Hey Folks!
Ostranauts v0.6.6.6 is now available on Steam, and we're calling it the "Time Is Money" Update.
It includes a total economy rewrite. You now start with a ship mortgage, and payments due each 6 hours. The boneyard is larger, and the closer derelicts have already been picked clean.
To make matters worse, K-Leg's not buying the good stuff anymore. But you heard of a fixer there who might.
For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.
Old saves should still work, but will miss a lot of the new features and content.
It's a pretty significant patch, so I've broken down the change list into sections.
- Added mortgages to starting ships, with payments due each 6 hour 'shift'.
- Added code to show preview of ship in career kiosk, with mortgage info.
- Added shift tracker UI element below time and date.
- Changed the finance UI to show 6hr 'shifts' instead of full days.
- Added code to move debts into next shift with a penalty fee if unpaid at end of shift.
- Added warning messages and objectives 5 minutes before each shift end to tell player debts are due.
- Fixed a bug that caused the finance UI to show expenses as revenue.
- OKLG supply kiosk now only buys and sells limited, low value items.
- Added fixer NPC to OKLG to buy more valuable items from player.
- OKLG fixer and bartender can now be traded with via conversation.
- Trader NPCs and kiosks now change what they buy and sell over time.
- Trader NPCs and kiosks buy and sell at different prices, and these change over time.
- Changed trading UI to have separate pages for buying and selling, to reduce confusion.
- Changed trading UI to show items a vendor will buy even if player doesn't have them yet.
- Changed trading UI to hide irrelevant buttons and info on items that are not available.
- Added asterisk indicator next to slotted items in trade UI.
- Fixed bug in OKLG refuel kiosk that allowed selling gases and liquids to station.
- Changed OKLG boneyard to be larger with more ships closer in.
- Changed OKLG boneyard to have less valuables closer to station, and more further out.
- Added code to switch off power in non-reactor derelicts.
- Added spare screen item to loot tables.
- Added 6 new ships to possible derelict types.
- Added 4 new encounter screens.
- Added special item to game.
- Added Sob Quietly as a social move.
- Added audio beep in pressure suit helmet when O2 sensor trips.
- Added warning message to player log after loading an older save with potential compatibility issues.
- Removed random data PIN cards from all ships.
- Added new button on nav station to show log entries, including door lock PINs.
- Fixed bug in locks UI that disables all lights when changing locked status.
- Fixed bug that caused doors to close when locked via control panel.
- Added better feedback to door opening failures.
- Changed doors and other open objects to have label (Opened) instead of (Open), to avoid confusion in context menu.
- Added audio effects to locked, powered doors.
- Fixed a bug that caused loose doors to block installed door airflow in some orientations.
- Fixed a bug that caused doorways to be walkable even if there was a hole there.
- Changed shipeditor so right clicking clears the cursor OR deletes item, not both. (And in that order.)
- Changed shipeditor so right clicking clears selected tiles OR deletes item, not both. (And in that order.)
- Fixed bug that caused ship editor warning dialog to appear multiple times per session.
- Changed ship editor drop down to truncate with ellipses for clarity when long names are similar.
- Changed consumable (orange) social moves to succeed more often.
- Changed pressure suit helmet O2 alarm to trigger at 16kPa instead of 20kPa.
- Fixed a bug that caused task tooltips to show irrelevant or bad data.
- Changed pry, bash, scrap, install, repair tasks to have more consistent feedback and tooltips.
- Changed starter 'death sled' ship to be more survivable.
- Fixed smack around social move having strange emotional loot.
- Fixed a bug that caused time-based changes to reset on any ship player docked with. (E.g. trade schedules)
- Fixed a bug that caused game to never reuse existing NPCs even when it was supposed to.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a null error when attempting to stack an object on a null object.
- Changed OKLG supply kiosk art.
- Changed nav station use point to be bottom center tile, instead of bottom right corner tile.
- Changed the esteem penalty for choosing to eat food to be lower.
- Changed all new drink pouches to contain water only. Used drink pouches can still contain anything.
- Fixed a bug that caused social combat to pause unexpectedly.
- Fixed delay when placing stack in inventory.
- Fixed a bug that caused low power battery to fail all install/uninstall actions.
- Fixed a bug that caused clicking items in inventory screen to behave strangely when fast forwarding time.
- Fixed a typo in Premigenial Make field.
- Removed objectives for unpowered items except nav station.
- Fixed a bug that caused container to absorb item on ground if placed on top of it.
You can probably see why this one patch so long to prepare :) Lots of interconnected changes!
The biggest change is how money works. You always start with a mortgage now (you'll see it with your new ship preview in character creation), and you'll have to make payments on it each shift. Each shift is 6 hours. Miss a payment? Penalties will be applied.
And getting money is harder now, too. The boneyard is bigger, meaning ships are farther apart. The ones closest to K-Leg have already been picked clean, but they're better farther out.
Furthermore, selling salvage just got harder. K-Leg's official supply kiosk won't buy the good stuff anymore. (Why would they? It's their junkyard!) They mostly buy the stuff that's not worth their time to salvage. Floors, walls, scraps, and loose items that might help other scrappers. But the prices are robbery.
There is a fixer on K-Leg now, though. And if the timing is right, they just might be looking for the items you've got...
Apart from that, we have new ships, some new encounter screens, a couple new items and new UI features. Door locks now work correctly (no more PIN cards all over the floor), and you can check the nav station for PIN codes.
Overall, it should start to feel more like a game now, with goals and obstacles. (Reminder: Best to start a new save/character!)
And as always, we love hearing what you think! Tell us how your run goes. What works for you? What is or isn't fun? What do you want to see next?
Thanks for reading, and I won't keep you any longer. "Time is money," after all :)
Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC