Ostranauts PASS and Gigs Rebalance

Update v0.15.1.20 — titled PASS and Gigs Rebalance, More Improvements to AI and Others — is a post-launch feature patch on the Across the System milestone. It does not add a new combat layer; it closes an exploit loop, retunes early-game money timing, and ships another dense AI and NAV polish batch. Captains who still treat PASS as a free courier teleport need this page.

Official messaging from Blue Bottle Games emphasizes ferry clock advance, gig duration retunes, delivery verification on interplanetary couriers, roster QoL, and fixes ranging from tutorial undock pushback to “creeping laziness” on save/load. Saves from v0.15.0.0+ remain the compatibility floor.

Headline gameplay changes

• PASS ferries advance the calendar for the full trip duration — every voyage costs real shift time.
• PASS and gig durations rebalanced so slow ferry spam is rarely the optimal courier tool.
• Interplanetary courier gigs require item delivery before pay — no more empty-hand completions.
• Multi-crew ferry alerts when another crew member’s ferry arrives while you control someone else.
• OKLG undock pushback on new games more reliably exits the south side, reducing rare tutorial asteroid deaths from a rounding bug (~1 in 100–150 undocks).

Read the player-facing workflows on PASS Ferry and Gigs and Gig Nexus.

AI and roster improvements

The patch continues the post–Fire in the Hold AI investment:

• AI attempts to replace empty O2 bottles in worn EVA suits (mirroring battery replacement).
• Helmets prefer the EVA/pressure suit clip point when removed for comfort.
• Battery replacement edge cases no longer destroy cells on failed inserts; unworn EVA without a battery no longer freezes AI decision loops.
• ROSTER helmet toggle setting now persists across saves; current hour is underlined in the roster UI.
• Social status tooltips explain how to improve red social bars.
• NPCs gain slightly more leisure choice leeway, may approach captains on FREE shift, and are blocked from using tackle as a social opener.
• Pathfinding no longer fails merely because a route touches a forbidden zone meant for someone else — relevant to Zones and Hauling.

Creeping laziness syndrome

A save/load bug gradually raised tolerance to achievement, esteem, and meaning distress until crew stopped acting on those moods. Fixed going forward; affected characters are corrected when loaded. If your long-running hires felt emotionally numb, reload once on this patch and reassess duties.

NAV, autopilot, and torch flight

• Course plotting arrow buttons again offset arrival points — useful to stop hundreds of kilometers “west” of a target and avoid plotting through debris.
• Autopilot less likely to cancel after super fast-forward transitions at 16x/8x that underflowed reactor FLOW and killed burns.
• AI pilots no longer torch at ludicrous unconstrained acceleration; station docking while the player is berthed is more reliable.

Practice offsets with How to Fly and Dock and nav console notes.

Law, salvage, and social edge cases

• Mooring to a derelict without a permit now counts as illegal salvage — keep Ayotimiwa paperwork current via How to Salvage.
• Autopause during conversations is more reliable; NPCs wait more often while you talk.
• Cloud sync no longer double-attempts per save; >100MB cloud saves warn that Steam Cloud will refuse them.

What captains should retest

1. Book one short PASS hop and confirm the clock moved — update mental models from Early Access teleport habits.
2. Run two concurrent station gigs and verify both complete and pay.
3. Spot-check EVA bottle and battery autonomy on one hire.
4. Plot a long-range course with arrival offset arrows before the next torch burn.
5. Skim Version 1.0 Launch if you still need the bigger release context.

How this fits the wiki

• Updates Hub — milestone index
• Fire in the Hold — combat and Ceres foundation
• Review — 1.0 reception
• Guides Hub — PASS, gigs, zones, combat walkthroughs

Official raw notes remain on the Steam news feed for AppID 1022980. This page translates them into captain checklists: retime ferry plans, trust multi-gig boards again, and stop designing courier routes around instantaneous PASS hops.