How it works
Every meaningful action rolls for one research point. The kind of point follows what you are doing: shooting gives Guns, salvaging and digging give Engineering, skinning and harvesting give Biology.
| Action | Chance | Which point |
|---|---|---|
| Killing a zombie or enemy | 15% | by the weapon in hand: guns, bows, crossbows — Guns; explosives — Engineering; melee — Tools |
| Killing an animal | 15% | Biology |
| Crafting a weapon, armor, tool or station | 15% | from the UL research tree node that unlocks the recipe |
| Crafting resources, ammo, food, blocks | 5% | from the tree node, otherwise Basic |
| Repairing an item | 15% | from the tree node |
| Mining, digging, salvaging, chopping, harvesting | 5% | by the tool: axe — Tools; pickaxe, shovel, drill — Engineering; knife, sickle, bare hands — Biology |
| Upgrading a block | 5% | Engineering |
| Opening a loot container for the first time | 15% | Basic |
| Buying or selling at a trader | 15%, at most once a minute | Basic |
| Finishing a quest | 15% | Basic |
| Using medicine | 15% | Chemistry |
- Half the time a Basic Research point drops instead: UL trades 100 Basic plus a book for 50 of a kind, so Basic is worth half as much.
- A separate 1% roll on any action gives Advanced Research.
- Mass actions — pickaxe hits, block upgrades — roll at most once every 1.5 seconds.
Crafting at stations
The kind of point for crafting comes from the UL research tree: craft a rifle and the node is in the Ranged branch, almost always Guns. UL stations keep working while their chunk is loaded, so points drop as items finish, even with the window closed. When you return and a station catches up on the time you were away, every finished item rolls on its own.
Settings
On first launch BepInEx/config/roadtrip.ul.researchbydoing.cfg appears:
UnitActionChance(0.15),MassActionChance(0.05),AdvancedChance(0.01),BasicShare(0.5) — the chances;MassActionCooldownSeconds(1.5),TradeCooldownSeconds(60) — the pauses; the trading pause stops farming points by buying and selling one item in a loop;Trading,Quests,Loot,Medicine— switch single actions on or off;LogAwards— log every point awarded.
The mod does not touch your save: the points are ordinary UL items.