Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.11 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, and includes some fixes for AI behavior, UI, and various crashes/soft locks.

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.

• Putting leggings inside themselves will no longer destroy the universe.
  
• Using super fast-forward across shifts will now correctly update crew shifts when done.
  
• AI will now try to remove/refresh the air in their helmets at 1.5kPa CO2, instead of 2.0kPa.
  
• Using transit on OKLG to the Port sector will no longer deposit the character inside walls.
  
• It is no longer possible to choose ambient occlusion settings above 4, which is the max intended limit.
  
• The options to use pills and drinks, and trade with NPCs and kiosks, are all now higher in the context menu.
  
• The UI will no longer get stuck after exiting the signal connection UI if user doesn't select a target.
  
• NPCs will no longer use terminals to play games. Only arcade machines.
  
• NPCs will be more likely to limit playing games during work shifts now.
  
• NPCs will no longer watch TV during non-Free shifts, and will limit binging TV.
  

One of the more serious bugs fixed by this patch is also one of the funnier ones. Attempting to put leggings into their own pocket would cause infinite recursion, crashing the game. The game will now disallow placing items inside themselves.

The threshold for when AI decides to refresh/remove helmets was lowered to 1.5kPa, which is where the helmet CO2 alarm kicks-in. Previously, they would wait until 2.0kPa, which was cutting it too close to hazard passing out.

We also fixed the bug that prevented AI from updating their work shifts after finishing a period in super fast-forward. And tempered the AI's predilection to playing games and watching TV, even when they were supposed to be working.

We adjusted the ambient occlusion slider to max out at 4, instead of 10, which was intended to be our maximum setting. Over 4, the main visual impact it would produce is progressively slower framerate, even on high-end GPUs.

Context menu options for drinking, using pills, and trading were all adjusted to be higher priority, so they are more likely to be the first option in the list (instead of drop/pick-up).

And the signal UI will no longer get stuck with a blank screen if the user cancels out of connecting an appliance to a sensor.

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 v0.14.2.10 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, focusing on improving the new player tutorial, plus several player-reported bugs and pain points.

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.

• There is a new tutorial derelict spawned at the end of the new game tutorial sequence, guaranteeing that users get useful loot to sell on their first trip.
  
• Starting tutorial had several improvements made to wording and logic.
  
• Added a new tutorial step to remind players to hide damage overlay again after using it.
  
• The MegaTooltip UI now begins the game collapsed, with a tutorial explaining how to expand it.
  
• Destructive actions on objects are now always listed last, to avoid mis-clicks in the context menu.
  
• The Escape key will now correctly close the QAB before the inventory UI, even after the target item changes modes.
  
• Sinks will no longer display two "Restore" options.
  
• Exiting a UI with an open drop-down menu no longer soft locks left mouse button.
  
• Using PASS to visit a station for the first time no longer skips intro encounter screen.
  
• PASS will no longer take players to the LA construction zone.
  
• PASS trips will no longer double-charge upon arrival.
  
• Ledger line items will no longer get stuck unpaid in past pages due to rounding errors.
  
• Work lamps no longer operate without batteries.
  
• Thermostats and other alarms switching states should now cause less lag.
  
• The way game data jsons are loaded should now produce less memory waste.
  
• Buy/sell prices adjusted to better support flipping damaged items for profit.
  
• NAV's Match Speed function will no longer have stuck thrusters after player releases thrust keys.
  
• Undocking no longer gets stuck showing previous ship's docking ring if user exits the UI before it had a chance to clear.
  
• Prescription painkillers no longer mention OTC painkillers in the log.
  
• NPCs will no longer recreationally drop social moves on the floor.
  
• Items that are dropping and fail for some reason should now get correctly added to the ship, instead of becoming ghost items.
  
• Missing drag slot items will no longer throw null exceptions when save games load.
  
• Stackable items should now cause fewer null exceptions when an added item is null.
  
• Katydid ship layout adjusted to allow access to its NAV station.
  
• NPCs should no longer spawn outside the aerostat in Encantado's lounge.
  
• Sleep states now have more descriptive tooltips.
  

The new tutorial derelict is one of the more noticeable changes in this update. Historically, players were at the mercy of RNG when docking with their first derelict. And in some cases, this derelict could be nothing more than a docking ring and a trash pile or two, making it completely useless.

Now, if the player is following the beginning tutorial, the game will spawn a special derelict near OKLG after the player finishes the maneuvering portion. This new derelict has a fixed layout, and is designed a bit like a puzzle box to help new players acquaint themselves with the game's many systems. It also shields them from police, hauler, and salvager interference for the first little while as they get their feet wet.

We also changed a number of things in the starting tutorial to make it more player friendly and helpful. This ranges from clearer wording to new tutorial steps, aimed at both educating players better, and reducing frustration.

Speaking of player frustration, the options to Scrap, Uninstall, Dismantle, and Bash are now prevented from appearing at the top of the quick action button (QAB) list. Many players were tripped-up by those options sometimes appearing as hotkey 1, where we usually have innocuous actions like Inventory or Use.

That, plus the QAB should now correctly close first when hitting Escape, even after the targeted item changes state (e.g. off to on, opened to closed, etc.).

The PASS service and ledger had a number of fixes applied. Plus work lamps will no longer run without power. (Sorry!)

A few minor performance improvements also made their way into this build. First, the thermostat/alarm lag bug should be fixed, as the game will no longer recalculate room stats every time one of those changed color or switched on/off.

Second, the way we log info while opening game data (jsons) is now more memory efficient.

Finally, there were a number of null error and other fixes added as part of this patch.

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!

Just a stealth patch here to address a bug which was causing tooltips to get stuck showing the same message until a reload. This patch should prevent that from happening anymore.

As always, let us know if this doesn't resolve the issue for you, or causes other issues!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Happy New Year, Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.8 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, adding more user interface improvements, and making REDACTED less annoying.

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.

• Holding the Left Alt key will now highlight both nearby interactive objects and UI hotkeys.
  
• We added a tutorial step to highlight this new Left Alt feature.
  
• Loading a save game doesn't use hard drive temp folder anymore. It opens straight into memory.
  
• The REDACTED will now only cross over to a new ship via airlocks.
  
• The REDACTED will now either lie dormant or start disappearing after finishing certain branches of the REDACTED plot.
  
• The list of HULL items in the PDA's build menu now has generic wall, floor, and doors at the top.
  
• Humans no longer get floor bump maps applied to their bare legs/arms.
  
• PowerViz lines no longer get stuck on screen when switching ships in ShipEditor.
  
• Racks no longer block light/cast shadows.
  
• Stacks of items no longer disappear if something inside the stack changes damage state.
  
• Stack item counts update in the inventory correctly now.
  
• The version of flirting that is a reply no longer uses the same name as the opening flirtation move.
  
• The MegaTooltip received a visual overhaul to look more consistent with the HUD, and be easier to read.
  
• The MegaTooltip correctly shows human faces again.
  
• UI Tooltips were reduced in size a bit.
  
• Several items had their descriptions added or fixed.
  
• Deleting a save file on the Main Menu save list will no longer throw a null reference error.
  

We've added a new tutorial step early on in a new game to teach the user about our "highlight interactables" and "show UI hotkeys" features. Many players reported having an "ah ha!" moment when they discovered this undocumented feature. Now, holding the Left Alt key will highlight both of these things.

We also changed the way we load lave files to load them directly into memory, instead of uncompressing the zip files into a temp folder on the hard drive first. This might speed up load times for some users, but the main benefit here is fewer hard drive read/write operations, which was important to some SSD users.

Many users will also notice the HUD was further reworked, and the MegaTooltip now shares the same visual style as the rest of the HUD. We also adjusted the style of the condition capsules (a.k.a. tags) for items to be less intense, reserving the brighter capsule colors for more important conditions.

The REDACTED plot received some love, as well, and it should now be a little less aggressive when crossing from one ship to another. Plus, finishing the related plot in a few ways can curb its growth, and even decimate it.

We noticed some players being annoyed that the wall options in the PDA HULL build menu were after a long list of specific floor types, so we moved the generic floor and wall to the top for easier access. Note that if you aren't picky about which wall or floor to build (or only have loose versions of the ones you want), you can use these without choosing the specific wall model from the longer list.

Two minor, but possibly annoying visual issues were also finally resolved. The racks no longer block light/cast shadows, and humans no longer have those floor bump maps appearing on them when wearing certain outfits.

A few fixes for stacked items also mean fewer lost items, as we discovered and fixed a bug that deleted whole stacks if something in the stack changed state (like became damaged/destroyed).

And we reduced the size of the text in a few tooltips which seemed excessively large compared to the rest of the UI.

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!

Just a quick hotfix here to avoid errors when using PowerViz on certain large ship designs.

This fix caps the number of vertices drawn for a power network to avoid exceeding the draw limits. Theoretically, this could mean extremely large ships with lots of power routes see segments missing in the overlay. But at least this avoids errors in all but extreme cases until we can get a better optimization in place.

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC