Ostranauts News

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

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.0.6 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 unkillable NPCs, some NPC transit and population issues, some non-OKLG gigs, 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 prevented tough characters from being killed by wounds.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented NPCs from using transit while on a fully-loaded ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented dead NPCs from being removed from stations.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the REDACTED plot to leave plot variables and conversation options open the player after it ended.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused non-OKLG gigs to have strange names, distances, or be missing.
  
• Added a new Heavy gig type.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented stations from spawning new maintenance techs if one existed anywhere else in the System.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused civilians without suits to visit LA construction zones.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to spawn new scavenger pilots when perfectly good ones already existing in nearby stations.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused null exceptions when AI ship failed to find a path to destination.
  
• Fixed Mars atmo values to be match surface pressure of 0.61kPa.
  
• Fixed a missing sprite on the Compact S Battery.
  
• Fixed a bug which reported embassy visa transactions as a credit instead of a debit.
  

We had a bug in our wound calculations that effectively made Tough characters unkillable, except by non-wound methods. This resulted in some combat victims remaining alive despite ridiculous amounts of punishment, like an action hero in an 80's movie.

This patch also includes several fixes for the system that handles NPC spawning and traffic. One bug was causing the game to spawn new scavenger pilots instead of recycling available ones. Another was causing NPCs to fail in using the transit system. Yet another was causing maintenance techs not to spawn where they are needed, and not be able to drag corpses to dispose of them.

All of these issues should be improved in the game now, and should hopefully help with overpopulation issues in longer saves, going forward.

The gig system also had some kinks in it which made it produce strange gigs when not on OKLG (e.g. Venus). This patch includes several fixes there to make them more sensible, plus add a new "heavy" gig.

The REDACTED plot had some errors in how it resolved, which could leave redundant conversation options and other stats on the player, and this should be better now.

Plus an array of other null and miscellaneous bug 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!

Please welcome our new friends at Kitfox Games, community manager Alexandra and director Tanya. Some of you may know them for their publishing work with the devs of Dwarf Fortress and Caves of Qud. We've known them for a while through our indie dev circles. And today we’d like to announce that Kitfox will be helping us reach 1.0 launch next year in 2025. We hope that this new collaboration will not only give us the support we need to focus on developing the remainder of our roadmap, but also entice more people to check out Ostranauts.

We've put together a new trailer to show the latest state of the game, to announce the upcoming launch timing, and reveal the new publishing partnership. Please give it a watch, and share it with anyone you think might enjoy it:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Our Across the System Update 0.14 is now on the Steam default branch. You can read all the patch notes and update information here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/6647962234211919914

Speaking of updates, here is the new version of our roadmap, outlining our development plan leading up to 2025, and beyond. Our hope is that by 1.0, you will have a robust feature set and ample content to play with, and that we will be able to continue to update and improve Ostranauts well into the post-1.0 future.




What else can you expect from this new partnership?

Of course we'll continue to post patch notes and other updates, but you might also be hearing more about community events and other exciting things we are doing with Kitfox’s help. You’re welcome to join the Ostranauts channel on the Kitfox Discord server, as there will be many Dwarf Fortress and Caves of Qud fans who might be intrigued by what Ostranauts offers, and they could use an experienced scavenger to offer tips and tricks.

We will be hosting a special stream on the Blue Bottle Twitch channel to commemorate the announcement tomorrow, September 5th, at 1pm Pacific (8pm UTC). Alexandra from Kitfox will be joining us as we discuss the latest .14 patch and future updates.

If you’d like to ask us questions, there is also an AMA scheduled on r/games on September 10th, from 9-11 am PST. Daniel, Joshu, Corey, and Kitfox will be around, so join us if you’d like to discuss this update, the partnership, or Ostranauts development in general.

You can also sign up for our email newsletter for updates directly to your inbox!

And as always, we’d love to hear what YOU think about this news, the new update, or even what you'd like to see post-1.0. We couldn't have gotten this far without your help, and we'll keep doing what we can to make Ostranauts your go-to place for noir spaceship-life gaming.


Best,
Dan, Tanya, and Alexandra

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.0.0 is now available on Steam opt-in beta branch public_test. Named "Across the System," this update gives a sneak peek into our next major feature update, and includes several new content and gameplay systems to explore.

As many of you have noticed, this one took a long time. Longer than usual for us, and we're not the fastest team to begin with. For that, I apologize!

We still have a little ways to go on this update, but it's finally in a place where we think folks can have fun with it, kick the landing gear, and let us know what is working and what isn't. And with a bit of work, we can hopefully get it working smoothly enough to switch focus to our next milestone, Fire in the Hold!



[h2]For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.[/h2]
Old saves won't work in v0.13.99.x and later, and even if they technically load, a lot of the new content will not appear in older saves. We created a new opt-in branch on Steam called legacy_13 if you wish to continue your current v0.13.x character. See Steam's Tech Support forums for more info on opting-into other branches.

• A complete changelist may be too long to post here, so I'll try to stick to the major changes.
  
• Added the ability to use the torch drive to fly long distances.
  
• Changed the fusion reactor to be a more modular design, and to use less fuel on idle.
  
• Added an amount of new content to Venus, equal to that of OKLG.
  
• Added basic port services to all other stations in the Solar System.
  
• Added cargo pod trading between stations.
  
• Added a System-wide economy simulation.
  
• Added g-forces and their effects to the game.
  
• Added a new super-fast-forward button to skip 1-6 hours into the future.
  
• Added atmospheric flying, lift, drag, and aerodynamic parts and rotors to help with it.
  
• Added crushing damage from extreme atmo pressure differences.
  
• Added new interplanetary gigs on the Gig Nexus.
  
• Added ability to buy player-owned apartments, accessible via station transit, with their own docking ports.
  
• Added ability to obtain permanent resident visas for OKLG and Venus, which unlocks buying apartments and better cargo trade rates.
  
• Added NAV feature to match velocity to target.
  
• Added NAV feature to hold forward thrust with a toggle.
  
• Added NAV feature to plot a long range (torch drive) course and have autopilot fly it for you.
  
• Added racing leagues as a way to earn money by flying time attack courses.
  
• Changed NAV fast-forward to be clearer and easier to use, to help see future ship/planet positions.
  
• Changed derelict break-in simulation to produce more interesting and balanced wrecks.
  
• Changed restoring items to be slower, and repairing damaged items results in a barely working item that needs restoring.
  
• Added ability to buy damaged items, repair them, and sell back for a profit.
  
• Added ability to train more skills.
  
• Added 2 new entity types that can be encountered in personnel combat.
  
• Added transparent window hull parts.
  
• Changed HUD status indicators to be animated status bars, and added one for hygiene.
  
• Changed main game HUD layout, fonts, and UI design style.
  
• Changed laser torch to be a more effective weapon, especially against [redacted].
  
• Added several new items, including clothes, cargo pods, pharmaceuticals, studying aids, new hull parts, and weapons.
  
• Added an ambient occlusion shadow effect to make the game world easier to understand, visually.
  
• Added new ambient daylight lighting to the game.
  
• Added new paperdoll sprites for certain weapons.
  
• Added ability to customize save file location.
  
• Added new ship editor feature to save unfinished construction stages of ship designs.
  
• Fixed missing heat production from humans and other equipment.
  
• Added a wiki for Ostranauts, accessible via the main menu button.
  
• Fixed several bugs and other issues.
  

Possibly the flagship feature here is "you can now go to other places besides OKLG." Not only do ships have the means to fly there, we've given you some tools to help you get there as a player. Long range course plotting and autopilot, super fast forward, high-acceleration torch drives...the System is your oyster.

That said, I want to be clear that not every new place in the System is equal!

We spent most of our content development time working on the Venus region. And as a reference point, expect to find about as much content around Venus as you currently do around OKLG.

And the rest of the System? You can go there, too. Each station will have at least the basics you'd need to refuel, repair, trade cargo. Maybe do some gigs or mini plots. The goal is to fill-out another of these major areas in the next milestone, and possibly more beyond that if time allows.

To help with this distinction, you'll notice we have new NAV symbols on the map. Full-content stations like OKLG and Venus are solid, white diamonds. While unfinished content places are dashed, gray diamonds. The diamonds also include an upper or lower triangle inside to help you determine if it is a ground station or an orbital, since ground stations have their own challenges to overcome, like gravity, and sometimes atmosphere.



Speaking of atmosphere, we now have that, too!

Certain planets now have their own, unique atmosphere. And flying in them will feel different from what you may be used to in Ostranauts. The biggest difference is likely to be drag, or air resistance, which will get stronger the faster your ship moves. To help with reducing this effect, we now have aerodynamic ship parts, which usually translates into higher air speeds.

Supposing you kit out your ship (or build a new one) to fly faster in the atmosphere, this will open up some new activities to try out around the aerostats. For one thing, there is a new racing league kiosk that will allow you to test your ship (and piloting skills) on time attack courses against other NPCs. Winners get prize money, and advance to the next league.

You'll also be able to take advantage of the better buying/selling prices of captive markets in Venus's gravity/atmo well. Captains able to bypass the significant markups at the orbital station can sell directly to hungry markets downwell.

Or participate in the lucrative smuggling opportunity selling proprietary aerostat tech from Newcal to its jealous neighbor aerostat, Encantado.

Of course, Venus doesn't get all the fun. You'll encounter new content and features almost immediately upon exiting character creation on OKLG.

The new modular reactor means you can custom-build a power system to match whatever ship role you envision. Want cheap, endless power? Design the reactor around minimal footprint and efficiency, and run a contained reaction on a trickle of fuel.

Want to reduce all occupants in your ship to human soup through thrust? Gear-up the reactor for maximum throughput, open up that aperture, and laugh at your crewmates as their skeletons crumble into the floor plates.



Oh yeah. Ships now produce g-forces when accelerating, and it's a delicate balancing act between getting there fast and blacking-out, or worse, from high-g maneuvers, or taking longer, but using more supplies. Fortunately, the new throttle controls and pharmaceutical tools will help take the edge off.

You should also see changes within the first couple derelicts you visit. The code that simulated derelict damage was updated to produce more interesting (and economically balanced) wrecks.

And it's not just in-game stuff we've worked on. Users with non-standard PC setups (or limited C: space) will hopefully welcome the new ability to change your save folder location. And the beginnings of a wiki are now reachable via the main menu button, so we can hopefully offer new users more comprehensive help when the in-game information falls short.

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 via the forums or our Discord (also linked on the game's main menu), if you're enjoying this new update, as well as if it reveals new problems!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC