Hello survivors!
It's been roughly one week since our release and we've had a really positive response to the game which has been amazing. We've also had a bunch of feedback, and identified the key areas that we want to improve first.
Lots of players have been really getting into the story which we are super happy about. Progressing some parts of the story is more cumbersome than we'd like (this is addressed below), so a huge thanks to all of the players giving us feedback on that.
Throughout development we'll share more plans on the content and features that are coming.
For now, these are our immediate tasks for the coming week or so:
Getting Steam Workshop up for translations
Reducing annoying friction in the story progress and doing a better job of providing the guidance that higher tier resources come as you progress the story and new areas open up.
The next wave of improvements to automation system
Fixes for any critical game stopping bugs that players stumble into.
Steam Workshop for Translations
We have translation modding support with roughly 90% of the text hooked up and tools so players can start translating. We've already players in the community prepare translations in their language which is amazing, and we'll do what we can from our end to support community translators.
The most important thing here is hooking up the rest of the text (which will happen this week), and integrating Steam Workshop (this is high priority, it might be this week but it needs some testing). This way players have an easier way of getting the mods.
Reducing Story Friction
Sometimes ideas, even the interesting ones, just add too much friction which can be borderline frustrating. There are a few things in the story that we don't like. One example of this was the debris pile when getting the blue keycard, while the intention was okay (helping players learn how to clear debris), it could be annoying if you weren't prepared.
Other examples are the extra blockers you encounter after using the blue keycard to clear the gas. The intent was to provide a challenge, but in practice it creates a bottleneck that slows down the fun.
And... if you've dealt with a particular crab already... let's just say, there will be some changes coming there. Ultimately we want to reduce any back and forth to story expeditions.
We have a bunch of changes planned here, honestly it's mostly removing some hurdles.
Higher Tier Resources and Story Progression
Higher resource tiers such as strongwood require that you progress the story to open up new areas. This in itself is fine and not uncommon, but we don't do a good enough job in letting the player know what resources this involves.
We have some ideas on how to improve this which should help a lot.
Automation & Micromanagement
There is quite a bit of automation already, and while you can setup fully automated production, it's a little cumbersome and some things don't work entirely as expected. We've been closely monitoring how you use these systems and your feedback is helping us prioritize some specific improvements.
We'll be overhauling things and adding some new features:
We are going to experiment with having colonists not require workposts, and slightly change the role of workposts.
We are going to add some more food automation options. Currently colonists only eat cooked food, this is a large part of why it feels like sometimes they aren't eating when you expect them to.
Skin Tones
Skin color options were on a tighter spectrum than we would like, there weren't enough lighter or darker options. We've updated our sprite shader to better support a wider range of skin tones without visual issues. The next patch will have 6 new options.
Accessibility Options & UI Scaling
We are planning more accessibility including UI scaling, and fixing some fonts that are too small. Our goal is to ensure the UI remains clear and readable even with the large amount of information on screen, so we're taking the time to get this right.
It's probably not going to be in the next patch, but we just want to let you know that it is planned, so if you have any suggestions or particular things you need fixed let us know.
There's a forum post already going on this, so you could just put any requests in there:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/3052510/discussions/0/805722696534105212/
After That?
Once we iron out these early hurdles and polish the core experience, we'll be shifting our focus to new content and new systems like medicine, trapping and taming.
This feels like a good approach since there is already a heap of content in the game, and we already have players reporting that they have played 50+ hours, so we want that playtime to be as enjoyable as possible.
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The Ember Guardian
For a limited time we've bundled our game with the new release "The Ember Guardian". If you have already purchased Oceaneers you can complete the bundle and get the game even cheaper, if not, you can buy them together for really good value!
A great chance for you to get a great deal AND support a couple of indie games (Oceaneers is made by 2 people, and The Ember Guardian has a solo developer).
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Thanks to the Community!
A huge thanks to all of the players helping each other out on the forums and in discord. It's really cool seeing tips being shared.
Keep your feedback coming as well, we read it all!
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Join Us!
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here
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