Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.10.2.6) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.10.2.6 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Taking Inventory" update, and is a complete overhaul of the save system, tutorial system, and character creation process. It also improves piloting AI to avoid collisions better, among several other fixes.
Saves from v0.10.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
One of the more common complaints we've seen from players is that AI crashes into them too often. This typically happens when the player is in the path an AI wants to fly through.
This update adds code to the AI pilots to check for a clear path, and steer around the player if need be. And overall, this should reduce the number of AI-involved crashes the player experiences.
We also saw a number of issues reported with new players learning how the game works. The old tutorials had several gaps in them, and the character creation room players started in was a confusing concept.
This patch rewrites that entire process, starting players immediately in a GUI where they customize their characters (similar to how most other RPGs work). And once done, spawns them in a more logical setting: the dorm room they slept in on OKLG up until this point.
From there, the tutorial system guides new players through several core gameplay and UI concepts, from pausing/unpausing, through equipping items and installing equipment, to finally getting in the ship and flying it to a derelict.
Yet another major change in this update is a complete overhaul of the save system. Gone are the limited 3 save slots, in favor of unlimited saved characters. Each save game can be manually named by the player, and managed through a new save UI, which includes the ability to overwrite or delete old saves, as well as a snapshot of both their captain and the place where they last saved.
Furthermore, save files are now zipped, for an 80-90% file size reduction. And autosave frequency and max count can be adjusted in the Options screen.
Finally, there was a large list of fixes in this patch. Crew should now be able to use haul zones, zones have more customization options, and for modders, zones have some new tricks they can do.
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 v0.10.2.6 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Taking Inventory" update, and is a complete overhaul of the save system, tutorial system, and character creation process. It also improves piloting AI to avoid collisions better, among several other fixes.
Saves from v0.10.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
- Changed AI pilots to cause fewer collisions with the player.
- Changed game to start with character customization UI up. (Sink/Career)
- Changed starting spawn location to a dorm room on OKLG station.
- Changed Live Fast button to say Seek Adventure, to be clearer what it does.
- Added a new Seek Adventure random event about a poker game.
- Added code to career kiosk to show tooltip info in sidebar when mouse is over Live Fast and other choice buttons.
- Added code to age character 1 year if Seek Ship offer is refused.
- Fixed a bug that caused placeholder text to appear in career kiosk first page title/header bar.
- Fixed a bug that caused the player's mother to always appear on OKLG.
- Changed the save system to allow any number of concurrent characters, instead of just 3.
- Changed the save UI to let the user see all possible saves, name their saves, load or delete them, and see a snapshot of where that save was made.
- Changed the save system to zip save folders, reducing save file sizes by 80-90%.
- Added the ability to change autosave frequency and max amount in the Options->General page.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a null exception when loading save files.
- Changed beginning tutorial to be more comprehensive, including basic UI controls, item installation, and piloting.
- Changed objective pop-ups to have a solid background, for better legibility.
- Fixed a bug that caused objective targets to remain highlighted after the objective was removed.
- Added code to keep objective on screen a bit longer, proportional to how long the text is.
- Added several new zone categories to organize items.
- Fixed a bug that prevented AI from hauling items to designated zones.
- Fixed damage shader on cigarettes and boxes so they don't become transparent.
- Fixed OKLG cigarette butts to spawn on the floor rather than stack inside the spawned boxes.
- Changed Search for Food action to only apply in installed, undamaged fridges and when actually hungry
- Fixed a bug that could cause null exceptions when starting a new game or continuing a save after dying.
- Fixed a bug that prevented container grid from appearing if user shift-clicked an item in inventory UI and it slotted.
- Changed zones to have an owner (creator) and group (target).
- Added the ability to trigger a zone if the zone's owner or target ranks walks into it.
- Added the ability for trigger zones to execute several types of events, like launching encounters or applying interactions.
- Added the ability for a zone to delete itself upon trigger.
- Added column headers to zones UI, and made it a bit taller to see more rows.
- Fixed a bug in ship editor so zones UI draws over the ship editor name/model/year fields.
- Added code to optionally cue music by tag in interactions.
One of the more common complaints we've seen from players is that AI crashes into them too often. This typically happens when the player is in the path an AI wants to fly through.
This update adds code to the AI pilots to check for a clear path, and steer around the player if need be. And overall, this should reduce the number of AI-involved crashes the player experiences.
We also saw a number of issues reported with new players learning how the game works. The old tutorials had several gaps in them, and the character creation room players started in was a confusing concept.
This patch rewrites that entire process, starting players immediately in a GUI where they customize their characters (similar to how most other RPGs work). And once done, spawns them in a more logical setting: the dorm room they slept in on OKLG up until this point.
From there, the tutorial system guides new players through several core gameplay and UI concepts, from pausing/unpausing, through equipping items and installing equipment, to finally getting in the ship and flying it to a derelict.
Yet another major change in this update is a complete overhaul of the save system. Gone are the limited 3 save slots, in favor of unlimited saved characters. Each save game can be manually named by the player, and managed through a new save UI, which includes the ability to overwrite or delete old saves, as well as a snapshot of both their captain and the place where they last saved.
Furthermore, save files are now zipped, for an 80-90% file size reduction. And autosave frequency and max count can be adjusted in the Options screen.
Finally, there was a large list of fixes in this patch. Crew should now be able to use haul zones, zones have more customization options, and for modders, zones have some new tricks they can do.
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