Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights, mercs, and hackers! Update #232 is working its way through the dome now, with an exciting new Hacker Talent Prank, big boosts to all the secondary objective rewards, reduction of cost of Extra Item Carry nodes, reduction in Team Power Level boost for hack-only missions, and more. It's a big raft of changes, get on and let's heist!

If you're enjoying the relentless pace of updates as we slog our way toward release in mid-May, please take a moment to share the game with a friend and leave a review ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Hacker makes Prank Call[/h2]

Update #232 finishes out the Hacker's tree and unlocks their final Talent - Prank! With Prank you can target an enemy who is eligible to be dispatched by security (not in combat, not a VIP, not a Head Hunter, etc) and debuff them with a high-priority dispatch marker. This means the next time the Sec AI dispatches someone to investigate an event of any kind, this enemy will be the one that is called in.

This Talent has been so fun in playtesting and creates all sorts of cool new scenarios for your heisting Stealth teams to pull off. Need that pesky guard to go away? Prank him and trigger a security camera halfway across the map. Or Prank him just in time for a body timer to expire and bye bye!

We hope you enjoy this new vector of stealth play as well!

[h2]Improved Secondary Rewards[/h2]

Secondary Objective rewards have taken a big step up today with some new balancing going into effect. The rewards have jumped up to +2-4 Favors, +25-35% XP, +25-35% Payment or +20-50% Influence. Also, we have removed Blue Cubes as a reward type, these are not exciting - you can now only get Red or Gold Cubes.

Finally, we've chances that additional rewards - like Blueprint or NBS cubes - will be offered for secondary objectives, so you should be seeing a more interesting mix of those.

Coming next in this area, we've got 2 additional Secondary Objective goals that we will be adding around Escort / Exposed VIP missions, and we will also be doing some balancing for missions like Alpha Strike and Siege that can't get secondary objectives and are poorer for it.

[h2]Cheaper Extra Item Carry[/h2]

With Update #232, we've reduced the level point cost for each Extra Item Carry node from 5 to 3. This makes these nodes more interesting to consider for your characters.

We are also working on a visual upgrade to the Extra Item Carry node because it looks like a Talent and that has evidently caused confusion. The Extra Item Carry node costs 1 level point to Train into and does not take a Talent point. For now, we've fixed the pricing for its upgrade nodes but in the next update we will resolve the issue with it looking like a Talent and get its text to clearly share that it does not cost a Talent point.

[h2]Reduced Hack-Only Team Power Level[/h2]

Every mission you run adds to your Team Power Level. In this way, the sum total of your missions pushes the game's progression and difficulty higher. To help balance this further, we've reduced the Team Power Level boost that you get from hack-only missions further, as these are small missions between the full team missions and should not have such a big impact.

Hack-only missions now add 50% of a full proc-gen missions would add to your Team Power Level which is 50% of what a high-risk narrative mission would add.

[h2]Other F10s![/h2]
We are always hard at work on digging into the F10 pile, so we appreciate every player sending in feedback. With Update #232, we've improved some issues with mission naming (some missions were coming up with the name ERROR SOMETHING a lot!), fixed an issue where the Sec AI could dispatch an enemy who wasn't part of the faction (Fenian Sec AI dispatches Brave Star wut?).

We also put out a few hotfixes between the last update that improved the tactical thinking for enemies who are trying to close the distance again in a hotfix.

[h2]v1.10.9 - #232: Prank Call - 4/2/2025[/h2]
- Improved secondary mission objective rewards; now +2-4 Favors, +25-35% XP, +25-35% Payment, +20-50% Influence
- Increased the chance of Blueprints and NBS Cubes being offered as rewards for secondary objectives
- Removed Blue NBS Cubes as a possible secondary objective reward, only Gold and Red Cubes ever offered
- Unlocked Hacker Talent Prank (was Stemlocker) - allowing you to pick which enemy agent is dispatched by security to investigate events
- Swapped Downed Shields and Prank in the Hacker's Talent trees
- Improved Hacker's Trunkpatch Talent upgrades: upgraded node to -10 AP, upgraded node to -1 recharge rate, upgraded final buff node to +10% Connection from +5%
- Reduce cost of Extra Item Carry nodes to 3 from 5 each
- Reduce Team Power Level boost from completing Hack Only Missions to 50% of regular proc-gen missions
- Fixed issue with some missions having "ERROR" in their name 50% of the time
- Fixed issue with Sec AI dispatches that could tap enemies of another faction
- Improved long-range movement decision making by enemies to close gaps faster
- Fixed issue that could cause Hacker to freeze up after starting the turn hacking and then disconnecting

