MoreChainguns!

I really do encourage you to stick with it; there are a ton of experiences in the game which are hugely rewarding. I would recommend (to smooth your progression as much as possible), that you make a second ship and hire a Captain. They're a special type of crew member who aren't necessary, but do help a ton because they allow you to place your ships under AI command and order them around from afar. Basically, all you have to do is 1.) Search around for a station that you can hire a Captain from (in the crew tab). Make sure you put the slider all the way to the right, otherwise it won't hire them. 2.) Switch to your first ship and enter 'Map' view, then click on the round icon in the upper right, or, if you're both in the same sector, just select and press F to interact with them. 3.) A big list of options will drop down, all being actions the AI can enact. Just mouse over them to find out what they all do. The most important will be "Mine" and "Salvage", though. 4.) When you order them to Mine / Salvage (if you remembered to stick mining/salvaging lasers on the ship), the AI Captain will proceed to mine every single asteroid / salvage every wreck in their sector, one after the other, until they send you a message: [ship name] Can't Find Any More Asteroids (or wrecks) in Sector [x.y]! TL;DR, This means that while you do all the interesting stuff, such as trading, fighting, or building, you will be gaining a steady supply of ores, materials, scrap, and (hopefully) systems upgrades.

That seems really frustrating. Unfortunately, outside of cheats (i.e. giving yourself a really good trading upgrade), there is no way to retrieve it. I do think you're on an older version of the game, though - usually it gives you 30 seconds or so of cooldown before you can pick up items again. I sincerely feel sorry for you; I know how much grind scrapping is. However, not all hope is lost! The main thing that a (high level) trading upgrade does is tell you when you can sell your good for increased price and in which sector. Any person can easily replicate the most important aspect of that (buying low, selling high) by just writing down how much they bought it for and then jumping around all the adjacent systems trying to find a specific station to sell their goods to. Hopefully, that station will have a shortage of a good when you sell, and a surplus of a good when you buy, It's messy, but it works. To find which stations buy / sell which goods, the Avorion wiki (https://avorion.fandom.com/wiki/Goods) is very helpful. To find whatever good you're looking for, just press 'Command + F" and you can search the page for a specific title. I hope that's some consolation...

I haven't gotten into multiplayer yet - could I join your server?

What if there were lines drawn on the map around discovered territory for one faction? That would eliminate the color confusion entirely.

A fifth option could be "I am tired of my pirate leaders, they forcibly recruited me anyways. Can I join you?" It would be quite rare, and only occur when there's one ship left alive out of a pirate group. Maybe it has a higher chance of happening if it's the last ship left alive out of a pirate Mothership fleet? To spice things up a bit, each ship might have a different captain stat; 'Cowardly' - runs away or surrenders, higher chance to join you 'Lazy' - Minimal support, calls in too few reinforcements, just as likely to run as to join you, doesn't fight well 'Loyal' - Basically what we have in-game at the moment, minus the staying 'till the end. This type of captain will try their best, but when things get hopeless, then they will probably run. 'Fanatic' - Will literally fight until their ship is nothing but a crew compartment and a turret.

The main bits with Avorion that I've heard cause lag are: a.) A LOT of lights b.) A LOT of glass c.) A lot of really big ships d.) Extremely complex physics calculations Other than that, I have no clue. Wifi doesn't matter because it's all offline.

Er... If the platform you're running it on is a Mac, something has gone seriously wrong. I thought that Steam would only allow downloads of Avorion onto Windows operating systems. In fact, back when I bought this game, I was severely disappointed because I was gaming on a Mac. I bought and paid for it, but just couldn't download it. HOWEVER - I just checked the Steam store page for Avorion and discovered that as long as you have "' Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 or higher Processor: Intel i5 @ 3.0 GHz or AMD equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 550 or equivalent (full OpenGL 3.0 support required) Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 1 GB available space Additional Notes: Middle mouse button, mouse wheel required. No Internet connection required for Singleplayer "' As such, I would suggest the old 1-2-3 of 1.) Rebooting that save in-game 2.) Using Task Manager to force quit the game and relaunch 3.) Restart your computer If NONE of those work, then I would sadly recommend you just get a PC. Hope that helps : /

This would work great. However, it might be a good idea to create seperate catalogues for faction logos and ship / station logos. For a prime selection of ideas, I suggest checking out the list of Emblems from the game Airships: Conquer the Skies.

For me, I got lucky because another faction was attacking the one I was building up reputation with. Since I effectively 'sided' with them, they gave me 'Excellent' status for free.

That sounds like a nice addition. I admit, as a player just building their first capital ship (which I'm calling a destroyer because I want my battleships to be huge), I haven't really experienced this much. Maybe that's because the pirates are hilariously bad (their best tech is Integrity Field Generators), and even my small Titanium Region-era corvettes can take groups of 10-12 on solo and still triumph with effectively no shields. And even in those one-vs-the-world battles, I still have yet to lose a single turret.

Thanks! For sure, that would make things a lot more interesting when you decide to start your own empire (and also make post-endgame way more engaging).

This feels like something that would be kind of overpowered...

Oops, I misread your post. Honestly, I think if any change to the hangar system would be made, it would be as I detailed above. But then again, considering how modular AI ships are, having external fighters ready to launch would be in-theme. And you're right, it probably would cut down a bit on the fighter AI glitches.

This would add a measure of complexity to the process, but would be more realistic. The way I envision it is: a.) The 'Hangar' block is changed to a 'Hangar Bay Door' block that only lets fighters pass through. b.) A new docking block called the 'Fighter Docking Port' is added that only docks to fighters Adding those 2 would be easy; you could even keep the same textures. If this change were to go through, carriers would have to have either really strong shields or a ton of interior space to be able to (safely) carry a large wing of fighters. Also, it would offer an opportunity for new decoration! Which many in the community would love, and those who don't care wouldn't have to deal with. Those are all the 'pros'... The cons (that I can forsee): a.) A whole new pathfinding system for AI fighters (Since they would not only have to navigate into an enclosed space but also allocate docking ports among themselves) b.) The fighter command system being tweaked to allow for safe (and quick) enter and exit for fighters (what happens if they're proceeding out of the hangar in an orderly fashion, and then you suddenly order them to turn back)? c.) Lag problems from individually modeled fighters So, on the whole: ANY additional complexity in games always results in either player confusion or a proportional amount of bugs. Usually both. I could definitely see them adding this as part of a larger patch, though - maybe even 2.0, and it would be really cool - but for now, the current system works, without (many) problems.

Certainly sounds like it. Could you link to that post?

How about editing your post to have this at the top, and then the technical bits below that? It would make it easier for people to seek out the parts of it that they want to reference; I got all I needed to know from the six points above, anyways. It's nicer to be confronted with a few simple bullet points than a post the approximate size of a sector, don't you think? But the above stuff seems like a very good UI / QOL improvement - and a welcome expansion on the docking concept. I've been planning to make a 'mothership'-style ship sometime soon, anyways.

It would also make conquering the universe a hassle, as opposed to just a system-by-system grind, because the AI would try to take their sectors back and potentially band together against you. It would make boarding a lot more of an attractive option, considering how many ships you'd need just to hold onto sectors! 😄

I was thinking that instead of an AI trying to pronounce a system name, the game basically gave you a prompt to say it, recorded that, and then just changed your voice into an AI's; that way, systems would be pronounced the way that the player wished.

Currently, every faction (in their 'Traits' window) has a different response to piracy of any ship in the galaxy. This can range from really harmful to your reputation (Peaceful/Lawful trait), or not so harmful. But it's never unharmful entirely. In our history, whenever a war between nations (after the American Revolution, I think) has had a naval aspect, pirates have been able to partake in country-sponsored piracy. This is known as 'privateering' - they obtain a license from one country to legally pirate the others' ships. It's still illegal in the eyes of the one getting pirated, of course, but it's far more above-the-board than standard piracy. I propose that under the following conditions: Two AI factions are at war A player has a reputation of 'Good' or better with one or the other factions The player can then obtain a 'Privateering License' from the Military Outpost of either of the factions, for around 10,000 - 15,000 credits. I personally would either have it never expire, or function under the system below. Once they have obtained this License, they can engage in sponsored piracy. Essentially how I envision privateering would work is that when coming upon any cargo-carrying ships or stations of the faction you and the allied faction are at war with, you can demand their cargo without any reputation loss with any allied AI faction and very minor reputation loss with any other faction. You can then carry this cargo safely through the territory of whichever faction you got the license from, and sell them to any of the same faction's ships or stations. If implemented, this would be a way for law-abiding players like myself to experience piracy without going rogue. Somehow, I feel like this would make regular piracy obsolete. What do you think?

This sounds SUPER cool! Also, it feels like it would fit right in to the game.

This is why I check my own spelling and don't use an AI 😄 Here are a few broad suggestions: A linear design, with a long, spindly armored central body - sort of an armored spine - that contains crew, energy production / storage, etc. with hangar bays all the way down the sides, and turrets in 2 main batteries on the top of the front and bottom of the front. 2 things I would suggest are a.) a TON of integrity field generators with at least double coverage of the entire 'spine' - because you do not want this thing to snap in two, and b.) an optional Ogonite ram bow that shields the length of the ship from any fire directed at the ship from the direct front and can also be used to smash enemy ships with your bulk in a pinch. A 'flying wing' design, with a thick central body flanked by two 'wings' tapering to points, and an overhang at the back covering the top of the engines and hangar bays. This design could mount a LOT of turrets along its 'wings', with the outer front of the 'wings' and the top covered in a thin layer of Ogonite. This could be slightly less susceptible to breaking in two, but on the other hand, wouldn't be able to have as many hangar bays; it would be more of a mixed-role ship as opposed to a pure carrier. That said, pure carriers are often a bad choice unless they're supported by a battlegroup. Something similar to the Mon Calimari battlecruisers from Star Wars - a sort of tapered cylinder with 'pods' on the sides housing gun batteries and hangar bays, with a sort of big slice carved into the rear for the engines. This would be tricky to pull off, given how voxel-y this game is, but if you were going for a truly big scale, then using a lot of gently sloping wedges you could probably pull off a decent tapered cylinder. Some building tips (really, for any building game): Start with a broad idea of what you're going to do, then build a good framework. In Avorion, this usually translates to making a skeleton of a build first, or at least drawing it out, and then making a core of all the mechanical bits (crew, engines, generators, storage, shields, etc.) and only then adding details. Then add turrets and so on. In Avorion, though a good framework is essential, the details are what really make the craft. Those details should be numerous and simple, or at least complex if you can't fit them in. I would suggest looking at blueprints of ships from Halo - they all have really good detailing - and Star Wars ships close-up to get some ideas for greebles. Greebles are literally bits of fake mechanically-looking things that give anything a sense of scale if employed right - that is, with incredible proliferation. If you look at the Imperial Star Destroyers, you'll get an idea of the best places to put greebles. One thing that's helped me is to design all my turrets. The default look is fine, but to give any ship a sense of scale, make every turret on it small and minutely detailed. Not only does this give you a whole new thing to expend creativity on, but it doesn't affect your damage output! So why wouldn't you try making a custom turret or two? (Remember to just copy-paste the same design for turrets that are essentially the same). One final thing: If there's anything more powerful than quality over quantity, it's strength in numbers AND quality. Try to find one design that really takes the cake, and then make a TON of that one ship. Wha-bam! You've got a fleet! (Just remember to have enough resources to create and maintain such a fleet, and a steady source of income that ensures you'll not run out of money to pay your crews). Hope that helps! Oh, and just remember a few things to look up for inspiration: Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek, Etc. for ship ideas, turret ideas, and detailing Real-life naval turrets (both old and new) for custom turret ideas

From my first days of Avorion browsing the wiki, I've always wanted to arm a ship with cannons. Just the idea of doing massive single-shot damage has always appealed to me! But I've never gotten into the Naonite regions before, so I've accepted that I will have to build myself up to actually get that far. But out of curiosity, at what point can you make cannons? And should I bother trying to find any in the Iron and Titanium regions?

Aren't processing cores things to unlock more system slots? Also, how do I see my processing power? Also, have you mentioned the fear factor in multiplayer when a super-dreadnought hundreds of times your size warps into the system? I guess I would personally just love to have ships of such obscene dimensions that I can bully the AI into submission without any trouble :D

Would it be better if the insurance company was the supplier of the Reconstruction Tokens?

We've all been there. A pirate got our merchant, or a Hunter got our exploration ship after it wandered too close to the center of the galaxy. You go back to your Reconstruction Dock, and hand over a Token to get it back for free. Now, in real life, if your car gets destroyed, you go to your insurance company to get some money back. If they believe you, then you get your money back. So, here's my proposal: After you get a couple thousand credits, then you are contacted by an 'Insurance Merchant' who flies into your system. He offers you a few different 'insurance plans': Small (100 credits / week) Medium (500 credits / week) Large (1000 credits / week) Extra Large (2000 credits / month) Supermassive (10,000 / year) Each will give you differing amounts of money back when you come back to your Dock. Now, here's where my proposal splits: Either, 1.) The company is passive, and gives you back your ship for free, but you have to provide a piece of evidence (say, a hull block from the wreck) to get money Or, 2.) The company is the same as above, but is also a faction in their own right, maintaining several systems and a large fleet near the Galactic Center. If you default on your payments, or if you try to commit insurance fraud, they will send an 'Enforcer' after you. Now, here's another divergance of ideas: Either: 1.) The insurance company's main HQ station is a boss on the level of the MAD Science Lab Or: 2.) It's a relatively easy boss that an early-level player could complete with a good ship. Your thoughts?