It’s the first installment in our new series of ongoing updates. Want to know more about why we made the switch to consistent updates instead of making a DLC2? It’s all right here.
If you’re curious about our plans for the next few months, check out our new roadmap.
Story Trait System
This update marks the debut of our new Story Trait system, a collection of interactive POIs buried deep inside the asteroids. You can find them in the Story Options tab on the Choose A Destination screen in-game, and read more about them in the roadmap.
We’re pretty excited about our first two story traits: the Somnium Synthesizer harnesses the power of Duplicants’ subconscious minds by unlocking their ability to dream for the very first time, while the Critter Flux-O-Matic offers a new way to roll the dice on critter morph outcomes.
This system—and this inaugural pair of traits—is designed for both base game and Spaced Out! DLC.
New Room & Building
Duplicants in all versions of the game can now enhance their food with delicious additives! We’ve added a new Kitchen room, which enables the use of the new Spice Grinder.
Spice mixes produced at the grinder can be sprinkled onto certain meals to improve things like shelf life and Duplicant strength. Bon appetit!
Other Cool Things
In Spaced Out!, the Plug Slugs have gotten some tuning changes (including a new refined metal diet), and their species has grown to include two new morphs: the unbreathable-gas-guzzling Smog Slug and the liquid-inhaling Sponge Slug.
Also: Critters in all versions of the game now queue for ranching, the build menu showing room requirement info, and we’ve put an end to the total anarchy of multiple meteor showers sometimes happening all at once.
We’ve added a new Story Trait system with two new story traits, a new Kitchen room and Spice Grinder building, and two new Plug Slug morphs—along with a bunch of other improvements and bug fixes. More info in the patch notes below.
If your mods are breaking or you need a little extra time before switching over, you can opt in to the temporary Previous Update branch. Just keep in mind that it’s unsupported.
Thanks for all of the feedback and suggestions—keep ‘em coming! You can report bugs here.
As we mentioned recently, we’re shifting our focus to releasing ongoing updates instead of a DLC2. You can read more about that here.
A new adventure means a new roadmap—here’s what you can expect from us over the coming months!
Overview
We’ll be releasing free, ongoing updates several times a year. Actual timelines will vary as we settle into a rhythm. Currently, the plan is for them to be seasonal.
You can look forward to fresh new content that’ll keep your Duplicants on their nonexistent toes—like the Story Traits mentioned below—as well as bug fixes and performance and quality of life improvements. There’ll be something for both base game players and Spaced Out! DLC players in every update.
One of the big new additions is the Story Trait system. It’s an interactive POI take on world traits, with unique gameplay challenges that unlock new lore and offer ongoing benefits once completed. They’re designed to build out the ONI universe and create new ways to interact with the existing gameplay loops.
Some of the projects we’re working on for the next few updates include:
Story Traits! The inaugural pair are a gargantuan dream-analyzing machine and a handy critter-mutator. More to come…
Expanded surface gameplay tools and content!
QoL improvement! E.g. Expanded database and a searchable build menu for the base game, and improvements to Spaced Out! rocketry.
New Room types! We’re thinking: Laboratory, Mission Control Room, better bedrooms…
And then?
Bigger things like new starting biomes, richer world gen options, and even new sim systems are on the horizon too, but these take longer to develop, so no short-term promises.
Another long-term goal we’re working on is a cosmetic skins system. Our skins system will be modeled on what’s worked for Don’t Starve Together, so anyone who’s ever played DST will feel right at home. We’re starting with some new decor, buildings, clothing and then we'll gather feedback and see what else you’d like skinned. It may be a little odd to add cosmetic skins to a single-player game, but we’re hoping this’ll let us keep making free content updates for everybody rather than DLC.
Summary
We’re planning to release several free updates per year, starting in October. They’ll include new content, performance and QoL improvements, and bug fixes. A new cosmetic skins system is also in the works for future updates.
Thank you to everyone for your bug reports, feedback and forum posts! We read it all, so keep it coming. We’re so excited to be blasting off in a new direction with such a stellar crew.
…we’ve decided to release ongoing updates instead of a DLC2!
Ever since the Spaced Out! DLC launched in December, we’ve been exploring ideas for the next chapter of Oxygen Not Included. Those conversations started out as discussions about DLC2, but as we kept digging, we realized that a distant DLC2 release just wasn’t the right fit for our long-term goals.
We want ONI to feel like a true universe: infinite and ever-expanding!
And most importantly, accessible to our whole community.
While a second DLC would certainly expand the game, it’d limit our design choices. We’d have to decide which features base game players would have access to—and which ones they’d be left out of.
The more DLCs there are, the harder it gets for us to implement bug fixes and balance changes that are viable for everyone across all versions of the game. That sounds about as appealing as an all-mushbar buffet.
