Playtest Update - Systems, Combat, Rewards, Audio, and UX

This update focuses on combat system, player progression, reward stability, card pack reliability, character creation flow, tutorial guidance, audio feedback, and overall playtest polish.

Player Account, Inventory, and Stash

• Improved reward pack tracking so packs earned from different sources are handled more clearly.
• Improved pack ownership and consumption logic to make reward handling more reliable after combat.

Character Creator and Player RPG Elements

• Added new boss actor resources and visual integration.
• Improved player progression balance through updated XP and Spirit reward scaling.
• Added level-based HP scaling so player growth is clearer and more meaningful.
• Improved player stat displays to show level-based HP growth.
• Improved character creation flow by tracking when character creation is in progress.
• Blocked unrelated character interaction inputs during character creation to prevent accidental actions.

Player Deck Builder

• Added crafting success and failure sound effects.
• Improved crafting feedback during deck-building interactions.
• Improved card detail dialog structure for clearer card inspection and interaction.

Card Crafting

• Added audio feedback for successful and failed crafting attempts.
• Improved crafting interaction clarity through better feedback and UI integration.

Celestial Skill Tree

• Improved passive-related combat stat breakdowns.
• Improved display of passive bonuses alongside temporary buffs for clearer player understanding.

Random Card Generator - Starter Deck

• Corrected starter deck recipe data so one starter card is assigned to the proper category.
• Adjusted Spirit reward scaling and boss loot scaling for improved progression balance.

Random Card Generator - Player Rewards and Card Packs

• Added fallback card generation for pack rewards to prevent failed card creation from breaking reward flow.
• Improved card pack generation reliability with safer fallback behavior.
• Added boss bonus packs based on boss difficulty.
• Improved pack reward tracking by separating Spirit-earned packs from boss bonus packs.
• Improved pack-opening summaries and reward display reliability.

Random Card Generator - Starter Enemy

• Added new boss visual options for greater enemy variety.
• Improved enemy and boss resource integration for future encounter variety.

Combat System

• Added keyboard shortcuts for feature activation during battle.
• Added support for main keyboard and numpad shortcuts.
• Added defense-mode shortcut handling for faster battle input.
• Improved KO handling during turns for cleaner battle flow.
• Improved battle animation transitions for player stat displays.
• Fixed Spark Color mapping issues for more consistent card generation and battle behavior.
• Added modular and loopable battle music for different tribes.
• Added bleeding damage scaling based on stack count.
• Improved bleeding stack decay and related combat messages.
• Improved feature exhaustion logic and hook handling.
• Added live display of packs earned during combat.
• Added tribe-specific legendary card visual effects.
• Added dragon sound effects and animation-linked audio feedback.
• Fixed a potential infinite loop during the preparation phase.
• Fixed targeting issues related to invalid target indices and empty target groups.
• Fixed ally and melee target selection edge cases.
• Added Frozen status restrictions so Frozen actors cannot attack or trigger blocked effects.
• Improved Frostbite and Chilled status handling.
• Added harvest-to-reaper conversion logic.
• Improved Reap-related combat feedback.
• Improved battle log readability by showing readable card names instead of internal identifiers.
• Improved rarity handling for special card types.
• Standardized selected affix rarity values.
• Adjusted passive damage values for better balance.

Encounter System - Random Enemy

• Added new boss encounter visual variation.
• Improved boss reward scaling through difficulty-based bonus packs.
• Improved combat reward flow for boss encounters.

Persistence - Save/Load System

• Added persistent music volume settings.
• Added persistent sound effects volume settings.
• Improved settings save/load support for separate audio controls.

Authentication and Authorization of Player

• Improved local access validation by preventing key character-related actions while character creation is still in progress.

Note: This update focuses on local in-game access safeguards and player-flow validation. It does not introduce an external online login system.

User Experience

[]Added randomized card art across Alchemy, Dark, Heat, Ice, Light, and Tempest cards for greater visual variety. []Added enlarged card art on hover for improved card readability.
• Improved card details dialog behavior and layout.
• Improved player stats dialog animation.
• Added modular tribe-based battle music.
• Added dragon sound effects for stronger action feedback.
• Added separate Music and Sound Effects volume sliders.
• Added randomized hint panel support for tutorial guidance.
• Added richer gameplay-specific tutorial hints.
• Improved tutorial hint display timing.
• Improved UI layout and scaling consistency across battle-related screens.
• Improved battle logs by showing readable card names instead of internal identifiers.
• Improved log readability and capitalization consistency.
• Improved Frozen status feedback and restrictions.
• Improved combat stat breakdown text with clearer sections.
• Improved display of passive bonuses and temporary buffs.
• Added legendary card visual effects using tribe-based gradients.
• Improved pack-opening animation timing.
• Improved audio feedback across combat and crafting interactions.

Summary

• Player Account, Inventory, and Stash: 2
• Character Creator and Player RPG Elements: 6
• Player Deck Builder: 3
• Card Crafting: 2
• Passive Skill Tree: 2
• Random Card Generator — Starter Deck: 1
• Random Card Generator — Player Rewards and Card Packs: 5
• Random Card Generator — Starter Enemy: 2
• Combat System: 24
• Encounter System — Random Enemy: 3
• Persistence — Save/Load System: 3
• Authentication and Authorization of Player: 1
• User Experience: 17

Thank you to everyone helping test the game. Feedback is especially useful on combat readability, reward flow, card pack opening, character creation, audio balance, tutorial hints, and save/load behavior.