Ostranauts News

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.0.10 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 derelict flipping, a UI lockout bug, part install repair issues, and a number of other 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 purchased derelicts to be pristine condition if first visited after purchasing.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause null exceptions and user input lockout if the player lacked certain stats when the encounter screen appeared. (E.g. hacking a PDA while lacking an altruism stat)
  
• Fixed the REDACTED plot to have clearer steps, added objective tooltips, and cleaned-up redundant dialogue options after they were done.
  
• Fixed rotor and active stabilizer repair, pickup, and restore issues.
  
• Changed the amount of time necessary to repair and (un)install stabilizers and rotors.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused cargo webs and chairs to ignore tool speed multipliers.
  
• Fixed a bug causing gigs to call VORB_AUX 'Azikiwe Estates Transfer Station'.
  
• Fixed a missing ship type for sale around Venus due to a typo.
  
• Fixed references to FUNDS button in UI to use consistent wording that is clearer.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented obtaining forged visas for OKLG.
  
• Fixed a bug preventing Aero/Plastic/Thin walls to accept PDA Orders.
  
• Added windows to the sundries kiosk.
  
• Fixed a bug making loose 1x3 and 1x2 slants invisible in ground grid.
  
• Removed station reactors from PDA->Install menu.
  
• Fixed a bug allowing Bin2x104s to fit inside themselves (infinite storage exploit).
  
• Changed Toilet/Sink to type APPS (rather than MISC: same skills, but fits the category better).
  
• Added atmospheric stats to Titan, plus parallax images for Titan, Ganymede, and Europa.
  

One of the top issues fixed here is a total UI lockout that could happen if the encounter UI appeared while the player lacked a core stat. It would begin loading, get stuck invisibly, and never exit, leaving the UI to ignore most input from the player.

Generally, these core stats should always be on the character, so this hasn't come up often. But we added code to handle cases where it is true, so the UI can finish loading normally.

We also fixed a bug which caused derelicts to spawn completely undamaged if you bought them from the broker before ever visiting them. This would basically ruin the ship-flipping loop. (Though it was a great source of cash, if you don't mind cheating!)

One of our plots had a number of stages cleaned-up for clarity, better player prompting, and removal of old/redundant dialogue options when in the late stages.

Quite a few items were also addressed, including issues with repair rates, availability in kiosks, or in some cases, missing ability to pick up or repair. This included some housekeeping in the PDA install and orders UIs.

Finally, we added some data to spawn atmosphere on Titan, and show that moon, plus Ganymede and Europa when near them. (Note this will only apply to new saves, since the old Solar System layout/data is saved with your game each time.)

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 v0.14.0.9 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