Chiikawa Company — experimental release 0.1.8

Known issue (0.1.8): plush scan prices can fail to appear in the HUD. The previous scan adjustments did not resolve this in the user's test. Multiplayer, selling and save/reload still need full validation. This is an experimental release.

Three separate interior creatures:

• Chiikawa: approach and follow it to the highest-value reachable loose scrap in the facility. Waits if you fall behind, celebrates at the item, and retargets when it is collected. Ignores held items and items in the ship. Hitting it still makes it flee for twelve seconds.
• Hachiware: haunts one indoor employee at a time. Everyone sees its manifestations. Appears out of its victim's view, vanishes if approached, and starts a ten-second pursuit after its victim has seen three appearances. Only its selected victim can be damaged. A shovel hit repels it for twelve seconds; it remains killable. This is a custom ghost-inspired behaviour, not the vanilla Ghost Girl AI.
• Usagi: spots employees within twelve metres, warns, then hunts. Break line of sight for five seconds to escape; it searches your last known position. Can be killed with a shovel.

Install the same version on every player's client. Dependencies: BepInExPack 5.4.2305 and LethalLib 1.2.0 with their dependencies. Install through Thunderstore/r2modman, or extract the ZIP's BepInEx folder into the game folder. Keep both ChiikawaCompany.dll and ChiikawaCompany.Runtime.dll beside chiikawacompanyassets under BepInEx/plugins/ChiikawaCompany.

Status: both DLLs compile, asset bundle built, startup checked; public plugin compiles without testing tools. Native HDRP material rendering visually verified for all three characters in the actual game. New 0.1.5 gameplay, tool actions, counterplay and multiplayer still require manual validation. No character voices or licensed audio recordings are included; Chiikawa's squeal is synthesized by the mod.

Models and facial texture by Nini (@doniisw), CC BY-NC 4.0. Original characters by Nagano. Fan project. Added skeletons, weights, materials, animations and mod code. See CREDITS.txt.

Happy audio: the original iconic recording has NOT been identified or included. The arrival cue is explicitly provisional and synthesized. To replace it, put a WAV, OGG or MP3 of up to ten seconds beside the two plugin DLLs and set Chiikawa/HappyAudioFile in the config (default chiikawa_happy.wav). Every player needs their own local copy. The loader does not download audio.

0.1.5 guide navigation, haunt timing, player ownership changes and multiplayer require in-game validation. Compilation and startup checks do not establish gameplay correctness.

0.1.6 natural spawning: at most one of each creature per round (up to three total), enforced at runtime even with an older bundle. Existing spawn weights remain 20/20/12. No minimum appearance is guaranteed; balance still requires actual rounds.

Death drops (0.1.7): after the death animation, each defeated creature is replaced by one matching collectible plush toy. Chiikawa plush value 25–40; Hachiware and Usagi 50–80 each, configurable per character with PlushMinValue/PlushMaxValue. Plushes are registered items with isScrap enabled, scan nodes, inventory icons and one-handed pickup. They are not added to natural scrap spawn tables. Only the server creates death drops and controls a synchronized sale value; no new custom RPCs are used. Normal round cleanup does not create drops. The game's saving/selling path is used; complete pickup, sale, save/reload and multiplayer tests are still pending.

0.1.8: individual transparent character icons, close-range scrap scanning (0–15 m), explicit non-creature scan ID, and the AudioSource required when switching inventory slots.

This public build excludes the testing panel, spawn/teleport/shovel hotkeys and visual QA previews. Testing configuration from older versions has no effect.