Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Welcome to Update #74 where everyone is just suddenly a lot more stylish and good looking! Today, we've got a big visual upgrade to the material and texture stack for faces, fixes for your Stressed out Hacker and an unwinding of a bug that was reading Contact Power Levels as one big upgrade instead of pinning the upgrades to each individual Contact.

Our next major roadmap milestone is chewing up the majority of the team's time and none of that work can be released until base building is ready. But it is coming closer by the day now! Between now and base building, we'll have a series of additional updates with new heists and new recruits as we prep that colossal release for prime time.

If you like the pace of updates, continual improvements and the direction we are heading with Cyber Knights please take a moment to leave a review 👍 and help us continue this frantic and exciting pace of Early Access!


[h2]Upgraded Faces![/h2]
With Update #74, we've completed a major upgrade to the detail and quality of all character face textures in the game. This upgrade has a number of pieces that come together to form the look, including (1) increasing the texture quality of all faces, (2) adding subsurface detail and roughness to the faces to help them act more like real skin (3) adding small shadows to all faces to help highlight areas and prevent the face from feeling flat (4) adding a new Face Details cosmetic choice that will expand with more types of facial detail options.

The results feel great! The results speak for themselves. Without leaving behind the unique style that we set out to hit for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, we've still achieved a big upgrade here.


This one follows on the big lighting engine update as one of the other highest priority and most discussed visual upgrades from the game. We've heard so much about the character look from both players who are playing Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and those who are taking a look from a distance.



This upgrade affects characters in all cases which they appear, making improved headshots as well as making them look cooler in dialog and on missions.

To make changing skin color easier, we've moved it be an option of the Face selection and the new Face Details option has 2 choices within it right now - smooth skin and freckled skin, but this category has a lot of cool potential to include scars, burns and more.



[h2]New Facial Hair Options[/h2]
We also added 2 new facial hair options giving you some variations of a lighter, unshaven look. The classic 5'oclock shadow is looking good!

[h2]Matrix Stress Reduction[/h2]
A few updates ago, we punched up the Stress generation capabilities of the matrix, high damage lethal feedback and also Dumpshock. We've heard a lot of feedback that we went overboard and your Hacker's rapidly skyrocketed to the most Stressed out team members. This was related to (1) issues with how Lethal Damage was calculated an passed to the Stress generator before being blunted by your Deck's defenses and (2) Dumpshock just granting 50% too much Stress.

Both are resolved in this update and should be significantly more inline with the Stress that other team are suffering for their job as part of the heist team.

Sorry for the Stressed out Hackers, they will recover in time! Try to use a Hype Limit Break or two to get them back on track.


[h2]Ballooning Contact Power Levels[/h2]
Thanks to great F10s, we found and fixed a bug where any Power Level increase to one Contact was actually a Power Level increase to all Contacts! This was causing the entire Contact list to end up with 10+ Power Level after a little while.

Notably, this is not a form of data corruption or loss, this was just a bad query to the saved game that would read all Power Level increases to any Contact when asking for those of a specific Contact :sweat: so you'll see your games immediately snap back to the right values as Update #74 lands.

This is fixed just in time for the upcoming Exposure and Influence LImit Breaks.

[h2]Carnivore Fixes[/h2]
We've made a few small fixes to Carnivore, including swapping the objectives for the extraction points which were switched. Thanks to everyone putting in F10s!

Enjoy the new update, mercs! We'll see you in a few days with more :D



[h2]v1.5.13 - 4/18/2024[/h2]
- Improved all face textures, detail and roughness to look less plastic and just better
- Added new appearance option "Skin Detail" - current options for smooth and freckled skin with more coming
- Moved skin color option under face for much easier selection when modifying appearance
- Reduced Stress caused by hard disconnect in the Matrix by 50%
- Fixed issue with previewing short beards just disappearing constantly
- Fixed issues where sometimes character or contact eyes would be a dead gray
- Fixed bug where each Contact's Power Level was calculated by summing all bonuses to all Contact Power Levels (oops!)
- Fixed issue where extraction objectives in second stage of Carnivore were switched
- Fixed bug listing the wrong Trait level after Hype Limit Break mutation (1 instead of 2)
- Improved performance in appearance tab

Here comes Update #73, another big polish and improvement update with some nice new things to boot. While we motor toward the next set of major roadmap milestones, we're still hard at work improving every aspect of the game with all haste - as any good Early Access project should!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates or think we're just heading in the right direction, please take a moment to leave a review. Every review helps us keep going, go faster and do more.

[h2]New Sec AI Escalations[/h2]
With Update #73, we've pushed some new Sec AI Escalation options that are exciting and dangerous. As we continue to grow the options and deepen the rules for Sec AI Escalations, the differences between the 6 Sec AI (gang, syndicate, Sigma 5, 6, 7 and 9) we have in the game today will become more and more apparent.

