If you've still got Ostranauts on your wishlist then this ones for you! As part of the ongoing Steam Survival Fest we're running a 10% discount offer on Ostranauts (and a 75% discount on Neo Scavenger 👀).
If you're on the fence why not check out Total Xclipse's playthrough on YouTube, has he found the best way to make money?
Our most recent update brought some hot new changes with it such as:
New tutorial objectives and objective pacing to help newer players learn to play the game
Newly updated docking UI to show more information
Nav Cheat Sheet has been updated to contain more up to date info
The PDA can now be opened over other UIs
The game now Autosaves and autosaves can be loaded separately when continuing a character
Conversations and encounters now have a "Force Exit" button to close them quickly or in emergencies
Cops have generally been made less annoying
We hope you enjoy what we've been continuing to work on and have some big plans for coming features and mechanics! If you have any feedback please feel free to come join us in our Discord here or follow and get involved with our Twitter 💬
Best, Daniel Fedor Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC
Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.5.7) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.5.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and includes some significant changes to new player tutorials, docking, and other quality of life enhancements, and fixes.
Note that we are still working on the next (Slots/Wounds) milestone, as well! This update is just a brief 1-week sidetrack to address several new user bugs we identified in a recent test.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
Added visual indicators to docking UI for range, orientation, and offset.
Changed docking UI text to be distributed around next to the relevant indicators
Added Wrong Way message to docking screen when applicable.
Added pause indicator to game's top left corner.
Fixed a bug that caused Ostranauts to always start in fullscreen 1024x768 mode on a fresh PC.
Added note to video options screen to prefer widescreen if possible.
Added 'Loading...' message to save slots after user clicks one.
Changed save slot selection buttons to be more obvious and consistent with each other.
Changed character creation tutorials to wait until each is finished before creating new one.
Added tutorial objective for pausing the game.
Changed character creation tutorials to wait until each is finished before creating new one.
Changed sink objective to complete as soon as sink is opened, instead of when clicking Done, if applicable.
Changed nav station starting zoom to be closer.
Added code to nav station so it remembers zoom from session to session.
Changed docked ships so they face each other instead of same direction.
Added nav tutorial objective for targeting OKLG.
Added nav tutorials for CW and CCW thrust.
Added nav tutorials for halting rotation.
Added nav tutorial objective to change bearing to point at OKLG after QER controls.
Added nav tutorials for rear and forward thrust.
Added nav tutorials for left and right thrust.
Added nav tutorial objective to target derelict.
Added nav tutorial objective to navigate to docking range with target.
Added nav tutorial objective to switch to docking screen.
Added docking tutorial objective to get docking clearance.
Added docking tutorial objective to dock with derelict.
Changed tutorial for damage tooltips to appear after launching from chargen.
Changed manuals to have higher resolution.
Changed context menu buttons to have scaling text size so long names are visible.
Fixed a bug that caused arrow keys to always switch control panels, even if user bound those keys to move the ship.
Fixed objectives disappearing behind inventory.
Changed nav tutorial to set tutorial conditions on user as objectives are completed, instead of all at beginning of game.
Changed PDA so it doesn't close UI when it slides open.
Changed PDA to appear in front of control panel instead of behind.
Fixed a bug that allowed user to have inventory and item control panel open at same time, locking out context menu controls afterward.
Changed sink skin selector to be at top, so users see that first (and don't lose lots of customization when doing it last).
Fixed a bug that caused encounter UI to freeze when finishing chargen due to autosave.
Fixed descriptions of various conditions (green wall light, purple wall light)
Fixed typo in crackdown encounter text
Fixed incorrect stat usage in caffeine, now uses correct StatSolidTemp
As you can see, there's a large number of quality of life changes in this build! Most are meant to help new users avoid common pitfalls we recently identified in a usability test. But a fair number are also beneficial to veterans.
One of the biggest changes this update is to the docking UI. It now shows a lot more situational info and relevant warnings, to help the user orient themselves. We think both new and veteran users will find useful things here.
We also updated the Don't Crash! paper note taped to the nav screen to be much clearer, and more up-to-date. And while there, we also upscaled all the in-game manuals to double the old resolution, for better legibility.
A new pause indicator will flash on screen when the game is paused, as a number of players didn't realize the game was paused. And in a similar fashion, we added some better visual feedback to things like clicking a new/continue save slot. (And made the clickable regions for those buttons easier to see.)
We also discovered that the game would 100% default to 1024x768 resolution on new users' PCs, which is far from a good resolution for the game. It will now attempt to choose the largest widescreen option supported by the user's monitor. And when changing resolution in the options screen, it will highlight which resolutions are the best picks for the user.