We want you all along for the ride! So we’re shifting our focus to building out a lot of the same content and systems you’d expect from a DLC, and releasing them regularly as free game updates that work for both base game and Spaced Out!
No colony left behind.
What’s next?
We’re working on a roadmap to let you know what to expect as we explore this exciting new chapter of ONI—we’ll post that here as soon as it’s ready.
Summary
We’re expanding the ONI universe through ongoing updates rather than a DLC2! These free, regularly scheduled updates will be designed for both the base game and the Spaced Out! DLC. Roadmap coming soon.
Our heartfelt thanks, as ever, to this incredible community! We’re overjoyed to be able to share our little corner of the cosmos with you.
During Klei Fest, we’ll have a big burst of content, items, events, sales and interesting stuff happening for all things Klei! And this year’s fest is bigger than ever.
Our focus for the past few months has been on improving performance for both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC. We’ve been tweaking, fixing and changing lots of things: not all individually noticeable, but they add up to a faster, smoother gameplay experience. You’ll also be seeing some new faces at the watercooler.
Highlights include:
Ranching gameplay improvements, including gaining Husbandry experience during Critter grooming
Fixed many Critter bugs
Improvements to UI and Critter performance
Significant memory savings on both new and late-game saves
Added four new Duplicants
Added four new Critter morphs
Added new Overjoyed trait: Yodeler
Added new Stressed trait: Banshee
Added new Clothing Refashionator building that upgrades Snazzy Suits into one of 12 extra-Decor-boosting Primo Garb outfits
Steam Deck compatibility verified
Speeding Things Up
We’ve made a significant reduction to the amount of memory that ONI takes up on your system. Plus, frame times have been reduced—great news for very large bases—and the New Game and Load Game screens now open faster.
Basically, computers that have less memory available to run the game will now spend less time stuttering, leaving you free to focus on mopping up Duplicants’ little “accidents.” Win-win.
Smoothing Things Out
We’ve optimized the background behavior of several UI screens, which helps the game run more smoothly even when the UI isn’t open. (This is one of those things you’ll feel rather than see.) Sneezes and snores also perform better!
There’ve been a number of significant improvements to critter performance, too—most notably in the way they find food.
Bug Fixes
Many bugs were squashed in the making of this update. We now have more reliable Critter sensors! Pacus don’t get stuck in mixed-liquid tanks! Flying critters no longer get stuck in liquid! Duplicants won't get trapped in certain spaces anymore: they’re now able to climb down one tile and jump across a gap to escape. …and lots more!
New Content
Joining base game and Spaced Out! colonies today are four new Duplicants—the first newcomers since the base game launch. They come with one fun new Overjoyed behavior, and one uh, slightly shrieky Stressed behavior.
You’ll also find four new Critter morphs, like a Cuddle Pip whose affectionate hugs boost egg incubation rates and soothe stressed-out Duplicants.
The new Clothing Refashionator building upgrades Snazzy Suits into flashy new Primo Garb outfits—including the pink unitard of Ellie’s dreams.
Summary
A ton of behind-the-scenes improvements mean faster, smoother gaming for everyone. Plus, a new building, new Duplicants, new Critter morphs, snazzier suits and of course, countless bug fixes, tuning, polishing and more!
Huge thanks to everyone who helped us fine-tune things during the testing period. You can post feedback here, or report bugs and other suspiciously strange happenings here.
If your mods are breaking or you need a little extra time before switching over, you can opt in to the temporary Previous Update branch.
We hope you have as much fun with this update as we did!
Hot Lava: Say hello to two new characters:
T. Rex and Venomess - two rocking reptilian members of Mutant Mayhem! A brand new Klei Created map, Rocco’s Arcade is a hotbed of hopping set in a retro-arcade pizza place. Of course with a new map and characters we have two new courses, and plenty of new collectables and accessories!
We have teamed up will a couple of great game studios to publish two new games coming in 2023!
Check them out and don't forget to wishlist them on Steam and show them some love!
Lab Rat
Chump Squad, the developer of Kine brings us Lab Rat. In this satirical adventure a metrics-obsessed AI will monitor, profile, and entertain you as you progress through over a hundred genre-bending puzzles..
Lab Rat even has a demo available now! More details on this game will come in future announcements.
Our friends at Sparkypants bring us Mind Over Magic. Design, build and manage your magic school to explore what lies below. Study lost arcana, grow exotic plants, brew potions, and raise undead servants -- only you can prepare your fragile students to harness their Mind Over Magic.
More details on this game will come in future announcements.
Last year we introduced Klei Fest to take place during our annual Klei Publisher sale. During Klei Fest, we will have a burst of content, items, events, sales, and interesting things happening for all things Klei!
Hot Lava:
Say hello to two new characters: T. Rex and Venomess - two rocking reptilian members of Mutant Mayhem! A brand new Klei Created map, Rocco’s Arcade is a hotbed of hopping set in a retro-arcade pizza place. Of course with a new map and characters we have two new courses, and plenty of new collectables and accessories!
Oxygen Not Included:
Our new content pack called "Fast Friends" includes some big performance boosts in both the base game and Spaced Out! DLC. We also have four new Duplicants, four new critter morphs and a dozen brand new Duplicant outfits craftable at the Clothing Refashionator building.
Don't Starve Together:
The enigmatic Corvus Goodfeather returns with a bunch of new prizes and three new games during the Midsummer Cawnival!
New Twitch Drop Campaign:
We will begin a new twitch Drop Campaign for the Rusty Anchor starting June 2nd.
And more!!
We will also have some big announcements that you definitely don't want to miss, a few in fact.
This is a small hotfix to address some issues with the build menu changes introduced in the recent update, including poor performance when selecting a building and the menu resizing when clicking the Copy Building tool.
We also made some modding changes to better support adding buildings to the game. This may restore functionality to some mods which were adding buildings in an unorthodox way. Lastly we have an announcement to make regarding mod support, see our post here.
Changes and Improvements
All versions
Updated Chinese localizations.
Spaced Out! only
Fabricators which have recipes with seeds as ingredients now include a toggle to forbid the user of Mutant Seeds.
Fixes
All versions
Fixed issue causing build menu building buttons to be improperly sized after activating the “Copy Building” tool.
Fixed issue causing tools drag area tools such as ‘Dig’ to get stuck in drag mode after releasing their button.
Fixed issue preventing gamepads from controlling the Skill Screen camera.
Fixed issue causing performance hitch when selecting a building from the build menu.
Fixed an issue that was causing modded Duplicant personalities to not show up as initial Duplicant choices.
Modding
ModUtil.AddBuildingToPlanScreen now supports adding buildings before or after another building ID.
Some functionality was added to attempt to detect modded buildings added incorrectly and add them through ModUtil.AddBuildingToPlanScreen.
Marked Obsolete
PlanInfo.data – Use ModUtil.AddBuildingToPlanScreen
Personality constructor - without isStartingMinion
ModUtil.AddBuildingToHotkeyBuildMenu – BuildMenu class is not used
We’ve been thinking about ways to create a smoother update experience for players who use mods. We make an effort to avoid breaking mods if possible, but we also need to be able to improve our code and add new features.
In future updates, we’ll be creating a “previous update” branch that offers a grace period for mod developers to update their mods without disrupting gameplay.
There are a few caveats—see below.
For players: “Previous update” branch
Each time we ship a major update, we’ll make the previous update available on a Steam branch. This branch will be available for a limited period of time after the update’s launch and will be removed when a new “previous update” branch is created.
Players can opt in to the “previous update” branch to continue playing while mod developers update their mods, finish the current playthrough, and/or use this extra transition time to prepare their save file for the new gameplay challenges.
Caveats:
Opting in to the “previous update” branch means opting out of all new features, fixes and content contained in the update.
If a mod developer has updated their mod to match the live branch (aka current update) and has not created an archived_versions folder, the mod will be broken in the “previous update” branch. See below for information about archived_versions.
This branch is unsupported. Please do not report bugs or issues related to this branch.
This branch is temporary.
Does this affect the Public Testing branch?
No. The Public Testing branch will still be updated with work-in-progress changes prior to an updates release.
When is this happening?
When we ship our Klei Fest update (tentatively scheduled for sometime in May or June), we’ll open a “previous update” branch to temporarily preserve the content from our February update.
For mod developers: “archived_versions”
We introduced mod support for “archived_versions” a while back. This makes it possible to publish two or more mod versions in the same distribution—the game will dynamically load the correct one.
Archived_versions are intended to allow mod developers to update their mods on one branch without breaking them on another. When an update goes live for everyone, it seamlessly transitions to using the updated version.
Best practice: When updating a mod to support the live branch, we recommend that you include an archived version for the “previous update” branch so that anyone playing on that branch can continue using your mod.
For mod developers: “Obsolete” attribute and modding API
When we preserve old code to maintain mod support, we’ll mark it using the “Obsolete” attribute. This indicates that this code may be removed in a future update. You should see warnings when compiling your mod.
It recently came to light that building mods were not using ModUtil.AddBuildingToPlanScreen because it lacked the ability to insert it before or after a specific building. We added that functionality in a recent hotfix.
While we can’t promise to expand our modding API with every request, we encourage you to let us know in this thread if you feel that something is missing.
Summary
Opting in to the “previous update” branch allows players to continue their games short-term, and our existing archived_versions system allows mod developers to maintain mod compatibility across both the “previous update” and live branches.
There’s a chance we’ll need to make adjustments to this new strategy as things develop, but we’ll make sure to loop you in on any changes.
We hope this will help make future updates easier to navigate for everyone!