Core UI & Gameplay Safety Updates

World Scene Movement Lock

• Accidental Collision Prevention: To eliminate frustrating missteps while browsing options, character movement is now strictly locked whenever an in-game menu button is clicked on the world scene.

• Geo Network Map Exception: The Geo Network Map is intentionally exempted from this movement lock. The world map screen remains fully active by design, allowing you to seamlessly look at, interact with, and navigate through the environment utilizing both the Geo Network Map and the Mini-map simultaneously.

Audio Options Expansion

• Voice Over Volume Slider: Added a dedicated Voice Over Volume control slider under the Audio Options menu (accessible via ESC).

• Direct Modulation: Verified and wired the slider to directly modulate and scale the output volume of all in-game voice overs dynamically.

Status HUD & Resistance Breakdown

• The Status HUD on the world scene has been enhanced to track specialized defense metrics. The five elemental and physical resistances have been positioned cleanly under the standard AC / DR block:

Plaintext

Kinetic ##% | Chemical ##%
Energy ##% | Explosive ##%
Cold ##%

• Dynamic Combat Scaling: These UI values will now update actively in real-time as buffs, debuffs, and environmental modifiers affect your resistances during combat scenes.

Encounter Ante UI Upgrades

• Smart Run Mechanics: The Player's Credits balance is now prominently displayed in a large, readable Yellow font size in the top-left corner of the Encounter Ante scene. This provides vital financial feedback needed to weigh risk-versus-reward decisions before utilizing the Run feature.

Tutorial Matrix Updates

The interactive tutorial framework has been fully updated to train raw operatives on complex grid mechanics:

Neural Capacity Unit (NCU) Tracking

• Bandwidth Mechanics: Clarified the function of the ### / ### NCU display positioned alongside other vitals in the top-left Status HUD.

• Round Reset Cycles: The tutorial now properly notes that NCU represents your active neural bandwidth; it depletes sequentially as cards are played, hits 0, and completely restores at the beginning of every round.

Stun Status Effect Breakdown

• Bandwidth Drainage: Added an explicit breakdown of the Stun mechanic. Stun drains the target's current round NCU down to zero instantly. If a Stun card specifies multiple rounds, it will continuously wipe the target's NCU pool for the duration of the effect.

Enemy Color Bloom Diagnostics

The visual threat-assessment matrix has been documented so players can gauge enemy capabilities at a glance:

• Yellow Bloom: Standard Roaming units.

• Red Bloom: Highly aggressive hunting units.

• Purple Bloom: Apex-tier street threats.

• Grey Bloom: Elite Champions.

• Blinding White / Green Bloom: Actively deployed Sector Bosses.

System Core Endurance Encounters

• Deck Cycle Constraints: Documented System Core operational limits. Players are locked into a strict endurance test spanning exactly 3 full cycles of your deck. Failing to breach the core before your third cycle ends results in your wagered card being permanently deleted.

• Black Market Spoils: Successfully outlasting and defeating a System Core rewards the runner with 4 loaded booster packs.

Deployment Schedule & Event Schedule

• Demo Branch Integration: These critical hotfixes and framework adjustments will deploy to the public Apocalypse: The Hunger Demo branch in a few days.

• Steam Cyberpunk Festival: This deployment serves as our final baseline configuration in direct preparation for Steam's Cyberpunk Festival coming this August.

Best of luck out there in the grid!

— The Bit Boy Games Team