System Overload: Patch Notes

This is a big one. The boot sequence, the tutorial, contracts, the shop and the BIOS have all been rebuilt, the hardware simulation now follows clear rules, and a long list of bugs has been fixed.

NEW

• Rebuilt boot sequence. A proper POST screen, then the TaskManager OS splash with moving clouds and a boot synth. The sky follows your run: time of day, rain, storms and smog. A worn-out disk can make the boot stall.

• Chip has a face. Chip now shows up as a tiny microchip whose expression reacts to how things are going: sleepy on late-night boots, dizzy when the disk stalls, sick when your hardware is worn, starry-eyed after an overclock, soaking wet if you get evicted... and a little different if you side with DataDyne.

• New tutorial. Chip walks you through your first two minutes: kill a CPU hog, get rid of malware, open your email and accept your first contract. The thing you need to click is spotlighted, and Chip has opinions when you click something else.

• Straight into the game. On first launch with no save, the game now skips the main menu and starts a Campaign right away.

• New Campaign BIOS look. Classic blue "CMOS Setup Utility" style. WASD now works alongside the arrow keys in both the Campaign and Survival BIOS.

• Cipher: step through letters with the < > arrows under each tile (typing still works).

• BIOS Decryptor: live feedback while you work, with the current value on every wire, a stepper on each gate and a hint toward the nearest solution.

• CryptoBreaker: the first box starts selected and the whole thing can be played from the keyboard.

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE

Hardware

• CPU speed matters now. Contract progress scales with your installed chip, your bonuses and your clock speed (up to x2). Overclocking is finally worth the risk.

• CPU chips: 27 down to 6. Installing a chip replaces the old one instead of stacking with it.

• Disk rework. Idle disk load is now low (it used to sit around 68%). Running contracts load the disk based on how disk-heavy they are. One clear rule: above 85% busy everything slows down, above 95% it slows down a lot, and it never drops below 25% speed. The contract preview uses the exact same math.

• Passive hardware damage was being applied twice. It is now applied once, so your rig wears out more slowly.

• The decoy "System" and "Explorer.exe" processes no longer spawn as random load.
  

Contracts

• New list + details layout. The details panel shows the risks, the full reward breakdown and how hard the job will hit your PC, disk included.

• The contract you selected stays in the details panel while you hover over others.
  

Shop

• Every item now says exactly what it does, and each card has a column listing its real effects.
  

Story and endings

• Meltdown now triggers the moment your hardware health hits its floor (shown as 10%). No crash count needed.

• Scam Victim now triggers after 2 accepted scam emails instead of 5. Read your inbox carefully.

• Reward offers no longer change when you restart the game.

• Story emails got richer formatting.
  

BIOS and overclocking

• The boot only halts for an overclock that truly can't run (more than 0.2 V short). When it does, press ENTER to boot anyway and keep your overclock, or DEL / F2 to open the BIOS.

• Small undervolts now boot. They can still freeze your PC later, so keep an eye on stability.

• The tutorial caps CPU temperature at 70 °C, so new players can't cook their rig in the first two minutes.
  

SAVES

• Hardware upgrades are now saved properly: RAM sticks, your installed CPU chip, network speed, one-time upgrades, shop discounts, crash protection and more. Before this patch, some of them quietly reset when you restarted the game and loaded a save.

• Decrypted BIOS logs stay decrypted after loading (no more double bounty).

• Older saves still load. Upgrades that an older save never stored can't be recovered, but everything from now on is kept.
  

SETTINGS AND UI

• Removed the Gamma option. It never actually did anything.

• Main menu settings now use the same tabs as in-game: Video, Audio, Gameplay.

• Stuck Help is on by default and can be toggled in the Gameplay tab. First launch no longer asks about it.

• The graphics preset picker now previews the real glow effect.

• Fixed the pixel font's word spacing, so words no longer run together ("Skiptutorial").

• Button labels no longer get cut off with "..." (Node Infector, Resource Monitor, Paint, Text Editor, Shop tabs, email choices and more). Small close buttons now show "X".

• The reward card window and Performance Monitor were re-laid out so nothing clips or overlaps.
  
  

BUG FIXES

• Steam achievement popups and the Shift+Tab overlay now show up in game. Achievements were unlocking, but you never saw the toast.

• Fixed a phantom overclock crash: the game could record a crash that never happened and then refuse to boot next time.

• Fixed Adrenaline Assist flickering on and off many times per second, even with the mouse standing still.

• Performance: the game was re-reading a settings file from disk every single frame.

• Every new process played its sound and particle effect twice.

• BIOS: hovering the mouse no longer steals the selection from the arrow keys, and the log boxes line up properly.

• Bulk Order contracts loaded from a save showed broken text.

• The boot sequence could start twice.
  

Chip is watching. Helpfully!

-Jabran