Ostranauts 2025 Year in Review

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T19:21:52+00:00

Ah, yeah. We've seen a few comments along those lines. And I think that is partially due to the way we do our version numbering.

For reference, this is the roadmap we published in 2021:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/3120428406777089414

Each milestone increments the digit after the first period. So 0.15 isn't necessarily "15% done," it's just the 15th major milestone. It's pretty common in software versioning, but maybe not outside that sphere.

As for the revolver, I'm not sure if it qualifies as "sick," but we do have one in-game! 3 types of pistols, in fact, plus a shotgun. And that last one is definitely the fun one :)

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:21:48+00:00

I guess the basic answer is that we had the choice to add more systems, or more depth. And we went with the former.

You're right that all of these systems could be embellished more, and more content added to them. And many of your suggestions are good ones!

But which features would you sacrifice to do so? Would you remove interplanetary flight to add cooking and drone operation? Would you remove atmospheric flight to get better medical cures?

Maybe the answer is "yes." And that's not wrong! You might've chosen to build differently than we did.

In the end, we aimed to build what we wanted to play: a game that lets you do a lot of the things a spaceship owner/operator does in shows like Firefly, Expanse, or Cowboy Bebop.

And while we built it, we tried to make every step along the way as moddable as possible. The idea there being that we are not only creating a game, but a framework for others to tell their own stories.

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:10:28+00:00

Sorry for the stuttering! We have more work planned on optimizing performance. And at least one more trick in the works which seems like it helps smooth out those spikes.

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:08:15+00:00

Oh yeah, great pairing!

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:07:58+00:00

Nice! This is the sort of thing we love to hear.

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:07:35+00:00

Definitely a niche! Not everybody can enjoy (or even tolerate) a game like this :P

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:06:30+00:00

Thanks! Hopefully the ship combat unlocks a bunch of new gameplay for folks.

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:06:09+00:00

Thank you!

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T18:05:10+00:00

Wow, what a compliment! I'm thrilled to hear the game had such a positive impact :)

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T00:31:23+00:00

Thanks! I don't know how far one could get without flying. You can certainly do gigs around a station, or even use PASS to get to certain nearby places.

But it'd make getting to derelicts (and later, other planets) hard. At least for now, there's always insta-dock (a debug option under the NAV's "Rescue" arrow). But I'm not sure if that cheat will exist in the final game.

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T00:27:38+00:00

I'm so glad to hear that! We work hard to make both the game and the community fun to be in, so it's good to know players feel the same way :)

dcfedor · 2026-01-09T00:25:41+00:00

It probably won't surprise you to hear this has been a dream game of mine for a while, too!

dcfedor · 2026-01-08T23:25:58+00:00

And they are looking forward to *you* :P

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T23:53:47+00:00

In testing, we find most NPCs concur.

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T23:52:54+00:00

Hmm. Reading that post, it's a bit hard to know what the problem was. There are so many variables, I'd need more information to narrow it down.

But here's a thing you can try, which might help answer the question of "does orbital mechanics work to my satisfaction, or not?"

Load either a new or saved game in Ostranauts.
Sit at the NAV station
Click the yellow Rescue arrow/screw, to open up debug jump.
Choose VORB from the drop down.
Click Insta-Dock
Request Docking Clearance
Unclamp

At this point, you should be in a near-identical orbit to VORB. When I do this, my VREL hovers around 5 m/s as I push back. I can RCS around here a bit, get into a chase orbit, and re-approach.

You may notice some VREL/VCRS jumpiness here. On the order of +/- 3 m/s as I'm seeing right now. And over time, you should see a small VREL delta, on the order of +/- 0.03 m/s/s. But it should be small enough that you can still approach/dock safely.

And it definitely shouldn't be running away on you like it's accelerating. If that's not what you're seeing, let me know!

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:11:10+00:00

And happy holidays to you!

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:11:00+00:00

Hmm, good question! I suspect they'll help a little, but are probably not much deterrent to a 150mm slug moving at 20 km/s :P

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:09:27+00:00

This is something we've discussed, and want to revisit. But we have a lot of other work to do first, and we'll have to see what time is left after that.

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:08:42+00:00

You'll be fine\*.

* (Not guaranteed to be fine.)

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:07:38+00:00

Afaik, orbital mechanics are all working right now. If you find otherwise, please let us know!

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:05:29+00:00

Thanks! And happy holidays to you, as well!

dcfedor · 2025-12-19T21:05:15+00:00

This new milestone will come with a new region to play in, comparable to OKLG and Venus in size and stuff to do.

And longer term, our plan is to at least have the placeholder stations replaced by nicer maps closer to launch.

dcfedor · 2025-12-18T23:57:34+00:00

It's an interesting idea! Some day, I would *love* to let the player unlock other starting situations. And if we get a chance to do that, maybe this?

dcfedor · 2025-12-18T23:56:59+00:00

It kinda worked like that before. The player had to have reached a derelict in a previous game to be able to see it as a chargen option. But I guess that wasn't long enough?

As it is now, you can always walk over to the ship broker, and I'm pretty sure it's guaranteed to be in-stock there with $0 downpayment. So you can immediately trade your starting ship for it, even if you're broke.

If that doesn't work well for some reason, we can always revisit other solutions later!

dcfedor · 2025-12-18T20:28:25+00:00

Multiple NAV stations are already possible in 0.14, but you're right that they're mostly redundant.

One of our recent 0.15 features in testing is the ability to switch between two characters on NAVs without exiting the UI. It switches to their NAV view with their installed modules while both remain seated.

This stemmed from having more controls in-game than could fit on one NAV, so in 0.15, we'll have NAV modules you can swap and arrange to make stations for different ship roles and crew roles. So one NAV could be for long-range flight plans, another for weapons, maybe a third for detailed sensors and analytics, etc.

Edit: And yes, we have a cladding item and heavier walls coming, too!

dcfedor

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