Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.6.2.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

Some significant changes to the timer system in this patch, aimed at reducing cases of sudden hypoxia and temperature/pressure spikes, plus other changes.

Specifically:

• Fixed a bug that would cause hypoxia due to a timer sync loss.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause Nausea to loop endlessly.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused room gases/temps to spike when door uninstalled.
  
• Added ability to uninstall sinks.
  
• Added button to randomize player name in character creation.
  
• Added buttons to fine-tune player's facial features during character creation.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused strange relationships if player renamed themselves after gaining contacts.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused tooltip to appear in all control panels after using supply kiosk.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause errors if objective tried to stack on another objective and one of them had a null property.
  
• Changed starting room temperature to be comfortable, instead of cold.
  

This patch includes a major change to the way sim timers update, to avoid cases like the sudden hypoxia that would appear on players. We'll be watching this patch closely, as such a major change is inherently risky. However, several hours of testing so far seems to show it working as intended.

There are also some fixes to nausea getting stuck on players, and gas stats spiking when uninstalling doors between rooms.

Character customization got a boost, with the ability to now randomize name, and fine-tune appearance. Plus, the sink can now be uninstalled!

And the usual attendant smaller fixes feature in this patch, too.

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 v0.6.2.6 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

We may finally have a fix for the crazy atmo pressures and temperatures, plus several other annoyances and potential game-corrupters.

Specifically:

• Fixed a bug that caused game to crash if selected save file was not found due to saveinfo mismatch.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause crashes to occur on loading a save.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause crazy gas pressures and temperatures if low framerate mixed with high fast-forward.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused humans to prefer breathing from canisters underfoot, instead of own suit or room.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause game to misbehave or crash if AI changed relationship status with null.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused relationship participant names to be swapped in log updates.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused EVA battery to lack PickupItem action.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused EVA battery and O2 bottle to stop updating after loading a save file.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed names to be infinitely long, resulting in performance issues and crashes.
  
• Changed save slot prefab to have smaller text size, to fit text better at lower resolutions.
  
• Fixed bug that caused warning to get stuck on nav screen if maneuvering while clamped.
  

One of the big ones this patch is atmo bugs. Some players were still seeing weird atmo pressures and temps, and this may have been more common when low framerate combined with fast-forward. A few record-keeping tweaks should hopefully see the end of that issue!

AI was also trying to breathe out of canisters if players got too close, so that had to be guarded against. And the EVA had some bugs involving their batteries and O2 bottles.

Finally, there were a handful of less common bugs that, nevertheless, could cause strange game behavior or crashes which are now 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 v0.6.2.5 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

While a few game-stopping bugs are fixed here, a lot of these are more subtle, or take a while to end the game. Plus, some quality of life changes.

Specifically:

• Fixed a bug that could cause conditions to increment on save/load due to side effects accumulating each load.
  
• Added ability to uninstall unpowered and damaged nav stations.
  
• Added button to clear proximity alarm.
  
• Fixed bug that caused AI to quit repairing after delivering supplies to target.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused player ship to appear inside Ganymed 1036 after loading a save.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused derelicts to drift far away from K-Leg after docking and undocking with them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused inventory items to become diagonal.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause social combat to be stuck with no choices if NPC failed to choose reply.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause social combat to be stuck with no choices if NPC died.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed social moves involving dead people.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause inventory tooltip to remain stuck after item under it was removed.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed player to glitch through closed doors.
  
• Removed nav station course correction check task for now.
  

One of the big ones this patch is also the most subtle: side-effects were being reapplied each save/load cycle, which could cause all sorts of symptoms on characters as games got older. One of the most obvious cases was overheating being stuck on the captain, despite normal atmo temperature. Hopefully, with that fixed, we'll see fewer late-game deaths and other weirdness.

Also, you can now clear the proximity alarm! And uninstall nav stations and RCS thrusters while they're off!

AI will resume repairs after delivering items. Socializing should cause fewer soft-locks. And several other issues addressed.

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 v0.6.2.4 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly. Hopefully, this addresses most (if not all) of the strange atmospheric stats we've been seeing.

Specifically:

• Fixed a bug that could cause NaN gas stats.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause wild atmo pressure fluctuations.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused game to crash on quit/death.
  
• Added ability to rotate inventory items while dragging them via R key.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused instant death when undocking from OKLG while facing sunward.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused objects on a ship to stop updating after re-docking with it.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused stations and ships to suddenly overheat/overpressure after returning from a long absence.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ship's gravity to be calculated incorrectly.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause an error when spawning inventory items.
  
• Changed patrol ship AI to crash with player less often.
  
• Added log message when character changes work shifts, to alert player.
  

Is this the end of wild/NaN gas issues? Too soon to tell. But testing so far hasn't shown it in the usual places, so I'm hopeful.

Also, with the undocking and AI patrol changes, we should be seeing fewer deaths by events beyond player control.

And of course, fewer crashes on quit, and some other cases.

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 v0.6.2.3 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly. We might have finally found and fixed the "walking in place" bug! It was a bit of a bear to find and fix, but with any luck, incidents of it will be reduced.

As a result, fewer other fixes this patch. But we'll keep at it for the next one.

Specifically:

• Fixed a bug that caused player to walk in place and ignore most commands.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused loaded crew to gain extra copies of stat timers.
  
• Changed NPCs to not use killing player as a social coping mechanism.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused tooltips to go off screen in supply kiosk.
  
• Fixed two incorrect RCS thruster orientations on Edelweiss ship.
  
• Changed Zones and Social buttons to be disabled for now. (To avoid bugs.)
  
• Added log message when character changes work shifts.
  

Still working on a fix for the NaN/giant pressure numbers, a more accurate ground inventory grid, and trying to get the AI to remember jobs after they are abandoned.

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