Research Story News

[h2]Features & Content[/h2]
- Added Powered Chests
- Powered Chests can be used to automate the Crafting Stations.
- Player customisation: Added 7 new hair colours in the red-orange range.
- Added small chance to find Earthworm when tilling soil.
- Added 1 new OST for Town Day - Breeze Over the Brooke (made by Tyd, Shevone, and Bobby).

[h2]QOL Changes[/h2]
- Reworked and polished Main UI: Inventory, Research, Quests, Personal, Friendship, Journal, as well as for the Creature Information UI.
- Added Quests UI to the Main UI as one of the tabs.
- Improved clarity for some quest objectives.
- Increased font sizes.
- Paused Reseach is now tracked in the Personal (Profile) menu.
- Item names of dropped items can now be seen in the Journal.
- The Journal can now be opened from the Inventory/Research menu when hovering over a research-related item.
- Added sort according to 'Favourite' creature in Creatures Tab.
- [Controller] Improved navigation in the Journal UI.
- [KBM] Added more glyphs.
- [KBM] Added a way to switch tabs in the Main UI via the keyboard.
- [Steam Deck] Automatically set resolution to 1280x800 when starting the game.
- When interacting at a Shop Counter, talking to townsfolk for the first time will always trigger their introduction dialogue (instead of Shop dialogue).
- Daily Summary page: Show Relationships before gold earned categories
- 'Simple Storage' Mail now gives both the crafting recipe for Chests, and a Chest item.

[h2]More Game Options and Accessibility[/h2]
- [KBM] Added 'Keyboard Auto-targeting' for playing primarily with keyboard. Most in-game actions can now be done without a mouse, but navigating most UIs still requires a mouse. Default is Off.
- Added 'Never faint from depleting Energy' toggle, default is Off.

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]
- Fixed bug where chroma items fill up fewer units in the Magic Forge when using "Fill" instead of "Fill 1".
- Fixed Preserver continues to craft while game is paused.
- Adjusted the number of Relationship Points obtained for several cutscenes
- Fixed an occasional selection bug while scrolling in the cooking UI.
- Added Flame Flower to 'dropped items' in the Flame Cactus' Journal page.
- [Controller] Fixed hair colour selection using RBLB in the starting customisation page.
- Fixed mason selling Oven before first house upgrade.
- Fixed switching OST tracks wrongly in some places in Town.
- Multiple other minor fixes.

[h3][✨The below changes are part of a minor v0.12 update, which will be available within a week or two!✨][/h3]

[h2]Hi Researchers![/h2]

Here's an update on the progress towards 1.0!

Since January, I’ve worked mainly on three things:
1) Adding Powered Chest item and mechanics
2) Reworking key UI
3) Adding more Game Options

[h3]⚡️ Powered Chest for automated crafting[/h3]
One of the key feedback from players in the latest version of the game is that Crafting Stations (such as the Composter and Stone Forge) can get tedious when crafting large batches of items.

Introducing… Powered Chests!

Powered Chests automate the addition of materials and collection of crafted items. Just plop it next to a Crafting Station and add required materials to the chest. Nearby Crafting Stations will grab the needed items and start crafting. When crafting completes, the crafted item is deposited in the chest and the next cycle starts (as long as there are enough materials). The crafting will continue to run even while you’re out exploring!



[h3]📖 Reworking key UI, such as the Quests UI, and increasing font sizes[/h3]
A UI rework has been on the to-do list for some time. Several parts of the main UI have been reworked:
1) Quests UI is now integrated to the main UI as one of the tabs, instead of being a standalone page. This was changed due to a recent feedback from a player, and I think it fits nicely in the main UI!
2) Increased the size of the UI, and used larger, more legible fonts for text.
3) Redesigned some UIs so that information is more clearly portrayed (e.g. NPCs’ and creatures' information)

New quest UI

[h3]🎮 More Game Options[/h3]
These gameplay options have been added based on player feedback:
1) Keyboard auto-targeting: For players primarily playing with a keyboard, turning this on helps with navigating the game without the use of the mouse. Doors and interactable objects are automatically targeted without needing the mouse to hover over them. However, most UI would still require a mouse.
2) Never faint from energy depletion: If this is on, using energy when the player is at 0 Energy will have no penalty. However, the player will still faint at 3AM (latest bedtime) and progress to the next day.

[h3]📝 Towards 1.0[/h3]
These changes have taken up a considerable amount of development time, and I’ve only been working on the actual v1.0 features and content on the side. It's looking a little hard to keep to the timeline I’ve set in the roadmap (Q1 2025), so I'll have to shift the full release to Q2 2025 to make sure that I don't rush the final stretch of development. The actual release date will only be decided once I have all of the features/content added. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to provide devlogs for notable progress, as I always have.

[h3]💛 Thank you to the RS community 💛[/h3]
We recently passed 10k copies sold and 50k wishlists, which is really, really awesome. Your continued support keeps me going, especially now that we're so close to the finish line.

Recently, I found a pretty fun playthrough of Research Story by REDtm, who completed the available research in the game. Just wanted to share it as I enjoyed watching it myself 😊:
https://youtu.be/X1CNaiRQsyg?si=NRGSXDvOYJ-A1yuv


Cheers!
Miki 🤍

- Fixed a rare case of character customisation save file corruption. Players can recreate character customisation to continue their saves.

Thank you for playing RS!
- Miki 🤍

Patch v0.11.14: Minor balancing patch

Fishing
- Slightly increased base chance for fish bites while fishing.
- Fixed fishing minigame for some fish to reduce the chances of 'impossible catches', including: Mini-Mahi, Rainbow Skitter, Lava Puffer, etc.

Gypsum Flowers
- Gypsum Flowers can now sometimes spawn in the Tundra biome of the Mines.
- Increased overall Gypsum Flower spawn rate in the Mines.
- Added slight chance for Gypsum Flowers to be reeled in while fishing.

Food & Potions
- Food buffs can now be stacked (up to 3 effects).
- Heat Potions and Cool Potions prices reduced from 150G to 120G.
- Heat Potions material requirement reduced from 4 units to 2 units.

Bugfix
- Attempted to fix a bug causing Vallee to talk about research instead of the Spring Poems event at the cherry blossom festival.

Thank you for playing Research Story!
- Miki 🤍

- Fixed a late-game crash when sleeping, which is caused by clashing Orange Heart events.

Thank you for playing Research Story!
- Miki 🤍