Hello guys!
Story & Narrative
Ghost is now a real reveal. The resistance contact stays anonymous (masked as "Ghost") in every email until you earn her trust — complete 2 of her contracts or read her backstory — then her real name, Dr. Elena Vasquez, comes through.
Ghost reaches out based on what you do, not your level — after 3 DataDyne acceptances, 2 refusals, or discovering PANOPTICON in the BIOS yourself.
New decision email "You saw it too, didn't you" — the single gateway into the investigation / FBI / pick-a-side arc.
New paid Ghost job — "Off-the-books work, if you want it," a reverse-engineering gig.
New FBI / Liberation storyline — evidence-request emails plus a low-risk evidence-packaging contract that locks in the Liberation ending (overriding a prior corporate commitment).
New Phoenix path — Ghost's "Deploy FREEDOM.EXE" capstone contract locks in the Phoenix ending, with a full email thread ("This is the one. Deploy it.", "It's spreading", "Still holding the match?", "You cracked it").
New Elena reactions — she responds when you refuse the DataDyne job ("You said no. Good.") and when you spend $900 to help the freelancer Marcus.
DataDyne stops courting you once you commit to digging, and a committed employee no longer gets an "accept or walk away" ultimatum.
Ghost goes quiet after you take the DataDyne job (one intentional farewell aside), fixing a spoiler leak where she kept mailing a committed corporate player.
Reading the PANOPTICON logs now registers — marks them discovered, clears the objective, and backfills older saves that already read them.
Chip stops gaslighting after the reveal, and now reacts properly to accepting the DataDyne job and its first contract.
Stall nudges — low-spoiler pointer emails if you get stuck ("you opened it. now read the right ones", "that key won't stay good forever"), firing once after ~5 min or 6 contracts.
Trajectory hints fire once per path instead of nagging every ~2 hours.
Inbox de-cluttered — mid-campaign checkpoint emails trimmed from five beats to two (Levels 8 & 14).
Fixed Ghost's emails rendering literal [GHOST] text; story emails now carry colored emphasis (temps, money, warnings, etc.).
Endings
Meltdown reworked — new trigger (5+ crashes, ≥1 overclock-caused crash, hardware bottomed out), fires mid-campaign and overrides your committed path, and now has a proper "ENDING: MELTDOWN" outro card.
Phoenix ending got a bespoke signature moment — screen heats red with accelerating beeps, a detonation flash, then a triumphant keynote fanfare. The old green flicker that washed out the text is gone.
Endings Gallery — locked (non-hidden) cards now show a spoiler-light "how to find it" hint instead of blank "???". Hidden easter-egg endings still show "???".
Your name now appears in the Liberation ending's letter, book credit, and keynote billing; anonymous players are addressed as "Freelancer" (was "Admin").
Easter-egg endings (I Love Work / Product Team / Reserved Name): ESC is now the only exit (no more accidental dismissals), fixed a black-screen scroll bug, larger readable text, and hold-to-fast-forward credits.
Fixed the run-together footer prompt; removed emoji that didn't render in the menu font.
Contracts & Economy
New late-game mechanic — DataDyne Retaliation. Commit to a hostile path (Liberation/Phoenix) and from Level 15 new contracts pay far less (−75% ramping to −90% by L19+) and run ~20% slower, tagged in red.
Contract cards now tint the reward — red [-X%] for a cut, green [+X%] for a bonus (survives save/load).
Payout rebalance — smoothed the stress-based payout cliffs into a gentle ramp; specialization/freelancer/solidarity bonuses now add instead of multiplying; specialization money bonuses halved; contract modifiers (Rush, Premium, etc.) pay less.
Specialization panel is readable now — full tier names + live bonus, auto-sized to stay inside the window.
Fixed a double-accept/double-refuse exploit and duplicate story-contract offers after loading.
Fixed invisible email senders (white-on-white) — they now use legible colors.
Difficulty & Balance
Late-game is much less grindy — objective curve flattened so a primary objective now asks for at most 5 contracts (was 10).
More passive "operations" goals (was 70% contract-count / 30% ops → now 45% / 55%).
Fewer malware processes spawn (base spawn interval 15s → 60s).
Phoenix streak objective softened — the frustrating "complete N in a row" challenge now fires only occasionally and is shorter, with resilience-based alternatives.
Thermals & Hardware
Overheating past 80°C is more forgiving — a new heat damper reduces heat input up to 25% between 80–100°C, slowing the climb to the crash threshold.
Crashes now cost permanent hardware health — the −5% shown on the blue screen was being silently refunded on reboot; it now persists as intended.
New "Hardware Degradation Notice" email after 3+ crashes — DataDyne offers a one-time $300 stipend (accept, or refuse with "I'm not your asset").
Audio
Tense "overclocked" music now reliably kicks in at ≥85°C, stays tense through the spike, and the correct ambient track resumes after you cool down.
Minigames
CryptoBreaker — paid hints no longer spoil the letter you're actively working on.
Node Infection — Round 6 eased (8 turns) and the Round 7 finale made beatable (10 turns, weaker firewalls, lower target); fixed a banner/button overlap on large grids.
BIOS Decryptor — new socket-first placement (click an empty slot, then a gate), and the "Cycle Target" button now pulses amber when there are real PANOPTICON logs to crack.
Save & Load
Autosave removed — now 2 manual slots. The game saves when you explicitly Save and once on quit.
New Game binds to a slot up front, with an overwrite-confirmation dialog so you can't silently wipe a run.
Old builds' leftover autosave files are cleaned up; old saves remain compatible and are reconciled to the new story rules on load.
Rename now works on any save slot.
BIOS & UI
The BIOS is now fully mouse- and scroll-wheel navigable (keyboard still works).
Encrypted BIOS logs no longer dead-end — they show a cipher hint, the reward, and a one-key "Press D" launch of the Decryptor.
Entering the BIOS no longer blares the level-up fanfare over it.
In-game Guide rewritten with a "How Endings Are Decided" section explaining the commitment-choice system.
Settings fixes — the music volume slider's click area now lines up, saves on release (no disk thrash), and labels have room to breathe.
Notification toasts wrap and grow to fit long text; the "Delete save?" dialog no longer overflows; general text-legibility pass across toasts, panels, and settings.
-Jabran