Every protocol rank from 1 through 10 now grants a mechanical bonus, not just the milestone tiers Ranks 3, 7, and 10 are still the "headline" jumps; the ranks between them now give smaller continuous improvements instead of nothing Rank-up hints (VISUAL / MASTERY / MASTERED tags) preserved across the new bonus ranks Applies to all three protocols All existing saves are fully compatible. Your current rank carries over and you immediately benefit from any intermediate bonuses you've already earned.
Quality-of-life and stability update. New Statistics view, expanded save system, and a round of fixes from a top-to-bottom code review. New Statistics page rebuilt: 5 grouped sections, lifetime aggregates across all slots, leaderboard ranks, and per-save breakdown Save slots expanded from 5 to 20, with sorting, usage counter, and a reworked saves UI Credits view: widened layout, 3-column technology grid, EQ visualizer, version footer Gameplay manual expanded with new lore fragments and updated hints Terminal timestamps toggle added to Settings Settings: confirmation on reset, clearer hints Stability & Hardening Renderer errors are now forwarded to the main log file so crashes can actually be diagnosed Save migration refuses to load saves from a newer version than this build, instead of silently downgrading them Removed an unverified save-file "checksum" that was decorative, not protective -- saves load faster and the security story is honest now Hardened Steam AppID resolution in packaged builds (no longer trusts the launch directory) Under The Hood Internal refactor: game definitions (upgrades, achievements, protocols, optimization nodes, research, narrative milestones) extracted into dedicated modules. No gameplay changes - groundwork for faster iteration on future content. All existing saves are fully compatible.
