Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Mercs and Knights - we have a big one hitting the streets tonight in New Boston! A new proc-gen objective has been added along with +15 new proc-gen combos tied to it, we've rebalanced the enemy spawning sets across every faction and the entire game, tweaked the speed of storyline starting at the beginning of the game to give just a little more breathing room, now allow the results of minting a File Set to add +20% influence, improved the Limit Break UI and more!

The relentless pace of updates will not stop during Early Access. If you are enjoying the game and/or the updates, please take a moment to leave a review!

[h2]New Infiltrate and Download Proc-Gen Objective[/h2]

For a long time, we've been focusing on the weekly map release. We have now more than doubled the catalog of available proc-gen maps, much to the benefit of the game's depth of content. We are going to continue to add new maps, but we're going to shift some of our time and focus in a new direction - to proc-gen objectives.

With Update #217, we've released a new proc-gen objective - the Infiltrate and Download File Set objective, in which you need infiltrate a location and work on finding from 3 to 4 Files that are resident in matrix hosts on the premises. These missions are definitely a new type of challenge and as they are just harder, they only show up at Power Level 4+.

This new objective is now linked to 15 maps, which adds a total of +15 new proc-gen combos, bringing the game's total of combos (map X objective) to 174.

While we will be doing map releases, they may start to slip from the weekly goal for a while, as we have 5 other new objective types to roll into the game and we'll be hammering through those over the next 5 weeks.

[h2]Enemy Variety Improvements[/h2]
With Update #217, we've adjusted all of the reinforcement spawning groups in the game as well as some of the starting spawn groups. This has gone along with a consolidation and refinement of the underlying enemy catalog, which is going to help us add more enemy variety in more places more easily. In addition, the underlying improvement is going to allow us to add more fine-grained scaling to the enemy catalogs, where specific enemies can start appearing only after certain Power Levels, which will be important for balancing hard-hitting enemies, enemy Turrets and the upcoming drones as well.

This set of changes will have the biggest impact on reinforcement groups, which have a much wider and more pleasing range of variety for all factions. There are also a few levels - like Haven Smokeout and Loophole Heist - that have also benefited from better starting enemy variety due to the changes.

Along with this change, we've added a new Brave Star sniper known as a Star Longshot. More enemy types will now be easier to add, so we expect bringing a few more on in the next few weeks to keep increasing variety.

[h2]Story Speed Tweaked[/h2]

With Update #217, we've completed a minor rebalance to the speed at which story gets started out of the gate in the game. This does not affect the pacing of Syndicate Debts, but affects the pacing of all the other follow-only story event types (proc-gen, proc-gen legwork, vignettes, recruit offers).

The first change was to push the threshold for any story to start proc'ing back by 1 entire day, from 9.5 days to 10.5 days. It is small, but in the compressed timeline of the early game, it makes a difference. The second was to change how the other types of stories were calculating their starting chance to proc every Turn, which was based on Turn 0 instead of the story start point of 9.5 days, meaning all of the stories were very likely to immediately fire at 9.5 days.

Finally, we've made minor 5% adjustments to the speed at which new vignettes and recruit offers will roll up a new story.

All in all, these are minor changes, and we're going to be very careful with adjustments to story pacing to make sure we're always homing in closer and closer to the perfect pace.

[h2]File Set Mints Grant +20% Influence[/h2]

While Blueprints and Accounts have both offered ways to grant Influence to your Contacts, there has not been a path through Files. With Update #217, we've updated the rules around the File Sets - any File that is minted from a File Set will now add +20% Influence to any Contact who purchases it. This gives extra motivation to collect and mint File Sets at any Rarity.

[h2]Limit Break UI Upgrade[/h2]

We're excited to push an updated Limit Break UI for both Contacts and Characters. This helps the character pop so it's really clear who you are looking at. In addition, you can now hover over the Contact name and details at the top of the windows to get the full hover with all of their Trust, Services and more - which can be a big help in making your choice. We're working on getting a similar hover wired up for mercs too.

[h2]Security Tally Visible in HUD[/h2]

The last update included a bug where the tallies in the HUD disappeared and were replaced with a blue and yellow bar. We have fixed the bug and the individual tally marks are back.

[h2]v1.9.127 - #217: New Proc-Gen Objective and Enemy/Story Rebalance - 2/21/2025[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen objective: Infiltrate and Hack where you hit a facility, reach terminals and search for files
- 15 new maps available for Infiltrate and Download, +15 total proc-gen combos
- Any File minted by a File Set will add +20% Influence to the Contact who purchases it if sold
- Improved and rebuilt enemy reinforcement groups to have more variety, arrive with more specialists
- Improved difficulty of Haven Smokeout mission with better spawning variety
- Added a Star Longshot sniper enemy to the Brave Star faction (lightly armored, fast-moving sniper)
- Adjusted pacing of early game story, pumping the breaks a little (~10%) on speed of start and speed of events
- Improved secondary objective goals for Turns and Sec Level on certain levels where they were still too low
- Upgraded Hype/Stress/Influence/Exposure Limit Break pop-up
- Fixed issue where the Security Tally bar became a big colored bar without tallies

Knights and mercs, we've got Update #216 arriving on the New Boston streets this morning. This one is dedicated to the new Loadout system, which allows you to rapidly save your merc's equipment setup and then swap your equipment to another loadout (making big or small changes) or share that equipment set with another merc altogether. We dive into the details below and have included a demonstration video too!

We wanted to send out a big thanks to everyone playing, posting and sharing ideas for how to improve Cyber Knights: Flashpoint during Early Access. Your input goes into updates! Also, a special thanks to everyone who left a review this week.

[h2]New Loadout System[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
A loadout is a snapshot save of the current equipment that your merc is carrying - their weapon, the mods on those weapons, their armor, and their items. You can now save this Loadout so that you can swap back to it rapidly.

When you save a loadout, you create an equipment record separate from your merc. This is important as it means that (1) changing your merc's equipment afterward does not modify the loadout unless you save your loadout again and overwrite it and (2) you can use this loadout to rapidly swap another merc to that equipment set.


Once you have a saved loadout, any other merc can swap their loadout to that new equipment set. This means they will take the equipment required for that loadout (weapons, mods, armor, and items) from any other merc who is holding them to complete the equipment set. For items and weapon mods, the preference is to pull these off the shelf whenever possible (avoiding taking things from other mercs) but in the case that something does have to be taken, you'll get a list of what will be taken from whom at the bottom of the swap loadout screen.

Here are some common use cases we've seen being used in testing:

• Swapping weapons for a single merc - one merc who keeps the same armor and items but swaps guns between mission types (e.g. close-range vs long, quiet vs loud).
  
• Sharing same equipment between 2 mercs - with only one set of "best Vanguard gear" you are swapping that gear back and forth between your two Vanguards.
  
• Stealth / Combat Mods and Items - one merc keeps their weapons and armor between mission types but uses different items and weapon mods.
  
• Item Only Swapping - your merc's weapons, mods, and armor all stay the same but you are swapping between a Dazzler and a Liquefier versus two explosive grenades
  

As loadouts are tightly tied to the equipment in your current playthrough, they are not shared between saved games.

[h2]All Equipment Details in Mission Deploy[/h2]

You can now see all of your equipment details for your team directly in mission deployment with helpful hovers. You can also quickly swap loadouts without leaving that screen, allowing you to make last-minute equipment adjustments without jumping to the roster. Still, you can jump out to the roster if you need to as usual, but we'd love for you to be able to do most of your tweaking right there.

[h2]Loadout Confirmation[/h2]

There is a warning every time you're going to swap into a loadout - to remind you that you are going to make some changes to your EQ and there is no easy undo. If this warning is too much, you can disable it in options.

[h2]Fixed Stress Limit Break Negative Trait Text[/h2]
We fixed a display only bug where the game text was stating that a Stress Limit Break reduced your negative Trait by 1 level when instead it increased it by one level.

[h2]End of Game Screen[/h2]
In preparation for Retirement and Career Stats, we've now added an official end of game screen. You'll see this game if you try to load a game that has a dead Knight. It is completely empty at the moment, but you can click through to reach the safehouse and see your entire team in detail and use any library functions (saving appearance or training builds) that you'd like.

[h2]1.9.125 - #216: Loadout Supreme - 2/20/2025[/h2]
- Added new loadout system - save and swap rapidly between loadouts on any merc
- Loadouts are a definition of all your current Weapons, Weapon Mods, Armor and Items - loadouts only changed when Saving
- Improved mission deployment screen to show full loadout, allow swapping of loadouts on mission deployment screen
- Loadouts can be used to swap as much (all your EQ) or as little (add/remove Silencer) as you want
- Fixed incorrect level in Stress Limit Break display when negative Traits get worse, improved display for Wounds specifically
- Fixed incorrect icons in timeline for events sometimes
- New empty Game Over screen if you load a game with a dead Knight, in preparation for retirement / career stats

Tonight, we did a run-down of the most popular current F10s that are jamming up the queues and tried to fix as many as we could. Some of these (like Nano-Stimkit being renamed to "rec") were generating silly numbers of F10s, so they just had to go, now ːsteamfacepalmː

As there are no new features or content, it isn't going to get an update number. Thanks to everyone playing and especially to everyone taking a minute to send in F10s, we are fixing them every day!

[h2]Mouse/Keyboard Rotation Fully Restored[/h2]
We've also fixed a bug that prevented rotation by mouse or keyboard if your mouse was over any UI element. Sorry that this snuck in, and glad to see it resolved.

[h2]Ricksham Drips Storyline[/h2]
We've made some improvements to the Ricksham Drips missions - the first mission will no longer allow secondary objectives related to Security Level (I won't spoil the reasons those are unfair) and the second is now more clear that your team extraction is locked until Dakota is dropped off.

And a host of other F10s, but check the list below for more details!

[h2]v1.9.123 - Patch: F10 Round Up - 2/17/2025 [/h2]
- Fixed issue with mouse and keyboard rotation not working if mouse is in HUD
- Fixed bug preventing Proximity Mines from exploding in most cases (oops!)
- Improved objectives in Ricksham Drip missions - team extract is now shown as locked until you extract Dakota
- Prevented Ricksham Drip first mission "Coyote Hotdrop" from allowing secondary objectives for min Security Level
- Fixed Nano Stimkit being named "rec"
- Fixed inability to upgrade Street Weapon Mods service to Level 4
- Improved a number of matrix host templates including some with incorrect long diagonal connections
- Fixed issue with good Contact Trait Calculating being considered negative
- Fixed a few faces on which some of the piercings were invisible or badly placed
- Fixed typos in Cybersword Preempt Talent

Welcome to Sunday evening, mercs and heisters! Let's do Update #215! With this update, we've pushed Stress Limit Breaks into the light so you can't miss them anymore, we've increased the variation of what you can get in a Stress LImit Break including some new temporary negative Traits, added a new negative Trait ability to cause ripples of Stress through your team, fixed a longstanding bug with how Passive Talents could double-activate and waste charges, and improved 2 Talents at the start of a larger Talent polishing project.

If you're enjoying the game or the relentless pace of progress, please take a moment to share Cyber Knights: Flashpoint with a friend or leave a review!

[h2]Merc Stress Limit Breaks Visible[/h2]

With Update #215, we've pushed the previously quiet and easy-to-miss Stress Limit Breaks for your mercs into a pop-up window just like Hype Limit Breaks. You don't have any options here other than to acknowledge the unfortunate change in your merc's status. As always the result is written to the timeline event log as well, but this helps promote these important moments in your merc's career with more visibility.

We've got some nice changes coming to the Limit Break windows in a near-term release, but they are pending testing and merging, so the window is not the cleanest-looking thing right now, but that's where we are right now. Iterate, improve, go fast!
 
[h2]Updated Stress Limit Break Options[/h2]

Along with making the Stress Limit Breaks visible, we've improved the list of options that could apply here. First, we've expanded the conditions under which results like increasing Pay Rate or Reducing Loyalty can occur. But we've also added temporary negative Traits to match those temporary positive Traits you can get in Hype Limit Breaks.

The new Traits - Disgruntled and Checked Out are options at any point you get a Stress Limit Break while Malcontent and Run Empty are much nastier but will only appear at 6 or more Discontent.

Both Disgruntled and Malcontent have a new possible effect on Traits which is to cause Stress ripples within your team. If a merc with these Traits suffers a +10% Stress, they have a % chance to cause another merc in the safehouse to suffer a similar Stress rise.

[h2]Fixed Passive Talent Double Up Bug[/h2]

We've fixed an old bug with how Passive Talents worked. For those Passive Talents with common conditions to activate (Critical Hit, killing a target, etc) they might activate once in a Turn and then later activate again. This lead to the "re-buffing" ruleset which states that if you have a buff and the same buff is used on you again, the duration is extended as if you were just buffed the first time now.

For Passive Talents, this is a bad rule set - so we've enforced a check with all Passive Talents. If you have the buff (if you have the Savagery buff up) and you activate the Passive Talent (you kill an enemy which would usually fire Savagery's charge) then the buff doesn't fire. That's nice.

[h2]Talent Rebalance - More Coming[/h2]
As we sprint like a wild band of jackals toward our release date, we're polishing every aspect of that game. A huge shout and thanks to @Phreak who has provided some very useful analysis today about the 145 Talents that are in the game. It is a great prompt to do a full scrub down of the list, improve where we can, focus where we can, and make sure everything is delivering fully.

So - more Talent changes, rebalance, buffs and nerfs are going to be coming in the next months. Hold onto your favorites!

With Update #215, we've improved the level point costs for Agent EX's Talent, Armor EX. The ending nodes on this Talent were both 2 point cost which was not intentional. And second, we've helped focus the Cyber Knight's Lookahead Talent solely on predicting enemy movement and then slowing down their Move Speed, so the -Initiative debuff that was there has been removed and the Move Speed debuffs have been punched up to -15%.

[h2]v1.9.121 - #215: Stress Below the Street - 2/16/2025[/h2]
- Merc Stress Limit Breaks now pop a confirmation window to show the timing and result of the LB
- Stress Limit Breaks can now add 30 day negative Traits: Disgruntled and Checked out (or 6+ Discontent), Malcontent and Run Empty
- New negative Traits can "ripple" Stress to other mercs - when a Malcontent Stresses, they make others Stress
- Increased conditions in which a merc can Stress Limit Break for Less Loyalty or Pay Raise
- Added Trait description to all temporary Traits (negative and positive)
- Fixed issue with Passive Buff Talents firing when they are already active on your character (Recoup, Savagery) and wasting charges
- Improved Cyber Knight's Lookahead Talent to focus on -Move Speed (max -30%) and not -Initiative (now removed)
- Reduced level point cost of Agent EX's Armor EX upgrades 3 and 4 (-1 AP, +1 Charge) to 1 pt instead of 2
- Fixed reported map bugs

Knights and mercs, we heard a rumor that you like updates with new stuff! So, here we go - Update #214 adds 5 new cosmetics to a new facial piercings category, adds a powerful new filter to all Cold Storage tabs, makes some key balance improvements to the Eleventh Hour mission and fixes some old Legwork bugs that have been plaguing the F10 streams and fixes other F10s as fast as we can go.

Thanks to everyone sending in feedback, playing the game and especially to the players who left a review since the last update (yesterday)! If you're enjoying the game and the relentless update pace, please take a moment to leave a review to help our small team carry forward.

[h2]New Cosmetics: Facial Piercing[/h2]

WIth Update #214, we've added 5 new cosmetic options and opened up a new style category with Facial Piercings. The first wave of piercings includes an underlip stud, underlip spikes, a center nose ring, and a nose ring on either side. We'll be adding more variations up the nose and to the eyebrows as well, and since you can mix and match within the category you can already start to do some cool things.

A huge thanks to everyone sending in F10s with ideas and improvements we could make - we've got more cosmetics coming your way!

[h2]Buyer's Filter[/h2]

We have added a new and helpful filter for your Cold Storage digital items (Accounts, Blueprints and Files). This filter can only be used from the individual lists (we are still working on the ALL support) but can help you see the list of all Contacts who will buy something and rapidly filter down to the Contact of interest.

This can be really helpful if you're fishing for Favors (filter to Origami Joe, look for high-value things to sell) or Influence (filter to Potato on Accounts and sell off your high Rarities).

The Buyer's Filter was one of our prerequisites for the Bulk Sell feature which will let you get a purchase offer for any item in the list. So now that we've got Buyer's Filter in the wild, we're moving toward the Bulk Sell next to help you rapidly empty your inventory.

[h2]Eleventh Hour Balance[/h2]

In the Eleventh Hour storyline, we had written a branch where the enemy holding the prisoner could be either a Syndicate or Warner-Braun megacorp. For an early game storyline, the difficulty of running into the (RNG selected) Warner-Braun was too stiff and has continually made this mission a tough spot for some players. We've resolved this, ensuring that unless the storyline is added at Team Power Level 5+, the enemy will always be a Syndicate.

[h2]Mouse Wheel in Talent Scroll[/h2]
If you're hitting a point in the Matrix where your Programs, Talents, and Items are rolling off the edge of the screen you'll be either using your mouse wheel or keyboard to scroll the list. The mouse wheel was setup to go in the reverse direction than expected (up should go left). We've fixed this one.

[h2]Fixed Legwork Bugs[/h2]
There were two lingering Legwork bugs that #214 catches up on. There were still some older games suffering from a bug long fixed but the data was still corrupted - in these rare cases, there was a merc who was forever stuck on Legwork. The second bug was on older saved games as well where you might get into a situation where one merc was always stealing credit for another merc's Legwork.

Both are now quietly resolved the next time you load your saved game.

[h2]v1.9.119 - #214: Underworld Fences - 2/15/2025[/h2]
- Added new appearance option: Piercings! Pick from below lip stud, spikes or 3 of nose ring positions
- Added new Cold Storage Filter for Buyers when looking at Accounts, Blueprints and Files tab
- Fixed balancing mistake in Eleventh Hour where the enemy faction could be Warner-Braun far too early in the game (way too hard)
- Improved text format for Pure Dmg in Full Auto column to be more clear
- Updated icons and graphics for all combat and matrix drugs
- Reversed mouse wheel scrolling in Talents on Matrix/main HUD - up goes to the top of the list (left) and down goes bottom (right)
- Added more hovers to the Matrix HUD
- Fixed bug where a merc's Legwork might feature success/fail dialog in which another merc pretends they did the work (the nerve!)
- Fixed bug for some old saved games where merc might be stuck in endless Legwork
- Fixed issues with Influence/Exposure display on widescreens