[Game Update] - Public Testing 579980

[JarrettM]

Hi everyone, 

The Packed Snacks Update is ready for public testing!

We're extra excited to be working on this one... it's ONI's 50th update! 

There are new buildings for food preservation, critter happiness and space-saving storage, as well as a new story trait, sandbox story trait placement tool, cosmetic skins, and more nuanced critter moods...all available in both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC. 

The new Dehydrator building eliminates moisture from foods prepared on the Gas Range, extending their shelf life indefinitely. These packaged meals can then be stored as dry rations (no refrigeration needed) and revived for consumption at the new Rehydrator building. The Rehydrator is still a work in progress, and will be enabled in a hotfix at some point during the public testing period. 

Interacting with the new Critter Condo provides a happiness boost for land-based critters. Aquatic critters can increase their happiness levels at the Water Fort. We've also reworked critter moods: there's a new extra-glum mood called "Miserable," which impacts both critter metabolism and fertility, and a "Satisfied" mood that displays when critters are neither Happy nor Glum. 

We've added new cosmetic skins for both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC. These will become printable once the testing period is over. 

There's a new story trait that allows the construction of a new type of bot, a new sandbox tool for placing selected story traits from past updates, and a 1x1 storage tile. 

Thanks for helping us test this all in preparation for our 50th update! We couldn't do this without you. You can submit your feedback here and report bugs here. If you can test on a Mac, please do—we've recently made some changes to that platform. 

Here's what you'll find in the update so far: 
 

Features

• All versions
  • Added Biobot Builder Story Trait.
  • Added a Story Trait Sandbox tool which lets you add story traits to existing saves.
  • Added Critter Condo building.
  • Added Water Fort building for aquatic critters.
  • Added Storage Tile building.
  • Added Dehydrator and Rehydrator buildings.
    • Rehydrator building is in a preview state. It is not yet functional in this build.
• Spaced Out! only
  • Added Rocket Port Extension building.

Changes and Improvements

• All versions
  • Added an automation port to suit checkpoint buildings to disable them.
  • Meter valves now reset only when first receiving a green signal, and are no longer "held open" by a continuous signal.
  • Critters
    • Critters now have 4 states of happiness instead of 2.
      • Happy (4+) - Increased reproduction.
      • Satisfied (0 to 3) - No effect.
      • Glum (-1 to -9) - Decreased metabolism.
      • Miserable (-10 or lower) - Decreased metabolism (same as Glum) and reproduction is stopped.
    • Renamed Hungry status item to “Looking for Food.”
    • Renamed Overcrowded status item to "Crowded."
    • Crowded penalty is now -1 happiness per excess critter, instead of the first excess critter contributing -4 and each additional excess critter contributing -1.
    • Pacus’ happiness bonus from 'Recently ate from feeder' increased from +2 to +5. 
    • Pacus’ diet has changed to 1 seed or 7.5kg algae per cycle.
    • Added Critter Metabolism to the Conditions panel of the sidescreen. The presentation of Critter Metabolism was adjusted to start at 100% instead of 0%.
  • Added more animations to the Molecular Forge when a Duplicant is operating it.
  • Added sound to Light Sensor.
  • Added 100 and 1000 cycle milestone celebrations.
  • Refrigerators will no longer drop non-food items when Spiced Food Only is selected.
  • Added search function to more sidescreens.
  • Changed tooltip for Stable in the Room overlay to specify which ranching buildings fulfill that room's requirement. 
  • Database
    • Food entries in the database now show associated recipes.
    • Added a Category entry in the Buildings section of the database, containing information about room requirement classes.
    • Updated "Overcrowded" to "Crowded" in the Field Guide. Also added Satisfied and Miserable moods.
• Spaced Out! only
  • Changed how rockets check for a clear path to space when launching, to be consistent with how they check when landing. It now checks the widest module.
  • Duplicants deployed to an asteroid from a Trailblazer Module are no longer automatically removed from the crew. Instead, they are removed automatically if the rocket lands on a different asteroid.
  • Added new sound ambiences to rocket interiors.

