Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights and mercs - we're excited to drop Update #176 with a roadmap milestone being knocked off the list with Steam Deck Verifcation, some new visual accessories and a big set of really important F10 fixes from your reports, prioritizing what is most important and most reported by the community right now. This Update #176 helps clear the decks for another weekly map release, maybe as soon as tomorrow.

We're working hard to constantly improve the game based on your feedback, so please send it in and you'll see the game improving weekly. If you're enjoying the insanity of our Early Access phase and the constant pace of updates, please take a moment to leave a review!

[h2]Steam Deck Verified![/h2]

It's official, with our latest round of improvements we are now Steam Deck verified! ✅

Many thanks to the players in the forums, on reddit and in our Discord who have been giving us feedback on both our default controls and the Steam Deck experience. We're continuing to work on improvements here and there (e.g. the filtering in cold storage, squashing any bugs reported through the in-game click left stick system), but the overall playability is feeling great. Verification signifies we've now checked off the final few details with text size (adjustable in the Options menu as well) and every keybinding in the game properly showing controller prompts (all fully rebindable). And Cyber Knights provides a native Linux build, so great performance with no need for Proton.

As most of you know, we're on a hot streak with...

• a new map being added each week
  
• the new Gunslinger class (bringing us to 44 total possible character class combinations!)
  
• last season's big push of major feature additions
  
• being right on the threshold of Overwhelmingly Positive reviews
  

...so Steam Deck Verification (and our ongoing rollout of new content) feels like a great way to wrap up the fall season. If you know any Deck players, please do tell them about our game!

[h2]New Aviators and Backpack[/h2]

With Update #176, we've added 2 new cosmetic options to the game, working to round out the glasses and backpack categories with specific player requests. Some of our Knights were asking for classic aviators, so we've delivered those as well as updating the tinting and material properties of the existing aviator-like glasses we have the game.

Aaron is styling with the new shades and the new pack

[h2]Juice that Blue![/h2]
We've fixed a bug with Blue Juice that was prevent it from being used multiple times in a single round. You can now juice it harder and get up to +60 AP in a single round. Use your charges wisely though, as you don't want to end up with a ton of wasted AP and not enough IO to drive your actions. It can help to have surge Turns with the Blue Juice, but there is still a lot of value in taking the Blue when you need it to wrap a turn up right.

[h2]Enemies Skipping through Overwatch[/h2]

We've fixed a bug where enemies who were far away at the start of their turn could feasibly skip through Overwatch. In some cases, they were failing to run the movement checks to see if they were going to encounter something and just ended their turn with a high-speed (and confusing and annoying) teleport.

In a similar area, we've improved the log message in the case where one of your characters has their Overwatch canceled by an enemy debuff. We'll be working on making this clearer with some animation and camera time to focus on the debuffs the enemies are dishing out, but some of the captains have a Marked Target debuff that can knock down Overwatch and reduce your Evasion - a painful counter to your own Marker Sights. In this case, the log will now list "Mochi's Overwatch canceled by Marked Target debuff" to be as clear as possible.

[h2]Sight Lines and Hearing Alerts[/h2]

Introduced in the last update, we lost all the overhead alerts about which enemies would hear your attacks if you swapped weapons. This is now resolved as well as fixing some other issues with the sightlines that are drawn to enemies when swapping weapons. If you had a Some of them would appear from you

[h2]Unknown Assassin Target[/h2]

If you were hitting an assassination mission in Urban HQ where the target was "Unknown" you were not the only one. The entire map was bugged and none of the VIPs ever arrived properly identified. We've resolved this issue for future runs of that mission. And now with that final big Assassinate VIP bug down, we're turning some more attention to adding more maps to the queue for that objective type, as it is the least represented in the map set today. So, look forward to more Assassinate VIP fun!

[h2]Tightened up Cameras[/h2]
We've fixed camera issues that were similar to proximity mines - in that if you moved short distances or only grazed the cameras arc of vision, you might be able to squeeze through without being seen. This small window of error has now been removed.

