Meta

Changelog

Game version history and patch notes for Stamp Collector Simulator.

Version History

Current Version

The game is in early access / soft launch. Features are being added and balanced regularly.

v.4 — Meta-Progression Update

The largest update yet, adding persistent progression across runs and a death mechanic.

System Integrity (HP)

  • New health system: every run starts at 100 SI
  • All network attacks now deal SI damage (2-20 per hit)
  • When SI reaches 0, the run ends immediately
  • IntegrityBar UI shows current SI with color-coded states (green/yellow/red)
  • Pulsing animation when SI drops below 30%

XP & Level System

  • Persistent XP earned at the end of every run (win or death)
  • 10 hand-tuned levels with perk slot unlocks (1 slot at L1, 5 slots at L10)
  • XP from: stamps (1%), adversary kills (50 each), constructs (25/50/100), context files (30), survival bonuses, victory bonus (500)
  • Prestige multiplier: +20% XP per prestige level

20 Perks

  • Equippable passive abilities across 5 categories: Survival, Economy, Combat, Infrastructure, Discovery
  • Examples: Hardened Shell (+20 max SI), Seed Capital (+5,000 starting money), Overclocked Hacks (+2 hack damage)
  • Equipped at the hub before each run
  • Unlocked through achievements

56 Achievements

  • 10 categories with bronze/silver/gold/red tiers
  • 18 achievements unlock perks
  • Track lifetime stats: kills, threads, stamps, constructs, deaths
  • Achievement toast notifications with tier-colored borders

29 Context Files (Narrative System)

  • Discoverable lore artifacts telling the story of Dan and the stamp collector experiment
  • Drop triggers: run start, stamp thresholds, construct tiers, adversary events, random discovery
  • Context File Viewer with source filtering and progress tracking (X/29)
  • 4 sources: Dan, Adversary, System, World

12 Story Milestones

  • Narrative popups at key gameplay moments (first thread, first construct, first kill, etc.)
  • Typewriter text animation with auto-pause on critical milestones
  • Suppressible for repeat players

Death & Run-End Modal

  • Animated XP breakdown showing each category with bar chart
  • Level-up visualization
  • Different styling for victory (green) vs death (red)
  • Options: Reinitialize Run or Return to Hub

Root Access Subscription

  • $5/month subscription unlocking multiplayer and prestige P1+
  • Stripe-hosted checkout flow
  • Customer portal for subscription management

Prestige Scaling

  • 0-based prestige levels (P0 = first game)
  • Win condition: ceil(25,000 x 1.1^prestigeLevel) stamps
  • RAM penalty: -5% per prestige level
  • XP multiplier: +20% per prestige level

Card Balance Changes

  • Shard pools tripled: 3 → 9 copies per shard type
  • memory_leak_exploit added to canonicalization_pass search pool
  • Threat modeling fixes

UI Enhancements

  • IntegrityBar component with color-coded states
  • Achievement toast notifications
  • Context file discovery toasts
  • Narrative milestone modals with typewriter effect
  • Run-end XP summary with animations
  • Perk loadout management UI
  • XP progress bar
  • Sticky game header
  • HDD category filtering
  • Speaker icon toggle (replaced text toggle)

Previous Updates

Auto-Run Batching

  • Same-definition auto-run threads with zero arguments now merge into a single batch thread
  • Batch threads display a multiplier badge (e.g., x5)
  • Rewards are multiplied by the batch count
  • “Initiate All” button added for starting all copies at once

Single-Player Mode

  • Private worlds with pause/unpause functionality
  • Adjustable timescale for faster or slower gameplay
  • Auto-pause after 120 seconds of inactivity
  • Only world owner can join

PvP Hacking System

  • Hack spells deliver network attacks to other players
  • Network thread duration: baseDurationHours x 2 + 40 hours
  • Adversary-targeted hack spells deal hackLevel² damage
  • Kill rewards (stamps + money) for defeating adversaries

Adversary Damage System

  • Hack levels on cards (1, 2, 3) deal level² damage to adversaries
  • Level 1 = 1 HP, Level 2 = 4 HP, Level 3 = 9 HP
  • Adversary HP rebalanced across all 10 adversaries
  • Kill rewards added to all adversaries

Global Leaderboard

  • User.maxStampsAchieved tracks all-time highest stamps
  • Global leaderboard ranks players across all worlds
  • Separate from per-world leaderboards

Chat System

  • World chat for all players in a world
  • Direct messages between players
  • Membership-gated access

Sound System

  • 10 sound effects + background music loop
  • Sound toggle in top bar
  • State-change event sounds

Security Hardening

  • Login rate limiting (10 attempts/minute)
  • Account lockout (5 failures → 15 minute lock)
  • Password requirements (12+ chars, mixed case + digit)
  • Server-side rate limiting
  • Username whitelist validation
  • World chat membership checks

Performance Optimizations

  • Thread timer halved for faster UI updates
  • SSE debounce for reduced network traffic
  • Module-level card cache in frontend
  • Leaderboard Redis cache (60s TTL)
  • Static asset caching (1 year, immutable)
  • GameLogEntry pruning (500 entry cap)

Planned Features

  • More card types and strategies
  • Additional perks and achievements
  • Enhanced PvP features
  • Community events / seasonal content
  • Quality of life improvements based on player feedback

This changelog is maintained by the community. For official updates, check the game directly.