Fixes

• All versions
  • Potential fix for ranchers getting stuck calling critters for grooming.
  • Fixed Spice Grinder getting stuck when the room space changes.
  • Fixed two of the same food with different spices being merged into one item.
  • Fixed Pokeshell missing a claw when eating.
  • Fixed a bug where carried or stored items where not showing up in the details screen
  • Fixed items being moved using Move To not displaying on the destination when being carried by a Duplicant.
  • Fixed a crash when trying to store objects marked for move
  • Fixed crash opening Decor overlay when the “Handy Cracker” blueprint is built.
  • Fixed broken database links for Liquid Oxidizer Tank, Hydrogen Engine, Fish Trap, and Meteor Blaster.
  • Fixed typo in Rust Deoxidizer description that incorrectly listed Liquid Chlorine as an output instead of Chlorine Gas. 
  • Fixed Plant Pulverizer's Nosh Bean recipe description to say Nosh Bean instead of Pincha Peppernut.
  • Fixed spacing in Delecta Vole temperature strings.
• Spaced Out! only
  • Added a range visualizer to show the range of Habitat Rocket Modules that is checked to determine if the rocket can launch or not. 
  • Range visualizer added to rocket modules to show if the rocket has a clear path to space.
  • Fixed crashes related to building a Rocket Platform directly above another rocket.
  • Fixed cargo bays from other rockets being visible in the details panel when selecting a rocket with no cargo bays.
  • Fixed issue where Duplicants would sometimes not be able to enter rockets if the rocket made a roundtrip to orbit.
  • Fixed some of the crashes that could occur when Duplicants end up outside of world boundaries. Added the "Unknown" world row to the UI management table screens.
  • Fixed broken database link for Mission Control Station.

Modding

• Updated logic network signal change events to consider a third state (Uninitialized) and indicate which state a change is from as well as to.

Supply Closet

• It is no longer possible to use Filament to print additional copies of blueprints you already own.
• Renamed Basic skin categories to "Standard" in Supply Closet.
• Added animation fx when a Duplicant changes their current Blueprint outfit.
• Slight changes to text formatting on Print/Recycle buttons.
• Small changes to Supply Closet layout.
• Added new cosmetic skins (cannot be printed until this update leaves public testing).
   

What is public testing?

"Public testing" means players get to test-drive new content early and give us feedback and suggestions before it goes live. Because this is an unfinished and in active development version of the game, it's pretty likely you'll encounter bugs, crashes or balance issues while playing these builds. We'll try to fix any problems that crop up as quickly as we can, but it's possible you'll lose progress in your games while playing on the Testing branch.

Regarding performance, the Testing branch has additional debugging tools enabled to help us track down crashes. This makes the game run more slowly than the live version of the game.

Please also be aware that once a save is loaded in the Testing branch, it cannot be reopened again in the previous Live branch or previous builds.

What do I do if I find a crash or a bug?

Post it up on the Bug Tracker and we'll fix it as soon as we can. If you can attach a copy of your save file to your report, that helps us even more as we can pinpoint the source of problem more quickly.

Do I have to play the public testing build?

Nope! If you'd prefer to only play a stable build, you can continue to play in the current Default branch until the game launches in full. Playing the Open Testing build isn't necessary, but it helps us a lot to receive your feedback and reports - if you're interested, try it out!

How do I become a public tester?

There's no sign up or registration for becoming an open tester. If you own Oxygen Not Included and want to join the Testing Branch, all you have to do is play the Open Testing build on Steam.

How do I play the public testing build?

You can switch your branch on Steam using the instructions below:

Spoiler

How to change branches in Oxygen Not Included (Steam)

• In Steam, click on Library > Games.
• Scroll down to Oxygen Not Included.
• Right-click and select Properties.
• Go to the BETAS tab.
• In the dropdown, select the name of the branch you want to play. In this case, the branch name is "public_testing"
  • This branch does not require a password.
• In that same Properties window, go to the Local Files tab and press "Verify Integrity Of Game Cache."
• Your game will be updated to the the previous branch.
• Launch and play Oxygen Not Included

View full update

[Primalflower]

is this an end to starvation ranching? mazel tov!!!

[Charletrom]

These last few updates have added a ton of depth to the ranching system. Great work! Now let me give you money for crying out loud!!!

[Gurgel]

54 minutes ago, JarrettM said:

• Spaced Out! only
  • Changed how rockets check for a clear path to space when launching, to be consistent with how they check when landing. It now checks the widest module.