The tutorial objectives received an overhaul, as well!
The chargen tutorial is now sequential, instead of burying users in incessant objectives. There is also an extensive nav station tutorial, teaching the user about important flight controls, and targeting. This carries through to docking with the first derelict.
The objectives also now appear in front of all other UIs, so they aren't missed. Plus the PDA can now open without closing control panels.
Also, it turns out a bug prevented the user from using arrow keys on the nav screen to fly, due to them also switching control panels. This has been corrected! Shift+arrow keys is the new default keybind to swap control panels, and it can be edited in the options.
We fixed a potentially game-halting bug that happened when opening the inventory while in the trading UI, making context menu options unclickable.
And we mived the sink's skin selector button to the top, since it randomizes some features that aren't available on other skin colors. Players frequently spent time customizing all the other features, only to try a different skin color and lose all that info.
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
Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.4.0) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.4.0 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, which changes the career kiosk a bit, and adds a new exit button to social combat.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 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 career kiosk to auto-choose shipbreaker career on first use, since no other choices are available yet.
Changed career kiosk page header to show captain's name, age, and funds at all times.
Added a dedicated "Force Exit" button to social combat UI, in case player is stuck.
The two big changes here are to the career kiosk and social combat UIs.
The career kiosk previously asked the player to choose a career track first, but only ever offered one option: Shipbreaker. That option is now auto-selected for convenience, and we'll add the choice back later when other careers become available.
The career kiosk also now shows the captain's name, age, and funds at the top of the main text area, so it's easier to keep track of progress.
In the social combat UI, there is now a dedicated "Force Exit" button players can use in case there is a problem during conversation. Under normal circumstances, it should be possible to exit all conversations organically (via social moves in the list of conversation options), or by walking away by clicking the floor somewhere.
But if something prevents conversation options from appearing, or some other problem is preventing the player from exiting/walking away, this button will hard exit the scene. Such a hard exit may have problems of its own, depending on the conversation. But hopefully it gets players back into the action without having to close the game.
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
Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.3.2) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.3.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, which adds autosave! Plus a fix for buying salvage licenses.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
Added autosave every 15 minutes.
Added a feature to the continue screen that lets the user load normally (last manual save) or use a dropdown to load autosaves or older saves.
Fixed a bug that prevented the player from purchasing salvage licenses because their captain didn't feel like succeeding.
The big change here is, of course, autosave!
The game will now autosave approximately every 15 minutes, and backup up to 2 autosaves in the same slot where your usual save files go. This way, if you forget to save progress for a while, and something happens, you should have both your last manual save and some recent saves to choose from.
The main menu's Continue screen also now has a new dropdown at the bottom of each save slot. It lists all manual and autosaves in the folder, in reverse chronological order. This will let you choose which specific save you want to load. Clicking the main slot button above continues to work as before, loading the latest manual save found.
Finally, there is also a fix for the salvage license kiosk. Some players were seeing a log message that they lacked funds when attempting to purchase, despite having enough.
It turns out there was a missing flag on this transaction that let the captain's AI choose what outcome it wanted. And some masochistic AIs preferred to fail. I guess to feel something? I dunno. Anyway, they purchase correctly now.
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
Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.2.1) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.2.1 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, which significantly changes police behavior, among a few other features and fixes.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 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 police to only start bothering player after first time they illegally dock with derelict.
Changed police ships to bother player less often.
Changed non-bribe police shakedown gambits to sucking up to them and steering towards a minor infraction.
Changed police shakedown to require warnings before conversation ends with a loss.
Added ability to stall one time when finding out legitimate fine in police shakedown.
Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck endlessly in police shakedown.
Fixed a bug that could cause multiple police ships to target same ship before first one arrives at target.
Added new bug reporting button to game's escape menu (near bottom).
Added new bug reporting command 'bugform' to debug console.
Fixed a bug that caused saving game to fail if an object being saved had a null transform.
Changed police shakedown so mugging will not take licenses, toolboxes, or EVA suits.
Changed some police shakedown choice titles to have more concise wording.
Added more social moves to police shakedown so player could slow pace down and scout police mood.
Added code to make cops angry if player tries to undock before police talk to them.
Added code to delay police from immediately redocking with player after player undocks from them.
Fixed a bug that caused police crew to spawn with orange EVA suits.
Fixed a bug that would cause crates to respawn loot inside when locked via UI.
The big change here is to how the police operate, both as pilots and interrogators. They'll now leave players alone until they start docking with derelicts, and even then, their frequency should be more like once per shift, instead of several times an hour.
Also, the police conversation has a number of new features in it to reduce sudden failure states, giving players more time to feel them out and control the flow of the conversation. That, and the "mugging" outcome should no longer rob the player of critical items like their EVA suit, toolbox full of tools, or permits.
We also have a new Bug Report button on the game's escape menu, which will take you to a bug submission form. It can also be accessed via the debug console in the top left.
Finally, there were also a few fixes, including one which prevented save games from finishing writing to disk, and another which randomly replaced crate items when locked via the UI.
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
A New Album from Ostranauts's Composer: Trismegistus - Part 2
Hey Folks!
If you're a fan of the music in NEO Scavenger, Ostranauts, or Underrail, I have some good news for you!
Invisible Acropolis (a.k.a. Josh Culler, and the composer of all three above OSTs) has a new album out, entitled Trismegistus - Part 2. In his words:
"Its inspired by vintage fantasy and sci-fi movie soundtracks, and you can even download it for free if you want!"
Head on over and give it a listen. And if you enjoy it, spread the word! Let's all help there be more Invisible Acropolis music in the world :)
Best, Daniel Fedor Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC
Ostranauts Hotfix Patch (0.9.1.8) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.1.8 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a hotfix for our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and primarily fixes an out of memory error some players experienced when saving games with a lot of data in them.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 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 caused out of memory errors when saving very advanced games with lots of data in them.
Fixed a bug that caused career kiosk sidebar to show a blank career entry when clicking OK to confirm a selection.
Fixed a bug that allowed the emotional clobber event to happen when player is sleeping.
The big change here is the out of memory error fix. It appears that as save games got larger, the game was inefficiently using memory to store the save file before writing, and it could run out of memory before it finished, leaving broken or missing saves.
This fix changes the way save files are generated to use less memory when writing.
The other two fixes are fairly minor, addressing a blank entry that would appear in the career kiosk sidebar, and the occasional plot event firing during sleep, when it shouldn't.
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
Ostranauts Feature Patch (0.9.1.7) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.1.7 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, and includes some more significant additions, quality of life enhancements, and fixes.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 should work. If you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.
Added ability to EVA outside your ship in a 1 tile border.
Changed damaged/missing floor tiles to be walkable via EVA.
Changed AI to have improved prioritization for restoring things based on damage vs. distance.
Changed pathfinding to be a little more generous, and might reach places it couldn't before.
Changed damaged floor tiles to be walkable via EVA, and not block item installation.
Changed AI to avoid spacing itself to do tasks in manual mode unless player explicitly tells them to.
Added a new special item or two.
Added a new objective to alert new players that the CASH button is there.
Added code to change task icons to red if they cannot be completed.
Added ability to cancel a task via right-clicking context menu.
Added better indicators for power in/out and use points when placing objects.
Added more damaged item types, and ability to repair more things.
Added ability to carefully dismantle most objects for parts.
Added ETA info on target to nav screen.
Added dismantle action to PDA orders menu.
Changed task tooltips on main screen to show same info that PDA task UI showed.
Fixed a bug that would cause 'black hole' ground tiles that eat items on inventory screen.
Fixed gas escaping when broken wall or open door placed against wall.
Fixed battery charge so it is capped at 100%.
Added text input to debug console. More commands to come later.
Added code to animate social combat objective onto screen so it is more noticeable.
Fixed a bug that allowed toolboxes to fit inside themselves.
Added code to eject user from reactor UI when it is destroyed.
Fixed null bugs when batteries attached to reactor UI are destroyed.
Fixed missing audio on reactor Fuel Reg button.
Fixed a bug that showed incorrect fusion reactant rates on reactor UI.
Fixed a bug that caused player ship to be considered a station if it used Quick Dock drop down on UNLOCKDEBUG overlay.
Fixed bugs that caused inventory and damage tooltip objectives to complete prematurely.
Fixed wrong image for motherboard component when slotted in hands.
Fixed a bug that could cause NPCs on non-loaded ships to suffocate if something triggered their updates to run several cycles.
Changed objectives to be on left.
Fixed a bug in trade UI that caused manual typed number amounts to be ignored.
Fixed a bug that showed mood stats in career sidebar summary.
Fixed a null reference in GUIOrbitDraw that would occur if certain ship components were destroyed while using nav station.
Fixed a bug that caused rooms to duplicate and break when loading a save. (a.k.a. Sudden atmo loss.)
Fixed a bug that used incorrect damage images on COOverlay items in inventory.
Fixed a bug that caused EVA suits to spawn new batteries and O2 bottles inside after some actions.
Fixed a bug that caused player to be stuck in future conversations if quick saved during a social combat conversation.
Fixed a bug that could cause the emotional clobber event to interrupt socializing with an NPC and appear to get stuck.
Fixed a bug that prevented finishing restore on a sink, and restoring loose sinks.
The biggest change here is the new ability to move outside the ship. Each ship now has a 1-tile border in which crew can conduct extra-vehicular activities (EVA). Crew can also now float over damaged and missing floor tiles.
Crew AI also had a few tweaks added to make them prioritize tasks better, and avoid spacing themselves when doing tasks.
There are also several new quality of life enhancements to the user experience, particularly with tasks. Icons now show as red when they are blocked by something, task tooltips show more relevant info on status, and the player can now cancel tasks via right-clicking. The nav station now shows ETA to target.
Several new items now have a damaged state, and can be repaired. And a couple new items were added to the game, as well. And most items can now be carefully dismantled to get the most spare parts and materials possible.
We have a new text input area in the error console, and if you type "help" there you can see our growing list of debug commands.
Finally, there was a raft of bug fixes, including one which caused random atmo loss on stations, and another that caused NPCs to drop dead on stations in some cases. (Note, this fix will not resurrect dead NPCs.)
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
Ostranauts Hotfix Patch (0.9.0.10) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.0.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, primarily addressing AI issues, endless sickness, and some other bugs.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 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 caused player to remain stuck in social combat if police accepted salvage license.
Fixed a bug that gave player permanent weak stomach illness when they became nauseous or vomited.
Fixed some health conditions which could cause out of control cascading health side effects.
Fixed a bug that caused AI to sometimes pick up installed hull pieces for comfort, slowly draining atmo and temperature.
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused player's crew to be used as an NPC pilot around OKLG, if that NPC was not on-screen.
Fixed a bug that allowed NPCs to walk onto player ship to pester them if the player owned both ships on screen.
Fixed a bug that would cause null errors after saving and exiting a game, then reloading a save without quitting app.
One of today's fixes involves the police shakedown encounter, where they accept your salvage license, turn to leave, and then continue to pester you, preventing you from leaving. This came down to a missing "exit" flag on the end of that conversation branch, and should be fixed now.
We also found and fixed a number of stomach illnesses caused by certain events, including choosing "Temperate" in the chargen trait kiosk. Players afflicted by these should be cured when loading their saves, and it should no longer happen in future games.
There was a bug in the AI that allowed it to pick up installed floors for fun, and this has been curbed. The AI will still pick up other things for fun, though. This behavior is limited to their free time when set to behavior "auto," in case you wish to fully prevent this.
Player crew was occasionally being selected to fly craft around OKLG if there was a spawn pilot needed and the crew was off-screen. This has been fixed.
AI was also occasionally walking onto the player's ship to pester the player in cases where the player's captain thought they owned both ships on screen. This has been fixed.
And finally, there was a null error introduced by the new power icons visible during item installation. This only happened if the player returned to the main menu and reloaded a save without quitting. This should be fixed now.
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
Ostranauts Hotfix Patch (0.9.0.8) Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.9.0.8 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a hotfix to our recently released "Wear and Tear" update, primarily fixing the broken police conversation, plus a few other QoL changes.
Saves from v0.9.0.0 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 all NPCs to spawn in better mood.
Changed police conversation to be more restrictive on when police can lash out at player.
Added icon near power input points on items when placing them.
Added icon near user stand point on items when placing them.
Added more info to nav station PIN lock logs.
Added ability to put chargers into hands.
Added second power input to EVA battery charger so either back facing tile can be powered.
The big change here is to how the police conversation works. It turns out there were a couple of problems compounding this encounter, making the police almost always (90-95%) either mug you or fine you exorbitant amounts.
We've adjusted the spawn stats for NPCs to make them start in a better mood, which helps. But we also narrowed the window on the police mugging/"bull" fine to be much smaller. In practice, this means it should come up more like 5-10% of the time. The majority of the time, you should be able to get a word in edgewise now, and walk away with more affordable fines. (As well as avoid fines with licenses and posters, where applicable.)
We also added some helper icons to the UI when installing a new part. Now, when you see the blue/red overlay squares while installing a part, you'll also see an icon for where it's power input is, and where users need to stand to use it.
The nav station's PIN logs now list the type of object next to each pin code. It's not perfect, but it was a quick change that should help a bit.
And the missing ability to carry battery chargers in the hands has been added.
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
