Ostranauts
How are players dying in Ostranauts?
Using the latest world building technologies, here at Blue Bottle Games we've been able to get a hold of a OKLG Labor Bureau report... well, that's the lore version ;)
We use a Unity tool called DeltaDNA when we take your votes in game on what you want to see in Ostranauts next. Thanks to that tool, we also have some data on how you play Ostranauts (eg. how long did the player survive? what ship were they flying?)
We're using this to bring you the Captain Death Report - See how you stack up next to other players trying to survive and check out weird ways other captains have met their fatal deaths...
Shout out to the lone person who managed to be killed by an NPC, hope your week gets better!
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Fragments from the Ostracon #1
“Jesus, you scared me. How did you get past the door guard?”
“You mean sleepy Charles? I come here so often, man, he and I are practically family.”
“Well what did you get me?”
“Either mixed veg with crispies or...sweet and sour wings.”
“Ah, c’mon. The Last Chance canteen? There’s a food stand right outside.”
“Oooh, city boy doesn’t like Sprawl chow, huh? I picked it up on the way in. Take it or leave it, fancy-lad. I’m happy to eat both.”
“Fine. Gimme the wings.”
“Bon appetit. So what’s the latest young hacker? Anything coming down elevators?”
“Nothing. Besides the usual, I mean. Thought I saw something weird coming off Ogiso but it was just a bugged media template.”
“Well what are we even looking for?”
“Hard to say, really. Something that wants to stay hidden but also get found, right? So we’re looking for...anything suspicious. Signals in the noise. Could take all night.”
“When does your Mom get home?”
“Pff. Never. She caught an emergency call. Some kind of botched eye surgery? She’ll be at Haggerty all night. What about your Dad?”
“Same. He’s on deep patrol. Out past the sprawl, even. My DMC visa is good for 8 hours.”
“Settle in then, because this could take...hold on.”
“What?”
“No way.”
“What!?”
“This just came down the Yunti vine…”
“Indonesia? Is that even operational anymore?”
“Yeah. Barely. Anyway it’s exactly like last time: buried in a shipping manifest, a text file directed to ‘My Dear Aunt Martha.’”
“Well what is it?!”
“I don’t know yet! Some kind of...magazine? Sh*t, I dunno!”
“Well open it up already numb-nuts!”
“I am! Get offa me! I’m clicking it! I’m clicking it!”
--END TRANSMISSION
(Read and download in full size: https://imgur.com/a/3itlP7g )
You can now sign up to the Fragments from the Ostracon mailing list, to receive new stories from the universe straight to your inbox! Sign up here
Ostranauts Patch 0.6.5.3 Is Live!
Ostranauts v0.6.5.3 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a small patch to address some additional issues people have noticed since 0.6.5.2.
Specifically:
- Fixed a bug that could cause save corruption when AI memory included a divide by zero.
- Fixed a bug that caused inventory items to lose rotation info when loading from save.
- Fixed a bug that could cause save corruption if inventory item save info had problematic rotation.
- Fixed a bug that caused items to get stuck inaccessible on screen if stack is partial dropped onto it.
- Fixed bug that doesn't show ground blockers for empty space.
- Fixed a bug that caused Duties UI to be inaccessible.
- Changed starting objectives to be time-released more slowly.
- Changed starting objectives to be suppressed if user already did them.
A few players ran into save corruption issues, and there appeared to be at least two different causes. One involved rotated inventory items, the other AI memories having invalid numbers in them. This patch should hopefully both restore the ability to load those saves, as well as prevent this future data corruption in saves.
An inventory bug also allowed the player to place items where no floor existed, causing the item to become stuck on the floor and inaccessible. This patch includes a fix to make those floor sections appear blocked correctly in the grid, so items cannot attempt to go there.
The duties UI (next to the roster UI) as inaccessible in recent builds, and has been restored.
Finally, the sudden onslaught of objectives in a new game has been slowed down to a more manageable stream. And it will attempt to skip objectives you've already completed.
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 Patch 0.6.5.2 Is Live!
Ostranauts v0.6.5.2 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
Mostly smaller bug fixes this time, addressing some issues with docking, inventory UI, and crew AI.
Specifically:
- Fixed a bug that caused inventory item positions to reset on loading save.
