The latest update to the Avorion beta branch brings several improvements to docking and addresses various bugs. To access the beta branch, right-click on Avorion in your Steam list, select Properties, then Betas, and choose ‘Beta Branch – Newest Changes & Experimental Features’.
Docking has been revised thanks to feedback from players. The station’s indicators now correctly show the ship as docked once you are close enough to transfer resources, crew, goods, and more. 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 struggle to lock on to a single target. Tractor beams flash red, and some may point to the obstructing object, while a yellow indicator at the dock shows that tractor beams aren’t available but you can still dock manually.
Holding F now only starts an interaction when you are close enough to transfer resources, crew, goods, or more. 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.
The Gameplay Creative Mode Command Center now includes all available turret types when using the ‘Guns Guns Guns’ button. The minimum block size is now a server option, with a default and recommended value of 0.01. Allowed values are between 0.001 and 0.01.
Several bug fixes have been implemented in this update. Torpedoes in the default weapon group can be fired again (regression in version 2.5.3), player ships exploding or jumping out of sector after a previous server crash have been prevented, conflicts in case of inconsistent ship databases are now resolved by keeping the currently piloted version, and a crash when a Bluetooth headset was connected while the game was already running has been fixed.
Other bug fixes include resolving an issue where generated turrets, fighters, and torpedoes could be weaker than expected in sectors close to the center, fixing an issue where going back from a window to a dialogue box resulted in the wrong option being selected or a crash (e.g., from hire crew window back to shipyard dialogue box), updating stacktraces to contain the names of involved external libraries, and fixing bundled SDL libraries for Windows.