Tips, hints, and tricks for newbies

This guide goves over some of the basics needed to know things for when you start out in Avorion, and a few things that will help you out later on.

This guide is outdated. There have been a lot of updates since this guide was made, and it's been a long time since I played. There may still be some usable tips in this though.

In this helpful list of things we have
- The basics in build menu: Going over what different options do, and the save ship menu.
- Tips on building, and crew/cargo transfer from ship to ship
- Crew information
- How to get more turrets:
- How to make money
- A mod

Important information about this guide.

I haven't played this game in a while. Some of the things in here might be out of date, and no longer applicable. There may still be some helpful tips here, but at this moment I can't tell you what they are.

Starting with the basics of the build menu

BUILD MENU

First off, going to go over the basic UI in build mode. I'm sure most people will know all of this, but we got to start somewhere.

First off is resizing and orientation.
Key bindings
- A: Adjusts the width of the block.
- S: Adjusts the height of the block.
- D: Adjusts the length of the block.
- W: Equally adjusts width, height, and length of the block
- R: Hold down R, and you can turn the blocks

Next we look at the options and features of the building menu

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870169189

On the left you have various settings, and options.

1. Grid: this sets your snapping. A setting at max (2) will make it easy to center an object that isn't the same size as the block you're attaching it to. Where as a setting of 0.05 will allow you to offset a block that isn't the same size, and be able to line it up easier when the default 0.5 doesn't work for you.

2. Scale: This allows you to adjust the size of the blocks (using A, S, D, & W keys). A setting of max (2) will allow you to scale things up quickly, but it isn't very good when trying to aline the edges of blocks. Where as a setting of 0.05 gives you much more control over the size of your block, and makes it easier to aline edges. (Note: The system doesn't always adjust exactly 0.05. Sometimes it's ever so slightly off, and when building very large ships that slight offset can lead to gaps between blocks).

3. Local Grid: In this option you have a local grid which gives you a snapping when placing blocks.
--Other options in the dropdown list--
-Global Grid: This as far as I can tell works in much the same way as Local Grid.
-Block Middle: Automatically snaps your block along the central axis of the block you are attaching it to, depending on what angle you are look at the block from.
-No Snap: Removes all snapping, and gives complete positioning of the block to the player.

4. No Mirroring: Self explanatory, it doesn't mirror anything.
--Other options in the dropdown list--
- X Mirror: Mirrors the block your placing to the other side of the X (left/right) axis from where you're placing it.
- Y Mirror: Mirrors the block your placing to the other side of the Y (Top/bottom) axis from where you're placing it.
- Z Mirror: Mirrors the block your placing to the other side of the Z (Front/back) axis from where you're placing it.

5. Safe Mode: Prevents you from deleting blocks that might cause other blocks to be deleted, as well is prevents you from deleting the core block.

6. Match block: Auto adjusts 2 of the dimensions of your block to match the block you are attaching it to. The 3rd dimension can be adjusted freely.

7. Match Shape: Auto adjusts the block to be in a position that matches up with the block you're attaching it to. This isn't perfect though, and sometimes doesn't work.

8. Randomized mode: Quickly cycles the green shape of your block through random sizes.

Below those are 15 squares, listed from left to right, then top down.
- Blank Block: shows you which color you currently have selected
- Select Block: Selects a block
- Select Blocks by drawing frame: Click and hold, then drag your mouse to create a square. Once the square fully covers a block it will be highlighted. Keep dragging to select more blocks at once.
- Transform block: This allows you to transform a block, whether you're wanting to change material, or shape, or change a generator to a energy container, or crew quarters, or what ever. First select the block you want, then click this option, then click the block you wish to change. It won't just change the material, but the entire block. Be sure you have the correct block selected when you go to transform.
- Merge selected blocks: Once you have a group of blocks selected, click this and it will merge the blocks that can be merged together. It won't merge blocks that are different sizes, or positioned differently, or different colors. This helps reduce the number of blocks your ship has, and helps the game run smoother. Should periodically merge blocks while building.
- Delete: deletes a block, you can also delete by pressing the Delete key
- Undo: Undoes the last action you took, and will keep undoing up to the first action you made after entering build mode.
- redo: redoes the last action you undid
- Repair ship: repairs your ship
- move Mirror to selection: When you have a block selected, you click this to move the mirroring to it. This will allow you to mirror things with your selected block as the center instead of the whole ship.
- Focus: Once a block is selected, click this or press F to move the focus point of the camera to the selected block. Only way to really move your camera around your craft while building, and have good camera angles is by focusing on different blocks. Focusing on a block will not change the mirror position.
- Choose color: Choose the color you wish to paint with. The color will show up in the first square of this list, and while the color is selected any blocks you put down will be of that color.
- Open Predefined shapes: The game has some shapes that you can use with out having to edit a block yourself. Personally though, I have never touched this.
- Open Block stats: This opens a little menu which shows the stats of the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis of your block. You can use this to make a block exactly the size you want/need it to be before placing it. Once placed though, it doesn't seem to adjust the size (hasn't for me anyways).
- Save Ship: Allows you to save your ship.

