Ostranauts News

[p]Hey Folks![/p][p]We have a new update (v0.14.3.21) available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.[/p][p]This is a hotfix to our "Across the System" update, which adds a new tutorial system, addresses reactor autopilot behavior, and fixes several other issues.[/p][p]Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.[/p][h2][/h2]

• [p]The game now has a more fleshed-out, modal tutorial system. It covers up to returning from visiting the tutorial derelict.[/p]

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• [p]NAV station now correctly reports remaining fuel in both torch panel and Print Status page.[/p]
• [p]Reactants are now removed more consistently with autopilot's projected use.[/p]
• [p]Autopilot will now auto-adjust the FLOW to keep reactor running smoothly.[/p]
• [p]Super fast-forward should now position ship and use fuel more accurately when exceeding trip duration.[/p]
• [p]Reactor thrust should now be consistent between autopilot and manual slider values.[/p]
• [p]Autopilot will now cancel when the reactor's temperature is too high/low, instead of when sliders change.[/p]
• [p]The NAV screen will now warn player if they are attempting to thrust while paused.[/p]

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• [p]NPC pilots will be less likely to spin back and forth, particularly at higher game speeds.[/p]
• [p]NPC pilots should be less likely to crash into their docking targets, particularly at higher game speeds.[/p]
• [p]NPC pilots will be less likely to bob forward and back mid-trip.[/p]
• [p]The game should no longer spawn excessive, unnecessary salvage pods inside the sun over time.[/p]

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• [p]It is no longer possible to get infinite skills/traits via the character creation exploit.[/p]

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• [p]AIs finding their next task should be more efficient now.[/p]
• [p]Crew should no longer be knocked down when loading a save game under thrust.[/p]
• [p]Crew should no longer be knocked down when finishing an autopilot trip with super fast-forward.[/p]
• [p]AIs will no longer run around stripping corpses for fun.[/p]

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• [p]New games will no longer spawn a fountain of blood at 0,0.[/p]
• [p]Powered items should be more CPU efficient now.[/p]
• [p]Ship brokers will no longer treat 100% restored items as damaged.[/p]
• [p]Ship brokers will no longer assess ship values incorrectly if it had precious gases in containers.[/p]
• [p]Gig Nexus lockers are now accessible all the time.[/p]
• [p]Gig Nexus will now only take items relevant to the gig when turned-in.[/p]
• [p]Floors purchased from the sundries kiosk on OKLG will no longer leak air when installed.[/p]
• [p]Items turned-in to Gig Nexus no longer become invisible ghost items in the game.[/p]
• [p]Tooltips should get stuck on screen less often.[/p]
• [p]Added some more null exception handling to address newly found cases. (E.g. pathfinding, haulers, stations, trade routes.)[/p]
• [p]Save games will no longer ignore lot items nested inside lot items, which can occasionally occur.[/p]

[p]A lot of our feedback still cites lack of a tutorial as a major barrier to enjoying the game. So we've been working on better in-game tools to help with that shortcoming. This new new tutorial system is called Ostraka.[/p][p][/p][p]When starting a new game, any tutorial-related objectives will now open a relevant Ostraka page, and pause the game so players can read it at their leisure. If the topic has multiple pages associated with it, the arrows at the bottom right will navigate those pages.[/p][p][/p][p]Players can also jump forward and backward through the chapters to review old pages or peek at new ones any time, by using the chapter navigation tools.[/p][p][/p][p]Current chapters include early game basics on OKLG, flying your ship, salvaging an example derelict, and returning to OKLG to sell goods. And we intend to add to the chapters over time. We hope the Ostraka will help new players scale the steep learning curve a bit more comfortably![/p][p]This patch also includes several changes and fixes to the reactor system. Historically, autopilot would be able to do things with the reactor that players couldn't do manually. And the fuel estimates it produced did not reflect actual fuel usage.[/p][p][/p][p]This patch addresses FLOW and CYCLE sliders to produce the same thrust both with and without autopilot, and rectifies fuel usage so autopilot's predicted fuel use matches what is actually used by the reactor. Note that autopilot is typically less fuel efficient than a skilled pilot would be![/p][p]NPC pilots also received some updates to improve their flying, as well as fixes to avoid spawning them unnecessarily. And AI workers should now be a bit more efficient in finding their next task. Powered items also had some improvements to cpu efficiency, all of which should help with performance. [/p][p]The new character "infinite skill point" exploit has finally been fixed (sorry!), and now characters will only get free skills the first career term.[/p][p]With the help of some player saves, we were finally able to find and fix the cause of some floors voiding rooms after a save/reload! It turns out this was happening whenever someone purchased floors from a different map than their ship (e.g. OKLG Sundries kiosk), and that floor was stacked in a barter zone, then later installed in a room. Typically, this appeared with the Testudo "Spring" floor types, since they were purchased more often. But this could happen with any stackable room part.[/p][p][/p][p]Finally, Gig Nexus locker behavior was also changed, so now players can access the locker at any time, and gigs will only take required items, instead of all items. And we fixed a number of other miscellaneous bugs.[/p][p]As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know how things are working for you in the new patch[/p][p]Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC[/p]

Hey Folks!

