Research Story News

- Attempt to fix occasional bug where cave creatures were showing up in the wrong mine floors.
- [Controller] Fixed: Cannot interact with dents in the ground and pedestal (in the first cave).

[h3][Update] 27 Apr 2023: For players who played on multiple devices prior to the v0.2 update, please read the post here.[/h3]
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[h3]Greetings Researchers![/h3]

The controller support update is live! 🎉 More information below:

[h2]v0.2 Update Notes[/h2]
[h3]🎮Controller Support[/h3]
- The game can now be played with an Xbox controller.
- The game will detect the control scheme (Keyboard/Mouse or Controller) and change its display accordingly when receiving an input.
- Input prompts will be displayed in-game as glyphs, and an in-game keyboard has been implemented for naming the player and creatures.
- Implemented tool wheel for switching tools.
- Most of the gamepad controls can be remapped from the Options Menu.

Happy with how the keyboard turned out!

[h3]✨Improvements[/h3]
Reduced some tedium when managing multiple creatures
- Hold the interact key (LMB or A) to pat multiple creatures, without having to click on them individually (similar to harvesting crops).
- Collecting a creature produce will also count as 'patting' the creature. This reduces the number of interacts needed when managing creatures.
- For wild/untamed creatures that have been observed, interacting with them will get them to drop an item without a popup. Interacting again will bring up a popup dialogue with their diet information. This reduces unnecessary clicks to close the popup in mid-later game.
Clearer UI
- Going back from the Customisation page shows a confirmation popup (to warn that any changes made in the customisation will be lost).
- When attempting to delete a save, the confirmation popup will show the player name of the save to be deleted.
- Display "Loading..." when loading a save.
Optimisation
- Optimised some parts of the code, and fixed a bug which led to unnecessary instances being created when you own a farm teleporter. This should help with lags occuring after year 1.

[h3]💻Better Support for some wider resolutions[/h3]
- To better support larger resolutions, all hand-drawn art were resized and imported so that the quality is kept. I've done passes for the following resolutions: 3840x2160, 3440x1440, and 5120x1440.
- For 32:9 resolutions like 5120x1440, the start menu should no longer be cut off.
- Increased font sizes for some fonts, especially for resolutions larger than 1920x1080.
- The game should also be more zoomed in for larger resolutions (consistent with how it looks on 1920x1080).

[h3]☁️Cloud Saves[/h3]
- Steam Auto-cloud has been enabled for the game. You can verify that your saves are on the cloud if the Cloud Status states that it's "Up to date" (see below).
- If the 'Cloud Status' doesn't show, you can check your Steam's Settings > Cloud > Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for applications which support it.



⚠️ IMPORTANT: For Cloud Saves, I could only test on the Windows PC & laptop that I own. I'm unable to test for cross-platform saves (such as to Linux/Steam Deck) at this time. As such, it may not work as expected for cross-platforms. Please help us by letting us know if it works for you, and we'll work on resolving any issues!

[h3]📂Backups[/h3]
- A save file backup system has been added. Backup saves will be created whenever players save their game. This will help mitigate issues with save file corruptions (e.g. when the PC shuts down while saving).
- For existing players, a set of backup files will be created on launch if there are any existing saves.
- You can find your saves and backup saves by following these steps:
1) Open Run app (Windows + R key)
2) Copy this to the field: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ResearchStory\
3) Press Ok.

[h2]📝What's next[/h2]
Phew! This was quite a hefty update, but I'm glad to have worked on the important technical stuff before moving on to adding more content! 🎉 After patching any critical issues that may come with this update, I'll work on the Inventory QOL as promised. After that, we'll work on the first major content update (Will share details soon!)

Hope you enjoy the changes! I've been enjoying sitting back while playtesting the game myself :)
- Miki

[h2]Hello Researchers![/h2]
For those who celebrate Easter, I hope you had a good time! 🐣🐰 I don't celebrate Easter myself, but took a day off on Good Friday to relax a little.

Here’s a progress update for the past couple of weeks (updates will only be live later this month):
[h3]More UI implementation 🎮[/h3]
Ah, more UI work - we're getting there! The Map is an example where players can cycle through key locations using the LS based on the map layout:

✅ Other UIs completed: Selecting save files, Customisation, Recording Stations, Shops, Mini-games, Journal, Quests, Profile

[h3]More specific target handling 👈[/h3]
Previously, we added a system that finds the nearest interactable object. It mostly worked, but there was an issue with overlapping interactables (e.g. creatures in their pens - we could only target the pen and not the creature). As such, we implemented a sorting system to prioritise common tasks (such as trough and creatures), and also a way to toggle between the nearest objects by pressing RS. Players can also use RS as a mouse cursor.

Trough and chicken are prioritised over the pen. Using RS can be a fallback option for more specific targeting.

[h3]Placing Items 🏡[/h3]
Since items are placed on a grid system, players can use RS to navigate and choose the exact spot for placement:


[h3]Optimisation ✨[/h3]
I’ve also reworked and optimised some parts of the code, which hopefully helps with the lag that some players are facing after playing for about a year in-game.

[h3]What's next[/h3]
The above changes will be live as part of the controller update later this month. Thank you everyone for your support and patience as we continue development! 💗

I've updated the remaining to-do list. One of the things I hope to address soon is better support for wider resolutions. I'll also try to add the inventory QOL that we previously mentioned - but if that takes too long, it'll probably be moved to a different update.

[h3]To-do for the controller support update:[/h3]

• Remaining UI (Job Board, Fishing Map, Animal UI)
  
• In-game keyboard for naming player & animals
  
• Updating tutorial & adding glyphs
  
• Controller remapping
  
• Adding Steam Cloud support
  
• Better support for wider resolutions
  
• (Given enough time) Inventory QOL (Auto-sort, Auto-add/pull from chests, and Coloured Chests)
  

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you're enjoying these devlogs! ✨
- Miki

Fixed: Mines-related:
- Some creatures using perk unnecessarily in lava mines
- Inconsistencies in popups while using creature perks & potions in ice/lava mines
- Interesting Statue 2 reappearing on other floors if not claimed
- Mysterious note reappearing on other elevator floors
NPC-related:
- Teagan's 'Tarot Reading' Quest staying in questlog after it's complete
- Yan Yan's name showing up as ??? for some players, despite befriending her
- Attempt to fix occasional clipping bug during a boatride hangout where NPC appears under the boat

Changed:
- Consuming a Pitch Lily leads to -5 energy instead of +1 energy, to more accurately reflect its journal description.

Fixed:
- Crash after adding more than 99 items to the last slot of the crafting tab.
- Bug preventing players from fishing when standing to the north of the lake where the fishing hut is.
- Occasional bug where players get stuck in the wrong fishing animation while fishing.
- Some text errors