Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights and mercs, it's another late update but some good things feel like they can't wait. Update #202 arrives just in time to fix all the issues with Assassinate VIP missions that popped up this morning (the VIP now arrives!), rebuild the outlining tool in the game to do a better job, especially with faces and complex geometry, improved how Leverage pop outs work, fixed map issues across the board and completed the rename sweep of Files so that Files that are not in sets drop the Roman numerals (I, II, etc).

Thanks to everyone supporting us with a review this week - we appreciate it. We can repay you with a relentless update schedule :D

[h2]Assassinate VIP Fixed[/h2]

A bug crept as we've been quietly adding new proc-gen objectives for the dev team to play, that broke Assassinate VIP. In this case, the VIP never arrives! This is now resolved and any game that is stuck in one of these missions can just reload the level and play forward - the VIP will come in hot!

We've also fixed the issue where there were multiple dialogs played upon killing the VIP (again!) and are working on a long-term solution to this seemingly recurring issue.

[h2]New Outline Tool[/h2]

We've upgraded the game's outline capability to do better with character heads (now the head is actually fully outlined ːsteamhappyː !!). The upgrade also has better more obvious line weight and does better with complicated geometry and the outline visibility as you zoom out and rotate. It is very nice to have some of these old, not fully ready for prime-time components upgrade to the shiny.

[h2]Leverage Reasons[/h2]

We've improved the logic for the Leverage reason pop-outs. If they came from Tokens, we are no longer incorrectly showing a bogus pop-out. And in the case that you have no Contacts who can provide the Leverage, we've explicitly stated that in the pop-out.

[h2]Cameras + Rotation + Reload Bug[/h2]

If a camera rotated at the end of a Turn and spotted a merc and then you later retried the new Turn, the spotting would be lost in the old system. With this upgrade, we've ensured that spotting is properly saved to the game database and the game log so it can't be lost or removed.

[h2]File Naming[/h2]

We've adjusted all names for Files that are not in a set to stop using Roman numerals like I, II, and III. Also, we've adjusted the names of all sets to use sequential Roman numerals (I, II, III, etc.). This should help cut down some File Set confusion (as some of the files combined II, III and IV for the Set, ignoring I) as well as encoding obvious clues about each File name as to whether it is part of a set or not.

Tags to clearly denote Files that are in sets or have use actions are coming next week, so this naming step helps but is not really the full solution to this issue.
 
[h2]Dialog Lines[/h2]
We've fixed an issue where some dialog lines were just being displayed as empty box. These were caused by the game narrator trying to explain rules about Obligations or Favors. Now fixed!

[h2]Map Bugs Fixed![/h2]
We've fixed a lot of map bugs again - new maps drive lots of little fixes. Route 5 Bypass had some issues with certain lower areas blocking sight around the edge - now fixed. The second stage of Eleventh Hour never spawned reinforcements - now fixed.

[h2] v1.9.85 - #202: - 1/17/2025[/h2]
- Fixed bug with Assassin VIP where VIP does not appear - job will jump into motion again
- Fixed bug with repeated 4 segments of dialog upon killing a VIP in Assassinate VIP missions
- Rebuilt outline component - better outlines around character faces, better outline on complex geometry
- Fixing Leverage pop out incorrectly showing when the Leverage is purchased or gained by Field Ops / Hacking Station Token
- Fixed missing mission art for the new Route 5 Bypass mission
- Fixed intermittent issues with empty lootboxes
- Fixed issue with camera rotation and reloading a Turn sometimes losing a character being spotted event
- Fixed missing reinforcements in the second stage of Eleventh Hour
- Fixed certain areas blocking sight into lower areas in Route 5 Bypass
- Fixed the missing dialog lines that should have been spoken by the narrator in some stories
- Fix File names within sets (to be I, II, III, etc) and File names for Files not used by set (removed II, etc)
- Fixed backward Terminal in Decommissioned Core

Knights and mercs, it is a bit late here in 2231, New Boston never sleeps. With Update #201, we have the new weekly map release and +8 new proc-gen combos, a big update to Leverage display to indicate its reasoning for being available (or not) and the Contacts that could qualify, adding a button to make removing mods from weapons easier anywhere, adding a hover to the Counter Intel token-for-Favors window, boosting proc-gen mission name variety by over +100 terms (combinations go boom!), improving enemy scaling for UltraTek and Warner-Braun and fixing some other key bugs.

It's a big one so let's dig in. If you like the relentless pace of updates, improvements, new maps and more - please take a quick minute to leave a review. Our small team can thank you ... with more updates :D

[h2]New Weekly Map: Route 5 Bypass[/h2]

We're back on our weekly schedule now after having missed just one week over the holidays. This is the 11th weekly map release, and it is the Route 5 Bypass mission map.

• This broken stretch of concrete is cut in half by a twisting and winding section of Route 5. Three small footbridges span the route, limiting access from one side to the other.
  
• With restricted movement due to Route 5, the bridges become natural chokepoints or challenge points in a crossing.
  
• A central lookout platform provides a possible sniper hideout, but it's exposed to fire from multiple directions.
  
• A small to medium sized map, the Route 5 Bypass forces compressed play and challenge
  

As with all the new maps including Route 5 Bypass, we are dedicated to supporting every proc-gen objective (all 8) with absolute maximum variation inside each option (there are more than 32 ways to play this level!!) The new 8 proc-gen combos offered with this map brings the total to a whopping 129 proc-gen combos and represents another 6% increase in map variety. This is the 24th proc-gen mission map to be released, edging us ever closer to the goal of 25 proc-gen maps posted in the roadmap (we won't stop there, let's exceed these goals!)

The next very exciting step we are starting to work on now is expanding the objective catalog which will further blow out the proc-gen combos and replay for the game's content.


[h2]Leverage Reasoning Display[/h2]

The Leverage system has been too long a black box as to why you could or couldn't get specific Leverages. With this update, we've improved the display for Leverages offered in mission planning screen so that they have a little pop out that explains the reasoning for why they are offered. Some require High-Risk Transporters, Gang or Syndicate Contacts with command over soldiery, an Expert Wireghost or a Corrupt Corporate official.

This pop out also lists any Contacts if you know them who would be up to offer the Leverage if you had the Favor or positive Trust.

It's a big step forward and can help start steering interest to additional Contacts and will allow us to offer more intricate and cool Leverage conditions. Also, now that we've added the display, it is clear that some of the Leverages offered through proc-gen are failing to faction match correctly (you might see a lot for "Corrupt Arrowhead Insider") - so it is even helping us as we plan the next round of Leverage clean up and expansion.

[h2]Remove Mods Anywhere[/h2]

We've improved the handling of weapon's Remove Mods button in your inventory. Previously, it could feel like a multi-step process to equip a weapon to remove its mods. Now the button is always available - both in your Inventory's ALL tab as well as the Weapons tab. This lets you more rapidly manage weapons before sale or when swapping up your team's gear.

[h2]Token for Favor gets Contact Hover[/h2]

Thanks to all the player's requesting the hover in the Counter Intel Pod's window that lists contacts who you might trade Tokens for Favors. This simple hover provides all the needed context to help you make fast and accurate Favor decisions. Enjoy!

[h2]New Proc-Gen Mission Names[/h2]

We've pulled another big tranche of mission names from the Discord thread and Steam forum thread for suggesting mission names. It's always fun to see the new names filtering into the game. Thanks to everyone posting!

[h2]Enemy Scaling[/h2]
We've fixed two big scaling issues with enemies tonight:

• UltraTek enemies weren't scaling at all past Power Level 1. This was a bug related to the special setup in the first rooftop level and is now resolved - watch out if you wander into their territory they are at least as dangerous as any of the Big 6.
  
• Warner-Braun enemies were cheaping out on armor. They had oddly weak armor across the board and now we've resolved that getting them the upgrades they need.
  

Were excited to get back to adding new enemy variety to the game this month and seeing the megacorporations start to effectively step out from each other's shadows.

[h2]Loot Mismatch[/h2]
We fixed a bug where the Power Level and Rarity of all Items looted were nonesense. At least it was just a display problem when looting, as everything got straightened out in the Victory screen and afterwards.

[h2]+10% Influence for Blueprint Sales[/h2]
In some conditions the bonus to Contact Influence were not being saved correctly to the Contact. Depending on what screens you went to next and what screens you had gone to before, this Influence boost could have been lost. This is now fully resolved and the bonus is always granted, saved and maintained between reloads.

[h2]v1.9.83 - #201 - 1/16/2025[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map "Route 5 Bypass": a region split by the deep chasm of Route 5 highway with multiple smaller bridges that supports +8 new proc-gen combos (Heist a CPU, Steal 3 Files, Scavenger, Kill 3 Captains, Bodyguard, Assassinate, Siege and Battle Striker)
- Mission Planning screen now shows Leverage details - what Contacts can offer Leverage and why
- Counter-Intel Pod contact list to trade Tokens for Favors now includes hover over Contact
- Added easy "Remove Mods" option to all places where weapons appear - main inventory and inventory weapon tab
- Added over 100 new name parts to the proc-gen mission naming system - thanks posters!
- Fixed missing scaling Power Levels for UltraTek enemies - now ramping from 1 to 10 correctly
- Improved armor for all Warner-Braun megacorporate enemies to keep up with the other Big 6
- Fixed issue with all items in lootboxes showing odd Power Level and Rarity (and then at mission victory getting it right)
- Fixed bug with Influence +10% from Blueprint sales not always sticking around after sale / reload
- Fixed issue with timeline event log sometimes bugging and replacing all character names with one character's name

Knights and mercs, welcome to Update #200! This update is dedicated to the smashing of F10 bug reports and feedback and closing over 40 groups of F10s in our system. We really appreciate every player who is posting up feedback, and bugs and helping us improve the game. Every F10 is a way for us to address issues faster and also allows us to store away feedback that we can pull on when we need something to work on. So thank you players - you are making this Early Access everything it can be :D

If you like the style of relentless updates, please take a moment to leave a review. We need everyone!

