Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

This is a quick Sunday night update - rapid fire from yesterday's to address a few hot button F10s and a real ugly missing string that cropped up in Hacking. We've also included some rebalance to yesterday's update for HI-POWER Escalation to ensure it is feeling right.

Thanks for your support during Early Access, helping us improve the game with your feedback and F10s and for leaving a review to help spread the word and bring more heisters to New Boston!


[h2]Scan Label Restored, other Labels Fixed too[/h2]
First off, the Scan label in the Matrix was broken as of last release, making the matrix really hard to play! We've now resolved this, restoiring the "Scan 1/2" (etc) label in.

There have been a lot of labels broken and then rapidly fixed across the game in the last two weeks. We are quietly working on a bunch of upgrades, fixes and tweaks to get the game's codebase and string base ready to officially start translation. We are doing as much QA as we can, but a few minor breaks are slipping through. Thanks to everyone for F10'ing anything you see and helping us fix it quickly.


[h2]HI-POWER Escalation Rebalance[/h2]
Last update was exciting for pushing the HI-POWER Escalation more into the Sec AI's meta (it has a meta! so meta!) but we received some F10s over the weekend showing cases where if it really upgraded all the devices of a single type to HI-POWER ... it was drunk on power. Suddenly 15 Prox-Mines were HI-POWER. Too much!

So, last update we made a change to force HI-POWER to only upgrade a single type and to upgrade all the devices of that type. With Update #139, we've rolled back half of that. HI-POWER now always targets a single type of device (Laser Mesh, for example) and then upgrades a specific number of them, depending on the Sec AI type.

For the Sigma 5, 6, 7 and 9 Sec AI types - the count of HI-POWER devices goes 3, 4, 4, and then 5 at Sigma 9.

Currently, it is important to note (and not highlighted in the last update) that Gang and Syndicate Sec AI don't have the option to HI-POWER their devices. So, only a Milsec or Corp camera has the power to increase your Heat. We'll be working on further refining this, as it seems likely that we want Gangs and Syndicates to HI-POWER mines but not other devices types.


[h2]Wounded Status in Victory[/h2]
We're now correctly showing Wounded status in the victory and defeat screens, so you don't have to check the roster afterwards. If a character is heavily injured, keep an eye out for the Wounded tag as well.


[h2]Wounded in Legwork[/h2]
When consider which mercs to send on Legwork, who is Wounded is relevant. If a merc has a Wound, they get a warning on the right side of their Legwork entry now.

[h2]v1.8.89 - #139: Rapid Fire - 9/8/2024[/h2]
- Victory summary screen correctly shows Wounded status as well as Injury time
- When considering mercs for legwork, their wounded status is also shown
- Adjusted rules of HI-POWER, not all devices but X of same type (4 Prox-Mines)
- Sec AI SIGMA 5, 6, 7 and 9 increasingly HI-POWER larger numbers (3, 4, 4, 5) of devices
- Reminder: only Sigma Sec AI can use HI-POWER Escalation, not gangs or syndicates
- Fixed "Matrix.Scan" bug in Matrix hiding the scan level

Down below the level, the Knights and their teams are planning their next heist. Maybe Update #138 has your new heist in it! We've added a new proc-gen combo of an existing map and objective (Dusted Hover-Evac X Q-Gap Spike), improved the Sec Escalation rules for HI-POWER devices, buffed Prox Mines again, improved the visibility and consistency of HI-POWER Radar Arrays and Camers generating Heat, fixed a ton of small appearance clipping and positioning issues, improved performance on Trucker HQ and fixed 2 cases causing possible freezes on map (now, extremely rare).

We are hard at work expanding the game with both front-line releases (as seen here, new stuff today!) and bigger projects in the background (new shader for sight cones, translation project, a big story/mission dump for Treaty '31 Era) - so if you like what we're working on, our pace of updates, or just how we are running Early Access, we hope you will help us today by leaving a review.


[h2]Dusted Hover-Evac X Q-Gap Spike[/h2]
With Update #138, we're following up on the good work of the major MAGNITUDE v2 milestone, and adding another proc-gen map and objective combination. Some of the maps, like Dusted Hover-Evac, Wreckspire, Urban HQ and Interchange H are all used in woefully few objectives (Siege, Assassin VIP) and so some of our next improvements to the variety in the system are to pull these maps into more objective offerings.

