The Abduction Update is READY to play!

Greetings, kidnappers from outta space!

The new update has just beamed down for you to finally beam up some volunteer-ish humans. We promise, we’re just... borrowing them. More on that in a bit.

For this update, we introduced community playtests and they have been a great success with so many of you contributing to this mission. Yes, you made this update happen! Our green hearts go out to you!

And to all of you who have kept on researching humanity so diligently by playing the live version of Roadside Research, we want to say thank you! Creating updates that are heavily based on community feedback is what we are striving for, and it could not be possible without your support.

Finally, the stars have aligned and based on your input, we have synthesized an update full of player suggestions!

Here are the highlights:

Now it’s time to clock in for your next shift at your favorite intergalactic research hub with these highlights: Abductions, a Fully Automated Restocking Technician (code name: F.A.R.T.), Invasion Stage One, and more!

Abductions

• Use the Abductor Tablet and decode your customers’ most secret thoughts and preferences. Convince them to follow you onto your abduction platform on the roof to gain Research Points!

Invasion Stage One

• Life on Earth means having to get creative when it comes to preparing the invasion. And you’re hardly qualified for the job. So put your questionable DIY engineering skills to work, earn useful rewards, and make dad proud!

New battery system powered by Giuseppe

• Your automation upgrades now have batteries that drain over time. Use the Recharging Tool to power up automation updates and place the Recharger in its station to get loaded by Giuseppe di Hampter e Testico.

Fully Automated Restocking Technician

• Get help with receiving deliveries, storing stock, or placing it into shop shelves or refilling the gas pump: a F.A.R.T. is all you need!

Summer and Cozy Decorations

• Decorate your gas station with cozy or recreational sun exposure accessories humans love so much.

Patch notes for the 4th major update – August 18th

The Abduction Update is bursting with goop, surprises, and so many new features that Alien HQ recommends starting a fresh game for the best experience.

Discover these new features:

NEW Invasion Stage 1 – Unlock Invasion Stage 1 of 4 by completing missions. Check your progress and the current mission in the Invasion App in your Alien Room.

NEW Abduction & Abductor Tablet – Select a customer and note down what they like to synchronize brains. Lead them up to the Abduction Platform and beam them up for Research Points.

NEW Distractor Spawner – Arm it first, throw it second. NPCs will only pay attention to the hologram while it’s playing. It does not raise the suspicion level.

NEW F.A.R.T. – Unlock the Fully Automated Restocking Technician in the Alien Skill Tree. It unloads the truck, places goods on storage shelves, and refills shelves in the store if you have placed an item on it earlier. It throws away empty boxes.

NEW Placeable Walls – Buy different sizes of placeable walls to redesign your gas station.

NEW Battery system – Unlock an automation upgrade to use the new battery system. Use the portable recharger to load automation batteries. Return empty ones to their station and Giuseppe di Hampter e Testico will recharge them.

NEW Universal Box – Buy the Universal Box Dispenser that can only used by players. All store products can be moved around with it, meaning you can move stock around without having to rely on empty product boxes anymore.

NEW How To Play App – Your Alien Screen now features the How To Play App, including tutorials to minigames and explanations of features.

NEW Goopster Fridge – Buy a Goopster Fridge to store your Goopster drinks. NPCs will not interact with it.

NEW Stackable items – Place more products on shelves for storemaxxing.

NEW Pet – Click the button next to Greg's terrarium to flip to the King of Relaxation: Bawb.

NEW Customer buying behavior – Adjust the price of products to influence how much customers buy. For example, if you make a product very cheap, they will hoard it.

Check out these improvements:

• Made dirty toilets look more disgusting.
• Probing received a UX rework based on community suggestions: Humans now have different ass difficulties. NPCs will get suspicious if they see you probe someone else so make sure to use the new Distractor Spawner.
• Pathfinding and navigation of NPCs has been improved, most importantly, removing their jittery look.
• Upgraded the shelf label with an image, product count and a warning when the shelf was emptied by customers.
• Decreased held item sway to counter motion sickness.
• Automation upgrades break less often.
• Added a How To Play App in the Alien Screen featuring better tutorials.
• It's not possible anymore to join players with different versions of the game, preventing multiplayer issues.
• Objects won’t fall under the floor during loading anymore.
• Normalized the brush size in the mask painting options.
• Mask painting menu now has widescreen support.
• Adjusted the view cone of NPCs so probing is better.
• Replicator now should save its state (type and number of items in it).
• NPCs will buy more items the more upgrades the player have unlocked.
• Improved optimization.
• Added the products: Stump Remover, Sugar, Pimping Powder and included them in the tasks.
• Added task for picking up trash.
• Adjusted the blinking minigame so it fits with the new probing setup.
• There is a different speech bubble for “expensive” and “too expensive” when the NPCs complain about prices.
• Moved the Customize button in the main menu.
• Added extra freezers as rewards for tasks.
• The price tag input field was limited to 5 characters. It now has 10 characters instead.
• Tweaked bloom so it should flicker less on low resolutions.

Enjoy these bug fixes:

• Fixed placeables snapping back to their original position.
• Fixed porta potty being visible for a short time at its final position before the start of the animation.
• Fixed the farting minigame not failing on controller.
• Fixed the automated fuel pump not stopping to fuel at the end of the day.
• Fixed pause menu option not working on client side when tutorial popup triggered.
• Fixed big picture overlay keyboard issues.
• Fixed player stuck if dying while respawning.
• Fixed placeable preview stuck when being interrogated.
• Made the sink interactable again.
• Fixed the toilet door not opening when a customer is running away.
• Fixed an issue where actions would be blocked when dying while a popup is displayed.
• The Alien Screen can’t be used by 2 players anymore if they click on it at the exact same time.
• The trash scanner now only scans once instead of at every click.
• Fixed an issue when a client gets disconnected while in the middle of an interaction; that interaction is never stopped. It should stop properly now.
• Fixed XBOX navigation after failing a new game.
• Fixed double highlight on cash register.
• Fixed clients not being able to connect the nozzle at the gas pump when they join.
• Added a gas station curb collider fix. Players do not automatically move around the pump anymore.
• Chinese snacks were in the wrong category: ready meals. They are now in the snack category.
• Fixed items falling through the register and hiding in the register.
• Fixed price change issues on Steam deck and big picture mode.
• Attempted to fix the desync on boxes where different number of items were in the box for the host and for the client.
• Various UI navigation fixes.
• Fixed minor saving issues.

Most beautiful F.A.C.E. of the universe

** Faux Anthropoid Camouflage Exoskin*

The intergalactic community has spoken, and Moo by Lokiya has been crowned the most beautiful F.A.C.E.! It beat competitors from across the galaxy, emerging victorious after a close-fought finale. The reason? Moo is just perfect for hiding even a lactose intolerant alien from the investigative Earthling crowds.

You can now select Moo as a preset mask in the customizations screen.

Beam up to our official Discord and get ready to submit your finest alien nonsense for the next community competition!

What strange new things await in the next update?

Your gas station is going to become a full-scale enterprise including a food court and a car wash! Plus, your invasion preparations will go into overdrive. Do you want mustard with that?

Check out the for more details!

This is the end of this transmission. We hope to put smiles on your paper masks and look forward to seeing you launch your first humans into space.

Happy abducting!

Alien HQ