Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.7.0.11 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch fixes several bugs that have been reported recently, and should hopefully make the game a little more reliable for you.

Saves from 0.7.0.X should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some (especially timing-related issues), but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Fixed a bug that could cause police to crash into player when attempting to dock with them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused O2 alarms and other items to stop updating until they were switched off and on again, after loading a save.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused AI to stop at door after opening it, and complain about airlock pressure.
  
• Changed doors to reset to auto-close when power lost. Fixes doors remaining open when they shouldn't sometimes.
  
• Changed proximity alarm mute to also skip returning to 1x speed.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused drinking from bottle to sometimes fail.
  
• Added code to reduce NPCs piling-up in one spot on stations.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes OKLG to power off and on again when first docking.
  
• Added code to prevent player from being hit by multiple events like micrometeoroids while paused.
  

One big issue we addressed was police not slowing down enough when attempting to dock. We saw a patrol vessel approach BikeMan during his stream, and stop decelerating for a few seconds as it got close. This stream footage helped us find the cause, and to fix it!

Police (and other NPCs) may still collide with the player if en route to someplace past the player location, but this should hopefully reduce the number of incidents with patrol ships.

Also, a series of timer-related bugs were identified and fixed. And they impacted several things in the game, including air sensors failing to update, doors getting stuck open/closed, and AIs pathing through doors.

Drinking from a bottle seemed to be broken (though one could drink liquid directly, or from pouches), so that was fixed. AIs were instructed to spread out a bit on stations after arriving (so they don't pile-up in one spot). The prox alarm mute no longer allows prox alarm to interrupt fast-forward.

Finally, there was a bug that could cause multiple micrometeoroids to hit the player while the game is paused. This patch prevents that, though there's still a chance up to one will hit. (To be fixed.)

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 v0.7.0.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch adds a long-awaited mute toggle to the proximity alarm, and remembers your nav station's labels knob setting between sittings. Plus sink graffiti, a battery fix, and better licensed kiosk messing.

Saves from 0.7.0.X should work, though if you were experiencing issues in the older save, they may persist if you continue them.

• Added mute toggle to proximity alarm.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused nav station labels knob to reset between each use.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented uninstalling battery if power input side was inaccessible.
  
• Added graffiti to sink UI.
  
• Added separate messages to licensed salvage kiosk for missing vs. expired licenses.
  

Probably the most exciting thing here is the new mute toggle on the nav station's prox alarm! After watching SplatterCat curse out the prox alarm for several hours, we finally added a way you can silence that annoying alarm and be crashed-into peacefully :)

Ditto for making the nav station's ship label knob remember settings between uses, and fixing battery access when oriented in some directions.

We also improved the way the licensed kiosk rejects you for having an expired vs. missing salvage license, so you know which is the case. And finally, the chargen sink now has graffiti!

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

Happy Holidays Folks!

We wish you a warm and bright holiday, and prosperous new year. We'll be taking a break over the next two weeks to be with family and recharge. (We'll keep an eye out here for anyone having trouble, though.) Enjoy your holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you all in January!

Also, Ostranauts v0.7.0.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch fixes a number of important bugs with AI, atmo pressure loss, and inventory, as well as changes some nav map styles for better legibility. Plus, we threw in a bit of holiday cheer :)

Saves from 0.7.0.3 and 0.7.0.4 should work, though if you were experiencing issues in the older save, they may persist if you continue them.

• Changed nav station planet and orbit rendering to be more intuitive.
  
• Changed derelict color to gray on nav station, so it differentiates better from live ships.
  
• Added code to show planetary body grav wells using red circles.
  
• Changed AI survival pledges to not take suits and helmets that are carried or equipped by another person.
  
• Changed application to limit framerate to 60fps, to avoid excessive GPU power use.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused stations with transit to sometimes lose all atmo when loading.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented NPCs from using transit of their own accord.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause NaN gas temps and pressures if a pump drew air from a compartment at 0K.
  
• Fixed a bug that would leave stray footprints if an NPC used transit.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to try and equip random floors and walls as a helmet or suit, decompressing the station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused a massive lag spike when docking or transiting to a station or ship after a long time away.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused transit kiosk to sometimes do nothing the first time player interacted with it.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused player to teleport inside transit in destination station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused AI not to enter pressurized rooms when in emergencies.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause Honeypot gigs to trigger incorrectly.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause inventory items to stop updating occasionally.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused duplicate stacked item image in inventory when swapping partial onto full and back again.
  

The most important changes here address issues players have been seeing on stations with atmo and NPCs. And it turns out they were related. NPC issues with transit sometimes caused them to get stranded, leave stray footprints behind, or in worst cases, equip station hull as a helmet, decompressing the station.

NPC AI was also adjusted so they don't mob the player and steal their suit/helmet as much. (Note that existing saves may still exhibit this behavior at first, but once they finish their current queue, they should be better.)

There were also a few edge-cases in inventory that could cause errors, which were fixed. And a bug that caused the Honeypot gig type to have a bugged conversation.

The nav station had a few changes to the way things are drawn, which should help with legibility (especially for new players). And we have a little bit of holiday theming going on with the main menu.

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 v0.7.0.4 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch changes the way save files are structured to make them multi-file, and should help users who regularly experienced save failure issues.

Saves from 0.7.0.3 should work, but due to the change in save file structure, all backup saves will be deleted when the new save is created. So if you have precious info there, you should make a copy of those before saving again.

• Changed the way save game files are structured, to be multiple json files instead of a single, large json file.
  

The only change in this patch is to the file structure of save games. Instead of a giant (often approaching 100MB) json file, it is now a series of smaller json files in a folder matching the captain's name.

The main benefit of this change is to reduce the frequency of save failures some players were seeing. I.e. clicking "Save" stops working after a while, usually in cases where the save file was getting very large

Users who previously experienced this bug have so far reported that saves work normally again, so hopefully this solves the issue for you, if you had it!

The multi-file save format might also make searching through the save jsons a bit easier, for those of you interested in modding/editing your saves.

Also note that, for now, the game will load both the old and new save formats as we make the transition. Eventually, we'll phase out the old format and it will only read the new multi-file save structure.

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!

A little over a year ago, we launched Ostranauts on Steam Early Access. And over the course of the past year, we've had a number of stability fixes, quality of life changes, new features and content added to the game. We've also had a year of chatting with fans to get a better sense of what they're expecting out of Ostranauts, and a better idea of how fast we can work.

So we came together recently as a team to more concretely discuss the road to launch. Which features do we still want? Which ones do we have the time (and ability) to produce? Are any of them needed before others can be complete?

[h3]And most importantly of all, this roadmap is designed to help you (the customer) in deciding if this is a game for you![/h3]



[h3]How does the version numbering work? Where is 1.0?[/h3]

One of the first things you might notice is our new version numbering system. Going forward, we'll be using version numbers like 0.X.Y.Z, where:

• X - A major feature or update.
  
• Y - A significant change within the major update.
  
• Z - A hotfix or patch.
  

And notably, versions like 0.8 don't directly correspond to "80% done." Ostranauts will leave Early Access sometime after 0.16, likely late 2022, or early 2023. At that point, we'll change the leading "0" to a "1." And we are approximately expecting about one of these major version updates per month. (Though some are definitely bigger than others, and therefore slower.)

[h3]Where is the ____ feature? Will it ever be added?[/h3]

A FAQ is forthcoming for specifics, but for now, the answer is "it depends."

The list of features we want to build is extremely long. And we only had a limited amount of time to fit it into. Furthermore, some features just cannot be added until others are already done. So for now, a number of those features are in the "if we have time for it" bucket at the end of the list.

Maybe it'll get added before 1.0. Maybe even after 1.0. But for now, consider the above roadmap to be the stuff we have planned for 1.0.

[h3]Will this roadmap change?[/h3]

it might! We're pretty sure this roadmap is how it's going to play out. But we could be wrong! Something could interrupt us. Someone might be called away. Or on the other hand, maybe Ostranauts goes viral and we can hire more help!

The roadmap will update as time goes by, and we will do our best to keep it accurate.

[h3]Will there be another feature vote?[/h3]

Maybe? But probably not.

The first vote was really helpful, and we learned a lot from it about what the players want. It gave us a clear list of priorities from the community, and helped us shape the order of this roadmap. You'll probably notice just about everything from the last feature voting round is here.

The order in which they have to be done, however, is now fairly well-known to us. So even if players want, say, combat to be first, it has systems like wounding which need doing first. And likewise, long range travel is going to require some ship-board systems be finished.

We're always chatting with fans, though. And always open to feedback! Part of what makes Early Access such a success is that it allows us to develop with the benefit of timely feedback, resulting in a better game for the people playing it.

[h3]I have questions![/h3]

Great! We (might) have answers!

If you want to ask us anything, feel free! We'll be keeping an eye on our Steam and BBG website forums, Discord, Reddit, and all the other places you see us active.

Thanks for reading, as always. And hope you're as excited about what's to come as we are!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC