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