Hey Folks!
Update v0.15.1.14 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.
This is a feature update to our "Across the System" milestone, which includes several AI and other quality of life changes.
Saves from v0.15.0.0 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.
Note: 📢 indicates changes inspired by community feedback!
📢AI hauling bulk items into zones will now try to gather other nearby items before making trips back, if applicable.
📢AI fulfilling install or repair tasks requiring multiple items will attempt to gather other nearby items first, if applicable.
AI hauling into zones will no longer stack infinitely near zone edges/wall.
AI should produce fewer ghost items now when hauling to zones.
📢AIs are now able to attempt replacing and recharge dead batteries in tools and EVA suits.
📢Roster UI now includes permissions to recharge/replace batteries. (Default ON for new captains, OFF for all others.)
📢AI should now take care of their own hygiene, according to their personality traits and available supplies. (wipes/brushes only)
📢AI will now try to take their helmets off more often in good atmosphere areas.
AI pilots have improved collision avoidance now.
📢Bartenders will now prioritize replying over wiping the counter.
📢AIs will attempt to carry any removed clothes when switching to EVA/suits now.
AIs should more reliably refresh air in their helmets if they attempt a second time soon after the first.
AI will no longer consider a broken helmet sufficient in survival situations.
NPCs should be less likely to drop items due to starting with locked containers.
Player's captain and crew will not auto-run for transit when seeking air now, only NPCs.
📢Micrometeoroids will no longer strike while in torch flight or atmospheres.
📢Awkward chit chat social moves are now in a collapsing group in the context menu, to make it less cluttered.
📢Tool battery charging stations now have more storage space.
Ships docked to/towing other ships will no longer accelerate under a phantom force.
Unconscious/sleeping characters that are extremely comfortable will no longer sleep forever.
Fast-forward will no longer stop when the controlled character changes helmet with no adverse effects.
Fast-forward will no longer stop when the player is on a ship without working NAVs and something targets it.
📢Maintenance NPCs will now repair faster.
Exposed some more UI strings in strings.json.
The biggest chunk of this update is a series of improvements to how player, crew, and NPC AIs work.
One of the things players often cite as frustrating in their games is their crew being inefficient. AIs would often run from one ship to another, grabbing one ingredient at a time, per-task. And this could cause a lot of wasted walking time.
This patch aims to help streamline that a bit, by giving the AI some help in recognizing when it can grab other ingredients for the same task nearby. NPCs doing tasks like "repair," which can require a handful of different ingredients, will now grab all or most of those ingredients at the same time, before heading to the task. This goes for general hauling tasks to zones, as well. You can now watch crew hoover-up many items until they're full (or nothing else is nearby) before each trip to the destination haul zone.
Some tasks that have a single input, like "Install," are still tricky for the AI to multitask. They'll often still do these one item at a time. However, by using zones and the Haul command, players can take advantage of the aforementioned Haul optimization to get the items close to the desired work first, and then do installs after.
Also, a reminder that there is a way to prioritize hauling over installs/repairs, and other fine-grained task control. E.g. if you wanted one crew to be hauling as top priority, feeding items closer to another working on repairs/installs. It's in the Duties UI, which you can get to via the "Switch To Crew Duties" bumper button on Roster UI:
And speaking of the Roster UI, you'll notice a new control in the Roster: Replace Batteries!
Another common player concern was that crew required too much babysitting to take care of themselves. Enabling this option will do a few things to help with battery maintenance.
Crew will check if a tool on them is out of power, and will switch an empty battery with a good one if they are carrying one
If crew have an empty battery on them, they will try and give it to a charger if the charger has space. This will prioritise chargers with batteries that are finished charging (and swap the empty with the full battery)
Crew will try to fetch a new battery if a tool on the crew is empty, as long as they can carry it. (Crew will keep old battery in inventory.)
Hopefully, this cuts down on one of the major pain points with automating crew. Charges have also been changed to accommodate more than one battery each, to make this change more useful.
AIs will also now care for their own hygiene, using wipes and tooth brushes whenever they think they are getting dirty (determined by their own Slovenly/Tidy traits). And when in areas with good atmo, they will prefer to take their helmets off more often.
And while we were working on that, we improved the way AIs remove helmets and clothing so that they are less likely to drop it on the floor.
Another player frustration involved micrometeoroids. Specifically, they would happen too often during torch travel, which could really disrupt the already arduous task of interplanetary trips. We've changed the frequency to avoid such trips, as well as spawning them in atmospheres where it makes no sense.
We still get a lot of feedback that the social moves feel too numerous and meaningless, so this patch also includes an early change to address that. Now, when viewing social moves on a target, you'll no longer see the complete list of unskilled social moves. By default, it'll be hidden under an "Awkward Chit Chat" button, to better indicate that these are moves you wouldn't necessarily want to use, but are there when you lack the skill or mood to say anything else. That will leave a much shorter list, prioritizing the important "Advanced" social moves you have to choose from.
Plus several other fixes and improvements to player-reported issues.
From here until launch, our main goals are to address bugs and quality of life issues in existing features, and finish implementing the content planned for the 1.0 release. If there are major pain points or quality of life suggestions you want to be sure we're aware of, please let us know in the forums, on Discord, or on Reddit.
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