars Empire in Avorion? You now have the tools to do so."
Creative Mode Improvements
"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."
Backups
"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."
Client
Server
Scripting API
Bugfixes
"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!"
Avorion Patchnotes 0.31.2
"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!"
Gameplay
Scripting API
Bugfixes
"As always, bug reports marked with [UBR] are User Bug Reports! Thanks to everyone who reported those!"
It's Official - Avorion Leaving Early Access on March 9th 2020
Official 1.0 Release Date: March 9th 2020
It's official! We're happy to break the news that Avorion will be leaving Early Access on March 9th, 2020!
The Road to 1.0
Until March 9th, there are a few more things to do:
Polishing, Balancing, Bugfixing
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.
Generator Update
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!
Endgame Content
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!
What happens after 1.0?
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.
Progress Trailer - 3 Years of Development
[previewyoutube="fNlBlZ_4FMo;full"] 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!
Upcoming updates
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.
Faction Economy & Faction Eradication
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
Craft Generator Rework
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.
Endgame Content
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.
Final Polishing Phase
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!
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'.
Damage Type Rework
“We reworked how shields and hulls react to fire from enemies. They now have special strengths and weaknesses, which make the use of different weapons more important.”
Enemy Variations & Specializations
“Not only the players benefit from the new improved shields and hulls, but also the enemies get a fair share of improvements.”
Hyperspace Rework
“To improve the speed in which the galaxy may be discovered, we decreased the time spent in sectors while recharging the hyperspace engine.”
Special Offers
“Hey you, wanna see my new special offers?”
New Enemy Spawning Mechanic
“We added a new spawning mechanic for enemies. They have different scenarios why they are in a sector and warn the player before attacking.”
Scripting API
Update 0.30.2 - Missions, Bosses & Sound
New Missions and Bosses
In order to fill the galaxy with more life, we are introducing new bosses and missions. Some of the missions are available at bulletin boards, while others will appear naturally. The bosses need to be found and use unique strategies and techniques to protect themselves. We don't want to spoil too much so go and find them yourself!
SFX Changes
We improved our sound engine to use effects and filters to create a more immersive sound experience. The further you are away from the action the more diffuse the sound will be.
Sounds
We reworked many aspects of the game's sound. Some of the old sounds were a bit blunt and too direct. In this update we replaced those and also added lots of previously missing sounds in order to create a coherent atmosphere and to add more life to the game. Among those are impact sounds that not only depend on the hit surface but also the damage type, different destruction sounds for explosions, blocks breaking and rocks being smashed, distinct laser sounds for the various weapons, a laser impact sizzle and many more. Collision and impact sounds are now attenuated when happening in quick succession to prevent unnatural stacking of sounds. Furthermore we added sound effects for entering and leaving hyperspace and ambient noise for stations, factories, mines, gates and wormholes.
Bugfixes
Other Changes
You can check out the full patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/3999690924758323795 https://steamcommunity.com/games/445220/announcements/detail/1696102156445506842
New Ship Generator Teaser Trailer
[previewyoutube="CLdmGxLWWfI;full"] This video shows the reworked procedural ship generator of Avorion.
New Ship Generator Teaser Trailer
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.
Leaving Early Access in Q1 2020
More news: We now settled on a time frame when we're planning to leave Early Access - Q1 2020! While it's really hard to pick an arbitrary point where we you can declare a sandbox game as "finished", Avorion is nearing its feature completion in one way in particular: As the vision I had of it when I first imagined it.
But don't worry! If you're thinking that now that's it with Avorion, that we're done, then you couldn't be more wrong! We love working on Avorion and we love the community that formed around the game.
We're going to actively support the game with free updates and some DLCs for at least 2 years after release. Depending on how well it goes for us financially, it might be longer.
The road to 1.0
So that's that for now! Until the 1.0 release we have a couple more updates planned. We'll give you more info on that in another news post next week. And then after that there's going to be a period of relentless bugfixing, polishing and balancing, to get rid of all the obnoxious issues that are okay for an Early Access game, but not a 1.0 version.
Beta Branch Patch 0.30.1 - Bugfixes
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'.
