v0.7.02 - Project System Overhaul, Employee Improvement, and More

Hi everyone, 😄

Thank you very much for your continued support, bug reports, and feedback. In this update, we are addressing one of the most common frustrations we’ve seen from the community: the limitations caused by Loading Zones when accepting projects. We’re also updating Quick Project rules to create more variety in daily planning, and shipping several improvements to employee behavior and UI clarity.

Main Updates

1. Project Acceptance Overhaul (Multiple Projects per Loading Zone)

We understand many players felt frustrated by being limited to one project per Loading Zone. In this update, we are overhauling the system so that one Loading Zone can be used for multiple projects, as long as the combination is valid and the scheduling rules are respected.

The core rule is:

• If you accept a Contract Project first and assign it to a Loading Zone (making that zone “scheduled”), you can then accept Quick Projects into the same Loading Zone under a specific condition.

• The Quick Project must target the same Loading Zone as the scheduled Contract Project, and its Loading Window must be less than or equal to the remaining Preparation Time of the scheduled Contract Project.

This rule exists to prevent situations where a truck arrives while another truck is still expected to occupy that Loading Zone. With this change, players should have more flexibility in organizing project choices and planning production without feeling blocked too early.

Because of this overhaul, we also updated the UX and UI in the Project Menu so the new rules are communicated more clearly and the flow of selecting Loading Zones and accepting projects is easier to understand.

2. Quick Project Adjustment: Loading Window Variants (1–3 Days)

With the new project acceptance rules, Quick Projects are also being adjusted.

• Quick Projects now have a new randomizer for their Loading Window.

• Instead of being fixed, Quick Projects can now generate with 1 day to 3 days Loading Window variants.

This adds more variation to difficulty and preparation requirements, making Quick Projects feel less predictable and encouraging more strategic planning.

3. Active Project HUD Update

Because the new project handling can create more active project combinations, we updated the Active Project HUD to keep it readable.

• The HUD now shows a maximum of 4 prioritized projects, focusing on:

  • Projects for today, or

  • Projects whose truck has already arrived Then it will display other projects after those priorities.

This is meant to keep the HUD useful at a glance without becoming overcrowded.

Improvements

1. Employee Behavior Update (Production Assistant)

Based on community feedback, we refined several Production Assistant behaviors so they work more efficiently and feel more intentional.

• Smarter box selection for Starter Machines Production Assistants no longer choose boxes randomly or only by closest distance. They now consider the required amount more carefully. For example, if a machine needs 24 items, the assistant will prefer using one Medium (M) box instead of immediately taking a Large (L) box or combining multiple Small (S) boxes.

  

• Employee now respects Turn On/Off state of Starter Machine Supplying behavior now depends on whether the Starter Machine is turned on or off.

  • If the Starter Machine is turned off, employees will not insert items into it.

  • This means you can prioritize which Starter Machines should receive supplies by turning unused machines off directly using the machine’s Turn On/Off switch, without needing to open Employee Settings for every machine.

  

Bug Fixes

1. Employee Supplying Starter Machines After 20:00

Fixed an issue where employees could still supply Starter Machines after 20:00 (End Production Time) under certain conditions.

• With this update, whenever an employee is about to place items into a Starter Machine, the system will re-check the time before the final input happens.

• This prevents unintended late supplying behavior after production time ends.

2. Supply Rack Pathing Collision

Fixed an issue where employees could walk through Supply Racks as if they had no collision. Supply Racks now properly block employee paths and can no longer be passed through.

Known Issue

1. Employee Walking Back and Forth

We found reports where an employee appears to be “working” but only walks back and forth without completing the task. In many cases, this happens because the target machine or object has no valid path for the employee to reach it, causing the pathfinding process to repeatedly fail.

To avoid this issue, please make sure:

• Machines and objects are not blocked or locked in a way that prevents access

• There is enough clear walking space so employees can reach the interaction point properly

2. Products Always Output as Grade D After Packaging

Some players reported that products always come out as Grade D after the Packaging Machine. In most cases, this is not caused by the packaging stage itself, but by an incorrect processing order earlier in the line.

The recommended general order from the catalog is: Slice → Wash → Dry

If the order is violated, the system may treat the product as improperly processed, which can result in Grade D output.

To reduce how often this happens, we added a potential fix that allows some flexibility in the early order:

• Slice → Wash can now be swapped to Wash → Slice without affecting the result.

This change is meant to cover the most common mistake we see players make when setting up lines. After this update, players who prefer to Wash first and Slice after should still get the same output quality as the original Slice first then Wash order. One more important note: the system now does not reduce the quality of raw commodities when the day changes. Only completed products (after labelling) have a grade, and that grade will only decrease after day change if the product is not stored in the Cold Storage Room.

Once again, thank you very much for all your feedback and patience. We are still tracking everything and prioritizing improvements based on feasibility and impact, while continuing to refine core systems step by step.

If you encounter any issues with this new update, please report them through the in-game Bug Report Menu and/or the Steam Discussions so we can investigate quickly.

See you in the next update! 🥗🚚

Food Processing Simulator