Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.9.1.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and includes some more significant additions, quality of life enhancements, and fixes.

Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Added ability to EVA outside your ship in a 1 tile border.
  
• Changed damaged/missing floor tiles to be walkable via EVA.
  
• Changed AI to have improved prioritization for restoring things based on damage vs. distance.
  
• Changed pathfinding to be a little more generous, and might reach places it couldn't before.
  
• Changed damaged floor tiles to be walkable via EVA, and not block item installation.
  
• Changed AI to avoid spacing itself to do tasks in manual mode unless player explicitly tells them to.
  
• Added a new special item or two.
  
• Added a new objective to alert new players that the CASH button is there.
  
• Added code to change task icons to red if they cannot be completed.
  
• Added ability to cancel a task via right-clicking context menu.
  
• Added better indicators for power in/out and use points when placing objects.
  
• Added more damaged item types, and ability to repair more things.
  
• Added ability to carefully dismantle most objects for parts.
  
• Added ETA info on target to nav screen.
  
• Added dismantle action to PDA orders menu.
  
• Changed task tooltips on main screen to show same info that PDA task UI showed.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause 'black hole' ground tiles that eat items on inventory screen.
  
• Fixed gas escaping when broken wall or open door placed against wall.
  
• Fixed battery charge so it is capped at 100%.
  
• Added text input to debug console. More commands to come later.
  
• Added code to animate social combat objective onto screen so it is more noticeable.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed toolboxes to fit inside themselves.
  
• Added code to eject user from reactor UI when it is destroyed.
  
• Fixed null bugs when batteries attached to reactor UI are destroyed.
  
• Fixed missing audio on reactor Fuel Reg button.
  
• Fixed a bug that showed incorrect fusion reactant rates on reactor UI.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused player ship to be considered a station if it used Quick Dock drop down on UNLOCKDEBUG overlay.
  
• Fixed bugs that caused inventory and damage tooltip objectives to complete prematurely.
  
• Fixed wrong image for motherboard component when slotted in hands.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause NPCs on non-loaded ships to suffocate if something triggered their updates to run several cycles.
  
• Changed objectives to be on left.
  
• Fixed a bug in trade UI that caused manual typed number amounts to be ignored.
  
• Fixed a bug that showed mood stats in career sidebar summary.
  
• Fixed a null reference in GUIOrbitDraw that would occur if certain ship components were destroyed while using nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused rooms to duplicate and break when loading a save. (a.k.a. Sudden atmo loss.)
  
• Fixed a bug that used incorrect damage images on COOverlay items in inventory.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused EVA suits to spawn new batteries and O2 bottles inside after some actions.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused player to be stuck in future conversations if quick saved during a social combat conversation.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the emotional clobber event to interrupt socializing with an NPC and appear to get stuck.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented finishing restore on a sink, and restoring loose sinks.
  

The biggest change here is the new ability to move outside the ship. Each ship now has a 1-tile border in which crew can conduct extra-vehicular activities (EVA). Crew can also now float over damaged and missing floor tiles.

Crew AI also had a few tweaks added to make them prioritize tasks better, and avoid spacing themselves when doing tasks.

There are also several new quality of life enhancements to the user experience, particularly with tasks. Icons now show as red when they are blocked by something, task tooltips show more relevant info on status, and the player can now cancel tasks via right-clicking. The nav station now shows ETA to target.

Several new items now have a damaged state, and can be repaired. And a couple new items were added to the game, as well. And most items can now be carefully dismantled to get the most spare parts and materials possible.

We have a new text input area in the error console, and if you type "help" there you can see our growing list of debug commands.

Finally, there was a raft of bug fixes, including one which caused random atmo loss on stations, and another that caused NPCs to drop dead on stations in some cases. (Note, this fix will not resurrect dead NPCs.)

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 v0.9.0.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, primarily addressing AI issues, endless sickness, and some other bugs.

Saves from v0.9.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Fixed a bug that caused player to remain stuck in social combat if police accepted salvage license.
  
• Fixed a bug that gave player permanent weak stomach illness when they became nauseous or vomited.
  
• Fixed some health conditions which could cause out of control cascading health side effects.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused AI to sometimes pick up installed hull pieces for comfort, slowly draining atmo and temperature.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused player's crew to be used as an NPC pilot around OKLG, if that NPC was not on-screen.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed NPCs to walk onto player ship to pester them if the player owned both ships on screen.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause null errors after saving and exiting a game, then reloading a save without quitting app.
  

One of today's fixes involves the police shakedown encounter, where they accept your salvage license, turn to leave, and then continue to pester you, preventing you from leaving. This came down to a missing "exit" flag on the end of that conversation branch, and should be fixed now.

We also found and fixed a number of stomach illnesses caused by certain events, including choosing "Temperate" in the chargen trait kiosk. Players afflicted by these should be cured when loading their saves, and it should no longer happen in future games.

There was a bug in the AI that allowed it to pick up installed floors for fun, and this has been curbed. The AI will still pick up other things for fun, though. This behavior is limited to their free time when set to behavior "auto," in case you wish to fully prevent this.

Player crew was occasionally being selected to fly craft around OKLG if there was a spawn pilot needed and the crew was off-screen. This has been fixed.

AI was also occasionally walking onto the player's ship to pester the player in cases where the player's captain thought they owned both ships on screen. This has been fixed.

And finally, there was a null error introduced by the new power icons visible during item installation. This only happened if the player returned to the main menu and reloaded a save without quitting. This should be fixed now.

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 v0.9.0.8 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, primarily fixing the broken police conversation, plus a few other QoL changes.

Saves from v0.9.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Changed all NPCs to spawn in better mood.
  
• Changed police conversation to be more restrictive on when police can lash out at player.
  
• Added icon near power input points on items when placing them.
  
• Added icon near user stand point on items when placing them.
  
• Added more info to nav station PIN lock logs.
  
• Added ability to put chargers into hands.
  
• Added second power input to EVA battery charger so either back facing tile can be powered.
  

The big change here is to how the police conversation works. It turns out there were a couple of problems compounding this encounter, making the police almost always (90-95%) either mug you or fine you exorbitant amounts.

We've adjusted the spawn stats for NPCs to make them start in a better mood, which helps. But we also narrowed the window on the police mugging/"bull" fine to be much smaller. In practice, this means it should come up more like 5-10% of the time. The majority of the time, you should be able to get a word in edgewise now, and walk away with more affordable fines. (As well as avoid fines with licenses and posters, where applicable.)

We also added some helper icons to the UI when installing a new part. Now, when you see the blue/red overlay squares while installing a part, you'll also see an icon for where it's power input is, and where users need to stand to use it.

The nav station's PIN logs now list the type of object next to each pin code. It's not perfect, but it was a quick change that should help a bit.

And the missing ability to carry battery chargers in the hands has been added.

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 v0.9.0.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, fixing several bugs and omissions reported by players.

Saves from v0.9.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Added ability to uninstall damaged heaters, RCS clusters/distributors, reactors, switches.
  
• Added ability to uninstall damaged air pumps, canisters/RTAs, batt chargers, coolers, fridges.
  
• Added ability to bash installed canisters.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused powered items to not show their input spots as a gray icon in powerviz mode.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused OKLG Facilities Fees to continue accruing after undocking.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused docking fee tutorial encounter to trigger when undocking from derelicts.
  
• Added a debug tool to respawn existing ships in case they are broken.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Reassure move to have no valid reply.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused dropped items near Gig Nexus to disappear into Gig Nexus. (Requires new save.)
  
• Fixed a bug that caused loose, damaged door to restore to 100% condition when bashed.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused containers to have too much space (for users of 0.9.0.2).
  

One of the bigger additions here is the ability to uninstall most damaged objects, which was missing before. Now it should be possible to get them out of the way to access things behind them, or take them back to your ship for restoration there, or sale.

We also fixed a few missing interactions, such as bashing canisters that were installed, or replying to Reassure social moves.

The powerviz feature was missing gray icons to show unpowered items, and this is now fixed. Plus, the recurring hourly Facilities Fee from OKLG should stop recurring now (may require undocking again from OKLG to stop it). And the tutorial/encounter telling players about unpaid fees should no longer appear on derelict undocking.

Finally, there's a new debug tool in the debug overlay you can access by typing UNLOCKDEBUG. This tool lets you respawn any ship not currently loaded on screen. This was mainly added to rescue the few players who had their OKLG stations destroyed due to a bug in the 0.9.0.2 experimental build yesterday.

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 v0.9.0.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update built in response to player feedback gathered over the last few days. The patch fixes several bugs and includes a general balance pass to make our new condition features less oppressive.

Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Changed ships to deteriorate over time much slower
  
• Changed ship maneuvers to wear items less
  
• Changed items to take less damage from toggling on/off/opened/closed/etc.
  
• Changed tool condition deterioration rate to be 80x slower
  
• Changed tool battery condition deterioration rate to be 80x slower
  
• Changed tool batteries to use 12x less power (most should now last half a shift of continuous use)
  
• Changed restore/repair action range to be larger, meaning players can reach more parts of their ship
  
• Added a new social move during the police shakedown to quickly exit the persuasion by taking a heavy fine.
  
• Fixed a bug where some items repaired at 0x speed
  
• Fixed a bug in which the Mescaform coffee shop was inaccessible
  
• Fixed a bug where batteries would show different charges inside and outside tools or in the damage tooltip
  
• Changed conduits and equipment to take less damage from sparks
  
• Changed airlock to have comparable health to doors (was previously about 20x normal door leading people to believe it was not being restored)
  
• Added warnings to starting ships to indicate difficulty
  
• Added air pump, O2 cans, and laser battery charger items to OKLG Scrap Kiosk
  
• Added objective to use the "x" key to toggle on damage indicator
  
• Added condition% to items in the top right tooltip
  
• Fixed a bug where EVA with no battery showed NaN battery in tooltip
  
• Fixed a bug where Halvorson tool battery had inventory option
  
• Fixed a bug where placing Gott and Halverson tool batteries inside EVA charger broke context menu
  
• Added damage sprite to Turbo Air Pump (working) item
  
• Fixed several bugs where the an item restored to 100% condition after being bashed to 0%
  
• Fixed a bug where the Hydra turned into a Kang when damaged
  
• Added damage sprite to battery (low power) item
  
• Fixed a bug where stations would not spawn damaged after a save/load
  
• Fixed a bug where O2 sensors disappear on uninstall
  
• Fixed a bug where running out of batteries was failing to throw alert
  

The primary balance changes here are the increases in ship, tool, and battery wear times. With this patch in place, you should have more time and resources to restore the broken parts on your ship instead of having to constantly juggle batteries.

In addition, we've made a raft of quality of life changes, including expanding the range for repair/restore actions, meaning you should see less "cannot reach" errors when working on your ship.

Note to players with regards to starting ships: ships should be able to last flying to a few derelicts before breaking down, so there is not an immediate need to fix up the entire ship. (Unless you want to!) But do take note of the newly added safety warnings as a measure of starting difficulty.

Finally we've squashed a whole bunch of bugs, most of which had to do with our new condition system and the "bash" action.

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