Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.12 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, which adds several long-requested character creation changes, plus fixes for AI and some other UIs.

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.

• Terry's MopTops mod is now officially part of Ostranauts! This adds dozens of new hairstyles and beards.
  
• Sink UI now has indicators for which face part is currently selected, and how many others are available.
  
• Character will now show teeth when changing teeth selection in the sink UI.
  
• Sink UI's hand skin will now change with updated skin type.
  
• Players can now select multiple skills and traits at the same time in the career kiosk (like NEO Scavenger did).
  
• Ugly/Beautiful and Trusting/Suspicious are now correctly anti-traits of each other.
  
• Log no longer spams messages about losing and gaining Shipbreaker career each year.
  
• The young adult threshold range was changed so most players won't encounter it until 20, instead of 19.
  
• Laser torch and hoodie item loot in Seek Adventure is now delivered to the player.
  
• Items should have fewer invisibly-blocked inventory grid spaces now.
  
• Disassembling or destroying items in stacks should cause fewer bugs now.
  
• AI shouldn't choose void tiles as wander destinations anymore.
  
• AI shouldn't spam anti-nausea pills anymore if they are not nauseous.
  
• Crew is now able to access the player's residence via transit.
  
• Alarm/sensor triggering no longer causes them damage, which should make them last longer.
  
• Door lock UI should correctly detect the user's hacking skill now, even if not the captain.
  
• Door lock UI should now alert the user there is no power when they attempt to hack an unpowered door.
  
• The PDA Order toggle buttons should now look more like toggles.
  
• The PDA Install and Order buttons now have a rollover effect.
  
• Damaged FURN items should no longer be in PDA install list.
  
• Unused floating text items were removed from the game, for better performance.
  
• Autopause now ignores more cases that were unimportant/redundant.
  
• Old ledger items and late fees are now consolidated into fewer lines, for better performance.
  
• All payable ledger items are now always visible on the current shift page.
  

One of the more exciting changes in this update is the inclusion of the MopTops mod! We reached out to Terry to officially purchase rights to use his hair and beard designs in the game, and players can now enjoy a much wider range of possible styles.

While we were in there, we also added a few other tweaks to the sink UI that folks have been asking for. Individual parts now show the current ID and total available, to help find the same one again later. The character will now expose their teeth when changing that setting. And the hand will update color with the rest of the skin changes.

In the career editor, we finally restored the skill/trait selection page to the multi-buy style it originally had (and like NEO Scavenger's). Now, players can "buy" skills and traits using years of training, and some negative traits can help offset that cost.

However! Note that buying skills and traits this way is often more costly than using Seek Adventure, where each event only costs 1 year. The trade-off is that Seek Adventure is a bit more random, and can come with a mix of positives and negatives. But it is usually a net positive, and also may reward you with money or contacts, the latter of which you cannot get any other way except later in-game.

We also (finally!) fixed the missing item loot on some career events.

We fixed a few item-related bugs that were causing either invisibly-blocked grid spaces and/or null exceptions. These were often when manipulating items in stacks or installing stackable items like conduits.

AI should now be smarter about choosing wander destinations, by only choosing tiles with breathable atmosphere. This should also help some cases where AI spawned in the void. AI also got some extra help in avoiding slamming down anti-nausea pills "just for fun." Crew can also now use transit to reach the player's residence(s).

The door lock UI had some slight changes to it to help new users who access it on unpowered doors. And alarms/sensors should no longer be damaged when they trigger, making them last much longer in rooms like the reactor chamber.

The PDA Order and Install UIs had some reskinning done, particularly to the toggles for filtering orders. They should now look and behave more like buttons. And some redundant FURN items were removed from the Install menu.

Finally, some changes to the ledger and other areas of the game should hopefully make things perform better, and run a bit smoother.

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 Spacers,

It’s Alexandra from Kitfox again with another Ostranauts Community update. First and foremost, we’ve been working with the dev team to make a more detailed Roadmap which outlines the updates you can expect between now and 1.0 release. Thanks to all your support, we’ve been able to extend development and add Hardening Phase 1 and 2 and much more. We also have plans for future updates after 1.0. We don’t have any release dates to share at this time and details may change as we go along. See below for an FAQ that covers our Early Access plans in more detail.



If you’ve been on the fence about getting Ostranauts, now is a great time to jump in and play! Already this year we’ve updated the game several times with user interface and new player tutorial improvements. You can read the full update and patch notes for yesterday's update here.

[h2]Steam Daily Deal Today![/h2]

As an added bonus, Ostranauts is 20% off from today starting at 10am PST/ 1pm EST till January 30th. Tell your friends, your family, your teacher… anyone who wants to explore the dangers of space travel with disastrous (and fun) results!

We also have bundled with the immersive sandbox detective stealth game Shadows of Doubt! If you own one game, you can get the other with a discount. It’s the perfect starter kit for games that have systematically simulated sci-fi worlds. Check out the Shadows of Ostranauts bundle:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47261/Shadows_of_Ostranauts/

[h2]Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode Launch[/h2]

Today we are releasing Adventure Mode for Dwarf Fortress, a sandbox RPG that allows you to form a party and explore your generated world. It’s a completely new way to play Dwarf Fortress and it’s also on sale starting today (at 10am PST/ 1pm EST) at 20% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/

[h2]FAQ[/h2]

Q: Why Early Access?

A: We want Ostranauts to become a storytelling platform for space crews in a dystopian System. It's a tall order to fill, and fan feedback has been, and will continue to be, a crucial part of achieving that goal.

Ostranauts is very much a spiritual sequel to Blue Bottle Games’s previous game NEO Scavenger. NEO Scavenger famously held a long early access period, during which the game significantly evolved based on player feedback. Ostranauts follows this precedent.

Q: Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

A: Our earlier estimate was approximately four years (late 2020-2024), with a fairly lengthy list of features/content we wanted to add, plus room to incorporate player feedback. During that time, we've been able to add most of those features, including significant improvements suggested by our players.

As we enter our fifth year, we feel confident we can add the last major feature milestone (ship-to-ship combat and fire simulation), plus the supporting content and features to make it worthwhile. Our plan includes time to work on fixing issues and quality of life concerns before we exit Early Access, which is anticipated to be in 2025.

Q: How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

A: Feel free to check out our roadmap on Steam, or on our Discord, for a complete list of what we've planned vs. finished.

But as of now (January 2025), upcoming changes players can expect by launch include:
Ship-to-Ship Combat
One More Major Solar System Location
One More Major Plot
Fire Simulation
Quality of Life and UI/UX Improvements
Performance Optimization

Q: What is the current state of the Early Access version?

A: Players can currently make a custom character, and fly their starting ship around the boneyard to explore and salvage procedurally generated derelicts. They can use the parts and/or proceeds from that to modify their own ship in any way they want, and/or buy new ships for personal use or repair and resale (a.k.a. ship-flipping).

Players can also take part in short paid missions (gigs), participate in both bespoke and procedurally generated plots, participate in ship racing leagues, or buy and sell commodities for profit (i.e. space trucker).

The game currently has the ability to hire and manage crew, personnel combat, a procedural social interaction system, gamified negotiations (a.k.a. social combat), and a detailed simulation of both social and physiological needs.

The game world consists of two major locations with fleshed-out content (OKLG and Venus), plus a range of procedurally-generated minor locations with basic services.

The game is fairly stable, with most systems experiencing occasional minor bugs. Most bugs can either be ignored or fixed by a save/reload. But some more serious bugs can occur over time, and we generally aim to fix game-breaking bugs as soon as possible.

The UI/UX of the game is functional, but can be janky in places. Most players are able to get along with it as-is, but we are still aiming to smooth out more rough edges before launch.

We regularly update the status of the build with announcements on the Steam Community Hub, as well as notes in-game. Builds tend to be multiple per month, except during some major feature pushes. And we frequently interact with players on our Discord, Reddit, and Steam forums.

Q: Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

A: It is possible the game will have an increase in price at 1.0 launch. The current price was set at Early Access launch, and the scope of the game has changed considerably since then.

Q: How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

A: Blue Bottle Games already has a reputation of directly chatting with fans across multiple platforms, including our Discord, Reddit, the Steam Forums, and our various social media accounts.

Our development team primarily uses Discord to talk with each other, so we tend to interact with fans most on there. But our interactions happen frequently on all of the above locations. And we plan to continue this level of player interaction.

-Alexandra

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.11 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, and includes some fixes for AI behavior, UI, and various crashes/soft locks.

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.

• Putting leggings inside themselves will no longer destroy the universe.
  
• Using super fast-forward across shifts will now correctly update crew shifts when done.
  
• AI will now try to remove/refresh the air in their helmets at 1.5kPa CO2, instead of 2.0kPa.
  
• Using transit on OKLG to the Port sector will no longer deposit the character inside walls.
  
• It is no longer possible to choose ambient occlusion settings above 4, which is the max intended limit.
  
• The options to use pills and drinks, and trade with NPCs and kiosks, are all now higher in the context menu.
  
• The UI will no longer get stuck after exiting the signal connection UI if user doesn't select a target.
  
• NPCs will no longer use terminals to play games. Only arcade machines.
  
• NPCs will be more likely to limit playing games during work shifts now.
  
• NPCs will no longer watch TV during non-Free shifts, and will limit binging TV.
  

One of the more serious bugs fixed by this patch is also one of the funnier ones. Attempting to put leggings into their own pocket would cause infinite recursion, crashing the game. The game will now disallow placing items inside themselves.

