Update Information:
Hello astro-friends!
The Quality of Life Upgrades continue to roll out as our team scours their bug lists and reviews all the feedback you've given us here in the forums! We're also still working hard to improve game performance and systems.
A high level of focus in QoL Mk 2 has been directed toward adding tools to help you understand what work your Duplicants are doing around the base and how they're moving through it. We've also added in Space Artifacts for you to display on your Pedestals, and some exciting new upgrades to the Printing Pod's capabilities. And of course, we've knocked out all kinds of bugs and crashes thanks to your reports!
For those who missed it in the previous Upgrade: A public Testing Branch for this Upgrade will once again be available as they have been in the past, with the change that testing periods will now run for 3 weeks instead of the regular 2. Our intention is to provide additional time for your feedback to be heard before these changes go out to the world. (Please note that the Testing Branch will continue to have additional crash reporting enabled and will impact your game’s running performance. Finalized performance improvements won't be noticeable until the Upgrade releases to everyone.)
We look forward to reading your thoughts and opinions on the Suggestions Forum.
Thank-you!
What does this testing branch contain so far?
Here are the changes we've made so far in this Upgrade, loosely categorized:
New Features
- Printing Pod can now print objects other than Duplicants, to give your colony that little extra boost
- Added a new priority to the Priority tool, "!!". This will make a highest-priority errand and put the base into Red Alert mode until it is completed
- Added a new side screen for Duplicants which shows all the chores they can perform, and what order they will perform them in.
- Added a new tab, "Errands" for buildings (other objects coming soon!) which shows what chores are available there and which Duplicants can work on those chores
- Reports Menu now shows a more accurate and better categorized breakdown of where Duplicants are spending their time
- Reports Menu now shows how many errands have been created and completed each day
- "Long Commute Times" notification if Duplicants have a high percentage of travel time in a day
- New Artifacts can be returned from space missions, either by astronauts or space tourists -- display them on Pedestals for high decor!
- Eggs can now also be placed on Pedestals
Duplicants
- Fixed a crash when Duplicants were changing their Atmo Suits
- Fixed a crash when the object a Dupe was fetching disappears
- Fixed a crash when Duplicants fall off the bottom of the world
- Fixed a crash when Duplicants gained experience for delivery
- Prevent Dupes from trying to eat food that other Dupes are binge-eating
- Oxygenarian Dupes no longer die upon being printed
- Duplicants slightly prefer walking to flying in jet suits, to prevent wasting fuel
- Skilled research Duplicants will kick slow researchers off the Research Station
- Fixed a crash when deleting a Duplicant wearing a suit in Sandbox mode
- Fixed a crash that could occur when a Dupe leaves a rocket
- Fixed a crash when Dupes finish eating
- Fixed a crash if a Duplicant is deleted while greeting another Dupe
- Equipping clothes now has a high priority so Duplicants will actually do it
- Duplicants won't try to equip clothes that another Dupe is trying to deliver somewhere
- Equipping clothing that's in a storage locker no longer leaves a "ghost" clothing in that locker
- Fixeded clothing equip animation not playing
- Unequipping clothing no longer leaves "ghost" clothing on the previous wearer
Buildings
- Transfer the correct amount of coolant in Metal Refineries
- Metal Refinery uses the correct amount of coolant when multiple coolants are present
- Metal Refinery correctly distributes heat across multiple coolants
- Fixed some cases where recipe-based fabricators were getting stalled
- Fixed a crash if a recipe was cancelled on the same frame it was completed
- Using Empty Storage on a fabricator correctly updates the build queue
- Egg Cracker will once again crack Sun Bug eggs
- Liquid Fuel Tank no longer drops fuel when the slider is changed
- Fuel Tank capacity is loaded to the correct value
- Small Sculpture “mediocre” art is now correct
- Pneumatic Doors no longer complain about being "flooded" since it never affected them anyways
- Metal Refinery storage no longer allows liquids to offgass
- Fixed a crash if the Sink runs out of water while a Dupe is washing their hands
- Fixed a crash if a Kiln that was in the middle of work was destroyed
- Door access permissions properly save/load
- Copy Settings properly cancels orders on the Kiln
- Fixed a crash if a building near a Transfer Arm is destroyed
- Fixed a crash if a Suit Checkpoint is destroyed
- Neural Vacillator no longer tries picking up the assignment of the room it's in
- Tile and Drywall overlapping is now disallowed in both construction orders
- Tiles can no longer be built overtop of Gravitas Facility Windows
- Disabled Research Stations with open delivery errands will no longer prevent other fetches from happening (and other similar issues)
