Hello, Store Owners!
v0.1.2 Hotfix 1 is now available.
After the release of v0.1.2, some players reported serious issues with employee behavior. I have been working continuously and carefully on these reports, and I have now been able to identify and fix the problems.
I am genuinely sorry to everyone whose gameplay experience was affected. I know how frustrating it can be when employees stop working correctly, and I wanted to make sure I properly understood the problem before releasing the fix.
Employee AI Fixes
Restocker Stocking Loop: Fixed an issue where Restockers could take a box, open it, fail to stock the products, load the box back onto their trolley, return, and then repeat the same process again.
Workers Spinning in Place: Fixed an issue that could cause some employees to continuously turn around themselves instead of continuing their work normally.
The Restocker issue in particular was not affecting every player. It could occur depending on the layout of the player's store, which made it especially difficult to reproduce consistently. Since every store can be arranged very differently, one player could experience the problem while another player might never encounter it at all.
To properly investigate this, I received save files from players who were experiencing the issue and personally played those saves myself. Being able to reproduce the problem inside the affected stores helped me identify the cause and confirm the fix under the conditions where it was actually happening.
I am also continuing to improve the employee AI system beyond this specific hotfix. I am making the system more resilient against unusual situations and possible failures so that employees can recover more reliably instead of becoming stuck in repetitive behavior.
I care deeply about your experience and about everyone who has supported Home Store Simulator. I read your reports, investigate the problems you encounter, and I will continue doing everything I can to make the game better with every update.
I promise that I will keep working to make Home Store Simulator a better, more reliable, and more enjoyable game.
Thank you again to everyone who reported the issue, sent me their save files, helped with testing, and remained patient while I worked on the fix. ❤️