itch.io

As stated on the dev log here and the announcements channel on Discord: The next update will be the Steam release in January. The update will also be available here, but initially only the download version and paid-only.

While I'm not entirely against the idea of a simple notepad in the game, it's very low priority, and honestly unlikely to actually happen. In particular, if I did add it, it likely wouldn't be enabled on the browser version, since browsers have very strict size limits on how much data you're allowed to store in them.

There are 4 fuel capsules in the service bays at the Santorini quarry.

Thanks, fixed for vNext!

This is deliberate. Originally, the timer for the dam closing was removed as soon as you got the codes to close it whenever you want (since there's no longer a need to time your arrival at the dam). However, it was pointed out that since you don't get the time limit for Santorini exploding until you've seen it explode twice, it'd be nice to keep the dam timer until you get the Santorini timer. Once you have the Santorini timer, there's no use for the dam closing timer anymore. The dam opening timer remains, since that can still affect you (if you're part way across the dam when it reopens).

In principle, yes, until you consider that the log for witnessing the explosion is already one of the top 3 most complex logs in the entire game (alongside the rover out of power and drinking the first water bottle logs). There are I think ~16 different variants for witnessing it from different locations/distances, while travelling in different ways, and if/how many times you've witnessed/died to it before.

The actual of adding a new log for witnessing it from one side or the other, and tracking that with a flag would be incredibly simple. Making sure that none of the existing logs get shown when one of the new ones does, and that neither of the new ones overlaps with any of the old ones will be a significant task.

You're right, but it's not going to be an easy fix. The game tracks if you've witnessed the explosion (without being caught in it), but not where you were when you saw it. I'll see what I can do for the Strabo update though.

That save string is 6169 characters long. All Base64-encoded strings have to be a multiple of 4 characters long, so the closest it should be is either 6168 or 6172 characters. I tried writing a quick test which runs through the entire string, removing each character and testing if that makes it valid, but no luck there. So either you accidentally deleted/didn't copy 3 or more characters, or at least 5 characters were accidentally added.

FWIW, the discord link is set to never expire, and still works for me. I have had people have issues with it before though. I believe if you open discord, click the + button at the bottom of the server list, then "Join a Server" at the bottom and paste the link it, then it should work. Among other things, the discord has a save bank. It doesn't cover everything, but if you don't have any other saves backed up, it should get you close to where you were.

Odd, I've not heard of anyone having that issue before. If you post the save on the Discord server then I can take a look at it.

Yes, the steam version will have achievements and cloud saves.

Interactions which refer to the PDA have different text for if you don't have it. There are also minor gameplay differences, such as being unable to perform certain actions, or see certain information if you don't have the PDA. It's nothing major (for now) but not taking the PDA is basically planned to be a form of optional challenge run.

Correct - all travel actions reset if you travel. There is a UI bug where combined actions containing travel actions don't show that reset until you start progressing then though. I'll be aiming to fix it in v0.5, since I need to do other work on combined actions.

Nope, download and web are identical for now. Glad you enjoyed the game so far :)

Really glad you enjoyed the game!

While I have played (and loved) Outer Wilds, the similar timing is very much a coincidence. In fact, when Santorini was first added, I believe it was closer to 25 minutes, but it got brought forward for balance reasons.

The contrast of the red test was brought up before, and I did adjust it. Though it has just occurred to me that there are at least two bits of text which can be coloured red, and only one of them may have been adjusted. So I'll check on the other one.

If you follow the game on Itch, I always post an announcement with major content patches, so you should get notified of those.

The quick filter not being installable in Astrape is intended. It specifies that you have to be able to "get at the internals of the recycler" to install the quick filter. This means you can only install it on mobile recyclers (the ones found at Laurion or Santorini which can be loaded on the rover), and not on recyclers which are built into a facility.

The coordinates you go to near the tunnel are a one -time visit to check out what was there. You learned some info which will be useful in future content, which you can review in the Notes section of your PDA. Once you've been there, the only reason to return to the tunnel is to get the power cells from the rover.

The expected price for the steam version will be £5.

Yes, you are correct - there are two bugs here. One which stops the disabled effect from resetting when you loop, and another which stops it from being kept when you reload. Both have been fixed for vNext. Thanks for the report! 😃

I might look into it at some point, but it won't be a priority. And if I do make an android version, it'll likely only be available from Itch still, as I don't want to have to pay more fees to put it on the app store.

I do plan to, yes. I only didn't include it in the initial demo because it was a lot more complex than I expected to set everything up for steam. Limiting it to 1 platform simplified things, but now that I know roughly what I'm doing, I should be able to add the Linux version relatively easily.

The difficulty is that every site uses different formatting, and it takes a long time to manually convert large patch notes from one site to another.

For now though, I've also been posting the full notes on the Steam forums, since I can't seem to send out Steam announcements for the demo. Once the early access version releases in January, I'll swap to use announcements.

Steam Patch Notes

It specifically says "I could bring tools from Laurion, but it'd take far too long to dig through". The point being that you can't dig through with what's currently available to you.

There's literally nothing there. The energy wave vaporises matter, so nothing can survive.

