This one came out a bit slow due to, well, the birth of my first child. But hey, I've more or less found a way to keep getting stuff done, including some good fixes in this patch!
BUG FIXES
Fixed certain text (including dialogue) getting very blurry at high resolutions
Cleaned up timing of priest curses - tests are now scheduled to avoid conflicts with missions or other curses
Typos and cutscene fixes
Minor fixes to launch event logic
POLISH
All dialogue choices that lead to skill tests now are clearly labeled (except ones where it's supposed to be a surprise)
Notifications now use contextual icons instead of always the little piloting icon
Lots of polish/fixes for mapestries - they should all be correctly sized and spaced now
Added depth to hallway when leaving office in "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay"
Changed music for priest curse scenes to the spooky game over track
Launch pre-flight check now zooms in on organist when she's mentioned
Patch 0.8.2
Hey, we're finally getting some of the temp art out of the tutorial! Plus, some more fixes.
BUG FIXES
Fixed some typos and cutscene glitches (i.e. tiny Morningdew) in "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay" and random events
Fixed purchased postgame upgrades not being removed from the store after purchase
Astronauts who change their personality in a certain Beauty Training event no longer randomly change appearance
The "Most glory" and "Least glory" displayed for a mission are no longer swapped
Fixed incorrect name of Mountful Peak mission
Polish in various mapestries
GRAPHICS
Mapestry for "Earning Your Wings" now has actual graphics!
Mapestry for "The Celestial Ascent" now has actual graphics!
AUDIO
More sound effects in "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay"
New special music for the exploration sequences in "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay!"
Patch 0.8.1
A few significant bug fixes here, plus some fun sounds as a bonus.
BUG FIXES
Fixed bug where, under some circumstances, the player would not receive a full complement of astronauts during "Earning Your Wings"
Restored missing text in mapestry for "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay"
Fixed "The Celestial Ascent" mission not properly saving your progress and replaying old cutscenes
FINICKY POLISH
Changed "What Have You Done?" to start highlighting the most recently unlocked mission that isn't the launch
Changed "Clear Data" error message to be more alarming and specify that it closes the game
AUDIO
Added some non-final sound effects to the exploration events in "The Haunting of Porpoise Bay"
MAJOR RELEASE: 0.8.0
The headline for this release is the game's final mission. The Mountful Peak mission is a free play scenario where your job is to prepare astronauts for a space launch. Could it truly be so simple, or is there something else going on?
NEW MISSION: "THE CELESTIAL ASCENT"
Your mission is.. to prepare astronauts for space flight? Could it truly be?
Enjoy this very straightforward scenario in which you prepare astronauts for space flight. There is nothing strange about it and nothing hidden beyond the visible world. (This is not guaranteed to be the case in future updates.)
UNIFORMS
* Uniforms now have updated names and descriptions, in preparation for their art in the next major patch
MISSIONS
* "TV Drama": Added a new voice for spacewolves * A hidden space destination is now available. If a certain something happens during your launch, you'll be able to chart a new course in future launches. Hint: Vampires. * Look, I'll be honest. We've put in a lot of hidden stuff that you can't really access yet, so I shouldn't mention it, but it's going to be awesome.
BUG FIXES
* Fixed the "Exit Game" confirmation saying "Clear Save Data" instead, which was very inaccurate * Fixed a soft lock that could occur during launch after having asked the rocket which astronaut was its favorite
In the next major milestone, we'll add the Nice Bird to the game at last, and with it the progression system towards the game's true ending.
Major Release: 0.7.0
Tons of content this patch! The big news is more to do in space. All five High Priests have a destination in mind for your vessel, each with its own unpredictable challenges. Which will you discover?
LAUNCH EVENTS
Added Starnat's destination: Orbit
Added Rulu's destination: Alien Signal (this one is especially intricate)
Added the first secret destination...
Added option to launch a probe as your space activity
Launch mapestry now properly flies to destinations
New music and SFX for final scene after launch
UNIFORMS
All uniforms are now unlockable
They don't have any art yet. But they have gameplay effects!
MISSIONS
Earning Your Wings: Added mapestry, with temp art for now
TV Drama: Added special theme song for Spacewolves!
The Haunting of Porpoise Bay: Added final art for mapestry - for this mission, it's a clue-tracking board
UI
Replaced all fonts with open source fonts. Such is the life of an indie studio.
Added a button to the main menu to see the credits. They're temporary / incomplete; we'll add more folks before release.
Launch mapestry and tutorial mapestry now visible from "What Have You Done?" menu
BUG FIXES
Fixed weirdness with parade car positioning
Fixed crashes on edge cases of Astronaut Quest random events
Fixed money popup showing Glory instead
NEXT UP...
Our next major milestone is to release a Nice Bird and his progression system. Then, the final mission before beta...
Patch 0.6.1
Following up our big new content release, we've got a patch with some fixes for our previous missions.
MISSION BALANCE
Standardized all missions to last 10 days, including final challenge. This makes "Prestige Drama" and "A Matter of Pride" slightly shorter, but gives a couple more days to prep for launch.
Removed random events on ASE days
TV DRAMA
Added music cues for High Priest phone calls on first day
Added final outcome display node to mission map
BUG FIXES
Changed the order of stats in the Astronaut menu's spreadsheet to match the order in the astronaut display widget (h/t MathBlade for finding)
Fixed crash during Launch if you choose to visit a mining asteroid and all astronauts die on the asteroid
Fixed reversed success/failure outcomes in "A Matter of Pride" boxing match if you use the Vladagar rage phrase during the third round
Alpha Release 0.6.0
NEW MISSION: "THE HAUNTING OF PORPOISE BAY"
Flaustria's most popular amusement park has been besieged by ghosts. Before you can launch, you'll have to solve the mystery behind their appearance.
This fourth mission is our most ambitious yet! We're pushing our narrative choice system into becoming an investigating-a-haunted-amusement-park system, where you and your astronauts collect clues about mysterious vengeful spirits. Of course, there's more than one way to deal with ghosts, and plenty of alternate paths to discover...
This mission is also where we're dropping a lot of lore! Some of Flaustria's darkest secrets, hinted at throughout the game, can be brought to light through this investigation.
How to Access
In order to unlock the new mission, you must successfully complete "Prestige Drama," or play through six missions total. If you've met those conditions but don't have it available, ||press Shift+4 on the main menu to unlock it.||
Since we're once again trying out new things and changing up our formula, we're eager to get feedback! We want to make sure this mystery is well paced, that the reveals hit right, and that it's fun to replay. So please let us know what you think in our Discord's #alpha-discussions channel!
Progress Report
A few parts of this mission are incomplete and will be coming in future updates:
Mission map / clue tracker
Some audio
Prolly bugs
Our next major update will focus on the metagame and launch. Then, onto the fifth and final mission. By the end of the year, we're hoping to complete all of the game's mission content and advance from alpha to beta!
Alpha Release 0.5.0 Notes
MAJOR RELEASE: 0.5.0
Thanks to our XL-sized previous update, this one officially finished off two milestones, so we've increased the version number twice! This one is mostly new event content, plus finishing up the Prestige Drama mission. We're already starting work on the next mission - it'll be our most ambitious yet, and start getting into some of the game's *deep lore*.
WORLD EVENTS
There are now a series of recombinant random events about the inner lives of your astronauts. Combined with a few new priest events, the total number of events in the game have been doubled since our earlier builds!
Rebalanced random event probabilities using monte carlo simulation; compensated for preconditions so all events are equally likely to occur
MISSION - PRESTIGE DRAMA
Mission mapestry now complete! It appears throughout the mission to keep track of your progress and decisions. It's also available in-game by clicking on the top bar, or in the mission select or "What Have You Done?" menus.
AUDIO
Added ambient music to postgame
Refactored audio engine; mostly behind the scene but should result in more consistent volumes
Alpha Patch 0.3.0
It's been a little while since we've had a new build, so there's a lot of exciting new features and content to mention!
CONTROLLER COMPATABILITY All of Astronaut: The Best should now be playable with controller or keyboard input! There are likely plenty of bugs we haven't yet found, so we'd appreciate it if you try playing through the game with the controller of your choice!
NEW WORLD EVENTS There are now 27 new world events where the High Priests come into your office, more than doubling the previous amount!
AUDIO
A new third song for the main menu
Rebalanced volume/compression for all music
New voice for the Nice Bird
BALANCE
The store inventory now depletes when items are bought, and refreshes at the start of every week. This prevents some degenerate strategies (that were more tedious than fun), and since items are now more limited/precious, it leaves room for us to balance them to be more impactful. Plus, it also makes it more valuable to unlock new items from the Lion Store!
Astronaut traits now only start at Level 1 or 2. You'll have to use witchcraft to boost them to level 3. This will help keep traits from over-impacting the game versus training - there will be more changes on that note to come.
Changed weather randomization to a bag system. Instead of being truly random, there will now be one of each weather in a week in a random order. This will ensure a more even distribution of events, and prevent frustrating situations where players would be locked out of the same training for multiple days in a row.
TUTORIALIZATION
Added a brief scene the day after the first time you're approved for launch, to make your goals for launch more clear
Added a brief scene the first time you start a game with Talismans and/or Hexes to explain how they work
MISSION - PRESTIGE DRAMA Added some extra effects in the climactic event if you have certain traits
POLISH
The System Menu has more actual art now
Added back button to the trait selection menu of items that reveal traits
Simplified logic for determining how many ASE audience members show up, so they'll no longer sometimes leave when you win or stay absent through the whole show
BUG FIXES
Fixed problems where items unlocked from the Lion Shop would not show up in-game
Fixed spinning lion transition to and from main menu not showing up
Simplified logic for determining whether an ASE timestep succeeded or failed, to remove some bugs where a success counted as failure or vice-versa
