Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

June and July here in New Boston have been crazy as we marked down 6 major roadmap items in rapid succession - Agent EX, Contact Limit Breaks, Fast Forward Enemy Turn, New Game Knight V2, NanoFab Crafting and Head Hunters... woah that's a lot to even type it up! After such maniac activity and with more on the way (Matrix Tutorial and Reactive Music are right around the corner now ...) we need a few updates to hit F10s, fix bugs and add QoL updates suggested by the community. So, enjoy this big patch with all its new improvements before we start dropping new maps and stories.

If you're enjoy the pace of updates and our dedication to continual improvement - our team is working very hard to make this Early Access something special. We hope you'll consider leaving a review!

[h2]Contact Limit Break Buttons Clickable[/h2]
We got hit with a lot of F10s from last update because the "Confirm Upgrade" in the Contact LImit Break window was not clickable ... that's annoying. Now it is!

Also, if your Contact is at a point in their progression where they can't find any more valid Limit Break options with your Favors, then your Favors aren't consumed for nothing anymore. That's nice too.

[h2]More Faction Lore[/h2]
We've added faction lore entries for the 3 major gangs in New Boston - Fenian, Blue Ox and Los Zagales, helping explain their history and differences in approach to their underworld dealings.


[h2]Crafting Rules for Revolvers[/h2]
There was a bug in crafting that allowed the crafting of Revolvers with Silencers and mods that increased ammo capacity. That is now correctly blocked.


[h2]Matrix UI Improvements[/h2]
"Where am I?" is never a question you should have to ask when looking at a Matrix map. With Update #116 we've ensured you can see your location with a clear and animated selector ring around your current node. You won't miss it! We've also increased the panning speed of the camera as you traverse ndoes.


And second, we've improved the experience for stealing digital goods when hacking. You used to have a faceless list of files, blueprints and accounts without any excitement - but now you can see Power Level and Rarity. Now you can get hype!

[h2]SFX Upgrades[/h2]
We've made a ton of small but important tweaks to the SFX volume and mixing for this update - about 35 changes total including bringing the volume of the Sec Level alarm into band with the rest of the game. This was a stand-out by far the loudest sound in the game, so it's very nice to have it pulled in.


[h2]Controllers and Appearance[/h2]
There was an annoying bug if you were using a controller where your selection could get stuck on a certain item and constantly jump back there once a second ... it made it very hard to setup appearances and really change colors. Big thanks to @Si1entProtagonist for giving us the clear reproduction steps to fix it.

[h2]Safehouse Timeline Pauses[/h2]
When medical, cyber, treatment or detox events complete in the safehouse now the timeline pauses. This is such a popular request, we considered making it an option but then decided to try this first. If you hate it, please let us know and we can make it an option.

[h2]X-Hive Cybernetic Install Times[/h2]
The two hive implants - Nano-Hive and Chem-Hive - had wildly different cybernetic surgery recovery times. We've pulled them together in the middle with 10-11 days of recover time each.

[h2]Story Fixes: Dockyard Smuggler and Sibling Job[/h2]
We fixed the situation for all new and veteran Cyber Knights who picked Dockyard Smuggler background. This game with a Faction Barred tag that prevented doing any work with the Fenians. This unfairly limits the story trajectory of the smuggler who really just has one enemy in the Fenian gang. We've swapped out the tags for Ex Faction which removes the Barred tag.

We fixed a bug where you could unexpectedly get an offer to recruit the sibling in Sibling Job before going on the mission. Now resolved.

[h2]v1.8.29 - 7/24/2024[/h2]
- Added new lore Journal Entries for Fenian, Blue Ox and Los Zagales
- Enforced rule that Revolvers can't have Silence mods or mods that add Ammo capacity during crafting
- Improved Matrix UI - animated selector is shown under the current node where the Hacker currently is
- Improved Matrix Looting UI - files, accounts and blueprints now show their Rarity and Power Level before download
- Medical, Detox, Cybernetic Recovery, Injury Recovery all pause the timeline in the safehouse now
- Fixed issue where recruit option was offered in Sibling Job before mission was run
- Fixed issue where Contact Limit Break confirm upgrade button could not be clicked
- Fixed issue where Contact Limit Break would let you spend Favors even if no additional option could be added
- Fixed cybernetic surgery recovery time for Chem-Hive and Nano-Hive
- Fixed issue with some character relationship tags not printing and bug with Octane or Henninger Head Hunters tags
- Fixed issue with Dockyard Smuggler being barred from future Fenian missions for new and veteran Knights
- Fixed issue with controller trying to set appearance sometimes getting stuck on one item and constantly jumping to it
- Fixed issue with Sec Level increase SFX being too loud
- Adjusted and tweaked multiple SFX to improve sound stage

