Oxygen Not Included News

• Prevent a crash when upgrading installed mod data to the newest version
  
• The "archived_versions" folder now works correctly for mods distributed through steam
  
• Fix a crash trying to show the patch notes screen on launch
  
• Mod animations now load correctly and without crashing for Spaced Out!
  

Welcome back everyone and happy new year! We hope you had good, relaxing holidays. We've got two exciting pieces of news for you today!

[h2]Mod System Enabled for Spaced Out![/h2]
We've got a new patch that will release for both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC, which will allow mods to control their compatibility with different versions of the game. With this update in place, we've turned mod loading back on for Spaced Out!

If you're a modder, head over to this post to see all the details about modding for Spaced Out! For anyone using mods, know that while this doesn’t automatically make your mods compatible with the DLC, it will now be possible for them to be updated. Please be patient while the modders work on these updates, and show them lots of appreciation for their hard work too!

There are a few other mod fixes and tweaks along for the ride in this update as well, which are listed in the patch notes.

[h2]Regular Release Cycle Begins This Month[/h2]
Finally, those of you running the DLC may notice that we've turned the countdown timer back on in the main menu. Our next release will be on January 28th, at which point we'll be going into steady 3-week releases from then on. There will be a testing period as usual before each release, but we want to do frequent updates so that we can iterate on your feedback more quickly than in the original ONI Early Access.

The first testing period will begin in the next couple days, once we're sure this mod patch is stable.

Fixes

• Turned mods back on
  
• Mod Screen now shows which mods are available for the current DLC configuration
  
• Reactivated the countdown timer on the main menu
  
• Move the DLC toggle button into the main menu buttons now that the countdown is active again
  
• Fix crash when entering an invalid int for Coordinates on Asteroid select
  
• Fixed crash hovering over Skills button while Trailblazer module descends on world without Duplicants
  
• Fixed typo preventing Sweetle eggs from being printed from care packages
  
• Fixed crash when Oil Well is deconstructed or melted
  
• Fix crash caused by running out of TagBits. This would happen in late-game bases, especially with mods
  
• Fixed crash when changing the Bottle Emptier to Sweep Only when a Duplicant has already picked up a bottle to deliver
  
• Relink Rocket Platform to stranded rockets when it is rebuilt. For older saves with this issue you will need to deconstruct and rebuild the Rocket Platform
  
• Duplicant portraits on the Skills Screen are no longer drawn outside the scrolling panel
  
• Remove debug logging for dupes using oxygen masks in space. It was bloating the log file causing a crash on Linux

Mods

• Mod Uploader now prevents uploading a mod that doesn't have mod_info.yaml
  
• Added a link to the forums at the top of the Mod Uploader window
  
• Translation mods are now loaded "as mods" rather than directly from steam workshop. This gives the possibility of loading translations locally (easier for developing these mods!) as well as installing translations on non-steam platforms via the "local" mods folder.
  
• Mods are now enabled per-DLC so that incompatible mods can be disabled in one case but re-enabled when back on a compatible DLC
  
• Cut down on some log spam by making certain messages only show up if a mod is in the dev folder
  
• Treat translation mods specially, and default them to ALL DLC combinations if no mod_info is found. This is to make a smoother transition as we roll out the mod_info stuff
  
• Removed support for archived_versions.yaml, now the archive system relies entirely on mod_info.yaml
  

Hi everyone! Here's a few final bugfixes for the year. Happy holidays and see you next year!

• Fixed rockets not refueling on landing when there are multiple rockets in space
  
• You can no longer deploy a Trailblazer module without first selecting a Duplicant
  
• Telescopes built inside rockets will update properly as the rocket moves around the cluster
  
• Clear Duplicant assigned buildings when a Dupe is deployed from a Trailblazer module. (e.g. bed, mess table inside rocket)
  
• Rover is well and truly kaput once its battery runs out and can't be revived by save/loading
  
• Rovers no longer try to deliver themselves as resources
  

Hello all,

Thanks for all the feedback on the Terra start! There's lots of ongoing tuning to do here (and to the worlgen of the cluster as a whole) that will happen throughout EA. This patch, we are addressing the earliest game concerns of there just not being enough basic resources in the Sandstone start. (And fixing a bunch more crashes!) Take care!

