Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

The ENDLESS major milestone rolls out the proc-gen mission feature and the first wave of content types that it can create to give you freedom to keep playing as you please. In addition, ENDLESS adds the first Story Era for Cyber Knights - a major city-wide event that sets up stories, proc-gen premises, new contacts and more. The proc-gen system also forced a lot of good updates to other guts in the game which has resulted in some exciting changes for levels like Loophole Heist, Haven Smokeout and Forward Op -- more fun, more variation. And of course, we fixed a towering mountain of small bugs and QoL issues.



We're a little behind on the roadmap timing, but it was worth the wait to get proc-gen right. You can read a full review of how we have approached proc-gen below, but here the tldr; we've released the proc-gen feature (the game can make randomized content within a set of rules) and the first set of content. The content and rules are still limited, so you'll find repetition if you play enough proc-gen missions. Our next step for proc-gen is to rapidly expand the content and rule set until you repetition fades away. We will not delay, expect more content and rules every single week.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements to the game, please remember to leave a review!


[h2]Proc-Gen Missions[/h2]
Proc-gen is a pretty wide open term - while we're all talking about the same concept (RNG, rules, content blocks, combining, endless play) the implementation from game to game is always different. For Cyber Knights, proc-gen means creating unique, replayable and repeatable missions that are directly tied to your contacts and current world events in New Boston.

The major milestone ENDLESS and Update #27 complete the major task of creating a fully functioning set of rules and content that can be recombined into many different mission experiences. The Cyber Knight's system is capable of generating, randomizing and combining elements including:

• Individual mission maps (currently limited to 3 maps)
  
• Starting positions, exit options, enemy locations and patrol routes
  
• Missions stage structure (pending, but more complex missions like Carnivore will be created)
  
• Objectives (currently limited to raids, assassinations and CPU Spiking hacks)
  
• Employer, Enemy and friendly factions
  
• Matrix hosts connected to terminals
  
• Loot from lootboxes and matrix downloads
  
• Leverage, Special Rewards
  

A key point here is that we are not generating mission maps. Our goal has always been lovingly hand crafted maps and that is the path we'll continue. So our goal is to ensure that map which you played for one objective, start point, enemy, door, lootbox and terminal layout can play very differently if you play it with another objective, against a different faction set of enemies, starting somewhere else, have different exit options, different secondary objectives and as many different wrinkles as proc-gen can create.

While the catalog of options is still small today (3 maps + hacking map) and objectives are limited (2 total today), we can't wait to see the pool grow every week and the possible repetition fade out of the system as we march toward 100 maps and 15+ objective types. While the catalogs of possible options and combinations are smaller, the final resulting options are limited today.

But, as any multiplier category of rules or content grows within the set, the resulting possibilities will grow very quickly. The most important areas of growth will be level maps and new objective types. Wo while we may be here (^) today, we're excited for the steady stream of updates to include constant adds to proc-gen until we get here - and then we'll go ahead an update until that looks small too.


[h2]Needing More and More[/h2]
Proc-gen will put a lot of pressure on every other system in the game. We will work hard to meet that pressure but it is impossible we will keep up. For example, you're going to have money now - a steady income if you want it - but there aren't going to be enough guns to spend your money on. Your team is going to level up, and you'll find that for many factions, the enemies aren't ready for you past Power Level 4. And on and on.

The answer is clearly updates. So we will be serving that dish hot.


[h2]Story Eras[/h2]
Story Eras are major events that have lasting effect on the game's story and simulation elements. Things are changing in the world of 2231 - big things - and they majorly impact the world, New Boston, the megacorps and the underworld. As these events unfold, you'll often have an opportunity to be involved in how they unfold or how you navigate the aftermath or exploit the opportunities. Such events always create situations in which Cyber Knights and their covert op teams are needed.

Update #27 opens the door to the first Story Era - the Treaty of '31. We won't go into depth or spoil it. To be honest, the feature we focused on adding here was proc-gen missions, but the Story Eras (as there can be more than one running at a time) set the context and premise of many of your proc-gen missions. So, this first Era has some of its proc-gen premises added but is light on story and missions. The job of the next few weeks will be to fill it in both regards.


[h2]New Era Content[/h2]
New Eras will introduce new factions, new contact types, new weapons, story, recruit opportunities and always new proc-gen premises. The types of proc-gen missions you were encountering - including their objectives, the employer and the targets - will changes as the Eras change. Eras are key establishing the living and dynamic nature of the city in Cyber Knights, and a lot of that is in the new things each Era can bring to the table or unleash upon New Boston.

For example, with the Treaty of '31, we've added 8 new types of Contact Traits including Influential, Uninspiring, Easy to Please, Guarded, Vengeful, Detail Oriented, Hard as a Nail and Weak Organization. Contact Traits can now impact new types of things that they did not before, like speed of Influence gain for Contacts, what types of services they are interested in adding or upgrading, their ability to resist attempts on their life via Death Res and more. Also, the new event has spurred the addition of new Contact Types with unique service offerings: Corporate VP, Dockmaster, Spec Ops CO.

[h2]Haven Smokeout, Loophole Heist, Forward Op Improvements[/h2]
The new proc-gen system has necessitated the creation of a number of new and exciting authoring tools for levels and their myriad of challenges. These improvements have been rolled out first to this trio of missions and we're excited to see them spreading to every mission in the game. For all 3 levels, we've improved the balance, placement and counts of enemies from play to play. Head counts are better tuned up, placement and patrol paths are tightened and (like proc-gen) you won't find that everything plays the same every time -- enemies, objectives and patrol paths are now in flux -- so keep your wits about you and don't lean on old memories to get you through.

Loophole Heist level 1 has a new starting point, making it a more exciting and dynamic level. We also fixed an issue with an enemy patrol being under the floor.


[h2]Merc Profile Access[/h2]
When prepping to deploy for a mission now, you can use a newly added and very helpful button to jump directly to a Merc's Profile. From there you can fix loadout issues, double check a Wound or complete any training you need. Upon hitting ESC, you'll return to the mission deploy screen, ready to dive back in again.

[h2]Other Fixes[/h2]
The memory leak in Appearance had persisted, we had fixed 50% of the leak but missed the other half. Now it should be 100% water-sealed. Aitana will no longer appear unexpectedly in the tutorial if you reload the turn or level.

The ESC button is working again from the Matrix. We've removed the floating, disconnected nodes in Carnivore hosts.

Weapon Mods like Rapidshot Mecha now correctly list that they reduce AP for reloading by -1. We've removed some unnamed and unused filters from the end of the weapon mod's filter list.

[h2]v1.2.1 - 12/9/2023[/h2]
- Proc-gen system can now create missions for your team continuously
- Proc-gen has limited permutations now but will continually expand through Early Access
- Proc-gen missions currently include Raid (free looting), CPU Spikes (hack-only) and Kill 3 (taking out military targets) objectives (key expansion point)
- Proc-gen missions draw on a pool of 3 mission maps (key expansion point)
- Introducing the first Story Era - a major event and the aftermath in New Boston
- Added 8 new Contact Traits: Influential, Uninspiring, Easy to Please, Guarded, Vengeful, Detail Oriented, Hard as a Nail, Weak Organization
- Added 3 new Contact Types: Corporate VP, Dockmaster, Spec Ops CO
- Added helpful "Merc Profile" button to mission deployment screen to make quick changes before deploy
- Improved balance, enemy counts, positions and level variations for Haven Smokeout job
- Fixed mission tagging on Haven Smokeout to indicate that there is a Hacking opportunities for looting
- Adjusted starting position, enemy counts and positions for Loophole Heist stage 1
- Fixed bug where new Soldier Aitana could appear in the tutorial accidentally on reload
- Fixed issue where game menu would not open during Matrix Hack when hitting ESC or (B) (default)
- Fixed issues with weapon mods that decrease or increase Reload AP cost (like Rapidshot Mecha)
- Fixed issue with display of Security Tally, not Security Level, on Save Slots
- Fixed issues with disconnected nodes in Carnivore matrix hosts
- Fixed issues with default host names appearing in some missions
- Fixed memory leak in changing character appearance, sorry for crashes!
- Fixed broken string in movement alerts for cameras and overwatch
- Removed 2 unnamed Weapon Mod filters at the end of market filter
- Fixed bug with enemy ending up underground in Loophole Heist level 1

Update #26 rolls out the final movement alert type for Overwatch threat ("You will be shot!" -- that's pretty important!), resolves some issues with the newly updated dialog character renderer, improves marketing and inventory sorting options, fixes different bugs with 3 types of high power Matrix nodes and improves the appearance options for beards and specifically for the hacker's beard. Update #26 is a great set of fixes and improvements, getting us ready for the next big Update --

We've been circling it for a while but finally at the point we can say "Update #27 is Proc-Gen"!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates or the steady progress we're making polishing and improving Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, we hope you'll leave a review!


[h2]Overwatch Alerts[/h2]
With Update #26, Overwatch alerts now joins the bevy of other useful alerts for players. "You will be shot!" will be displayed along with the Overwatch icon if you're going to run out into an enemy's Overwatch and they will be able to see you at that position. This is extra helpful as (for the moment at least, boooo!) the Overwatch onscreen display does not correctly take line of sight into account and so it can be hard to see where you are really at risk if you're able to move behind sight-blocking cover or walls. This alert will pinpoint that exact spot.


[h2]Dialog Sizing Oddities[/h2]
The new dialog character updates in Update #25 were a huge step forward, fixing such a long list of bugs but they didn't escape the lab without their own bugs. There are a number of situations, characters and screen resolutions that were causing odd sizing issues with one or the other character. Sometimes one character was so big you could barely see their abdomen on screen. Other times, one characters was just 8% larger than the other one. We've resolved a big class of miscalculation math and things should now have stabilized here. If you see any issues, please do report!


[h2]Power Level and Rarity Sorting[/h2]
The sorting of items for "Weak and Common" and "Rare and Powerful" was missing the correct comparison for Power Level, so the results were always a big jumble. Both sorts are now fixed, first comparing Power Level and then, if the Power Levels are the same, the Rarity is compared next to sort within the PL group. Now the results read very nicely and the sort is quickly helpful to find the best stuff to use or the worst stuff to sell, for example.


[h2]Matrix Node Fixes[/h2]
A number of new Matrix node types have trickled into the game over the last 10 updates -- the Data Fortress, Manufacturing Vault and Financial Fortress. Each is a hardened version of its less cousin, such as Data Warehouse. The IC spawning there are generally more dangerous and Security Tally cost of operating in these nodes is higher. We've fixed three bugs with these node types in Update #26 - some Data Fortresses had no files; some Manufacturing Vaults had no IC and some Financial Vaults caused extreme Security Tally to be added on to the cost of every action.

We also fixed a minor bug where sometimes the IC icons over the map would not update correctly, with some IC sticking around after death or not flipping to disabled directly after the action.


[h2]Appearance Updates[/h2]
For a while, Dade (or your customized version of the hacker) has been stuck with a beard that you couldn't control or remove. You can recolor or remove the beard just like any other beard. This beard isn't exactly where we want it to be in terms of texture quality, but we hope to improve it and it is the model of adding lots of short shave type beards like basic 5'oclock shadow.

To assist with this change, we also now allow you to modify beard (and therefore hair) color directly from the beard appearance options instead of always having to use the hair's color selector.

We've also fixed an issue where changing an appearance option was setting the character's rotation which was just plain annoying when you're trying to get a cool look!

Finally, more outfits have their over shiny arms and hands corrected. There are a few more to fix, and each one takes a chunk of time. We will get to full set soon.