Save Ship Menu

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308539

This is where you can view/select your saved ships. The game has an auto-save feature, and from time to time that menu will be filled up with saved ships. There doesn't seem to be a way to turn off the auto-save, so unless you like a cluttered menu, you'll be deleting saved-ships from time to time.


Options are from left to right
- Save ship: Saves your ship
- Delete: Deletes a saved ship, you can also use the Delete key
- To Clipboard: This will allow you to use Ctrl+V and past a ship in. You can also use Ctrl+C when a block, or group of blocks are selected, then use Ctrl+V to past the block, or block group somewhere.
- Apply Plan: This allows you to instantly apply a saved ship's plan to your current ship. Select the ship you want, then click apply plan, and it will turn your ship into another ship. If you are in a built ship already, it will replace it with the ship you selected to apply

Building your ship

There are 7 types of resources in Avorion.
-Iron: Is the first resource you'll come across. It's heavy, but gets the job done. This resource is found on the outskirts of the galaxy.
-Titanium: Will be the second resource, one which you will want to rush as soon as you can. This resource is found near the outskits of the galaxy.
-Naonite: Is the third resource, and lighter than Titanium, as well as granting access to better engines, and what not. This resource starts to pop up about 20-25% of the way towards the center from the outskirts.
-Trinium: Is the fourth resource, and makes the lightest blocks in the game. This resource starts to appear near the half way point between the center, and edge of the galaxy.
-Xanium: Will be the fifth resource. It's stronger than Trinium, but weighs more. The tech components give more of aboost though. This resource starts to show up near the barrier that circles the center of the galaxy.
-Ogonite: Is the sixth resource, and is stronger than Xanium, as well has giving access to better tech blocks. This resource is found on the other side of the barrier which surrounds the center.
-Avorion: Avorion is the seventh, and last resource. It's the strongest resource for building with, and is second in lightest weight next to only Trinium. Making a hyperspace core with this material will let you jump across rifts in space. This resource can be found in the center of the galaxy.

You built yourself a large ship huh?

So you built yourself a large ship that requires hundreds of crew members.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308628

There are several options to populate a ship that needs a large crew.

Option 1.
Go from station to station hiring the people you need. The benefit with this is that you can hire not only standard crewmen who are untrained, but trained crewmen as well. Trained crew men can count towards extra work. So where as 1 untrained crewmen can only handle 1 workload. A trained crewman can handle 1.5, 2, 2.5, or more. So if you had a ship that needed 100 engineers, you could have 100 untrained crew in that position and pay 15,000 credits to them, or potentially 25 trained crewmen that can handle 2.5 workload, and only have to pay 3,750 to them.

Option 2.
Go to a shipyard, and construct a ship that contains the necessary crew. Then transfer them to the ship you want them on.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308737

Problem with this though is that there currently isn't a mass transfer button. Not unless you download a mod. With out the mod you'll be forced to transfer the crew 1 click at a time. This can be a huge hassle, especially if you have hundreds of crew members that need transferring.

Option 3.
1. Go into the ship you got from the shipyard and into build mode.
2. Place a thin block (I usually use frame work) that extends out to the side of your ship.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308852
3. Open the saved ships menu.
4. Select the ship you want the crew on, then click "To clipboard".
5. Attach your ship to the end of the long stick.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308784
6. Start to delete the old ship. Do it slowly though in sections, and be sure you have Safe Mode turned off. If you try to delete the entire ship all at once, you may end up destroying the entire thing.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308998

And that's how you switch over the crew of a ship with out hundreds of clicks.

But wait, what if you don't want your ship made out of Titanium. Instead you want to use the Trinium you now have? Same process, just with an extra few steps.

Steps
1. Once you have clicked "To Clibboard", press Ctrl+V
2. Click the + box at the end of the block selection bar at the bottom of the screen
3. In the top right corner of the menu that popped up is a drop down menu for Template Material.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871289923

4. Choose the material you want to use, and close the menu. Then carry on with step step 5 from the previous instructions.

Crew your ship!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308569
This is your crew list. From the top down you have

Finding Crew
Usually to find crew when starting out, all you need to do is go to a station (any station). interact with it and go down to "Hire Crew". This will bring up a list of the crew members the station has to offer. Different stations may have more choices, while others may be limited. Crew generation for stations is random. Once the station is created after you enter the sector, that station will always have the same choices for crew though.