Critters
- Pufts should no longer get stuck when trying to poop below a really high ceiling
- Voles no longer get stuck if they can't reach their poop location
- Fixed a crash when a critter dies just as grooming starts
- Critters no longer fall off walls and ceilings when they grow up
UI and Menus
- Food recipes once again show food quality and effects
- Elemental recipe descriptions simplified
- Assignment screens correctly show when a Duplicant is assigned to something else
- Fixed a crash when rapidly clicking a toggle button
- Fixed building material panel remaining open in some cases
- Fixed crash when something assigned to a building is destroyed/removed
- Fixed a crash when destroying a building assigned to "public"
- Fixed some crashes when unequipping suits
- Toilet assignment will correctly update when setting to/from public
- Recipe screen is more generous about unlocking recipes: now shows a recipe if any ingredient has ever been discovered
- Recipe screen shows a message if no recipes have been discovered
- Atmo Suit recipe is unlocked by the associated tech
- Recipe positions should no longer randomly flip in the recipe list
- Fixed crash when clicking the "Insufficient Oxygen" notification
- Fixed crash when hovering over the Errands menu
- Re-ordered and organized many Database entries
- Critters no longer show up in the daily reports
- Fixed crash when selecting materials in Sandbox mode
- Escape Key will now exit screenshot mode. (Use screenshot mode with alt+s!)
- Pedestal menu shows proper icons for elements and ores
- Fixed a crash when selecting a dead Duplicant
- Hovering objects in the world no longer displays weirdly large tooltips when the game language is Chinese
- Door permissions correctly update when Dupes go to space
- Fixed crash when trying to sort Door Access controls by Role
World and Simulation
- The shattered planet once again appears in the background of space
- Fixed a crash when a micro-mass piece of ore gets buried in a tile of the same element
- Conduit and Electrical networks work even if on the very edge of the world
Visuals and Sounds
- Fixed strange dot appearing on Dupe heads
- Made the Dupe's "arm blur" white instead of red in the "woo hoo!" animation
- Atmo Suit helmets no longer disappear when using the Incubator, Cook Station, and many others
- Fixed several cases of incorrect arm/sleeves appearing on Dupes
- Food no longer disappears while binge-eating
- Duplicant names will display properly when they are travelling through tubes, emoting, and other animations
- Pufts return to idle animation after inhaling and pooping instead of freezing
- Plastic Ladder placer art shows fully
- Duplicants use the keypad to operate the Molecular Forge instead of punching it
- Fixed hitch in Slickster animations while moving around
- Fixed building HP bar position for small buildings
Text and Strings
- Fixeded formatting errors in the official Russian and Chinese translations
- Fixed a crash if backspace is pressed in an empty text box when in an IME
- Correct misleading description of the Creativity stat
- Renaming of several Errand types to improve clarity between different kinds of deliveries and their categories
Launcher, Front End, and Systems
- Resolution can now be set even in windowed mode
- Resolution is saved and reapplied correctly when the game is relaunched
- Fixed a crash if you click Shuffle Dupe with both the left and right mouse buttons together
- Fixed crash when opening the Language options screen
- Updated Unity to 2018.7.20f1. This should fix a startup crash related to Citrix Desktop and similar programs that were installed on the same machine
- Updated text rendering library and switched primary body font. Much of the text in the game will look a little different now, please let us know of any strange alignment, spacing, or sizing issues that you notice!
- Unbound the crash key Shift-F6 because it seems to get bumped a lot
- Fixed a crash on some machines caused by too many Jet Suit textures
Performance
- Duplicant pathfinding now runs multithreaded
- Pathfinding and Brain Updates can be run across multiple frames, to prevent large paths from tanking framerate
- Transfer Arms now only process items once per frame, instead of once per Arm
Check the patch notes for the most up-to-date changes!
What is open testing?
"Open 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 upgrade being released on February 19th, 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 open testing build?
Nope! If you'd prefer to only play a stable build, you can continue to play in the current Early Access branch until the QoL Upgrade Mk 2 releases in full on February 19th. 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 an open 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 open testing build?
You can switch your branch on Steam using the instructions below:
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 "qol_2_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
That's it! We hope you'll enjoy this taste of what's to come, and thank-you for your help testing out the new Upgrade!
You can join in the Discussion Topic here.
If you run into a bug, please visit the Klei Bug Tracker.