Knights and mercs, we've got a follow-up update here to the big AI tactical decision-making update that we released yesterday. It catches up on a few bugs (like Investigating! on bodies) and improves a few other areas that players have since helped us identify in feedback and F10s. We're exciting to hear the stories of more exciting tactical battles coming to light already, so this is a great move for the game, now we just have to clean up a bit and move into the stealth area to improve the AI there as well to finish out this final enemy improvement push.

[h2]Investigating! Loop / Stutter Step[/h2]
There was a bug injected where an enemy might become repeatedly interested in the same dead body, over and over again Investigating! it. That is now resolved.

This could cause a lock up where the AI never ended their Turn, but this was hotfixed out yesterday within an hour or two of the initial update.

[h2]Better Event Prioritization[/h2]
Enemies receiving dispatches from security and encountering their own events in the field now have better prioritization cues as they can look at the turn of all of the events. This new data helps them make better decisions, as the newer events should garner more of their attention.

[h2]More Tactical Decisions[/h2]
We've gone another level deep with the tactical decision making improvements with this update. Where the first High-Stakes update focused mostly on the short-range movements that an enemy would make in a gunfight, we've now certified some of the improvements to longer range movement thinking that can help the enemies make smarter decisions.

• They are less likely to head into dead-end areas that will require later backtracking.
  
• The flanking limitation rules which could cause an enemy to say "Beyond Flank Allowance!" before moving have been fixed and are now better applied only at combat range, instead of any range. They were causing some enemies to have a really hard time closing distance with players, especially in maps with non-direct routes (bridges, interiors, etc).
  
• Improved how much enemies like to stay in optimal range, avoiding getting in too close especially.
  

[h2]v1.10.3 - #231: High-Stakes Tagalong - 3/31/2025[/h2]
- Fixed issue where enemy could get locked up in a stutter step loop
- Fixed issue where enemy could repeat "Investigating!" over the same dead body
- Improved enemy prioritization of security events based on the mission turn they occurred in (more recent, more priority)
- Improved enemy decision making to stay in optimal range especially when very close to mercs
- Improved enemy decision-making around approaching/flanking mercs, no more "Beyond Flank Allowance" alerts
- Improved enemy decision-making to avoid going into dead-end areas that can't reach mercs
- Improved combat log ability to report on attacks blocked by shield, or Shredding blocked by effects

Knights and Mercs, today's Update #229 is the first delivery of a series of enemy agent and AI improvements that we are wrapping up as the game gets closer to full launch. With this update specifically, we have not added any new intelligence to the enemy agents, we have only tuned and improved things they were already thinking about (and fixed the bugs in these systems too!). The biggest change is discussed in the Tactical Repositioning header below.

Just a warning - the enemies, especially higher Power Level, are probably more dangerous than yesterday. Do be careful and take some extra save checkpoints! We will continue to rebalance in either direction as needed - can't wait to get your feedback.
 
We've also sped up the entire pace of play by tweaking how quickly the game can transition between turns, and added very helpful warning before you make an attack that will be targeted by Overwatch reaction shot.

If you're enjoying the constant improvement and polishing of the game during Early Access, please take a moment to thank our dev team with a review! We need everyone! More updates are coming ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Overwatch Warning[/h2]

While movement warnings for Overwatch have been available for a while, pre-attack warnings have been missing. We're excited to finally get them added, so now any time you are considering an attack and are at risk of triggering an enemy's Overwatch reaction shot first, you will get a nice warning in the attack circle - "You may be shot!"

