Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Update v0.14.3.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our "Across the System" update, with fixes for some additional AI helmet, pathing, and install/hauling issues found this week.

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.

• AI will stop putting suit and helmet on for tasks that don't require it. (Fixes more edge cases.)
  
• AI will no longer (un)install items from very far away if they were interrupted and AUTOTASK was reenabled.
  
• AI will no longer install/repair items without supplying ingredients if they were interrupted and AUTOTASK was reenabled.
  
• AI will no longer wander to airless rooms on the current ship, looking for safety, if the only safe air room is on a docked ship.
  
• Loading a save file with delivery/feed item tasks will no longer produce task icons that cannot be fulfilled.
  
• Right clicking to dismiss PDA orders "paint mode" will no longer click-through and select the tile below
  

While patch 0.14.3.1 fixed several AI helmet behaviors, it missed one situation where the AI would spawn new hauling tasks, only to find those tasks already existed. And it interpreted that as a failure due to traversing an airlock. This bug would mostly happen later in the game, when AI resumed older tasks.

This hotfix addresses that case, and we should now see fewer AIs putting helmets on while remaining inside the ship.

There was also a related bug or two which could appear if an AI was interrupted during a longer task like installs or repairs (often after a save/reload). When it went to resume that task, it would skip delivering input items to the job and/or do the job from too far away. This, too, should now be fixed.

A different bug was found when AI was frantically trying to find a room with air to refresh their helmet, but the nearest room was on another docked ship. It would seemingly run randomly around the current ship several times before trying the docked ship. This should now be resolved, except in some cases where the ships are too large for the pathfinder to efficiently search.

Lastly, a minor UX issue was fixed, whereby right-clicking to finish painting PDA tasks would also select the tile below the cursor. This will now correctly ignore that first click.

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

Hey Folks!

Update v0.14.3.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a feature update to our recently released "Across the System" update, with significant upgrades to the AI's handling of helmets, airlocks, hygiene, defecation, and work prioritization.

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.

• AI can now only open airlocks when they have permissions and are wearing helmets, except emergencies.
  
• Captains can additionally walk outside without a helmet if they have permission, and the player ordered them manually to walk outside.
  
• AI should now only put a helmet and suit on immediately before they go outside, instead of randomly when pondering tasks.
  
• AI should now wear both a suit and helmet before going outside, instead of just a helmet.
  
• AI should now be smarter about refreshing their helmets safely, and will not drop them on the floor anymore.
  
• AIs should now remember their survival skills after a save/load when their name was changed during character creation.
  
• AI work priorities can now be fully set on the Roster and Duties UIs.
  
• AI AUTOTASK repairing, patching, and restoring now honors priority settings on the Duties UI.
  
• AI should no longer try to use the toilet when they cannot go.
  
• AIs can now successfully use the toilet while wearing a suit.
  
• AI will now only choose to freshen up if they are dirty.
  
• Only human intervention will allow AIs to freshen up with water now.
  
• AI shouldn't claim they cannot do a task immediately before doing it anymore.
  
• AI shouldn't cut through corners anymore when rounding them, causing them to suffocate inside the wall.
  

• There is a new tutorial for when the player's helmet air becomes fouled the first time.
  
• Cycling between crew on different ships will no longer cause ships to vanish.
  
• Ship crew no longer lose their assigned shifts in the first hour after loading a save.
  
• Emptying cargo pods no longer spawns infinite loot inside.
  
• Super Fast-Forward no longer allows studying or exercise training while unconscious.
  
• Freshen Up action is now usable on water containers, as well as the water itself.
  
• PDA and inventory UIs now slide in at realtime speeds, instead of fast-forward/slow speeds.
  
• Severe burns received during character creation is now correctly set to chronic burn scar.
  
• Several typo and other wording fixes.
  

Today's update includes a pretty significant reworking of how AI handles airlocks, helmets, work, and their personal needs.

Players have long reported issues with the AI seemingly putting their helmets on for no reason, forgetting to take them off, dropping them on the floor, and worst of all, spacing themselves unexpectedly while performing other tasks.