• Further crash fixes for errands becoming invalid when rocket interiors are destroyed
  
• Fix crash when loading a save with active Yellow Alerts
  
• Invalid characters in a colony name no longer crash the game
  
• Fix a crash from building a rocket engine after a previous build was cancelled
  
• Fix crash when cancelling a warp portal teleport
  
• Increase early game resources (more comparable amounts to base game in the Sandstone biome)
  
• Prevent warp POIs from appearing on the Terra Moonlet surface
  

Hello friends!

Today we're putting out a patch with new worldgen in it, allowing you to start on a version of the Terra Asteroid from the base game reimagined as a cluster of smaller worlds, as well as spreading some random geysers around both clusters. We still consider Terra to be the "Default" ONI experience and we're glad to be getting all the old biomes back into the game.

This will be the last content update before the holidays (not counting bug fixes), so I want to let you know a bit more about what's happening next in the new year. As always, this is not a complete roadmap for the entirety of the DLC (especially with regards to Radiation systems), just what we're looking at for the beginning of next year.

[h2]Continuing to Expand the Cluster[/h2]

There's still a lot of work to do to worldgen and clustergen before Spaced Out! is ready for launch. We've been focusing on the three "core" Planetoids up until now, but are starting to turn our attention towards the outer Planetoids -- their design and resource distribution (especially making sure all resources are available and various paths to sustainability are supported). We'll need to see just how many there are and where they sit in the cluster map!

Of course, in order to enable the gameplay around this, we'll be building out the next phase of rocketry. This includes porting over many of the original rocket modules to the new system, as well as adding a few new modules to deal with the new challenges of the cluster map.

Getting the full breadth of gameplay into the cluster is our first goal, and a little bit later we'll add back in more randomization, traits, starts (including a "classic start" big world) and so forth.

[h2]Unifying Spaced Out! with the Base Game[/h2]

We're making lots of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes in Spaced Out!, and it's always been our plan to bring the two versions of the game together so that when someone is playing on the base version of Oxygen Not Included, they'll be playing on the latest and greatest version of the game, regardless of whether they own the DLC. However, because of the fundamental changes to the code that we've made for Spaced Out!, there's still a lot of work to do to make the two versions of the game unified.

The result is that the base game is "frozen" on the old code, and some time in the future when the new code is ready to support both the DLC and the base game we will have a major update to the base game (with a proper preview period of course) to bring in all the new features. (This will also solve having to re-download the game when you switch DLC on and off.)

Sometime before we launch, all players will be playing on the same version of the game, with DLC content and features being toggled on and off from the main menu.

[h2]Mods[/h2]

We've been taking a closer look at getting mods going, but there are issues in both the modding pipeline and in mod installs between the base game and Spaced Out! that we won't be able to resolve in time for the holidays.

Sometime after the holidays, we'll open a testing branch with fixes to the mod system. From that point on, modders will be able to use the "archive versions" in the mod system to allow both base game and DLC mods to exist in the same workshop download, and later on once the two versions of the game are unified, there will be an explicit setting in the mod config to allow supporting one, the other, either, or both versions of the game in the same download.

Translation mods work a little differently, and our goal is to create a single .pot file which contains all possible strings for both the base game and DLC. Translators will be able to just translate the Spaced Out! version of the template and it will work in all versions of the game. Until then, it will be necessary to have two versions of the translation in the workshop to deal with incompatibilities.

[h2]… And Beyond![/h2]

This is not a complete roadmap, but there have been a lot of specific questions in the forums that we wanted to provide answers to before we take a break. We'll continue updating you about our goals as we continue updating the game, and as always: Thank you so much for your feedback, bug reports, and suggestions!

If you’re interested in a light outline of the future plans for Spaced Out!, you can check out the early access launch post.

Talk to you next year.

[h2]Patch Notes for 445375[/h2]
New:

• Added Terra Cluster as a new starting option
  
• Switched Terra Cluster to be first in the list
  
• Added some random geysers to the inner cluster non-start worlds
  
• Added a new Liquid Sulfur Geyser

Changes and Fixes:

• Added Plug Slugs and Sweetles to care packages
  
• Changed the composition of the barren biome in the Swamp starting planetoid, and added volcanoes
  
• Re-added the Early Access message at the beginning of the game
  
• First pass planetoid description/name revisions
  
• New art hooked up on the cluster select screen
  
• Fix crash when entering an invalid number for Coordinates on the cluster select screen
  
• Another crashfix for when habitat modules are destroyed