I think I need some basic help here on how to play...

[Marxorz]

I really want to like this game. lol There are already a ton of things about it that I'm loving, but I played for a few hours tonight and the experience was quite frustrating to say the least. During the tutorial, while trying to dock, there was a message about pirates and I was soon attacked. My thrusters and (starter?) weapons were apparently the only targets of the attack, so I was left almost unable to maneuver, then the pirates left me alone. I guess they were just trolling me? Without thrusters it took probably 10 minutes to dock. I bought a crew, repaired my ship... and was immediately attacked by pirates again. So I finally manage to rebuild my ship and finish the tutorial by going to another sector. Of course... pirates. They don't have the decency to finish me off, they just disable me again and leave me drifting through space. I use my mining drone to get iron to fix my ship, but I can't fix it because I don't have cash... and I can't get cash because I'm drifting through space.

 

Anyways... frustrating. So a few questions, since there isn't much in the way of info around the internet yet:

 

• Is that normal for pirates to be so aggressive right off the bat? A peaceful sector would be nice trying to learn the controls.
  
• How do I build guns (and mining lasers)? In my build menu, I think I started with a couple of guns... but the first pirates destroyed them before I knew what was going on. So after that my ship was defenseless. I couldn't find anywhere how to build a gun.
  
• Can you outfit a ship to do mining? Even when I put mining lasers on my ship (I think they started in my inventory? Not sure where I got them), when I mined the chunks would just float off, unlike in my mining drone where it pulled them in if they were close enough.
  
• If I'm floating practically dead in space, is there any way to build (or repair) a single thruster? I couldn't build because I needed to repair first. I couldn't repair because I didn't have cash. I couldn't get cash because I didn't have any thrusters to get to a station.
  
• Is there a way to change the camera position relative to my ship? I couldn't even see the first pirates to try to fight back (when I had guns on my ship) because my ship is between my camera and where I'm aiming.
  

 

[koonschi]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We've been getting similar feedback from others who just started out and I think as a possible solution we might disable pirate attacks in the start sector until the player is ready (or maybe even entirely).

 

Normally the military ships in the start sector take care of pirates, which is probably why it looked to you like they were suddenly leaving you alone - the pirates were destroyed by them. But the damage had already been done, and especially for a beginner this can be very harsh.

 

Is that normal for pirates to be so aggressive right off the bat? A peaceful sector would be nice trying to learn the controls.

Yes and no. You most likely had a lot of bad luck that they always spawned right next to you, leading them to attack you.

How do I build guns (and mining lasers)? In my build menu, I think I started with a couple of guns... but the first pirates destroyed them before I knew what was going on. So after that my ship was defenseless. I couldn't find anywhere how to build a gun.

In the building mode, open the build inventory and select the turrets you want to build, similar to blocks (but in the second category). The pirates may have destroyed your turrets, but you drop them and can collect them again. They don't despawn when you're the one who dropped them, so no weapons are lost.

Edit: Wait, did you build your turrets onto your ship or not? If not then they can't be destroyed by enemies.

Can you outfit a ship to do mining? Even when I put mining lasers on my ship (I think they started in my inventory? Not sure where I got them), when I mined the chunks would just float off, unlike in my mining drone where it pulled them in if they were close enough.

They have a higher reach which is why you have to be a little closer to the asteroid (and resources to collect them), but we've changed that and you'll always collect mined resources immediately, they'll just "lock on" to your ship when mined, without you having to fly close to them. This feature will come with the next patch.

If I'm floating practically dead in space, is there any way to build (or repair) a single thruster? I couldn't build because I needed to repair first. I couldn't repair because I didn't have cash. I couldn't get cash because I didn't have any thrusters to get to a station.

At that point, you have to get out of your ship and mine some resources with your drone (there's a button in the top right corner). You can then sell those resources at a resource depot. It's a wanted feature that you can end up dead in the water. I agree that there's room for improvement, especially when you're a beginner and basically don't know what to do now.

Is there a way to change the camera position relative to my ship? I couldn't even see the first pirates to try to fight back (when I had guns on my ship) because my ship is between my camera and where I'm aiming.

I agree and we're currently experimenting with some solutions where you can more easily change the camera position. For now, you can change it in the Game Options.

 

Thank you so much for this feedback, that's exactly the kind of thing we're looking for. I hope you'll keep at it and still have lots of fun, even if the first few hours were a little frustrating.

[Marxorz]

Very helpful answers. Thanks!

 

In the building mode, open the build inventory and select the turrets you want to build, similar to blocks (but in the second category). The pirates may have destroyed your turrets, but you drop them and can collect them again. They don't despawn when you're the one who dropped them, so no weapons are lost.

Edit: Wait, did you build your turrets onto your ship or not? If not then they can't be destroyed by enemies.

I did build them onto my ship. Are you saying that they drop at a location (liked mined asteroid resources do)? If that's the case, I'm certain I flew away from them trying to escape the pirates I couldn't fight. I was on the run in an asteroid field, so finding where they dropped would seem... challenging. lol

 

Is there a reliable way to find them again if they're floating somewhere in space after the pirates are gone? Or a way to build/get more? (After I built them onto my ship initially they no longer showed up in my build inventory.)

 

 

Thank you so much for this feedback, that's exactly the kind of thing we're looking for. I hope you'll keep at it and still have lots of fun, even if the first few hours were a little frustrating.

:) I'm still pretty excited about the concept and some of the cool things I've already experienced. I'll give it another shot tonight and see if I can avoid pirates this time. lol

[koonschi]

You're very welcome.

 

If you dropped them in the asteroid field, then they will still be there, you basically only have to pick them up. They should not be too hard to find, you can zoom out and look for them (they should be glowing). You can also buy new turrets at turret merchants or equipment docks. They also get dropped by enemies a lot.

 

In case you didn't know: You can always change into the drone at any time. The drone can perform hyperspace jumps just like a normal ship and can mine. Also, it respawns for free whenever you die in it.

 

If you feel stuck and anything else fails, it's perfectly fine to just start a new game - new galaxy, new luck! ;)

[Marxorz]

I had a much better 'round 2' last night. (Thanks again for the assistance above) I ran into one question and one problem that I couldn't figure out:

 

• How do I remove a placed turret? I killed one of those pesky pirates and found an upgrade... I ended up having to turn off 'Safe Mode' and delete/re-add the part of my ship that the turret was attached to.
  
• 
  Something weird was happening when I'd try to fly and shoot at the same time. Clicking to shoot would fire one shot and drop my throttle to 0. Holding down the mouse button to shoot just fired single shots. I could keep clicking and it would keep shooting, but holding it down didn't work. And if I was moving and fired once, I'd have to release and press the throttle button (space bar) again. This problem wasn't consistent. I jumped out of the sector (since I couldn't really fight like that) and everything was working fine again. I hadn't repaired. My power generation was almost 2x my power being used, my batteries were full, and my gunner slots were all full. After that I noticed that in some sectors I *could* move and shoot, others I could only shoot once and it would stop my throttle.
   
  What really throws me off is that it works sometimes, but not other times... where the only thing I've done between is jumping sectors. Is this a bug or am I missing something?
   
  

[koonschi]

Glad to hear it went better the second time. You can select turrets like blocks and press delete.

 

The controls resetting is a bug, and will be fixed in the next patch.

[Marxorz]

You can select turrets like blocks and press delete.

I must be missing something. How do I select a turret? In the 'B' build screen I've tried every single tool (on the build panel on the left) and combination of clicks I can think of a dozen times each. Same thing for trying to remove them from the 'S' ship screen.

 

 

[gn_leugim]

Try this:

 

When in your ship, go to build menu (just press B).

 

then, look at the turret, you don't need to open any menu or anything like that. just rotate the ship the way is more suitable to "stare" at the turret.

 

Put the cursor over it, and press the middle button on the mouse (the wheel one)

 

You should now have the turret with a white box frame around it, indicating that you have selected it.

 

Press delete. it should be gone (into your inventory) .

 

That's all you need to do.

[Marxorz]

Middle click. Doh! I feel stupid. How could I miss that?

 

On the plus side I'm now at 9 hours played and I'm (very) slowly ticking towards the center of the galaxy and enjoying the heck out of it!

[gn_leugim]

Nice to know you made it. Keep exploring ;)

 

[Mr_Dayne]

It might have gone completely over my head, but is Avorion not in Steam yet? I got a Steam beta key a while ago, but I tried to activate it today, and I couldn't find Avorion in Steam.

 

is it still only demo/alpha or am I missing something

 

- Dayne

[koonschi]

It's currently in closed Beta and not yet released. If you're a backer then you should have received a key, if you backed and didn't get a key, please send me a quick message via Kickstarter so we can get it sorted out.

 

If you did receive a key, you can activate it in your steam client and Avorion will appear in your Library for you to play.