Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a feature update to our recently released "Across the System" update, continuing the HUD and UI rework, plus several bug fixes and improvements.

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.

• Crew portrait/stat area can now toggle between stat bars for current character and multi-crew overview modes.
  
• Crew portraits now have rank/shift icons for quick info.
  
• Date/time now in the bottom right, and less glaring size/color.
  
• Message log now in bottom center of HUD.
  
• Escape menu total redesign including new options to quit to desktop, save on close toggle, and recent save indicator.
  
• Escape menu now dims out game in background to be less distracting.
  
• Ultrawide resolutions no longer block mouse clicks near the top right of screen.
  
• Several other minor UI tweaks and fixes.
  

• It is now possible to stop dragging an unconscious person if they wake up in your arms.
  
• Ships that the player buys should not longer spawn inside nearby planets/asteroids, destroying them instantly.
  
• Pirates should no longer swarm space stations upon player leaving that planetary region.
  
• Combat tackle behavior improvements.
  
• Clicking player portrait now centers camera on player automatically.
  
• Vodka bottles and other miscellaneous containers can no longer contain an infinite amount of gas.
  
• Additional police witnesses will no longer arrest the player again immediately after player finishes the arrest encounter with the first officer.
  
• Critter plot more likely to be noticed now.
  
• Changed the way REDACTED can spread to other tiles and ships.
  
• Ships in NAV station that should not be visible should no longer flicker visibly.
  
• Scavenger spawn rates should be more well-behaved now.
  
• Pirates' transponders should remain off after a save/load.
  
• Kiosk and trader restock rates should be more predictable now.
  
• ATC should no longer be missing from the ATC comms channel.
  
• Police ships should no longer run out of fuel when their maneuvering AI finishes too far away for their docking AI to take over.
  

This update continues our hardening and quality-of-life (QoL) improvements phase, addressing some more HUD and UI elements, plus working on gameplay and other issues reported by players.



We received quite a lot of feedback about the date UI being too large, central, and "in your face," so we are trying a new layout where it is more subtle, and in the lower corner. (Coincidentally, this is the same place that UI began its life years ago!)

This allowed us to move the message log more towards the middle, which is more in line with many traditional crpgs.

We also added a new toggle to the lower left corner where player stat bars are. When you first gain a crew member, or when you toggle the CREW button there, the stat bars will be replaced by a scrolling list of crew status cards. In each, you can see some high level info on that crew member, plus be able to click on them to jump directly to them. All crew portraits also now sport icons for the current crew rank and shift.

The escape menu also received quite a bit of rework. Buttons should now be laid out a little more in line with their priority. These include some new buttons to quit directly to desktop, a toggle to automatically save on close, and an indicator to tell the user if they have saved during this game session or not. There is also now a link to the official Steam guide to help new users who prefer a more guided tour of the game, instead of the manual or tutorial prompts.



On the game side, we fixed the bug which caused dragged unconscious people to be un-droppable if they woke up. Newly purchased ships will no longer spawn inside Ganymed 1036 when OKLG station is positioned "just right." And clicking the player portrait now auto-centers the camera on that character.

We saw a number of reports about swarms of pirates brawling on stations after a player left and returned to a region of the System. And it turned out this was due to the regional clean-up code moving NPCs back to the station. It shouldn't do that with pirates anymore, who now go to a "special place" where they won't interfere with the station folk. (Note, however, that if pirates have previously been "cleaned up" the old way in a save, they will remain there.)

We noticed a bug in the way AI chose combat moves, which over-used tackle as an option. So we did some fixing and tweaking there to make combat more variable. We also did a bit of tweaking on the tackle move itself, to make the UX smoother.

We also finally patched the vodka bottle infinite gas exploit, and are working to fix other cases of that exploit. A few plot-related fixes also feature in this build, including a fix to the way REDACTED jumps ships.

Plus a number of other fixes.

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 v0.14.1.3 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 makes some improvements to how the quick actions menu, tooltips, and Esc key work.

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.

• MegaTooltip and Quick Action Buttons no longer close when inventory opens.
  
• Tooltip no longer goes out of screen.
  
• Quick Action Buttons no longer goes off screen when target does.
  
