Recent reviews by Qox

What is it?

Put Minecraft and war in a box, let them make a child and From the Depths comes out as a child.

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It is the U L T I M A T E warfare sandbox if you like

* simulation of semi realistic rigid body physics and semi realistic aerodynamics
* simulation of semi realistic damage. Not on the level of ARMA game but every block is damaged individually, so no BS handling like in RPGs with only one life bar value
* simulation of motors (they consume fuel and convert it to useful energy/motion) of various kinds (combustion, steam)
* simulation of weapons (turrets, cannons, missiles, nukes)

* building things from scratch
* configuring the "AI" of the ship

and if you like to build the following vehicles:
* ship
* hovercraft
* satellite
* fighter jet
* jet propelled drone
* tank
* helicopter
etc. and everything inbetween

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realism: The simulation is not very realistic. The ships and flying vehicles seem to be made of paper which flies away easily because of wrong scaling of the world and forces and because of wrong calculations of airodynamics. It is for the same reason also to easy to get into "space" (everything above "4km" of height) for the same scaling reasons.

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bugs:

also dont mind the following bugs which are since years in the game
* not able to place blocks of advanced cannons for no obvious reason, just exit build mode with wood block selected, enter it again, select the correct block for advanced cannons, continue
* not able to place blocks in the tutorial for no obvious reasons, fix is probably just to exit the game and enter the tutorial again from the start menu

also dont mind the following bug
* sound of gun turret aiming is delayed by 2 seconds or so, which is somewhat annoying if aimed manually

Start with nothing and build a huge fleet. Oh you get a sandbox on top of that.

The game focusus on close combat dog-fighting like many space games. Like it or hate it.

In mid game this transitions to a more stategic playstyle. Homeworld was a inspiration of this part of the game.

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Additionally we get a sandbox mode where the player can spawn ANY known object/ship with any faction. I love it!

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One review mentioned that a big downside to this game is it's lack of sound design. If one destroys a ship then not much is heard.
I LOVE it!
Let me explain why! Sound is transmitted with a medium such as air but empty space lacks air (else it wouldn't be space right?). So what does this mean? It means that we don't hear sound from anything outside of the ship!
It makes the game more realistic. I love realism.

Generally fire sounds of the controlled ship are muffled, adding more realism.


Graphics is in 3d with cell shading of simple models. It's fine!


Physics is solved with a semi newtonian flight model with a upper speed limit of the ship. It's not the most realistic setting but it's fine for such a game which is focused on dog-fighting.

How to cook up Avorion?

we take

* a bit of EVE-online(combat, space flight mechanics, surival),
* a bit of X series (building factories),
* a bit from the RPG DNA(ship has turret modules which can be found and mounted on the ship),
* a bit from Minecraft (the ship can be built and modified from the ground up using fine grained blocks)

put it into a open world survival setting and put it all into a mixer and we pretty much get Avorion.

I like the game overall, even if it has rough edges and gets boring and grindy at times.

Synth sounds great.

+ great sound
+ great presets, there are some ambient scifi pads, some drum and bass presets, etc.
+ runs as VST plugin in Ableton 9 just fine

+ great bullet physics simulation
+ good graphics
+ scripting is possible

some minor technical negative points
- wasn't able to script vehicle AI and give vehicle control instructions (drive left, right, forward, backward)
- buggy unrealistic rigid body physics

I am a superbig fan of Space-SIM's but this game is still to bugged.

Had problems with a crashing game in the first Mission/Tutorial months ago.
Today I replayed the stupid mission and couldn't finish it because I was ahead of the recommended actions of the tutorial - the result is that it was stuck even tho the tanker was kissing the to be tanked vehicle.

Will try this stupid mission soon

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Edit from 28.12.2021

I didn't encounter any bugs in the first few missions and I still like space games and the physical realism, thumbs up

This is a most of the time relaxing game.

It has a good mechanics for leveling your character to unlock higher payed/better tasks.

The graphic is great and quite enjoyable.

One downside is that the AI drives like on rails and is generally stupid (doesn't react naturally, drives very crips, etc).

This game is a realy fun simulator, a must for all space sim fans.