KERNEL PANIC v2.5.0

The tactical UI and story content release. Every screen in the game got rebuilt under one visual system, and the game grew three story acts. The arena is the same — the shell around it is new.

New Stuff

• UNIX Act 1 story mode with fixed-stage routes: /boot, /var/log, /net, /mem, /quarantine and /kernel.
• Windows story act with three eras: C:\98, C:\XP and Win11, including new threats — UPDATE_LOOP, BLOATWARE, and destructible POPUP orbs.
• TempleOS bonus act: TempleOS::BOOT and TempleOS::GOD in a compact rainbow arena with a holy CRT treatment.
• Story progression across the acts: stage intros, fixed stage waves, individual stage records, and ROOTLET unlock progression.
• Pause terminal diagnostics. The pause terminal now answers help, top, man, dmesg and sudo heal — plus the intentional rm -rf /, which does exactly what you think it does.
• Desktop debug console: F1 opens it, F2 skips a cycle, F3 forces the ROOT split state, F4 clears combatants — and it exposes enemy and boss spawn controls for testing setups.
• Speedrun kit. Speedrun HUD diagnostics, deterministic run information, achievement toasts, event-log reporting, and a death recap showing what killed you.
• Portable save transfer. Export and import your records, story progress, bestiary entries, programs and achievements between devices.

Fixes

• Escape pause handling restored, and escape navigation hardened across menus, including menu footer alignment.
• The rebuilt pause panel keeps destructive actions (restart/abandon) clearly separated and confirmed, distinct from overclock input.
• Pause and terminal layouts rebuilt responsively, tactical UI controls polished, and stateful surfaces verified.

Art & Sound

• The full Tactical Kernel UI system, on every surface: main menu, settings, program selection, story selection, bestiary, combat HUD, patch cards, boss encounter HUD, pause, game over, and the diagnostic terminal. Deep navy-black surfaces, thin angular circuit frames, Orbitron headings with Share Tech Mono labels, and a semantic color code — cyan is structural, magenta means threat, lime means recovery, amber means warning.
• Combat HUD framed. Integrity and core state upper-left, cycle and encounter title centered, score/combo plus a collapsible four-line event log upper-right, dash state lower-left, patch chips lower-right, boss health centered at the bottom. The arena center stays visually quiet.
• Patch selection redesigned: cards state rarity, current level, mechanical effect, and important synergy/conflict; keyboard, pointer and touch share the same visible selection state.
• Program selection as three comparison cards — KERNEL the balanced default, DAEMON the two-dash close-range snowball, ROOTLET the armored shield process.
• Story selection as three act tabs (UNIX, Windows, TempleOS) with connected stage routes, stage detail panels (story copy, threats, wave count, klog, and a code-drawn arena preview), and explicit locked progression.
• The terminal is a workstation now: wide layout with command history, command index, system status, and a persistent prompt.
• Code-drawn semantic icons across the UI, plus refined neon chrome, score area, and settings sections.

Under the Hood

• AUR packages: kernel-panic-bin and kernel-panic-git metadata updated for 2.5.0, and the packages made reproducible.
• Tooling documented for the diagnostics/speedrun kit updates.
• The automated harness now verifies stateful tactical UI surfaces.
• The README updated with current 2.5.0 instructions and new fullscreen menu/gameplay screenshots.
• Distribution: Linux x86_64 and Windows x86_64 release binaries embed the project data in one executable; the Android release APK is signed with the project's release key.

Downloads

• Linux x86_64: kernel-panic — self-contained release binary.
• Windows x86_64: kernel-panic.exe — self-contained release binary.
• Android: KERNEL-PANIC-v2.5.0-release.apk — release-signed, arm64.

Full source changes are in the repository history between v2.4.7 and v2.5.0.