Part of this stems from the way our pathfinding code worked. The pathfinding code was trying to be smart, and making decisions about airlocks and helmets, and this was often at odds with the thing the AI or player was trying to do. So we pulled all of that decision-making code out of pathfinder and put it up near where the AI was deciding what to do instead.

Now, the pathfinder code merely tells the requesting AI if it can do the path and how, or else why it couldn't. And the AI decides from there what to do about it.

We also tightened-up the graphics on lev- just kidding! We tightened-up the airlock permissions matrix to be more rigorous about what is allowed vs. not. And in most cases now, AI will only use airlocks if they have both permission and a suit plus helmet.

Emergencies (like suffocation) will override permissions temporarily, and there's one case where the AI will go through an airlock without a helmet if the player directly orders them to go to a spot outside. (Also intended for emergencies.)

Adding on to that, the AI behavior for finding a helmet and suit got an upgrade, and you should begin seeing AIs grab their suits first, and then helmet, before heading outside.

We've noticed many new players could also use a bit of help with helmet discipline, so we've added a new tutorial that appears the first time your helmet's air becomes fouled. It will instruct the user to find a safe room to refresh their helmet, since this is not necessarily intuitive to anyone who might be used to suits with O2 systems.

While we were in the code for work tasks vs. airlocks, we finally had a chance to circle back to the long-ignored Duties UI. Some players may not have even known it was there!



This UI lets the player prioritize certain types of tasks. It previously included some categories that made no sense or were unavailable, while missing some others that would help with granularity.

When the player adds new tasks via the PDA, and an AI is in AUTOTASK mode (at the bottom of the HUD, next to the crew portraits), AI will look at this chart when deciding what to do next. They'll look at the row with their name, and first do all 1s, then 2s, 3s, and finally 4s. And they'll read them left to right.

So in the above image, Madelyn will prioritize repairs over all else, then proceed with Operating (toggling switches, opening doors, etc.), Patching, Constructing, Restoring, Demolishing (and Scrapping, Dismantling), and finally Hauling.

Meanwhile, Naomi will prioritize Construction tasks. And Ashley will be a Hauler above all else.

You can get to this UI via the Roster UI, by clicking the bumper on the right, like so:



Note that the RESTORE PARTS toggle on this Roster UI also uses the same Duties priorities.

Separate from all of the above, the AI behaviors around hygiene and defecation should now be more under control, too. We curbed some of their excessive use of those actions, and made it easier to do for the player in some other cases.

One pair of subtle, but troublesome bugs also contributed to weird AI behavior in the past.

The first issue was that any character that was renamed during character creation lost all of their basic AI behaviors as soon as a save/load happened. This was due to the behaviors being assigned by name when the character was spawned, but not having that name updated later.

The second issue was that crew shifts were not being reassigned when the game was loaded from a save, until the next hour had passed. So for the first hour after loading a save, AI would frequently behave as if on free time.

We also had a chance to fix a few more general bugs. Cycling to crew on other ships was causing ships to vanish. Emptying cargo pods would cause them to spontaneously spawn new contents. Super fast-forward would report impossible activities. All of the above should be working normally again.

And we're not done yet! We also have some work planned to improve the starting tutorials, AI food/water usage, performance optimization, etc. All of this will be coming in future patches.

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

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.13 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, which fixes unowned ships after character creation, and ship editor nulls when clicking Crew Sim.

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.

• Using Work On Self right before choosing a starting ship will not longer make that ship unowned.
  
• Clicking Crew Sim within Ship Editor will no longer produce errors if the ship had no breathable rooms.
  

Just a quick hotfix today to address the main issue of characters starting the game without their ships owned or mortgaged.

It turns out our new Work On Self page could introduce a ship ownership bug if you used it right before choosing a ship. (Using Seek Adventure after Work On Self is a work around.)

Today's hotfix addresses that bug, and you should once again be able to complete character creation and end up owning a ship, even if you use Work On Self right at the end. (Note that certain events can still result in unowned ships. E.g. the gambling one)

The other fix is for the Ship Editor, which could throw errors if the user tried to use Crew Sim and the ship had only airless tiles. This should once again be working normally.

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

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.12 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, which adds several long-requested character creation changes, plus fixes for AI and some other UIs.

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.

