Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.6.9.4 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch addresses several of the more involved bugs discovered since patch 0.6.9.2.

Saves from 0.6.9.2 and earlier may be compatible, but if you were seeing bugs or other issues in the save, it may be necessary to start a new game.

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused player ship to be inaccessible after using transit at OKLG.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused atmospheric fluctuations after using transit at OKLG.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused traders to lose their behaviors when restocking their inventory.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused traders' buy/sell lists to pause updates while player is on a different ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused social moves to be littered on the ground after visiting a ship more than once.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused transit UI button to not register when clicked due to ship-loading cutting it off.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed characters to teleport through walls when using something from exactly diagonal angles.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause game to misbehave if player revisited a station where one NPC was talking to an NPC that no longer exists.
  

One of the big issues this addresses is the inability to access the player's ship at OKLG, and suddenly fluctuating atmosphere (also usually at OKLG). Both of these turned out to be the same bug, caused by social moves getting stuck on the floor, and causing OKLG to overlap the player ship.

If your save has these social moves littered around, it might be necessary to start a new game. I recommend at least trying to load the save, but be wary for any strange behavior, as this patch cannot fix the save, just the thing that causes the bug.

This patch also fixes an issue with traders. Two, in fact.

First, traders were not restocking their wares, or even updating their clocks, while the player was not present. They should once again be updating while you're away.

Traders were also wandering off from their job posts, and this should be fixed again. Saves where they have started wandering will continue to see them wander, but new games should be back to normal.

Finally, there was a pathfinding bug that allowed NPCs to teleport through walls in some rare cases, usually causing them to get trapped in the locked bartender's quarters in Mescaform Bar. The fix for this will affect all NPCs going forward, but trapped NPCs will remain trapped until you free them.

Also, it has some slight effects on which items can be reached for repairs or (un)installation. If you run into pathfinding issues uninstalling items, try moving your character manually next to the target. And let us know where you found it! We'll be trying to nail down these edge cases as we find them.

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 v0.6.9.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is another quick patch to address a few bugs and issues we were able to get to before the weekend. Plus, chairs!

Saves from 0.6.9.1 should be unaffected by this patch, but older saves may still contain issues that were present before.

• Added ability to install and uninstall chairs.
  
• Changed AI ships to not interfere with player maneuvers if player tries to fly it.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused context menu to get stuck if item that launched it is destroyed or replaced. E.g. opening/closing doors
  
• Fixed missing audio on skin buttons in appearance UI.
  
• Fixed NaN in docking VCRS readout when docked.
  

Most of these are fairly minor, as we didn't want to make any waves right before leaving the office for the weekend.

However, the first three might be interesting to some.

First of all, it is now possible to uninstall (and reinstall) chairs! They're white. They are on the ground. You can sit in them. They're chairs! I have it on good authority there are some people (ahem, Naiba) that are very interested in these.

Also, I made a slight tweak to AI pilots so they don't maneuver a ship that you are piloting. This usually only comes up if the player attempts to steal an AI ship. And now, the ship will obey player maneuvers without interference. (There is, however, still an issue with the AI sitting in the player's lap while at nav station, interfering.)

A more serious bug involving a stuck context menu was fixed, as well. It typically happened with doors, if the player attempted to click a context button after the door changed state (e.g. auto-closing).

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 v0.6.9.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This patch mainly addresses some issues identified by players in the last patch, improving stability and reliability.

[h2]For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.[/h2]

Old saves might still work, but depending on bugs you ran into, you could have some weird OKLG issues or strange air temperatures/pressures.

• Fixed a bug that would corrupt saves if they contained a dead NPC.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to die when they returned to OKLG after scavenging the boneyard.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ground stations to float off of ground after a save/load.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPC scav ships to spawn too close to OKLG.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused game to soft crash if a gas container added a gas while it finished updating last gas changes.
  
• Changed ship-ship collisions to be more elastic, so they separate more after bounce.
  
• Changed police shakedown to only fine player for missing Ogiso poster if current room lacks poster.
  
• Fixed a bug in heater and cooler temperatures that caused room temps to fluctuate wildly.
  
• Added RCS remass in kg back to Nav station, in addition to Delta-V.
  

The dead NPC bug was particularly bad, because it would cause saves to fail loading once one was in the data. And OKLG drifting off-asteroid caused a number of NPC collisions when they spawned.

There were also some gas-related bugs, one of which caused the game to soft crash, and freeze the derelict I was on in space, getting left behind K-Leg's orbital system.

Finally, I restored RCS remass kg readout alongside the new Delta-V readout, and made a slight change to police shakedowns.

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 v0.6.9.0 is now available on Steam: the "Mo' K-Leg, Mo' Problems" Update, and it's another fairly big one.

It includes a new OKLG station, several new ships, more NPCs (including some flying ships), social system rebalance and UI improvements. Plus, police can board you now, so watch what you're doing :)

[h2]For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.[/h2]

Old saves might still work, but there's a decent chance they'll cause bugs. And will definitely miss new content.

It's a pretty significant patch, so I've broken down the change list into sections.

• Added police shakedown conversation.
  
• Added conversation options to ask NPCs that are close to player about their homeworlds and families.
  
• Added more NPCs to OKLG.
  
• Changed social combat UI to show stat bars instead of words for psychological status.
  
• Changed inventory status UI to use new social status UI.
  
• Changed social combat to reveal target's social stats only when they change.
  
• Changed social moves to be more balanced, and cause fewer mood swings.
  
• Changed each social move to have more concise status effects.
  
• Changed OKLG bartender and fixer to stay put and act like their roles.
  
• Changed dead NPCs to drop their items now
  
• Added ability to order crew to follow you, or return to your ship
  
• Improved ability to order non-crew off-ship (more reliable)
  
• Added ability to daydream about ex-lover.
  
• Changed intimacy status names to be clearer.
  
• Changed captain to behave during untime the way player sets them to in roster, unlike NPCs which all take time off.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused AIs to use uninstalled toilets, sometimes getting stuck in walls.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed unconscious and dead AIs to open and close doors.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed AIs to open airlocks without permission.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause AI to command player to follow them.
  
• Added code to make the AI walk away from toilets when done using them.
  
• Changed player to start well-fed.
  
• Changed thirst to appear at 4 hours, with dehydration symptoms at 24 hours.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused all NPCs on a station/ship to spawn in the same place, regardless of their spawn points.
  
• Changed SeekAchievement move to be about remembering near-death instead of burpees, to look less weird in social context.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed player to order NPC of their own ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPC to treat player's ship as their own.
  
• Added code to make followers follow player when they use transit.
  

• Added NPC scavenger ships that fly around the boneyard.
  
• Changed police ships so they can board you.
  
• Added code to respawn new scav ships if too few left.
  
• Scavenger and police ships can contain player friends and enemies.
  
• Changed OKLG patrol to spawn 1 ship at a time instead of 2.
  
• Added chance of music when police ships spawn.
  
• Added code to reject docking permission if ship has no docking ports.
  
• Added ability to toggle ship names, reg IDs, and none in nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes ship orientation to not face stations when undocking.
  
• Fixed a null bug when ship docking with a nulled ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to flicker when docked.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to spawn inside planets.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to spawn with initial vectors through planets.
  
• Changed collisions to be zero damage if with an AI ship while player docked.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused player collisions with derelicts to get stuck together.
  
• Changed ship names to favor procedural names more, and one-off names less.
  
• Removed debug shift docking feature from docking UI.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused stations to move when ships hit them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to get stuck inside station after they collided with one.
  

• Changed OKLG station to be bigger, more spread out, and have more people.
  
• Added several new ship types.
  
• Added new bug indicator at top left, and user can click it for details.
  
• Changed conduits appearance and made them destructable.
  
• Added black EVA suit and helmet to game.
  
• Changed doors to close automatically when crew AI opens them without player intervention.
  
• Changed doors to remain open if player manually opens door.
  
• Changed doors to resume auto-closing if player manually closes door.
  
• Added code to block placement of objects beyond ship docking airlocks.
  
• Added a button to the quit menu that opens the folder for the PDF manuals.
  
• Changed bar to be installable/uninstallable, and in smaller pieces.
  
• Added tracking alarm when police are targeting and tracking player ship.
  
• Added encounter for first visit to OKLG Mescaform.
  
• Changed OKLG scrap kiosk to always sell at least one of each tool type.
  
• Changed item values and some weights to better reflect their rarity and usefulness.
  
• Changed fixer restocking and buy list to be more random.
  

• Added infinite storage space for OKLG fixer.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused supply kiosk to buy all items at marked-up price if inside a crate.
  
• Added code to tell player when interaction takes items from them, and what items were taken.
  
• Added code to track which ships COs think they own.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented first derelict docking encounter to not fire.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused footprints to remain for NPCs after they are removed from scene.
  
• Fixed AI ship continues flying while player on it and no AI on nav.
  
• Removed old low battery tutorial.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused PDA install commands to only install things one click at a time.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented installing a damaged nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused save file to have crew portrait if crew selected when saved.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused audio to behave like there's no helmet when loading a save after exiting a game.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused a null exception if nav station target was destroyed.
  
• Removed log spam for angle out of range error.
  
• Added code to center camera after being teleported to new ship.
  
• Fixed quiet techno sound in chargen area.
  
• Changed door and alarm audio to have smaller audio radii.
  
• Fixed a bug that let user use shipe editor eyedropper in normal game.
  
• Added code to make the UI close if AI interrupts player while using UI.
  
• Fixed a bug that would crash game if loot tables didn't load due to missing ship origins list.
  
• Changed game to load ships with error handling, to help modders.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships' docking info to be lost if saved while not on-screen.
  
• Changed debug fast travel button to ignore ships and stations with no available docking rings.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused social combat UI to appear and disappear if NPC talked to player while player used another UI.
  
• Changed interaction take items to drop any it cannot hold.
  
• Added parameter to interactions to only trigger on targets onboard claimed ships.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused tooltip to have unhandled null exception.
  
• Fixed a bug that would attempt to stack null items when loading slotted items for a CO.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused nested crew equipment to be lost if that crew was teleported to a template ship.
  
• Fixed a bug in save games that caused save to fail if CO had an interaction with null target.
  

This one definitely put up a fight, and I wouldn't be surprised if we still have some kinks to iron out.

However, there should also hopefully be a lot of fun stuff in here for you to discover. New ships, new K-Leg station, some new items and old equipment with new behaviors. New item prices and rarities.

Plus, we have ships flying around now! There are scavengers picking over the boneyard, police can board you, and you may even encounter NPCs your character knows.

Crew and AI had a lot of work done, too. More orders you can give, more conversation options, a more intuitive social UI for seeing how you and your target feel. All social moves have been rebalanced to hopefully result in fewer death spirals of despair, plus each move should have clearer effects now.

Plus, doors! They auto-close now so you lose less precious air when passing through :)

And there's still a lot we'd like to add. Not only to the rest of the game, but to refine these new systems. I expect we'll do a few patches in the near future to tune and flesh-out this update, plus fix any issues we find. (Reminder: Best to start a new save/character!)

And as always, we love hearing what you think! Tell us how your run goes. What works for you? What is or isn't fun? What do you want to see next?

Thanks for reading, and fly safe!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

Hi folks! It's been a awhile since we released Fragments from the Ostracon #2. These are pages from the Ostracon, an in-universe zine in Ostranauts and NEO Scavenger. We hope you enjoy reading.

We've set up a mailing list so you can receive Fragments directly to your inbox, before we post them online. You can sign up here.




"Stop that."



"Stop what?"


"Tapping on the tank. Staring at it with your mouth open. You're fogging up the glass.


"Sorry. It's just...weird."


"Try to see it as any other cargo. Nothing but a payday, right?"


"It's not exactly a hot reactor, is it? It's like...well it's a fucking alien! That's an alien in there."


"So what?"


"So what!?"


"You remember six months ago we picked up that horse from the lab on Tharsis and delivered it to that Apogee exec on the Hangzhou orbital?"


"I remember when it took a massive dump in the galley, yes."


"Exactly. Because it was an animal. Exotic. Rare. Valuable. But still, just an animal. So that jellyfish thing in there? Think about it like that. It's just an animal."


"An animal from another planet."


"An animal that evolved in the thermal vents of Europa. There could be jellyfish just like it in the deepest oceans of Earth for all we know."


"Well forgive me for having a sense of wonder. Who bought this ugly little fella anyway?"


"Careful, it can understand English."


"It can?!"


"Fuck if I know. Just like. Relax. Get some racktime or something. You're making me nervous and I'm supposed to be scanning for interceptors. That's a ten year salary we're carrying right there."


"Cushy job if you ask me. You'd have to be crazy to come all the way out here past the blockade."


"Crazy is exactly what I'm worried about."

--END TRANSMISSION