[Game Update] - 573946

Update Information:

Hello friends!

It's public testing time for our October 2023 Quality of Life update! 

In this minor update, we're fixing bugs, making UX improvements, adding new buildings, introducing a free recycling system for cosmetic skins, and more. These updates are for both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC. 

Some highlights: we've added a new Light Sensor building that detects ambient brightness levels, a search bar for the storage filter side screen, and in Spaced Out! there's a new Critter Cargo Bay rocket module that allows Duplicants to transport live specimens through space. 

Other changes include reevaluating which buildings are defined as Industrial Machinery, adding a few automation ports, and making it possible to move critters using the Move To tool, as well as wrangle Moos, Pufts, Slicksters and Shine Bugs. 

We've also been working on adding a recycling system in the Supply Closet that lets you recycle your cosmetic skins into spools of Filament that can be used to print other skins. It's a work in progress, so let us know what you think.

We use your helpful bug reports and feedback to polish things up so that they're in tip-top shape for the full update release. Post here to help us out! 

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

Features

• All versions
  • Added a Light Sensor building that detects the ambient light level.
  • Currently-owned Blueprints can be recycled in the Supply Closet to gain Filament. Filament can be used to produce other Blueprints.
• Spaced Out! only
  • Added a Critter Cargo Bay rocket module.

Changes and Improvements

• All versions
  • Added search bar to storage filter sidescreen.
  • Renamed a number of elements’ solid, liquid, or gas states for clarity.
  • Added sound and some animation fx to the Sandbox tools.
  • Critters
    • Moos, Pufts, Slicksters, and Shine Bugs can now be wrangled. Their idle behavior has been adjusted to make this possible.
    • Pufts and Slicksters will now consume more of their respective gasses as they get hungrier. 
    • Critters can be moved using the Move To tool: it causes a wrangle errand to be started. All critters except Beeta and Morbs are movable.
  • Added/removed buildings from the Industrial Machinery category:
    • Removed: Conveyor Loader, Crafting Station, Clothing Refashionator, and Textile Loom.
    • Added: Rock Crusher, Metal Refinery, Steam Turbine, High Pressure Gas Vent, Robo-Miner, Power Control Station, Blastshot Maker, and Meteor Blaster.
  • Orders to plant a seed can now be placed as long as there is a reachable seed in the world. They will no longer be dependent on whether or not the seed is needed by a building.
  • Added tile artwork for Plastic and Solid Ethanol.
  • Added Liquefiable filter to the Materials overlay.
  • Abyssalite, Diamond, and Sulfur are now visible on the Materials overlay.
  • Added automation port to the Plant Pulverizer.
  • Added Sweepy emote animation for Critter Fountain.
  • Added status items to various stations to display what they are producing, researching, cooking, etc.
  • Database
    • Added critter Field Guide
    • Modified Element database entries to show more information about element transitions caused by temperature.
    • Improved building database entries to mention construction time and required materials.
  • The Supply Closet now shows a warning icon when it is not able to reach the Klei server. 
• Spaced Out! only
  • Added automation port to Manual Radbolt Generator.
  • Interplanetary Payload Launchers will now accept radbolts even while their sky visibility is blocked.
  • The Exuberant mutation for Gas Grass has been added back to the game.
  • Added buildings to the Industrial Machinery category:
    • Interplanetary Launcher, Diamond Press, and Sludge Press.
  • Copy Settings now also copies a Fish Feeder’s mutant seed settings.
  • Corium, Diamond and Solid Nuclear Waste are now visible on the Materials overlay.

Fixes

• All versions
  • The Pitcher Pump no longer deletes liquid when a pumping task is interrupted.
  • Fixed critters and ranchers getting stuck when a critter leaves the Grooming Station.
  • Fixed Outhouses sometimes being permanently out of order until reloading the game.
  • Updated Meteor Blaster description to indicate that blown-up meteors now drop resources.
  • Gassy Moos should now play the correct animation after finishing drinking from a Critter Fountain.
  • When placing a Bleach Stone Hopper, it no longer switches to the Plumbing overlay.
  • Under-construction critter traps now indicate where the logic port will be when built.
  • Critter Sensor now loops the critter paw animation.
  • Fixed bug which allowed Spice Grinders to work outside of kitchens.
  • The hover tooltip will now be shown for tiles at the right and top edges of the world. 
  • Fixed invalid temperature transfers occurring on the right edge of the world.
  • Fixed Duplicant CO2 exhalations traveling further than intended in vacuum and passing through solid tiles.
  • Fixed Sweepy not delivering small amounts of materials to the Sweepy Dock.
  • Fixed an issue where Shove Voles and Grugbrubs would render in front of traps when captured.
  • Added status item for Sticker Bombers.
  • Fixed missing Duplicant helmets when using the Milking Station.
  • Rotated buildings now handle rotating the decor correctly.
  • Ores marked for move can no longer merge with similar ores on the same tile.
  • Fixed a crash when moving reserved ores.
  • Fixed Confined critter tooltip not mentioning that this effect stops reproduction.
  • Fixed a crash with critter traps when a critter dies while it's being captured.
  • Fixed typo that said that Oxygen Masks must be refilled at an Atmo Suit Dock.
  • Corrected color errors in basic shoe and glove Blueprints.
  • Fixed Decor overlay showing non-player-facing names for artifacts. 
  • Made Solid Ethanol liquefiable and allowed Tempshift Plates to be built from it.
  • Changed conduit content temperature sensor strings to correctly indicate measuring of their contents instead of surrounding atmosphere.
• Base game only
  • Removed mutant seed status item on the Spice Grinder and hover card.
• Spaced Out! only
  • Fixed issue where radbolts traveling in vacuum would sometimes cause huge amounts of radiation.
  • Fixed Spice Grinder hover card not displaying mutant seed acceptance on load.
  • Fixed a bug where icons that appear over plants when you select the Harvest tool would also appear in the black zone at the edge of a map if other plants were in an adjacent asteroid.
  • Fixed a crash when launching a rocket into the Temporal Tear if the selected world is the rocket interior.
  • Fixed Interplanetary Payload contents being deleted in some scenarios.
  • Fixed Interplanetary Payload Launcher not firing when minimum launch mass is changed to be less than the currently stored mass.
  • Fixed issue causing critters to receive the incorrect number of kcal when eating plants with certain mutations.
  • Fixed a rocket-related crash when loading some saves.
  • Fixed the hat hair disappearing issue of the Duplicant’s side view, exported for the Party Line Phone.
  • Fixed a memory leak in Experiment 52B.
  • Fixed a bug where oxygen bars were rendering even after the Oxygen Mask was unequipped, whenever the active world was changed.
  • Sponge Slug and Smog Slugs no longer allow stored Polluted Water to off-gas.

Modding

• Updated Harmony from 2.0.5 to 2.2.2. It still targets .NET Framework 4.7.1 and existing mods do not need to be recompiled to support it.
• Fixed modded elements having incorrect nameTag.
• Changed event strings from NOT DISABLED to NEWLY ENABLED and NOT ENABLED to NEWLY DISABLED.
• Fixed file handles for zip files not being properly released when installing or updating mods.

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: