Welcome to next level gas station chaos! Alien HQ has upgraded its invasion protocols with everything being slightly more alien, slightly more sim-heavy, and significantly more fun!
With over 730K copies sold so far, this mission has been a great success already! And it would not be possible without all of you fantastic undercover operators! Thanks to your support, Roadside Research is being played, streamed and used worldwide by friends and families to come together and have a good laugh gooping on the floor.
Here are the biggest upgrades:
Open your receptors as a new transmission of highly requested upgrades has entered your systems: a storage upgrade, extra alien stuff, and lots more! Amp up your operations because Alien HQ is watching... and expects results!
Here are the highlights:
An upgraded Alien Room now features the Data Analyzer minigame to boost alien tech...
... and your loyal pet Greg! Isn't it just adorable?
9 new, finger-licking products including the famous Boneless Bananas, your favorite Chonken and the nutritious Single Pea (Family Size)!
A bunch of new decorations make your gas station scream "totally human"!
Patch notes for the 2nd major update – May 19th
These are the biggest additions:
NEW Data Analyzer minigame – Complete the Data Analyzer sequence and reap the rewards! In exchange for your hard-earned Research Points, you can temporarily boost the alien tech of your choice: H.I.P., W.E.E., or P.P.C.
NEW Alien Room – As we prepare for the invasion, the mothership superstructed your own alien room, which is very well disguised, as always!
NEW Storage Expansion – By popular demand, you now have the option to expand the storage room to run operations more smoothly!
NEW Maglocks - Maglocks allow you to place tools anywhere! No more running around to get your trusty prober from the Alien Room. In case you lose your tools, worry not! You can click on the hooks in the Alien Room to reset them!
NEW Products - 9 new “ready meal” products, optimized for the strange nutritional preferences of humans, based on your field research!
NEW Decor – More decorations and placeables to put up in your gas station while pretending you understand the nebulous concept of “interior design.” NEW Placeable variant system – Decorating just got easier: You can now cycle through variants for placeables that are very similar to each other, making the Construction Menu less cluttered!
NEW Outfits – 3 new incredibly comfy and super cool outfits! “Peak fashion”, as we overheard customers admire them...
NEW Anti- Motion Sickness setting – Some operators reported that manually moving products into shopping baskets was a main cause of nausea, so we added a Click-to-Bag accessibility setting for the cash register. You can find it in the General tab in the Options menu. (Still feeling sick? Let us know on Discord!)
Gameplay, Balance and other improvements:
Added a little notification icon to the upgrades to show if something is purchasable.
Unlocking new products will now always increase revenue. Before this update, in some cases, revenue went down after unlocking new products.
Improved multiplayer handling for objects.
Added multiple save retry attempts to help prevent corrupted save files.
Promo Sign minigame now ends automatically. It also shows how long its effect lasts on the HUD now.
Improved loading timeout behavior and disconnect handling.
Connection timeout is now 15 seconds instead of 100. If a host loses connection to the Photon Cloud, the host gets shut down.
Added animated feedback for currency, research, satisfaction, and suspicion changes.
Added interaction locking to prevent accidental actions while in menus. For example, vacuuming while changing the price.
Made scrolling easier in the Construction Menu.
Added a 5th shark... can you find it?
Updated credits with clickable hyperlinks.
Updated the How to Play Section with new content.
Other bug fixes:
Players now correctly start loaded games with 0 suspicion at the beginning of the day, preventing an instant hunt.
Attempting to join a game that no longer exists should now show a Game Not Found error.
Fixed several late-join synchronization issues for cars, hooks, UI, and interactions.
Fixed the values for the H.I.P, so it corresponds to the description.
Fixed dirt piles and stains being difficult or impossible to clean.
Fixed emote camera rotation issues.
Fixed issues with not being able to put the cleaning boot properly on the hook.
Fixed baguette getting stuck in the self-scan (what is up with these baguettes? Sometimes they linger, sometimes they get stuck...)
Fixed an issue where players would not be able to click anything if they assigned LMB movement.
Fixed a crash that would happen if the player were probed during a minigame.
Fixed multiple hook, socket, object dragging, and trash bag interaction bugs.
Fixed softlocks related to alien screen, loading, probes, and suspicion loops.
Fixed several UI duplication, overlap, clipping, and navigation issues.
Fixed NPC spawning, car despawning, and customer synchronization issues.
Fixed voice chat audio settings not muting other players.
Fixed multiple lighting, collider, decal, terrain, and clipping problems.
Fixed wrong description for beer six packs.
Fixed Client not being able to grab objects from sockets after the host.
And maaaaany other bug fixes...
What will the next update bring you?
The next update is scheduled for the Northern Hemisphere’s annual overheating event: Summer. It will include the long-awaited abductions no alien can live without, additional automation systems, and several big yet still classified enhancements designed to boost the fun of being an undercover gas station operative.
For more info, consult the freshly synthesized roadmap!
Share your thoughts with Alien HQ!
How are you enjoying the latest update? And on a biological cuteness scale from 1–10, how do you rate Greg?
Transmit your feedback directly to Alien HQ using our official Discord, we’d love to hear from you!