• Esc key will now do actions in the following order: exit PDA, exit control panel, deselect item, close inventory, close Esc menu, close zones UI, then open Esc menu.
  
• Middle mouse button dragging now pans the camera.
  
• Quick Action Buttons now temporarily hides instead of closing while item is attached to inventory cursor.
  
• Quick Action Buttons no longer opens on paperdoll wounds.
  
• Dragging the Quick Action Buttons no longer clicks through, causing character to pathfind to clicked tile underneath.
  
• REDACTED ship comms rumors no longer appear in Quick Action Buttons when player selects self.
  
• Quick Action Buttons buttons are no longer illegible and dark if they had an unrecognized action type.
  

Most of the changes here address issues players ran into with the new floating Quick Action Buttons (QAB) and tooltips.

Previously, the QAB would close when the inventory opened, or snap to the inventory copy of the target if applicable. And both cases erased the pinned setting and location the user chose earlier. This patch should now honor that pinned location until the user changes it manually.

Furthermore, some targets would go off-screen with the QAB following, making it invisible/unusable. The QAB now stops at the edge of the screen when its target goes off-screen.

This goes for tooltips now, as well. They should remain on screen and legible even when the mouse is over an item near the top/bottom of the screen.

The Esc key also had a few changes made to it, so it can more reliably back out of open menus and UIs in sequence. It previously would sometimes close multiple UIs at once, but should now close them in a more logical order. Also not that the Esc key can now deselect the current object, closing the QAB and MegaTooltip. (The old way, left-clicking the selected object, still works.)

Since some users mentioned they expected the middle mouse button to allow camera panning, we decided to add that, since it was pretty simple to support!

And we included a few other fixes for bugs and edge cases.

Note that we have a few more HUD changes on the way, including a change to the date/time widget, and the current selected character portrait. So things are still going to move around a bit.

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 v0.14.1.2 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 fixes the buttons in the Ship Editor that were made inaccessible in our last patch, plus optimizes REDACTED.

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.

• Buttons in the Ship Editor bottom row should once again be clickable.
  
• REDACTED should use less CPU now.
  

Just a quick hotfix here to restore lost functionality in the Ship Editor, plus try out an optimization to REDACTED.

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 v0.14.1.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a feature update to our recently released "Across the System" update, and involves a fairly significant HUD change, several quality of life changes, and fixes.

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.

• Quick Action Button menu is now a floating context menu near where user clicked. Can be moved and pinned in place.
  
• Mega Tooltip now has an item value field to show the player approximate (or precise, with Admin skill) item value.
  
• Mega Tooltip now has a hide/show toggle to expand or collapse list of conditions.
  
• Added ability to edit a zone after making it, and they can be non-rectangular now.
  
• PDA frame graphic now hidden when PDA is closed.
  
• Adds link to official Steam Ostranauts Guide to Esc menu.
  
• Trade UI expand/collapse keeps scroll position.
  
• Trade UI Expand/Collapse All button.
  
• Added ability to disable screen shake in Options menu.
  
• PDA colored light icons now show correctly.
  
• Objectives updated to look, animate, and stack more cleanly, and hide less of the UI.
  
• Objectives can now be dismissed via r-click.
  
• Alarm/alert objectives once again pulse red.
  
• Mega Tooltip no longer switches to wrong temperature units after a while.
  
• Clicking the console toggle button no longer causes character to walk to that point.
  
• Game Credits now stop scrolling when the window is closed.
  
• Added missing zone categories for metals.
  
• Holding L-Alt key will briefly show hotkeys mapped to some on-screen buttons. (Work in progress as we add more.)
  

• Autopilot will now correctly assign FLOW/CYCLE for damaged reactors, to better avoid flame-outs.
  
• Autopilot will now warn user when cryo is missing or reactor components are unable to handle CYCLE setting.
  
• Autopilot will now cancel the route if the reactor's laser/pellet FLOW rate has changed significantly, altering route parameters.
  
• Autopilot will no longer replot new path and continue flying when reaching autopilot destination.
  
• Ships should no longer lose room atmosphere when saving and loading after a change to its overall footprint.
  
• Reactant tank prices now include contents.
  
• Repairing doors via PDA order no longer factory resets them (causing crimes).
  
• $0 gigs now correctly report the (under $1>) cost to take them.
  
• Ships purchased from ship broker now collide correctly.
  
• Battery input arrows removed, and all batteries now charge/discharge through same arrow.
  
• Reactors will now recharge all connected batteries, and not just those connected to its input node.
  
• PDA Widget XZ-798/stuck tasks fixed.
  
• Tracking alarm should turn off more reliably now when remote ship no longer tracking player.
  
• Ships should no longer jitter and suddenly explode while docked or undocking.
  
• AIs shouldn't get stuck picking up random junk over and over as often anymore.
  
• NAV Match Velocity mode will correctly honor thrust throttle user has set.
  
• Characters can now attempt to use arcade machines regardless of their mood (though not always succeed).
  
• New paperdoll sprites for drill, angle grinder, and soldering iron.
  
• Some items which previously disappeared when dropped in a container now appear normally.
  
• Several causes of null exceptions have been fixed.
  

This patch is representative of our current "Hardening" phase of development, where we attempt to address bugs, instability, performance, and quality of life (QoL) for our users. It's an important phase we hope to complete before beginning work on new features in our next 0.15 milestone, Fire in the Hold.

A large part of this update is a rework of the HUD and UI to improve quality of life for users.



One of the most noticeable changes is the consolidation of all top and bottom HUD info to live at the bottom of the screen (4), so users don't have to look at opposite sides of the screen to see all the current game state info.

We also moved the Quick Action Button (QAB) panel out (3) from the bottom to be closer to where the user clicks, like a regular context menu would work. It will follow the clicked item around the screen by default, but you can also pin it in place or move it around to where you want it.

The QAB will also now only show filter buttons for action types that are available, instead of all categories all the time. Plus, the window should expand/contract a bit to better fit the list inside.

The Mega Tooltip (MTT) for the selected item now has two new features. First, it will display the monetary value of the item (1) as either a rough approximation, or a better estimate if the current character has the Admin skill.

Second, the MTT now has a Show More/Less toggle (2) to hide all that info if you find it too much clutter.

The objectives also received some love (5), so they look and animate more consistently. They'll only cover a small portion of the page now (which is scrollable), and you can now right-click them to dismiss them, instead of using the tiny corner icon.

Finally, the PDA frame graphic disappears now when the PDA is closed (6), allowing users to see more of the game field. The frame will still appear when the PDA is opened.

Another new QoL feature we added is the ability to edit your zones! Finally, players are able to make non-rectangular zones, and to update them to meet their changing ship's shape. Simply click the pencil icon next to the zone you want to edit, and start selecting tiles to add them (or hold C while selecting to remove).



Our Options menu has a few new features, as well. First, you can now disable screen shake in the Video options. And you'll also now notice the Esc menu has a link to our official Beginner's Guide. Corey's been hard at work writing a guide that should help new players walk through their first 30-60 minutes of Ostranauts.

Also, we were finally able to fix the auto-scrolling in the trade UI. Now, when you expand or collapse containers, the window will remain at the scroll point it was before. The trade UI also now has an Expand All/Collapse All toggle for convenience.

Apart from the UI and HUD, we also made a series of important gameplay fixes and changes.

Autopilot should now be able to handle reactors with damaged components, and adjust the FLOW/CYCLE accordingly so the ship won't flame-out while underway. As part of this, it will also warn the user about situations where it cannot adequately balance those values, and it will cancel itself if the reactor is damaged or repaired in such a way that the route has become obsolete.

Speaking of reactors, they should now recharge any connected battery. And we reworked the batteries to only have one input/output point, since the old separate points were both confusing and broken.

We also found and fixed two more causes of the lost atmosphere in rooms bug. This was being caused by the ship changing overall footprint due to an added/removed item near the edge, and if the user then attempted to save the game, the room data would be lost. The fix should prevent this loss going forward, though it cannot restore lost data in saves where it already happened. (In those cases, the gas is lost forever, but users should be able to refill the rooms and have them work normally from now on.)

Plus, a range of other fixes and improvements!

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,

The team has been hard at work since we announced Kitfox Games as our new publishers and the "Across the System" update went live. Our focus has been on game stability and bug fixes, ranging from wildly misbehaving police that would refuse to do (or hyperactively over-do) their jobs, to spooky bugs where derelicts suddenly disappeared or entire station populations suddenly dropped dead.

Police behaving badly!

The team has also been gradually adding more quality of life improvements based on player feedback, including a new tooltip showing more insight into the inner workings of character AI, as well as a warning when the player is potentially committing a crime.

TV Crimes!

And we’re putting considerable effort into performance optimization, now that the game sessions are growing longer and longer.

Updates have been fast and furious, too, often happening multiple times per week. We had to take a pause for a couple weeks while, unfortunately, Dan attended a funeral. But we expect builds to resume this week.

In happier news, Michael Richardson rejoined the team this month after a long break! Michael is one of the original developers who worked on Ostranauts, and writer of much of the game's setting lore. With luck, his contributions should allow us to accomplish our stability and remaining milestone goals faster.

We also wanted to give a warm welcome to everyone who has picked up the game in the last couple of months. Because of your support, we have more breathing room in our timeline to work on the game. Which means more upgrades and improvements to make Ostranauts better and more approachable before 1.0.

We’ve also been working on populating the Ostranauts Wiki with a small group of community members. It’s far from comprehensive now, but it’s a great starting point for learning the basics. If you’d like to join the effort, please feel free to contribute! Every update, no matter how small, makes this living document a more valuable resource for players.

If you prefer to receive these updates in email form, you can sign up for the Ostranauts newsletter here.

That’s all for now but we will have much more to share in the near future. Thanks for playing!

[h2]Full patchnotes for the update today (v0.14.0.18)[/h2]

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.

Improvements
-Collision avoidance AI now uses a broader rectangle projection instead of a line, for better avoidance.
-Purchased ships now start with their reactor turned off.
-Added current funds info to encounter screens where the player is expected to spend money.
-Changed the aerostat construction zones to use new, improved layouts.
-The aerostat construction zone completes construction over time between visits.
-Changed the loot tables for type of flying and derelict ships to be more coherent.
-Changed apartment prices to be more regionally unique.

Bugfixes
- thrusting should now simulate correctly when using a towing brace
- reactors on derelicts should no longer explode immediately after docking
- autosave/F5 should not soft-lock the game
- super fast forward should not run endlessly until the player died
- orphaned compartments should not be left behind on ships, causing strange pockets of hypoxia or missing atmosphere
- derelicts should not be left with extreme rotational velocities after ships undock from them
- stations like Luna should now have more reasonably small populations
- shift-clicking items that can be dragged when they are also a container (e.g. dolly) should be more consistent
- buying fusion reactant cargo at station markets should be more consistently possible
- the scrap kiosk should no longer provide better prices than the licensed kiosk when the player holds a valid visa
- the game should not soft-lock when selecting a pump's input signal
- directories should be deletable even with '...' in the name
- loose reactor cores should not try and run fusion anyway
- acceleration should not be copied from station/other ship when undocking
- NAV UI should now show more accurate time units when displaying days, months, or years
- ships should no longer suddenly explode when docking with a ship that had a pathfinding error
- crew should no longer be knocked down immediately after loading a save where the crew was maneuvering
- security bots should not attack each other on the aerostat construction zone anymore
- attacks on REDACTED should no longer be considered a crime while on stations
- red attack intent arrows should not remain on the screen after leaving the map via transit
- 4K resolution should have more legible text sizes in encounter UI, debug overlay UI, popup UI, bug log, and console debugger
- console debugger window should now handle resolution changes better
- AIs can access the Gig Nexus kiosk
- stations have correct NAV icon after a save/load
- no longer missing transponder in Heavy Tug 01 ship
- orbitals should move at correct speed for their apopapsis/periapsis, improving gravity effects when undocking
- old saves with incorrect VORB periods should now be repaired.


Performance improvements/optimization for:
- searching within nested objects
- querying the nearest source of gravity
- cargo market queries ship mass
- checking collisions between ships
- on items that respire and are not human
- trigger calculations where the trigger was blank
- pathfinding when querying the properties of tiles
- AI is deciding on next work task
- a placeholder object is re-tasking itself
- requesting a random object from a ship
- cargo market generating several logging messages
- police ship navigation calculations