v1.2.1 — Interactive Refresh, in-game Help, balance pass

Point release on top of v1.2.0, fresh AAB on the Open Test track. Three new player-facing systems plus a bunch of tuning from this week’s playtest feedback.

🔄 Interactive Refresh — Contract Board now has choices

The single „Paid Refresh (−10%)” button after your free 24-hour cooldown is gone. Tap Refresh and pick how:

• 📺 Watch an ad — free, capped at 3 per day
• 💰 Pay Cu — fee scales with each use that day. Predictable, no hidden multiplier
• ⚠ Take the −10% penalty — the old flow, kept as the „I’ve got nothing else to spend” option

The ad is intentionally the best deal. The Cu path is there for players who just want to keep grinding without watching anything.

❓ In-game Help — first deployment on Run Configuration

A small ? icon now appears in the bottom-left corner of the Run Configuration screen. Tap it and you get:

• A short in-app explanation of every block on the screen
• A „Read on web ↗” link that opens the matching Run Configuration guide on this site for the long form

This is the first wired screen — more screens will get the same help icon over the coming patches. The pattern keeps the app light (no walls of text in-game) while letting the web wiki grow without forcing app rebuilds for content changes.

🛒 Black Market Try Sell + Destroy

Selling a Black Market item back is now a small drama:

• Tap Try sell — the BM dealer rolls a random offer on the spot
• Below 50% durability, the dealer refuses outright („This is garbage”) and you get a Destroy option to clear the inventory slot

The dealer’s personality came out of the playtest reports. Average sellback shifted from a flat figure to a randomized window — mild nerf, but the „BLACK MARKET OFFER” popup adds the flavor the flat button was missing. And worn items finally have a clean disposal path.

🛠 Balance pass

• HDD owned-domain capacity — bumped across every HDD tier. The early-game HDD now holds noticeably more domains, and the endgame ceiling crept up slightly too.
• HW durability — flat boost across every chassis tier (stacks with last week’s percentage bump). Biggest felt impact at the Starter tier where wear hurts most.
• Hidden Library combo gate — the Hidden Library bonus when held alone has been reduced. Pair it with Episodic Memory and the combined bonus climbs back up. Closes a buy-before-sale exploit while rewarding genuine module investment.

⭐ Optional review prompt

Players who reach the Builder chassis and then visit the Market will get the standard Google Play „rate this app” overlay — once, ever. No forced timer, no nag screen, no „rate us 5 stars or else” dark pattern. The dialog is controlled by Google’s API and quota-limited (~3 per year per user), so even if our trigger fires perfectly, you won’t see it repeatedly.

🔤 Copy polish

• EN: „fatigue” → „exhaustion” everywhere. The HUD always said EXHAUSTION but every module / combo / upgrade description said „fatigue” — same stat, two names, real confusion. Unified.
• Temperature mode descriptions finally call out their actual downsides: Focused = +frustration, Creative = +exhaustion (was silently implied, now explicit).
• Help popup Temperature section rewritten — the old draft had three of the four modes described incorrectly. Now matches what each mode actually does.
• Combos clarification — Run Configuration help correctly notes that combos persist for the lifetime of the model (across many runs), not just for the current run as it previously read.
• Refresh popup button „More info →” renamed to „Read on web ↗” — the arrow + word „web” makes it obvious you’re leaving the app.

Thanks for playtesting! 🧠

— NeuroVault Research Systems