- Added code to reduce lag hitch when docking with a new ship.
- Fixed a bug that caused anti-nausea pills to have no effect.
- Changed reactor's monetary value to be lower.
- Fixed a bug that caused air pressure sensors to sample humans beneath them.
- Fixed a bug that caused container sprites to not update when contents added/removed.
- Fixed container sprites not showing contents in supply kiosk list.
- Fixed bug that allowed AI to initiate smacking around from far away.
- Fixed a bug that caused dockage fees to continue accruing after undocking.
- Fixed a bug that caused the docking menu REJECT option to do nothing.
- Fixed a bug that allowed undocking without paying fees.
- Fixed a bug that caused crew to instantly become sleepy/awake when changing shifts.
- Fixed a bug that caused some heads and hairstyles to be misaligned.
- Fixed a bug that caused eyeless faces to appear in blank save slots.
- Fixed a bug that showed debug names of items over their grids in inventory.
Inventory item grid positions were resetting on load, so we've fixed that. Portraits with hair alignment issues should be fixed now, as well as the save screen's weird empty face bug.
Containers that should change appearance with items inside are now working again, and this should be true in the inventory, on the ground, and the supply kiosk.
The reactor's price has been cut significantly, since it was such a huge outlier. And item prices/trading may need some more general addressing soon.
Docking had several issues, as it turns out. The REJECT button when undocking didn't work, fees would continue accruing after undocking, and in some cases, one could undock without paying.
Air sensors should now sample rooms correctly, instead of the people next to them. And anti-nausea pills should now work correctly.
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
Let's Play With The Dev Team!
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We're streaming again today at 3:30pm PST! One of our writers, Corey, will play through Ostranauts whilst Dan Fedor, Chris and I make suggestions, talk lore and take questions from the chat. It's a fun way to show you what's in the latest update and you'll get to see how one of the developers plays the game!
We had a few reports last time that Steam's streaming wasn't working for everyone watching, so we'll also be streaming to our Discord this time. The recording will be uploaded to Dan's Youtube channel in the days after the stream.
The last stream went really well and we enjoyed showing off the ship editor and building a research science ship with the chat, godspeed Radiant Oddity (Pictured below!)
You can watch the last ship editor stream here.
We hope to see you later!
Ostranauts Patch 0.6.5.0 Is Live!
Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.6.5.0 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This one's another fairly big one, covering a lot of AI improvements, social and inventory UI changes, and several other fixes and enhancements. It's a longer list than usual, so we've broken it into sections:
Crew and AI Changes
- Changed hiring crew to be negotiation.
- Changed crew to automatically be selectable after hiring, instead of requiring Direct Order social move.
- Fixed a bug that caused AI to forget their social experience when saving the game.
- Changed the way AI searches for construction items to reduce unnecessary checks on distant objects.
- Added code to stop NPC crew from goofing off if there is no work to be done and they are currently selected.
- Fixed a bug that caused fresh AIs not to know about penalties of leaving a conversation.
- Changed AI so that it remembers good/bad outcomes were the result of a few choices ago.
- Changed all AI to have slightly higher tolerance for social discomforts.
- Added esteem rewards to actions like repair, install, and pry.
- Changed back away slowly social move to be used more sparingly, and have more reply options.
- Fixed a bug that caused social items to appear on ground after being used.
- Fixed a bug that caused social moves to take all consumables instead of just one.
- Changed install, uninstall, patch, scrap, and other work tasks to not be choosable by AI for self-soothing.
- Fixed a bug that caused hiring a person to lose acquaintance relationship with them.
- Removed contact relationships as a reward for quitting/being fired.
- Fixed a bug that caused social interactions requiring close relations to fail for non-family members.
- Fixed a bug that let NPCs intimidate a target remotely.
Nav Station Changes
- Added bearing info to nav console readouts.
- Added code to NPC ship AI to reduce frequency of collisions and crashes.
Social UI Changes
- Added Objectives section to social UI for context-specific discussions, like hiring.
- Added scrollbar to message log.
- Added scrollbar to social UI message log.
- Added code to exit social combat if player tries to walk somewhere while socializing.
- Fixed bug in message log that allowed user to scroll text so far it disappeared.
- Changed up/down arrows in log messages to appear before text, instead of after.
- Changed social preview area to use up and down arrows instead of + and -.
- Fixed a bug that caused social UI to close prematurely.
- Fixed a bug that caused null exception if crew died while revealing traits to target.
Inventory Changes
- Added code to close inventory UI if player starts installing an item from inventory, so they can see what they're doing.
- Fixed a bug that caused right-click-dropping a stack into a slot to cause strange behavior.
- Fixed a bug that caused inventory item attached to cursor to be un-droppable if UI closed and reopened.
- Fixed a bug that caused multiple stacks to be removed from inventory when dropping a non-stackable item onto a stackable.
- Fixed a bug that caused items to pickup then drop prematurely if user clicked on them while mouse was moving.
- Fixed a redraw bug when swapping inventory items.
Portrait Changes
- Added community milestone glasses to game!
- Fixed a bug that limited portrait options for some face types.
- Added buttons to let user choose skin color and head shape independently of rest of face.
- Fixed a bug that caused hair to be misaligned on some NPC portraits.
General Changes
- Changed lighting system to produce fewer blowout brightnesses.
- Added recurring fees for salaries and docking.
- Fixed a bug that caused some floor types to become generic floors when damaged.
- Changed interior door closing times to be more consistent with exterior airlock.
- Changed OKLG guard room to have unlocked door for now, so guard NPC can leave.
- Added food and drinks to the fridge on OKLG so NPCs have a way to satisfy needs.
- Fixed a bug that would cause double OKLG labels in nav station if crew schedule opened and closed while using nav.
- Added lights to K-Leg docking fee kiosk to make it easier to see.
- Removed shadow box from coffee machine.
- Fixed a bug that caused save files to be lacking ship name if saved while on K-Leg.
- Fixed a bug that caused battery tutorial to reduce performance in games where player started certain salvage pods.
- Removed aging effects from Take Ship career option.
- Fixed a bug that allowed adding duplicate ledger line items.
- Fixed a bug that saved selected crew face in save slot portrait, instead of captain.
Before getting into anything else, we want to call out our awesome community! We recently crossed the 2000 mark on Discord, and the 3000 mark on Reddit. Both on the same weekend! And to celebrate, there are two new in-game glasses to choose from, designed by our very own Çhiko! Also, be on the lookout for a special naming contest in both communities soon.
AI received the lion's share of this update, as we continue working on the player-voted feature of more useful crew.
Hiring is now handled by a special new conversation type, which shows an "Objectives" area to denote the stakes of the discussion. In it, the captain can see the current compensation expectations of the crew candidate. At any time, you can make an offer to hire them, but they may reject it if unhappy.
You can use any normal conversation tactics to adjust their mood before and during the talk, as well as some new options to adjust the salary and other compensation. You can also try one of the more "advanced" tactics to try and scare them into working, or giving you a friendly discount :)
Depending on how well this new style works, we may add more conversations with objectives like this (e.g. pay disputes, bribing an officer, etc.).
Also, once hired, you no longer have to use "Direct Order" to start controlling them. You can immediately select them with a left click, and move them around like your captain. Just beware that such micromanagement incurs an ongoing cost to their mood! Fortunately, doing work on the ship now boosts certain stats like esteem and self respect, and letting AI have free time restores autonomy, so that should help avoid AIs bottoming-out socially after a while.
And speaking of moods, we made several changes and fixes which should result in (slightly) less psychotic AI. Hopefully, captains entering K-Leg will feel a bit less like a freshman high school cafeteria now.
On the nav station, the oft-requested target bearings readout has been added! BRG will now display when you select a target, and will show the number of degrees it is off the bow. (0 = dead ahead, 90 to starboard.) Also, AI should crash into things less now :)
In the social UI, you can now exit at any time by clicking to walk somewhere. But beware, the other AI might take offense! Plus both the main UI and social UI now have scrollbars for the log messages.
Several inventory-related bugs have been fixed. And while I'm sure we still have some left to fix, it should be a bit smoother and more reliable now. Plus, when you install an item directly from inventory, it'll auto-close so you can see what you're doing.
Finally, the lighting system had some tweaks done to avoid overbright areas due to many nearby lights, which were getting especially bad in lighter-color ship interiors.