[h2]Persistent Mission/Combat Log[/h2]

The meatspace mission and combat log has now joined the matrix log in being able to persist its entries between loads of the game. Now you will be able to look back on previous turns and get your bearings on a reload on any recent that happened - spotting, kills, etc.

[h2]Scourge Talent vs. Drones[/h2]

While there are no rule changes here, we've updated the descriptions of a number of Talents - Venom Trap, Brainworm, and Bio-Coat Bullet - to be clearer that these Talents cannot affect or target Drones. The Scourge is a bio-weapon and one of their weak spots is versus drones - check their full Talent list on the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint wiki Scourge page.

Also, as a rule change, we have fixed Scourge's Bio-Mimic to correctly be canceled if the Scourge makes an attack, as described in its rules.

[h2]Rewind Duration[/h2]
With Update #200 we've fixed the description of the Knight's Rewind Talent to correctly list its duration along with its bonuses.

[h2]Hacking Mission Dialogs[/h2]
We have removed the repeated dialogs during extraction for hacking missions! Hopefully we got all the ones that are driving players crazy, please let us know if we missed something.

[h2]Map Fixes Galore[/h2]

We've fixed a ton of small map issues. There was an area in Slagga Smash that should have been inaccessible that is now closed up. There was one variation (1/20) in Broken Highway where the Gold Door panel was missing. We've fixed open field spawns (not near a door or elevator) in the Decommissioned Core and Sector 01 Interchange (where some doors were added). We fixed an annoying Pressure Plate in the Dusted Hover-Evac map that was affecting a larger area than it visually covered.

We fixed the timeline event descriptions for 4 proc-gen missions that didn't clearly identify their type.

And a ton of other small issues - check the whole change log for details.

[h2]v1.9.81 - Update #200: F10 Smasher - 1/13/2024[/h2]
- Regular mission and combat log persists between game loads
- Improved Talent descriptions for Venom Trap, Brainworm and Bio-Coat Bullet around drone limitations
- Scourge's Bio-Mimic Talent correctly clears after making an attack
- Fixed Knight's Rewind Talent to include duration details for the buff to Move Speed and Initiative
- Restoring fence to extra map area not supposed to be in play for Southie Strut / Slagga Smash missions
- Fixed missing Gold Key panel in one variation of new Broken Highway map
- Fixed issue where Power Slice was hidden on character detail pop up during mission, hiding its cooldown
- Fixed 4 proc-gen mission timeline prompts that were not clear about the type of proc-gen mission they kick off
- Fixed issue where Dead-Eye, Doorkicker and Longshot Traits were being mislabeled in Legwork
- Fixed equip/unequip sequence that could result in 2 Heavy weapons being equipped
- Prevent Face from appearing in the roster's Training Ready filter
- Fixed open field spawns in Decommissioned Core and Sector 01 Interchange
- Fixed pressure sensor in Dusted Hover-Evac incorrectly affecting stairs
- Removed repetitive dialog from hack only missions extraction

Knights and mercs, we're back with another update in 2025 with more content - this time a new Power Play storyline, the first critical round of changes to the rules around Smoke / Smoke Grenades, and a really big number of minor tweaks to appearances to reduce small clipping and cosmetic appearance issues. Thanks to everyone posting up feedback, we are getting our engines going this year with big updates - story, missions, and the final set of features before launch - so stay tuned for some big hits!

If you are enjoying Early Access and our style of relentless updates and constant improvement, please take a moment to leave a review! You can always change it later :D

[h2]New Power Play Storyline[/h2]

A new storyline has been added to the Power Play set - storylines that can attach to Contacts who have successfully executed a Limit Break to put themselves into the risky "Power Play" status. This new storyline sees you working closely with the dangerous Ricksham Syndicate - the masters of the UNA's train network, riders of the rails, train-hobos - to negotiate the flow of new and powerful combat and hacking drugs into the New Boston Zone.

The storyline contains multiple missions with new challenges - seeing cross-faction fighting in the middle of a mission map, challenging extraction objectives and more VIP hunters dropping in to mess up your day.

You can read more about the Power Play system at the holiday milestone update here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/516322831358755690

[h2]Smoke Grenade Reactions[/h2]

For a long time, Smoke Grenades have been a powerful tool that deal in absolutes. The enemy agents stupidly ignore them, and the utterly baffle attempts at pursuit or detection. Update #199 takes the first step in softening the power of Smoke (Agent EX) and Smoke Grenades.

Our goal is to keep them fun, exciting and strong - they are a delay tactic, they sow chaos and confusion, they cover escapes and give you advantageous terms for a gunfight.

However, if its smokes - something must be on fire! Enemy agents in the Unaware state who see smoke will now report it to the Sec AI (+2 Tally, up to a maximum of +4 Turn for multiple agents) and become Suspicious (so they will not report Smoke again). Then they will proceed to hunt in the area, searching for the cause of the smoke or disturbance.

This is Step #1. Step #2 will be to make adjustments to how smoke affects detection and combat to remove absolutes (you cannot see through or into smoke) to instead powerful rules (your visibility is reduced to 2m inside smoke).

As we know this is a topic dear to many player's hearts, we will be putting up a preview thread to list all of the proposed rule changes in the next few days for everyone to comment on!


[h2]Fixing Appearance Clips[/h2]

With Update #199, we closed over 25 F10s that referenced specific small issues with the cosmetic stacks - either clipping, odd placements, hair not covering the entire head and more. This was a great cleanup but there is always more to do in this area. Our next cleanup effort will be looking at specific cosmetics that are not "good" at taking colors, the colors don't affect them too much or (in the case of short shaves) go crazy.

[h2]v1.9.79 - 1/11/2025[/h2]
- Added new Power Play storylines; high-risk negotiations with the Ricksham can bring new combat/hacking drugs into the NBZ
- Enemy agents now react to Smoke (Grenades, Agent EX) by increasing Tally by +2 and hunting in the nearby area
- Fixed model clipping at back of head for some characters wearing beret hats
- Fixed model clipping at back and sides of head for ponytail and other hairstyles
- Fixed reported typos, dialog clarifications

Mercs and Knights - Update #198 is a short one with a focus on getting us back on track for our Weekly Map Release schedule! We have a new map - Broken Highway - and two other small improvements to deliver today with better objectives in your bodyguard missions, improved Sec AI rules about buffing their forces and a fix to how Ignore Recoil is formatted for armor and cyberware. Also, we fixed a huge number of minor typos and issues in story and lore text, so thanks for all of your F10s!

If you like the constant stream of new, improved, polished and added during your Early Access, please remember to leave a review!

[h2]New Weekly Map: Broken Highway[/h2]

We missed a week over New Year's due to vacation and flu, but we're back on track now, and the maps will flow. Our 10th weekly map release is Broken Highway, a long stretch of open highway where warring factions constantly trade hands and soak in blood. A warning—the highway is wide, cuts through the map, and provides no cover! Stay off the road if you can, working its edges and crossing it quickly when you must.

With all the new maps - and Broken Highway - we are dedicated to supporting every proc-gen objective (all 8) with absolute maximum variation inside each option (there are more than 32 ways to play this level!!) The new 8 proc-gen combos offered with this map brings the total to 121 proc-gen combos and represents another 6% increase in map variety. Broken Highway also includes support for the Assassinate VIP objective which brings the mission maps supported for that objective type up to 10 and is no longer really an underserved objective type (victory day!).

[h2]Objective Update for Bodyguard Missions[/h2]

The bodyguard missions needed a small update to their objectives to properly indicate when the escort had successfully Extracted from the map. This tweak is now delivered to all bodyguard missions, present or future.

[h2]Ignore Recoil Bonus Correction[/h2]
There was a mistake in the display of the Ignore Recoil stat when it was shown on Armor or Cybernetics, where it would read as +0.3 which doesn't make sense in the Recoil system. When properly formatted, it should read as Ignores Recoil +3 which means that the armor or cybernetic grants an immediate 3-point reduction to Recoil all the time - making moving or firing a little less impactful to your next shot.

[h2]Sec AI is Picky[/h2]
Previously, if the Sec AI ran an Escalation that buffed their team, these buffs could be applied to Head Hunters, any enemy faction on the map as well as the local faction forces. We have adjusted these rules to ensure that only the local faction that the Sec AI is supporting is buffed.

[h2]v1.9.77 - 1/10/2025[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map "Broken Highway": a wide open stretch of dangerous highway constantly contested by warring factions that supports +8 new proc-gen combos (Heist a CPU, Steal 3 Files, Scavenger, Kill 3 Captains, Bodyguard, Assassinate, Siege and Battle Striker
- Fixed display for Recoil bonus on armor and cybernetics incorrectly using +0.3 instead of +3
- Improved objectives for all bodyguard missions to correctly mark when VIP is safely extracted
- Sec AI buffs will not help enemy factions or Head Hunters
- Fixed one missed controller guidance in the tutorial for Steam Deck