Status Update: New Office and Development Update

[koonschi]

Time for an update!

Please excuse the long radio silence, but there was a lot of stuff to take care of after the launch and the first fixes. Two weeks ago we went to GDC in San Francisco for a week, which is a once-a-year opportunity to meet other professionals from the games industry which I just couldn't let slip. It's one of the biggest game developer conferences in the world and I learned a lot from the talks and conversations with other devs.

When we came back after this week at GDC we were busy moving into our office. Until then I had been developing the game from my personal home, which is not just unhealthy but also not as professional as I'd like to be. We got it done surprisingly quickly, it only took us a little more than a week, with internet, building all the new equipment like workstations, new build server(s), countless trips for buying furniture and all the other equipment we need for development.

 

Development Progress

During this time we couldn't work on Avorion sadly, but now that everything is in place in the new office we're back to work. We'll release a new update this week (first on the beta branch, then, after 1 or 2 days we'll push it to stable if it performs well).

 

This is what we've been working on over the last month (minus the 2,5 weeks where we had to get the other stuff done). Some of it is already in the beta branch for testing.

• Groups. Players will be able to invite other players into a group, so they can see each other in the sector and on the map in real time.
   
  
• Server stability. We're working on improving the "Connection Closed" and "Server Unreachable" errors, especially on startup.
  Gyros, inertia dampeners, directional thrusters and flight mechanics. We're reworking the "pancake thrusters" since that's an exploit that should never have been a thing. More details on that in the final patch notes.
  
• Server improvements, steam server browser.
  
• Lots of QoL improvemenst that you've been suggesting, for example pro- and retrograde markers.
  
• Improved repairing of ships. You'll be able to repair ships block by block or discard any blocks that would need repairing.
  
• Lots of fixes for bugs and/or exploits reported by you, for example the black shields issue that has been hitting intel users hard. Thanks and keep it up!
  

 

Final Note

This is not the Alliance update! We're working on this one as well, but so far there aren't that many new features that you don't already know about. We're looking into a release on Alliances in about 4 weeks after the groups update I mentioned here.

 

The reason why I haven't been posting more on the steam and official forum is simple: I've been busy running the company and working on the code. I know people get suspicious when Early Access devs stop giving life signs (and sometimes you should) but these kinds of updates and reading and replying on the forums cost me a lot of time, and I prefer spending my time on the game. I hope you understand. Also, we have cepheni, thedamngod and JECJoker (Shoutout to those guys!), who have been a great help and who have been and still are working closely with me.

 

That's all for now, have fun!

[thedamngod]

Thanks for the update!

 

Any chance of some pictures from the new office?  ::)

[Tchey]

 

 

Any chance of some pictures from the new office?  ::)

 

Yes, screenshots please !

[FreddyAVO]

ccording to their contact page they are somewhere in these 3 buildings

 

[image removed]

[koonschi]

The official contact address of our office has been updated on the site and is openly available for everyone (as required by law). But this picture doesn't belong in this thread.

[Enzo Matrix]

Will the ships still constantly damage while your trying to build it? It always happens once I begin using holograms / light blocks and bam ship begins to constantly need repair and can hardly build. I would really like this to not happen lol.

 

Glad to hear your all moved in.. looking forward to updates!

[Varkrag]

Can you be more specific regarding your intent for thrusters?

 

I understand the desire to stick to some semblance of reality, but I'd rather not require huge thrusters all over my ship to affect the aesthetics we work so hard on.

 

IMHO, thrusters are incredibly underpowered. Small ports at geometrically significant points on the ship is easy to include in a design, but having a blinding bloom of thruster vents all over my ship is not an attractive expectation.

 

I don't mean to sound negatively critical, I'm excited about the prospect of large ships behaving like large ships, and small ships truly jetting around them.

 

Thank you!

[Splutty]

Will the ships still constantly damage while your trying to build it? It always happens once I begin using holograms / light blocks and bam ship begins to constantly need repair and can hardly build. I would really like this to not happen lol.

 

Glad to hear your all moved in.. looking forward to updates!

 

Just load up your ship with mechanics beforehand :D

[cy414]

IMHO, thrusters are incredibly underpowered. Small ports at geometrically significant points on the ship is easy to include in a design, but having a blinding bloom of thruster vents all over my ship is not an attractive expectation.

if you want to move the mass of your ship, it doesnt matter how geometrically significant the point you mount them to is, if they are too small. since if they are small, they will be weak.

 

 

simple thing is, a lot of scifi ships, especially from older series, where made just for looks, with no consideration to function. especially with mainstream sci-fi like star trek or star wars, those ships moved by plot magic.

[Canute]

So long the thrusters are just for turning and rolling, yes a smaller thruster far aways from the mass center is more effective then closer to the mass center.

But when you want to move the ship like to break or slide, just raw power is needed.

 

Most ships from popular Sci-Fi movies use adv. engines they didn't realy follow newton's law. And since there are many authors who write the book for them, they mix up all possible things and even don't follow their "universe" rules.

They just create ships for the optic not for the function.

Like when Manga/anime girls fights with sword and armor that show much skin then to use a full plate armor like their male encounters.

 

[Wilponderoci]

Glad to hear youre moved in and getting things moving along!

 

Congratz!

 

For those concerned about the changes please try the beta branch A LOT of what is being discussed is in it already!

 

And yes A LOT of you arent going to like it.

 

Truth be told, the way the engines etc perform in beta is the way it should be according to how physics and the typical space combat sim works.

 

Yes it will require more thoughtful placement and materials usage!

 

I know im not the only one that has some great functional and aesthetically pleasing ships that were built in beta.

 

cy414 Awesome video example!