Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.0.11 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix patch to our recently released "Across the System" update, which addresses difficulty controlling the captain, controlling entire factions via the roster, installing and repairing cargo pods, chairs, and webs, and other errors.

These changes should be compatible with older 0.14 saves. Though if that save has already had errors (e.g. like dead NPCs), some of those errors may continue until a new game is started.

• Fixed a bug which caused the captain to ignore player commands when the game was saved during Untime (after midnight).
  
• Fixed a bug that let the player control the entire police force roster (or any other faction) by making one of them surrender and opening the UI.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing install/uninstall of webs, chairs (added tool requirement of Mortorq).
  
• Fixed a null exception that could occur if a reactor was checking the no wake zone for a ship with missing location info.
  
• Fixed an index out of range error when padding a tilemap on a ship with mismatched old and new tile counts, which could cause ship layout glitches.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed a surrendering police officer to attempt arresting a suspect.
  
• Added tool requirement and tool multiplier to install/uninstall of cargo pods (was missing them).
  
• Added a tool multiplier to restore/repair/dismantle some items which already required tools.
  
• Added a use point to stool (ItmChair01) so players know which side is the front.
  

One fix in this patch addresses a number of related bugs, where the player reported the captain running off to do their own thing, despite the roster being set to work, and not having autotask enabled.

It turned out that saving the game during Untime (after midnight) and reloading it caused the game to assign a null shift to the captain, instead of the normally assigned shift in the roster UI. Fixing this should result in fewer unruly captains.

We also fixed a bug whereby a surrendering NPC gave the player access to that NPC's entire roster in the roster UI, letting you see their company colleagues and control their schedules.

While fixing this, we also found and fixed a bug where a surrendering officer would continue trying to arrest the player.

Several fixes in this patch address the use of tools and the progress bar multipliers for installing, repairing, and other actions on chairs, cargo pods, and cargo webs. We made some changes yesterday for this, but missed some combos which, in the worst case could result in 0x progress speeds on some items.

Lastly, there are a handful of null and other error fixes in here which should improve stability and strange behaviors in the game.

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

Post-apocalyptic roguelike Neo Scavenger is one of my favourite games, but its spacefaring followup Ostranauts, currently in Early Access, is currently too fiddly and complicated for me. Here's some good news, then: Kitfox, masters of making impenetrable roguelikes more welcoming, have joined the project as publisher ahead of a planned 1.0 release in 2025.

Read more

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.0.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix patch to our recently released "Across the System" update, which addresses derelict flipping, a UI lockout bug, part install repair issues, and a number of other issues.

These changes should be compatible with older 0.14 saves. Though if that save has already had errors (e.g. like dead NPCs), some of those errors may continue until a new game is started.

• Fixed a bug that caused purchased derelicts to be pristine condition if first visited after purchasing.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause null exceptions and user input lockout if the player lacked certain stats when the encounter screen appeared. (E.g. hacking a PDA while lacking an altruism stat)
  
• Fixed the REDACTED plot to have clearer steps, added objective tooltips, and cleaned-up redundant dialogue options after they were done.
  
• Fixed rotor and active stabilizer repair, pickup, and restore issues.
  
• Changed the amount of time necessary to repair and (un)install stabilizers and rotors.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused cargo webs and chairs to ignore tool speed multipliers.
  
• Fixed a bug causing gigs to call VORB_AUX 'Azikiwe Estates Transfer Station'.
  
• Fixed a missing ship type for sale around Venus due to a typo.
  
• Fixed references to FUNDS button in UI to use consistent wording that is clearer.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented obtaining forged visas for OKLG.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing Aero/Plastic/Thin walls to accept PDA Orders.
  
• Added windows to the sundries kiosk.
  
• Fixed a bug making loose 1x3 and 1x2 slants invisible in ground grid.
  
• Removed station reactors from PDA->Install menu.
  
• Fixed a bug allowing Bin2x104s to fit inside themselves (infinite storage exploit).
  
• Changed Toilet/Sink to type APPS (rather than MISC: same skills, but fits the category better).
  
• Added atmospheric stats to Titan, plus parallax images for Titan, Ganymede, and Europa.
  

One of the top issues fixed here is a total UI lockout that could happen if the encounter UI appeared while the player lacked a core stat. It would begin loading, get stuck invisibly, and never exit, leaving the UI to ignore most input from the player.

Generally, these core stats should always be on the character, so this hasn't come up often. But we added code to handle cases where it is true, so the UI can finish loading normally.

We also fixed a bug which caused derelicts to spawn completely undamaged if you bought them from the broker before ever visiting them. This would basically ruin the ship-flipping loop. (Though it was a great source of cash, if you don't mind cheating!)

One of our plots had a number of stages cleaned-up for clarity, better player prompting, and removal of old/redundant dialogue options when in the late stages.

Quite a few items were also addressed, including issues with repair rates, availability in kiosks, or in some cases, missing ability to pick up or repair. This included some housekeeping in the PDA install and orders UIs.

Finally, we added some data to spawn atmosphere on Titan, and show that moon, plus Ganymede and Europa when near them. (Note this will only apply to new saves, since the old Solar System layout/data is saved with your game each time.)

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 v0.14.0.9 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix patch to our recently released "Across the System" update, which addresses sudden station NPC hypoxia, teleporting derelicts, police ships undocking strangely, and several UI issues.

These changes should be compatible with older 0.14 saves. Though if that save has already had errors (e.g. like dead NPCs), some of those errors may continue until a new game is started.

• Fixed a bug that caused some tooltips to become very, very small at high resolution.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented changing keybinds when using the Options screen from the main menu.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused non-derelict NPC ships to undock suddenly when player interacted with its nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause derelicts to teleport far away after undocking.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause ships to incorrectly dock, and their maps to overlap.
  
• Added null exception handling to CO.CatchUp if aTickers or aManUpdates was null.
  
• Fixed a bug which could cause all NPCs on a station or ship to suddenly die of hypoxia shortly after player arrives.
  
• Changed ticker backlog processing code to set ticker aside and process next, instead of exiting loop, so important tickers still process in time. E.g. oxygen
  
• Changed Privacy ticker to not tick while away, since it was clogging UpdateManual upon returning to a station.
  

Two of the changes are UI related. One bug prevented keybind changes via the main menu's options screen (in-game was fine), and the other caused tiny tooltips if the game resolution was too high. Both should be improved in this build.

We also fixed a few issues involving undocking.

First, players reported derelicts disappearing after undocking. And some eagle-eyed players noticed they weren't gone, just 100,000 km "west" of OKLG. This clue helped narrow down the problem to a bug in how we set the newly-undocked derelict's position relative to Ganymed 1036. We were using the wrong epoch (time/date) for the asteroid when we sampled its position.

Second, some players were getting whisked away in a disappearing police ship if they interacted with its nav station in any way. (Especially if the police were unconscious.) This turned out to be the ship's AI thinking the player was the officer finishing their job, and continuing with its patrol.

Both should now be fixed.

Another fix should stop NPCs from dropping dead en masse a few seconds after returning to a station after a long absence. This was a timer (a.k.a. ticker) "catch-up" process that was delaying them from breathing for too long, resulting in them collapsing after several seconds of being stuck processing old stats.

The fix changes the way this catch-up works so that it doesn't interrupt more important, immediate tickers. (And also removes the Privacy stat ticker from the list of tickers that needs to process while player is away, which was a major cause.)

Note that this fix doesn't revive dead NPCs. If you have any stations that fell prey to this, you can learn how to respawn that station (and fresh NPCs) at this link:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1022980/discussions/2/3803904095528444525/


This also doesn't fix other cases where the NPC may have died legitimately of hypoxia. That still happens, though hopefully less often after last week's 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 v0.14.0.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix patch to our recently released "Across the System" update, which fixes issues with the police encounter, Venusian derelict haulers, and other issues.

Most of these changes should be compatible with older 0.14 saves. Though if that save has already had errors, some of those errors may continue until a new game is started.

• Fixed a bug that caused police ships to be spawned with the wrong pilot types, often including clueless, non-police NPCs.
  
• Removed police spawns around Venus for now, since they were using OKLG laws and it was causing players to get stuck.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused police ship to immediately redock after player undocks, even if police crew was not alive, or missing.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused derelict haulers towing a ship near Venus to fly away forever, instead of deploying derelict in orbit.
  
• Added code to stop NPCs watching TV and playing games when they are in important situations, like police actions.
  
• Added code to make police switch from interrogation to arrest if player attempts to undock before conversation is resolved.
  
• Added code to make police angry if player undocks with them aboard player's ship.
  
• Fixed a null exception that could occur if MTT was showing an NPC that left the map.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented the game from autopausing when police initiated conversation.
  
• Fixed a bug that didn't show progress bar on NPCs after loading a save.
  

Our last patch fixed a bug that limited the pool of NPCs police could be pulled from, but widened that pool just a *little* too much. We were starting to get any NPC that was even tangentially police-trained, and in one case, the Flotilla broker themself!

Needless to say, we had a lot of confused NPCs that didn't know why they stopped the player, and players getting stuck with them onboard.

This patch fixes that issue, plus a few other issues involving the police encounter. Police should once again stay on-script, plus a few new tricks to increase realism when players try to undock. (We also fixed at least one cause of the ship immediately redocking with the player, even if it had no pilot!)

There was a similar issue emerging around Venus, since most of the spawns there were actually spawning OKLG police, who weren't ready for Venus operations. So we've disabled police spawns there for now. (Derelicts around VORB are considered trash to be deorbited, unlike the valuable wrecks around OKLG.)

We also found a problem with the way derelict haulers were flying around Venus. They were trying to deploy a wreck near VORB, but using VNCA as a reference station for speed limits. Needless to say, that created some wildly conflicting instructions in their AI, and usually resulted in them drifting off endlessly. They should once again be deploying wrecks near VORB and returning home.

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