The underworld is always moving in New Boston, shifting in the shadows. With Update #115, you can use the clout you've built up with your Contacts to take a bit more of a guiding role to your closest allies - Contact Limit Breaks now offer you some agency. In addition, we've made major balancing changes to Matrix hacking (more charges for Deception and Disarm, less IC), added multiple new levels of Nano-Scrubbers, added token rules directly to the safehouse room descriptions, fixed UI and story bugs and more.

If you appreciate how we are running Early Access - always updates, always improvements- please take a moment to leave a review to share your experience with others.


[h2]Contact Limit Breaks with Agency[/h2]
Your Contacts are gaining Influence of your hard work - running missions for them, gathering and selling them high-rarity accounts, dutifully completing their storylines - you might feel entitled to having some agency on how they spend that Influence.

Well, Update #115 lets you express some of your preferences if you have the Favors to call it in. When a Contact (assuming that you're not their enemy) gains an Influence or Exposure (!!) Limit Break, they still check over their state, goals and current stats to select an upgrade or downgrade.

However, now you can call in a Favor to add new options to their upgrade or downgrade. If you don't have favors, this is still a passive event - you get the single option picked by the Contact and you have to accept it. If you do have Favors to call in, you can spend up to 2 Favors to add 2 new options and then pick among them. Having Favors with your Contact lets you express your preference in what they do, but without full control.

• Perhaps your Gun Runner hits an Exposure Limit Break and is about to hide for 30 days. You can spend a Favor to get another option and instead push them to upgrade a negative Trait or perhaps take a negative temporary Trait.
  
• Your Gun Runner gets an Influence Limit Break and resolves to upgrade one of their Traits that affects pricing. But you've got Favors in the bank and really need some weapon ugprades, so you can spend some Favors for new options. Maybe first new Favor adds an option for a temporary Trait to raise Misison pay but the second Favor draws the option to upgrade their Street Weapons service from Power Level 3 to 4. Bingo, that's the money.
  

We're excited to deliver this second level of Contact Limit Breaks, completing more of the game's strategy layer and pulling more of the different threads together. Getting and having Favors with your most important Contacts just got a lot more interesting and important!

[h2]Key Jamming in Limit Breaks[/h2]
We're happy to have fixed the key jamming issues for Limit Breaks. Many players are controlling - pausing and playing - the timeline with the spacebar which can lead to some input jamming. When a Hype Limit Break pops, you were just one press of the spacebar away from having picked the first option and ... done. With Update #115, both Contact and Merc Limit Breaks now select an element above the list, meaning spacebar will not proceed until you click or scroll down (or D-pad down for controllers).


[h2]Matrix Rebalance[/h2]
We've started a focus period of improvements to the Matrix. A big priority this week for us is to wrap up the Matrix tutorial, but along with that are coming a lot of other great improvements.

First, tonight we've redone the rules for how many IC will start in each node. This mostly fixes an error in the previous calculation that didn't take into account the node type - which has its own maximum - but instead just used the global maximum of 6 (yikes!). The result is nodes should have less IC in them and the IC counts should be more interested and varied between nodes. This will really start to show the biggest differences as your team passes Power Level 5.


Second, we've added +1 charges to the entire run of Deception and Disarm programs, starting with Disarm 1 and Deception 1. This is a major change to how much IO you need to use these programs and helps hacking move faster and more smoothly on a turn-to-turn basis.

[h2]Big Scrubs[/h2]
With Update #115, we have added 6 more levels of Nano-Scrubbers to your safehouse. These huge beasts - sometimes called a beacon of hope in a polluted world - are capable of scrubbing a lot. These new upgrades should let you handle a based packed with more high level rooms and crafting, all for a hefty price of course.