[h2]v1.9.23 - #176: Omnibus Underworld - 11/20/2024[/h2]
- Steam Deck Verified (but the improvements will continue!)
- Fixed bug with Blue Juice not giving AP bonus second time in the Turn, updated description to be clearer that it can be used multiple times
- Fixed bug where enemy alerts about who will hear your weapon attack were not showing
- Fixed bug where swapping weapons while planning a movement could result in incorrect sight lines draw to enemies
- Fixed bug where enemy might suddenly teleport or move a distance through an Overwatch cone incorrectly
- Improved log entry when enemy uses a debuff to break your Overwatch
- Fixed bug with higher difficulty giving lower Team Power Level adjustments which makes the game progress slower (and easier)
- Fixed widespread issue with "Unknown" target in Assassinate VIP in Urban HQ mission map
- Added new slim backpack option for the lightweight heister or the heister who wants to carry water ;)
- Added new classic aviators glasses for appearance customization
- Improving tinting and reflective properties of existing aviator style glasses
- Improved a number of mask options to avoid clipping and sit correctly on masculine faces
- Fixed bug where camera might not see mercs moving a short distance or crossing the camera arc only slightly
- Fixed bug with Scourge recruit showing up too early in your roster during storyline
- Fixed bug where enemy status pop up was not showing an enemy's weapon
- Improved display of safehouse room building errors so that they display nicer over bright background 3D
- Fixed many minor map issues with new maps and proc-gen maps

Knights and mercs - welcome to the weekend Update #175 which mixes performance boosts with doors-go-boom and a really big pile of fixes for your community F10s, including a lot of key map updates. This update includes some new ways to change the environment with explosions, map updates for a number of the new maps and objective crosses, improvements to the rules on secondary objectives, improved timeline clarity and better tattoo rendering.

If you're enjoying the updates - please take a moment to help us share the game with a review.

[h2]Doors can go Boom![/h2]

On our quest to get the game fully ready for drones, we needed drones to explode. And we thought, if we're making drones explode ... we should make doors explode (and a few other things, like bridges, but more on that later...). So, with this update we're excited to roll out a (most cinematic) update where doors can now be blown open. The first place this is landing in the game is in the Carnivore mission, and I won't say much more than that for spoiler purposes. The ruined doors are less wide open, so they can be better used for cover and are more restricted for cover but make a lot more sense in situations like these. We're excited to get past this initial integration and then get this into the game and storylines in other interesting ways.

If you happen to be in the way of an exploding door, expect to take some Pure Damage!

[h2]FPS Performance Boost + FreeSync / G-Sync[/h2]

With Update #175, we've improved our rendering pipeline, enabling uncapped frames and supporting modern solutions like AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync. With this change, we expect that most hardware (in which the CPU and GPU are reasonably aligned in power) will see a performance boost and sometimes a very significant FPS boost as well. To get the very best performance from FreeSync and G-Sync set V-Sync to disabled and set screen mode to "Fullscreen".

We hope this update sees the game running even more buttery smooth for you!

[h2]Secondary Objective Improvements[/h2]

With Update #176, we've hit a number of bugs and needed improvements to the secondary objectives.

We fixed an issue where Lockbox count (Looted X/Y) was not always updating on time and would lag behind by a lootbox or two until you changed character turns.

We also fixed an issue with the Send a Message objective would fail to print the actual kill count into the victory screen and instead give nonesense code text.

Finally, we've adjusted the objective generator to be more strict about avoiding objectives that are simply too close to each other. This will be especially good as the list of possible secondary objectives keeps increasing but for now - even with 3 types - it is important to avoid situations where you basically bag 2 objectives by doing one of them (kill 10 ... kill 12).

[h2]Map Updates[/h2]

There has been a lot of map activity recently with big waves of new proc-gen combos (all the Bodyguard combos) and new maps every week. We're catching up on issues with maps, objectives, pathing and more in this release.

• We fixed a bug in the new Decommissioned Core where some of the terminals were just backwards and inaccessible.
  
• We fixed a bug in Sewers map X Bodyguard objective where the exits were laughably close to the start point.
  
• We fixed a bug in Wreckspire where one of the 2 extraction objectives would not appear or activate.
  
• We tweaked a number of starting and spawning locations to improve the 4 new maps.
  

[h2]Load Game Performance[/h2]
On the performance topic, we've made some tweaks to load game performance to speed up the loading of the table in the case that you have more than 10 saved games. For those players out there with 100+ saved games in your list (we see you!) this should help you get the UI open fast as ever.

Also, we fixed a rare bug that could be caused by input jamming (clicking and hitting spacebar alot) that could cause a game to load twice and have extra performance drag on the way into the mission.

