Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.5.7) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.5.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and includes some significant changes to new player tutorials, docking, and other quality of life enhancements, and fixes.
Note that we are still working on the next (Slots/Wounds) milestone, as well! This update is just a brief 1-week sidetrack to address several new user bugs we identified in a recent test.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
As you can see, there's a large number of quality of life changes in this build! Most are meant to help new users avoid common pitfalls we recently identified in a usability test. But a fair number are also beneficial to veterans.
One of the biggest changes this update is to the docking UI. It now shows a lot more situational info and relevant warnings, to help the user orient themselves. We think both new and veteran users will find useful things here.
We also updated the Don't Crash! paper note taped to the nav screen to be much clearer, and more up-to-date. And while there, we also upscaled all the in-game manuals to double the old resolution, for better legibility.
A new pause indicator will flash on screen when the game is paused, as a number of players didn't realize the game was paused. And in a similar fashion, we added some better visual feedback to things like clicking a new/continue save slot. (And made the clickable regions for those buttons easier to see.)
We also discovered that the game would 100% default to 1024x768 resolution on new users' PCs, which is far from a good resolution for the game. It will now attempt to choose the largest widescreen option supported by the user's monitor. And when changing resolution in the options screen, it will highlight which resolutions are the best picks for the user.
The tutorial objectives received an overhaul, as well!
The chargen tutorial is now sequential, instead of burying users in incessant objectives. There is also an extensive nav station tutorial, teaching the user about important flight controls, and targeting. This carries through to docking with the first derelict.
The objectives also now appear in front of all other UIs, so they aren't missed. Plus the PDA can now open without closing control panels.
Also, it turns out a bug prevented the user from using arrow keys on the nav screen to fly, due to them also switching control panels. This has been corrected! Shift+arrow keys is the new default keybind to swap control panels, and it can be edited in the options.
We fixed a potentially game-halting bug that happened when opening the inventory while in the trading UI, making context menu options unclickable.
And we mived the sink's skin selector button to the top, since it randomizes some features that aren't available on other skin colors. Players frequently spent time customizing all the other features, only to try a different skin color and lose all that info.
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 if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC
Ostranauts v0.9.5.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and includes some significant changes to new player tutorials, docking, and other quality of life enhancements, and fixes.
Note that we are still working on the next (Slots/Wounds) milestone, as well! This update is just a brief 1-week sidetrack to address several new user bugs we identified in a recent test.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
- Added visual indicators to docking UI for range, orientation, and offset.
- Changed docking UI text to be distributed around next to the relevant indicators
- Added Wrong Way message to docking screen when applicable.
- Added pause indicator to game's top left corner.
- Fixed a bug that caused Ostranauts to always start in fullscreen 1024x768 mode on a fresh PC.
- Added note to video options screen to prefer widescreen if possible.
- Added 'Loading...' message to save slots after user clicks one.
- Changed save slot selection buttons to be more obvious and consistent with each other.
- Changed character creation tutorials to wait until each is finished before creating new one.
- Added tutorial objective for pausing the game.
- Changed character creation tutorials to wait until each is finished before creating new one.
- Changed sink objective to complete as soon as sink is opened, instead of when clicking Done, if applicable.
- Changed nav station starting zoom to be closer.
- Added code to nav station so it remembers zoom from session to session.
- Changed docked ships so they face each other instead of same direction.
- Added nav tutorial objective for targeting OKLG.
- Added nav tutorials for CW and CCW thrust.
- Added nav tutorials for halting rotation.
- Added nav tutorial objective to change bearing to point at OKLG after QER controls.
- Added nav tutorials for rear and forward thrust.
- Added nav tutorials for left and right thrust.
- Added nav tutorial objective to target derelict.
- Added nav tutorial objective to navigate to docking range with target.
- Added nav tutorial objective to switch to docking screen.
- Added docking tutorial objective to get docking clearance.
- Added docking tutorial objective to dock with derelict.
- Changed tutorial for damage tooltips to appear after launching from chargen.
- Changed manuals to have higher resolution.
- Changed context menu buttons to have scaling text size so long names are visible.
- Fixed a bug that caused arrow keys to always switch control panels, even if user bound those keys to move the ship.
- Fixed objectives disappearing behind inventory.
- Changed nav tutorial to set tutorial conditions on user as objectives are completed, instead of all at beginning of game.
- Changed PDA so it doesn't close UI when it slides open.
- Changed PDA to appear in front of control panel instead of behind.
- Fixed a bug that allowed user to have inventory and item control panel open at same time, locking out context menu controls afterward.
- Changed sink skin selector to be at top, so users see that first (and don't lose lots of customization when doing it last).
- Fixed a bug that caused encounter UI to freeze when finishing chargen due to autosave.
- Fixed descriptions of various conditions (green wall light, purple wall light)
- Fixed typo in crackdown encounter text
- Fixed incorrect stat usage in caffeine, now uses correct StatSolidTemp
As you can see, there's a large number of quality of life changes in this build! Most are meant to help new users avoid common pitfalls we recently identified in a usability test. But a fair number are also beneficial to veterans.
One of the biggest changes this update is to the docking UI. It now shows a lot more situational info and relevant warnings, to help the user orient themselves. We think both new and veteran users will find useful things here.
We also updated the Don't Crash! paper note taped to the nav screen to be much clearer, and more up-to-date. And while there, we also upscaled all the in-game manuals to double the old resolution, for better legibility.
A new pause indicator will flash on screen when the game is paused, as a number of players didn't realize the game was paused. And in a similar fashion, we added some better visual feedback to things like clicking a new/continue save slot. (And made the clickable regions for those buttons easier to see.)
We also discovered that the game would 100% default to 1024x768 resolution on new users' PCs, which is far from a good resolution for the game. It will now attempt to choose the largest widescreen option supported by the user's monitor. And when changing resolution in the options screen, it will highlight which resolutions are the best picks for the user.
The tutorial objectives received an overhaul, as well!
The chargen tutorial is now sequential, instead of burying users in incessant objectives. There is also an extensive nav station tutorial, teaching the user about important flight controls, and targeting. This carries through to docking with the first derelict.
The objectives also now appear in front of all other UIs, so they aren't missed. Plus the PDA can now open without closing control panels.
Also, it turns out a bug prevented the user from using arrow keys on the nav screen to fly, due to them also switching control panels. This has been corrected! Shift+arrow keys is the new default keybind to swap control panels, and it can be edited in the options.
We fixed a potentially game-halting bug that happened when opening the inventory while in the trading UI, making context menu options unclickable.
And we mived the sink's skin selector button to the top, since it randomizes some features that aren't available on other skin colors. Players frequently spent time customizing all the other features, only to try a different skin color and lose all that info.
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 if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC