Dear Travelers,
We kept you waiting a bit longer this time, but after the first two weeks of patching waves of issues, handling save files, and reading your Player.logs, we realized we needed to rework our process and start diving deep into the issues - finding more of the code problems.
As you might know from the previous summaries, we’ve built a proper QA team and let them rework our testing and production pipeline. Our new COO, together with the team leads, redefined what still has to be done. It’s all looking very promising now, and our work is going more efficiently than ever before.
Based on our Repair Roadmap, we are now in the stage of investigating deep issues, down to the code level. Our technical director is no longer with us, and we’ve teamed up with a new skilled programmer to uncover and address significant technical debt that will be reworked in the upcoming months. The same will soon happen on the design side, as we are currently openly recruiting a Technical Designer, who will be responsible for further balancing of the game, rethinking management mechanics, and implementing other important QoL improvements.
Launching Patch 0.5.7 took dozens of new builds to test. Our process is slower now (that’s why we have not launched 2 patches every week, and launched one that is properly tested by all of us), but far more efficient. Our new cloud build tools also help speed things up. You can probably see on SteamDB how often we update our development branch. Testing, however, is crucial, and now our new QA Lead is the one who gives the green light for publishing any build.
Of course, we haven’t fixed everything yet. But each week brings us closer. This week, we have some truly great highlights for you.
HIGHLIGHTS
New Content! We’ve brought back some of the quests that were missing since day one. If you’ve already reached the Uneasy Bird quest with Greta, the next questline is waiting for you, including Sparn’s Birthday, Tukyuk’s Ailment, and The Island’s Heart. *(Before the end of Act 1, you will still get one full storyline for the Pavonis Princess and a few more quests that wrap up the first story part of Hotel Galactic.)
Room Demolishing Fixed You can now cancel room demolitions after starting the blueprint. We’ve also fixed a large number of bugs related to demolishing rooms.
Hotel Operating Hours Reworked The hotel day now starts at 8 AM, giving you more time to take care of guests, build new rooms, research, or work on farming. More balancing will follow, but for now, we wanted to give you a little breathing room from the constant rush of guest needs and housekeeping.
Harvest Moon Issues Fixed Critical problems with the Harvest Moon event have been resolved, along with many other bugs.
Performance Bug Fixed We fixed a critical issue that could significantly drop performance and make the ESC menu unusable when cancelling orders at the order board.
Crash Fixes Several potential crashes and errors related to character actions, laundry tasks, and item handling have been addressed.
Laundry System Improvements Numerous bugs were fixed: wet clothes should no longer fall through the floor, counters won’t show negative numbers, and cleaning tasks should now work more reliably after loading a save.
An “await further adventures” objective has been added to The Island’s Heart quest to clarify the end of the current story act.
👉 Keep in mind: if you reached this point, please wait for new content to be unlocked with the Pavonis Princess, our new VIP Guest, planned for October/November.
In the full 0.5.7 Patch Notes you will also find a list of known issues already under investigation or being fixed. Most of them will be addressed in the next patch, though some may take longer. Keep an eye on the next summaries, as I’ll continue reporting on our progress.
Current Focus
Spa Room
Sell Zone
Further optimization and performance improvements
Item system (items not pickable, not storing properly, or levitating)
Code inspection
Looking at the Repair Roadmap, we are currently in the Week 3–5 phase. Today’s summary marks the middle of Phase 3, so we are reaching the end of our first fixing month soon. In the first week of September, we will prepare a new roadmap focusing on deeper mechanic reworks and QoL balancing, and new content production.
And last but not least!
We’re going to PAX West this week. If you’re in Seattle, stop by the Polish Games booth (stand 1125). We’ll be happy to show you how Hotel Galactic looks right now, share our plans for the game, and hear your feedback! Step by to say hi!
Thank You,
Ancient Forge Team
~Apricot