Ostranauts - spaceship management sim set in NEO Scavenger universe - now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

Dan, Corey, Joshu, Michael, & Crusoe join us on voice to discuss and show off the latest major update!
0.10 Taking inventory changes a lot about how the game has to be played.

Stream recorded December 1st 2022, (Featuring: Dan, Corey, Joshu, Michael & Crusoe)

 

[The_Mask]

Happy Holidays, Folks!

As 2022 comes to a close, the Ostranauts team is getting ready for a much needed break. And we wish you and yours the best for the holidays.

Also, it's a time for us to look back over the year, and see how far we've come! Joshu put together this excellent retrospective to show what we've been up to:

Red lines represent roadmap milestones we released, like the Wear & Tear system, or new Inventory and Wounding system. These represent significant gameplay and/or content changes to the game, and take the longest to produce.

Orange lines are "feature" patches, which usually represent a significant new game system or feature added between major milestones. E.g. the 0.10.1.0 launch, which included 64-bit support, or 0.9.3.2, which added Autosave.

The yellow lines represent "hotfix" patches, which are typically bug fixes or smaller quality-of-life additions.

As you can see, it was a pretty busy year! 3 roadmap milestones, 6 feature patches, and 14 hotfix patches (15 including this week's). On average, about one update every other week!

Our ideal goal was more like a milestone each 2-3 months, but as you can see, the 0.10 milestone took a lot longer. It turns out that fundamentally changing the inventory system was pretty tricky! It changed a lot of adjacent systems, and also required a fairly significant batch of content to use those new features.

But apart from that, we actually managed a pretty good rhythm of roadmap milestones. If you include the 0.7 milestone launched in December 2021, they're otherwise coming about once per 3 months, which isn't far from what we expected.

With hard work, and some luck, hopefully 2023 is even better. We wish you and yours a healthy and prosperous new year!

 

[Perkel]

love the game but frankly updates have been slow. Also i don't think adding "autosave" could be described as significant feature.
Considering what they said about their plans this looks more like 10 year development schedule.

The bigger issue I see before them is how to tie it all together into cohesive game. building and scraping stuff is fun as hell especially early when you learn stuff but most of items don't have tiers or even alternate art versions. So once you have seen cooler or heater there is nothing "new" when it comes to those.

So as a building game where you fly scrape and maintain stuff it needs vastly more content and increased complexity. Different nav computers, some specialized gear to handle uranium containers, different temperature in rooms depending on what they should store. More gasses and liquids for various things, some more living stuff like chairs tables etc. for crew living quarters.
Basically increase content and complexity at medium long range of game.

As a semi-RPG where you fly around and solve problems as in dev plans it means vastly more content like planets, bars, people, factions and all of that needs to react to building part of game if this is focus as well. Getting that part working will be incredibly challenging when some vents breaking could lead to whole city dead in minutes like happened on my bugged game once

Focusing too much on one leaves other lacking and vice versa. Not giving enough work toward one of those aspects will hurt whole game.

Previous game was strict survival game with layer of worldbuilding/story. There wasn't additonal building game where you have to maintain city disctricts building them, handling fluis piping etc.

Naturally best of both words would be amazing.

 

[Perkel]

Imho they should go for building game.

They found out really interesting "physical" aspect in their game that is fun to play so they should imo go hard on this. It's not just that you install heater, you also have to connect it to sensor. It's not just you navigate ship, you have to manually lock into docking port. Those are the things that are really unique about game and i would love to see more interactions.

It would be nice if for an example RCS thruster you picked up had to be wired correctly and then set up manually first safe thrust level.

The issue I see to solve here is AI crew. If that is focus of game then writing AI to do that would be hard. Already it is probably hard for them to write AI that can do basic tasks without fucking things up and dying randomly because they decided to take off helmet in eva.

With building game finished you can then focus on story bits quests and other in separate game with foundation of this game.

 

[Hellraiser]

I'm just waiting for when they add ship combat, boarding actions and other ports in the solar system so that I can see my crew live and die the life of a space pirate, doing some corsair/merc work for corps on the side.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/3632750190484520126

Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.10.2.6) Is Live!
Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.10.2.6 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a feature update to our recently released "Taking Inventory" update, and is a complete overhaul of the save system, tutorial system, and character creation process. It also improves piloting AI to avoid collisions better, among several other fixes.

Saves from v0.10.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Changed AI pilots to cause fewer collisions with the player.

• Changed game to start with character customization UI up. (Sink/Career)
• Changed starting spawn location to a dorm room on OKLG station.
• Changed Live Fast button to say Seek Adventure, to be clearer what it does.
• Added a new Seek Adventure random event about a poker game.
• Added code to career kiosk to show tooltip info in sidebar when mouse is over Live Fast and other choice buttons.
• Added code to age character 1 year if Seek Ship offer is refused.
• Fixed a bug that caused placeholder text to appear in career kiosk first page title/header bar.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player's mother to always appear on OKLG.

• Changed the save system to allow any number of concurrent characters, instead of just 3.
• Changed the save UI to let the user see all possible saves, name their saves, load or delete them, and see a snapshot of where that save was made.
• Changed the save system to zip save folders, reducing save file sizes by 80-90%.
• Added the ability to change autosave frequency and max amount in the Options->General page.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a null exception when loading save files.

• Changed beginning tutorial to be more comprehensive, including basic UI controls, item installation, and piloting.
• Changed objective pop-ups to have a solid background, for better legibility.
• Fixed a bug that caused objective targets to remain highlighted after the objective was removed.
• Added code to keep objective on screen a bit longer, proportional to how long the text is.

• Added several new zone categories to organize items.
• Fixed a bug that prevented AI from hauling items to designated zones.
• Fixed damage shader on cigarettes and boxes so they don't become transparent.
• Fixed OKLG cigarette butts to spawn on the floor rather than stack inside the spawned boxes.
• Changed Search for Food action to only apply in installed, undamaged fridges and when actually hungry
• Fixed a bug that could cause null exceptions when starting a new game or continuing a save after dying.
• Fixed a bug that prevented container grid from appearing if user shift-clicked an item in inventory UI and it slotted.
• Changed zones to have an owner (creator) and group (target).
• Added the ability to trigger a zone if the zone's owner or target ranks walks into it.
• Added the ability for trigger zones to execute several types of events, like launching encounters or applying interactions.
• Added the ability for a zone to delete itself upon trigger.
• Added column headers to zones UI, and made it a bit taller to see more rows.
• Fixed a bug in ship editor so zones UI draws over the ship editor name/model/year fields.
• Added code to optionally cue music by tag in interactions.

One of the more common complaints we've seen from players is that AI crashes into them too often. This typically happens when the player is in the path an AI wants to fly through.

This update adds code to the AI pilots to check for a clear path, and steer around the player if need be. And overall, this should reduce the number of AI-involved crashes the player experiences.

We also saw a number of issues reported with new players learning how the game works. The old tutorials had several gaps in them, and the character creation room players started in was a confusing concept.

This patch rewrites that entire process, starting players immediately in a GUI where they customize their characters (similar to how most other RPGs work). And once done, spawns them in a more logical setting: the dorm room they slept in on OKLG up until this point.

From there, the tutorial system guides new players through several core gameplay and UI concepts, from pausing/unpausing, through equipping items and installing equipment, to finally getting in the ship and flying it to a derelict.

Yet another major change in this update is a complete overhaul of the save system. Gone are the limited 3 save slots, in favor of unlimited saved characters. Each save game can be manually named by the player, and managed through a new save UI, which includes the ability to overwrite or delete old saves, as well as a snapshot of both their captain and the place where they last saved.

Furthermore, save files are now zipped, for an 80-90% file size reduction. And autosave frequency and max count can be adjusted in the Options screen.

Finally, there was a large list of fixes in this patch. Crew should now be able to use haul zones, zones have more customization options, and for modders, zones have some new tricks they can do.

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

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1022980/discussions/1/3824159062917470637/

Sneak Preview of Upcoming Pistols & Punches Release Available
Hey Folks!

FYI, we have a new test build 0.10.99.25 up on Steam, in the opt-in beta branch "public_test." It should be propagating to Steam clients shortly.

Instructions for opting-into the beta can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1022980/discussions/2/3039355912944969071/

This new build is a sneak preview of the upcoming Pistols & Punches roadmap release, and includes the ability to fight people, some consequences for doing so, and several other updates.

As you might expect, the experimental build will have some bugs and quirks, so be forewarned

If you decide to give it a shot, let us know what you think!

 

[agris]

anyone know if the combat is like neo scavenger’s?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/3690178059713600541

Ostranauts "Pistols & Punches" Update Is Live!
Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.11.0.0 is now available on Steam. Named "Pistols and Punches", this patch represents a major feature update, and includes a batch of new content plus new gameplay systems to explore.

This update focuses on adding personnel combat and its consequences into the game, which leverages the previously added injury and medical system more. It also significantly changes the HUD and user interface to make it easier to act on, and learn about, the game world.

For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.
Old saves will not work in v0.11.x and later. However, we have created a new opt-in branch on Steam called "legacy_10" if you wish to continue your current v0.10.x character. See Steam's Tech Support forums for more info on opting-into other branches.

• Added armed and unarmed combat maneuvers.
• Added defensive combat maneuvers like block and dodge.
• Added tackling and related moves like pull down and trip.
• Added firearms and ammo.
• Added bladed melee weapons.
• Added blunt melee weapons.
• Added moves to both demand and offer surrender.
• Added ability to request crew join fight against target.
• Changed clothes items to provide some armor.
• Added various new attack modes to most items.
• Added different amounts and types of damage to each attack mode.
• Changed traits and skills to impact combat effectiveness (e.g. Strong, Tough, Melee skills).
• Changed AI to fight back, flee, or surrender based on various morale factors.
• Added a medical kiosk offering supplies, first aid, and treatments for chronic ailments (on OKLG Commercial).

• Added right click selection of items and people.
• Added Quick Action Bar (QAB) for the selected item at the bottom of the screen.
• Added MegaTooltip (MTT) sidebar showing detailed info, lore, and status of the selected item/person.
• Changed inventory screen to be simpler and clearer.
• Added yellow glow to selected item.
• Added simplified item names at the cursor when hovering tiles.
• Added atmosphere readout at the cursor when hovering tiles.
• Added cycling through item layers with multiple right clicks.
• Added hotkey functionality for activating QAB actions (1-4).
• Added hotkey functionality for scrolling and expanding QAB list (5-7).
• Added filtering QAB list by action type (use, work, talk, fight).
• Added tooltips to QAB buttons and the conditions shown in MTT.
• Added unrevealed conditions to the MTT as ???s, so player can see how much they don't know about an NPC.
• Added an ! near NPCs that are awaiting a player's reply.
• Added a red line of arrows showing when a character is attacking another.
• Added hotkey “G” to toggle atmosphere readout.
• Added code to show a ~ next to the name if the item under a cursor is damaged.
• Changed visual definition of container inventory grids.
• Changed time controls and “Funds” button to top of screen.
• Changed objective UI to keep completed objectives in PDA.
• Added Auto Pause feature, which can be toggled via the button next to “Funds”.
• Added code to auto-pause the game if someone is about to attack player, if someone just finished asking player a question, or if player's current attack has finished.
• Changed objectives to hide everything except their target when mouse is over objective text.
• Removed old context menu.
• Removed top right item/pressure readout.
• Changed log to be in the bottom right.
• Removed PDA from HUD while in character creation.
• Removed social combat UI with all the emotional stat bars, as it confused many players.
• Removed rank and work status icons from next to player/crew.
• Removed floating name tags and action bubbles from next to humans.

• Added code to make some actions illegal (e.g. violence, sabotage).
• Changed K-Leg law enforcement to now apply wanted status for ignoring requests to dock.
• Added code to make witnesses report crimes.
• Added code to make officers arrest and/or attack wanted criminals.
• Added factions to characters, with standings towards other factions.
• Changed actions towards faction members and property to affect faction standing positively or negatively.
• Changed characters to now initiate violence if factional standing is low enough.
• Added local K-Leg pirate faction that hates everyone and attacks on sight.
• Changed derelicts to sometimes spawn with corpses, pirates, or others on board.

• Added lock hacking and factory reset so players can set new PIN numbers for doors and crates.
• Added a scrap kiosk and two NPC traders to the Flotilla, to make it a viable trading location if player becomes wanted on K-Leg.
• Added loading screen tips and tricks.
• Changed start tutorial so the conduit installation is optional, not required to proceed.
• Added airlock signage on K-Leg to help new players find their way.
• Changed combat-related traits and skills cost in character creation.
• Added performance improvements which should boost FPS for some users.
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to drag other NPCs or player around.
• Added code to make NPCs stop if player tries to talk to them as they are walking.
• Added code to make NPCs wait for a few seconds before doing other things if they are expecting the player to reply.
• Added ability for player and NPCs to have multiple conversations going at once.
• Fixed a bug that would cause AI to get stuck trying to do a job if they picked up too many scrap parts for the task.
• Added code to Fixer and Port Authority so player cannot immediately try again if they are kicked out.
• Fixed a bug that caused AI to pause too long between actions when player direct-ordered them to do something.
• Fixed a bug that prevented pain from healing over time.
• Added code to make characters drop held items when knocked out.
• Fixed a bug that prevented dragging corpses from one ship to another.
• Fixed a null that would occur when double clicking player portrait.
• Fixed a bug that could cause NPCs to have barefoot status while wearing an EVA suit.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to start with the wrong colored limbs for their torso.
• Fixed a bug that caused ship to redock when undocking if user double-clicked the clamps button.
• Fixed a bug in the trade UI that would report "Insufficient Funds" despite having enough.
• Fixed a bug that prevented 1x1 racks from being uninstalled.
• Fixed brown floor bins installing into white ones.
• Fixed a null that could occur when dragging a human.
• Fixed a bug that caused paper doll items to not update when switching from crew to captain.
• Added code to improve pathfinding to moving targets.
• Added more debug commands to F3 debug console. Type "help" to see them.
• Fixed a bug that caused the nav tutorial to get stuck after using transit.
• Fixed an exploit where the same object straddling two zones can be sold more than once.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when the player used an empty string as their name.
• Removed a glowing ghost item that sometimes appeared on ships.
• Fixed a bug that put empty bottles in a party supply reward cache.
• Fixed a bug that would delete inventory items when frequently moving them around.
• Fixed a bug that caused items to be lost when canceling an install.
• Fixed a bug that would destroy items if user swapped them in inventory and closed UI without placing them.
• Fixed a bug preventing the "wear clothes" objective from completing if player uses shift-click to don them.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to buy a salvage license from the kiosk at infinite range.
• Fixed a bug in the purple jumpsuit gig that did not provide a purple jumpsuit.
• Fixed a bug that caused unconscious people to shout things when ship bumped or collided.

As you can see, this was a pretty big update! Not surprising, given that we added a combat system to a sim/builder game. Especially since it also required some rework on the HUD and user inputs.

Players of NEO Scavenger will probably feel pretty at home with the new combat system. It borrows a lot of DNA from NS, including how damage is handled, wounding, ranges, and the variety of moves.

And like NS, Ostranauts isn't a combat-focused game. Fights are usually grueling, and rarely is there a clear winner. Instead, cautious fighters are usually rewarded, and plan on nursing your wounds either way.

The HUD and user experience had quite an overhaul, too. And this was largely to accommodate the faster pace of actions in combat. Back when our most frequent actions were walking and uninstalling, the context menu worked fine.

But now that we are potentially clicking more frequently in a combat scenario, it was becoming too tedious to right click a target, choose that target from a radial, then find the move you wanted and click that. Over and over again for each punch.

So we tried a new approach that we're calling the Quick Action Bar (QAB). With it, you right click as you did before to choose a target. And based on what you targeted, a list of possible moves appears immediately at the bottom of the screen. You can click actions there to do them immediately, and the list remains on screen, so you don't have to re-select the target over and over each new action.

And since it can still be tedious to move your mouse down to the QAB over and over, we added hotkeys to the first 4 QAB actions in the list, plus a few more hotkeys to "page up" to the next 4, refresh, and expand the list to see more if there are many.

Generally, after testing, most of us felt it was an improvement in UX. We could click things in the world and use hotkeys much faster than navigating the old cascading context menu.

Another big change this update is the top right corner's so-called MegaTooltip (MTT). When you select a target, that MTT will show you just about everything you could know about the target.

And the old info we had up there listing items and their gas situation has been moved to a cluster around the mouse cursor. We found that we wanted that info near the cursor so we could see the data as we moved around, without having to look away from the cursor to see each new data point. (Note that the gas info near the cursor is only visible if dangerous by default, but the "G" hotkey will toggle it always-on.)

NPCs now care about certain crimes, and officers will attempt to arrest you if you are wanted. They might even attack you for more serious crimes. Similarly, certain actions (like violence or tampering with a space station) offend regular people, changing your faction status among them. Offend them too much, and strangers from that faction might attack you on sight!

Many other changes were included during this patch, as well. Players can now hack or factory reset locks on their doors and crates. Autopause helps manage the flow of time in time-sensitive moments like combat and high-stakes conversations. The inventory UI had a lot of work done to clean it up. And the starting tutorial was made to be friendlier to new users.

Not to mention the large list of bug fixes. It's been a busy couple of months!

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

 

[Perkel]

imho polarizing update.

On one hand i want more features like this.
But on other hand rest of game is still barebones and need a lot of touch to be expanded upon.

I think right now the biggest issue is that there is no "what is next". Early game starts great you scrape for every part but once you have basic rig then game doesn't really have any other goal. And as much as everything complex at low level there isn't higher level complexity to give you mileage beyond that first scrapping by.

Is this ship building sim ? scrapper sim ? survival sim ? roleplayinggame ? space story game where you ansemble crew and run some mission for someone eventually ?

Even if you earn money or build big ship there is no end game goal to build toward something.

NS main theme is mystery of the world so it was survival sim slash exploration game where after initial scraping for survival you explored world learning about that world.

In case of Ostra there isn't any mystery really. It's scrap yard around one of the moons. Devs said they plan to add more planets down the line later but it still won't have any mystery if those places are setup in similar way.

I think something like having a goal could work wonders for this game.

Like after you set up your first ship with torch drive you escape OKG scrapyard and start to uncover some things that will need different kind of designs to investigate it. Like there might be paradise planet that all want to live but you can't go there without official X faction vessel so you look for scrap to build replica or maybe instead join some rebel forces and build battleship etc.


The scrap part is absolutely brilliant part of game that needs good motive to play further with it.

edit:

Another idea. Some ships have logs from their past and you can uncover some mystery this way or they will point you out to something great.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB]

Xir is pleased.

 

[udm]

Is this ship building sim ? scrapper sim ? survival sim ? roleplayinggame ? space story game where you ansemble crew and run some mission for someone eventually ?

Eject tranny into space sim

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some fighting around 47 minutes mark.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/3708193817747192344

Ostranauts Hotfix Patch (0.11.0.7) Is Live!
Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.11.0.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix to our recently released "Pistols & Punches" update that fixes several bugs and issues reported by players. Notably, the way crimes and faction changes are reported has been improved, NPCs should be less likely to disrupt important conversations, and gigs should stop targeting impossible people, among other fixes.

Saves from v0.11.0.0 and later should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• Fixed a bug that prevented nav (and other item) UIs from working again after loading an autosave where that UI was in use.
• Fixed a bug that allowed NPCs to lie down and sleep in the middle of important conversations with the player.
• Changed AI to avoid wandering off during important conversations.
• Fixed a bug that left players stranded in an important conversation if the other party died or fell unconscious.
• Added the ability to forcefully rouse sleeping NPCs.
• Changed crime to require witnesses before it can be reported.
• Changed crime reporting to be an action witness NPCs have to manually do (and can be interrupted). Police witnesses instantly log crimes.
• Changed witness crime reporting so friends, crew, family, and other close relations won't narc on the perpetrator.
• Changed crime so police acting on a known suspect don't become criminals.
• Fixed a bug that allowed NPCs to log a crime on someone immediately after they finish the arrest process. (E.g. if they were in reporting in progress as police arrested target)
• Changed police fine for public disorder to be a one-time fee, instead of recurring. So players can pay it all at once.
• Changed crime so actions against known criminals don't count as a crime.
• Changed faction boosts/penalties to only take effect if done to a person, or a person witnesses it done to an item.
• Changed NPCs to not bother logging faction boosts/penalties if the person acting and the recipient are both foreign factions.
• Changed NPCs to not log faction penalties on friends, family, crew, and other close relations.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Fixer and Port Authority clerk to turn the player away immediately after succeeding with them.
• Fixed a bug that could cause NPCs to not fight people they are currently in combat with. (E.g. police or muggers constantly shouting but never doing anything)
• Fixed a bug that caused police to shout at unconscious people.
• Added the ability for the player to refuse arrest if a different officer just finished arresting them.
• Fixed a bug that caused honeypot gigs to target pirates or dead people.
• Fixed a bug that caused courier gigs to target pirates or dead people.
• Fixed a bug in career kiosk that caused some age-related condition removals to be immediately re-added due to crossing age threshold.
• Added an autosave the first time a player docks with a derelict that has hostiles on board.
• Changed several important kiosks and other objects to be indestructible.
• Fixed a bug that caused inventory grids to overlap with the bottom UI, and hidden.
• Fixed a bug that did not detect when a first-time player was starting the game, making it harder for them.
• Fixed a bug that prevented people drinking/eating from containers.
• Added a faction standings boost with employer for completing their gigs.
• Fixed a bug that made honeypot final action hard to notice.
• Added some extra options to the honeypot gig's action list.
• Fixed a bug that made the snap photo gig impossible sometimes.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the user to snap a photo for the gig without line of sight.
• Fixed a bug that prevented loose wall lights from going into hand slots.
• Fixed a bug that prevented loose beds from going into hand slots.
• Fixed a bug that made being well-groomed have more trouble sleeping, instead of less.
• Fixed a bug that caused some derelict corpses to not really be dead.
• Fixed a bug that caused camera shake to be too powerful.
• Fixed a bug that failed to update player's name in career kiosk header after changing it in the appearance GUI.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Mescaform bartender to do things only the Fixer should do.
• Fixed a bug that caused wearing EVA suits to lessen effects of some non-work tasks/interactions.
• Fixed a bug that caused a charge bar to appear on non-battery-like powered item info UI.
• Fixed a bug in aberrant wound healing condition that made infections heal too fast.
• Fixed a null error that could occur when loading the encounter for first derelict docking.
• Fixed a null error when an AI was attempting to do a repeated action on a missing target.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the user to select helper items in the game world that are meant to be invisible.
• Fixed a bug that incorrectly calculated faction change amounts based on population.
• Fixed a bug that prevented freshening up with water/wipes from working.
• Fixed several missing conditions on the career kiosk's Review Resume page.
• Fix several typos.

One big change in this patch affects the way crime and faction reporting works, so it is non-instant, non-omniscient, and makes sure NPCs are a little more careful about whom they fight.

Most crimes and faction changes now require that a witness have line of sight to the action, and that they be someone who would care. E.g. crew won't narc on their captain, nor will friends/family.

And police will no longer be flagged as public enemies for executing their attack warrants on public enemies.

Furthermore, crime reporting now happens on a delay, and you should be able to see the NPC reporting the crime in real time. If you are fast, you can stop them!

Another smaller, but very important fix, is to the way UIs work. A number of users ran into issues with UIs not working on some objects after loading a save (usually the nav station). The bug causing this has been fixed.

Several important kiosks were also made indestructible for now, so players don't lose access to the mediclinic, trade kiosks, refueling/docking kiosks, etc.

Another batch of fixes addresses AI behavior during important conversations. AI should be less likely to wander off during such conversations, and are also expressly forbidden from lying down to sleep during a stakes conversation. Just for good measure, we also added the ability to wake up sleeping NPCs.

Several fixes address the Gig Nexus system, and it should now be a little more selective about its targets. Namely, no more dead/pirate targets for courier and honeypot missions. And snapshot missions should be more reliable/realistic when attempting to take a photo now. (There are still occasional Gigs targeting very distant NPCs, though, so please watch the range info in the Gig closely!)

The infamous "middle aged unfit" bug has also been fixed. Now, if the player crosses the middle age mark as a result of removing negative traits, they won't be immediately re-added due to age!