[h2]Safehouse Room Token Rules[/h2]
All rooms that generate tokens now list the specific set of actions a token can be used for as well as the levels at which they can be used, such as:

The Tokens granted by the Underworld Hub can be used to boost Legwork chance, reduce Legwork duration, recruit new mercs (level 2+), find new Contacts (level 3+) and can be traded for NBS Cubes (level 4+).

We're excited to keep improving here, finding the right balance between immersive in-world description and a need to have clarity about the rules. Thanks to all the players asking questions and posting suggestion on this one!


[h2]Cyberdecks Equip![/h2]
There was a bug any time you 2 or more of the same type of Cyberdeck that you really couldn't get them all equipped. This update fixes that issue as well as permanently unstacking Cyberdecks. You want to see each individually, as they have different programs loaded and the stack is not a good way to represent such specific pieces of equipment.

Anyway - equip on good hackers, the bug is fixed!

[h2]Fixed Missing Mission Dialog[/h2]
In a number of the scavenger raid missions from proc-gen, there were odd empty dialog boxes at the start and end of a mission. These are now all fixed!

[h2]v1.8.27 - 7/23/2024[/h2]
- Contact Limit Breaks are now active; spend Favors to gain more options beyond the first to help Contact's upgrade to your preference
- Improved UI in Contact and Merc Limit Breaks to avoid accidentally hitting spacebar (confirm) and not making a choice
- Improved Matrix balancing: redid all IC counts for nodes
- Improved Matrix balancing: +1 Charge for Deception and Disarm programs across the board
- New Safehouse Modules: Nano-Scrubber level 9 to 16 (a beacon of hope in a polluted world)
- Improved safehouse room descriptions to include specific abilities granted by tokens including level requirements
- Fixed a number of scavenger/raid missions that lacked intro or exit dialog
- Fixed bug preventing equipping of cyberdeck when you had more than of the same type, cyberdecks no longer stack
- Fixed issue with Power Level 7 and 8 megacorporate captains locking up level

Since this bug is pretty gnarly, we wanted to put out a quick update about.

We just released a hotfix - so restart Steam client to be sure to get it - that fixes a bug that was introduced in Update #113 last night.

If you have any issues with missions freezing on the first turn or when reinforcements are arriving, please be sure to restart Steam client and get this latest update.

All should be fixed now and very sorry for the bug!

It's Saturday and you just got an update. With this big bug fix update, we're focusing on hitting the most popular and troublesome F10s in the set this week, grinding on that polish-stone until it shines. Back at HQ, we're working on the next set of storylines and 2 new proc-gen maps and a new mission objective - Assassination - so stay tuned for more content additions!

To everyone playing, posting and hitting F10 - thank you! We hope you're enjoying the game, are here to chat and work hard to improve it. If you like what we've got cooking, please leave a review.

[h2]F10 as Camera WASD!?!?![/h2]
Ok, major mistake on our part - F10 was accidentally set as the default keybinding for panning the camera forward instead of ... W. :facepalm: We fixed it in the defaults, but depending on when you started playing and if you've changed anything, you may need to go into the main menu > options > keybinding and reset defaults or rebind it specifically to W (or whatever).

[h2]Bodies and Security Tally Rules[/h2]
We've fixed a few longstanding issues with how body timer security Tally is generated and displayed.

First, you will now see the Security Tally for a body that is about to expire appearing in the top right Tally bar. We need to finish the display where these are itemized you can better track these back to their source, but this should majorly cut down on "surprise Escalations" that didn't look they were going to happen and then ... did.


Second, we've fixed an issue with dead bodies becoming known to the system by guards who are about to die. If guard A saw dead body B but then you killed guard A by the end of the Turn (as one does), then dead body B would be incorrectly counted as seen, Sec Tally would be added and the body timer would be canceled. This is now all correctly unwound in the case of deaths. If guard A and guard C saw dead body B but you only killed A, then B would still be known to the system and Sec Tally generated - because guard C got through the Turn alive. But if you wiped both A and C, then B goes back to being unknown correctly with a running body timer.

A lot to say - it works as it should at last!