The threshold for when AI decides to refresh/remove helmets was lowered to 1.5kPa, which is where the helmet CO2 alarm kicks-in. Previously, they would wait until 2.0kPa, which was cutting it too close to hazard passing out.

We also fixed the bug that prevented AI from updating their work shifts after finishing a period in super fast-forward. And tempered the AI's predilection to playing games and watching TV, even when they were supposed to be working.

We adjusted the ambient occlusion slider to max out at 4, instead of 10, which was intended to be our maximum setting. Over 4, the main visual impact it would produce is progressively slower framerate, even on high-end GPUs.

Context menu options for drinking, using pills, and trading were all adjusted to be higher priority, so they are more likely to be the first option in the list (instead of drop/pick-up).

And the signal UI will no longer get stuck with a blank screen if the user cancels out of connecting an appliance to a sensor.

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 v0.14.2.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, focusing on improving the new player tutorial, plus several player-reported bugs and pain points.

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.

• There is a new tutorial derelict spawned at the end of the new game tutorial sequence, guaranteeing that users get useful loot to sell on their first trip.
  
• Starting tutorial had several improvements made to wording and logic.
  
• Added a new tutorial step to remind players to hide damage overlay again after using it.
  
• The MegaTooltip UI now begins the game collapsed, with a tutorial explaining how to expand it.
  
• Destructive actions on objects are now always listed last, to avoid mis-clicks in the context menu.
  
• The Escape key will now correctly close the QAB before the inventory UI, even after the target item changes modes.
  
• Sinks will no longer display two "Restore" options.
  
• Exiting a UI with an open drop-down menu no longer soft locks left mouse button.
  
• Using PASS to visit a station for the first time no longer skips intro encounter screen.
  
• PASS will no longer take players to the LA construction zone.
  
• PASS trips will no longer double-charge upon arrival.
  
• Ledger line items will no longer get stuck unpaid in past pages due to rounding errors.
  
• Work lamps no longer operate without batteries.
  
• Thermostats and other alarms switching states should now cause less lag.
  
• The way game data jsons are loaded should now produce less memory waste.
  
• Buy/sell prices adjusted to better support flipping damaged items for profit.
  
• NAV's Match Speed function will no longer have stuck thrusters after player releases thrust keys.
  
• Undocking no longer gets stuck showing previous ship's docking ring if user exits the UI before it had a chance to clear.
  
• Prescription painkillers no longer mention OTC painkillers in the log.
  
• NPCs will no longer recreationally drop social moves on the floor.
  
• Items that are dropping and fail for some reason should now get correctly added to the ship, instead of becoming ghost items.
  
• Missing drag slot items will no longer throw null exceptions when save games load.
  
• Stackable items should now cause fewer null exceptions when an added item is null.
  
• Katydid ship layout adjusted to allow access to its NAV station.
  
• NPCs should no longer spawn outside the aerostat in Encantado's lounge.
  
• Sleep states now have more descriptive tooltips.
  

The new tutorial derelict is one of the more noticeable changes in this update. Historically, players were at the mercy of RNG when docking with their first derelict. And in some cases, this derelict could be nothing more than a docking ring and a trash pile or two, making it completely useless.

Now, if the player is following the beginning tutorial, the game will spawn a special derelict near OKLG after the player finishes the maneuvering portion. This new derelict has a fixed layout, and is designed a bit like a puzzle box to help new players acquaint themselves with the game's many systems. It also shields them from police, hauler, and salvager interference for the first little while as they get their feet wet.

We also changed a number of things in the starting tutorial to make it more player friendly and helpful. This ranges from clearer wording to new tutorial steps, aimed at both educating players better, and reducing frustration.

Speaking of player frustration, the options to Scrap, Uninstall, Dismantle, and Bash are now prevented from appearing at the top of the quick action button (QAB) list. Many players were tripped-up by those options sometimes appearing as hotkey 1, where we usually have innocuous actions like Inventory or Use.

That, plus the QAB should now correctly close first when hitting Escape, even after the targeted item changes state (e.g. off to on, opened to closed, etc.).

The PASS service and ledger had a number of fixes applied. Plus work lamps will no longer run without power. (Sorry!)

A few minor performance improvements also made their way into this build. First, the thermostat/alarm lag bug should be fixed, as the game will no longer recalculate room stats every time one of those changed color or switched on/off.

Second, the way we log info while opening game data (jsons) is now more memory efficient.

Finally, there were a number of null error and other fixes added as part of this patch.

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!

Just a stealth patch here to address a bug which was causing tooltips to get stuck showing the same message until a reload. This patch should prevent that from happening anymore.

As always, let us know if this doesn't resolve the issue for you, or causes other issues!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC