Barotrauma News

Hello everyone!

We’re happy to say we’re approaching the first big update for Barotrauma. Due to Gamescom and PAX West coming up, scheduling has been a little tricky, and we can’t promise an exact release date, but now you can read about what to expect. And as always, check our Trello for a summary of what’s to come.

The update will center on griefing moderation tools, and we’re hard at work with easier server hosting, to be added soon as well. We’re hopeful that these put together will significantly improve the multiplayer experience. Details about the new hosting method will follow closer to publishing it; read on here for more about keeping your servers nice and/or interesting.

Third patch out now!
We just released our third post-launch patch - still mainly focused on bugfixes, but there's also a couple of quality-of-life changes and additions. As always, you can find the full changelog on on GitHub and in the game folder. Here's a summary of the most important changes:

• Improved server list. Can be sorted according to ping, name, compatibility or any of the other property in the list.
  
• Improved character editor.
  
• Fixed another ID mismatch problem that occasionally caused clients to get kicked out in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed players always getting range banned when banned by a client.
  
• More reliable fabricator and deconstructor syncing.
  
• EXPERIMENTAL: option to disable rewiring items in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed turrets not being aimed correctly in multiplayer if they're in another sub (e.g. the coilgun in Remora's drone).
  
• Fixed the position of an outpost's docking port not being taken into account when determining how to place it in the level. Caused large submarines sometimes to collide with walls when docked to outposts where the port is offset from the center.
  
• Reactors take other power sources into account when calculating how much power they need to generate. Fixes overloads on Humpback when turning on the backup batteries and operating the reactor normally.
  
• Fixed ladders and other resizeable items reverting to their original size if they're resized and the sub is saved and reloaded.
  
• Fixed inability to resize gaps in the sub editor after they've been placed.
  

Even though bughunting has kept us quite busy since the launch, the next big things on our todo list, simplified server hosting and improved anti-griefing mechanics, are also coming along nicely. If you want more info on what's to come in future updates, you can check out our Roadmap on Trello!

To make Barotrauma’s development easier to follow, we have just published a roadmap on Trello. Here you can see known issues and workarounds, our immediate todo list and longer-term plans.

Summertime Bundle
While we are not able to participate in the Steam Summer Sale directly, Barotrauma is featured in the Daedalic Survival Bundle along with CryoFall and Witch It. Take a look, CryoFall in particular could be of interest to anyone who likes Baro!

Our second post-launch patch is out now! Here's a summary of the most important fixes. The full changelog can be found on GitHub and it's also included in the game folder in a file called "changelog.txt".

• Fixed a networking problem that occasionally caused clients to get kicked out in the multiplayer campaign, usually with an error message warning about a missing item.
  
• Fixed servers using a local campaign save path sent by the client setupping the campaign, preventing the campaign from starting up if the path does not exist at the server's end.
  
• Fixed radio communication occasionally not working between characters in the multiplayer campaign. Characters that had made it through at least one round were not able to communicate through radio with characters that have just been spawned for the first time.
  
• Kick votes persist during a multiplayer session even if the client disconnects (= disconnecting and rejoining just before you get kicked doesn't work anymore).
  
• The server sends a "this client previously used the name xxx" message when a client rejoins with a different name.
  
• Replaced WinForms with SDL which should resolve most of the fullscreen/resolution issues. It's also now possible to change the resolution when in fullscreen without having to restart the game.
  
• Fixes to the DXGI crashes during startup.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused modded character files to affect the game even when the mod was not enabled, leading to various issues such as characters failing to equip items if the mod changes the number or type of inventory slots a character has.
  
• Fixed a bug in monster/item spawnpoint logic that occasionally caused perfectly valid spawnpoints to be discarded when there were floating ice chunks in the level, sometimes causing monsters to spawn very far from the submarine (which often lead to the player not running into them at all).
  
• Fixed items applying their status effects twice if they're put into a container by swapping them with another item. For example, replacing a fuel rod in the reactor by dropping a new fuel rod on it caused the reactor behave as if it had two rods in it.
  
• Servers only report content packages with files that cause multiplayer incompatibility to the master server. Fixes servers showing up as incompatible in the server list if they have custom sub files (or other types of files that don't cause compatibility issues) installed.
  
• Dozens of smaller bugfixes; see the full changelog.
  

Please note that this patch includes networking changes that make the game incompatible with servers running on the old version of the game. If you're getting error messages about an incompatible game version when trying to join a server, it's most likely because the server host has not updated their game yet.

In other news, to give you a better idea of our future plans and what we're working on now, we're setting up a public Trello board with a roadmap of our plans for the Early Access period and a list of known issues (and possible workarounds). More about that in our next community announcement!

Hi everyone!

We've just published our first official guide for the character editor – find it here.

Please keep in mind that the character editor itself is still a work in progress, and creating your own monsters will not be all smooth sailing. That said, we hope to see all your monsters!

And in case you missed it before, we now also have a manual for the submarine editor, in Steam guides.

We're heading out of the office for an extended weekend. Happy midsummer!