G'day Scrappers!

Thanks so much for diving into v0.38 and sharing your feedback — it’s been awesome to see so many of you back in-game. As to be expected with such a large update, a few bugs slipped through the cracks. This hotfix addresses the most urgent issues affecting gameplay and stability.

✅ Hotfix Changes & Fixes:

WorldTimeAPI Errors Resolved

• The game will now abort time-related setup if the external WorldTimeAPI service is down, preventing log spam and unexpected behaviour.

• Pressing [M] during the start-up tutorial no longer opens the Map UI.

→ If your name was never properly set, you can use [F9] to change it at any time (when not 'Busy').

• Most tutorial messages have been reworded to be more compact and clear.
  
• Key terms and input prompts now appear highlighted in colour for better visibility.

• Resolved an issue where player cash wasn't updating correctly when starting a New Game or Tutorial.

• A temporary interaction lockout has been added during disassembly transitions to prevent rare soft locks when switching between components and queued items.
  
• While not ideal, this small delay ensures stability and avoids full lockouts that could cost minutes of progress.
  
• Far to many hours have gone into debugging this issue and this is the best I can come up with for now — this is a temporary fix while a better solution is found.

• NPC footstep audio now has reduced travel distance and falloff, helping to declutter the soundscape and improve performance.

Randomized SFX Variations

• Scrapping, drill, and clicking sounds now play with subtle pitch variation to reduce repetitiveness.

Dummy RNG E-Waste Save Fix

• Resolved an issue where Dummy RNG-based E-Waste items were not being saved correctly.

• Cleared out several redundant log messages to reduce console clutter and improve performance tracking.

It’s been quite a while since the last update, and I want to start by thanking you for your patience and continued support and hope you are all well.

As some of you may remember, I stepped away from development to focus on my mental health and personal life. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was a necessary one — and throughout that time, the community’s understanding has meant more than I can put into words and I cannot thank you all enough.

Today, I’m proud (and honestly a little nervous!) to share Update v0.38 — a massive overhaul packed with performance boosts, new features, polish, and quality-of-life improvements. This update marks a major milestone in getting Scrapping Simulator closer to the vision I’ve always had for it.

Whether you’re just getting into the game or have been with me since the early builds, I hope this update shows just how much I still care about this project — and about you, the players who've stuck by it.

You may have noticed things like the DefectGaming Website going Down, GitHub and Wiki reliance throughout the game being removed etc, this is for a multitude of reasons, though the main ones being to Centralise communications, reports and suggestions to Steam and Discord which are more widely used by most Players and to revert from more a Business stance to return more to a Hobby.

Thanks again for being here. I hope you enjoy everything that’s new in v0.38, and as always, your feedback is more than welcome.

💚 Stay awesome,
– FuryFight3r

• Introduced Scrapper Joe, a fellow scrapper who now resides in one of the town’s houses.
  
• Offers 3 daily randomized optional quests (materials, E-Waste items, or sub-parts).
  
• Rewards: +20% cash value (based on raw materials) for turned-in items.
  
• Trade-Off: Tasks give no XP but allow players to earn extra cash while skipping disassembly.
  
• Includes 1 daily quest re-roll option.
  
• Designed to balance time, XP, and earnings for more strategic gameplay.

• Press [M] to open a basic map of the town and Points of Interest (POIs), primarily to assist new players with navigation.

• Tools now properly return to their holders, allowing them to be picked up again.
  
• Reworked tool interaction and queuing systems to improve consistency and eliminate frame-specific bugs.
  
• Tools now follow smoother motion cues, making disassembly and switching tools more responsive.

• Added a "rolling" animation to the Player Cash UI to visually show cash increasing or decreasing during purchases and sales.

• Small Crate temporarily (or permanently) removed due to unreliable physics behaviour with nested objects.
  
• Large objects like solar panel boxes now have designated carry hotspots for improved visibility while transporting.

• Completely reworked shop time handling for better performance and fixed midnight-related errors.

• Updated pickup instructions for clarity.
  
• First-time purchases now display a popup tip.
  
• Trolley now spawns near purchase boxes for consistency.
  
• Fixed bug where closing the inventory via the bag icon left the game in a "busy" state.

• Item mass now calculated dynamically based on actual contents, affecting trolley weight and handling.

• Reworked [V] hover tip system to be more compact, dynamic, and accessible across multiple systems.
  
• Background visuals added for better readability.

• Reduced overall volume for:
  
• Air vehicles (lower sound + higher altitude).
  
• Large ships (moved further offshore + quieter horns).
  
• NPC footsteps, rivers, and ocean.
  
• Enables playing with full SFX volume without harsh audio spikes.

• Disabled reflections on most materials (except glass) to reduce FPS drops—particularly with large numbers of E-Waste or ingots.
  
• Extended the ocean floor to avoid abrupt visual drop-offs.
  
• Reduced fish populations to further improve performance across all quality settings.

• Trading Tree: Evaluator – shows current raw material value of hovered objects.
  
• Disassembly Tree: Insight – reveals material contents of hovered E-Waste parts (late-game perk).
  
• Both perks are toggleable with [V] and are designed to reduce UI clutter when not needed.

• Perk costs repositioned and rebalanced to accommodate new perks.
  
• All players loading from a previous version will have perks reset and refunded appropriately.
  
• Max perk points remain at 150.
  
• Buffed Disassembly Time perks:
  
• Tier 1: 10% (up from 5%)
  
• Tier 2: 25% (up from 10%)

• Completely reworked material value calculations.
  
• Prices update only:
  
• After spawning
  
• When picked up and dropped
  
• Or via a manual command (update_prices)
  
• Helps prevent stutters from bulk updates.
  
• Scrap Yard prices are now saved between sessions, only changing with a new in-game day.

• Introduced performance-optimized "Dummy" E-Waste objects:
  
• Appear identical to real ones but contain no internal components until placed on the disassembly bench.
  
• Old E-Waste from previous saves automatically converted (excluding RNG-generated PCs, laptops, and servers).

• Improved system for avoiding accidental sales of non-E-Waste items.
  
• Dummy items can now be sold based on stored average prices.

• Street E-Waste items left unattended will now be collected by NPC scrappers over time.
  
• Items on your property or currently carried/trolley-attached are protected.
  
• Scrapper aggression scales based on how much E-Waste you own:
  
• <15 items: NPCs avoid picking up items.
  
• ~150 items: NPCs will aggressively collect unclaimed E-Waste.
  
• Adds lore-friendly clean-up and boosts performance by reducing map clutter.

• Weekly event every Sunday increases E-Waste spawns to help players prepare for Monday's bills.

• Fixed event system not setting world time for special events (e.g. Halloween, Christmas).
  
• Resolved NPCs getting stuck on paths or appearing to float.
  
• Fixed 4GB DDR4 RAM stick not playing its removal animation.
  
• Fixed Solar Inverter UI display issue.
  
• Fixed DVD/CD drive logic allowing motherboard removal before laser.
  
• Fixed lost items falling under the map being unrecoverable (now sent to Lost & Found box).
  
• Corrected a typo in the Scavenging Skill description.
  
• Fixed object rotation and interactions while in "busy" UI states (inventory, pause, etc).

• Removed the [F8] Bug Report tool.
  
• GitHub integration (bug reports, wiki, suggestions) will be phased out over future updates in favour of Steam and Discord.
  
• Removed the orange 3rd-Party EULA disclaimer on Steam and at start-up. Risks will now be communicated more naturally during gameplay and tutorials.
  
• Removed the "Help_Me" PC app to continue phasing out external links.

• Improved perk system to make it more efficient and accessible across various game scripts.
  
• Major rework of the price-lookup and item content systems for better accuracy and smoother gameplay.
  
• Optimized how disassembly queues operate (removed buggy UI, improved logic).
  
• Overall systems now require fewer frame-perfect moments and handle queued operations more smoothly.

Thank you all for playing Scrapping Simulator and supporting its development! Your feedback helps shape every update as we get closer to v1.0.