Development Log – December 2025: Core Loot System and Player Progression System Implementation

Patch Notes – Recent Updates

[MILESTONE] Major Systems & Content

• New Core Loot System: Implemented a foundational ‘Heist-Style’ loot system, introducing complex mechanics for item acquisition and reward. This system supports procedural spawning, defines loot progression, and introduces rare item tiers.
• New Player Progression System: Introduced a SteamWorld Heist-inspired XP and leveling system. This includes comprehensive mission debriefing screens with detailed statistics and player rating, providing clear feedback on performance.

[GAMEPLAY] Features & Mechanics

• New Equipment & Actions: Expanded player combat options with new equipment and tactical actions, including specific items inspired by SteamWorld Heist. Legacy Guardian and Overwatch actions have been removed to streamline the action set.
• Enhanced Equipment Mechanics: The equipment system now features a refined ‘uses’ system with category support. A new system for refilling uses and resetting cooldowns has been implemented, adding a layer of resource management to combat.
• New Tactical Options: Introduced stun grenades as a new tactical item, allowing players to control enemy movement and create strategic opportunities.
• Overhauled Projectile System: Implemented a new, robust projectile system. This includes associated assets and an editor tool, providing a more consistent and flexible foundation for ranged combat, replacing the previous ballistics plugin.
• Combat Effects & Loot Mechanics: Added a clear visual effect for stunned melee units, improving combat feedback. Refined general interaction timing and bullet tracking for more responsive gameplay.
• Advanced Loot System: The loot system now supports 10 distinct tiers and scales dynamically with difficulty settings, enhancing the excitement of finding high-tier rewards. Terminology has been standardized from ‘Swag’ to ‘Loot’ across all systems.
• Dynamic Extraction Zones: Level exits are now node-based extraction zones, adding a new tactical layer to mission completion and requiring strategic planning for successful extraction.
• New Enemy Type & AI Refinements: Introduced the Goblin Healer enemy, complete with updated AI configurations to provide new tactical challenges.
• Refined Movement System: Player movement (walk/sprint) now has consistent Action Point costs, improving tactical decision-making and predictability in combat.
• Revive Mechanic: Implemented a full revive system, allowing players to bring downed allies back into the fight, adding a crucial layer of teamplay and survivability.
• Action Point Management: Abilities now automatically manage their states based on available Action Points, streamlining the action queue and reducing player micro-management.
• Streamlined Door Interaction: Doors now automatically open into adjacent, already-open rooms, improving flow and reducing unnecessary player input. Door node movement handling has also been improved.
• AI Pathfinding & Tactical Intelligence Improvements: Enhanced AI path validation for more reliable movement. Tactical AI now features significantly enhanced movement and cover logic, leading to more challenging and intelligent enemy encounters, including new dash melee actions and improved pursuit behaviors.
• Enemy Balancing: Updated various enemy behaviors and weapon configurations for improved balance and varied tactical challenges.
• Mission Tracking: Loot tokens are now tracked in mission statistics, providing clearer performance metrics.

[GRAPHICS] Visuals & Effects

• Visual Polish: Refactored bullet trail visuals and weapon templates for improved impact and visual fidelity. Bullet trails and vapor trails have been enhanced for better visual feedback during ranged combat.
• New VFX Assets: Integrated various effect packages to enhance overall visual fidelity and add new visual effects. UI particle packages have been added for dynamic UI elements.
• Loot Visual Distinction: Loot containers now display distinct rare and epic visuals, enhancing the excitement of finding high-tier items.
• Particle System for UI: Implemented a ParticleImage asset kit, enhancing the visual effects on the loot UI, making reveals more dynamic.
• Camera Focus Refinement: Improved camera focus logic for a more cinematic and responsive experience during gameplay.
• Character Rendering Improvements: Updated character materials and sorting layers for better visual quality and depth perception in character models.
• New Enemy Animations: Added new, high-quality animations for the Goblin enemy, improving their visual presence and combat readability.
• Movement Range Visualization: Pathfinding visuals now integrate with the walk/sprint range system, providing clearer tactical feedback on unit movement capabilities.

[AUDIO] Sound & Music

• Loot Pickup Audio: Added distinct audio cues for loot pickups, providing satisfying feedback when acquiring items.

[UI/UX] User Interface & Experience

• New Inventory Icons: Added various new inventory icons, including beer cup icons, to support new items and visual clarity.
• Centralized Icon Management: Implemented a new IconDatabase for streamlined, centralized management of all UI icons, improving consistency and workflow.
• Animated Loot Reveal: The Loot Screen now features a manual, animated container reveal system using DOTween animations, making loot acquisition more satisfying and visually engaging.
• New UI Elements: Introduced new ‘Asset Card’ UI elements and supporting scripts for displaying information more clearly.
• Debriefing Loot Animations: Implemented an animated loot reveal system specifically for the mission debriefing screen, enhancing the post-mission experience.
• Improved Level Exit UI: The Level Exit indicator system and its UI logic have been refined for clearer player guidance and feedback.
• Comprehensive Debriefing UI: Implemented comprehensive debriefing UI screens, including rating stars and detailed mission statistics, providing players with robust post-mission feedback.
• New UI Features: Introduced various new UI features and an underlying node effect system for enhanced visual feedback and interactive elements.

[PERFORMANCE] Optimizations

• Memory & Responsiveness: Resolved a memory leak and delayed response issue associated with the laser sight, contributing to better long-term performance and responsiveness.

[FIXED] Bug Fixes & Stability

• Visual Bug Fixes:
  • Resolved an issue where the laser sight remained visible after firing.
  • Corrected character model scale and mirroring problems.
• Stability & Reliability Fixes:
  • Added null checks to prevent potential issues in room generation, improving overall stability.
  • Fixed issues with cinematic camera target cleanup and race conditions, improving overall stability during camera transitions.
  • Ensured pathfinding nodes are correctly initialized, preventing related pathfinding bugs.

[TECHNICAL] Backend & Development

• Savegame System: Implemented a robust savegame migration and schema tracking system, laying groundwork for future game updates and ensuring savegame compatibility.
• Asset Management & Documentation: Refactored reward assets and updated related documentation for better organization and clarity. Core level templates and associated assets were also updated to a new serialization format.
• Developer Tools: Added runtime equipment testing tools and support for SteamWorld Heist integrations, enhancing internal development workflows. An ‘Infinite AP’ debug feature was also added for testing purposes.
• System Refactoring: Refactored various code sections, including `LootScreen` namespace imports and general code cleanup to remove redundant ‘this.’ keywords and update API usage. The CameraManager was refactored into a simplified 2-state system.
• Icon System Backend: Implemented a new icon system and updated associated asset references for consistent UI icon management.
• System Documentation: Added comprehensive documentation for the loot system setup and an initial loot container prefab.
• Level Structure & Node System Overhaul: Migrated node lookups to a central NodeManager and modernized range visualization. The core node system was refined, and related prefabs updated. Added utility methods for managing node links in vertical doors and ladders. Implemented a Line-of-Sight (LOS) node sensor for player and enemy prefabs, laying groundwork for advanced AI and stealth mechanics.
• AI System Overhaul: Completely removed the Behavior Designer integration and legacy NPC behavior tree system, replacing it with new, custom tactical AI actions and behavior presets. This involved refactoring AI action priorities and data management using ScriptableObjects. AI heal actions were also refactored to use ScriptableObjects.
• Code & Asset Consistency: Renamed `LevelEnemyManager` to `EnemyManager` across the project for consistency, and updated various scripts (e.g., `ABILITY_Movement_New.cs`). Updated sorting layers and animation handler references.