Debuff and Intruder Relief, Plus Other Fixes

Update v0.15.0.29 is now available on Steam, and your clients should be updating shortly.

This is a hotfix update to our "Fire in the Hold" update, which fixes several character status issues, NPC behaviors, and other issues.

Saves from v0.15.0.0 and later should work. Note that if you were experiencing issues in the older save, this patch may fix some, but others may persist depending on the cause.

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• Characters with stuck status and movement/work penalties should be back to normal again.

• Stat bars should show correct values when character is in extreme statuses.

• Hunger bar now shows both satiety and nutrition status.

• NPCs and officers should no longer use the player's apartment as a crash-pad when their ships run low on fuel.

• NPCs and officers currently in player's apartment should leave now.

• Laying or removing large swathes of conduit should perform better now.

• Super FFWD now drains and recharges batteries appropriately.

• Using Super Fast Fwd while a pirate is on board will no longer cause the ship to disappear from under the player.

• NPC ships attempting to dock with off-screen stations should no longer rip all limbs off of their crew.

• Eating prepared foods from carts should be more nourishing now.

• Docking with BCRS residences should work properly now.

• BCRS transit should reach all residences now.

• Officers should no longer fine the player for docking to their own ships.

• Officers should now recognize when a docked player has open docking ports available.

• Officers should no longer fine players if the player docks to a station before officer reaches them.

• Steam Cloud saves should now work if user's save directory has been changed.

• Gas puff visual effects and sounds should be visible/audible again.

• Index out of range error fixed when loading some save games.

• A null which prevented (un)docking with OKLG has been fixed.

• A null which prevented loading saves where a ship was docked to a secondary port has been fixed.

• Ceiling lights should now work correctly, and be installable normally.

• Ceiling lights and alternate door types are now available in Ceres furnishing kiosks.

• Opening inventory on items should happen faster now.

• Some new debug overlay features.

• Several improvements to noun/verb agreement in UI and logs.

One of the bigger changes in this build fixes a subtle, but insidious issue. Players and NPCs alike would sometimes gain double status effects, like simultaneously being sleep-deprived and well-rested. The stat bar would show well-rested, but the penalties for lack of sleep would still be there.

And in some cases, this could lead to surprise death, or movement/work penalties that never went away.

Thanks to players providing a save where we could watch this situation happen in real time, we were able to fix the cause! All characters should once again have a single status effect for each category, and loading old saves will attempt to repair stuck statuses and penalties.

Another major fix (or group of fixes) in this build involved NPC behaviors, and in particular, officers. We've long had reports of NPCs collecting on player residences, seemingly out of nowhere. And again, thanks to a player save right before it happens, we were able to find out why, and fix it. (AI pilot logic was using the nearest station dock when running low on fuel, and that often was the player's residence.)

NPCs will no longer come to the player residences, and those who are there now should leave shortly after loading your save.

Also, we were able to fix a number of officer behaviors in choosing when to target the player for questioning and fines.

Our unpowered conduit overlay feature was causing some slowdowns when placing large runs of conduit, and this should be fixed now.

Super Fast Forward (SFFWD) also now correctly charges and discharges batteries for the amount of time passed. And using SFFWD shouldn't rip the player's ship out from under them when a pirate is aboard.

Speaking of ripping, some poor NPCs were getting everything (including their limbs) ripped from them when an off-screen ship attempted to dock, resulting in limbless people roaming around, spilling their thoughts on the ground. This bug has mercifully been fixed (though any affected NPCs in saves may still be broken).

Players who tried relocating their save directory were having trouble with Steam Cloud seeing it, and thanks to a bug report, we were able to address this. Plus a number of other fixes for user reported issues.

As always, there's plenty more for us to fix, change, and add! And we'll be continuing in roughly that order. In the meantime, let us know if this patch helps you out, as well as if it reveals new problems!

Best,

Daniel Fedor

Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC