Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Happy New Year, Knights of New Boston! Thanks to everyone for a great year of playing, improving and expanding the game. Early Access would not be any fun without you and your feedback, so thank you for showing up and sharing so much with us this year - your time, your energy, your encouragement and your bugs.

What better way to round out the year than a new update? Update #195 opens new critical pathways to gain Influence with your Contacts to help them Limit Break, fixes issues with the Rook Prototype Weapons Power Play service, adds some new awesome weapon models and looks to the game, improves the Power Slice bonuses for the new high-level blades available through the Fadelight Blades Power Play storyline, and makes some other smaller improvements to the display of Glancing Hit rules and fixes an ancient and odd "why do I have 20 Favors with my enemy?" bug.

Happy New Year! We hope you'll leave a review as we roll into 2025.

[h2]High Rarity Blueprints Boost Influence[/h2]

As a Cyber Knight in the New Boston underworld, you're ability to execute your high-risks heists are highly dependent on your network of Contacts being able to source and sell you the right gear, equipment, medical services, cybernetics and more. So, it is just as important that you pick and chose allies among the underworld Contacts and help those Contacts climb in power, Influence and reach.

There are multiple ways to help your Contacts grow in Influence - including running missions they offer, completing additional secondary objectives on these missions, completing Legwork they offer and selling them Epic or Legendary Rarity Accounts.

Accounts has been the only flow from looting to Influence but Update #195 expands the pathways in new ways to connect a lot more of the world's valuable loot to your Contact's Influence. Accounts are basically locked to the Matrix, so getting these to "feed" your Contacts required Hacking. Now with the addition of Epic and Legendary Blueprint sales adding +10% to the buyer Contact's Influence, there are new options stemming from both the matrix and regular lootboxes.

Unlike Accounts, either high Rarity of Blueprint sell for +10% only but you have a lot more chances to draw these Blueprints, so it easily makes up for the difference.

If've you been sitting on a cache of high-end Blueprints, it might be time to flush the ones you don't want and help some of your best allies LImit Break a few times.

Our next step here will be to introduce additional Epic and Legendary Item Blueprints into the game, as those are very hard to find and limited mostly to combat drugs. This will add additional ways to get Influence to harder to reach Contacts like Doctors.

[h2]Rook Prototype Power Play Weapons[/h2]

The major Power Play milestone that recently went live included the Rook Prototype Weapons storyline. The result of this storyline was unfortunately a service from your Contact that was disconnected from any weapons being sold! This is now fixed with all service levels and weapons now correctly connected.


We've also updated the 3D models for a number of the higher-end weapons being sold with new shotguns and UARs appearing in the game.

[h2]Improved Blade Power Slice Abilities[/h2]

For straight blades - and especially the higher Power Level blades sold in the Fadelight Blades Power Play storylines - some of the Power Slice abilities have been oddly weak compared to lesser blades. This is now resolved with Update #195, giving a powerful upgrade in Pure Dmg delivered with each new blade you can afford.

[h2]Glancing Hit Rules - Easier Read[/h2]

We've adjusted the Glancing Hit rules shown in your weapon's detail block to include the % in the title so that you don't need to look into the text block to know if its 80%, 60% or 0% (melee).
 
[h2]v1.9.71 - #195: Influence Flows - 12/31/2024[/h2]
- Selling Epic or Legendary Blueprints to an interested Contact increase their Influence +10%
- Fixed issue with Power Play "Rook Prototype Weapons" service not offering weapons
- Improved some of the Rook Prototype Weapons, improved 3D models
- Improved Blade Power Slice balance - Nine, Zero, Nightsong, Tigerfang and others all gain better Power Slice Pure Dmg
- Improved display of Glancing Hit rules for weapons so that the % is shown in the title for easiest read
- Fixed very old bug that could grant enemy Contacts +20 Favors inexplicably
- Fixed minor map issues with recently released maps

Knights! We're here to wrap up the weekend and almost the year with Update #194 which includes a 9th weekly map release, major rebalance to Dead Drop Hit, a ton of improvements and critical fixes to Leverage, better UI for Contact buy and sell services, map fixes and more.

Every week the game is growing, gaining features, improving balance and progression and getting a little more QoL polish. We hope you're enjoying the Early Access process we've got going - relentless updates, never invalidate a saved game.

Please consider leaving a review - our small team needs your help to spread the word!

[h2]New Weekly Map: River Street Bridge[/h2]

Here we are on our 9th week of our weekly map release goal with the new map - River Street Bridge. This new map has a central, large bridge splitting the street district. The river cutting the district, the central bridge and the other ways across it will play key roles in all of your missions.

With the River Street Bridge, we are dedicated to supporting every single proc-gen objective (all 8) with absolute maximum variation inside each option (there are 32!! ways to play this level). The new 8 proc-gen combos offered with this map brings the total to 113 proc-gen combos and represents another 6% increase in map variety. River Street Bridge also includes support for the Assassinate VIP objective as well, which brings the mission maps supported for that objective type up to 9.

[h2]Dead Drop Hit Rebalance[/h2]

The storyline where you attempt to recover some E-Rifles leads you to the Dead Drop Hit job which has become a bit infamous for being unbalanced and too hard for the point in the game it appears. We've made some helpful changes to get it where it needs to be - a nasty, fun fight instead of an unexpected and crushing spike in difficulty.

The changes include upgrading the mission to allow 4 mercs to go, adjusting the starting area to give some more cover options for your defensive position and tweaking the starting spawn counts on enemies.

Finally, we've pushed the minimum Team Power Level that this story will appear at up to 3. That is exciting because that also means we've pushed the E-Rifle rewards up to Power Level 3 E-Rifles instead of Power Level 2. This is a change that will benefit all saved games - new and old - so enjoy your bumped up E-Rifles, Knights!

[h2]Major Leverage Fixes[/h2]
With Update #194, we've fixed a widespread set of issues with Leverage where they were often actually running for 1 Turn less than they promised. This hit a wide range of Leverages, including both passive and active Leverages. Now all the Leverages will run as long as they promise!

We've cleaned up the language and game terms used throughout the set to really get consistency and be sure the Leverage is using all the right terms to match the rest of the game.

In addition, we've improved Alarm Malfunction so that it simply removes an amount of Sec Tally equal to one Escalation and drops the Sec Level by 1, which means the next time the Sec AI would usually Escalate, it is skipped. This is equivalent to Spiking an APU in the Matrix, so its pretty powerful delay action.

Finally, we've fixed an issue where a Leverage that disabled security systems might also cause the sleeping security devices to wake up when the duration ended. This was a big issue in some levels using sleeping devices, so this is a critical bug to fix to push Leverages to their most useful slot.

[h2]Contact Buys and Sells[/h2]

With this update, we've split a Contact's services into two groups for clarity - what they Sell and what they are willing to Buy. This helps us cut down on repetitive words ("Buys ...") and also show the dual nature of some services (if a Contact sells any type of weapons, they always buy all used weapons back).

As the services lists are getting more in depth and starting to change with Power Play options, it is important to make sure the UI helps clarify what you've got and what you might be working on. We'll keep improving these UIs to help cut down the amount of checking and screen transitions you need to get the most important info for strategic decisions.

[h2]Map Fixes Galore[/h2]

With this update we fixed places in Slumroad Junction where doors in exterior buildings were blocking line of sight and we fixed and tuned up the rotation and placement of a ton of spawning locations for enemies and your merc team across a wide set of maps. Every release, we're improving, tweaking and tuning the map set so a huge thanks goes out to anyone sending in F10s that help us improve!
 
[h2]v1.9.69 - #194: New Map Release "River Street Bridge" - 12/29/2024[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map "River Street Bridge": a street region straddling a bridge soaked in blood of the last centuries battles that supports +8 new proc-gen combos (Heist a CPU, Steal 3 Files, Scavenger, Kill 3 Captains, Bodyguard, Assassinate, Siege and Battle Striker)
- Improved Contact list and hover to separate Buys and Sells services more clearly
- "Dead Drop Hit" mission now allows 4 mercs instead of 3 (it came from a simpler time...)
- Improved cover positions and reduce enemy starting spawn counts in "Dead Drop Hit" to even its difficulty
- Adjusted requirements for "Dead Drop Hit" (fetch E-Rifles) mission to not proc before Power Level 3
- Improved rewards - E-Rifles from "Dead Drop Hit" upgraded to Power Level 3 (all games, new and forever)
- Further improved progression of maps via proc-gen to avoid harder maps on earlier Power Levels
- Fixed Alarm Malfunction so that it correctly reduces Sec Level by 1 and prevents next Escalation
- Fixed Leverage bug with disabling security devices that could result in sleeping devices being woken
- Fixed duplicate dialogs at the end of Siege missions
- Fixed tagging issue in Roster where damaged Cyberdeck ("Cyberdeck 90%") would cause "Loadout" to be shown as well
- Fixed map issues in Slumroad Junction with doors blocking lines of sight from rooftops
- Fixed typos in Hacking Tutorial

Tonight, it is a Winter Sale Bug Smash! With 34% off, we should kill 34 bugs, right? Well, we focused on some of the most popular F10s in the last month and went on a bug smashing spree! It's not quite 34, but we're hard at work polishing up the game and cleaning up small bugs so your play is smoother, faster and always fun.

A huge welcome to all the new Cyber Knights pouring into New Boston during this Winter Sale! Thanks for checking out the game, for your support, for your posts and for your reviews!

[h2]Hit F10 for Bugs or Feedback![/h2]
We have a wonderful in-game bug and feedback reporting tool, just hit F10 (or left stick click on controller) to send in your reports. These come with so much context, log data and an immediate screenshot that it greatly reduces the time we need to spend to resolve the issue and get it back to you in update.

So, thank you - especially during Early Access - for helping feed our fire of improvements. You'll see we are a constant update machine here, always improving. So help us do that with an F10 today!

So - what big bugs got smashed?

[h2]Reloading Games with Map Area of Effects[/h2]
 
There was a bug that the movement of map areas of effect like Tox-Cloud, White Noise, Line Crawler and more was lost if you exited the game and reloaded it. Sometimes the areas wouldn't move or sometimes they would move but not like they did before you left the game.

This is now all resolved, with the movement being made at the end of a Turn and being committed to the saved game at that time. Now, reloading the game will restore these flawlessly.

[h2]Leverage Duration, Clarification, Bugs[/h2]
We've fixed a highly reported bug that Leverages were widely misreporting their duration. Leverages would claim to do something until the end of next Turn and then expire promptly at the end of the current Turn. We've resolved this with all of the Leverages correctly adjusting their duration to run for the right amount of time - now, if it says until the end of next Turn, that's what you'll get!

We've also cleaned up a ton of non-standardized language in the Leverage descriptions and ensured that the descriptions shown during the mission and in the Field Ops Center are always synchronized and don't have the opportunity to drift apart.

[h2]Camera Range Discrepancy[/h2]

We fixed a bug that was causing some cameras to actually have range to spot your mercs that exceeded the visual meta display. Just in that last meter beyond their red display, you'd still get spotted. Now fixed!

[h2]Secondary Kills Counting to Objectives[/h2]

There was a class of issues for the kill count goal where "secondary" kills were not counted toward the goal. Secondary kills could be caused by Poison, any damage-over-time, corpse Detonation, Grenades, and anything else that wasn't a direct attack. These all now count toward kill goals.

[h2]Color Picking[/h2]
We've compressed the color picker and fixed issues within it for controllers scrolling through the picks. This reduces all the scrolling that was needed to use this UI and helps ensure controllers can use the picker correctly.

[h2]Proc-Gen Legworks Prompt[/h2]
We've improved the dialog prompt on the timeline for the proc-gen Legwork storylines, which were saying "I need a Favor" but now will say "I need a merc on a Legwork" to be really clear what they are asking about.

[h2]Wounded Tags on Skipped Recruits[/h2]
If you decided not to take on a recruit - such as someone rescued from a prison break - and they had a Wound, this Wound would show forever on your Barracks as a red tag. Now fixed!

[h2]Map Fixes[/h2]

We also fixed a huge host of map issues. The door that was stuck in Gated Enclave with "move closer" can now be reached. We fixed a ton of spawn locations, VIP locations, starting rotations, and issues to see over doorways from rooftops on Interchange H.

[h2]v1.9.67 - Update #193: Holiday Bug Smash - 12/26/2024[/h2]
- Fixed issues with Tox-Cloud, White Noise, Line Crawler not correctly restoring their movement from last Turn when game is reloaded
- Fixed all Leverage duration mismatches - where buggy, the Leverage lasted 1 Turn too short, now fixed to last correct number of Turns
- Improved consistency of terms and rule descriptions in all Leverages
- Leverages offered in Field Ops center area now sorted by Power Level
- Fixed issues with secondary kills (poison, damage over time, Detonation, etc) not being counted toward final kill secondary objectives
- Fixed bugs with some Camera and Long-Range Camera overlays on map being shorter than the actual range of the camera's detection
- Shrunk size of color box for appearance color customization, more colors visible at once and improved controller/keyboard support
- Timeline prompts for proc-gen Legwork are now clearer (stating need for Legwork, not a Favor)
- Fixed issue where Wounded tag could appear on Barracks if you ignored a recruit who was wounded (usually a recruit from a rescue mission)
- Fixed enemy reinforcement and VIP spawn locations, inoperable door, starting rotations and more in Gated Enclave
- Fixed issues with inability to see over doors from rooftop on Interchange H mission map

Welcome again to the Winter Sale and now the drop of the Power Play storyline system! We're amped to roll out this new piece of the story engine which pushes the strategy layer and Contact simulation another big step toward completion. The new Power Play storylines begin to deliver on Contacts changing of their own accord, becoming unique due to the events of your career and truly becoming different in each playthrough. We've also more tightly bound Contact Traits to secondary mission objective offerings. Let's dig into Update #192!

(If you enjoy all the work we're putting into the game, there's no better present you could give us this holiday season than leaving a Steam review!)

[h2]Risky Power Plays[/h2]

As power shifts in the underworld, your Contacts have chances to make risky Power Plays to open up new opportunities, change their place in the world, or crush a rival.

Until now, the Contacts in your network have been relatively static. They could only upgrade existing services, raise or lower their existing Traits, or go into hiding if they're under heavy pressure.

Contacts surging in Influence may now attempt a Power Play, which means they will match with a special type of storyline that offers a chance to majorly expand their underworld footprint. These Power Plays (and later, their mirror: Compromised) will offer some of the storylines that allow Contacts to change and become unique in each Knight's career.

The first wave of Power Plays make new types of services available depending on Contact's backstory, the services they offer now, and their Traits. Contacts with Traits like "Gun Nut" or those already involved in smuggling weaponry might ask for your help to access new megacorp prototypes or develop a new smuggling network with a contact in the near orbit. These services coming through Power Plays raise the roof on the maximum level for weapons you can purchase, going as high as Power Level 8 through some of the Power Play storylines.

Power Play storylines come with a lot of risk, regardless of the outcome. The Contact is always going to take on Exposure (a lot more if the Power Play flops) and failed missions may damage your relationship.

[h2]New Challenges: VIP Hunters and Second Wave Bodyguards[/h2]

We're excited to roll out some new mid-mission challenges with these Power Play missions. We've now introduced the capability of VIP Hunters and second wave Bodyguards.