• Terry's MopTops mod is now officially part of Ostranauts! This adds dozens of new hairstyles and beards.
  
• Sink UI now has indicators for which face part is currently selected, and how many others are available.
  
• Character will now show teeth when changing teeth selection in the sink UI.
  
• Sink UI's hand skin will now change with updated skin type.
  
• Players can now select multiple skills and traits at the same time in the career kiosk (like NEO Scavenger did).
  
• Ugly/Beautiful and Trusting/Suspicious are now correctly anti-traits of each other.
  
• Log no longer spams messages about losing and gaining Shipbreaker career each year.
  
• The young adult threshold range was changed so most players won't encounter it until 20, instead of 19.
  
• Laser torch and hoodie item loot in Seek Adventure is now delivered to the player.
  
• Items should have fewer invisibly-blocked inventory grid spaces now.
  
• Disassembling or destroying items in stacks should cause fewer bugs now.
  
• AI shouldn't choose void tiles as wander destinations anymore.
  
• AI shouldn't spam anti-nausea pills anymore if they are not nauseous.
  
• Crew is now able to access the player's residence via transit.
  
• Alarm/sensor triggering no longer causes them damage, which should make them last longer.
  
• Door lock UI should correctly detect the user's hacking skill now, even if not the captain.
  
• Door lock UI should now alert the user there is no power when they attempt to hack an unpowered door.
  
• The PDA Order toggle buttons should now look more like toggles.
  
• The PDA Install and Order buttons now have a rollover effect.
  
• Damaged FURN items should no longer be in PDA install list.
  
• Unused floating text items were removed from the game, for better performance.
  
• Autopause now ignores more cases that were unimportant/redundant.
  
• Old ledger items and late fees are now consolidated into fewer lines, for better performance.
  
• All payable ledger items are now always visible on the current shift page.
  

One of the more exciting changes in this update is the inclusion of the MopTops mod! We reached out to Terry to officially purchase rights to use his hair and beard designs in the game, and players can now enjoy a much wider range of possible styles.

While we were in there, we also added a few other tweaks to the sink UI that folks have been asking for. Individual parts now show the current ID and total available, to help find the same one again later. The character will now expose their teeth when changing that setting. And the hand will update color with the rest of the skin changes.

In the career editor, we finally restored the skill/trait selection page to the multi-buy style it originally had (and like NEO Scavenger's). Now, players can "buy" skills and traits using years of training, and some negative traits can help offset that cost.

However! Note that buying skills and traits this way is often more costly than using Seek Adventure, where each event only costs 1 year. The trade-off is that Seek Adventure is a bit more random, and can come with a mix of positives and negatives. But it is usually a net positive, and also may reward you with money or contacts, the latter of which you cannot get any other way except later in-game.

We also (finally!) fixed the missing item loot on some career events.

We fixed a few item-related bugs that were causing either invisibly-blocked grid spaces and/or null exceptions. These were often when manipulating items in stacks or installing stackable items like conduits.

AI should now be smarter about choosing wander destinations, by only choosing tiles with breathable atmosphere. This should also help some cases where AI spawned in the void. AI also got some extra help in avoiding slamming down anti-nausea pills "just for fun." Crew can also now use transit to reach the player's residence(s).

The door lock UI had some slight changes to it to help new users who access it on unpowered doors. And alarms/sensors should no longer be damaged when they trigger, making them last much longer in rooms like the reactor chamber.

The PDA Order and Install UIs had some reskinning done, particularly to the toggles for filtering orders. They should now look and behave more like buttons. And some redundant FURN items were removed from the Install menu.

Finally, some changes to the ledger and other areas of the game should hopefully make things perform better, and run a bit smoother.

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

Hey Spacers,

It’s Alexandra from Kitfox again with another Ostranauts Community update. First and foremost, we’ve been working with the dev team to make a more detailed Roadmap which outlines the updates you can expect between now and 1.0 release. Thanks to all your support, we’ve been able to extend development and add Hardening Phase 1 and 2 and much more. We also have plans for future updates after 1.0. We don’t have any release dates to share at this time and details may change as we go along. See below for an FAQ that covers our Early Access plans in more detail.



