Hey space friends!
It's been a while since we've done a big update to the base game of Oxygen Not Included! While we've been working primarily on Spaced Out! for the last while, our desire has always been to improve and evolve the game as a whole. There are a number of changes we've made in Spaced Out! which are just general good improvements to the game, or that we had planned for the base game all along but finally got the opportunity to implement during Spaced Out! development.
This includes bug fixes to the game and the underlying simulation, making improvements and upgrades to the UI, and a major upgrade to the modding system to help future-proof mod development. It also includes a couple new buildings, Duplicant traits, and improved worldgen.
Up until this point, the base game and Spaced Out! were running on separate codebases, so fixes we made would only exist for one version or the other. After today, the codebases have been unified so everyone is running the same version of the game! This has been an epic process for the development team, but now it means that bug fixes will arrive for everyone at once, and that all players can benefit from ongoing improvements to the game.
This patch includes some major code updates, including a new Modding API and an upgraded version of the Unity engine. There will be growing pains in the short term while mods are updated (please give modders a chance to catch up!) but these will support the stability and growth of the game into the future.
These changes address some long-term concerns in Oxygen Not Included. This game, and you the players, continue to inspire us. We want to keep improving it and making it the best game we can! The major features and changes include:
- New traits, including traits that grant skills to Duplicants right out of the printing pod
- Some shuffling of the tech tree, notably moving most of the Conveyor Rails techs one tier earlier
- Updated food storage mechanics, making refrigeration easier and more effective, but removing exploits and creating a natural progression for fully preserving food
- Meter Valves allow sending precise amounts of material down a pipe, manually or using automation
- Oxygen Masks are a new low-tier suit, allow Duplicants to work for longer in low-oxygen areas but not protecting them from harsh environments
- Suit durability mechanics will be available in the base game (off by default), which add some upkeep costs for suits so they aren't so overpowered
- "Stinging eyes" and related debuffs give more reason to be cautious with chlorine and other gasses and liquids
- The Diagnostics panel, updated Resource screen, and other UI improvements make it easier to stay on top of what's happening in the base
- Demolition skill allows duplicants to destroy those Gravitas ruins once and for all
There may be some inconsistencies as a result of this, so if anything has broken, or any Spaced Out! weirdness snuck into the base game, please report it in the bug forums. Thanks!
Spaced Out!
As the Spaced Out! DLC gets closer to launching, we're continuing to focus on polish, bug fixes, and tying up loose ends.
We're continuing to refine worldgen tuning, and have added a "Classic Forest Start" cluster to play on. Renewable regolith has landed back in the game on its own planetoid. There's lots of finalized animation and sound effects coming down the pipe, including new art and leak mechanics for nuclear waste barrels. We're also spending more time looking at performance and have some promising leads.
Colony Imperatives are being added and revised. With new Monument parts, an Artifact Analysis Station, and a strange Gravitas device hanging out near the Temporal Tear, your Duplicants will have so many boxes to check off! (We also added a few new Spaced Out!-exclusive artifacts.)
Thanks for sticking with us through this large technical challenge. If you notice anything that seems to be amiss between the two versions of the game, please report it as a bug! And as always, we'd love to hear any other feedback you have. Take care!