[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/0f5c2831743fab3273fadfd228b72f41aa5006f0.jpg[/img] Hello dear Spacefarers, Explorers, Pirates and Xsotan Hunters! We are excited to be back to Avorion with many updates and a free DLC in the works! We have some new world minibosses, we made some improvements to escort AI, ship management, and more! We truly hope that you enjoy these changes, and of course, enjoy experiencing them when the time comes! [h1]Mini World Bosses[/h1] We all love exploring space, and to make sure it won’t get too boring, we added various Mini World Bosses! Now you’ll be running into some ‘friends’ as you travel around the galaxy… Oh, also, be careful, we can’t be held accountable for any property damage made to your vessels. These mini world bosses will each have their own unique designs as well as backstories! Some will even feature new and unique weapons! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/a78621617c438e36832a83d18bf15d72d23c5944.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/6a7e9c7c2c8e0386105af52efe51461b3ffd7752.jpg[/img] [h1]Escort AI[/h1] Over time we’ve collected quite some feedback for the escort AI. We tried our best to improve the escort AI as much as possible with all the suggestions we’ve received, here are some of the changes we’ve made: [list] [*] Behavior improvement of ships set to “escort”, [*] When ships are escorting other ships, their collective group jump range will be displayed on the map. Even when it is transitive escorting, ie. A escorts B which escorts C, [*] Ships will now wait before a hyperspace jump until all escorting ships have recharged their hyperspace engines, [*] Ships will send more meaningful messages when their escorted ship is lost, [*] An escort order will not automatically end when the escortee is lost, instead the ship will wait for it to reappear, and even try to hyperspace jump to it, if it is in range, [*] Travel commands will no longer break escort orders! [/list] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/93e6edf117c31e80f7d19d90ea08482a09bd3669.png[/img] [h1]Ship Management[/h1] Considering ship management, we’re busy implementing your feedback as best we could, so we are working on making the management of fleets easier and better! We’ll be adding a compact view of the ship list, as well as a search function and filters! There will also be a feature that allows you to switch to any ship through this list. On top, you will have the convenience of managing ships that are in the same sector as you are, as if you were sitting in them! Unfortunately we cannot do this for ships in other sectors due to technical reasons 😞 Nonetheless, we hope you enjoy these new features when they are out! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/2eb55425c2a8fa8e6ecda0e621a3f44280d473d1.gif[/img] [h1]Behemoth Event Series[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/f5d288f7cc7ed1dd1337f1804ec20fba4c16effa.jpg[/img] A new Behemoth Event Series will be added as a new DLC! We’re really excited about this as it introduces a cool dynamic gameplay event for all players on the server to enjoy, adding more life to the galaxy! If you wish to partake, the Behemoth Event will feature the following: [list] [*] 4 new, very large and strong motherships will be attacking random sectors every few hours without previous warning in all 4 directions of the galaxy! (Don’t worry though, it will be one at a time.) [*] The attacks will be called out on the entire server/galaxy! [*] If they’re not defeated quickly enough, they will turn the entire sector to ashes [*] If you do defeat them, they will drop new unique upgrades, (4 new upgrades in total)! [*] And if you’re not strong enough… Flee! [/list] Additionally we have worked on many other bug fixes and quality of life improvements as well! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/11dba7989987ef33bdc4b977e0173cd06649e2dd.gif[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27258641/f2b637b5ca347d03130069eac751373511dc2e22.png[/img] [h1]Why the 'Free DLC'?[/h1] We’ve been getting this question a lot since the initial announcement. We would like to communicate from the get-go that some of the content the update brings is optional. While we think the Behemoth Event will be a great addition to the game, time has shown that not everyone likes these kinds of updates/events. We've learned from our past experiences and want to communicate well and clearly, which is why we've decided we'll be releasing the Behemoth Event series as a free DLC. In the future, you might see more parts of updates released as free DLCs to communicate the, uh, optionality of these features. [h1]What about the future of Avorion?[/h1] We've got some good news here: After taking a short break from Avorion we've decided that we'll be supporting the game for at least another 2 years with more content, additional features, performance and bugfix updates! Full disclosure: We won't be able to release all three updates that we had initially planned on our Roadmap for 2023, but we're confident we'll be able to release two of them. Thank you all so much for being with us, and supporting us. We will continue doing our best to deliver all these features as soon as possible! https://store.steampowered.com/app/445220/Avorion/