Two major systems landed in April — a complete Combat AI rebuild and the Chef profession launch — alongside a unified inventory UX pass, gathering bug fixes, dedicated player-interaction keys, environmental polish around Ciliora, and a foundational Unreal Engine 5.7.4 migration. Here’s the month in review.
Headline features
🔥 Smarter Monsters: The Combat AI Overhaul
April’s biggest single piece of work. Every combat monster — from Wild Pigglets to Zone Bosses — got telegraphed attacks, real threat tables, combo chains, AOE awareness, pack coordination, adaptive behavior detection, chase-speed bonuses, and two-phase HP escalation. Tier-based intelligence means low-tier creatures fight more chaotically while elites and bosses make calculated, adaptive decisions.
Read the full Combat AI dev log →
🍳 The Chef Profession Goes Live
Six new ingredients (Flour, Bread, Flavoured Bread, Blood Sausage, Crab Meat, Honey), six new dishes (Choripan, Crab Stew, Honey Cake, Meat Empanada, Smoked Meat Platter, Energizing Tonic), beehives spawning in the woods around Ciliora village, and chef recipe books dropping from chests across the world. Branoc stocks the basic Cooking Tool Kit and seed ingredients to get fresh chefs started.
⚙️ UE 5.7.4 Engine Migration
One of the largest under-the-hood changes of the year. Full project migration to Unreal Engine 5.7.4, tooling paths updated, Unreal MCP server integration for AI-assisted dev tools, async cook race workaround, and a content cleanup pass with a full lighting rebuild. Foundation work that pays dividends in upcoming patches as we adopt 5.7 features.
Read the full UE 5.7.4 dev log →
Polish & quality of life
🎒 Inventory & Container UX Pass
Unified Ctrl/Shift/no-modifier conventions across every drop in the game (bag slot, merchant window, recycle bin, trade partner, container item, open container UI). Drag in and out of containers, fixed silent failures on full containers, and a Recipe Book slot rendering fix that resolves the empty-grid-after-deposit bug.
⛏️ Gathering & Pickup Polish
Limestone earthquake bug fixed, tree-climbing exploit closed, full-inventory gather auto-equip (no more “you need an axe to...” with an axe in your bag), multiplayer pickup VFX and sound now play for every nearby player, generic pickup montage, and wheat/herb walkthrough restored.
Read the full Gathering dev log →
⌨️ T for Trade, P for Party
Trade requests and party invites got dedicated keys (T and P) instead of sharing E. The interact key (E) goes back to its one true job: looting honey, harvesting resources, talking to NPCs, opening chests. Behind the scenes, the input pipeline is now on Unreal’s Enhanced Input system, paving the way for full key remapping in a future Settings menu.
Read the full Trade/Party dev log →
🏛️ Ciliora Visual Refresh
A polish pass on cathedral pillars, eleven tombstone variants, village walls, and woodland materials around Ciliora village. New seamless bark variant and refined moss textures for the surrounding wilderness.
Read the full Ciliora dev log →
By the numbers
- 62 commits across 56 versioned releases (0.6.0.28 → 0.6.3.5)
- 2 major new systems — Combat AI overhaul, Chef profession
- 1 engine version upgrade — UE 5.6 → UE 5.7.4
- Multiple QoL passes — inventory UX, gathering, networking keys, environmental polish
What’s next
May focus areas based on the visible roadmap and open work:
- Tank/healer party-play loop — building on April’s threat-table foundations with taunt abilities
- Continued Chef profession content and balance tuning
- Stability and polish leveraging the new UE 5.7.4 engine APIs
- Settings menu key remapping (foundation laid by the T/P key split)
Versions covered: 0.6.0.28 → 0.6.3.5.