Development continues with another gameplay, combat, UI, camera, and quality-of-life update. This patch includes improvements to Scout abilities, status-effect visibility, enemy systems, targeting, camera behavior, interaction feedback, and several stability fixes.
Updates
- Improved enemy data structure and authoring to reduce legacy and duplicate configuration paths while preserving existing enemy behavior.
- Added foreground camera depth-of-field so objects very close to the camera can blur while keeping the player and gameplay area readable.
- Expanded the available camera zoom range and added local character and gear fading when the camera gets too close or enters obstructive viewing angles.
- Improved target cycling so players can switch targets without the camera being forcibly redirected.
- Added clearer target HUD highlighting to make the currently selected enemy easier to identify.
- Added directional damage HUD feedback using a soft red edge glow to indicate the approximate direction of incoming damage.
- Added a world interaction focus reticle that identifies the highest-priority interactable object.
- Added slope-aware character alignment so cats visually follow inclines and declines more naturally while preserving stable movement and collision.
- Scout Ability Improvements
- Rapid Volley now fires using the player’s actual aim direction instead of automatically locking onto nearby enemies.
- Rapid Volley can now be fired into empty space and can miss normally.
- Removed hidden retargeting, reacquisition, and aim assistance from Rapid Volley while preserving its existing projectile count, timing, range upgrades, and damage behavior.
- Reworked Hunter’s Mark so players must aim directly at the intended target.
- Hunter’s Mark no longer automatically selects nearby enemies and can no longer mark targets through walls.
- Hunter’s Mark now uses proper combat hitboxes for targeting and follows the same direct-aim rules in PvP.
- Fixed Camouflage displaying the generic Stealth icon instead of its own ability presentation.
- Trail Runner and Avatar of the Wild now display correctly as active named buffs using their own ability names and icons.
- Fixed Avatar of the Wild incorrectly displaying Root Immunity as its active HUD status.
- Fixed missing cooldown enforcement for Precise Aim Shot and Sniper Shot.
- Status Effect Improvements
- Expanded the status-effect system so meaningful active conditions and buffs can be represented more consistently on player and enemy HUDs.
- Improved support for visible statuses including Slow, Stun, Poison, Bleed, Damage Reduction, Healing Resistance, and named ability states.
- Fixed Hunter’s Mark being active internally but not appearing on enemy status displays.
- Added visible Slow tracking, including support for multiple independent Slow sources.
- Slow now displays source/stack count and correctly updates when stronger or weaker Slow effects expire.
- Crippling Shot now correctly displays the shared Slow status on affected enemies instead of requiring its own separate status entry.
- Added proper Stun status display support while preserving existing Stun gameplay behavior.
- Added a generic Damage Reduction status used by abilities that apply the shared temporary damage-reduction effect.
- Damage Reduction refreshes correctly without incorrectly stacking its magnitude.
- Improved status-effect consistency between generic conditions and named ability states.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where expired world loot could visually disappear while leaving behind stale or still-interactable pickup actors.
- Improved world loot cleanup so expired pickups are fully removed instead of accumulating hidden actors.
- Fixed several Scout ability targeting, cooldown, and HUD presentation issues.
- Fixed status effects that could be mechanically active without appearing correctly on the HUD.
- Improved status duration, expiration, and refresh behavior for several active effects.
- Additional minor stability, UI, camera, targeting, and interaction fixes.
More improvements are already in development as we continue refining combat, abilities, enemies, UI, and world presentation throughout the Closed Alpha.