Hard-Life The Xen Crystal Update

Hello Everyone.

I have overhauled the point-system for Multiplayer.

🔮 Crystal Rewards System Added

• Monsters now drop a small xen crystal when they die. (Some to be changed)

• Each crystal gives +1 point — but only if you haven’t gotten that reward today.

• Rewards are based securely saved and encrypted to your client.

• If you already got that reward, you can’t pick up the crystal (it just passes through you).

• Other players in multiplayer can still pick it up if they haven’t claimed it yet.

• Crystals disappear after a short time if nobody valid collects them.

Prevents farming, prevents restart abuse, and keeps rewards fair for everyone.

Why a Crystal Rewards System?

The Weapon Upgrade System (Multiplayer Only)

Players can improve their weapons by using the in-game point system. Points are earned during normal gameplay and can be spent through the Buy Menu. From there, you can select a weapon and choose from various upgrade options such as fire rate, reload speed, accuracy, ammo capacity, or special abilities. Once purchased, the upgrade is applied immediately to the selected weapon. Steam saves this upgrade on their servers (Takes a second to happen).

How it works:

• Earn points through regular gameplay

• Open the Buy Menu

• Choose a weapon from the list

• Select an upgrade category (fire rate, reload, accuracy, etc.)

• Spend points to unlock the upgrade

• Upgrade takes effect right away

• Next release may include a reset / adjustments of levels depending on how this performs

Upgrades like what though? I'm interested...

Example:
The shotgun now has five total levels, from Level 0 up to Level 4. Each level slightly improves how the weapon feels, with Level 0 being the classic, unchanged base version.

As you level up, the shotgun becomes faster and more responsive. For example, the rate of fire improves at each level, so the weapon fires a little quicker every time you upgrade it. These upgrades are meant to feel natural — not extreme, not overpowered — just smooth, rewarding steps forward.

The idea is to give players something to look forward to and to make the shotgun feel more alive as the game progresses. Leveling up your weapon now feels like real growth, and each improvement is noticeable without breaking balance.

Planning

Well... Christmas is ruined..
We unfortunately have to get this rolling out faster than normal. That means all the betaboys that are not currently subscribed to patreon. I understand the frustration of exclusivity but if we don't roll this out sooner - it can be heavily abused. We'd like to have everyone experience the same start , the same beginning that everyone else has. That said. We had to have do the 6 month update early.

Guess Who's Back?

Thank you to free Tier for subscribing and stay tuned ...

That doesn't mean our patreon user's are getting jipped - It means there will be more to come & soon. Which leads me to our next portion.

Subscribers ,
...

Patreon users,

Hoping to get some new animations done by December to do the next December Patreon Release , At this time we have the same individual who has worked with us previously for model animations such as the 9mm Handgun / MP5 has come to work on our project part time again. We are currently working closely on some new animations that are also going to be included with the upgrade system.

As a subscriber what other benefits can I receive?

Well , there are discussions in place now to potentially open up multipliers for xen crystal rewards. At this time unfortunately you are only able to pick up one per kill even though more may drop (Example - Hgrunt / Garg) Please send in your steam id's or steam id links to hard-code your profiles into our game. This would allow me to get your in-game features other's won't have yet... This includes upgrades that other's won't be able to access yet.

Once you send me those steamid's i can open up the rest of the upgrades for you on December release.