Hey all! Jon here with your April update! April was a massive month for under-the-hood systems and major feature additions. Between deep playtesting sessions, expanding the world's interactivity, and building out entirely new mechanics from scratch, a lot of critical groundwork was laid.
Here is a look at what was built this month:
Brand New Systems & Plugin Releases
Socket & Implant System: Built a fully functional socketing system from scratch. You can now find gear with random socket chances, slot in various tier 1-5 mods, and swap them out at the implant doctor.
Bounty Boards: Implemented a working bounty system with terminals across Crownlight, East Sector, Kessler, and Pier 19 to track your completed hits.
Stealth Mechanics: Started building out a dynamic stealth system featuring enemy detection meters, line-of-sight cones, security cameras, and distraction items.
Factions & Reputation: Built the foundation for a faction system with visual standing bars, rivalries, and custom icons for the different groups you'll encounter.
Mid-Battle Swapping: You can now dynamically swap a party member during combat (runs on a 3-turn cooldown).
Animations & Visual Polish
Skill Overhauls: Hooked up tons of new katana animations and renamed several key skills to fit the aesthetic better (Razor Bloom is now Death Echo, Crimson Dance is now Tenchi Slice, Petal Slash is now Petal Bite). Death Echo also gained a tactical buff, now stunning blind targets.
Custom UI & Menus: Added interface HUD voices for the implant menu, built a custom loot drop plugin for Wards and Mods, and added mouse-scroll functionality to the Achievements and Bounty Board menus.
World Details: Integrated a working traffic system to make the city streets feel alive, implemented a cell phone system for the player, and hooked up alternate "nude" sprite functionality for the main cast.
Minigames & QoL
New Minigames: Added a fresh lockpick minigame.
Quality of Life: The socket screen now smartly filters out gear without sockets and clearly displays which party members are currently equipping what. I got so much done this month and I'm very happy with the progress I've been making, Thanks for reading and see you all next time!