Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.14.2.10 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our recently released "Across the System" update, focusing on improving the new player tutorial, plus several player-reported bugs and pain points.

Saves from v0.14.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

• There is a new tutorial derelict spawned at the end of the new game tutorial sequence, guaranteeing that users get useful loot to sell on their first trip.
• Starting tutorial had several improvements made to wording and logic.
• Added a new tutorial step to remind players to hide damage overlay again after using it.
• The MegaTooltip UI now begins the game collapsed, with a tutorial explaining how to expand it.
• Destructive actions on objects are now always listed last, to avoid mis-clicks in the context menu.
• The Escape key will now correctly close the QAB before the inventory UI, even after the target item changes modes.
• Sinks will no longer display two "Restore" options.
• Exiting a UI with an open drop-down menu no longer soft locks left mouse button.
• Using PASS to visit a station for the first time no longer skips intro encounter screen.
• PASS will no longer take players to the LA construction zone.
• PASS trips will no longer double-charge upon arrival.
• Ledger line items will no longer get stuck unpaid in past pages due to rounding errors.
• Work lamps no longer operate without batteries.
• Thermostats and other alarms switching states should now cause less lag.
• The way game data jsons are loaded should now produce less memory waste.
• Buy/sell prices adjusted to better support flipping damaged items for profit.
• NAV's Match Speed function will no longer have stuck thrusters after player releases thrust keys.
• Undocking no longer gets stuck showing previous ship's docking ring if user exits the UI before it had a chance to clear.
• Prescription painkillers no longer mention OTC painkillers in the log.
• NPCs will no longer recreationally drop social moves on the floor.
• Items that are dropping and fail for some reason should now get correctly added to the ship, instead of becoming ghost items.
• Missing drag slot items will no longer throw null exceptions when save games load.
• Stackable items should now cause fewer null exceptions when an added item is null.
• Katydid ship layout adjusted to allow access to its NAV station.
• NPCs should no longer spawn outside the aerostat in Encantado's lounge.
• Sleep states now have more descriptive tooltips.

The new tutorial derelict is one of the more noticeable changes in this update. Historically, players were at the mercy of RNG when docking with their first derelict. And in some cases, this derelict could be nothing more than a docking ring and a trash pile or two, making it completely useless.

Now, if the player is following the beginning tutorial, the game will spawn a special derelict near OKLG after the player finishes the maneuvering portion. This new derelict has a fixed layout, and is designed a bit like a puzzle box to help new players acquaint themselves with the game's many systems. It also shields them from police, hauler, and salvager interference for the first little while as they get their feet wet.

We also changed a number of things in the starting tutorial to make it more player friendly and helpful. This ranges from clearer wording to new tutorial steps, aimed at both educating players better, and reducing frustration.

Speaking of player frustration, the options to Scrap, Uninstall, Dismantle, and Bash are now prevented from appearing at the top of the quick action button (QAB) list. Many players were tripped-up by those options sometimes appearing as hotkey 1, where we usually have innocuous actions like Inventory or Use.

That, plus the QAB should now correctly close first when hitting Escape, even after the targeted item changes state (e.g. off to on, opened to closed, etc.).

The PASS service and ledger had a number of fixes applied. Plus work lamps will no longer run without power. (Sorry!)

A few minor performance improvements also made their way into this build. First, the thermostat/alarm lag bug should be fixed, as the game will no longer recalculate room stats every time one of those changed color or switched on/off.

Second, the way we log info while opening game data (jsons) is now more memory efficient.

Finally, there were a number of null error and other fixes added as part of this patch.

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