Plus a host of other 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

 

[Theodora]

Did people ever get over the they/them'ing / how much of a game is there to play so far? NEO Scavenger wasn't the most directed game ever, so I know what to expect, but is there an actual goal yet or is it mostly just fucking around?

 

[The_Mask]

Did people ever get over the they/them'ing

Not really, but if people get free copies, then whatever...

how much of a game is there to play so far?

Quite a lot, actually. But the space "navigating" controls are janky, so... personally I put a pause on the game because of that one.

NEO Scavenger wasn't the most directed game ever, so I know what to expect, but is there an actual goal yet or is it mostly just fucking around?

Haven't gotten far. Mostly just fucking around. I mean, depends on what you like to do: if you're like me and you like to build things and repair things, the game's fucking awesome. I spent 10 minutes repairing a ship, and filling up status bars. Tamed my autism for a time.

But other than that? I haven't gotten far. The controls to fly the ship are very janky.

 

[agris]

The controls to fly the ship are very janky.

Can you elaborate?

 

[The_Mask]

I used the keyboard to plot the course of my ship. This requires fine precision right now. And I sucked so hard, I sent my ship spinning, bleeding power everywhere.

I'm not sure if I suck at it though, because I tried the late 90's approach: press 1 key at a time. And my ship still went drifting.

The game is in EA, so maybe I hit a bug, or a W.I.P. feature, so... I would give it time.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/3677800769847744995

Ostranauts "Rate My Build" Update Is Live!
Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.12.0.3 is now available on Steam. Named "Rate My Build", this patch represents a major feature update, and includes a batch of new content, plus new gameplay systems to explore.
This update focuses on the ability to buy and sell ships, and enhancing the value of ships via improving their rating (a.k.a. "Ship Flipper"). A large slate of new ship items is included to help improve ship value and specialization.

What's more, this update coincides with a 20% discount off of Ostranauts during the Steam Summer Sale! So if you've been thinking about pulling the trigger on Ostranauts, this is a pretty good time. We even updated the store page and trailer, to show what's changed recently.



For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.
Old saves will not work in v0.12.x and later. However, we have created a new opt-in branch on Steam called "legacy_11" if you wish to continue your current v0.11.x character. See Steam's Tech Support forums for more info on opting-into other branches.


Added the ability to legally own ships besides the starter ship.
Added a ship broker kiosk to legally buy and sell ships at OKLG Commercial district.
Added turn-key used ships to the ship broker kiosk.
Added derelict ships from the OKLG boneyard to the ship broker kiosk.
Added the ability to mortgage a new ship for as little as 50% down-payment.
Added feature to the ship broker to include all derelicts the player visited on the sale list.
Added feature to the ship broker to preview used ships before buying them.
Changed ship prices to be based on a combo of all installed parts, and other specialty rooms/equipment.
Changed nav station to show a temporary warning screen if user does not own the vessel, and is not crew of owner.
Added transponder rules to the game, requiring all vessels to have a working transponder and antenna to be legal.
Added code to make it harder for police to spot non-transponder ships at long range.
Added code to make police preferentially target non-transponder ships at short range.
Added code to make patrols mostly ignore scavengers with a valid license.
Added code to make police arrest people for stealing ships.
Added transponder controls to both the nav station's UI and transponder unit.
Changed nav station map to show transponder IDs instead of actual ship IDs (in case transponder doesn't match ship).
Added code to prevent docking clearance at fee-charging stations if ship has no transponder.
Added an official rating code to each ship, which help describe the type and state of a ship in a short string.
Added the ability to see a vessel's rating in the nav station Print Status screen, docking UI, and ship broker kiosk.
Added the ability to get an enhanced vessel rating from the ship broker kiosk, showing additional vessel classification info, and an spec sheet of the ship.
Added the ability to buy a replacement transponder from the ship broker kiosk.
Added a new ferry service to the PDA app list that transports the user to nearby stations and owned ships.
Added a new gig neXus job type that involves roughing-up a target.
Added a new gig neXus job type that involves investigating a body.
Added the ability to prepay mortgages in the FUNDS UI.
Added 6 new ships and some variants to game.
Added 5 new starter ships to career options.
Added food vendors with street food to OKLG Port and OKLG Mescaform maps.
Added new prepared meal options with comforting effects to food vendor carts.
Added new luxury wall lights that can be adjusted to different colors.
Added new manual entry hatch that can be installed to access areas without a door.
Added new transponder item, which has a high chance of becoming broken/invalidated when uninstalled.
Added new civilian and military transponder antennae.
Added O2 candle item.
Added new temporary wall seal item.
Added several new wall poster items.
Added several new installable floor styles.
Added new air vent type that will auto-close if unsafe O2 levels detected on either side.
Added new, smaller ship batteries with 1x2 and 1x1 tile footprints.
Added new alcove bed type to the game, which provides improved sleep benefits.
Added new medical bed type to the game, which provides improved healing rate.
Added a new smaller stool-like chair that can fit near tables.
Added a new passenger-vessel-style seat.
Added ability to sit in chairs for a slight security replenishment, at the cost of achievement.
Added the ability to (un)install and restore tables, jukeboxes, signs, TVs, and terminals.
Added new towing brace item, which installs over the docking ring to support towing other vessels.
Added actual ship damage for towing another vessel without a secured towing brace.
Added new Ossifex Pen item to help stave-off atrophy.
Added new treadmill exercise equipment, which can be used to stave-off atrophy and remove Unfit/gain Fit trait.
Added new FLEX exercise equipment, which can be used to stave-off atrophy and remove Feeble/gain Strong trait.
Added new toothbrush items, which can be used to improve hygiene.
Added new arcade game cabinet item, which can be used for recreational boosts.
Added a new switch panel to the game, letting the user remotely switch any number of objects on/off with logic gates.
Added the ability to watch TV, and switch channels from news to drama, for mood boosts.
Added the ability to change the song playing on a jukebox to one of three, or off.
Added the ability to admire posters, planters, and bartops.
Added a ferry kiosk to the game, found in the OKLG port area (replaces one refueling kiosk).
Adds a retail furnishings kiosk in the north part of Old Emporium. It sells but doesn't buy from the player.





Added code to reveal NPC info faster during conversations.
Added code to show GIG in front of gig-related moves.
Added code to autopause game when character finishes social move that has no replies.
Added code to make NPC renew waiting for player if player attempts to talk to them while they are walking, doing nothing, or waiting.
Added a named fine for failure to allow officer on board.
Added DOCK INFO page to docking menu, which shows info on docked ship.
Added transponder, antenna, and ship rating into to nav station status screen.
Added code to show brief connection message on docking UI.
Added code to alert the player via log message when their license causes patrol to leave them alone.
Added audio effect for when message log updates.
Added code to prevent audio clipping when colliding many times in close succession.
Added some code to improve game performance, particularly when loading/unloading ships.
Changed all action lists on items so Bash is not the first, and where possible, the order is more consistent.
Changed the action buttons to show Cancel Action move when player is currently doing an action, and disable other actions.
Changed the action buttons to show Wait for NPC Reply move when target is replying.
Changed police arrest encounter to teleport the player to the OKLG security office when done.
Changed min and max zoom amounts to be more reasonable.
Changed refueling and life support refill costs at port to be higher.
Changed police and scav ships to be reused after finishing a tour, instead of destroyed.
Changed floor bins to count as floors in the PDA job painting menu, so it isn't uninstalled with other non-floor equipment.
Changed the arrest encounter to allow paying the fines as a lump sum or in installments.
Changed the way police message the player when boarding so it's a bit more obvious.
Changed the OKLG scrap kiosk to have a more reliable amount of construction materials.
Changed police arrests and attacks to allow boarding player ship.
Fixed a bug that could cause an NPC to not reply to player when they should.
Fixed a bug that caused police to ask player why they were boarded while arresting them.
Fixed a bug that did not anger police if player undocked from them to run away.
Fixed a bug that caused action button tooltips to get stuck on screen.
Fixed a bug that caused honeypot stakes convo to get stuck waiting for an NPC who won't reply.
Fixed a bug that caused honepot extract move to have replies in gray text on the player's side of the log.
Fixed a bug that caused uninstalled items to disappear if there wasn't room for them.
Fixed a bug that caused the quick-action buttons for an item to not update when it mode switches (e.g. on/off, open/closed)
Fixed a bug that caused action buttons to not update when clicking an action.
Fixed a bug that caused a significant lag spike when removing wall pieces.
Fixed a bug that allowed stripping sleeping characters. Knocked-out characters can still be stripped.
Fixed a bug that caused player to be unable to access toilet, bed, and other teleport-required COs.
Fixed a bug that caused manually controlled PCs to wander off after using the toilet.
Fixed a bug that reported the incorrect value for Fines & Other Fees on the station refuel kiosk.
Fixed a bug that caused social combat UI to stop working if it was raised immediately before another UI and interrupted.
Fixed a bug that caused encounter UI to show zero options if UI raised while in another UI.
Fixed a bug that could cause the fixer to not see items in player's ship barter zone.
Fixed a bug that would spawn scavenger ships from one station, when the NPC piloting them was on another.
Fixed a bug that showed ship dimensions to extreme decimal places in nav station.
Fixed a bug that created several alerts/objectives for pressure and power on a newly docked derelict vessel.
Fixed a bug that caused cursor temperatures to show wrong value.
Fixed a bug that prevented cursor pressure/temp to show human/canister under cursor.
Fixed a bug that would cause some hostile actions to not be recorded against target faction.
Fixed a null exception that could occur if immediately docking after undocking.
Fixed a null exception that could occur when loading a ship from the ship editor.
Fixed a null exception that could happen when an item/person had an empty interaction.
Fixed a null exception that could happen when the pathfinder parent is null and we try to output its name.
Fixed missing tooltip text on some gig moves and conditions.
Fixed normal maps on floor label items.
Fixed missing normal maps on EVA suits.
Fixed missing description on several items.
Fixed several typos in game data jsons.
Fixed a bug that caused Seek Ship docked status to say undocked, despite starting docked.
Removed most cases of NPCs spawning on ships multiple AU away, which appear as targets in gig neXus.




