Bugs:
Fixed difficulty scaling factor in Easy Mode making the game TOO EASY
Fixed branching choices in Shift 6 not saving properly

Dear Potato Border Officers,

Thank you for your dedicated service to the potato motherland! With this update, we've focused on making your shifts more enjoyable, reducing the punishment for players returning for multiple sessions, and making the overall experience more accessible to spuds of all skill levels. We've added a new shift selection system so you can jump back into your favorite challenges, improved save functionality to remember your progress, and introduced full localization for 18 languages to welcome border officers from around the world.

We're extremely excited to hear your feedback on these improvements. Your suggestions and bug reports have been invaluable in shaping Spud Customs, and we're committed to continuing this journey together. If you encounter any issues or have ideas for future updates, please use the new feedback button on the main menu or join our community channels.

Now, let's review the changes we've made to improve your potato inspection experience:

Full localization support for 18 languages in addition to English:
Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese

• Story dialogue and cutscenes
  
• UI elements and menus
  
• Laws and violation messages
  
• Border runner system alerts and perfect hit notifications
  
• Shift summary screen
  
• Bubble dialogue system

Score Attack Mode: A separate game mode that extends the main game experience with different scoring rules
Shift Selection System: New day-by-day shift selection that unlocks as you progress through the game
Vehicle System: Added cars that drive by in the background for more environmental detail
Potato Emote System: Potatoes now display emotions while waiting in line

• Different emote categories (happy, thinking, etc.)
  
• Variable delay between emotes
  
• Potatoes wiggle when emoting
  
• Reduced frequency for better balance

Footstep System:

• Added visual footprints for potatoes
  
• Different footprints for concrete and grass surfaces
  
• Random scale and rotation for each footprint

Highlight System:

• Added helpful highlighting for new players
  
• Highlights passport if untouched for 15+ seconds
  
• Highlights speaker/start button if booth is empty for 15+ seconds
  
• Highlights stamps if document is open on table for 15+ seconds

Shutter System:

• Improved metal shutter mechanics
  
• Cinematic roll-down animation with dust particles
  
• Satisfying "clunk" sound effect
  
• Shadow effect when shutter is closed
  
• Disabled document interaction when shutter is closed

Completely overhauled missile system:

• Faster missile travel speed (500 → 600)
  
• More consistent and predictable targeting
  
• Ability to fire multiple missiles simultaneously
  
• Reduced lead time for missiles
  
• Show missile immediately on click
  
• Added smoke trail animation
  
• New missile explosion animation
  
• Updated missile sprite

Improved border runner mechanics:

• Reduced chance of Spud running the border from 30% to 15%
  
• Expanded area for perfect hit chance
  
• Slower base speed for runners
  
• Added different paths for runners to traverse
  
• Fixed bug where runners would register two strikes
  
• Added checks for blowing up innocent Spuds

Enhanced physics for potato corpses:

• When hit with a missile, runner corpse spins in an arc opposite to impact direction
  
• Corpses bounce on ground before coming to rest
  
• Added more rotation to corpses
  
• Reduced z-index of craters to appear below runners

Improved stamping system:

• More intuitive stamp mechanic (left click to pick up, left click to stamp)
  
• Standardized stamp positions for consistent placement
  
• Perfect stamp detection and visual effects
  
• Added "juice" to stamping with improved animations
  
• Lower delay between stamps
  
• Stamp consistently marks same spot on document

Enhanced drag and drop system:

• Documents properly centered when closed
  
• Documents stay within the inspection table bounds
  
• Improved document z-ordering
  
• Fixed passport text disappearing while dragged
  
• Fixed stamps disappearing when picked up
  
• Passport remains open when on left side of inspection table

Balanced point system:

• Reduced approval score from 1,000 to 250 points
  
• Added 250 point penalty for incorrect rejections
  
• Better scoring for missile hits and perfect stamps

Improved feedback on scores:

• Score display duration extended (2s → 3.5s)
  
• Added growth/shrink bounce animation to quota and strikes labels
  
• Score alerts now have random pitch variation

Enhanced shift endings:

• Shift summary screen shows maximum score and achievements
  
• Golden potato/stamp awards based on score benchmarks
  
• Survival bonus alert on shift summary
  
• Shift end transition slowed down for better pacing

Main Menu Enhancements:

1. Added social media icons
   
2. Added feedback button
   
3. Animated button hover effects
   
4. Added tooltips to main menu items
   
5. Version counter display

Cursor System Improvements:

1. Custom cursors for different interactions (hover, click, grab, drag)
   
2. Context-sensitive cursor updates when hovering over interactive elements
   
3. Fixed cursor offset issues

UI Polish:

1. Rounded edges on UI elements
   
2. Updated color palette for Shift Summary screen
   
3. New MODERN DOS font throughout the game
   
4. BBCode formatting for laws to highlight important elements
   
5. Improved spacing and positioning of interface elements

Improved Z-ordering System:

• Completely reworked z-index system for all game elements
  
• Fixed layering issues between interface elements
  
• Corrected potato rendering to pass under background layers
  
• Proper document layering when dragging

Enhanced Animations:

1. Smooth animations for shutter gate lever
   
2. Improved stamp animations
   
3. Better potato movement animations
   
4. Fade effects for transition between scenes
   
5. Screen shake effects on stamping and missile hits

Upgraded Art:

1. Updated artwork for narrative scenes
   
2. Improved quality of stamp bar interface
   
3. New missile and explosion effects
   
4. Minor random size scaling for explosions
   
5. Updated megaphone design

Music System:

• 25 variations of main menu music
  
• 75 variations of main game music
  
• Random selection of background music on launch
  
• Music properly transitions between scenes
  
• Audio mutes during dialogue and restarts after

Sound Effects:

• Added random pitch variation to positive/negative alerts
  
• Added random pitch variation to document open/close sounds
  
• Environmental sound effects for narrative scenes
  
• Improved megaphone dialogue sounds
  
• Updated hover audio for menu buttons

Game Saving & Loading:

• Improved save handling between sessions
  
• Proper saving of narrative progress
  
• Save and load for difficulty settings
  
• Save and load for camera shake preferences
  
• Save and load for maximum level reached
  
• Local highscores preserved between sessions

Game Options:

• Added language selection option
  
• Added confirmation for resetting story progress
  
• Separate buttons for resetting highscores vs. story progress
  
• New "Score Attack" mode button replaces "Endless" mode

Narrative Improvements:

• Added skip button for dialogue sequences
  
• Added fades between narrative sequences
  
• Improved timing for cutscenes
  
• Better transition between shifts and story segments
  
• Fixed audio reference issues in all narrative scenes

Tutorial Enhancements:

• More interactive tutorial experience
  
• New game always starts with tutorial
  
• Updated guide to use left-click interactions only
  
• Simplified stamp controls explanation
  
• Added tutorial step with exploding runner

• Fixed bug where the game continues running during story sequences
  
• Fixed bug where score wasn't resetting between rounds
  
• Fixed issue where potatoes continued to escape during Shift Summary
  
• Fixed missile getting stuck when potato escapes
  
• Fixed runner potato registering two strikes instead of one
  
• Fixed shutter raising on megaphone click even when already up
  
• Fixed potatoes staying shadowy when shutter automatically raised
  
• Fixed bug where law text disappeared when picking up opened law document
  
• Fixed bug where stamps would fly up from bottom of screen
  
• Fixed quota not updating at start of shift
  
• Fixed strikes not being added before shift end

• Fixed alert text font sizing causing blurry text
  
• Fixed dialogue sign outside customs office not disappearing
  
• Fixed skip button not disappearing after cutscenes
  
• Fixed stamp bar controller showing on top of shift summary screen
  
• Fixed document centering when closed
  
• Fixed z-ordering issues on the summary screen
  
• Fixed quota maximum not updating at start of shift
  
• Fixed wrong shift displaying on shift summary screen

• Fixed issue where new game continued instead of starting with tutorial
  
• Fixed shift end dialogues not triggering properly
  
• Fixed final cutscene not triggering
  
• Fixed issue where shift increased by 2 on completion
  
• Fixed end scenes not triggering for shifts
  
• Fixed progression for story not saving/loading properly

• Fixed passport text disappearing while being dragged
  
• Fixed documents appearing above stamp bar when dragged
  
• Fixed expiration rule validation logic
  
• Fixed incorrect female/male potato validation
  
• Fixed Yukon Gold potato law validation
  
• Fixed law wording for clarity and consistency
  
• Fixed issue where potatoes don't give you a passport

• Added Arludus to credits for vehicle artwork
  
• Added community members who helped with bug reports

Updated attribution list with:

• Button SFX from OpenGameArt
  
• Emotes from Kenney
  
• FilmCow Sound Effects
  
• Social Icons from Krinjl
  
• MODERN DOS font

Thank you for playing Spud Customs! We hope these improvements enhance your border control experience in the potato motherland. For feedback or to report issues, use the feedback button on the main menu or join our community channels.