- Crewmen: These are a untrained workforce. Their numbers don't count against you for need of officers. You could have a million of them, and you wouldn't need an officer.

--Employed Crew--

- Engineers: You need these guys so your ship can move forward, and have a decent speed, and energy to power everything. They keep your ship working.
- Gunners: They make your guns go pew-pew
- Miners: These little guys use your mining, and salvage turrets
- Mechanics: You need these guys to fix your ship when it's broken. They help to regenerate health, but won't fix a part of your ship that has blown up. You'll need to go into build mode and click "Repair ship" or visit a ship yard.
- Pilots: You will need these guys when you reach a point where you can equip a hanger to your ship. You will need to visit equipment stations to buy fighters for them to pilot.
- Security: These guys help keep your ship safe from enemies boarding it. Well, they would if that was in the game, but it's not yet.
- Boarders: These guys will board enemy ships. Well, they would if that was in the game, but it's not yet.

--Officers--

Officers can sometimes be hard to find. For Sergeants and Lieutenant you can assign untrained crew to them. For commanders, Generals, and Captains you will have to go searching for them if you wish to pick up them up from a station. Sometimes these officers can be hard to find, sometimes though you may get lucky and find them all in 1 station.

- Sergeants: You need 1 of these for every 10 crewmen that are employed in one of the positions just mentioned.
- Lieutenants: You need 1 of these for every 3 Sergeants.
- Commander: You need 1 of these for every 3 Lieutenants.
- General: You need 1 of these for every 3 Commanders.
- Captain: These guys will pilot a ship for you. This allows you to make a fleet that will in theory follow you around, or do your bidding. I say in theory, because sometimes they can be a bit "special" and derp out.

How to get more turrets

Every ship you make starts off with 1 unarmed turret, 1 armed turret, and 1 all turret as standard features. This comes up on the screen as 2 armed turret slots, and 2 unarmed turret slots. If you add 2 armed turrets, you use up the armed turret slot, and the all turret slot, leaving you with 1 available slot for the unarmed. It's the same if you did it the other way with using 2 unarmed turrets (Mining/salvage)

To get more turrets you will need a tech. There are 3 techs that increase turret slots.

1. A-TCS: Increase all turret slots.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871445646
These turret slots are shared though. Say you equip a +3 all turret tech, it will say you have 5 armed, and 5 unarmed turret slots. If you equip 5 armed turrets, you will use up the 1 standard armed turret, the 1 all turret, and the 3 all turret tech slots leaving you with 1 slot for unarmed. It's the same if you did it the other way with using 5 unarmed turrets, you'd then only be able to equip 1 armed.

2. M-TCS: Increase Armed turret slots.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308366
If all you have is a +3 armed turret tech, your stats would show +5 armed turrets, +2 unarmed.

3. C-TCS: Increase unarmed turret slots.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308411
If all you have is a +3 unarmed turret tech, your stats would show +2 armed turrets, +5 unarmed.

4. XSTN: Each of these legendary techs adds +5 All turrets. You get them from completing certain objectives
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=872313661

How to make money

--Making money--

Making money can start out a bit rough, but it has a curve to it. The more you make, the easier it is to make even more. With these tips though, starting out making money won't be all that difficult for you. There are a few things you'll need to be successful how ever.

1. Radar Upgrade: This will make yellow blips appear on your map, especially if you find a tech with a "Deep scan". These yellow blips mark sectors with mass (though sometimes they end up being empty space). These sectors are where you'll first make money.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308324

2. Object detector: This tech will tell you when there is valuable objects in the sector. Early techs (White, green, most blues) will only inform you that there is something valuable, they won't highlight anything.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308298

3. Hyperspace Upgrade: This tech will allow you to jump across more sectors. This way you won't have to make as many jumps to reach your desired destination.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290226

With these techs will greatly help you in starting out. you can find them at equipment stations. If the station doesn't have the tech, then leave galaxy and re-enter. The stations will then have a new inventory, and possibly the tech you're looking for. The 2 main ones though are the Radar Upgrade, and Object Detector. That's because you need to know where the sectors with mass are, and not all sectors with mass have valuable objects. Some are just asteroid fields only good for mining.

Once you have those things, start searching for a claimable asteroid. These asteroids are bigger than any of the others, and are usually easily spotted by just looking around.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290262

Once you find it, fly in close (less than .2 km) and text will appear "Press F to interact". Press F, then either click or press space bar to claim it.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290288
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290314

The standard options are
- Found mine: You found your own mining station on the claimed asteroid
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290338
- Sell mine: You sell the claimed asteroid to a faction in the area.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871290366
The better your standing with the faction, the more money you'll make. Even if the faction downright hates you though, a claimed asteroid is good for 20,000+ credits at the very least, and can go up to the hundreds of thousands of credits if you're in great standing.

The "Move asteroid" is part of a mod I have installed.

Another way you can make some easy money, and get some tech while doing so is by talking to military instillation. Many of them will have a "Wipe the pirates out" mission, which will usually net you in a few hundred thousand credits. There is no time limit on these missions, and you can do hit and run tactics if need be. You fly in, destroy a ship, then high tell it away, basically kiting the pirates around till they are all dead (that's how I did it at first). Be careful doing this though, the tech they drop won't stay around forever.

Once you have a decent amount of money, you can then really get into some BIG money making. You'll need 1 more piece of tech for this.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871308496

To open the merchant menu, you will need to click the icon that looks like a bag with coins in the top right corner of the screen. The lower techs (White/green/most blues) won't give you trade routes. They will only show you what's being sold/bought in the given sector.

Trade route
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=867249754

Some trade routes will be in the same sector, while other trade routes will be between stations in different sectors. Exotic merchant techs will show trade routes between the last 4 sectors, exceptional will show between last 2-3 sectors, and I once had a blue that showed the sector you are in. Unless the tech says "View trading offers", this menu for trade routes will always be blank.

Selling
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871326378

This menu shows what is being sold from the stations in the sector you're in. It doesn't show what's being sold in other sectors.

Buying
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871326408

This menu shows what is being bought by stations in the sector you're in. It doesn't show what's being bought in other sectors.

==WARNING!!==

Always check the buying station for what they need before you buy the goods. Sometimes the selling station will have a thousands of the good you need in stock, while the buyer only needs a few hundred. I learned this the hard way. Spent 150 million to buy 3k stock of anti-grav goods, then the station that was buying only needed 500. You can't sell what you bought from a station back to the station you bought it from (in most cases I've found).

Other tips

Don't sell your tech

Early on it probably won't be of an issue, when the tech's value is actually useful to you. So long as you follow the money making steps above, the value of gray, white, green, and most blue techs won't matter to you.

Here's why you shouldn't sell your techs though. You should take them to research centers. Stock up on ♥♥♥♥ tons of techs of all qualities. Then hit up a research center. When you put 5 into the research, it's guaranteed to give you 1 the next quality up. So if you put in 5 whites, you'll get a green back. 5 greens you'll get a blue, and so on. If you put 5 blue hyperspace upgrade techs in, you'll get a yellow hyperspace tech. It's the quickest way (imo) to get the exceptional quality techs, and i do believe the best way to get the legendary techs (purple).

Starting out you may get use to having to press space bar after the loading screen goes from "Loading" to "Press space". When the change happens, the game is fully loaded. Don't leave your computer thinking you'll be safe so long as you don't press space. You can still be killed even with the "loading screen" on. You can turn off the "press space" in the options menu, so once the loading is done it will take you right into the game.

[Nozerone]

@PetreskoBG Thanks for giving a few more tips. Unfortunately it's been so long since I've played, I wouldn't know where to begin on updating this, or even how much of the info isn't useful anymore.

[Petresko]

A couple of important ones :
- Avoid Scrapyards like the plague if you have AI-controlled salvage ships. Sending your ship into one and salvaging w/o a license can turn your ally into hostile within 5 seconds.

- Map your toggle systems to the numpad to get an edge when running away from enemies.
When running in a straight line you don't need your thrusters and inertia dampeners which consume a chunk of energy production by default.

Disabling those when idle and waiting for the hyperspace drive to recharge also helps preserve battery and you can disable hyperspace drive to run away if pirates suddenly jump you while you're charging it.

[Nozerone]

@[Crunch]RazenBrand I'm glad that this is still able to help.

[RazenBrand]

thank god, i had accidentally turned on match block and was getting pissed off

[Nozerone]

Thanks for letting me know. I'm kinda getting back into this game. Hopefully after I play for a bit I will have learned the changes since I made this guide to be able to edit it. I know I need to redo the building guide at the very least.

[Modern Mayhem]

You dont need the mod anymore... they made it that stations sell even if you are in a different sector.
Good guide though.

[Canadian Ampersand]

Another Tip-Aim away or close to the asteriod, not directly at it. I have lost 4 ships which have cost me close to a million credits early game

[Dreston]

Thanks! it was driving me nuts.

[Nozerone]

The mod link is right at the top of that section. Whether or not it's up todate I can't say. I haven't played this game in a while, so not sure of what has changed.

[Dreston]

Where is the download for the mod I am looking all over the web page!