Summary:
Fixed several internal systems were quietly accumulating leftover data from dead creatures, particles, and explored flora for the entire session, never cleaning up until a full restart. All three leak sources have now been patched, so frame rates should remain stable indefinitely during long sessions. This update is purely under-the-hood — no gameplay, balance, save files, or co-op behavior has changed.
Changes:
- Decorative visual effects (thread tethers behind creatures, lurker fade, frenzy clouds and trails) kept stale records for creatures that had died long ago. Over thousands of spawns and deaths, this clutter built up until it choked the frame rate. Now automatically cleaned up every frame.
- Combat performance hardened. Particle effects (blood splatter, explosions, clouds) now have a safety cap so sustained combat can't overwhelm the system. Under normal play nothing changes; the cap only kicks in during heavy fighting to keep things smooth.
- Co-op memory leak fixed. On the host's side, the game kept a record of every piece of flora ever discovered — forever. Now it cleans up entries for flora that no longer exist. Saves memory over long co-op sessions; does not affect what players see.