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 Branch - Newest Changes & Experimental Features'.

• [UBR] Fixed an issue where images in the encyclopedia were distorted
• [UBR] Fixed a crash when opening specific encyclopedia entries, for example "Integrity Fields"
• This was also triggered by choosing an integrity field block in build mode

• Reverted the bundled SDL2_image library to an older version (for Windows)

Hello everyone!
We're very happy to announce that the patches 2.5.3 and 2.5.4 are now available on default! Thank you to everyone who participated in the beta and all the valuable feedback! And now without further ado here is a highlight of the most important changes.

In the last update, we already made docking to a station more reliable by changing the underlying assessment of what is docked. While this made things less confusing code-wise, we noticed that the UI wasn't properly reflecting the docked status. To address this, we are now introducing the following changes:

• The station's indicators now correctly show the ship as docked as soon as you are close enough to transfer resources, crew, goods, ...,
• Tractor beams no longer pull your ship all the way to the dock if you have a functional transporter. They now stop as soon as your ship is in transporter range.
• Added visual effects when nearby entities block the docking area and tractor beams have trouble locking on to a single target
• Tractor beams flash red, some of them may point to the obstructing object
• A yellow indicator at the dock shows that tractor beams aren't available, but you're still able to dock manually
• Holding F now only starts an interaction when you are close enough to transfer resources, crew, goods, ...
• The interaction dialog with the station will now automatically open when your ship has been pulled close enough
• Tapping F for a short time always starts the interaction dialog with a selected station

Some things seemed to have slipped past us concerning secondary block colors. Thank you for everyone reporting these issues and the wonderful suggestion of a color swap!

• [UBR] Ship Name blocks no longer darken the text if a custom secondary color is set
• [UBR] Added a button to swap primary and secondary colors
• Button is hidden when both colors are equal
• [UBR] Fixed an issue where blocks with colorized windows (Crew Quarters, some Hulls) did not flicker for wreckages and ships with low energy

Due to several reports of bad performance in collisions, glitches in build mode and rendering issues, we investigated and found a few troubling issues. One we're addressing now with this update: Zero or even negatively sized blocks.
These teeny tiny blocks cause a lot of issues with our engine, as it was never built to deal with such a thing. Therefore, we sadly have to introduce a minimum block size. After a lot of consideration and performance testing, we chose to set the default minimum value to 0.01 (which is equivalent to 10 cm).
While this limit is fine for general gameplay, it does impede art builds somewhat. Therefore we additionally added a galaxy-specific server.ini setting that allows for this limit to be much smaller. Be aware that this might lead to more performance issues, though.

• You can set the server-wide minimum block size in the server settings. Accepted values are between 0.001 and 0.01.
• This value is not used to limit precision / decimal places. All block sizes above the minimum are accepted by the game.
• This change does not affect existing builds
• For now ship designs with block sizes smaller than the server's limit can still be applied
• Whole ship scaling currently does not prevent smaller blocks
• These two points will probably change in a future update, especially on multiplayer servers
• Existing ships already in the galaxy will not be modified

• The Open Ship Menu Button now indicates more clearly which ship menu will be opened
• The Creative Command Center (available in creative mode) will now give all types of subsystems and turrets
• The bug where co-op flying co-pilots were no longer able to do damage was fixed and additionally co-pilots are now also able to fire torpedoes!

As usual, this isn't an exhaustive list of all the changes. If you want to know more you can find the full patch notes of both patches here: Patch 2.5.3 and Patch 2.5.4.

Have a wonderful day!