Ostranauts "Pistols & Punches" Update Is Live!

Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.11.0.0 is now available on Steam. Named "Pistols and Punches", this patch represents a major feature update, and includes a batch of new content plus new gameplay systems to explore.

This update focuses on adding personnel combat and its consequences into the game, which leverages the previously added injury and medical system more. It also significantly changes the HUD and user interface to make it easier to act on, and learn about, the game world.

For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.

Old saves will not work in v0.11.x and later. However, we have created a new opt-in branch on Steam called "legacy_10" if you wish to continue your current v0.10.x character. See Steam's Tech Support forums for more info on opting-into other branches.

• Added armed and unarmed combat maneuvers.
• Added defensive combat maneuvers like block and dodge.
• Added tackling and related moves like pull down and trip.
• Added firearms and ammo.
• Added bladed melee weapons.
• Added blunt melee weapons.
• Added moves to both demand and offer surrender.
• Added ability to request crew join fight against target.
• Changed clothes items to provide some armor.
• Added various new attack modes to most items.
• Added different amounts and types of damage to each attack mode.
• Changed traits and skills to impact combat effectiveness (e.g. Strong, Tough, Melee skills).
• Changed AI to fight back, flee, or surrender based on various morale factors.
• Added a medical kiosk offering supplies, first aid, and treatments for chronic ailments (on OKLG Commercial).

• Added right click selection of items and people.
• Added Quick Action Bar (QAB) for the selected item at the bottom of the screen.
• Added MegaTooltip (MTT) sidebar showing detailed info, lore, and status of the selected item/person.
• Changed inventory screen to be simpler and clearer.
• Added yellow glow to selected item.
• Added simplified item names at the cursor when hovering tiles.
• Added atmosphere readout at the cursor when hovering tiles.
• Added cycling through item layers with multiple right clicks.
• Added hotkey functionality for activating QAB actions (1-4).
• Added hotkey functionality for scrolling and expanding QAB list (5-7).
• Added filtering QAB list by action type (use, work, talk, fight).
• Added tooltips to QAB buttons and the conditions shown in MTT.
• Added unrevealed conditions to the MTT as ???s, so player can see how much they don't know about an NPC.
• Added an ! near NPCs that are awaiting a player's reply.
• Added a red line of arrows showing when a character is attacking another.
• Added hotkey “G” to toggle atmosphere readout.
• Added code to show a ~ next to the name if the item under a cursor is damaged.
• Changed visual definition of container inventory grids.
• Changed time controls and “Funds” button to top of screen.
• Changed objective UI to keep completed objectives in PDA.
• Added Auto Pause feature, which can be toggled via the button next to “Funds”.
• Added code to auto-pause the game if someone is about to attack player, if someone just finished asking player a question, or if player's current attack has finished.
• Changed objectives to hide everything except their target when mouse is over objective text.
• Removed old context menu.
• Removed top right item/pressure readout.
• Changed log to be in the bottom right.
• Removed PDA from HUD while in character creation.
• Removed social combat UI with all the emotional stat bars, as it confused many players.
• Removed rank and work status icons from next to player/crew.
• Removed floating name tags and action bubbles from next to humans.

• Added code to make some actions illegal (e.g. violence, sabotage).
• Changed K-Leg law enforcement to now apply wanted status for ignoring requests to dock.
• Added code to make witnesses report crimes.
• Added code to make officers arrest and/or attack wanted criminals.
• Added factions to characters, with standings towards other factions.
• Changed actions towards faction members and property to affect faction standing positively or negatively.
• Changed characters to now initiate violence if factional standing is low enough.
• Added local K-Leg pirate faction that hates everyone and attacks on sight.
• Changed derelicts to sometimes spawn with corpses, pirates, or others on board.

• Added lock hacking and factory reset so players can set new PIN numbers for doors and crates.
• Added a scrap kiosk and two NPC traders to the Flotilla, to make it a viable trading location if player becomes wanted on K-Leg.
• Added loading screen tips and tricks.
• Changed start tutorial so the conduit installation is optional, not required to proceed.
• Added airlock signage on K-Leg to help new players find their way.
• Changed combat-related traits and skills cost in character creation.
• Added performance improvements which should boost FPS for some users.
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to drag other NPCs or player around.
• Added code to make NPCs stop if player tries to talk to them as they are walking.
• Added code to make NPCs wait for a few seconds before doing other things if they are expecting the player to reply.
• Added ability for player and NPCs to have multiple conversations going at once.
• Fixed a bug that would cause AI to get stuck trying to do a job if they picked up too many scrap parts for the task.
• Added code to Fixer and Port Authority so player cannot immediately try again if they are kicked out.
• Fixed a bug that caused AI to pause too long between actions when player direct-ordered them to do something.
• Fixed a bug that prevented pain from healing over time.
• Added code to make characters drop held items when knocked out.
• Fixed a bug that prevented dragging corpses from one ship to another.
• Fixed a null that would occur when double clicking player portrait.
• Fixed a bug that could cause NPCs to have barefoot status while wearing an EVA suit.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to start with the wrong colored limbs for their torso.
• Fixed a bug that caused ship to redock when undocking if user double-clicked the clamps button.
• Fixed a bug in the trade UI that would report "Insufficient Funds" despite having enough.
• Fixed a bug that prevented 1x1 racks from being uninstalled.
• Fixed brown floor bins installing into white ones.
• Fixed a null that could occur when dragging a human.
• Fixed a bug that caused paper doll items to not update when switching from crew to captain.
• Added code to improve pathfinding to moving targets.
• Added more debug commands to F3 debug console. Type "help" to see them.
• Fixed a bug that caused the nav tutorial to get stuck after using transit.
• Fixed an exploit where the same object straddling two zones can be sold more than once.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when the player used an empty string as their name.
• Removed a glowing ghost item that sometimes appeared on ships.
• Fixed a bug that put empty bottles in a party supply reward cache.
• Fixed a bug that would delete inventory items when frequently moving them around.
• Fixed a bug that caused items to be lost when canceling an install.
• Fixed a bug that would destroy items if user swapped them in inventory and closed UI without placing them.
• Fixed a bug preventing the "wear clothes" objective from completing if player uses shift-click to don them.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the player to buy a salvage license from the kiosk at infinite range.
• Fixed a bug in the purple jumpsuit gig that did not provide a purple jumpsuit.
• Fixed a bug that caused unconscious people to shout things when ship bumped or collided.

As you can see, this was a pretty big update! Not surprising, given that we added a combat system to a sim/builder game. Especially since it also required some rework on the HUD and user inputs.

Players of NEO Scavenger will probably feel pretty at home with the new combat system. It borrows a lot of DNA from NS, including how damage is handled, wounding, ranges, and the variety of moves.

And like NS, Ostranauts isn't a combat-focused game. Fights are usually grueling, and rarely is there a clear winner. Instead, cautious fighters are usually rewarded, and plan on nursing your wounds either way.

The HUD and user experience had quite an overhaul, too. And this was largely to accommodate the faster pace of actions in combat. Back when our most frequent actions were walking and uninstalling, the context menu worked fine.

But now that we are potentially clicking more frequently in a combat scenario, it was becoming too tedious to right click a target, choose that target from a radial, then find the move you wanted and click that. Over and over again for each punch.

So we tried a new approach that we're calling the Quick Action Bar (QAB). With it, you right click as you did before to choose a target. And based on what you targeted, a list of possible moves appears immediately at the bottom of the screen. You can click actions there to do them immediately, and the list remains on screen, so you don't have to re-select the target over and over each new action.

And since it can still be tedious to move your mouse down to the QAB over and over, we added hotkeys to the first 4 QAB actions in the list, plus a few more hotkeys to "page up" to the next 4, refresh, and expand the list to see more if there are many.

Generally, after testing, most of us felt it was an improvement in UX. We could click things in the world and use hotkeys much faster than navigating the old cascading context menu.

Another big change this update is the top right corner's so-called MegaTooltip (MTT). When you select a target, that MTT will show you just about everything you could know about the target.

And the old info we had up there listing items and their gas situation has been moved to a cluster around the mouse cursor. We found that we wanted that info near the cursor so we could see the data as we moved around, without having to look away from the cursor to see each new data point. (Note that the gas info near the cursor is only visible if dangerous by default, but the "G" hotkey will toggle it always-on.)

NPCs now care about certain crimes, and officers will attempt to arrest you if you are wanted. They might even attack you for more serious crimes. Similarly, certain actions (like violence or tampering with a space station) offend regular people, changing your faction status among them. Offend them too much, and strangers from that faction might attack you on sight!

Many other changes were included during this patch, as well. Players can now hack or factory reset locks on their doors and crates. Autopause helps manage the flow of time in time-sensitive moments like combat and high-stakes conversations. The inventory UI had a lot of work done to clean it up. And the starting tutorial was made to be friendlier to new users.

Not to mention the large list of bug fixes. It's been a busy couple of months!

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