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Preview: The New Frontiers update



Hello everyone!

The New Frontiers update, the biggest Barotrauma update so far, is just around the corner now. Multiple aspects of the game have been improved to create a real sense of progression, particularly in the campaign game mode – read more about all that below, and more on our blog!

Outposts, the start and end point of a mission, become physically explorable locations that replace the old campaign menu as the trading, crew hiring and service buying hub. The new outposts come with autonomous AI inhabitants as well as randomized events that bolster lore and even directly affect gameplay.

Submarines become a new key component of campaign progression: you'll start with a modest boat and be able to upgrade its hulls and machinery as you progress in the campaign. Better vessels will also become available for purchase later down the line. All submarine progression improvements apply to player-made submarines as well, so you’ll be able to experience the campaign as it was intended even if you prefer to ride custom subs.

The AI crewmates are no longer randomized between campaign missions, making them another integral part of your crew's progress: it's going to hurt to lose a bot you paid good money for and then trained for five rounds. The AI itself has received some improvements too, as it does with every update.

The in-game economy has been improved in many ways, from allowing the player to sell items for profit to balancing prices and item availability at different locations.

The campaign map has been overhauled completely and the campaign endgame location is now accessible, with a work-in-progress ending implemented.

The update also contains a visual overhaul that touches on about half of all the sprites in the game, and we’ve taken a look at the difficulty settings to smooth out some of the worst spikes. Let us know how it plays!

All multiplayer campaign improvements also directly benefit singleplayer campaign, so the New Frontiers update should make Barotrauma more appealing to the solo player as well. This is the beginning of our planned campaign overhaul, with tons of content additions and many other improvements to follow as we approach full release.

Stay tuned – the New Frontiers update is scheduled for next week!

Campaign progression: submarines & some other things



Hi everyone!

Besides outposts, the next major update is going to contain many other new additions too. We wrote more on the blog about them for you to read, and here are some highlights:

  • Once outposts become explorable, all trading options will be moved inside outposts. That means, out with the old campaign map and store interface, in with new NPC interactions!
  • With the overhauled store system, it will become possible to also sell items, not just buy them.
  • And finally, in addition to buying items, you will be able to…


[h3]Buy submarines and submarine upgrades[/h3]
To make campaign progression more interesting and rewarding, you will be able to improve your submarine as well as buy new subs as you advance in the campaign. The upgrading system will also work with custom subs, so be it a vanilla boat or a player-made one, you can upgrade the hull and the devices within to match your progress in the game.

Sub upgrades tie in with the improved economy system where buying and selling prices vary between different outposts and will even be affected by your actions in the game. Together with all the other things in the new outposts, we hope this will bring some nice additional depth to Barotrauma!

[h3]What else is new[/h3]
The upcoming campaign update will also include a visual overhaul. This art unification pass has been in the making for some time, and we’ve now confirmed it will be released with the next major update.

Don’t forget that the work-in-progress version of the next update is already playable in the experimental public unstable version. Beware the bugs and welcome on board!

Our Steam anniversary!



Hello everyone!

Today marks one year since we started Barotrauma’s early access on Steam. We’re so happy with how far the game has come since then, and even happier to have had so many people join us on our early access journey. Thank you for being with us and helping us make Barotrauma the best game it can be!

Your feedback and encouragement throughout this year make us look forward to the road still ahead of us – the campaign update is getting closer and closer, and we can’t wait to hear how you like it. The most eager bug hunters can now access the first, very rough version of the campaign update in the public unstable version, so you can even give us advance feedback.

We wrote a little bit more on our blog about the road so far as well as what’s coming next – take a look here and have a great weekend, whoever and wherever you are!

Minor update: molochs, music and more



Hello everyone!

Time for a minor update – with a changelog longer than that of the latest major update. Our team has been busy with fixes and small additions for this patch to pave the way for the long-awaited campaign update that we’re releasing next.

Please be sure to update your game to be able to host and join servers, and take a look here for the patch contents:

  • Two new moloch variations: the black moloch and the moloch pupa. We hope you find both of them terrifying in their own right!
  • Dismembering of non-human living creatures. Because death was not gruesome enough before!
  • Texture compression to make the game run a little better on low-end GPUs.
  • New music tracks – just because it’s underwater doesn’t mean it should all be constant monotonous droning. These new tracks and a couple of others have now also been added to our Supporter Pack.


Besides these, there’s a long list of other fixes and improvements – see the full changelog below!

v0.9.10.0

Additions and changes:
- Added 2 new moloch variants: Black Moloch and Moloch Pupa.
- Reworked Moloch.
- Overhauled level layouts and events (longer and more difficult levels).
- Added two new afflictions: medical items and poisons cause organ damage instead of internal damage and explosions cause deep tissue injuries. Both are functionally identical to internal damage, and treated with the same items.
- Added DXT5 texture compression to reduce memory consumption. Slightly increases loading times; if you're not short on memory, you may want to disable the compression from the game settings.
- Added partial dismemberment for live creatures. Currently enabled only for non-humanoids. (Dismembering dead bodies was already in the game).
- Destructible shells/armor -> Moloch's shell can now be destroyed.
- Added a new monster AI state: Protect.
- Increased the threshold for limping and changed the calculations.
- Added limping for non-human characters.
- Modded servers show up as purple in the server list.
- Added 4 new background music tracks.
- Added parameter autocompletion to the "spawnsub" command.
- All content types except UI styles are now hotswappable.
- Made smoke detector logic more accurate (no size restrictions on the size of the fire, the fire doesn't have to be inside the same hull).
- Added "Output" and "FalseOutput" properties to smoke detector.
- Option to define ambient light values for individual hulls in the sub editor.
- Characters float in place instead of sinking when staying still underwater.
- Improvements to water flow forces: flowing water can push characters around much more heavily now.
- Balanced item prices and fabrication/deconstruction recipes.
- Balanced medical items.
- UI layout improvements when using an ultrawide resolution.
- Added "set_channel" input to wifi components.
- Added "power_value_out" and "load_value_out" outputs to reactor.
- Added search/filter boxes to content package list in the settings menu and item lists in the Workshop menu.
- Added submarine filter to the server lobby.
- Detonators are only triggered by non-zero signals.
- The state of toggleable controllers (= switches) can be set in the sub editor.
- Made toolboxes purchaseable.
- Added a warning to keep the drone door closed in Remora.
- All Thalamus cells die when the Thalamus dies.
- Removed "hold fire" option from the "operate weapon" order, display turrets on minimap as icons instead of text.
- Added some logic to prevent the game from modifying/deleting any vanilla content in any situation.
- Readded legacy Carrier (doesn't spawn naturally but can be spawned with console commands).
- Modified Typhon 2's coilgun rotation limits a bit so it isn't possible to hit the walls when firing at enemies near the airlock.
- Hulls can be multiedited in the sub editor.
- Placed down wires can now be re-equipped in the sub editor by double clicking a loose end.
- Added charging docks to Remora.
- Adjusted how pixel sizes are converted to meters (which are used to display the submarine's dimensions and distances on the navigation terminal). Previously 100 pixels corresponded to 1 meter, now it's 80px -> 1m, making the human characters about 1.75m tall.
- Distance calculations on the navigation terminal take the shape of the path into account instead of just using the direct distance to the target.
- Made improvements to the manual order assignment by adding always visible name labels, displaying indicators for characters' current orders, and repositioning the nodes.
- Reduced the damage range of fires, characters don't take damage from fires if there's a closed door or a wall in between.
- Always draw steering indicators at the center of the display instead of the center of the sub. Fixes indicators getting offset (sometimes even outside the display) during docking.
- Added option to give all command perms with the "givecommandperm" command by using "all" as the parameter.
- Wrecks with no predefined Thalamus items can no more be infested by Thalamus. Allows to create wrecks that always spawn without Thalamus.
- The "shut down" reactor order now allows the bot to continue doing other things after powering off the reactor, instead of just standing next to the reactor.
- Removed the "initiative" skill -> all bots should now react better when there's something to do. Note: this doesn't mean that they always react on everything. It's just the end of individualism. At least for now.
- Reduced the physical forces applied on characters when they are hit by melee weapons, harpoons, or frag grenades. Adjusted stun for crowbar and harpoon.
- Disabled retreat/escape behavior for the bots when they take damage from items or explosions. They still escape/fight back when attacked by other characters.
- Refactor the medic priority calculations/logic: Bots should never treat others autonomously, unless they are medics or ordered to rescue. Bots should always give a high priority for treating themselves, unless there's a medic on board.
- Adjusted the flipping logic of non-humanoids to make them flip less frequently.
- Monsters won't anymore target nasonov artifact unless it is inside the player submarine or in the player inventory.

Modding:
- Made it possible to use repair tools with StatusEffect's UseItem.
- Made pressure deaths more moddable. Dying because of high pressure isn't hard-coded anymore, the characters are just given the barotrauma affliction which (by default) kills them.
- Added "HideConditionBar" property to items.
- Fixed wearables staying on the character when the item is removed by a status effect.
- Character light sprites can now deform. The cells of Thalamus (Leucocyte and Terminal cell) now use the deformable light sprites.
- Creature flipping parameters are now exposed. Adjusted the flipping for all creatures.
- Allow to define character joints as weld joints in addition of normal revolute joints. Weld joints don't rotate.
- Allow sound definitions to ignore the muffling effect.
- Exposed the "scatter" value and added new "offset" attribute for monster events.
- Added support for status effects in limb definitions (ragdoll file).
- Status effects defined in the character definition can now also target limbs.
- Added ActionType.OnSevered status effect for limbs.
- Creatures can now be set to disrupt sonar.
- Player attacks can now also use the conditionals (i.e. when player is controlling a character). Previously only the AI used the conditionals.
- Conditional sprites don't anymore require a texture definition.
- Conditional Sprites can now be non-exclusive -> Draw more than just one sprite at a time.
- Fixed conditional sprites not being able to target limbs.

Bugfixes:
- Fixed crashing when opening the tab menu when there are clients present with no job preferences set.
- Fixed "ColdCavernsMaze" levels sometimes being extremely short.
- Fixes to level generation when playing with a very large submarine.
- Fixed bots being unable to shoot at enemies from another room/hull.
- Fixed bots being unable to get items from dead bodies.
- Fixed submarines being unable to move vertically in the submarine test mode.
- Fixed crashing when starting a new round with no audio device (speakers, headset) available.
- Improvements to shadow/LOS rendering.
- Fixed double click being ignored if it's been less than 0.4s since the last double click.
- Fixed all servers sometimes not showing up in the server list (showing only the servers in the same/nearby region).
- Fixed "lone sailor" achievement not unlocking in single player.
- Fixed "Gaze in to the Abyss" achievement sometimes unlocking as soon as the round starts.
- Fixed characters sometimes being unable to exit the submarine when outside the borders of the level.
- Fixed ruin/wreck monsters not spawning if the submarine is too close to them.
- Fixed ruin items sometimes getting saved as a part of the main submarine in the campaign.
- Fixed rare "item with the same key has already been added" errors when starting a round (particularly when playing with a submarine with very large numbers of items/structures).
- Thalamus entities can't be selected in the sub editor when they're hidden.
- Fixed "spawnsub" console command not working.
- Fixed projectiles, welding tools and plasma cutters hitting destroyed Thalamus organs.
- Fixed reactor not shutting down if the turbine/fission rate are controlled via signals even the power switch is toggled off.
- Fixed reactor sliders not moving when they're controlled by signals.
- Fixed level triggers sometimes affecting entities that have left the trigger. The most noticeable effect was characters getting burn damage indefinitely after they've been close to a hydrothermal vent.
- Made flamers fire proof to prevents the flames from blowing up the fuel tank inside it.
- Don't allow harpoons to stick to very small limbs (such as mudraptor's "mouth tentacles"), because it lead to physics glitches.
- Fixed the husk infection crashing when turning the character, if either the non-husk or the husked variation has no inventory defined.
- Fixed characters getting weapon XP after using a turret, until someone else operates the same turret.
- Fixed characters being able to crouch when their pose is controlled by a controller (e.g. periscope, modded chair).
- Fixed bots being unable to aim correctly when operating a turret in another submarine (such as a remotely controlled coilgun in a shuttle).
- Fixed bots sometimes taking too much time to interrupt their current objective when the room they're in floods, causing them to get crushed by pressure.
- Fixed bots sometimes letting go of ladders too soon, preventing them from reaching certain areas (such as the upper platform in Berilia's cargo bay).
- Fixed multiple bots sometimes trying to treat the same person.
- Bots stop grabbing the character they're treating after they're done.
- Fixed harpoons going through doors.
- Fixed depth charges going through level walls.
- Fixed husks attacking human husks wearing a diving suit.
- Fixed first shot from a firearm that uses a magazine/clip not doing anything.
- Fixes to waypoints in Kastrull, Berilia and Remora.
- Fixed chat-linked wifi components not working in single player.
- Fixed chat-linked wifi components not working in multiplayer outside of combat missions.
- Fixed Azimuth using tutorial junction boxes instead of normal ones (the tutorial variants are indestructible and don't have signal connections).
- Fixed autopilot not being able to navigate past wrecks.
- More reliable syncing of door's breaking state. Fixes doors sometimes being impassable or impossible to repair client-side, particularly when joining mid-round.
- Fixed repairing doors getting interrupted at 50% when the door's collider is re-enabled and the character pushed out of the doorway.
- Fixed items getting used in the health interface when dropped on a subinventory slot in front of the interface.
- Fixed dedicated servers letting clients join with an invalid name when there's no server owner.
- Fixed server letting clients join with a name that's already taken.
- Changed "creating hulls between docking ports failed" from errors to warnings. Allows creating exterior docking ports that aren't next to a hull without having the console pop up every time the port is used.
- Fixed changing resolution not updating character inventory slot sizes properly, causing invalid spacing in dead characters' inventories.
- Don't allow detaching signal components when rewiring is disabled or the item's connection panel is locked.
- Fixed misaligned hull next to Wreck1's airlock.
- Fixed "attempting to remove an already removed item" errors when mass-deleting items. Happened because removing items a wire is connected to removes the orphaned wires automatically.
- Fixed multi-part subs (example case: The Aeche III) getting teleported to oblivion when flipped.
- Fixes to bots getting stuck or killed for no apparent reason when the player is very far from them, due to the bots switching to a "simple physics mode" which prevents them from doing certain kinds of interactions.
- The explosive cargo mission that places a block of Volatile Compound N in one of the crates no longer requires delivering the volatile block to the destination.
- Disabled crush depth in the submarine test mode.
- Fixed monsters staying invisible if they die far away from the camera view.
- Fixed very small limbs (mudraptor's mouth tentacles, husk appendages) launching off at a very high velocity, leading to glitchy physics behavior, when hit by a non-raycast projectile or an explosion.
- Allow subs to be saved to subdirectories of the "Submarines" folder (e.g. "Submarines/Downloaded").
- Fixed a couple of waypoints in Berilia that prevented bots from using the ladders.
- Fixed Husked Crawler bleeding red blood.
- Fixed the priority of the operate order being 69 when it should be 70, which sometimes caused bots to get stuck between two objectives (like repairing or fixing leaks).
- Fixed enemies always using the priority defined for "room" when they should use the priority for "sonar".
- Fixed monsters not being able to drop down from platforms/hatches etc. In practice they still have difficulties in getting down from the hatches when they don't swim because they are so big.
- Fixed bots ignoring themselves as a target when they are rescuing others.
- Fixed numerous issues in the monster behavior when simple physics is enabled. e.g. Ignoring targets or not being able to attack or eat them.
- Fixed hitting damage modifiers emitting a ridiculous amount of particles.
- Fixed some cases where bots fail to open the door that they should be able to open (because they skipped a waypoint without checking the doors).
- Fixed monsters not keeping inside the level.
- Fixed a crash when the command interface button was pressed while the player is controlling a custom monster that didn't have character info but was able to speak.
- Fixed monsters sometimes ignoring their target after attacking.

Wreck designing competition



Ahoy!

To make the most of the Rusted Remnants update and everyone’s spare time, our Discord community members are throwing an event – a wreck-designing competition!

The event is hosted and judged by our community experts, with everyone in our server getting a chance to vote for their favourite design a few weeks from now. We from the developer team are supporting the competition with some prizes, one for the “judges’ pick” and the “public favourite” each.

The competition starts now, and contestants have until June 12 to submit their designs, after which judging will take place. More information, help and submission guidelines can be found in our Discord server, https://discord.com/invite/undertow – welcome!