 

Very good. Just ran into this a few times recently. 

[sorafis]

If the latest information about a game like this is placed at the top of the forum, more players will notice it.

I hope this update will reduce the treatment of inhumane creatures.

[LionfishLion]

【vanilla】 

Examination Remains and Astronomical telescopes are unable to produce data disks!!
Why haven't you fixed it yet????

 

[Sanchozz]

hey. where has the duplicant gone, who in the corner has to wave his hand and count down the time until the release ?

[sakura_sk]

1 hour ago, Sanchozz said:

where has the duplicant gone

Doesn't reloading the game solve this? It happened to me several times

Edit: never mind! It seems it's the way of the testing branch 

Edited November 3, 2023 by sakura_sk

[Duck986]

4 hours ago, JarrettM said:

Miserable (-10 or lower) - Decreased metabolism (same as Glum) and reproduction is stopped.

Sounds like an excuse to fix starvation ranches 

[Zarquan]

I do hope that the removal of critter compression leads to a slickster buff.  As is, slicksters are not worth much resource-wise without packing them in.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Zarquan

[Henlikuoth]

Hmm, I did not expect these kinds of changes, but I am happy!

It's good to see critters and ranching are improved and expanded.

However, there is still no word about how and when we can start purchasing filament/Klei points with real money. It's about time. 

[thomas-sch]

 Great update! May I suggest creating an Aquarium room? Taking advantage of the fact that they are including an Aquatic Fort and we already have care items for Pacus.

[Henlikuoth]

1 minute ago, thomas-sch said:

 Great update! May I suggest creating an Aquarium room? Taking advantage of the fact that they are including an Aquatic Fort and we already have care items for Pacus.

I like the idea of an extensive, colorful aquarium. +1 from me here! 

[asurendra]

Quote

• Pacus’ diet has changed to 1 seed or 7.5kg algae per cycle.

Do you want to say that we need to feed our pacu now? O_o

[BezKa]

Amazing stuff!!! Can't wait to try it all out!!

[Pproy]

Love the update! Cant wait to try the food deshydratator, I want to see how much it help with space travel.

On the critter side of thing, could we get a butcher station? I know there a mod for that, but it would really help with setting up ranch for critter that cannot drown. Having to wait for them to starve can hamper food production early game.

3 hours ago, thomas-sch said:

 Great update! May I suggest creating an Aquarium room? Taking advantage of the fact that they are including an Aquatic Fort and we already have care items for Pacus.

Can I add to this idea a Zoo or Safari room? aka if a room as X or more type of critter, it become an room like the nature reserve and give a moral bonus to dupe?

Another neat idea could be a "fish bowl", an building like the pedestal where we could put a pacu or shine bug for decor.

[Henlikuoth]

I wonder how many critters the critter condo can accommodate in one large stable (96 tiles) without any critter being left behind. Also, how long does the "cozy" state last? 

Maybe this information can be included in the database. 

[VitaCoke]

 

• Added an automation port to suit checkpoint buildings to disable them.

i'm welcoming this, how many times I had to do this manually during my last playthrough, because checkpoint is inside the Rocket, but the suit station is on the planet. So the Duplicant is stuck inside the rocket many times.

• Added Storage Tile building.

This is a nice addition for rocket interrior, the solo space nose thing will be usefull now, but also got some other ideas of its use. 

• Meter valves now reset only when first receiving a green signal, and are no longer "held open" by a continuous signal.

sounds nice, I have spend an hour yesterday to figure out how to send a single blip to the meter valves to fuel my hydrogen/oxygen rocket. I had to use the counter in advanced mode and a switch as a unelegant solution. sames thing for Uran and fueling the research reactor with less fuel.

• Pacus’ diet has changed to 1 seed or 7.5kg algae per cycle.

i'm welcoming this. there is sitting 2000 bristle seed in a storage bin and >100 single seed wich did not stack for whatever reason. 

the 2000 I did compost, but the single ones, I will not touch. pacus go eat them 

• Added Biobot Builder Story Trait.

This is interesting! now the Spore plant have a actuall use. for the first time in 4 years I can make use of the germ sensor ...and a pump.

• Changed how rockets check for a clear path to space when launching, to be consistent with how they check when landing. It now checks the widest module.

this is helpful. I was wondering why the upgrade from Radbold engine to Hydrogen was so troublesome. because its wider and I had to make some room.

there, I did it. now you will be always reminded of that whenever you see this ingame.

Edited November 3, 2023 by VitaCoke
update

[NotUilson]

I have suggestions on Biorobots
They have a very good idea, but a very bad implementation. They are made tooo situational (like all other world traits). Before I explain why I think so I want to highlight their current mechanics.
1 biorobot takes 300 Steel to make + some undefined amount of zombie spores + 3.33 cycles and duplicant with advanced medical care (3rd skill in medical tree)
It spawns with 180kJ of power, enough to power it for 10 cycles
You can only have (10/3.33)=3 biorobots in your entire world
It can only do building, digging, and delivering tasks (without skill tree skills) 
Can only be assembled on a Biorobot builder
Drops 200kg of steel on death and a corpse that needs to be deconstructed MANUALLY that drops 100kg of genetic ooze(most likely bug) on deconstruction

And this creates a situation where biorobot doesn't have a clear purpose. 
Robot watchdog on an uninhabited asteroid?-No. Must be replaced
Robot laborer?-Limited to an asteroid with a biorobot builder
Asteroid inhabited with only robots?-No. It needs to be assembled by duplicant
This leaves only reasonable purpose to build them-brute forcing a heat spike.

How i think biorobots can be made more useful
1: Make them refillable(or maybe more advanced refilable version). Biorobot fuel shouldn't be too cheap (just power or smth), I think that 240w of power+zombie spores+some water(cuz fluffy morb looks floating in some liquid)
2: Make them limited to 3 biorobots per save 
3: Add them some more utility. Like let them have 2 skill points that can be used to learn duplicant skills(and also allow them to do respective jobs)

Otherwise, it will just be another garbage mechanic nobody uses like pre-rework moos and storage tile with critter condo will get all the fame

[O.J.Vodka]

There is no difference between Biorobots and Rover, but Rover is easier to obtain than Biorobots. Why should players go to all the trouble to get a robot exactly like Rover?

When my Dupes reached 21 people, my Rover reached 9 people, and the total number reached 30, the dupes would stop in place for 5-10 seconds every time they received a task.

2 hours ago, Henlikuoth said:

I wonder how many critters the critter condo can accommodate in one large stable (96 tiles) without any critter being left behind. Also, how long does the "cozy" state last? 

Maybe this information can be included in the database. 

If the breeding rate is maintained high, building a "Critter Condo building" can increase the breeding scale by one.
The "cozy" effect lasts for 1cycle.

[O.J.Vodka]

The idea of using cultivated bacteria to produce robots is very interesting. Looking forward to more bacteria that can be cultivated and propagated in the future to improve agricultural and industrial production efficiency. For example, perfume is made with "Floral Scents" and ethanol, and perfume is sprayed on the bed.

 

[O.J.Vodka]

The storage limit is 1000kg, but it can hold 1000 space suits, This bug has been around for a long time.

Edited November 3, 2023 by O.J.Vodka

[goboking]

3 hours ago, Pproy said:

On the critter side of thing, could we get a butcher station?

I was sure the critter traps were going to solve the problem of critter "retirement", but its temperature range made it more trouble than it was worth.

[isam2k]

15 hours ago, JarrettM said:

Changed how rockets check for a clear path to space when launching, to be consistent with how they check when landing. It now checks the widest module.

Oh no... is this the end of rocket shaving?

[Kderosa]

Did some poking around with the new wall/floor storage tile, a much needed concept whose time has finally arrived.  Naturally, the first place I put one was the most obvious - a rocket interior.

• They hold 1000 kg and only 1000 kg (see below)
• they hold only one type of item and that item can't be medicine or edibles (and cooking ingredients), i.e., the two items you really want to put into rocket storage.
• they also don't hold liquid, what I wouldn't do for a 1000 Kg water tank to hold bathroom water in lieu of having to snake piping throughout the spacefarer module like a chump 
• oddly enough, they need to be toggled by a dupe before they can store your selected item type.
• UPDATE:  Oxylite does not appear to off-gas when in these new storage tiles which is either a bug or very unfortunate for rocket use. Upon further review, the oxylite does off-gas but somewhat erratically, sometimes not off0gassing despite the surrounding O2 pressure being below 1800 g.  So, beware.  Also the "moving grams at a time" bug seems to be present again if you set-up a storage container to put the oxylite in to promote better off-gassing. 