If you’ve been on the fence about getting Ostranauts, now is a great time to jump in and play! Already this year we’ve updated the game several times with user interface and new player tutorial improvements. You can read the full update and patch notes for yesterday's update here.

[h2]Steam Daily Deal Today![/h2]

As an added bonus, Ostranauts is 20% off from today starting at 10am PST/ 1pm EST till January 30th. Tell your friends, your family, your teacher… anyone who wants to explore the dangers of space travel with disastrous (and fun) results!

We also have bundled with the immersive sandbox detective stealth game Shadows of Doubt! If you own one game, you can get the other with a discount. It’s the perfect starter kit for games that have systematically simulated sci-fi worlds. Check out the Shadows of Ostranauts bundle:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47261/Shadows_of_Ostranauts/

[h2]Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode Launch[/h2]

Today we are releasing Adventure Mode for Dwarf Fortress, a sandbox RPG that allows you to form a party and explore your generated world. It’s a completely new way to play Dwarf Fortress and it’s also on sale starting today (at 10am PST/ 1pm EST) at 20% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/

[h2]FAQ[/h2]

Q: Why Early Access?

A: We want Ostranauts to become a storytelling platform for space crews in a dystopian System. It's a tall order to fill, and fan feedback has been, and will continue to be, a crucial part of achieving that goal.

Ostranauts is very much a spiritual sequel to Blue Bottle Games’s previous game NEO Scavenger. NEO Scavenger famously held a long early access period, during which the game significantly evolved based on player feedback. Ostranauts follows this precedent.

Q: Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

A: Our earlier estimate was approximately four years (late 2020-2024), with a fairly lengthy list of features/content we wanted to add, plus room to incorporate player feedback. During that time, we've been able to add most of those features, including significant improvements suggested by our players.

As we enter our fifth year, we feel confident we can add the last major feature milestone (ship-to-ship combat and fire simulation), plus the supporting content and features to make it worthwhile. Our plan includes time to work on fixing issues and quality of life concerns before we exit Early Access, which is anticipated to be in 2025.

Q: How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

A: Feel free to check out our roadmap on Steam, or on our Discord, for a complete list of what we've planned vs. finished.

But as of now (January 2025), upcoming changes players can expect by launch include:
Ship-to-Ship Combat
One More Major Solar System Location
One More Major Plot
Fire Simulation
Quality of Life and UI/UX Improvements
Performance Optimization

Q: What is the current state of the Early Access version?

A: Players can currently make a custom character, and fly their starting ship around the boneyard to explore and salvage procedurally generated derelicts. They can use the parts and/or proceeds from that to modify their own ship in any way they want, and/or buy new ships for personal use or repair and resale (a.k.a. ship-flipping).

Players can also take part in short paid missions (gigs), participate in both bespoke and procedurally generated plots, participate in ship racing leagues, or buy and sell commodities for profit (i.e. space trucker).

The game currently has the ability to hire and manage crew, personnel combat, a procedural social interaction system, gamified negotiations (a.k.a. social combat), and a detailed simulation of both social and physiological needs.

The game world consists of two major locations with fleshed-out content (OKLG and Venus), plus a range of procedurally-generated minor locations with basic services.

The game is fairly stable, with most systems experiencing occasional minor bugs. Most bugs can either be ignored or fixed by a save/reload. But some more serious bugs can occur over time, and we generally aim to fix game-breaking bugs as soon as possible.

The UI/UX of the game is functional, but can be janky in places. Most players are able to get along with it as-is, but we are still aiming to smooth out more rough edges before launch.

We regularly update the status of the build with announcements on the Steam Community Hub, as well as notes in-game. Builds tend to be multiple per month, except during some major feature pushes. And we frequently interact with players on our Discord, Reddit, and Steam forums.

Q: Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

A: It is possible the game will have an increase in price at 1.0 launch. The current price was set at Early Access launch, and the scope of the game has changed considerably since then.

Q: How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

A: Blue Bottle Games already has a reputation of directly chatting with fans across multiple platforms, including our Discord, Reddit, the Steam Forums, and our various social media accounts.

Our development team primarily uses Discord to talk with each other, so we tend to interact with fans most on there. But our interactions happen frequently on all of the above locations. And we plan to continue this level of player interaction.

-Alexandra