Journal System, Skip Tutorial & UI Polish

Update 0.1.3 brings the biggest quality-of-life additions since the demo launched: a Journal that gives you direction without giving you orders, a way to skip the tutorial entirely, and a visual consistency pass that touches nearly every panel in the game.

Journal & Quest Tracker

The biggest addition this update: a full Journal system that takes over after the tutorial ends.

Once the Whispering Skull finishes guiding you through the basics, the Journal activates with parallel objectives that unlock based on your fame level. Unlike the linear tutorial, these can be completed in any order and at your own pace.

• 17 objectives spanning fame levels 3 through 7
• Objectives include reaching fame milestones, buying your first expansion, crafting your first potion, hiring employees, completing contracts, and surviving world events
• Each completed objective rewards gold
• Track one objective at a time to place a waypoint marker in the world
• A HUD notification (pulsing icon) alerts you when new objectives become available
• Opening the Journal clears the notification; individual entries show a "New" badge until selected

The system is designed to answer the question every player hits after the tutorial: "What now?" Without railroading you into a specific order.

Skip Tutorial

For players starting fresh runs or those already familiar with the game, a "Skip Tutorial" checkbox now appears when you click New Game.

Checking it properly unlocks everything the 23-step tutorial would have:

• Village walls removed (full map access)
• Hammer available immediately
• Grimoire (skill tree) accessible
• Build mode enabled
• All ordering restrictions lifted
• Boundary edges cleared

The Journal still functions normally after skipping, waiting for you to hit fame 3 before showing its first objectives. Contracts appear at fame 3, world events at fame 4, and the hiring board at fame 5, all on their original fame schedules.

UI Overhaul

A visual consistency pass across multiple panels:

• Journal UI styled to match the billboard's parchment aesthetic
• Employee cards (both hired and available) now have proper centered text alignment and consistent padding
• Quest Dialog fixed layout issues where text rendered incorrectly due to conflicting layout components
• Ordering View rescaled and border rendering fixed (proper 9-slice, correct pixel density)
• Encounter Dialog button layout corrected
• Quest Notification HUD added (separate canvas with scroll icon and pulsing indicator)
• Per-objective "New" icons in the Journal list

Gameplay Improvements

• Contracts read shelves. Fulfilling a contract now pulls items from your shelves as well as storage. No more moving everything back to storage before turning in a contract.
• Furniture placement borders. A white outline appears around your furniture footprint while placing. Turns red when placement is invalid. Existing furniture also shows subtle borders while you're in build mode, making occupied space clearer.
• World events at fame 4. World events now begin triggering at fame level 4 (previously 5), giving players earlier exposure to the market-disruption mechanic.
• Tutorial contract guarantee. When the tutorial directs you to the billboard, a contract is now guaranteed to be there. Previously it was possible to arrive at an empty board if the day hadn't ticked yet.
• World-space popups refactored. Customer reactions and skull quips now share a unified popup system for consistent sizing and readability.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed customer AI getting stuck in certain pathfinding scenarios
• Fixed tutorial step 12 requiring 3 transactions while the subtitle said "Complete 2 more" (now correctly requires 2)
• Fixed a null reference in the Journal system that could break the quest event chain
• Fixed encounter NPCs walking all the way to the counter instead of waiting at their designated anchor point near the entrance
• Fixed world event "completed" state falsely triggering on save load
• Fixed encounter NPC anchor priority (explicit anchor now takes precedence over counter queue fallback)

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Next up: more UI polish, localization groundwork, and continued game-feel improvements. Stay tuned.