[h2]Speed of Play[/h2]

We've taken some time over the last few updates to really polish the speed of play. We got the camera movement snappy and sharp and now with Update #229, we've taken a look at turn transitions. We found a lot of little delays we could iron out and now cycling through your team and the enemy team is really fast and smooth!

The game is playing really fast and smooth now, letting you get through more turns in less time.

[h2]Tactical Repositioning[/h2]

The biggest upgrades in enemy intelligence came from fixing bugs and re-tuning their decision trees when deciding what to do with each Turn, when and how far to move, and how that impacts their ability to take later actions - like firing, throwing a grenade, or more.

All around, the changes here make the enemy tactical combat more engaging and challenging. The early game is mostly unchanged, where enemies are lower Power Level but as they ramp up, they will gain more willingness to use smarter tactics against you, take cover and just let their weapons rip, and punish you for tactical mistakes that you make. We hope that these changes start to raise the bar and challenge for higher Power Level teams who were finding the enemy reaction to be too easy once they hit Power Level 6+.

• There were just small (but important) mistakes in how we calculated how far an enemy might want to move once they are engaged in a shoot-out. This often led to enemies moving too far to take any shots at all on their Turn, giving you basically a free return volley of fire. Enemies are much more judicious about making short tactical moves if they can get a shot off, and will be sure to take that shot.
  
• Due to the overly aggressive desire to move, enemies basically only ever made 1 attack per Turn, even on a good Turn. This is an important part of enemy balance in the early game, and it did not feel good when we started "fixing it". We have now tied this type of increased intelligence to the enemy Power Level - as the enemy Power Level ramps up, based on their weapon type and disposition, they are more and more likely to make decisions that will allow them to take and use advantageous positions against you and take multiple shots on a turn against your mercs, which can be devastating.
  

[h2]Patrolling Away from Danger[/h2]

Sometimes, an enemy would see something - most often a dead body - and simply turn and run off in the other direction, sometimes saying "Patrolling!" We've resolved this bug, and now the enemy is going to get interested and start "Hunting!" around the area, looking for the killer and calling it in to the Sec AI.

[h2]Talent and Grenade Decisions[/h2]

We've tuned up and improved the decision intelligence for enemies about when to use their Talents and when to throw grenades. Enemies will no longer use Medkits when they are unwounded! That should help make them more useful later if they can survive a round of fire from your team.

Second, we've worked a lot on improving the grenade calculations and decision rules. Enemies who can throw grenades are now more willing and capable of determining a good shot and taking it. Hopefully this leads to a lot more special grenade attacks from the enemies who have them, so they have less chance to blend into the crowd as "just another" enemy.

We've also worked on the grenade targeting routines to avoid throwing buffing grenades at enemy factions (Fenians should not be throwing Red-Mist buffs at Brave Star troopers!)

[h2]Enemy Overwatch Mistakes[/h2]
Sometimes they used to do this ^^^
There were 2 classes of enemy Overwatch mistakes that were fixed in this bug. First, sometimes they would setup Overwatch but then move by about 1m to either side. This would leave the cone on the floor but not at their feet. and made it very confusing about where they were actually going to shoot from. Now fixed!

Second, and much more important, sometimes the enemy would run up, spot your merc, and then turn and face the other direction and put up Overwatch - into a completely random direction! This was really whacky timing issue between finishing their movement and starting Overwatch, which is now cleanly resolved and will no longer occur. Now fixed!

[h2]Brainworm Fix[/h2]
Under some circumstances, enemies who were under the Scourge's Brainworm debuff could still turn and attack your mercs. This is now resolved, and they are only able to target their own team, or they will not shoot.

[h2]Stealth Crit in Accuracy Breakdown[/h2]

Your Stealth Crit % bonus could sometimes be double-counted in the shown total of Critical Chance, leading to some funny-looking math. This is now cleaned up and we're excited to say the Accuracy breakdown is looking really squeaky clean now!

[h2]Compressed Mission Planning Screen[/h2]
The mission-planning screen can show multiple stages and even options for each of those stages. In the old design, these could be far enough spread apart that - depending on your screen and resolution - it could be hard to see or click on the connected options. We've compressed this UI to bring all the elements closer together so that what you're looking at and what you can click on should be much clearer.

[h2]v1.10.01 - #230: High-Stakes Gunfight - 3/30/2025[/h2]
- Targeting an enemy now includes Overwatch warning "You will be shot" if reaction shot will interrupt
- Increased game tempo by squeezing out delays, especially after each merc's turn
- Improved enemy ability to take good tactical position and fire multiple times on their Turn, increasing with higher PL troops
- Improved enemy ability to calculate and throw grenades / buffing grenades so that more are tossed
- Improved enemy intelligence about when to use Talents, Medkits, Team Buffs and Overwatch
- Fixed issue where enemy would make a short reposition move and then not attack
- Fixed issue where enemy might see a dead body and then head off in the other direction
- Fixed issue where enemy could put up Overwatch but it would be pointed in a random direction, not at character
- Fixed issue where enemy could put up Overwatch but the cone would not be at their feet
- Fixed issue where enemy could be unfairly charged 1 AP sometimes for rotating to look toward player
- Fixed issue where enemy could throw buffing grenade at an enemy in another faction
- Fixed issue where Brainwormed enemy could still fire at characters instead of only enemies
- Fixed issue with Stealth Crit % being counted twice in Accuracy breakdown display (top right)
- Compressed spacing in mission planning to ensure that different phases and options are easier to access
- Improved movement and taking cover around all computer racks and servers
- Fixed bugs with repeated dialogs after successful Assassination

Knights!

As you've seen on the public roadmap, we've been working on translations for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. We're excited to have reached a milestone where we can offer preview builds for the translated game in French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. These are early, beta versions of the translated text -- we need your help to evaluate their quality and see where we should be making changes to give as many speakers of these languages as possible the best experience.

Early feedback from our small handful of initial volunteers has already been extremely valuable; now we just need more input so we can continue to improve.

[h2]Are you bilingual? Let us know![/h2]
If you're a native speaker of another language in our community who's also proficient in English, please fill out this Google Form to let us know. If you're fluent in one of the five languages we've currently translated the game to - French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish - you could get early access to the translated game.

If you're fluent in a language we haven't yet translated to, it helps us see where there's demand to translate into other languages, and you'll be first in line for an early look if we do.

[h2]Work Closely with Our Team[/h2]


Right now, the community translation team is helping us pin down key game terms for the glossary to ensure that the best balance of literal translations vs cyberpunk-themed slang and cross-lingual gaming terminology is achieved. We'd love you to collaborate with us to review UI and dialogue translations, offer feedback on how game-specific "special" terms should be translated, and ensure that the translations accurately capture the tone and setting of Cyber Knights.

[h2]Launch Translation Plans[/h2]

We would love to launch the game with ready-to-play, 90%+ quality translations for French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. We're working with the community to make sure these translations are truly ready to shine! But depending on how long this takes - prioritizing quality over marketing deadlines - we may or may not have finished translations at launch.

If not, we won't actively market the game in those languages at launch. But, we will still make the available translation branches of the game public and available to all players at that time, and we will do language-specific launches as we're able to reach that quality threshold for each.

We are excited and open to translating the game into other languages as well! But we're a tiny team and we had to start somewhere. Please wishlist the game and spread the word to others in your region if you'd like us to translate it into your native language, and complete the Google Form to show your interest in helping review the game in your language.

If you have any questions about joining the translation project, you can reach out to us here on Steam or DM Liviana (username is @liviana) in our Discord.

Knight and mercs, we're back with another focused dose of polishing, improvement, Talent fixes, map updates and more. Update #229 has a special focus on every F10 that was ever reported about movement Talents - they've been fixed. We've also improved storylines where Tags weren't always being applied, fixed impassible areas in maps, fixed bugs with Cybersword EMP Talent, the unexpected and early appearance of Turrets (woops, but coming very soon!) and more. Let's dig in to this polish and fix update!

If you're liking the relentless push here as we rush toward the end of Early Access, please take a moment to leave a review! I know myself and our little team of 3 working on gamedev here would appreciate it ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Movement Talent Polish[/h2]

Movement Talents had some issues. You sent us F10s - quite a lot of them! We fixed them ːsteamhappyː The Talents that are "movement Talents are Shielded Rush, Projection, Empty Lung, Pathfinder and Lightfoot.

• When a Movement Talent is active, a persistent info banner now appears at the bottom of the screen, explaining that if you activate your current movement, this Talent will activate with it.
  
• The generic "Move" action in the movement destination is now switched to the Talent name when the Movement Talent is active - instead of "Move" by the spacebar or (A) button, it will say "Projection" etc.
  
• The AP/MP dot estimation for Movement Talents is finally correct. There was a mistake where could show more AP than you were able to spend.
  
• The bug where you could use Movement Talents sometimes and not pay the charge for the Talent is fixed.
  
• We have improved the Talent hover for Movement Talents where they list AP no longer says "Use for 3 AP" but instead "Move up to 3 AP".
  

This set of fixes resolves all the known issues and vastly demystifies the process of using a Movement Talent, when it is active and ready to use and more. We hope you find these Talents more fun and easy to use now.

[h2]Cybersword EMP[/h2]
One of the anti-drone Talents that a Cybersword boasts is the EMP Talent which was not working due to incorrectly configured SFX and VFX. We've resolved this in Update #229 and the Talent is working nicely again.

[h2]Text Codes / Mistakes Fixed[/h2]
As you may have seen on Discord and elsewhere, we are now testing the translated version of the game with a small working group. To get to this point, in the last month we've made a lot of changes to some of the internal string processing and had to make a lot of updates and changes. These have resulted in a slow stream of bugs in the English version of the game that we had to backtrack and fix. With this update we've resolved the issue where BioScan was using just displaying string keys (like "Security.BioScan.Something.Or.Other"), an issue where some lines by the narrator in dialog were just "DialogQuip.273" and some cases with repeated dialog. Finally, some character tags were incorrectly including "BlockCondition.x.y.z" at their end.

[h2]Cybernetics Clinic Map[/h2]

We've made a sweep of changes and minor updates to the most recently released map - the Cyber Clinic - and also pushed it to only appear starting at Power Level 4. Also, for a hot minute, the unfinished Turret enemies were appearing in this map and causing all hell. They have been hidden again but are coming very soon.

[h2]Big AI Updates Coming![/h2]
The next major wave of updates will focus on AI intelligence, fixing issues with their stupidity, running the wrong direction, bad tactical choices, not shooting enough, saying silly things and more ːsteamhappyː Can't wait to roll these out!

[h2]v1.9.177 - #229: The Move - 3/26/2025[/h2]
- Improved all movement Talents (Shielded Rush, Projection, Empty Lung, Pathfinder, Lightfoot) with persistent activation banner
- Fixed bugs with movement Talents not always activating (Shielded Rush) or costing a full Charge to use (Projection)
- Improved hover text and clarified text for movement Talents to be clearer about how they work
- Fixed issue with Son of Belly Legwork not granting a Soft Skill upon failure
- Fixed final case that could cause "DialogQuip" to appear in dialog instead of Narrator lines
- Fixed rooftop access point in Urban HQ where floorboards were impassible
- Fixed repeated dialog that could happen at start of Daedalus Bloc hacking missions
- Fixed VFX bugs preventing Cybersword EMP Talent from activating
- BlockCondition.x.y.z string being shown in some Tags instead of empty string
- Fixed Turrets accidentally appearing in Cyber Clinic map (too early!)
- Fixed some duplicate dialog appearing at end of Hacking for Loot missions
- Fixed BioScan Field text that was just codes