1) They are in a constant battle of, "I think this is it!" and "NO THAT WASN'T IT FIRE EXTINGUISHER PLEASE" haha. Red had gotten the crystal reader from Milla and given it to Rebbekah so she is trying to super size it to see if it can read the crystal. This process is very hard. Due to other plot things I haven't had much time to do much with it yet, BUT if either Kor or Gordon want to help with that (most likely Gordon since he's more on the tech know how) we can work something out on that front! We would prefer if a player character had the "aha!" moment, so either or both would be ideal as opposed to us having an NPC make a breakthrough.
2) We think enough time has passed to safely say that a lot of progressed has been made toward all subjects. Emotion recording media and elemental core experiments are definitely something that should be doable, as the locals would have the tech and incentives already established to do so (that is to say, it's elemental core experiments have always been on-going, and emotion recording media would have already been started on long before the characters arrived, but the technology is still relatively newish so advancement is still on going—similar to how there were a lot of inventions and research going on during the Industrial Revolution period).
As for apathy, reasonable breakthroughs are likely to be had, but it is a tricky thing. Which matters in specific are you asking about/most interested in?
no subject
2) We think enough time has passed to safely say that a lot of progressed has been made toward all subjects. Emotion recording media and elemental core experiments are definitely something that should be doable, as the locals would have the tech and incentives already established to do so (that is to say, it's elemental core experiments have always been on-going, and emotion recording media would have already been started on long before the characters arrived, but the technology is still relatively newish so advancement is still on going—similar to how there were a lot of inventions and research going on during the Industrial Revolution period).
As for apathy, reasonable breakthroughs are likely to be had, but it is a tricky thing. Which matters in specific are you asking about/most interested in?