A few suggested improvements:

• the storage capacity should be adjustable. Presently it holds an unchangeable 1000 kg.  I, for one, will never want to take 1000 kg of reed fiber (or spare atmo suits) on any expedition, mostly because I've never had 1000 Kg of reed fiber available, so it would effectively be ALL my reed fiber which presents some problems.
• It is not controllable by the rocket control station or starmap location sensor like storage bins to prevent dupes from re-purposing your stored oxylite and reed fiber which you only discover while in space as your dupes start suffocating or, worse, after landing on a hostile planet.
• it does not hold two of the the items it is best suited for: rad pills and berry sludge (AKA rocket food) and (presumably in the future) dehydrated food. I mean come on now how did that make it past the design committee.
• What these storage tiles (and  refrigerators) really need (and I don't know if it's possible to implement) is the ability to hold multiple items with settable amounts.  Yes, I would like to take 100 rad pills, 30 reed fiber, 10 spare atmo suits (fully repaired thank you), and the rest filled with oxylite for every mission without the storage taking up half my rocket space. Currently, my dupes are so stupid they will happily fill my refrigerators entirely with rad pills and no food (JFC!!) necessitating two space-wasting refrigerators (that don't even require refrigerating (again JFC!!) just to hold both food and a few rad pills (the new spiced food settings help but don't solve this pesky problem). Side note: having to micromanage item storage and location (the new move command helps partially here) is equivalent to vintage 80s style games that included giant mazes and no in-game mapping system as a way to beef-up content in the least fun way possible /rant.
• See those four tiles on the top of the spacefarer module they should be re-purposable to hold a reasonable amount of oxylite/algae, rad pills, reed fiber, berry slude/dehydrated food, spare atmo suits, perhaps a brackene dupe fountain and possibly two terrestrial artifacts.  The storage should be controllable and should appear in the countdown checklist because I would very much like to know if my dupes will be able to breathe and Don't Starve (see what I did there) while in space. Perhaps, you'd need to construct them out of plastium and thermium, the two materials simply begging for an in-game purpose. 
• they don't hold bottled liquids or gases.  It'd be nice to have designated storage for naphtha (aka, portable liquid locks, let's face it), emergency O2, CO2, and H2 when needed (i.e., often).
• Tangent: speaking of plastium and thermium, here's an idea have a late game semi-configurable spacefarer module in which the walls of the rocket interiors can be replaceable/expandable (the genie is out of the bottle here) with plastium and thermium components, such as wall storage tiles, improved radiation shielded buildings, ceiling tiles that lets sunlight in (make beach chairs useful again), better atmo suits with improved radiation and sunlight protection, an environmental temperature regulation building (in conjunction with that fabulous conduction panel (which really needs to come in larger size to properly cool a steam turbine running at max power, but I digress)) to maintain the cabin at the ever-elusive "room temperature ideal,  water and wastewater storage for CO2 scrubbing and bathroom mechs, new dining room furniture than allows you to get a great hall bonus in a rocket with a mess hall sized room, an improved space suit dock system that takes up less space, has proper entrance and exit controls, and an atmo suit repair-only forge built in (eliminating the number one cause of trapped dupes), expanded living quarters to carry more dupes, dupe entertainment, and dupe stress reduction. (While on the subject of rockets make that useless rocket piloting II skill come with the stargazer buff (playing with a dupe with this perk in my current game was such a nice improvement for morale limited rockets in the mid- game and harder difficulties).
• Second Tangent: On the subject of improved spacefarer features and bigger rocket interiors for the late game, this game really needs a third ring of planets, preferably out so far that they are only accessible by a hydrogen rocket (currently useless) (and liquid H2 (and possibly O2) which should require plastium and thermium to make) with planetoids having proper late-game challenges and a proper end game objective.  I will literally pay twice the amount I paid for the base game and DLC combined for this Late Game DLC.  Take my money. (The entertainment hours/price paid ratio for this game is already criminally high despite still lacking a late/end game.)

 

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Kderosa