We've added a new chain of Escalation options for any map that features a disabled minefield of Prox-Mines. The first time that the Sec AI spends an Escalation turning on Prox-Mines it will turn on 3 (as usual). However, now if it is returns to enable Prox-Mines after that it will jump to enabling 5 at a time. This can help situations where - with larger prox-mine fields - the Sec AI could burn Escalation after Escalation slowly turning them on 3 at a time.

We've also added an all new Escalation type - the Active Bio-Sweep. This Escalation searches for bodies that have active timers and reduces their timer by 1 to 2 Turns each. The older Sigma Sec AI - 5 and 6 - each only reduce the timer by 1 turn while the new, cutting-edge Sigma 7 and 9 each can reduce the timer by 2 each. The Escalation happens after body timers expire for the Turn, so the worst that can result from this Escalation is at the end of the next Turn, more bodies will have been rushed to expiring their timers. Notably, gang and syndicate Sec AI never do Active Bio-Sweep.

We're very excited to keep expanding these catalogs and interlinking them with chains and rules so that the Sec AI becomes more exciting adversary to face.


[h2]Added 2 New Eyes[/h2]
We've added two new types of eye - a Terminator-style eye with a hot glowing center and a glowing eye with only a targeting symbol shown over the pupil without an iris. It's exciting to round out this category with some new options and now that we've hit 8 different eye looks, we'll be moving on to other categories to continue to add new cosmetic options and looks.


We have also fixed an issue with the snake and burning sun eyes that was causing them never to achieve darker hues. They always stayed very light in color. Now you can go deep red or green if you please!


[h2]Spoof and Red Dot Talents[/h2]
With Update #73, we've made some nice improvements to Hacker's Spoof and the Soldier's Red Dot.

Spoof - with is a passive buff that can block Matrix Q-Sec Escalation - has gained a new upgrade node costing 2 points that will add a second token. This allows a single use of Spoof to block up to 2 Escalations over 4 Turns, if you're fully upgraded.

Red Dot - has not been correctly connected to its upgrade nodes since ... the beginning of the Talent? Anyway, we've fixed the bug and now Red Dot has all of its correct upgrades available. We also increased the distance of the Talent and fixed its text formatter to correctly display the debuff that it hits the target with, which you can also upgrade with the "new" upgrade nodes. If you're using your Soldier as an occasional bait for a trap or to pull a security target off course with Red Dot, you'll find these new improvements helpful.


[h2]Death Res Simplification[/h2]
Death Res (previously called Death Save, but that's confusing as we have Stress Res and Wound Res) has been simplified in this update by removing it from all in-game effects. Death Res is set by your Difficulty setting and only by your Difficulty setting. All buffs, Traits and combat drugs that increased Death Res have had it removed.

We've also moved Death Res up into the "Death and Saves" section as this is where it is most relevant and improved the hovers on both Death Mode and Death Save.

We've got a thread going on our Discord about further updates and simplifications coming for Death Res if you want to check out the rules change preview and chime in.

[h2]Better Traits: Grit and Below the Level[/h2]
Grit and Below the Level both lost bonuses to Death Res with this update, so they've been improved in new ways. Grit now adds Wound Res and Below the Level adds XP % bonus.

[h2]Utility Programs[/h2]
We've improved the description for Utility programs and fixed a bug that was preventing their hover from showing in the Matrix Talent bar.


[h2]Weapon Mods Improvements[/h2]
With Update #73, we've fixed a mistake with the Ether Reflex Sight for AR/UAR/E-Rifles, where it was reducing the maximum optimal range of the weapon. Now it correctly reduces the minimal optimal range.

For changes to the arc fire (Overwatch or Full Auto) we now use a + and - sign to correctly denote bonuses and debuffs.

And we've fixed a bug that was preventing certain fields, especially if the value was negative, from highlighting correctly in compare.

[h2]v1.5.11 - 4/12/2024[/h2]
- New Sec AI Escalation option: Active Bio-Sweep all body timers are reduced 1 Turn (Sigma 5 or 6) or 2 Turns (Sigma 7 or 9)
- New Sec AI Escalation option: Minefield Pulse (wakes 3 prox mines), if run again then Minefield Surge (wakes 5 prox mines)
- Added 2 new eye designs - terminator glow and target reticle and improved tinting of snake and burning sun
- Improved Hacker's Spoof passive Talent with a new upgrade node that adds +1 Spoof Token
- Fixed bug which was hiding Soldier's Red Dot's debuff ability and upgrade nodes in the class tree, increased range
- Fixed issue where Trace Vector and other Utility programs did not show description correctly hovering in Matrix Talent bar
- Rebalanced Trace Vector 1 and 2 utility programs
- Removed changes to Death Res from all Traits, Wounds and buffs/debuffs - this is a Difficulty-only value
- Moved Death Res in custom difficulty to be next to Death Mode, vastly improved hovers
- Rebalanced Grit to have +Wound Res and Below the Level to have +XP% bonuses as they lost Death Res
- Fixed bug preventing weapon mods to properly show compare colors on some stats like Noise and negative Dmg
- Fixed Ether Reflex Sight for AR/UAR/E-Rifle to reduce minimum Optimal Range
- Fixed weapon mod display of changing Arc degrees to include +/-
- Fixed issue with using Faked Vitals and Body Bag on the same target causing negative numbers in hover
- Fixed lingering mention of -1 Point to train multi-class in training screen
- Fixed lighting issues in Haven Smokeout mission

