Peak Stalker - release 1.0.2

The airport mirror freeze unlocks the stalker for that run. It still triggers automatically after 120 seconds when a real mirror is ready; the host can use F8 to trigger it sooner. A failed capture does not unlock anything. Returning to the airport requires another mirror event. F9 restores the effect but does not undo a successful unlock. The state is shared with installed guests and late joiners; a new room starts locked.

Release 1.0.2 — multiplayer and biome recovery

All players need 1.0.2 installed for the updated opening audio. Guests who finish loading while Bing Bong's 69.23-second recording is still running now hear its remaining portion at the shared host position. The previous ten-second loading cutoff is removed. The opening still plays once per haunted run, at the start on the beach. Reclaiming or replacing the stalker preserves the original 70-second deadline and does not replay the opening.

The host now watches for a stalker falling more than 120 metres below the lowest living player, or farther than 600 metres from every living player. Emergency recovery requests the game's native networked, terrain-checked teleport to a point 45–65 metres from the lowest living player, within 25 metres of their elevation. Destinations must be outside every player's view and outside protected campfires. If no valid point is found, recovery retries after five seconds. Recovery.EmergencyDistance configures extreme separation; Recovery.Enabled controls these safety relocations.

After a biome change, a safety window waits three seconds for terrain loading, then checks for 30 seconds. During that window, an unseen stalker over 100 metres away or more than 40 metres below the lowest player also qualifies for recovery. A claimed stalker left inactive in an old biome hierarchy is detached and reactivated. If the previously claimed native enemy is destroyed, the host waits five seconds before creating one room-owned replacement, with the same countdown and native safe placement.

The approved stretched model, corrected leg weights, supplied audio, balance and full-duration super-rampage tint are unchanged. Main-menu version label is now 1.0.2.

Compilation, native API contracts, embedded audio/model checks and automated recovery/rush/countdown policies passed. Live multiplayer playback and a full biome transition still need in-game verification.

Final release candidate 1.0.1

Bing Bong's supplied 69.23-second recording plays once when the haunted climb starts on the beach, using the same host timestamp as the head-start countdown. Players must be loaded and alive; airport/menu playback is suppressed. A guest who loads within the first ten seconds resumes at the shared recording position; later joins do not replay the opening. The line is audible locally even if no toy is loaded. A nearby active Bing Bong with valid audio/animator references uses the native sampled mouth animation. The opening does not replace normal toy interactions. BingBong.OpeningLine and BingBong.VoiceVolume control it. Death, airport return or disabling the feature fades it out.

The head start is now 70 seconds. Normal walking is 5% slower than 1.0.0, approximately 64.1% of player walking force with default matching. Rampage recovery is now 20 seconds, followed by the existing fresh 45-second chance timer. These values migrate once for existing profiles; subsequent manual configuration edits persist. Sprint/rush targets and rampage chances remain unchanged.

Super-rampage tint now holds its full target strength until the shared rage deadline, then fades out over two seconds. The existing two-second entrance fade and reduced photosensitivity strength remain. Catch-up rush remains a separate speed phase and does not add red tint.

The menu shows Peak Stalker v1.0.1. Approved model, corrected leg weights, gate pinning, airport event, supplied chase recordings and distance rush are retained.

Build, supplied-recording provenance/PCM checks, migration/tint integration checks, native API/audio checks and existing rush/countdown policy tests passed. This is packaged for final in-game verification; live Bing Bong playback, mouth animation, multiplayer timing and lighting are not yet verified.

Release 1.0.0 - catch-up rush and menu version

After the mirror unlock and head start, the host enters a catch-up rush when the stalker is more than 150 metres from every living player. It uses the same movement-force target as a super rampage (185% of player sprint force by default), until it gets within 75 metres of any living player. It has no fixed duration and uses proximity rather than line of sight. One supplied rampage scream plays at entry, with extended distance falloff so a distant warning is audible. Installed guests receive the reliable host announcement; expired announcements are ignored. The recording plays once with the existing fade and volume settings; it does not loop for the entire phase.

The rush has priority over ordinary speed bonuses and postpones new chance-based rampages while active. Ending it defers the next roll until the existing cooldown plus a fresh chance interval. It respects campfire steering, normal collision/terrain movement and the mirror/head-start lock. It does not add a teleport or a red tint; existing stalled-recovery and super-rampage behavior remain. No living target or released pursuit clears rush state. Rush.Enabled and Rush.TriggerDistance control the feature; the exit stays at 75 metres.

The main menu displays Peak Stalker v1.0.0, using the same version constant as plugin metadata. The label is independent of menu haunting and remains when the mod's gameplay is disabled. MainMenu.ShowVersion controls visibility.