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
Join The Developers In Building A Ship With The Community!
The Blue Bottle Games Dev Team Will Be Streaming Ostranauts Over On Steam Today at 6pm GMT!
We'll have Dan Fedor (Founder of BBG and main developer), Corey Waite (Writer), Chris (Designer and Programmer) and Charis Reid (Community Manager)
We're going to be building a ship together using the features in the latest big update, talking about the lore behind the brands you see in-game, whilst taking suggestions and questions from the chat! Come join us!
We haven't done a stream like this before, so go easy on us. We'll be live on the Ostranauts Steam Page.
Ostranauts Patch 0.6.4.8 Is Live!
Ostranauts v0.6.4.8 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
Mostly bug fixes and quality of life improvements in the wake of the big 0.6.4.7 patch, but still worth getting out to you sooner than later!
Specifically:
- Fixed a bug that could cause multi-square items to disappear.
- Fixed a bug that caused nav station to freeze in RCS mode if Q or E keys were remapped.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the loose fridge from dropping to the ground.
- Added new contact portraits to career sidebar.
- Fixed a bug that caused inventory UI to not update when switching between crew members.
- Changed Bursting to Sick Stomach so it would be clearer.
- Fixed a bug that caused more loot to spawn in containers than could normally fit there.
- Fixed a bug that caused context menu to stop working if player ate food while in trade UI.
- Changed no clearance on docking UI to only appear when clicking clamp.
- Fixed bug that stops career sidebar from auto-scrolling.
- Changed career sidebar to only show cash rewards if greater than $0.
- Fixed a bug that caused career sidebar to show unfinished career events.
- Changed data card item names to be clearer.
- Fixed missing friendly name on loose power switch and reactor.
- Fixed a bug that caused player stats to appear twice in mouseover tooltip.
- Fixed a bug that could cause loot to spawn one more than max due to float vs. int comparison.
- Fixed a bug that caused game exit to be affected by game speed.
Several inventory fixes are included this time, that should hopefully make the UI more reliable. There are still a few known issues with it that we're working on, but this should solve some of the more common and serious issues.
Also, a pretty serious bug with keybinding in the nav console has been fixed.
There were also a number of changes to improve clarity in the game, from item object names to warning message changes.
The career kiosk, in particular, had some work done to make the sidebar more useful and interesting. Including new contact portraits! Now you can see who you met during each career event, so you can recognize them later.
Finally, there were a series of fixes to loot spawning and other issues.
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 Patch 0.6.4.7 Is Live!
Ostranauts v0.6.4.7 is now available on Steam, and make way! She's carrying a heavy load.
We have new derelicts to explore, new decor styles, new items to discover. We now have an in-game manual! More quality-of-life enhancements for piloting and inventory management. Plus fixes and more!
Since the list is extra long this patch, I've broken it into sections.
New Stuff
- Added new floor and wall styles.
- Added new derelicts to explore.
- Added anti nausea pills to game.
- Added Bismertnaya vodka bottle to game.
- Added the Kang 2202, which is now the more common RCS distributor on ships.
Manual
- Added user manual to main menu.
- Added user manual to in-game quit menu.
- Added ability to read hull patch box.
- Added nav console manual item to game.
- Added nav console manual item to tutorial salvage pod.
- Added Ogiso's Register safety poster and loose paper to game.
Nav Console
- Added ability to stabilize ship rotation if both Q and E held at same time.
- Added +/- and Q+E buttons to cluster under nav console screen, for controlling map zoom and rotation stabilization via buttons.
- Added code to make RNG value blink red when within 5km.
- Changed VREL value in docking screen to blink red when too fast.
- Changed nav console WASD to allow offset from follow point when map set to follow ship/target.
- Added red vector to show external gravity direction.
- Changed nav console to only draw orange course line if autopilot has a destination set.
- Fixed a bug that caused button cluster under nav console screen to do nothing in map control mode.
- Changed nav station anomalies to scale similar to stations, so crosshair doesn't disappear inside at high zoom levels.
- Fixed a bug in nav console that caused target to change when clicking note out of the way.
Chargen
- Added Miura RCS distributor as loot for rare salvage life event.
- Changed shipbreaker starting equipment to include laser torch and lamp.
- Changed makeshift salvage pod life event to actually give crappy salvage pod. (And never to first-time players.)
- Changed chargen launch UI to warn user about last chances to suit-up before starting game.
Inventory
- Changed containers to have optional x and y size.
- Added code to make right-click drop a single CO from dragged stacks in inventory.
- Added stack counter to items slotted in paper doll.
- Fixed a bug that prevented swapping inventory items with those on the ground.
- Fixed a bug that caused inventory items to disappear if user drops item on the ground where only partial space exists.
- Changed inventory to not drop item on ground if user clicks a impossible grid spot.
- Fixed a bug that prevented moving an item directly from a slot to a stack.
- Fixed a bug that caused stacks to break on save/load if they were in a slot.
- Fixed a bug that allowed items to be slotted in wrong slots.
- Fixed bug that caused inventory not to appear when clicking portrait at certain resolutions.
- Changed social moves and pledges to stack.
Ship Editor
- Added draw and fill buttons to ship edit, to control brush behavior.
- Added buttons to ShipEdit for replacing selected walls/floors with cursor.
- Added eyedropper in ship edit mode using left alt key.
- Changed ship edit's quick CO list to have more commonly-used items.
- Added some commonly-used options to top of ShipEdit filter list.
- Fixed bug that caused WASD and other hotkeys to work while typing ship metadata in editor.
- Changed max and min zoom to be greater in ship edit mode.
Plus
- Fixed a bug that caused OKLG airlock to become impassable and to vent atmo if player saved and quit more than once and changed ships between visits.
- Fixed a bug that made it difficult to see item placement when installing it in the dark.
- Changed air pump to allow accessing controls from either side of unit.
- Fixed bug that causes loose turbo pump to be missing install option.
- Changed all ships to have chance of spare floor and wall parts to match their new floors and walls.
- Fixed bug that caused context menu z-depth sort order to be wrong.
- Fixed a bug that caused placeholder objects to show wrong sprite when placed.
- Changed crew to have smaller hitbox, so it gets stuck less.
- Fixed a bug that caused career kiosk title to overlap nearby elements at lower resolutions.
- Changed all wall and floor names to precede with object type, followed by brand and model.
- Changed police ship names to be more police-y.
- Changed Muira RCS distributor placement to allow more items around it.
- Added container property to crates, so AI would look in them for food.
- Fixed chargen station's ship name when spawned.
- Removed ItmWall1x1_02 from game. Unused.
- Fixed a bug that would cause null exception if initializing a ship with objects that had bogus gui prop map.
- Changed generic floor and wall installables to be headless, so they no longer appear as in-game options.
- Changed Fridge to have smaller storage space.
- Added scrollview to job options, to accommodate more items.
- Fixed a bug that caused null exception if opening control panel on deleted object in ship editor.
- Removed shadow casters from fridge and toilet.
- Removed shadow boxes from fuel canisters so they can be seen and manipulated in inventory.
This patch took a bit longer than most, and you're probably starting to get an idea of why :)
A lot of the previous patches have been kind of "boring" since they involved a lot of fixes and improvements to existing stuff. So we thought we'd take a bit of a side trip to add more fun stuff to play with.
We still have plenty of work left to do on features and fixes, but we hope you enjoy the care package!
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC
Ostranauts Player Driven Roadmap
We have previously shared the Ostranauts player-driven roadmap with the community on Steam (in fact, you've probably taken part in the feature voting!). However, newer players may not have seen this. We wanted to make a post with all the up to date information so you can be aware of what to expect, what we're currently working on and why.
This is Ostranauts player-driven roadmap for the next approximate 2 years of early access of the game:
We're using an in-game voting system where early access players are able to vote on what upcoming features should be prioritised.
We held the first vote in November 2020 and 'That's An Order' came out on top. Players voted for us to focus on improving crew management, which is what we've been working on across the game updates since (...well that and quite a few other things too!)
There's a lot that people want to see in the game, so here's an FAQ for planned features:
If you want to hear more about this in-depth, Dan has covered it all in this video.
[previewyoutube="zqQNAFiDF3g;full"]
Thanks all! Have a great weekend.