Ostranauts News

[p]Hey Folks![/p][p][/p][p]Update v0.14.4.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a hotfix update to our "Across the System" milestone, which includes several player-requested features, plus fixes and quality of life enhancements.[/p][p][/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][p]
Note: 📢 indicates changes inspired by community feedback![/p][p][/p][h2][/h2]

• [p]📢New PDA Timer app with alarm.[/p]
• [p]📢New PDA Notepad app.[/p]
• [p]📢New PDA Vizor app which allows the player to view the map with various data overlays.[/p]
• [p]Players can buy or find PDA cartridges to enable new features in the PDA Vizor app.[/p]
• [p]📢There is a new forearm slot exclusively for the PDA.[/p]
• [p]Indicators to compatible slots now appear on paperdoll while an item is attached to cursor.[/p]
• [p]PDA has some new visual styles, icons, and fonts.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Officers arresting a subdued NPC no longer soft lock the game.[/p]
• [p]Maintenance NPCs should now do their jobs more effectively.[/p]
• [p]AI will no longer take a break mid-combat to eat or drink.[/p]
• [p]AI will no longer romance the floor during super fast-forward.[/p]
• [p]AI won't play until it dies on Arcades anymore.[/p]
• [p]AI won't play loose and damaged arcades anymore.[/p]
• [p]Gigs should now report target ship and range again.[/p]
• [p]Pathfinders should no longer avoid valid paths through doors if the ship had a stray part dropped near the outside edge.[/p]
• [p]UI now has more tooltips to help the player.[/p]
• [p]Rooms/compartments have new sprite art in the MTT.[/p]
• [p]Player pronouns will now correctly update in the sink UI if used after character creation.[/p]
• [p]Tutorial and Ostraka updated to reflect new PDA Vizor app, and other tweaks.[/p]
• [p]Mechanical and electrical parts no longer have giant stack counters on the paperdoll.[/p]
• [p]Lights sampled in the ship editor eyedropper tool now update in real time while moving around.[/p]
• [p]Fixes for some floors using wrong damaged and loose sprites and ACP ammo description.[/p]

[p]
PDA is the star of this update, with 3 new apps to help players out in the boneyard![/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]The first is a Notes app that will let players record notes in-game. The notepad can be used any time the PDA is available, including in control panels, and supports rich text using html-style markup.[/p][p]
The second is a Timer app with alarm, which can be used to set a reminder in the future. When the timer expires, an alarm will beep, and the game will return to normal speed, if fast-forwarding.[/p][p][/p][p]There is also a new Vizor app.[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]This app allows players to see the game world with various data overlays, to help pinpoint certain items or areas of interest. Vizor modes include the familiar PowerViz and DamageViz, as well as some newer, more exotic views.[/p][p]

[/p][p]To use this app, the PDA must have the corresponding cartridge for that view mode. Players start with the PowerViz and DamageViz carts installed, but can both purchase and find others in the world. Some with unusual effects...[/p][p][/p][p]The PDA also must be slotted in a new forearm PDA slot, which lets players keep their hands free for other tools and containers. And to help make slots clearer, we now have slot indicators to show where an item on the cursor can be slotted:[/p][p]

[/p][p]Players should also notice some new AI fixes and improvements in this build.[/p][p]
Maintenance NPCs should now correctly do their jobs, ranging from replacing canisters to repairing holes in walls. Combat AI should now avoid a snack break during a pitched battle, while leisure AI should stop playing arcade machines before they starve to death. And lonely AIs will stop... interacting with floors.[/p][p][/p][p]All this plus a bunch of other fixes and tweaks to hopefully improve time spent in-game.[/p][p][/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 if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems![/p][p][/p][p]Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC[/p]

[p]Hey Folks![/p][p][/p][p]Update v0.14.4.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a feature update to our "Across the System" milestone, which includes several player-requested features, new content, and significant bug fixes.[/p][p][/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][p]
Note: 📢 indicates changes inspired by community feedback![/p][h2][/h2]

• [p]📢You can now custom name items and containers in-game.[/p]
• [p]📢There's a new body type available in character creation.[/p]
• [p]📢Characters can now enter exclusive relationships (called "loops") with others, which opens up the potential for more...spicy moves.[/p]
• [p]📢NPCs now have relationship preferences, so flirting won't always work on everyone.[/p]
• [p]📢You can now specify your own character's relationship preferences in chargen. (Controls AUTOTASK behavior.)[/p]
• [p]2 new music tracks that will play while on VENC/Encantado aerostat.[/p]
• [p]New paperdoll/portrait art for repair parts, components, scraps, batteries, and cloth.[/p]
• [p]📢Message log now uses more natural language (Dynamic names, verbs, pronouns.)[/p]
• [p]Added missing descriptions for components.[/p]
• [p]New encounter text for first arrival at VNCA/Newcal aerostat.[/p]

[p][/p][h2][/h2]

• [p]Fewer lag spikes when AIs are considering tasks on large ships and/or with many input ingredients to choose from.[/p]
• [p]Gas containers, pumping, and exchange code should perform better now.[/p]
• [p]Doors opening/closing should use fewer cpu resources.[/p]

[p][/p][h2][/h2]

• [p]Social items no longer spill all over the OKLG floor.[/p]
• [p]Double discomforts/moodlets will no longer appear on characters.[/p]
• [p]Emptying ship batteries no longer causes an infinite loop error.[/p]
• [p]📢New tutorial for when Roster permission is first mentioned.[/p]
• [p]Aero races should now be more doable/balanced, and fixes for several racing bugs.[/p]
• [p]NPC ships no longer trigger TRACK WARN alarms when nobody is at their helm.[/p]
• [p]NPC ships no longer go full beans when undocking, but instead keep to a speed limit.[/p]
• [p]NPC pirate and officer pilots no longer request refuel help from player.[/p]
• [p]NPCs should no longer teleport outside their ships when that ship unloads.[/p]
• [p]The yellow pressure suit is now equippable.[/p]
• [p]AI should now stop exercising if they are suffocating to death.[/p]
• [p]Items like bandages and liquids should no longer auto-slot into wounds.[/p]
• [p]Reduced VREL/VCRS spikes when using rotational controls in orbit.[/p]
• [p]Honeypot mission now correctly checks if target sees player as their lover, instead of other way around. Also, honeypot mission will no longer target the player.[/p]
• [p]Items with "just right" damage amounts no longer appear all-black.[/p]
• [p]Fewer stuck or glitched items in paperdull UI when handling stacks. (Especially on wounds.)[/p]
• [p]Characters should no longer get more fatigued every time a save file is loaded.[/p]
• [p]EVA battery charger no longer heals self when it is damaged or destroyed.[/p]
• [p]Plotting a course from VORB to OKLG will no longer start the plot at VNCA.[/p]
• [p]Characters should no longer t-pose if loaded off-screen.[/p]
• [p]Dead bodies no longer disappear while player is standing aboard a ship docked to a station.[/p]
• [p]Atmosphere scrubbers no longer cause the game to soft lock in the presence of methane or ammonia.[/p]
• [p]Main menu buttons no longer get "stuck" or ignored if user dismisses intro screens with keypress.[/p]
• [p]BBG logo music now waits for mixer settings to be restored before playing, to avoid volume spike.[/p]
• [p]Several typo fixes.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Many of the changes in this update are things that have been suggested by players, and we wanted to try and get some of them in while they wait for ship combat to be ready.[/p][p][/p][p]First of all, players can now give items custom names! Hovering over the name of an object in the MTT now reveals a pencil icon that, when clicked, opens a dialog box for renaming the selected object. No more losing that power drill in a sea of similar crates![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We also finally added a new body type to the game. A lot of players wished for a more feminine body type so we added the option to character creation, it's purely cosmetic and doesn't affect any of the clothing sprites already in the game. [/p][p][/p][p]You can now change this during character creation, the same way you change facial features, hair, skin, etc. And a new button on the mirror's lower left corner allows you to toggle between face and body views.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You'll also notice chargen has a new section for "Flirts With." This is in response to player feedback that our relationship system needed some work. Players were finding they could "win" any conversation by simply seducing the NPC, and the NPC had no preferences or ways to object. (Also, captains set to AUTOTASK would often start flirting or getting "Lover" status with other NPCs, despite players preferring otherwise.)[/p][p][/p][p]AI will now have preferences that dictate with whom they want relationships (or "loops," in Ostranauts parlance). This includes not only sexual orientation, but also monogamy vs. polygamy. And these new character generation checkboxes will tell your captain which targets are okay to automatically flirt with.[/p][p][/p][p]And in exchange for making "loop" relationships harder to attain, they now come with greater rewards. Characters can now engage in more intimate activities with their loop partner, with significant emotional rewards. Players can also, of course, ignore "loop" relationships altogether, if they wish. A manual interaction from the player is required to initiate any "loop."[/p][p][/p][p]Also, as part of this change, we decided to spruce-up the logging a bit to make it easier to read. Now, the logs will attempt to use more natural language when choosing names vs. pronouns, and matching verbs, instead of using everyone's full name all the time.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This patch also includes 2 new soundtrack pieces from Josh Culler, which you'll hear when visiting VENC/Encantado aerostat maps. We've also improved the air racing experience there for players interested in trying their hand at that.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]A few new performance improvements will hopefully be welcome for players with particularly large ships and/or lots of tasks to perform. We found a few ways to improve how AIs search for those solutions, as well as with gas and door logic.[/p][p][/p][p]And some long-standing bugs are finally squashed! The social moves you may have seen littered around stations should now be gone, and the dual discomfort/moodlet bug is now fixed. A newer bug with empty batteries soft-locking the game is also fixed, plus a similar one when an atmo scrubber was running on Venus.[/p][p][/p][p]Plus, a raft of other fixes and improvements, too numerous to detail completely here.[/p][p][/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 if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems![/p][p][/p][p]Best,[/p][p]Daniel Fedor[/p][p]Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC[/p]

[p]Hey Folks![/p][p]As many of you know, our next planned milestone (v0.15) adds ship-to-ship combat to the game, and is entitled "Fire in the Hold." We've received a lot of questions about the next milestone, ranging from what might be in it, to when it's coming, or even whether it is still being planned.[/p][p]We've already begun working on the new features, and we've been roughly splitting our time equally between making new stuff, and improving the user experience on existing stuff (a.k.a. our "hardening" phase). It's too soon for us to predict when you might get your hands on the combat milestone, but the current plan is to release pieces of it incrementally, so you may see some parts of it sooner than others.[/p][p]Here’s some details can we share about ship-to-ship combat:[/p][h2]Missiles[/h2][p]As you might expect, one of the main weapon types we're planning to include is some sort of guided missile. Our current thinking is that this munition is fired from a launcher, separates from the ship a moment or two, and then accelerates towards a target, as seen in the following screenshots:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
Here, we've engaged another ship at a range of about 60 km, and fired a volley of missiles at it. Missiles are likely to be a long-range weapon in Ostranauts, fired at targets dozens, or even hundreds or thousands of km away. They may have a minimum range.[/p][p]And so far, these weapons are likely more for situations where you simply want the other ship gone. Their explosive, indiscriminate damage pattern means the other ship may not be much more than a nest of twisted metal and trash if it hits.[/p][p]Testing so far suggests these missiles are hard to evade, given their much higher maneuverability than human-laden ships. But they can be shot down, and will eventually run out of propellant.[/p][p]We also anticipate having defensive measures to help shoot them down (e.g. see below) and/or jam their guidance systems, which can be an incentive to saturate your target with many missiles at once, hoping one gets through.[/p][p]For those reasons, we'll likely make missiles a purely manual-fire weapon, letting the user decide when and how many to use.[/p][h2]Direct Fire[/h2][p]We're also experimenting with direct fire weapons (including rail gun and coil gun types), as a way to contrast the damage pattern and trajectory of guided missiles.[/p][p]Rail guns and coil guns will accelerate a dense, penetrating munition at high speeds towards a target, traveling in a straight line at constant velocity. Their impact effect is not unlike a micrometeoroid, often punching a hole through ship hulls, equipment, and crew(!) alike, in a narrow channel/path.[/p][p]And while this weapon's range is technically infinite, in practice, they are typically employed in short-to-medium range. Roughly up to 30 km. This is because even at high velocities, the propelled round can still be inaccurate at long range, particularly if the ship (and pilot) is nimble enough.[/p][p]For this reason, the targeting of direct fire weapons works a bit differently than the missiles above. The targeting computer will only begin tracking on a target within this effective range, and takes several seconds to acquire a firing solution:[/p][p][/p][p]The orange arc seen here is an indicator of both the firing arc and the relative certainty of a hit. As the targeting solution improves, the arc narrows, until it reaches a full-solution and auto-fires (in this case, launching a comically large bullet-shaped ship).[/p][p]As part of our prototyping and playtesting, we've experimented with both autofire and manual fire, and will likely make both an option. Currently, autofire happens if the weapon is enabled and the user has begun locking a target. Manual fire can happen at any time, and the accuracy of the shot will be dependent on the arc's narrowness.[/p][p]And, of course, we'll likely experiment with different combinations of firing arc, reloading time, targeting time, ranges, velocities, etc.[/p][p]The version we have here turned out to be fairly effective at taking out an incoming missile or two, but was easily overwhelmed by volleys of larger numbers. As a result, we'll likely be experimenting with an even shorter range, higher rate-of-fire defensive cannon in the near future, specifically for this purpose.[/p][h2]Fire[/h2][p]And what if one of these munitions hits something a little more...spicy? This update is called "Fire in the Hold," after all, right?[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]This is a work in progress of our new fire effect, showing both the particles it spawns, and how it can act as a light source.[/p][p]Our goal for the fire mechanics is to reuse much of the existing systems we have in-game for heat generation, respiration, suffocation, and structural damage. And possibly reuse a large portion of the \[redacted] spreading mechanics to control the growth of the fire across flammables.[/p][p]Fire is likely to be a serious threat to ship crew, even if an attack does little other damage. It will quickly consume breathable O2, increase cabin temperature, and do damage over time to most things it touches. So adding tools and methods to deal with it will also be important.[/p][h2]Behind the Scenes[/h2][p]Of course, none of the above would be very fun if it merely existed out of context. Some of the additional work we've done is a bit harder to show in neat, tidy images, and includes:[/p]

• [p]Making different types of sensors vary in what they see.[/p]
• [p]Making some sensors reveal our ship more to others.[/p]
• [p]Modeling hit damage on remote ships vs. our on-screen ship, including relative ship orientations.[/p]
• [p]Prototyping ways to present combat info and controls to the player.[/p]
• [p]Adding logic to control when AI pilots fight vs. flee.[/p]
• [p]Adding logic to control when AI pilots call for help.[/p]
• [p]Building systems for weapon munitions and reloads.[/p]

[p]Plus, we have a number of important questions we need to keep in mind as these systems come online, including:[/p]

• [p]Where will most of the fighting in-game happen? And why?[/p]
• [p]What if players don't want to fight?[/p]
• [p]What do these weapons look like on the ship? What resources do they use?[/p]

[p]Hopefully, these tasty morsels of information help tide readers over for a bit as they wait for the next milestone. It's easily one of our most anticipated and requested features, so we want to make sure we have time to get it right. But rest assured, we are working on it![/p][p]As always, if you have any questions or other feedback, we're keen to hear it! The best place to post is as a reply to this Steam announcement, which we'll monitor for at least a few days. But we will also keep an eye on our Discord's #suggestions channel, and comments to the Reddit link to this post. Thanks for reading![/p][p]Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC[/p]

[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]

[p][/p]

• [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]

[p][/p]

• [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]

[p][/p]

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

[p][/p]

• [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]

[p][/p]

• [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