# Evolution – Beta 1.5

Beta 1.5 focuses on atmosphere, story, battle presentation, enemy identity, and early balance. 

This update makes Evolution feel more like a living world, while also adding new enemy death animations 

and improving the first part of the game.

## Story & Atmosphere

* Added a short first-time story introduction

* The intro is shown only once for new players

* Added pre-battle encounter screens for enemies

* Each enemy now has a short description and quote before combat

* Enemy encounter text now hints at bosses, future stories, and the larger corruption behind the world

## Backgrounds & Presentation

* Added story-based background art across menus and battles

* The active background is based on the last enemy fought

* New players start with the Infested Wilds background by default

* Added darker overlays to improve readability on background-heavy screens

* Improved story selection preview presentation

* Added darker framing around story preview images

## Death Animations

* Added Mammal death animation

* Added Plant death animation

* Added Fungi death animation

* Enemies now use death animations based on the last card class played

* Improved enemy death presentation and battle atmosphere

## User Interface

* Added styled story and encounter text panels

* Improved text centering and layout for story-related screens

* Improved visual consistency between menus, story screens, and combat

* Improved readability of story and encounter text against detailed backgrounds

## Card Text

* Shortened Symbiosis card text

* Symbiosis cards now use clearer conditional text such as `If Infect/Spore`

* Reduced text overflow on cards with bonus effects

## Balance

* Started a new early-game balance pass

* Rotfang Boar has been strengthened to make the first fight more meaningful

* The first enemy can now punish poor play more reliably

* Early enemies are being adjusted toward a better baseline for future balance work

## Technical Improvements

* Added `intro_seen` progression support

* Added `last_story_id` progression support for background selection

* Added enemy encounter support to enemy data and enemy loading

* Added a new pre-battle encounter game state

* Added shared world background drawing logic

* Added support for species-based death animation selection

* Various bug fixes, code cleanup, and stability improvements

## Improvements Still in Development

* Further enemy and boss balance tuning

* Improved readability for some effect and intent icons against detailed backgrounds

* Additional story writing and encounter text polish

* More biome-related gameplay effects in future versions

* Continued UI polish for story and battle presentation

* Tutorial and Credits still has limited information

* Music and more sounds to be added and improved

Thank you to everyone testing Evolution and providing feedback.

Beta 1.5 helps Evolution feel less empty and more connected to its world, while continuing the 

work of improving combat feedback, presentation, and game balance.