[h2]Tattoo Rendering[/h2]
Finally, in preparation for upcoming additions to the face detail texture appearance option set (currently offering smooth or freckled), we've improved how tattoos are rendered over the face. Previously, they became basically "hard matte" and ignored a lot of the texture detail from anything below them. This update allows them to basically keep the texture detail - roughness and extra surface details - of what is below them while still painting in a single tattoo color. This makes tattoos look a little more natural but will be especially important to allow tattoos and scars to cross correctly.

[h2]v1.9.21 - #175: - 11/17/2024[/h2]
- New exploding door capability, debut in Carnivore missions
- Performance boost for frame rate in almost all configurations, enabling Free Sync / G-Sync solutions instead of V-Sync
- Fixed secondary objective for "Looted X/Y lockboxes" not always updating
- Fixed typos in Send a Message secondary objective (kill goal) not showing kill count
- Fixed bugs with timeline where character might be finished with treatment / recovery but still locked
- Enhanced performance for Load Game list especially if you have a lot of games
- Fixed bugs with blank keybindings sometimes appearing when using Alt-Tab
- Fixed bug where you could accidentally double load a game, causing performance drop when loading
- Fixed impossible to reach backwards terminal in Decommissioned Core mission map
- Fixed issue with Sewers map when bodyguarding a VIP - cleaned up too many exits, too close
- Fixed issues with Wreckspire map sometimes having an extraction point listed in objectives but not active
- Improved secondary objectives to avoid overlapping objectives that are too close to each other
- Balanced and improved recently added maps
- Improved tattoo roughness rendering (less "hard matte") in prep for additional facial detail options

Welcome new Knights! The Gunslinger's 34% off sale is stll raging, so let's celebrate with a new weekly map release! In Update #174, we're releasing our 3rd map in the weekly series - the sprawling and fortified Decommissioned Core. We've also completed some key rebalancing to Safehouse Tokens and Simstream Trainer Stress, fix bugs with Proximity Mines sometimes not going boom(!), fixed Gunslinger bugs with Gun Kata, Twin Irons and Cover Me, improved the matrix program HUD and more. It's a lot, so let's get digging in to the details.

But before we do, we'll remind you to please consider taking a moment to leave a review on CKF. We're a small team working hard to improve constantly (near daily!?) and if you think this is an awesome Early Access or are just enjoying the game, please share that with a reviewːsteamhappyː

[h2]New Map: Decommissioned Core[/h2]

It is now Week 3 of our new Weekly Map Release schedule and we're here to deliver again. The Decommissioned Core is a big research facility, with multiple wings, lots of cool routing options and copious entry and exit points and an extended heist space that will push you to make the call to stay a little longer and take the risk or get out with what we have.

The Core offers 5 new the proc-gen combos (map X objective) and brings the grand total of proc-gen objectives to the total to 67 proc-gen combos and represents another 12% increase in map variety. When we set out in Early Access to enable the proc-gen system, we aimed to get to 80 combos and now it is looking like we will blow past that in the next week weeks along.

This Weekly New Map challenge has been chugging along and we're excited to hit the first 3 milestones. We certainly are going to have some misses, especially around the holidays, but it is rapidly expanding the mission map set and combo options (going from 48 to 67 in 3 weeks!).

[h2]Safehouse Token and Rule Balancing[/h2]

With Update #174, we've made some neccessary changes to some of the balance of Safehouse tokens and the rules around the Simstream Trainer's generation of Stress.

• Tokens from the Underworld Hub are less effective at raise Legwork success chance %. The bonuses have been trimmed by small amounts (5-10%) and will help keep your base Legwork % chance important.
  
• Tokens from the Counter-Intel Pod are less effective at wiping out Heat. The reductions have dropped by 5-10 points in the middle and late tiers and help ensure that Heat is not always something you can simply blow off with Tokens instantly.
  
• Every time a merc is put into the Simstream Trainer, they gain +10% Stress, no matter how many missions you run during their time in the pod. This creates incentive to run as many missions as possible to get the best XP to Stress ratio for your merc. We've adjusted the rule for the +10% Stress to take Stress Res into account, so that mercs who have high (or low!) chance to resist Stress will fare better with the Simstream.
  

[h2]Proximity Mine Fixes[/h2]

We fixed a set of bugs around proximity mines where they might not explode if you moved through their range quickly enough or a short enough distance. Now they are on a hair trigger and will detonate no matter what if you tread across their line. The only thing that blocks their boom-boom is if a proper wall (something you can't throw a grenade over) is between you and the mine - then they will not fire until you are in direct proximity.

[h2]Gunslinger Bugs[/h2]

We've resolved 2 big issues with the Gunslinger. First, Gun Kata and Twin Irons could lock the game up or leave "hanging pistols" in the air in a number of different circumstances, such as switching weapons while either Talent was selected. This is now resolved, and the dual weapon attack Talents should be safe to use in all cases.

Second, the Gunslinger's Cover Me Talent was still reporting "You will be shot" even if you were using it through an Overwatch cone. That's clearly the point ... you won't be shot. So we've suppressed the movement alert correctly.

[h2]Matrix HUD - Program Shows IO Size[/h2]

We've made a very nice improvement - thanks community F10s! - to the Matrix Program hover. You can now clearly see the program size required for a program in the hover. It is also displayed in the left corner with your deck's action bars but it is nice to see the clear and simple number over each Program without having to do any fancy thinking or math ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Spacebar or (A) Sweep[/h2]

We're working through screens where it is more comfortable to just use spacebar or (A) -- the default UI submit -- for things. This now includes the Load Game screen (now fixed) as well as the pause menus for both mid-mission and safehouse, allowing you to load a game from the list once it is selected using the spacebar or (A). There are lingering places where Enter or Right Trigger are required to activate the primary function of the screen, and we're now on a slow but steady quest to figure out ways to reduce those throughout the game where it is not needed.

[h2]Controller and Font Scaling[/h2]
We've continued address minor bugs around controllers and font scaling. We fixed the Sec Level in the HUD breaking at +25% Font Scale once it reaches 10, we fixed issues in the NanoFab where hitting 10 Red Cubes would move the buttons slightly and make your clicks miss and we fixed an issue with the chat bubbles in the safehouse being navigable which messed up moving around rooms on controllers.

A huge thanks to everyone who is feeding us a constant stream of polish suggestions - I hope you can see that we are using them!

[h2]v1.9.11 - #174: - 11/12/2024[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map "Decommissioned Core": a fortified but decommissioned, research and development site that supports +5 new proc-gen combos (Heist a CPU, Steal 3 Files, Scavenger, Kill 3 Captains, Bodyguard!)
- Counter-Intel Pod Heat Reduction Tokens reduce less Heat (10/20/25/30/35/40)
- Underworld Hub Legwork Boost Tokens add lower bonus (10/20/25/30/35)
- Stress Res now applies to the Stress added by SimStream Traier - you have a chance to resist it
- Fixed bug where Proximity mine would not go off if you crossed through it just a bit - now only Walls prevent prox-mine boom
- Program Size for IO / Active Memory is shown in Matrix Program/Talent bar on hover
- Gunslinger: Fixed bug where Cover Me Talent would still warn "You will be shot" from Overwatch threat
- Gunslinger: Fixed bug where swapping weapons with Twin Irons or Gun Kata active could cause game lock
- Restored spacebar or (A) to load game from main menu, also now select and then spacebar or (A) to load from game pause menus
- Chat bubbles over characters in the safehouse no longer interrupt d-pad navigation of the safehouse rooms
- Fixed bug in NanoFab where the -/+ buttons to change cube counts could move when cube count went from 9 to 10
- Improved camera transition to / from rooms or missions in the safehouse
- Fixed issue with Sec Level in top right of HUD not doing well under +25% Font Scale
- Fixed issue with not being able to select hacker sometimes in the mission deployment screen

Knights, another update is landing in New Boston and it is adding a new type of secondary objective, big QoL improvements to the mission deployment screen and handling of hack-only missions, new protection against repeated proc-gen mission objectives, and a bundle of improvements for controllers and the Steam Deck.

We're busy daily with new things for you - so thanks for playing, posting and leaving a review if you like the pace of updates 'round here.

[h2]New Secondary Objective: Send a Bloody Message[/h2]

With Update #173, we're following up on the objective system overhaul in Update #172 to add the first new secondary objective type in a while. You'll see this objective type showing up across a number of proc-gen objectives. Your employer doesn't just want the job done, they want a message sent as well - a bloody message. The objective sets a target for a number of enemies to kill in order to gain the offered reward. Often, this objective grates against other secondaries offered, like completing the mission under a specific Sec Level, but you'll have to pick one or the other or get creative in how to balance them both.

[h2]Mission Selection: Big QoL![/h2]

We're excited to drop a big quality of life improvement on mission deployment. It may feel small at first, but over a few hours of play it makes a huge difference to the speed and smoothness of prepping for missions.

First up, the list of mercs in the mission deploy screen now uses slots to maintain their order. If you have 4 mercs, you can remove merc 2 and 3 without merc 4 changing positions. This is classic turn-based tactics setup, nothing special here - but without it everything feels messy. Also, this will let us control order which will be used in future levels where certain slots are for specific things (slot 4 is a sniper's position, or a disguise, etc).

Second up, if you are prepping for a hack-only mission, we immediately look for a Hacker to fill the slot. And if you want to change the character, we only show Hackers, not other characters who can't take the mission. This is a nice speed improvement for swapping to hack only missions.

And third up, the real winner - we remember regular missions and hack-only missions separately. So, you can assign a team of 4 to your Cube Run, swap in to your hacking mission and see Librarian is ready to take the mission and then swap back to Cube Run and ... ta-da, the 4 mercs you had previously picked are there and ready. This feels great and is a big win for supporting missions with different types of requirements more smoothly.

[h2]Blocking Proc-Gen Objective Repeats[/h2]

To join the recently added rules to prevent mission maps from re-appearing back-to-back in proc-gen missions, we have also now added rules that will prevent proc-gen objectives from appearing back-to-back if the RNG turns against you (Scav ... Scav ... Scav ...?). As the proc-gen objective set and proc-gen map set has grown and the combos are now over 60, we have more than enough content in the set to add both of these restrictions.

[h2]Cold Storage Blueprint Locks[/h2]

Your Cold Storage upgrade level limits the number of Blueprints you can use during a NanoFab craft. This was previously shown as an error at the end of the process after you'd filled up the different mod Blueprint options. We've updated the UI so that the locked mod Blueprint slots are shown as locked at the start with an explanation of how to unlock them (Upgrade Cold Storage!)

[h2]Steam Deck / Controller Scheme Improvements[/h2]

With the help of @Brian on Discord (thanks!) we've made a set of really helpful improvements to the control scheme and Steam Deck controller scheme to make the game play faster and smoother. We've still got some more feedback to process and changes to make but this first set is really helpful.

• We are continuing to reduce places where the game wants you to use Right Trigger or ENTER to activate the UI elements when it isn't necessary. Load Game screen is another example, when you've selected game to load, you need to (RT) instead of (A) ... this is fixed, (A) or [Space] will do just fine thank you.
  
• The Switch to Talent Bar (X) option was really a toggle between Talent bar, Team bar (End Action) and no selection. This could lead to unreliable feeling results hitting (X) and the risk of accidentally ending your action when you didn't mean to. With Update #172, we've locked (X) to hop your selection to the talent bar only. Then, from there - see the next item -
  
• We've opened up D-pad navigation from the Talent bar so that you can go in any direction. Hitting up will take you to the team bar and End Action button and going off the right edge can take you to the collapse combat log button. This really opens up the navigation in the HUD in a positive way.
  
• So to get to End Action, you can always push (X) and then hit (up) on the d-pad. This is the same number of button presses (most of the time) but removes all cases where you have to really look where the selection is because it might be somewhere unexpected.
  
• If you switch weapons in the HUD, your selection is no longer removed. You can swap weapons and then d-pad to the right to get back to your Talents.
  
• Loot All from a lootbox is now (X) or [T] to make it easier to access from the main set of 4 buttons.
  

[h2]v1.9.9 - #173: Lethal Planning Session - 11/11/2024[/h2]
- Character selection for missions improved, characters now go into slots 1-4 and don't "slide down" the row
- Hacker selection for hack-only missions is remembered separately, only hacker characters are offered for selection
- New secondary objective "Send a Message by killing X" to gain rewards in proc-gen levels
- Proc-gen objectives now also have protection against repetition to match map protection
- Modification Blueprint Slots (1-4) in NanoFab now correctly lock if they require higher Cold Storage level
- Prevented storylines Cube Run and Carnivore from appearing before Power Level 3 (too early)
- Improved line of sight when on raised area with fence or barricade along the edge
- Improved Roster and Mission Deploy warnings about not carrying enough items

Controller improvements:
- Switch to Talent Bar (X) always jumps to Talent bar, except if all Talents are disabled, then End Turn
- Navigation from Talent Bar to other parts of HUD now open - navigate any direction (X to Talent Bar, Up to End Turn)
- When switching weapons in the HUD, selection is not dropped from the HUD (switch weapons, easily pick Talent)
- Space or (A) is now used to load game more quickly (was Enter / RT)
- When looting items, Loot All keybinding now defaults to (X) or [T] for desktop for faster use