Spring update now available in the Unstable beta

Hello everyone!

The first Barotrauma update of the year is getting closer, and you can now take a look at the update contents yourself: the Unstable beta can be accessed easily by anyone who owns Barotrauma, and in the beta you can already play all of the upcoming changes. We’d be happy to get feedback from you now that we are still testing and fixing the new features and content!

The most notable new feature of the update is the Reserve bench. It allows you to hire bots into reserve instead of active duty. The bots in reserve will not spawn until you move them to active duty in the outpost HR manager interface. Bots in reserve can also be taken over by players who die and lose their previous character in Permadeath mode. Originally, the reserve bench was planned to launch alongside the Permadeath mode, but time constraints pushed it back – until now. In other words, the Reserve bench completes the Permadeath mode we added last year.

The Reserve bench can also be used outside of permadeath, for example to keep a high level medic on standby in case your current one got a bit too curious about the digestive system of a mudraptor during your last mission. Just dock at a station and activate your reserved medic at the HR manager; no need to shop around in the hopes of finding a replacement.
The spring update will also include a few fresh coats of polish on the visual side of things. We already teased the new background art for the Cold Caverns and Great Sea biomes, which should give both a more distinct theme and feel. In addition, we’ve updated the (admittedly quite old) loading screens with new, fully handmade art as well as given the background fish swimming around the levels a facelift.

Other noteworthy additions and fixes coming in the Spring update include:

• A new alien ruins themed outpost PVP map
• New modules, puzzles and a mission for the alien ruins
• Reworked ‘abandoned outpost’ modules + 14 new modules (Kudos to NotWendy!)
• Improvements to the Remora and its drone
• Jovian Radiation changes 
• A long list of fixes and improvements to bot AI. Addressing issues with ladders, targeting, being set on fire, stealing, and more!
• An even longer list of overall bugfixes, including a few longstanding syncing issues which should reduce the amount of rubberbanding and desync in combat. 
• Various optimizations
• And a lot more! 

All of the above additions and fixes are already available for testing in the Unstable betaversion. Especially the reserve bench would benefit greatly from additional testing by our community members before the release of the update.

So, if you would like a sneak peek at the new features and the chance to give us pre-release feedback, getting access to the Unstable beta is simple: Just right-click on Barotrauma in your Steam library, select “properties”, and from the dropdown menu in the Betas section, select the “unstable – Public unstable version” and run the game. For more testing information, check out this post on our Steam forums.

That’s all this time – stay tuned for another update sneak peek a bit later, and the update itself in early April!