Just opened the barrier wormhole ... or did I?

[Kanaro Min]

Big flaw in this part of the main story. I just went through the arduous procedure for opening it. Successfully did so after losing only one of my opening ships randomly to attackers. So I started the process of getting back my artifacts. I had (by mistake perhaps) installed them all permanently, so I flew all 7 of the craft back to an equipment dock and uninstalled all their equipment, and recovered all their crew for re-use.

After completing recovery and destroying all my extra ships to get materials back, I headed back to the wormhole... only to find it was gone. Seriously?

• Do I HAVE to fly through it immediately after opening it?
  
• Do I have to leave the ships w/artifacts in-place to keep the wormhole open?
  
• Is the wormhole traversable without the artifact ships in-place after I jump through it?
  
• Is it a 2-way wormhole, or a 1-way only?

Feels like this part of the quest line (the barrier) is so badly explained. Now I have to do it all over again, which will probably take me another 1-2 hours to setup and complete - and I still have no answers to questions.

[Kanaro Min]

Just figured it out the hard way. Re-opened the wormhole and flew through, did a few exploration runs to 2 races. Went back to the wormhole... it's gone.. again.

So basically you have to re-open it every time you want to cross the barrier, which requires 1) Enough ships on the outside, 2) Un-equipping all your artifacts that are in normal use at Equipment docks each time, and 3) Repeating the I-VIII asteroid process (which may or may not include a new fight with the Xsotan each opening) to get ~20 minutes of wormhole time. Ugh. Feels like going to the dentist!

I'll check back every now and then for new patches, but at this point the tedium wins - I can't play with this much of it. Hopefully that feedback is helpful.

[Cy]

dont see the issue here. stay inside barrier get avorion. build avorion hyperspace block and travel in and out just like that. Why should a portal that is meaned to function with the artifacts close to them keep functioning once you have removed them?

[Kanaro Min]

See, that's more of an issue with the game's documentation. There's an Avorion Hyperspace block that jumps over the barrier? How would anyone that hasn't researched the game on forums and wikis know that there is a way to bypass the barrier that doesn't involve an hour or more work each time?

I consider myself a pretty savvy gamer for the most part. Been gaming seriously since the early 90's. Single player, multiplayer, modding, running servers, etc. There was -no- clue (since I didn't care to try and read *everything* on the web about Avorion, spoiling it all before I played it) anywhere in-game about this. I suppose I could have gone into the editor and started inventorying all the Ogonite/Avorion blocks, but would that have even told me that the Avorion type Hyperspace block bypasses the barrier? Who knows.

I enjoyed my time in Avorion thus far, despite it being a wander around in the dark type sandbox. There were quite a few frustrating moments, trying to figure things out.. where to go, what to do, and so on. But now with the barrier it's a matter of actually stopping player movement until they figure this particular key out. And for gamers that don't like to read every spoiler they can find.. it's unbelievably frustrating.

I've read as many spoilers as I'm going to - I don't care to have "played the game without playing it" anymore. I'll let it sit for now, perhaps come back later if/when it gives the player more information so spoilers aren't necessary.

The intent of my post was to give the developers information on what players are thinking when this happens, and where the frustration comes from.

[Tekk]

Originally posted by Kanaro Min:

I consider myself a pretty savvy gamer for the most part. Been gaming seriously since the early 90's.

Then you should absolutely be used to having to explore in a game like this. There used of be tuns of hidden rules and mechanics that you wouldn't find in manuals and couldn't find online, since the web really wasn't that widespread back in the 90's to early 2000's

[Kanaro Min]

Exploring is one thing. Discovering hidden game mechanics is another.

Being locked behind a barrier, separated from your fleet and stations, with no idea how to return to them with your flagship... and no in-game hints, story, campaign, missions, etc to explain why you can't is a bit much.

Anyway, Avorion is on the shelf for now until it's much, much more finished.

[Cy]

I agree with Kanaro Min about the lack of documentation / information. The gate should stay open for a period of time after it was activated the part about avorion hyperspace blocks should be included in it's information.

@Tekk there is a difference between core mechanics and hidden knowledge / mechanics which you can use to your advantage once you discover it. I don't know if avorion hyperspaceblocks can be considered hidden mechanics since at some point every player will stumble upon that ressource and will use it.

Keep in mind there is a lot to learn in this game. In the past games handled it with well made and detailed tutorials such as a good guideline. In addition hardly any game of the past was as complex as Avorion.

That said both of you are right. None of us should generalice the arguments and relate them to the Ancient gates & hyperspace jumps.

[SixtyToZero]

Oh yes the wormhole do close after a set time period when one or more key ships move out and deactivates the asteroid they are sitting on. I usually let the 8 key ships sit tight until i can get hold of avorion ore, or set up some stations in the sector, repair, resource, research [for the xstn-2 and tech37 turrets] and even an equipment depot.