The approved disfigured model, corrected leg weights, gate pinning, supplied audio, beach warning and airport effects are retained. The opening recording is included in 1.0.1 as described above.

Compilation, rush policy boundaries and multiplayer proximity, cooldown/resume, native API, supplied-audio integrity, surface/mirror and existing countdown/pursuit checks passed. Actual movement, audio balance, main-menu placement and live multiplayer still need checking in PEAK.

Rig and gate fix — 0.9.1

Corrected 56 left-leg vertices that had been assigned to arm bones. A one-metre arm-motion stress check no longer pulls those leg vertices. The approved mesh positions, bone rest anchors, stretched posing, face, teeth, skin and colors are unchanged.

The trapped native actor now shares its intended position and rotation in spawn data, waits for native initialization, aligns the actual ragdoll feet behind the gate, and pins every native rigidbody there before the visual pose updates. It also sets native spawn anchors and disables trapped collisions. Stale configured positions away from a gate fall back to basketball-gate discovery. F10 still calibrates placement if the correct fence is not discovered. Gate escape behavior, sounds and the beach warning remain.

Compilation, model/weight stress checks, native API and existing audio/surface/countdown checks passed. Live airport placement still needs an in-game test. Thunderstore log access remained denied on this machine; this diagnosis used the packaged model and native game code.

Approved model and beach warning — 0.9.0

The approved face and body previews are now the game model: uneven bloodshot eyes with tiny pupils and branching capillaries, hollow cheeks, a crooked smile and shifted jaw, a twisted rib cage and spine, mismatched shoulders, drawn waist, crooked limbs and fingers, and wet blood smears. The three full dental rows remain, with six sparse, heavily stained crooked crowns forming a fourth row. All 96 teeth follow the head; the ten nails follow their hands. Bone rest anchors use the authored body deformation.

At the beginning of an unlocked climb, a fading warning reads IT FOLLOWED YOU. and You have X seconds to run before it starts chasing. It counts down the actual head start, 60 seconds by default, using the host's shared deadline for guests and late joiners. When it expires, YOUR HEAD START IS OVER. / Keep moving. remains briefly and fades out. It does not alter pursuit timing. Airport return and released pursuit clear the deadline; a run without the mirror unlock shows no warning. This is the opening-run warning even if you leave the beach before the timer expires. Set Warnings.BeachCountdown = false to hide it.

Build, runtime geometry/weights, retained model regions, countdown rounding and fade boundaries, native API, audio and existing pursuit-policy checks passed. Actual in-game appearance, countdown placement and live multiplayer still need testing in PEAK. Supplied recordings, chase balance and airport behavior remain.

Two flesh treatments and persistent gate stalker — 0.8.3

The original tissue remains on ordinary covered props. Architectural wall/floor surfaces, meshes without texture coordinates, and opaque-looking scenery skipped by the first material filter receive a second raw tissue treatment: thicker purple veins, pale swollen blisters, deeper creases and a wetter sheen. These surfaces get projected world-scale texture coordinates and a small depth offset on removable overlay geometry. Readable meshes use their vertex data; non-readable meshes use GPU buffer reads. If that read is unsupported, the layer falls back to the original geometry and logs the object's name. Original scenery materials, world collisions, camera/UI and mirror surfaces remain intact. Glass, screen effects and render-texture inputs remain excluded. The mirror keeps the approved bloody decay effect.

The native in-game stalker is staged behind the gate even when players are far away. After its initial eight-second warning, a living player within 12 metres enables one host-controlled 50% breakout roll per staged appearance. Failed rolls leave it trapped and visible; they do not repeat every frame. Guests share the breakout decision, including a cleanup-order fallback for the gate's appearance. Escaped pursuit lasts up to 70 seconds or until scene/event cleanup. Reset/cleanup briefly removes the stage; it reappears after five seconds while still in the airport. The trapped rig spasms and supplied fence recording remain.

The airport event defaults to 90 seconds, twice the previous 45. Its opening pause, corruption entrance and exit fade are doubled too. On the first launch, saved event/corruption durations are multiplied by two once; later edits persist. The automatic trigger delay stays at 120 seconds. F8 tests the mirror, F9 restores airport effects, and F10 calibrates the gate. Seeing or approaching the gate does not unlock the climb; the mirror freeze still does.

Build/API, gate proximity policy, doubled-envelope and archive checks passed. Supplied audio is unchanged. Actual texture coverage, GPU projection support and live multiplayer still need testing in PEAK.

Changes

• Airport gate escape chance: 50% per gate approach encounter.
• Airport scenery slowly develops red fleshy tissue, mottled wounds, fine veins, raised folds through normal shading and a wet sheen. The existing event envelope spreads it over the entrance and fades it back out; F9 removes the tissue layers. The frozen mirror retains its original bloody decay. Coverage includes nearby airport scenery up to 150 metres, capped at 600 renderers; players and mirror surfaces retain their dedicated effects. It excludes sky and camera/UI effects and does not alter world collisions.
• Normal walking: 10% slower than v7, approximately 64.1% of player walking pace with the default settings. The existing out-of-sight bonus remains.
• Multiplayer: favor the closest exposed living player, with a five-second commitment to avoid rapid switching. A player more than 20% closer takes priority after that commitment. Every ten seconds there is a 30% chance to switch to another player within 125% of the current target distance, weighted toward closer players. Players protected by fire are passed over when someone else is exposed.
• Persistence: distance alone no longer causes teleporting. After initial off-map placement, recovery requires at least 120 seconds without meaningful movement, at least 120 seconds since the previous recovery, no player seeing him, and no campfire obstruction. Native chase teleports are blocked. Recovery placement avoids protected fire zones and uses the existing terrain/visibility checks.
• Base rampage: 130% of player sprint movement force for 12 seconds. Existing 65% rolls every 45 seconds, 30-second recovery, and fresh 45-second timer remain.
• Super rampage: 5% of successful rampages, approximately 3.25% of ordinary chance rolls. 185% of player sprint movement force for 8 seconds, with the airport's red color grade fading in and out over two seconds. No airport light shutdown or scenery decay is applied to the climb. Photosensitivity mode reduces the tint. Guests share the deadline; an expired burst is not replayed.
• Lit campfires create a 12-metre refuge. He backs away, tries to skirt the fire when passing it, or approaches its perimeter and waits when a player shelters inside. This also applies during rampages. The starting fire identified by its next segment being Beach is exempt; later checkpoint fires remain protective. Extinguished fires offer no refuge.

The approved disfigured model with four dental rows, supplied recordings, 45% rampage scream volume and sound fades are retained. Speeds are movement-force targets; physics, terrain and player modifiers affect measured pace. Campfire behavior steers native movement rather than creating an invisible collision wall, so slopes and external pushes need checking in game.

Install and test

Close PEAK. Open your Thunderstore profile folder and replace the existing BepInEx/plugins/PeakStalker/PeakStalker.dll with this ZIP's DLL. Keep one copy. All players should use 1.0.2. The mod is packaged, not installed automatically.

• Start a climb without triggering the mirror: stalker pursuit should remain locked.
• On the host, use F8 while the airport mirror is ready. Proceed into a climb; the usual 60-second head start remains.
• F7: rampage test during active unlocked climb pursuit. It uses the ordinary rare-super roll.
• Shift+F7: force a super-rampage test. Both test shortcuts respect active rampage/recovery and cannot unlock the run.
• F9: restore airport effects. F10: calibrate airport gate placement.
• With two players, approach him from different distances and verify targeting shifts smoothly.
• Shelter at a later lit campfire, then extinguish or leave it. Check the starting beach fire provides no refuge.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/local.peak.stalker.cfg; restart after editing.

The first v8 launch reduces saved normal walk fractions/multipliers by 10%, sets base rampage to 1.3 sprint force, stall recovery to 120 seconds and gate escape to 0.5. Internal markers prevent repeating the migration; later edits persist.

Options: Pursuit.TargetSwitchSeconds (10), TargetSwitchChance (0.3), PlayerWalkSpeedFraction (0.675 after migration); Rampage.PlayerSprintFraction (1.3); SuperRampage.Chance (0.05), DurationSeconds (8), PlayerSprintFraction (1.85); Campfires.FearRadius (12); Recovery.DelaySeconds (120). Recovery.MaxDistance is a retained legacy setting and no longer triggers a warp. Existing model, audio, airport, head-start and rampage timer settings remain.

Validation

Compiled against installed PEAK 2.6.a. Native API and patch signatures, policy timing/proximity/recovery tests, and simulated session tests passed. Session tests cover host-only unlock, shared guest state, host migration, returning to the airport, disconnect/new-room reset and super deadline cleanup. Embedded audio checks passed; model, skin and all supplied audio assets match v7 byte for byte. ZIP integrity, manifest version and compiled DLL are checked.

Not play-tested. Actual speed, campfire steering on terrain, visual readability and live multiplayer still need an in-game check. Previous release ZIPs remain available for rollback. Source package includes editable code, model assets, build script and validation material.