With Update #138, we've crossed Dusted Hover-Evac's exciting rooftop design with the Q-Gap Spike mission objective where you need to reach a protected CPU, spike it and escape. Once this is released, it looks like we will add Dusted Hover-Evac to 3 or 4 more proc-gen objectives quickly and then do the same for Wreckspire next. At that point, we'll start looking again at adding new maps.


[h2]Sec Escalations and HI-POWER[/h2]
We've made a big rules change to how the Sec Escalation that upgrades devices to HI-POWER works. Previously, when the Escalation ran, it would upgrade 3-5 devices to HI-POWER, but it was a random set of devices, often this Radar Array, that Prox Mine and this Laser Fence. It made it hard to track what had really happened, where and why you should care.

The new HI-POWER Escalation simply upgrades all devices of a single type to HI-POWER. So, every laser fence in the facility suddenly jumps up to HI-POWER mode and does 80 Pure Dmg instead of 20. This can especially dangerous with Prox Mine fields, which (as discussed below) are also upgraded in damage. But the entire field (any that are currently active, not jammed) will upgrade to HI-POWER and cause a lot more damage.

To be clear, as stated above, jammed devices do not get upgraded. So, if you've got a Laser Wire knocked out and the Escalations sweeps through on Laser Wires, that jammed one is not affected. It is possible another Escalation will target it later.


[h2]Prox Mines (Dmg!) and Cameras (Heat!)[/h2]
With this change to HI-POWER mode we've also upgraded Prox Mines damage to be higher. They are still causing Ballistic Damage which is blocked by your armor, so your tanks can soak it up and keep moving. They are a bigger threat to lighter armored targets. The upgrade is from 80 Ballistic to 100 Ballistic and when in HI-POWER mode, from 160 Ballistic to 200 Ballistic.

Previously, Cameras Radar Arrays could be upgraded to HI-POWER mode and once HI-POWER, any time they spotted a merc they would grant +1 Heat. This was poorly communicated, not shown correct in hovers and cameras were only rarely picked for upgrade to HI-POWER. With this update, they can accrue an extra +10 Heat for the level, so keep an eye out for HI-POWER Radar Arrays and Cameras even after things have gone loud.


[h2]Coming Soon: HI-POWER Visualization[/h2]
With the new and dangerous affects of HI-POWER mode and the increased option for the Sec AI to amp up devices, we know the very next thing we need is a visual indicator of what devices are extra dangerous (extra crackling, hissing and spitting on the Laser Fence, changing in color or VFX) to help you spot them so you can make quick decisions about when to route around them, spend a charge to disable or just take the hit and run through them.

[h2]Era '31 Legwork[/h2]
We've adjusted the dialog choices and chain at the introduction to the Treaty '31 Era to ensure that you can no longer exit the conversation until you've at least been offered the options to run the legwork there.


[h2]Appearance Improvements[/h2]
We've developed a new authoring tool to help speed up the process of tweaking and improving how appearance options fit together. This has let us make some sweeping fixes to reduce clipping or misplaced accessories - fixing a ton of things from glasses to hair styles to the cybernetic forehead jack. Thanks to everyone posting F10s and with this new tool in hand, we're in a better position to add more appearance options to the game as they are easier to setup with all the different characters now.

Part of the changes to the appearance was to standardize the side of the head the cybernetic forehead jack is on - now it is on the left. It was previously not always on the same side, based on the individual head. If this new side doesn't fit your character design as well, please be patient with us as we will be rolling out the option to have it on the right soon along with some other face cybernetics.

[h2]Trucker HQ Performance[/h2]
If you ever had performance issues on the Trucker HQ level or felt like it was running a bit slower than others, you were right! We've found and fixed a big bug in that level where a second, unauthorized game camera was rendering all the time, causing a major reduction in FPS. It runs much better right now!


[h2]Counter-Intel Hacking Missions[/h2]
If you're getting missions from the Counter-Intel Pods, you'll notice a nice change - we've got icons now :D

[h2]v1.8.87 - #138: Dusted CPU Spike - 9/7/2024[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map and objective combo: Dusted Hover-Evac and Q-Gap Spike
- Sec Escalation HI-PWER Surge now upgrades all security devices of a specific type to HI-POWER (All laser meshes)
- Proximity Mines upgraded to 100 Ballistic Dmg and 200 Ballistic Dmg when HI-POWER
- Cameras and Radar Arrays correctly upgrade to HI-POWER and add +1 Heat when spotting from this state (max 8)
- Improved start of Treaty '31 Era to be clear that a legwork is an option
- Added missing icons to Counter-Intel pod token offer to start hacking mission
- Significant performance boost to Trucker HQ level which had mistakes which caused it to be slowest level in game
- Improved positioning of 40+ of appearance elements - hair, glasses, forehead plug cybernetic
- Fixed rare-but-possible freeze during enemy movement or enemy grenade throws
- Fixed strings that were broken in a push to prep for translation (Training, Wait for Recovery)

Day time, night time, the heisting must continue. And where do we put all of our loot? In our fancy new backpacks! With Update #137, we've taken a quick moment to add some cool new visual appearance options - the first 2 backpacks - fix an important map issue with hovertrucks pinning characters on rooftops, resolved issues with high level HTE/XTE grenades, fixed hotkey issues in the Talent bar, fixed E-Rifle bugs and more.

Thanks to everyone playing, posting and sharing feedback as we keep working on expanding Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. Hit us up with a review if you like the pace of our unique Early Access style!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1021210/announcements/detail/4604455077835253474?snr=2___
[h2]No Soldier Community Challenge![/h2]
We're excited to share another community challenge, cooked up by the heisters over on Discord on @Liviana. The rules are simple and have a huge impact on the strategies you might employ in the game. It feels very different and it's a fun way to force yourself to push other classes into your main combat roles (if you were relying a lot on Soldier)!

We hope you'll check it out and join in on the fun.


[h2]Tactical Backpacks Deployed![/h2]
You can now pick from one of two optional backpacks to help give your heister that tactical feeling when they deploy to a heist. More outlandish and interesting options will be coming, and this will be a useful way for us to further visually differentiate enemy types from each other - but for the first dip, we've got 2 military style backpacks ready for your use.


And as one would want to do, you can even customize their primary and secondary colors to match your outfit all your other cool accessories. I'm loving the look and the weight it adds to the character models.


[h2]District HQ x Assassinate VP: Rooftop Fix![/h2]
A few players were finding their rooftop sniper character getting pinned on the rooftop in the District HQ level when the hover truck dropped. We've made some fixes to expand the size of the rooftop to help ensure that characters can't get stuck up there, boxed in by the hover truck. Thanks to everyone sending in F10s!

[h2]HTE vs XTE Grenades[/h2]
These grenades were mixed up, basically both sharing the same effect from the HTE Grenade. We've resolved the bug, now pushing the Power Level XTE Grenade in a new direction. Its massive damage is balanced out by the size of the payload and how much less of a distance you can hurl it.

[h2]E-Rifle Ammo Stats[/h2]
E-Rifles limited reload capacity was only being shown when it was the active weapon, otherwise it would be shown as 0/0. We've resolved that with this update, the 4/4 reloads per mission is now shown regardless of which weapon is selected.


[h2]Fighting Freezes[/h2]
We're hot on the trail of 2 cases that can mysteriously cause the game to lock up. One persists that when an enemy starts to move, they may stop, revert to idle animation and the game locks up as it is sure they are still moving. The second is an enemy starts to throw a grenade it and it lands but nothing happens and the game locks.

Each update, we are adding more debug details to your F10s to help track these issues down. They are pretty rare, but if you do see them please F10 them right away! We are excited to crush out these last 2 cases and put this behind us :D

[h2]v1.8.83 - #137: Stylish Backpack - 9/5/2024[/h2]
- Added new appearance option: Backpacks! Pick from 2 military feeling styles with more coming
- Fixed map issue on District HQ where your mercs could get pinned on the rooftop by VIP arrival
- Fixed issue with Item XTE Grenade using the ability from HTE Grenade, now its own grenade!
- Fixed issue with Talent hotkeys in the Talent bar sometimes going 0, 1, 3 and skipping a number
- Fixed issue with E-Rifle sometimes showing 0/0 for its limited reload stats
- Fixed issue with enemy grenade tosses sometimes locking up the game
- Improved text for confirmation dialogs on load/save

Original challenge description below:


End start of month wrap-up!
Knights! I'm here to wrap up our No Soldier Challenge. It's been a very fun month seeing everyone's strategies running without a Soldier. It apparently wasn't much of a challenge for most of you, though many commented on missing some very specific Soldier talents!

A few highlights from the month:

Jotwebe, posted detailed AARs with lots of screenshots and writeup over on our Discord! They were a lot of fun to read through and so many gorgeous photos!

Habitually Red, here on Steam, did writes up and included hashes for the talent builds they were running on their mercs.

shallowrain gave us screenshots of their talent trees, along with screenshots and writeups of the action!

Phreak posted YouTube videos of their No Soldier shenanigans. Currently there are 32 episodes! You can find the first here.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our No Soldier challenge! As always, even if you missed the month we were running our challenges live, we always love seeing how you tackle them! Our next community challenge will be a STF, but we will have another CKF one soon!

----------



Hello, Knights! It's time for another CKF Community Challenge. Our previous challenge was all about leaving your Vanguard back in the safehouse and giving your Agent EX a chance! For this challenge, we are asking you to leave your Soldier at home. Soldiers, or at least some soldier talents, have become a mainstay in almost every group out there, so it's time to mix it up!



There are two requirements for this challenge:

- You cannot take a Soldier on any mission
- You cannot multiclass anyone into any Soldier talents

For a true challenge, apply these requirements to a fresh start, brand new game. This is not required however, you can just pick up from wherever you are and just no longer use a Soldier or any Soldier talents via respec.



As always, we want to see and hear about your adventures tackling the challenge so here are some ideas for what we’d love to see:

- Screenshots of your squad and their talent trees
- After Action Reports of your missions, challenges you faced
- Tell us about the challenge posed by not having a Soldier, were there any? Were you surprised in any way?
- Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us about your heists with your multi-classed mercs: memes, interpretive dance, gifs, etc


No matter what you choose to share, please share screenshots of your Soldier-less squad on a mission!

We’ve opened up a discussion here on Steam in the General Discussion forum for aIl of your posts. If you post in our Discord, head to #nosoldier_challenge to join in on the conversation!

It's a holiday weekend and with such so many new players in the game, we've just got another nice bug fix and quality of life patching coming out tonight. This one hits on the latest F10s, improves grenade throwing animation and VFX for enemies, re-adds the warning confirm to deploy with less than max mercs, and tweaks and improves the balance of Siege (easier, higher Power Level requirements).

Without further chatter - let's dig in.


[h2]Confirmation for Deploy[/h2]
In the transition to the new Matrix Tutorial, we had lost the confirmation required to deploy to a mission with less than maximum mercs. This can be a big mistake if you don't intend to do it, so the confirmation can help avoid that. It's back!


[h2]Siege Balance[/h2]
We've started with Siege balance tonight. These can be pretty hard levels, especially depending on the faction. The balance we applied here is threefold - first, we have made Siege's have a higher Power Level minimum before they begin to appear (PL 3) and an even higher minimum to allow them to proc against milsec factions (PL 5, definitely the hardest form). Second, we have reduced the starting enemy head count from 11 to 10. Minor but its 10% reduction. Third, we have reduced the size of the subsequent wants that are sent from anywhere to 18% to 40% depending on some (per wave) RNG and placement of enemies.

Altogether, hopefully this can help prevent the siege proc-gen missions from being a deadly, early, surprise.


[h2]Team Power Level on Pause Menu[/h2]
Your Team Power level is now available while in mission on the pause menu. This one just helps make key information more readily available, if you're asking for help at a certain point in the game, knowing your Team PL is often one of the early questions.

[h2]Enemies Throw Better[/h2]
There were a few mistakes with the visual elements on enemy grenade throwing. First, the throwing timing was off for when the grenade left the hand, making for a low arc and just feeling ... bad. Now it feels way better as we've aligned it like your mercs.

Second, the VFX for the result were accidentally switched in the game's data set. Now targets who are buffed will get a very clear buffing VFX played on them, as the colorful cloud of hype-dust spreads out.

Third, we fixed a possible case where the throw could lock the game up. This was pretty rare but could happen if the timing was right (or ... not right!)

[h2]v1.8.77 - #136: - 9/2/2024[/h2]
- Re-added missing warning when deploying with less than full merc team
- Tweaked enemy and wave counts in Siege: reduced starting enemy count by 1, reduced wave size by up to 25%
- Improved Team Power Level minimums for Siege proc-gen missions, especially for those vs. milsec
- Added Team Power Level stat to pause menu in missions
- Fixed issues with enemies throwing buff cloud grenades - VFX were flipped, animation timing was off
- Fixed Sec Level hover sometimes showing rules for Q-Sec Level instead (matrix vs. physical)
- Fixed button label in Contact Limit Breaks not changing by selection (Confirm Favor / Confirm Upgrade)
- Contact Faces correctly shown in Counter-Intel Token-for-Favor offer
- Fixed issue with mercs sometimes starting floating in Corner Holdout X Siege Objective