Okay, one more hotfix. This one tries to repair any brain-dead NPCs that spawned in the brief window where 0.14.3.15 was live. Our 0.14.3.16 hotfix stopped the flow of *new* NPC zombies, but couldn't fix any that broke through.

This patch will look for brain-dead NPCs, and attempt to reverse-engineer what pledges each is missing. Then it will add those.

It's still optimal to restart any games that began in 0.14.3.15, or revert any save that was played using 0.14.3.15, as that will produce the most accurate NPC training. But for those who missed these update notes, or more stubborn players ;), this will hopefully help.

As always, thanks for your patience, and for playing our games!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Hey Folks!

Just a quick hotfix here to address a bug introduced in yesterday's 0.14.3.15 patch.

It seems any newly-spawned characters in yesterday's build lacked their usual survival, reply, and other pledges after spawning. This was due to them attempting to pathfind (unnecessarily) to their pledge goals on spawn.

This patch fixes that error, so newly-spawned characters skip pathfinding when adding their pledges.

Note that if you played the game using 0.14.3.15, any newly-spawned characters will be broken. And it is best to revert to a save from before 0.14.3.15 and continue from there. (Ditto for new games started in 0.14.3.15.)

Sorry for the issues this created! That one's on me, personally.

As always, let us know if you encounter any other issues. And thanks for playing Ostranauts!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Hey Folks!

We have a new update (v0.14.3.15) available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our "Across the System" update, which addresses performance, AI issues, and modding issues, and other reported bugs.

Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Added the ability to train Business Admin skill using training manuals.
  
• Construction Engineering skill training now displays correctly in the MTT.
  
• AIs sitting in chairs should no longer forget to breathe.
  
• Non-crew NPCs should no longer attempt to do tasks assigned by the player.
  
• Captain should no longer get stuck clearing inventory space.
  
• AI-pilots should stop maneuvering now when players dock to them, avoiding catastrophic damage.
  
• Hauler ships should not loiter around station docking zones as much anymore.
  
• Police shouldn't bother with unmanned player ships anymore, and cause them to fall into gravity wells.
  
• Police should no longer abduct players on undocking if the player waits until the last minute before boarding police ship.
  
• Super fast-forward should no longer teleport player crew on other ships to stations when used.
  
• The save/load UI should now load faster when there are a large amount of save files.
  
• Performance optimization to remove redundant animator calls per-frame.
  
• Sensor lights should now turn off when they lose power.
  
• Ships can orbit planets clockwise now(!)
  
• Paperdoll helmet now hides hair, beard, and glasses that used to stick out.
  
• Modding: moved Installables (and other derived types) to be generated after all mods load, instead of after each mod.
  
• Modding: JsonPersonSpec replaced the aInteractions list with a single strLootIAAdds string.
  
• Modding: Added new console commands for summoning NPCs, teleporting, changing relationships, and advancing plots.
  
• Fixed several more situations that could result in null exceptions.
  

This update largely focuses on some AI fixes, performance and modding improvements, and some bug fixes. But first, a new training option.

Characters can now train Business Admin using manuals found/purchased in the game. This skill is used to identify item values in the MegaTooltip (MTT). Previously, this skill was only obtainable in character creation, or through hiring crew, and some players requested ways to learn it like other skills. (Also, the Construction Engineering skill should display correctly now in the MTT.)

With the help of players on our forums, Reddit, and Discord, we were able to find and fix a number of AI issues.

Some players astutely noticed many NPCs were suffocating around chairs, and some even caught them in the act. This turned out to be a timer bug that prevented the AI from renewing their pledge to refresh helmets if needed while in long-duration tasks (like sitting).

NPCs were also spotted doing player's crew tasks in some cases. And this turned out to be an incorrect filter on the task-claiming code, combined with incorrect work shift scheduling on off-duty NPCs. Both should be fixed now.

And some players noticed their captain would get stuck in a task, usually when their hands were full. (Possibly sometimes involving log messages about inability to access cigarette stubs or other junk.) This turned out to be a bug in our trigger for clearing up inventory space, which forbade players from using the final step.

Moving on to AI pilots, we've adjusted our hauler pilots' behavior to account for being too close to dock. Previously, they could get stuck loitering just outside dock for this reason, but should now dock normally.

AI pilots would also ignore when a player had docked with them, and the continued maneuvers would (in short order) destroy both ships. They should now have better self-preservation in such cases.

Police were absconding with some players when they undocked, and it turned out that this was a special case our last fix didn't cover. Namely, if the police got back to their ship, and the player was still on their own ship, the police would begin the undocking process. If the player then crossed over ships before undocking finished, both would disappear. The police will now do a final check right before undocking.

And in a related fix, AI police should no longer dock with unmanned player ships, which could cause them to get stuck and fall into planets.

Super fast-forward was causing some player-owned ship crews to disappear mid-trip, and end up teleported onto stations. This turned out to be the region clean-up code incorrectly targeting non-visible player ships when the trip crossed regions, and is now guarded against.

Turning to performance, some players with 100s(!) of save files reported that the save/load UI took ages to load, and general loading performance suffered. We've rewritten that UI to gradually load the save file list, instead of doing it all at once. And this way, the UI appears instantly, and fills over time. As a bonus, game loading times are slightly improved!

Another performance improvement involved animated characters getting reset every frame. It turns out that character animation states were being reset over and over to the same value, wasting cpu and memory each time. Fixing this has caused a slight, general in-game performance improvement.

Three other bug fixes of note involved sensors and orbits. Many sensors were apparently not turning off when power was cut, and this was due to a missing variable on them. Orbiting craft would not display orbit tracks when orbiting clockwise. This was due to a sign error that failed to detect orbits in any direction besides counter-clockwise. And the paper doll hair/beard/glasses could clip through the helmet, so that mask was adjusted to avoid this glitch.

Finally, we have a few changes that may interest modders.

First (and most significantly), our mod-loading order was adjusted to make all derived types (most notably, installables) generate after all mods are loaded, instead of after each mod. This should allow modders to make changes to installables without losing Quick Action Button options on them.

We also changed the JsonPersonSpec type's aInteractions list with a single strLootIAAdds string. This new field is looking for a single loots.json name, and that Loot is now how the list is generated. This allows randomized loot, or shared loot types between PSpecs, for easier maintenance. Also notable is that the list of interactions will now execute immediately after the character is spawned, instead of waiting for their first chance to act.

We also added a few new console commands, which you can learn about via the "help" command

As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know how things are working for you in the new patch

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Hey Folks!

We have a new devlog today! Plus an update (v0.14.3.14) is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly. This devlog covers the the last two months of updates including the pathfinding overhaul, ship AI, population fixes and more. You can watch here or on the Kitfox Youtube:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As for the patch, this is a hotfix to our "Across the System" update, which addresses a number of more general bugs and errors players have uncovered, ranging from ship teleportation and ignored collisions to null errors in the UI.

• Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
  
• General Changes
  
• Ships should no longer teleport to strange places if the user is holding WASD keys while the NAV UI is loading.
  
• Ships without the captain on them now correctly detect collisions when player is flying them.
  
• Pathfinders should once again be able to cross from one ship to another when both origin and destination are outside the ship.
  
• The game should no longer refuse to drop a stackable item onto a container with both empty space and viable other stacks.
  
• The game should no longer throw errors when an item on the cursor is swapped for another item, and then that item is dropped onto a container containing compatible stacks.
  
• Crew members are now correctly removed from the player's company roster when they die on remote ships, avoiding null exception errors when using the hotkey to switch to other crew.
  
• HUD physiological stat bars no longer throw null exceptions if there is a problem with the person they represent.
  
• Using F5 or Autosave will no longer interrupt a save already in process, which could cause errors.
  
• A number of loose items which previously did not highlight with the highlight interactables hotkey should now correctly highlight.
  
• Fixes for several typos and redundant entries in the game data.
  

Two of the bigger fixes in this patch involve ship flight. In one case, the ship could be piloted while the NAV controls were loading, causing the ship to teleport across the System. And in another case, ships piloted by crew could ignore collisions as long as the captain wasn't around. Both of these should be patched now!

Another significant issue involved pathfinding across ships. If the crew was floating outside ship A, they would report that they could not reach the exterior of ship B. This turned out to be a logical error in detecting when a room is reachable from another room, and should also be fixed.

The next several errors were the result of missing items and crew. In some cases, swapping and dropping various items could lead to cases where an item was incorrectly placed or throws an error, often causing unusual behavior or soft locks. In other cases, crew would still remain in the player's company roster even if they died in a destroyed ship.

In all cases, the game would stumble over these missing or incorrect references, but should now be better guarded from them.

One player noticed that it was possible to F5 autosave while the game was already saving, which could cause errors. So we added some code to ensure user-triggered saves could safely interrupt a save in process, and to avoid autosaves from interrupting.

Lastly, we had a few typos in the game which caused incorrect highlighting or redundant data, so those were fixed.

As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know how things are working for you in the new patch

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC