Balance and Stability Update v0.9

Hello, I'm so happy that v0.8 was seen by people, here's v0.9 to address the feedback found and to fix all the game breaking things, added some message instructions in the logs on how the sandstorm should be handled and a whole lot more QOL stuff.

I added a "Paused" state when drones are in EVAC mode or in HQ so that they do not expire when staying in home base. Pacing should be a bit clearer now, but I've increased the costs of the research items and components needed so there's now a bit of grind hopefully its not too much but this update should be a bit easier with more ground debris, 50% more lifetime for the drone attrition conditions and more please see the full changelog below:

v0.9 Balance and Stability Update

  - Rebalanced tier 500+ research pacing with lower scrap costs, better Assembly Yard output, and faster mid-game progression.

  - Ground-to-mound balance pass with better early resource pacing and Hydraulic Force Cutters moved earlier to tier 2500.

  - Added passive Auto Assembly and improved Auto-Refinery so automation can keep producing alongside active assembly.

  - Added manual CH, PC, and CB fabrication jobs with clearer INV controls, quantity input, and save/load support.

  - Split Inventory Capacity into tiered upgrades with clearer yard slot growth and better first-upgrade value.

  - Improved Inventory Yard construction, dismantling, placement rules, refunds, progress display, and save/load state.

  - Added early-game guidance for HQ repair, Unit-01 commands, and first sandstorm preparation.

  - Updated first sandstorm flow to teach EVAC before RECALL, with clearer markers, focus highlights, and Commander Log prompts.

  - Fixed sandstorm reload behavior so old storms do not replay visuals/audio and active storms restore cleanly.

  - Improved drone condition handling so EVAC, HQ shelter, and weather shelter pause protected drone decay and persist through saves.

  - Added CMD PAUSED overlays for drone census and worker-group condition bars, with condition visuals staying stable while protected.

  - Rebalanced drone condition lifetimes with one shared tuning value for loose drones and worker groups.

  - Smoothed priority station construction by budgeting cone admissions and route checks to reduce large-swarm hitches.

  - Improved save/load robustness with chunked manifests, native swarm binary v2, async autosaves, overwrite checks, and weather/shelter restore fixes.

  - Improved audio playback with fade-ins, gain limits, and peak protection to reduce pops and harsh transitions.

  - Improved CRT/HUD polish, including performance, tooltips, focus outlines, menu icons, release-mode debug button hiding, and clearer drone counts.

  - Improved mod effect displays, repeat jackpot mod handling, salvage tooltips, and dusk summary jackpot counts.

  - Fixed worker-group priority station routing so unreachable or full station jobs no longer stall unrelated crews.