VIP Hunters have some strong similarities to Head Hunters, except they are weaker and are specifically hunting an important VIP you are bodyguarding. Like Head Hunters have a lock on your Knight, VIP Hunters have a lock on the VIP you are bodyguarding and will move rapidly and aggressively in pursuit of this character. Unlike Head Hunters, they are a part of the local faction so they will not be slowed up by an ongoing firefight with existing security agents.

Second wave Bodyguards are late spawning bodyguards who will join the map and move rapidly and aggressively to defend their VIP. This can often create a new vector of fast-moving and dangerous enemies rushing to the center of the conflict. It may put your stealth presence under threat or may force you to open up a second flank. Or if you let them, they may reach the VIP first and bolster their defensive encirclement.

[h2]Contact Traits Driving Secondary Objectives[/h2]

With this update, some Contact Traits are now taking a front seat in driving the secondary objectives they are interested in offering. Those Contacts who have the Impatient Trait are significantly more likely to want you to hit Turn limit goals while Contacts with the Ruthless and Bellicose Traits will be interested in punctuating their heists with high kill counts and Contacts with Calculating or Paranoid Traits are most interested in low Security Level thresholds.

This system will continue to grow as we can offer more types of secondary objectives for missions, but even with only Speed, Low Security Level, and Killing for now, it feels very impactful and helps to make your Contact Traits stand out.

[h2]New Contact Traits and Tags[/h2]

In addition to gaining new services, Power Plays often result in Contacts gaining new Traits and backstory Tags as they adjust their way of thinking about how to deal with the New Boston underworld. This will further impact the next steps in their story and open them up to new possibilities from the Casting Director story engine that weaves your contacts and squad members into storylines.

[h2]Negative Reflection: Compromised[/h2]
Once the Power Play storyline set is rounded out, we will swap efforts to its negative equivalent, Compromised.

Whereas Power Plays originate from high Influence and positive Limit Breaks, a Contact can fall into the Compromised state due to Exposure Limit Breaks and altogether struggling. While Compromised storylines haven't been released yet, they will be a negative reflection of what can happen when on a Power Play. Contacts will be at risk of being killed, imprisoned, or forced to reduce their overall clout and position in the underworld.

And, depending on how you feel about this Contact, if they are an ally, you may be the one trying to prevent their death or free them from prison, or if they are an enemy, you might be the last face they see.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/
[h2]Reminder: this is our last big Early Access discount![/h2]
With the game entering its home stretch of EA on our road to a spring 2025 release, we thought we should give wishlisters a heads up that this will be our last sale at 34%-off for quite a while.

The game has grown tremendously throughout EA and has an incredibly packed pipeline of content, final features, and launch polish coming in the new year. With over a hundred hours of playtime already available today, we think it's well worth the full price we've set for the game. Of course, we all love a good Steam sale, so that's not to say you won't be able to find Cyber Knights on sale anymore; but after this sale, we intend to keep it to a more modest discount up to and for some time after launch.

I know the EA journey is not for everyone, and while I do think that we offer one of the best versions of it 😄 (with a ton of opportunities for your feedback to directly shape the game), I wanted to at least make sure that those of you who have been waiting eagerly for the game to be fully ready -- but are also on a budget -- know that this is the last, best discount for a while.

But regardless of when you purchase or at what discount, please know my brother and I truly appreciate your support. Happy holidays!

[h2]v1.9.65 - Update #191: Major Milestone: POWER PLAYS - 12/23/2024[/h2]
- All new Power Play storylines are high-risk moves by your Contacts in the underworld that can have major impacts
- The first set of new Power Play storylines allow Contacts to gain new services, such as selling higher Power Level weapons (4-8 PL)
- New Power Play missions are risky for your Contacts, failing the multi-part legwork/missions will result in major Exposure
- More Power Play storylines and Compromised storylines (the bad mirror image of Power Plays) will be coming online soon
- Added new mid-mission challenge types: VIP Hunters and second wave Bodyguards
- Added new Contact Trait (Bellicose) and Tag (Near-Orbit Smuggler) as results of storyline options
- Contact Traits can have a direct impact on Secondary Objectives for all missions (Contacts with Bellicose Trait are 300% more likely to Kill secondary objectives)

Tonight's deck sweeping update is a quality of life update focused on cleaning up F10s and reports coming in from the community. We've got a great set of fixes and some improvements including flipping all disabled security devices outlines gray, making items hidden by filtering obvious, adding +8 new matrix host templates, improved Matrix HUD controller support and more.

A big welcome goes to all the new Knights joining us in the New Boston zone! We're here every day, working to improve the game, so please say hi here or on Discord :D Thanks to everyone playing, posting, sending in feedback and posting reviews!

[h2]Outlining Disabled Security Devices in Gray[/h2]

With Update #191, we've updated the visual distinction for disabled security devices. They now outline with gray when disabled as opposed to staying outlined in red. This helps them stick out when outlines are toggled on and just makes the map easier to read.

My Vanguard has knocked out the camera and the laser wires in the screenshot above - now outlining as gray - they fall more into the background compared to the red, living guard I need to deal with.

[h2]Filtering Indicates Hidden Item Counts[/h2]

As more filters come online for more types of things - Contacts, Best in Class, characters who need training - it has been too easy to realize that a filter is on and that some of the items are hidden. With update #191, we've improved the filtering UI to include a designation of how many items are currently being hidden by a filter in the filter button.

In addition, if everything is hidden then the text that is shown will specifically state that the list is empty due to filtering.

[h2]Added +8 Matrix Hosts[/h2]

We're constantly working to expand the list of matrix host templates that are used throughout the proc-gen level set. Update #191 has added another 8 new matrix host templates that are focused on giving more variation to the hosts that control doors and security devices at the same time. These new hosts provide cool and odd formats, include the latest new Access Gate node and offer both SCU and RCU targets.

[h2]Matrix HUD Updates for Controller[/h2]
A big thanks (again!) to @Brian for so much very specific feedback about how to improve controller support in the Matrix HUD. With this update, we've improved the toggling capability, fixed issues where toggle would skip the IC List if the only options were Nuke or Spiking, improved the highlight on the matrix log button and more. We've also fixed an issue with toggling back to the matrix tree would take you back to the node where you started the turn, not the last node you had selected.

[h2]Big List of F10 Fixes![/h2]

There is always a lot to wrap up in a sweeping of the decks quality-of-life update!

• If a mission had a stage with a "No Hacking" tag it could appear in the summary incorrectly even if there was a different stage that had Hacking. Now fixed!
  
• Power Slice (the special Talent added for carrying a sword) was not working very well with reloading games. Spent chargers were re-appearing. This is now all fixed.
  
• We've fixed rare issues with both inability to swap weapons and equip some items after a mission.
  
• The Underworld Hub High-Risk Transporter should finally be available for real.
  
• The Heartbreak Rush mission in the Warner-Braun Treaty '31 Era did not have any Q-Sec Tally ... this is fixed!
  

[h2]v1.9.63 - Update #191: Deck Sweeper - 12/21/2024[/h2]
- Filter UIs now show "(X hidden)" in the filter button so that it is clear how many items are being hidden
- All disabled security devices have a gray outline to make their state more visually obvious
- Added 8 new Matrix host templates for expanding RCU and SCU matrix options
- Fixing issue with "No Hacking" flag that could appear at the same time as "Hacking (Loot)" for a mission summary
- Improved controller support in Matrix HUD
- Fixed loading game issues with Power Slice Talent refreshing charges
- Fixed issues with inability to equip items or equipping items like Sigma 6 Sploitkit that aren't meant to be equipped
- Fixed rare issue that could prevent swapping weapons during a mission
- Fixed second level bug preventing High-Risk Transporter from being available in Underworld Hub (if you had already met Dr. Knife)
- Fixed bug with Heartbreak Rush storyline hacking mission now having any Q-Sec Tally