[h2]Head Hunter Talents, Healing Items[/h2]
With Update #114, we've granted some of the Head Hunter teams an additional +1 Talent slot which will give them more powers to use against you in the field. A little stiffer challenge, a little more unpredictable.

We've also given Head Hunters, and a few other enemy types, a big boost by fixing a bug that was causing them to use their medkit items even when they were at max HP. You might have seen Head Hunters arriving and spamming healing, gaining "0 HP" each time and then ... well, not having any medkits for when the fighting starts! This is now fixed.

Also, basically all buff Talents from an enemy printed to the log that they were "Loyalty Mantra" which is not the case. This is now fixed.


[h2]HP Details in Status Window[/h2]
Both enemies and characters now have a full HP stat block in their mid-mission window.

[h2]Power Level 1-3 Sniper Scopes[/h2]
Some of the Blueprints for low level Sniper scope mods were overpowered and we've brought them back within the curve while still keeping them interesting.

[h2]Matrix Camera Lockup[/h2]
If you disconnected from the matrix after inspecting security devices from the matrix HUD, the camera was locking up until you ended your turn or hit ESC. This is now fixed!

[h2]v1.8.25 - 7/20/2024[/h2]
- Fixed issue where default pan camera forward was set to F10, not W :facepalm:
- Security Tally for dead bodies appears as yellow Tally correctly on the turn they will expire
- If an enemy discovers a dead body but then is killed in the same Turn, the body reverts to unknown
- Most Head Hunters and team get +1 Talent slot; more abilities, more challenge!
- Fixed enemies using their medkit items early when they are not injured
- Fixed enemies always claiming they were using Talent "Loyalty Mantra" when they were using so many other things
- Added current / max HP details to character and enemy status window mid-mission
- Improved balance of low Power Level (1-3) Sniper Scopes
- Fixed issue with Wasteland Coyote's background tag just reading "for"
- Fixed issue with camera locking up after inspecting security devices inside matrix
- Fixed issues with scrollbars in matrix and character status windows
- Fixed issues with Respec sometimes reporting -1 tokens
- Improved display of controller center-screen cursor during pause menu, F10 menu

Head Hunters have been unleashed on the New Boston zone and the bravest and craziest among them are hunting Cyber Knights - hunting you! The reaction from players has been so awesome to this new major milestone, we're psyched. The feeling of time-boxed pressure to deal with or escape the Head Hunters and that fact that, for a time, it makes you play the game different, use different equipment, bring a different squad, and plan for the Head Hunters to jump you at any given moment is extremely exciting.

While things have launched very successfully with Head Hunters, we wanted to make some rapid improvements in places where we missed on certain features of nice-to-haves, so this update addresses a number of those issues.

If you're liking the pace of development, please leave a review!


[h2]Fast Improvements[/h2]
We've made some balance and weapon tweaks to Head Hunters based on feedback - thanks to everyone sharing their combat stories.

We've improved how the Head Hunter "Stun Break!" works so that when they roll it, they really can act for the Turn.

We've fixed Brainworm vs. Headhunters so that it will not allow you to use it against them at all, saving you the charge and the AP as they are immune.

We fixed issues where you might get a dialog about Head Hunters in victory or defeat even if they didn't show up.

Dead Head Hunters no longer have body timers and won't cost you Security Tally.


[h2]Other Improvements[/h2]
Throughout the game, we've improved how we handle highlighting of names, factions, and professions so that the highlighting is more clear, consistent and shows up in more places like Timeline events.


We've also fixed the little blue man who appeared in your timeline when crafting items. RIP little blue man, we never really knew ye.


[h2]v1.8.23 - 7/19/2024[/h2]
- Continued to balance and improve Head Hunters and their teams! Thanks for the early feedback
- Fixed issue with proc-gen maps that was cutting 2 maps out of rotation - Street Palisade, Holdout Corner
- Fixed issue with Head Hunter "Stun Break!" not really breaking Stun effectively
- Fixed issue with Head Hunters immune to Brainworm but Talent firing anyway
- Fixed issue with Head Hunters reporting a miss in mission victory / defeat even if they didn't show up
- Fixed issues with Head Hunter bodies having body timers
- Improved highlighting of names and factions through dialog and timeline to be more consistent and clear
- Fixed issue with little blue man in the timeline when crafting items