Also, to get into the crater, you'd need to climb down a 30-40+ metre sheer cliff, then walk the remaining distance to Santorini to reach the centre. Even if you had climbing gear to get down in the first place, you'd run out of resources long before you got there. I'll tweak the wording of the logs to make that more clear in vNext.

That's known and fixed in the next patch (should be releasing later today). Thanks for the report though :)

Since v0.4.5 (released a week ago), it does.

That's planned to be an optional setting for those who want to make the game easier, as many people feel it'd spoil some of the feel of the game.

You were part way across the river, not part way across the dam.

That's fixed for the next patch (likely releasing in a few days, since I think all urgent issues are fixed)

When you collect the Astrape artifact, there's a popup telling you that you reached the end of current content. There may be other little things you can find, but it sounds like you already got it all.

Mmm, you're definitely correct about why it showed more time than you had. It's not easy to tell whether on cooldown items should be counted. If they always weren't, the time would bounce up/down each time you consume something. I suppose if every items cool down is longer than the non-inventory time left, then they can all be ignored at least...

I don't think that'll be necessary, thanks. I'll just need to reapply the migration that should've happened before, but only if it hasn't already been done.

The game is supposed to migrate things like that (including the recyclers - it's complicated, but stuff with them changed in the background), but it seems there may have been an issue with some of the migration from 0.4.1 to 0.4.5. I've put a fix into the next update (v0.4.5.11, should be coming out tomorrow) which should sort the recycler issue. I'll need to look into the Take Food/Water problem.

Ooo, definitely like those two suggestions. I'll add them to the list.

I definitely didn't change anything with the X's specifically... Though I did fix a bug where Display settings (such as UI Scale) weren't being applied properly. So the game might now be rendering slightly smaller than it used to. You can change the UI Scale or disable it entirely in the options.

Yeah, that was just noticed today. I hadn't seen it as I never usually set things to Do Not Use. It was a bit late to make it into the next update, but I'll make sure it's fixed in .12. Thanks for the report!

If you go to PDA > Menu > Save Game > Export then you can get the save string. The on the new device you go to Load Game > Import and paste the string to load it.

You're only able to cross the river while the dam is closed. It only stays closed for 2 minutes after the timer ends. So if you get there more than 2 minutes late, you won't be able to cross.

Depending how long ago you last played, the early game may have already changed. It's never been possible to go straight for the facility on the first loop, so you must have not had enough supplies. That being said, early versions were much harsher on how well you had to play in order to survive. At this point, it's relatively difficult to die on loop 1 unless you make a lot of bad decisions. Also, if you do die on the first loop, there is nothing more to it. Without the first artifact, you are just dead and have to load/start again. I guess I could tell players that "if you got a bit further, you'd have unlocked this new feature", but that feels unecessary and spoilery.

The topic of automation has come up many times, and has been discussed in many directions. Most of my thoughts on the matter are on the Trello Roadmap. Short version is that if I do add automation, it'll likely be along the lines of what you described. But the people who want automation are in the minority, so it's not a high priority feature for now.

Fast forwarding the queue also occasionally gets requested, and that's just not going to happen. At least, not in the form of a "go faster button". It'd mess with the pacing of the game, frequency of messages etc. That being said, I am constantly working on ways of reducing the frustration of that aspect of the game with features like Combined Actions and Time Dilation which make it run faster without upsetting the balance or pacing of the game. In the next major update, I plan to introduce a new form of time dilation which is applied to all long actions (including long combined actions), effectively giving you auto speedup on the long journies and heavily repeated sections like Talos.

Similar actions have to manually setup by me. So as a general rule, yes, I tend to make actions for taking identical items be similar, so long as the method for taking them is also the same. E.g. Take Protein Bar should be similar everywhere, but Take Water Bottle and Fill Water Bottle are not.

The 1.2x multiplier of combined actions does stack, for as many times as they are nested.

No, that's more of a convenient side effect. Similar actions were built so that similar actions can share partial familiarity. Like going in/out of a facility that's unpowered, so you have to manually crank the airlock.

The button which typically says either "Auto Paused" or "Running" is a visible pause button. But since it has 3 states, it shows the current state rather than its purpose. I won't put controls in the description, as that won't help people playing on Steam once it releases there, but I will add a (P) suffix to the button to indicate the hotkey, and consider adding a tooltip to give a more detailed description of it.

Just like the derelict rover, the option to go to the mining wing is removed once you've done everything there. But that includes going back once after completing it and looping, to see what (if anything) has changed.

It's not exactly intentional, but it is expected. The only reason to unload the generator is to load something else instead, so I never really expected players to change their mind and want to load it back on again.

That being said, recent improvements have made it much easier for me to add actions like this. Previously, I'd have to make a Load and and Unload action for each location you can unload it at. Now I can just make one action, and it'll use that same action for every location. So I will be adding this soon. Possibly not next update, since it'll be out very soon, but definitely the one after.

First, you need power in Laurion, so you have to bring the generator from Talos, not install it in the rover so that you can install it in Laurion. Once Laurion has power, you have to bring the rover inside and connect the charging cable.