Added new Interaction.strTeleportRegID field to allow interactions to teleport objUs.
Added JsonSpawnStation.strOwner and JsonSpawnDerelict.strOwner to define the faction owner of those spawned ship types.
Added a new param to let interactions launch a PDA UI instead of a normal full-screen one.
Changed the way ships are loaded in editor to avoid changing COIDs on each save/load.
Fixed a bug that caused ShipEditor lootspawner pspec dropdown to reset when hitting Save Ship.


One of the biggest changes this update is to ship ownership, and how ships are bought and sold. Previously, players would just roll up to any Ayotimiwa derelict and start moving in with their stuff.



Well, not anymore! There's a price and a process for that, and it starts with the new ship broker kiosk in K-Leg Commercial District. In it, you can peruse used and derelict ships for sale. Used ships can be mortgaged for as little as 50% down, while derelicts must be paid for wholesale. Buyers are encouraged to preview the ship before buying, as all sales are final, and it could be a bad deal.

If, on the other hand, you find a decent wreck out there with a reasonable sticker price, you can pay the ship broker to officially own it. Then, anything you do to improve it is yours to keep. You can use it as your own ship, or even sell the restored vessel back for a profit!

The ship broker also offers an important new service: replacement transponders. All vessels must now be fitted with a working transponder and antenna to be legal, and transponders cannot be easily removed from a vessel once installed. (Many derelicts will have broken or missing transponders, as a result.)



Flying without a transponder and antenna is a crime, as it can make your vessel hard to detect at long ranges, risking collisions with others. Police vessels close enough to detect a ship "flying dark" will be prosecuted!

Experienced players will also notice some significant changes to the action buttons. First of all, "Bash" is no longer the first option on any item. Most items now have a consistent action order, where possible. No more accidentally bashing or uninstalling something you meant to use!

The game will also now autopause for social moves, social moves will produce an audio cue, and the action button list will update in real time to show you if you are currently acting, or awaiting an NPC reply.

And speaking of replies, several NPC high-stakes conversations had some rework done to make them a little smoother and more reliable.

The revealed conditions on the target also now appear more quickly, making it easier to tell their mood when choosing your next move. These changes should hopefully help with the chaotic conversations of old, where both parties frequently got interrupted or overloaded with replies.



A new P.A.S.S. shuttle service was also added to the game, to help players get around without using a ship. Simply call a shuttle via your PDA or the kiosk at K-Leg Port to initiate a pick-up, and depending on how far away you are from port, a shuttle will arrive shortly, taking you to your destination (for a price).

Plus, we have a range of new items and ships in the games to try out. 5 new starting ships, plus several new ship variants were added, and over 40 new items to use and/or install. Things like decor items, furniture, emergency tools, and even exercise equipment! That last one is also our first test with tools that help you change your traits over time, removing negative traits like Feeble and Unfit, and possibly adding their positive counterparts. If this works well enough, we'll probably expand it to cover other traits, and possibly skills.

One other new item of note is the signal box. What started as a circuit-breaker-like item to control on/off states of distant objects evolved into the beginnings of a logic circuit tool. You can add any number of electronic items to the box to manually toggle them on/off, or all of them at once.



And you can even chain multiple signal boxes together, controlling their signal propagation timing and logic. We're looking forward to seeing what intrepid ship designers can do with this new tool!

And of course, bug fixes. Lots and lots of bug fixes. Too many to describe here, but have a look at the list above for details!

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

 

[Tweed]

Has anyone modded out the mental illness yet?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Perkel]

spent some hours lately with it.
It is much much much much better now. It feels like there is something to actually do.

 

[Perkel]

Expanding on what i said:

- you now own a ship with mortage so there is a reason to rip and sell stuff.
- you can sell your ship and buy yourself used one or buy one of derelicts floating around
- you can buy for 5k license to salvage stuff rather than doing it illegaly. They pay for literally anything not just hull like it used to be which forced you to rip decent stuff and sell it to black market. Black market now is just 50% more money per part if they look for it.
- there is combat in game now. Some derelicts can have occupants that will attack you if you board it. Police will scan your ship and board you to check if you have some company property and you run without license. If they will notice anything wrong they can either fine you or arrest you, you can fight them now as well.
- they added small quest station that gives you something other to do rather than just non stop scavenging. Give someone item X at Y position etc.
- Your starting ship also is in rough shape so you will spend plenty of time just on fixing it.
- There is ship scoring system that will price ship you have and you can then sell it.
- Ferry can move you to some point in space if you don't own ship. Like case if you sold you last one.

 

[Perkel]

also for reminder milestones: