Stationeers News

New Years Bugfixes

2022 was a very busy year for the Stationeers team. We consolidated our Statiioneers team with our ICARUS team at the same location, allowing us to draw together our talent and experiences across both teams.

Multiplayer

Our efforts last year culminated in the release of a major multiplayer refactor that solved a great deal of issues and substantially optimized the code. The game was still heavily reliant on a method of making network connections that was unreliable and not performant - so we developed that further (a variation of RakNet we call "RocketNet"). We released this late last year as well as removing DRM entirely from the game and also any requirement for the game to run on steam.

This has presented an issue for players who have difficulty making multiplayer connections due to Internal Address issuing problems, stemming from port forwarding challenges and IP exhaustion. We are currently working hard to reimplement Steam P2P to work with our new multiplayer, as this will alleviate a lot of those having port forwarding and IP issues.

Working on the "hook"

Many have noticed that after the major multiplayer refactor we have been focusing on redeveloping core areas of the game, trying to do so in a very deliberate and cohesive way. Sometimes this involves some small steps backwards - but our progress can be seen by the reworked hydroponics and our midway work on trading. Expect a lot more updates focused on developing what we would call the "hook" to the game. We have excellent systems but we are trying to make them matter. As always, we love discussing the game and where it should go here in the comments, on the forums, and more directly on the Discord.

Bug Fixes

As we're getting back in to the swing of things and making plans for the upcoming content updates we've been doing some house keeping and fixing a bunch of bugs reported by the community, as well as some additional fixes for the last update.

[h2]Bellow are the key fixes in this update[/h2]

[h3]Trader Contact List[/h3]
The trader contact list was sometimes breaking when you left a game and started or loaded a new game and would persist until you restarted the game.

[h3]Stationpedia Issue[/h3]
We added the ability to pause the game while viewing the Stationpedia but the search was not working correctly while paused.

[h3]Atmospheric Network Errors[/h3]
Changing an atmospheric network was causing devices to enter in to an error state and would only be fixed by turning the device off and back on again, which was not always possible.

[h3]Game Hanging While Loading[/h3]
When starting a game it would hang for an indeterminant amount of time when it had reached about 90% completion. There is now no stall time at all.

Work on the next trader update is underway and you can expect to see it be released next week.

Your support makes this possible

Over the last year, we’ve completely refactored the net code making multiplayer more stable, we’re continuing to improve the connectivity, and we’ve improved some big systems to allow us to bring you better content and new game loops. All this while transitioning to a weekly update cycle.

All the community support, feedback, and involvement have made this possible. So thank you!

[h3]If you like the progress we have made, please consider taking a moment to leave a positive review. This makes a huge difference to the project. We've been working hard for the last five years, and feel confident the game has substantially improved over this time. Many projects steer clear of the hard tasks, and we are proud to have taken them on.[/h3]

Additionally, you can support us by purchasing DLC that we've made to allow those who enjoy the game to support us, and in return get something a little fun to use in-game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2089290/Stationeers_Human_Cosmetics_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1038400/Stationeers_Zrilian_Species_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1038500/Stationeers_HEM_Droid_Species_Pack/

Change Log v0.2.3773.18265

Fixed typo in tutorial mission
Fixed plant stabilizer arrows being emissive when the appliance is off
Added custom project view editor tool for better project searching
Fixed new trader contacts not displaying after leaving and loading a game
Fixed stationpedia only returning one result when paused
Fixed Atmospherics Devices go into an error state when adding pipes to one of their input or output networks.
Fixed Pipe Network Atmospheres sometimes not being saved when the pipe network was being modified during the saving process.
Fixed Error when trying to modify a mixerGroup property on an audioSource that is in the process of being destroyed.
Fixed Heat exchangers stop working when an attached pipe network is modified.
Fixed Plant Analyser not being able to scan Hydroponics Device
Fixed missing mushroom spore bag thumbnail
Fixed satellite power dial not showing correct tooltip text
Fixed plants drinking and breathing while dead
Fixed game hanging at ~90% while trying to start game while hosting
Fixed issue with satellite dish not setting its closest contact correctly, which prevented logic values signal ID and Signal strength from returning expected values, signal strength returns as -1 until contact is resolved, and the degrees offset after resolving(smaller numbers are closer).
Fixed SatelliteDish draws power from logic cable as well as power cable.
Fixed constructing pieces of landing pad when it is linked to a computer can throw an error.
Fixed Trader landing animation plays when loading a game with a trader already landed.
Changed trader depart check to use grid system check instead of physics call.
Fixed Trader shuttle not being lit by player headlight.
Fixed saves failing to load because of null blocking grids array
Fixed incorrect message when trading with no available credit card
Trader code clean up.
Changed Trader landing check from physics check to path trace.
Fixed role sometimes being none when hosting
Removed an external web request
Reverted StartServer from being async
Fixed Able to interact with logic chips behind closed roll cover.
Fixed Translucent shader not calculating correct shadows.
Fixed Ices lit from behind in lockers appear lit.
Fixed name missing on medium and large hangar door. Removed unused hangar door kit
Fixed Small Satellite dish is constructed with dish at incorrect horizontal rotation.
Fixed items incorrectly popping out of chute valve after building a new chute next to a closed and occupied chute valve
Fixed Incorrect pin-out n combustion centrifuge. (d0 pin was pointing to d1).
Created GameStrings for remaining un-localised strings in combustion centrifuge tool tips.
Fixed station contact tier dictionary from being cleared incorrectly

Hotfix v0.2.3761.18233

Dishes now release contacts from interrogation if the wattage requirement is no longer met, this addresses a missmatch of information between the contact UI and the interrogation popup.
Fixed possible issue where contact manager could potentially crash.
Added ability to read and write power setting for small and medium satellite.
Fixed mismatched types for power setting when updating clients.

The Trading Update III: Contact

Trading Contact System

When revisiting the trader contact mechanic, we really wanted to create an engaging system that would encourage engineering, automation and problem solving. In addition to finding traders, we’ll leverage this in the future to find destinations for your rockets, answer distress signals, and invite visitors to your station. The process of contacting contacts has been split into a few concepts.

[h2]Contacts[/h2]
Instead of dozens of contacts constantly spread around the sky, we’re moving to a more logic driven approach of having rules dictate when traders are available. As we transition from our older trader system, into the new one, we are providing the old traders as three separate tiers of contacts. These current contacts have increasing difficulties to contact and hang around for about 20 minutes before they leave and another one takes their place, so you’ll have to find the harder contacts if you want to check out many traders.

[h2]Detecting and Resolving[/h2]
Contacts must be resolved by the dish before it can determine how accurately it is pointed at the contact. The time to resolve is determined by the dish's power output multiplied by the dish alignment, over the contact’s expected resolve wattage. If the contact is resolving too slowly, it likely indicates you are not close to the target at all, and you should try a very different angle since effective power levels scale exponentially with accuracy. Alternately, the contact might have a very high expected wattage, and your current dish just isnt big enough to resolve it in a reasonable time. The resolving process only uses 10% of the actual power your dish is set to.

[h2]Interrogating[/h2]
Once you have resolved the contacts position, you’ll be able to press the interrogate button. Similar to resolving, you’ll need to land enough wattage on the contact, but fortunately the interrogation dialog will inform you of the current calculations. Unfortunately, Interrogation does have a hard minimum, and if the dish is not pointed well enough, or the power is too low, you won't be able to start the process. Interrogation also has a time requirement, with harder contacts taking significantly longer, so you’ll want to use high wattages to ensure you finish before the trader moves on. Once interrogation is complete, you can land the trader just as before.

Once we receive feedback we’ll review our plans for contacts in motion, contacts with more strict visibility requirements, resolving contacts while rotating dishes, and manual control of all dish operations.

Satellite Dishes

As part of the new trader contact system you will need to make use of the existing and new satellite dishes. There are two new dishes, small and large, making the existing one the medium dish. They all work in a similar way but each size of dish uses much more power than the previous one, this extra power is needed to effectively contact traders.

The new Small Satellite Dish looks and behaves similar to the existing Medium Dish but is smaller. The Large Satellite Dish is an extremely large fixed dish structure. Visually, instead of the dish rotating and tilting the sensor is on a gantry. Functionally it still works in the same way as the other dishes.

