Polish & Combat Readability Update

I’ll update this post with gifs and visuals where possible, but I’m a bit short on time this week.

Weapon UI & Combat Feedback

• Weapon rarity is now displayed on weapon pickups and in your loadout.

• Weapon HUD, loadout, and pickup screens now show ammo type icons, making it clearer which weapons use which ammo.

• New crosshair styles with cleaner visuals. Some previous crosshairs were overly noisy and obstructed aiming.

• Hit marker visuals have been refined to be thinner and more transparent for better target visibility.

• Added audio feedback when switching grenades.

• Improved out-of-ammo UI animations for clearer combat feedback.

  • The main weapon HUD now turns red when out of ammo.

  • An on-screen warning and alarm play when ammo is fully depleted.

• Ammo and fuel are now visible before starting a run.

• Ammo Pools, Grenade Pools, and Fuel indicators now turn red when empty for clearer state feedback.

Weapon Naming Improvements

Weapons now use clear, descriptive names, making it easier to understand what you’re picking up at a glance.

Examples include:

• Rifle

• SMG

• Sniper

• Pistol

• Shotgun

• Grenade Launcher

• Launcher

• Beam Weapon

• Heavy Weapon

• Plasma Rifle

• Plasma SMG

• Plasma Pistol

• Plasma Shotgun

• Plasma Sniper

• Rupture Injector

Weapon Balance Change

• Removed recoil from the delayed-projectile weapon (now renamed to Rupture Injector). The extreme recoil combined with delayed explosions made the weapon difficult to use. This weapon is now far more controllable and reliable.

Grav Hand & Energy Balancing

• Doubled the energy gained from Grav Recharge pickups.

• Reduced Grav Hand energy cost.

• Reduced Death Claw skill energy cost, allowing more consecutive grabs.

Future updates will introduce gravity energy dispensers in key locations (similar to ammo and cybernetic stations), reducing reliance on RNG-heavy Grav Charge drops, especially before major encounters.

Warp Energy UI Fixes

• Fixed Warp Energy tooltips on the skill tree not updating correctly when unlocking upgrades.

• Improved Warp Energy layout and spacing on the skill tree for better readability.

Final Boss Improvements

• Boss weapons now properly aim and track the player, increasing accuracy and overall threat.

• Added additional cover to the final boss arena.

• Increased cover health to balance the boss’s improved accuracy.

• Fixed an issue where certain weapons could only damage the final boss from specific angles.

Other Boss Improvements

• Added navmesh obstacles to the first boss arena to prevent drop-pod enemies from hiding inside geometry.

• Removed the exit door from the Skugs encounter to prevent rare softlocks after the boss is defeated.

• Fixed an issue where enemies in the Skugs encounter could become trapped in the exit door geometry.

Enemies & Combat

• Improved telegraphing for Suicide Grunt enemies. A warning beep now plays and increases in frequency as they approach.

• Suicide Gruber enemies now also emit a warning beep that increases in frequency as they get closer, giving players clearer audio cues before detonation.

• Fixed riot shield enemies failing to shoot or firing into their own shields. They should now consistently apply pressure in combat.

• Reduced riot shield health. Shields were absorbing far more damage than intended.

• Improved enemy cover-seeking behaviour. Enemies now take cover cleanly and react immediately, instead of awkwardly walking along cover first.

• Fixed enemies getting stuck during reload states, where they would appear to attack but posed no actual threat.

Audio & Presentation

• Added audio feedback when consuming medkits.

• Corrected audio used during the Abandoned Factory out-of-fuel encounter.

• Added a female voice variant for Tao (Shadow Syndicate).

• Improved lighting across multiple rooms and encounters.

• Reduced excessive shine on homebase cryopods. Characters inside are now clearly visible.

World & Level Improvements

• Improved cover placement and layout across multiple levels.

• Refined corridor colour palettes across all stations.

• Added clear exit signage to Rebel Starbase Halcyon after playtesters struggled to find the way out.

Bug Fixes & Polish

Weapons & Items

• Fixed Spec Ops Rocket Man firing invisible rockets.

• Fixed duplicate weapon spawning when loading a save.

• Fixed grenade animation issues.

• Fixed grenade count and switching edge cases.

• Fixed pickups occasionally bumping or lifting the player when collected.

• Fixed magazine and scope pivot issues. No more floating mags or scopes.

UI & Menus

• Fixed core stats not displaying after returning from the main menu.

• Fixed Cybernetics menu failing to open correctly on subsequent runs.

• Fixed out-of-ammo state not updating when picking up ammo.

• Fixed brief UI flashing when switching weapons.

• Fixed orbital strike aiming and centering on controller.

• Fixed Compact Death and Stick to Your Guns II achievements (please shout if these still don’t unlock).

• Smoothed the transition from the splash screen to the main menu.

• Improved load times when restarting a run after death.

Level Geometry & Pathing

• Fixed door filler issues in the City Station river room that exposed space.

• Fixed holes, gaps, and void exposure across multiple levels.

• Fixed water trim issues in the Scrapper water room.

• Fixed enemies attempting to path through containers.

• Fixed floating props and decals.

• Fixed Z-fighting across multiple environments.

• Improved navmesh alignment and wall pathing, including the Gruber split room.

Visuals & Effects

• Fixed floating blood splats and decals. Blood no longer hangs in mid-air or lingers when doors or objects are destroyed.

• Fixed one-frame animation flickering that caused enemies to visually snap between states.

• Fixed scorch mark lighting issues on reflective and close-range surfaces.

• Cleaned up corridor undersides. Stations now feel structurally complete when viewed from outside, rather than floating shells.

• Fixed floating plant props in corridors.

The first 3 bullets have probably had the single biggest effect on 'De-janking' the game out of all the listed improvements.

Destruction (Work in Progress)

The game already features destructible environments, and work has begun on expanding this system further, including:

• New destructible pillar variants.

• Destructible Warp Cores.

• Improved wall destruction.

• A wider range of destructible objects.

These additions are intentionally not included in this update. A larger, more focused Destruction Update is planned once the expanded system has enough depth and coverage across levels.

These notes are a bit rushed, but hopefully it demonstrates just how much work has gone into this update. Keep an eye on this blog post in the coming days as I'll add images and gifs to it. This is just the first in a series of quality of life updates I plan to do for the coming months. I've got quite a lot of real world activity going on in the next couple of weeks, so expect the next update towards the end of February! If you've read the whole thing! Wow I appreciate you! Keep sending bug reports on the discord or on the steam forums. I read them all. And let me know what you think of this update. - James