Oxygen Not Included Roadmap September 2018

[SilverNox]

Thanks so much for the awesome update and for creating such a fun game!

If there is one thing that I can hope to see before long is better meal queue (or any queue in machines I suppose). Like if my cook can't create the first meal in the assigned list, they will automatically make the next meal. I know this is something people have been asking for for a while so I'm sure it is annoying to hear again but man that would help make cooking less micromanagement-y to me. 

[SakuraKoi]

21 hours ago, SilverNox said:

Thanks so much for the awesome update and for creating such a fun game!

If there is one thing that I can hope to see before long is better meal queue (or any queue in machines I suppose). Like if my cook can't create the first meal in the assigned list, they will automatically make the next meal. I know this is something people have been asking for for a while so I'm sure it is annoying to hear again but man that would help make cooking less micromanagement-y to me. 

Well, considering this bit:

On 6.9.2018 at 7:56 PM, Bigfoot said:

Each of these updates will be focused on content, stability, and user experience improvements. They won't necessarily have a big unifying theme like they do now, but there will still be new smaller pieces of content to play with.

It is very likely that many more quality of life improvements will be added after the next upgrade, I'd be surprised if a new queue logic was not part of it since currently on can at least understand that the coders are busy with new systems. Personally I think one could still come up with new themes/names for such upgrades/updates, even if one is called "Quality of Life", "Geo", "Contraptions" or "Computing". Preferably the focus is on Content before QoL and stability/optimization after QoL

Personally I'd like to ask for more asteroid/map types after you are finished with all that is related to world generation (ofc it makes only sense then/is a a waste of time otherwise since you would have to constantly revise them). I sure am very happy about fossils and can not wait to dig 'em out~

[TG pro]

Add a need to drink water.

Please.

I need it.

We need it.

I want dupes to need water.

[Djoums]

2 hours ago, TG pro said:

We need it.

I don't

Why do you want that, simply for realism ?

[SakuraKoi]

1 hour ago, Djoums said:

I don't

Why do you want that, simply for realism ?

I don't need it either, I even don't want another need.

Seriously™, what's next? Libido? Duplicants becoming aware of the other and third sex as well as their own? Alright, you got me there, I sure would love baby Duplicants!

[Jigsawn]

Sounds good. WIll there be an endgame, i.e. a way to "win" for the story mode? It's cool to let people keep on playing after, but I like to have a final goal to work towards, like solve the dupe mystery, discover a safe planet to relocate to via the rockets, etc.

[TG pro]

I want more ways to die, and a need for water seems legit.

However, what I really want, is having multiple colonies so I can have a normal colony, a sandbox mode colony, a colony for testing setups and so on.

[Rogue Witch]

On 9/8/2018 at 7:24 AM, Gurgel said:

I noticed that we have a "Petroleum Engine" now. A nuclear engine as alternative would be entirely plausible.

The developers did mention in one of the Twitch streams that there would be more types of Rocket engines. Hola !

[Lutzkhie]

Yes! Performance finally

[oxygenmissing]

This is all really great, but can we please fix the queuing system for continuous jobs on machines and make it dynamic (ie. Refineries, Grills etc.)? This has been requested numerous times by many different people for as long as I can remember and is surely not a very difficult fix... I assume this is how it should work otherwise it defeats the purpose of a queue and causes people to make many of each machine to avoid micromanagement. If there is more than one continuous job listed, the machine only produces the first one, even if there are no ingredients available for the first, but ingredients available for the second. If this has already been fixed please let me know but as far as I can see patch notes say nothing of it.

EDIT - just seen this has already been stated above by Silvernox, sorry!

[goboking]

On 9/6/2018 at 12:56 PM, Bigfoot said:

We're going to add another batch of space industry content in the October 18th upgrade. From there we'll begin releasing updates on an 8-week cycle, with an open testing branch 3 weeks before each release. This is similar to how it is now, but at a longer pace.

Each of these updates will be focused on content, stability, and user experience improvements. They won't necessarily have a big unifying theme like they do now, but there will still be new smaller pieces of content to play with.

I hope this isn't industry-speak for "we're reassigning some of the people working on ONI to another project."  /sad

[ymz1994420]

On 2018/9/7 at 2:27 AM, Tobruk said:

Finally they will start interweaving the systems more. I feel like you nerfed diseases to much and there are too few of them as well. As @_Q_ said - fire could be interesting, but I don't find it critical though, as heat can pretty much destroy a colony on its own. QoL additions will be a very welcome change of focus, because some elements of the game are still tedious (measurements, for example, or debug-locked feature called blueprints).

I think so .Show the quantity of bricks when drawing a blueprint in the game

[MrLeaky]

I also think we'd need more dangers. I basically never lost any duplicants, even though I had some accidents. And I never had a single issue with diseases; it's like they don't do anything. I'm not saying I want to lose dupes, but at the same time I think it would improve the game if it felt less static in terms of this.

Another thing that is bugging me for a very long time is the strange and slow gas mechanics. Gas pressure changes propagate extremely slowly, and this removes the possibility of a lot of interesting gameplay elements/challenges. We could have explosive decompression, losses of huge amounts of oxygen in our base, etc.

And of course the whole mechanics of gases/liquids not mixing is rather odd; but I'm sure it was much simpler to implement it this way. Still, at least the pollution could be quantified instead of having categorically different materials for it. That way if X amount of highly polluted water would contact clean water, the given amount of pollution could be dispersed across the whole body of water.

But it would be a highly interesting and rather unique feature if gases could generally mix and react, creating both beneficial and very dangerous outcomes (of course we'd need some additional types of gases).

Edit: Another thing that comes to my mind very often, and I think would be really needed: to separate bases/outposts from each other, effectively assigning dupes to a certain place. Because as we explore the world, we tend to create these outposts, and for me personally it's a lot of annoyance how dupes end up running across the whole map for silly reasons (like, the toilet in the base was momentarily occupied, so they run to one on the other side of the map basically).

[MrLeaky]

On 2018. 09. 12. at 4:25 AM, goboking said:

I hope this isn't industry-speak for "we're reassigning some of the people working on ONI to another project."  /sad

I hope so too, since ONI has so much potential (besides obviously being a great game already). Too bad we never get basically any honest information from developers and studios these days; would be interesting to know how happy they were with the sales figures, how do they really feel about the project and its future, etc.

[Queron81]

11 hours ago, MrLeaky said:

Edit: Another thing that comes to my mind very often, and I think would be really needed: to separate bases/outposts from each other, effectively assigning dupes to a certain place. Because as we explore the world, we tend to create these outposts, and for me personally it's a lot of annoyance how dupes end up running across the whole map for silly reasons (like, the toilet in the base was momentarily occupied, so they run to one on the other side of the map basically).

You can do that with door permissions, so dupes for example don't have access to the main base (or parts of them, like the bathroom).

[DreamApart]

On 2018/9/7 at 2:19 AM, _Q_ said:

Fire? Any danger beside impossible running out of oxygen?

 

YEAAASS!

 

Danger and CHAOS, please!

 

...

And for instance, 

chemical update like：

Hydrogen + Oxygen + too hot = steam + Explosion !

Hydrogen + Chlorine + too bright= hydrochloric acid + Explosion !

hydrochloric acid + iron = corrosion damage !

 

And again ...

Let there be CHAOS!

[Tekky]

I am happy that you have decided to concentrate more on polishing and improving the already existing features and less on adding new features. In my experience, it is better to have a small number of well polished features instead of a large number of half-baked features.

Especially the following areas of the game could use some attention, in my opinion:

1. The thermal system. I especially don't like the new DTU units, as they just conceal the underlying problem. See this thread for more information.
2. The magma biome could use some improvement. This thread contains some ideas. I especially like the ideas of the magma biome not being full of impassable Neutronium and the idea of the bottom tiles of the map acting as a renewable source of magma.
3. The job assignment system should be redesigned. See this thread for further information.
4. It is possible for critters to become extinct, with no way to replace them. See this thread for more information.

[lilibat]

As part of polish, please add signs we can put text on so we can label generators, rooms and such.  

[Rainbowdesign]

On 9/6/2018 at 11:32 PM, AzeTheGreat said:

No mention of mods...are there plans to add mod support?  I think with solid mod support this game could have an incredible modding scene that adds a ton of gameplay.

With the modloader there comes a mod infrastructure and a ton of mods.... its only all inofficial.

[ArunPrasath]

On 9/6/2018 at 11:26 PM, Bigfoot said:

We’re also scheduling a new feature and content update for that launch to mark the occasion.

Kindly do something about the magma biome. Its just sitting there at the bottom occupying space.

Also, the red lines denoting top of the map is ugly. A better method for this is most welcome.

[Sturm58]

nice - and can we add a way to automate egg management?

IT should be possible to sustain a stable critter farm without the need to control number of living creatures manually.

Creature counter and automated hatchery would be nice.

[Ashpoker]

On 9/6/2018 at 7:56 PM, Bigfoot said:

make sure that the beginning of the game is approachable and fair for new players

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't make it easier. please just don't

I would love to see 4 things especially:

1. when creating the game with random seed, see the chance of certain geysers before i start the colony. It's really really frustrating putting countless hours into a world and figuring out there is only one cool steam vent or there is no chlorine vent, etc.

2. This one is MOST important, so read it all please. Change the dupe selection system. The longest part of creating a world is finding the correct dupes. Imagine the system something like this:

you see selection screen and you basically build the first dupe on a number based system. Each dupe will have set number of points assigned to him based on his level. for example 100 points. Each stat would take 1 point and you could choose where to put it (digging, building,...), then you have to select at least 1 or more bad traits (narco, binge eater, noodle arm,...) and each disadvantage would return some of your points. then you can select advantages (diver's lungs, iron gut,...) which would cost significant amount of points. This creates many combinations you can create a dupe, maybe give him more bad traits you can live with but he'll have lots of points in abilities, maybe no abilities but only good traits. It will be up to the PLAYER, not RNG.

This system would save you significant amount of time and you could figure out the best way to start your colony that suits your gameplay.

3. Please create some way to remove bad traits in endgame .... some space machine or facility you can build that would remove bad traits. It could take 100 cycles perhaps or 50 cycles but each one the dupe would have to receive treatment with some space drug. Sometimes you have almost perfect dupe but you can't take it because he farts or he sleeps at job and it's insanely frustrating to let him go knowing there is only one thing keeping him from living in the colony.

4. Some kind of counter when selecting with tools ingame. See the picture: 

[Doctor Whom]

Starting screen music is a lot more awesome now.

[IFkingLoveSpace]

On 6-9-2018 at 11:32 PM, AzeTheGreat said:

No mention of mods...are there plans to add mod support?  I think with solid mod support this game could have an incredible modding scene that adds a ton of gameplay.

Mod support would be soooooo good!

 

This is definitely a must have.

[Steelflame]

On 10/17/2018 at 1:20 AM, Sturm58 said:

nice - and can we add a way to automate egg management?

IT should be possible to sustain a stable critter farm without the need to control number of living creatures manually.

Creature counter and automated hatchery would be nice.

 

There is actually a way to do this.  Eggs will fall through horizontal doors if they are laid on top of them into a room below.  Set the bottom area to have a max population the same as the upper area, and autowrangle adults over the number in question to go to a kill room, and autowrangle hatchlings to go to the room above.  Effectively, the top room is your stable population.  Any up here will breed all their life, and if they die, will be replaced from below when the eggs hatches.  If the ones below outnumber the population of the room above and has an adults, the adults are sent to a kill room, and if the room above runs low, the room below sends em up some of it's "stable replacement" population.  You just have to utilize the priority of the critter drop offs properly and its easy.   Just don't crack the eggs to make omelets, and you'll be fine.  The lower room doesn't need to be taken care of, because the hatchlings will not lose enough calories to starve, and the adults will be sent to die pretty much the day they mature anyway, so you don't care.

 

 

Basically, you just have a breeding population that has all eggs go into a hatchery.  You can automate it via egg dropping with the shipping lines, or just having the eggs fall into the room from above.  Doesn't matter how many eggs hatch in this hatchery, because you don't care about their condition in the slightest.  If any of the breeding population dies, it will take a hatchling from the hatchery to the breeding population room, where it receives full care, and will turn into a breeder.  If they mature in the hatchery, they are instead taken to a kill room, where you have the water overlap them and kill off any critters in the room once a cycle, assuming it wasn't fish anyway.