The time to rotate these dishes increases as you go up in size. The small dish is very fast while the large dish will take several minutes to rotate 180 degrees.
Your support makes this possible

Your support makes this possible

[h3]If you like the progress we have made, please consider taking a moment to leave a positive review. This makes a huge difference to the project. We've been working hard for the last five years, and feel confident the game has substantially improved over this time. Many projects steer clear of the hard tasks, and we are proud to have taken them on.[/h3]

Change Log v0.2.3759.18228

RocketNet is now enabled
RocketNet reads the LocalIpAddress from settings file and tries to host with that, if this fails it will fall back to it's original method where RakNet picks the host device
Fixed spelling of Hangar
Fixed bug where bodies pulled out of slots don't go to the correct exit position and can sometimes clip into the slots parent object
Fixed ragdolls curling up into a ball after you pull them out of a slot
Added New concept of "resolving" contacts through the Satellite Dish and Comms Motherboard, where the dish must be pointed at a contact for an amount of time, before full information is provided.
Added When contacts "resolve", the comms motherboard shows the degrees off the dish is from the contact.
Added To communicate with the traders, satellite dishes must now "interrogate" contacts with energy from the dish for a fixed amount of time.
Added "Interrogation"/contact time scales linearly with dish power usage, and poor dish alignment negatively exponentially scales power.
Changed Dishes to all have full sky FOVs, with scaling effectiveness when contacts are not centered, resulting in being able to generally know whats in the sky after "resolving" contacts.
Added Contacts can now have different energy minimums, and sustainment periods required for "interrogation" to begin.
Added Contacts can have an energy minimum to show/start "resolving".
Reduced active contacts from 17 to 3.
Several changes to comms/trader UI to support new contacting system.
Added Large Hangar door a 3x1 modular Door.
Added Buildstates and destroyed states to medium hangar Door.
Fixed Spelling error with medium hangar door.
Fixed A Pipe Atmosphere could have its gas deleted if pipes were removed from the network in quick succession. This could generally happen if using the authoring tool to delete pipes or in large bases when multiple players were working on the same pipe network.
Fixed Suit storage could fill Emergency suits which would cause them to explode.
Fixed bug around dismount direction on ladders being straight up. Has been returned to original behaviour of dismounting forwards
Added Power Dial to Current SatelliteDish.
Fixed Ignition values on Medium Hangar door.
Refactored SatelliteDish animation system to prepare for new dish variants.
Added Trader Contact tier system Close, Medium, Far. More distant traders will require higher power or more precise pointing to resolve and contact. Existing contacts in the save will default to medium.
Changed default trader lifetime to 20minutes.
Changed For new trader generations, one of each contact will appear at each distance tier.
Changed SatelliteDish now consumes power based on its power dial setting when actively contacting or resolving.
Removed Paint and microwares traders from new trader generation rolls.
Fixed Error thrown by trading motherboard when number of contacts exceeded the expected max contacts.
Removed some unused code for motherships
Changed made vertical and horizontal properties on satellite dish virtual.
Fixed Sometimes source prefabs could be removed from the scene when loading larger saves. These are now regenerated in a final validation step on load.
Fixed Error when Centrifuge exports ores.
Updated SatelliteDish Prefab to include power knob.
Changed screencontacts button to not be active untill contact is resolved.
Added more state handling to represent the current contact interrogation state presented in the commsterminal popup.
Added small satellite dish
Fixed several cases where interrogation would attempt to operate on a null contact
General renaming of the contact process to interrogating
Fixed trading terminal dialog allowing stale information to be used to try and contact the trader
Fixed Root cause issue that caused Centrifuge to throw errors when exporting ores.
Fixed Sometimes when mining game would throw errors and get stuck in mining animation.
Fixed Game doesn't load due to ironOre source prefab getting destroyed on load.
Refactor satellite dish contacts to not use dictionaries
Added contacts reset their interrogation timer if they don't have a interrogating dish.
Fixed another dish from stomping an in progress interrogation of a contact by a separate dish.
Fixed contacts not being able to be interrogated without a landing pad
Updated medium and small satellite dish kits
Fixed issue where newly created satellite dishes would already have resolved all targets
Added Large SatelliteDish. A massive fixed dish with a movable sensor that has a very high max wattage at the expense of very slow movement speed.
Added Locks around all usages of DishScannedContacts as this collection is accessed from multiple threads.
Added contacts reset their interrogation timer if they don't have a interrogating dish.
Fixed another dish from stomping an in progress interrogation of a contact by a separate dish.
Moved several trader UI related math operations onto their respective objects
Fixed incorrect contact time estimations, and changed some text fields to better represent interrogation process state.
Added if a contacts interrogating dish looses power or is turned off, interrogation will halt, and reset.
Fixed StationContacts not serializing contacted status and contact wattage variables.
Station Contact UI change first pass
Updated Comms Motherboard UI
added missing files from previous commit
added older message based checks preventing trader from being called for various pad/vending machine/power reasons
reduced all SatelliteDish rotate speeds
fixed issue where resolve timers would process despite dish moving.
Added time remaining counter to trader contact item
Fixed Landing button being active while contact has not been made
reverted unwanted scene changes
Fixed build error caused by editor code
Fixed missing tier icons
Fixed small satellite returning the medium satellite kit on deconstruct
Added and update recipes for satellite dishes
Updated starting conditions for Vulcan and Venus to include requirements for trading
Added the current dish name to the contact pop up
Removed "trader requesting to land" prior to being able to call the trader to land
Fixed "Satellite Dish" name to "Medium Satellite Dish"
Made rotation tolerance smaller for satellite dish to remedy the dish not moving when framerate is very high
Added new Satellite Icons
Fixed resolving not correctly using the wattage if changed after dish rotation finished.
Fixed resolving progressbar having unexpected behavior when changing some resolve parameters.
Fixed GetWattageOnContact using maxWattage instead of wattage.
Changed InitResolve timers to use unified helper functions for calculations.
Changed all current contacts in game to have a minimum watts to resolve value of 0.
Added Additional helper functions for common resolve time components.
Changed random resolve offset to be generated when the resolving starts.
Fixed errors in Dish Stationpedia entries
Fixed issue where new contacts would be interpreted as already resolved
Added the trading section to the Stationpedia
Fixed comms motherboard from using dishes that were inoperable.
Reduced power usage of dishes to 1/10th of set power while resolving, so only while interrogating is power fully used. idle dishes still use base draw.
Disabled dishes will now loose their contact resolve data.
reduced satellitedish idle power draw, as the main power usage occurs with use
Added missing structures to trading page
Fixed wrong icon for trading page
Fixed screen contacts not properly clearing when no dishes are valid on the Motherboards.
Changed dish SignalStrength logic type to return -1 when the best contact is currently still resolving.
increased general dish strength when within 5 degrees
missing file from previous commit
Added build states to medium satellite dish
Tweaked medium satellite wattage plus added animations back
Fixed some contact item UI elements being left on when the parent object is disabled
decreased water usage by 25% since food, water, and stress mechanic changes are still a few weeks away.
decreased active Nitrolyzer power usage from 20k, to 6k.
Added computer and comms motherboard to trading stationpedia page
Updated Trading Stationpedia entry
changed comms motherboard to use text instead of bar when Interrogating
Fixed medium satellite dish's dish collider rotating incorrectly and being unaligned with the visual mesh
Fixing problem with port being closed when a client leaves preventing other players from joining
RocketNet now disconnects before clients send their disconnect message to host

Hot Fix v0.2.3742.18161

Today we're doing a quick patch that brings a new low level multiplayer implementation. This change should mean that the network performance is better and connectivity should improve in some situations.
The larger issues around connecting to servers is an ongoing task that is actively being worked on.

Due to time constraints, we omitted the 3x1 hangar door from the previous update but we're taking this opportunity to add it.

Dismounting ladders had a bug caused by the changes to the movement controller and this has also been fixed.

The Trading Update II: Bulk Gas and Hanger Doors

The second trader update brings us a step closer to a more interesting, fun, and involved trading game loop. You can read about all the plans for trading in the previous blog post here.

Gas Trading

Leveraging the new modular landing pad we’ve made some big changes to how you buy gas from traders. With the new Gas Storage and Gas Connector modules you can now buy large quantities of gas from traders with ease. Traders will provide a range of gas mixes which you can buy a certain quantity of which will be loaded into your landing pad gas storage to then be unloaded into your base's gas storage. In a coming update you will be able to sell gas mixes through the same mechanism.

Hangar Doors

These doors have been created in anticipation of the upcoming new trader types that require a pressurized breathable environment. In some harsher environments these doors can also be used to create safe conditions for trading gas. We will be adding new variants and sizes in upcoming updates.

Jitter Fix

There has been a long standing issue with the character movement which resulted in some players experiencing motion sickness caused by a form of camera jitter. This issue has plagued the project for years and we have put in considerable effort over that time to try and solve the problem. We’ve finally found a set of solutions which resolve the worst of the issue. If you’ve experienced this issue then we highly recommend that you give it another go and see if it’s made a difference for you. This is not a silver bullet for all players experiencing motion sickness but should be a big QoL improvement for many players.

Your support makes this possible

[h3]If you like the progress we have made, please consider taking a moment to leave a positive review. This makes a huge difference to the project. We've been working hard for the last five years, and feel confident the game has substantially improved over this time. Many projects steer clear of the hard tasks, and we are proud to have taken them on.[/h3]

Change Log v0.2.3740.18150

Updated missing character icon when dragging bodies
Fixed Medium Hanger Door not being able to be opened with the crowbar
Removed Search button from Stationpedia as it has the same function as home button. Pressing home will return to main search screen.
Fixed switchgrass appearing smaller in some slots
Fixed transparency issue with switchgrass and hay material
Reduced Volume of LandingPad Center.
Reduced Max Speed of LadingPad Gas Output.
Added Quantity modifier key (C by default) effects add and remove buttons on trading panel.
Changed "++" and "--" buttons on trading panel now add/remove 100 items (or 1000 with quantity modifier).
Fixed Trader selling Zero quantities of gas.
Fixed cold gasses sold by trader have Temperature text colored correctly.
Changed LandingPads to have the same pressure strength as pipes: 60 MPa
Fixed bug where plants were not stacking/splitting correctly
Refactored switchgrass and hay to remove IGatherable
Allowed hay to be processed in advanced and portable composter
Fixed can't trade with trader.
Fixed Can trade with landed trader when pad is in error state or unpowered.
Updated LandingPad Gas Storage model and added buildStates and destroyed state.
Added LandingPad Gas Storage will now take damage when over 6000kpa and eventually break.
Added LandingPad Gas Storage tanks play stressed sound when over maximum pressure.
Fixed Trading can only commence if landing pad is fully operational.
Jitter fixes - fixed bug where players were not aligned correctly in seats/slots. Fixed a few issues around when ragdoll and collisions are set when moving in and out of slots. Made camera not snap to forward when you press alt
Added LandingPad Liquid Output. Pumps liquid purchased from a trader into a liquid pipe network.
Added Traders will now only complete gas trades if there is enough gas storage capacity in the landing pad. The max pressure of the landingPad is 6000 KPa.
Added Sounds and animation to LandingPadGasOutput.
Added Landing Pad Gas Output for pumping gas out of the landing pad that has been purchased from a trader. Constructed with (Kit) Landing Pad.
Fixed shuttles being able to depart when obstructed
Fixed Gas Connector piece not blocking large grid.
Fixed Polish pass on how gasses are displayed in trading panel
Added Landing Pad Gas Storage. This landing pad piece allows the landing pad to store gas purchased from the trader. Constructed with (Kit) Landing pad.
Changed Gas Traders now sell gas by the Mole. When purchased this gas will be pumped into the landing pad. (The player will need to add gas storage pieces to receive the gas).
Added Gas traders will sell modest amounts of pure gas at 20DegreesC.
Added Gas traders will now sell larger amounts of impure gas mixes at less than ideal Temperatures for lower prices.
Refactored pipe network to inherit from StructureNetwork base class.
Added AtmosphericsNetwork class as common parent for pipeNetwork and LandingPad network.
Changed Plants trading value is no longer effected by grow time.
Filled out InheritTraits to crops
Added MediumHanger door. A 2x1 modular door for building openings up to 4 blocks wide.
Renamed Airlock gate to small hanger door.
Renamed (kit) Airlock Gate to (kit) hanger door.
Jitter fixes - fixed terrain manipulator cursor not moving
Adjusted Hay and Switchgrass grow/decay variables
Add support for multiblock doors.
Jitter fixes - regressions on ladders, seats, cryo and sleepers. Fixed jittery bodies for clients.
made SwitchGrass Perennial
Added new "Crop" concept to game. An item that can be harvested from a plant but can not be replanted in a Plant Slot.
Added Hay to project.
Fixed Deep miner cannot be turned on/off with logic.
Removed mode variable from deepMiner as it wasn't being used.
Fixed DeepMiner continues to animate when in error state.
Tentative push of jitter fixes plus some fixes around dragging objects
Added SwitchGrass seeds and plant prefabs to project
Added gamestring to language xml editor method
Fixed Mushrooms stop growing after a while.
Fixed Mushrooms will now take damage after being lit for 120 seconds.
Fixed Plant light and darkness calculations not handling zero values correctly.
Fixed Plant healing and damage calculations not handling zero values correctly.
Fixed missing discord meta file
Fixed The list of all landingPad networks not begin cleared between loading new saves resulting in an error thrown on load when trying to register duplicate entries.