Welcome to Update #72, with some new eye designs for your characters, an important meta change for Heat to truly be 100/100, an improvement for the rules about longterm ignoring Wounds, better matrix options in the TRUCK JOB and a bunch of level and lighting engine fixes.

If you are enjoying the pace of constant updates and improvements, or feel like we're just heading the right direction please take a moment to leave a review!

Apologies again for the size of the review, the main contributor is rebaking lights across the game as we keep making tweaks to improve everything / fix a few final bugs.


[h2]New Eye Designs - Is that a cat or a snake?[/h2]
With the lighting engine in the rear view mirror, we're returning to character improvements. We'll be working on improved skin texturing and roughness, small face and eye animations to help bring characters out of their wooden stare and more.

Tonight, we have 3 new eye designs - either contacts or cybernetic. The power button, burning sun and the cat eyes. Or lizard eyes? Something.


[h2]Heat is 100/100 Max[/h2]
For those players running hot squads and cycling proc-gen missions who were turning up the Heat, we've got you. The Heat scale is now correctly clamped between 0 and 100. This will be important meta fix for the upcoming safehouse base building and reduce the possible "run-away" feeling with Heat that once you go so high it just stopped mattering ever.

Remember, base building will also offer options to reduce Heat in large chunks, so if you're a high Heat team, this hard cap at 100 should help and then you'll be getting more tools to use in the future.

[h2]Festering Wounds[/h2]
With this update, we've added a slow-burn system around Wounds. Untreated Wounds will slowly, over time gain a percentage chance of increasing in their level. It is good to see a doctor if you've been permanently injured. If allowed to fester over large period of time, these wounds can become far more debilitating that they are at level 1.

This is purposefully a slow-burn type of system. You will not see sudden upgrades in Wounds popping off left and right. This is more like, "don't ignore a Wound for 50 days".


[h2]Truck Job Matrix[/h2]
You can gain a lot of advantages on the recently added TRUCK JOB through the matrix host. To help push variety in this level and keep the matrix side of the challenge, well, ... challenging, we've added new variations to the matrix hosts that be be proc'd into the TRUCK JOB.

[h2]Map & Lighting Cleanup[/h2]
We're still cleaning up a good number of very minor issues with lighting and maps. The most common seems to be some papers on the floor glowing white in some cases. Hopefully we've eliminated that bug with this update, but it remains to be seen until the release gets out into the wild to be truly sure.

We've also fixed a number of issues where something invisible was blocking pathing and causing odd paths around something that clearly wasn't there. We've resolved this for the next update in levels like the Sewers and Foward Op and also established a better footbridge in Slumroad Junction over an area on the stairs that really looked like you could pass there but you couldn't.

[h2]v1.5.9 - 4/10/2024[/h2]
- Added 3 new eye designs - cat, power button, burning sun
- Adjusted zoom rules for appearance tab, will now zoom in on face or eyes selection
- Fixed rules for Heat so that it never exceeds 100/100
- Merc Wounds will slowly increase level on their own over time without treatment
- Fixed another set of odd invisible things blocking navigation in Sewers and Foward Op maps
- Fixed misleading navigation area around stairs in Slumroad Junction
- Fixing a few mistakes where character names were hardcoded into dialog in Tutorial and didn't respond to changes you made
- Fixed issue with one map and Kill 3 combo that could result in instant victory
- Fixed long diagonal connection in one of the proc-gen SCU matrix host templates
- Increased variations of matrix hosts available in the Truck Job
- Fixed odd horizontal line hovering in safehouse

Update #71 follows on a big weekend with the TRUCK JOB heist hitting the streets and so many new Knights joining the New Boston zone. We're excited to return to the regular update schedule this week and smash some fixes, smash your F10s and smash on to the next heist release.

Sorry about the big download size on this one. The build server had a caching issue and the only way to move forward was to flush it and the build size suffered for it.

If you're liking the game, the pace of updates and our style of Early Access, please take a minute to leave a review!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/4176599795022391616
We've also started a new community challenge this week to see your best multi-class builds! This one is a lot of fun to test out new things and new metas that maybe haven't been explored before. You in?


[h2]Truck Job Floaters[/h2]
If you were running the TRUCK JOB and saw the mechanized infantry simply "floating" through stuff, you weren't the only one. Scary, right! Well, now fixed.

[h2]Retargeting Annoyances[/h2]
We've rebuilt how a character steps out around cover to give the character more options (now 8 options instead of just 4) which will help you get the best sight lines to enemy targets or when trying to get a good Overwatch cone setup.

This also has a big impact on any time that the targeting got confused when planning movement (saying that you could hit 1 in the bottom left but when you got there it was 0). This was due to the less step out spots and allowing the step out spots to be influenced by rotation. Technicalities, but big ones!

And finally, this fix fully resolves all of the annoyances around retargeting that were going. Sometimes, when trying to shoot an enemy multiple times in a row, suddenly you'd be stuck with an "No Sight Line" result until you hit ESC or reclicked on them, or you'd just lose the targeting altogether. These issues are now fixed, thankfully.


[h2]Biomimic and BioScan Fields[/h2]
We fixed the issue with the Scourge's Biomimic bug that was not always working in a Bio-Scan Field, depending on the ordering of who entered the field last. Now it always works and a Biomimic'd Scourge is excluded for any and all merc counts.

[h2]Enemy Spawning[/h2]
We've resolved the issues with enemy spawnng in odd positions and rotations, kind of a bad jumble. They are back to being nicely organized and fanned out from the main spawn location. Only if they need to find other locations due to something blocking them will they get more organic.

[h2]Enemy Spinning[/h2]
Sometimes the enemy AI would just start a rotation action and not really try to turn much or at all. This kind of twitchy is now cut out completely and the enemies will only go for a rotation action when it is sensible. It looks nicer and actually cuts down on a good deal of thinking cycles and raycasting required every time a turn was done.

[h2]Pathing and Lighting Issues[/h2]
There are a few types of textures we are fighting in certain levels -- usually paper on the ground -- that can in some cases be painted with a white background. We're working through addressing these as they are new bugs caused by the new lighting engine. We'll get them all fixed soon.

We also fixed a number of odd pathing issues in the Forward Op mission map[.

[h2]Typos and Duplicate Journal Entry[/h2]
We fixed a heap of typos and also a duplicate entry in the journal for Water Desalination. Thanks to the F10 crew for posting these up!

[h2]v1.5.7 - 4/84/2024[/h2]
- New Power Button Eyes option
- Fixed issue with mechanized infantry in Truck Job walking/running through objects
- Fixed issues where sometimes target or sight line would be lost after making attack on a target until canceled / retargeted
- Fixed bug with Scourge's Bio-Mimic not deceiving BioScan Field if Scourge is the last merc to enter
- Improved AI behavior to avoid repeated rotations that sometimes don't go anywhere
- Fixed issue with start enemy positions for reinforcements not being well organized
- Fixed duplicate lore text paragraphs in Water Treatement and Desalination section of journal
- Fixed odd pathing issues in Forward Op mission map

[h2]End of Month Wrap Up[/h2]

(Description of challenge below)

Hello, Knights! Over the last month, we've been enjoying the multiclass challenge. It has sparked a lot of conversation, particularly over on Discord and led to some interesting class combos! If you would like to catch up on the fun, you can check out the Steam discussion thread and hop over to our Discord to check out #multiclass_challenge.

A few highlights from the month:

Dr Spendlove for opening up the conversation about what we could call each multi-class combo which got us to names like:

• Vanguard + Scourge = Viper
  
• Hacker + Cyber Knight = Neuromancer
  
• Knight + Scourge = Deathknight
  

Thank you to all of you in our Discord who tossed in names suggestions! It was a very fun time.


Ahab crossed every class with vanguard, building a team built for stealth but also packing the firepower. One particularly interesting combination was giving the sniper some vanguard talents, allowing them to quietly get into a good position before taking out enemies.

Thank you to all of you who joined in for the conversations and shared your build ideas! With the new auto-train functionality in game, it is easier than ever to share your powerful builds with other players! We hope you will consider creating some Steam guides of those builds.

Stay tuned for more community events in the future!


---------------------------



Hello, Knights! It's time for another CKF Community Challenge. Our previous challenged focused on engagement style and challenged you to "Go Loud" as you completed levels. This time we are focusing on classes and multiclassing.

There are three requirements for this challenge:

- Multiclass everyone who runs heists and missions
- Split your talents as evenly as possible between each merc's two classes
* Your talents must be split evenly, you may assign your level points unevenly
- Each merc must be a different class combo



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 how multiclassing affected your strategies and which multiclass combo was your favorite
- 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 squad's talent trees so we can see what fun combinations you came up with!

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 #multiclass_challenge to join in on the conversation!