[h2]v1.1.21 - 12/5/2023[/h2]
- Improved alerts system to include "You will be show!" alerts when entering enemy Overwatch
- Fixed issues with mismatched size between characters in dialogs at times
- Sorting in market for "Common and Weak" or "Rare and Powerful" is now correct order (sort by Power Level > Rarity)
- Fixed UI issue where you could force incorrect weapon mods onto weapons
- Opening the timeline history popup correctly stops the Timeline
- Fixed matrix issue where sometimes IC icons over the map would not update after action
- Fixed issue where new node type Data Fortress could be without files
- Fixed issue where new node type Manufacturing Vault had not IC
- Fixed issue where new node type Financial Fortress had very high security tally
- Can now control color of beard directly from beard selection instead of having to use hair
- Fixed issues with Dade's beard, it can now be removed or changed, can be added to other characters too
- Fixed issue with changing appearance resetting character rotation annoyingly
- Fixed issue with new game keybindings disappearing after exiting game
- Improved consistency of icon use for Program Size throughout market and Deck Mgmt
- Improved some outfits with still overly shiny hands or arms
- Thanks for all the story and typo F10s - tons fixed!

Update #25 is here and it's a huge upgrade to the alert system (previously "You will be heard" but now majorly expanded), immediate and easy access to exactly which enemy agents will hear an attack from any give location, a revamp of the Injury Time math, a rebuild of the character dialog to address a ton of nagging issues and improve light and more more more.

This is perhaps one of the biggest QoL updates we've released yet and we hope you find it helpful!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements, please consider leaving a review and sharing the game with a friend.
 
We've slipped on our posted roadmap schedule, missing November with Proc-Gen but that milestone, and Custom Difficulty are both circling, very close now.


[h2]Movement Alerts[/h2]
Whenever you are considering a move, you can now see a new set of alerts. Joining the previously available alert for "You will be heard" we now offer "You may be seen" and "Camera will spot you". This new layer of details - including exactly where in your move path you'll hit the issue - makes it much easier to make movement decisions without worrying about checking every guard in the area against your path. In the case where you are going to be spotted or heard by an enemy agent, a yellow icon appears under their hover now, making it clearly exactly who-will-what. This is a great upgrade for the noise system which needed this before and is just as useful for the new vision alert.

Overwatch is pending some finalized code and testing but will join the alert set soon with "You will be shot!"


[h2]Who Will Hear an Attack?[/h2]
Update #25 now exposes exactly which enemies will hear your attack with a new yellow under-hover icon. The upgraded icon also appears in the bottom left of the screen with your weapon, how many enemies will hear your attack (from the current position or from your set movement destination). This exposes a very useful set of details very quickly as you play and can help you make faster and more accurate tactical decisions about when and where to make your attacks.

In addition to knowing the number, you can now easily see exactly who as you drag the movement destination around and the yellow alerts come and go under specific enemies. Aitana is just around the corner from these two with her UAR primed - they're going to hear it, but not sure it is going to matter.

[h2]Better Injury Time Calculations[/h2]
We've taken a moment to revamp the calculations used to determine how much Injury Time you have in the safehouse after taking hits.

First off, if a hit is less than 20% of your max HP, it now can never cause any Injury Time. This is a good starting point as grazing hits aren't going to cost you. Once you're over 20%, the Injury Time is going to scale pretty directly based on Damage and % of your max HP. This is a big help in making the injury time feel right - take a big hit, get more time. There was too much RNG in the old system, and if the dice fell the wrong way, even a small hit could end up with more Injury Time than a big hit that rolled low.

In addition, any time you get smacked with a Critical Hit or get knocked to Bleeding Out status, you'll get an elevated Injury Time roll, but it is still based on the damage caused compared to your max HP.

[h2]Spiking Requires Scan 2/2[/h2]
We've improved the hover on the button for Spiking CPU and APU to include an important rules clarification. To Spike, you must have destroyed all the IC with an Attack program and the Scan Level must be 2/2. We'll keep working to improve this but the hover at least can now point you in the right direction!


[h2]Dialog Character Revamp[/h2]
With Update #25, we've made some important changes to the rendering of characters during dialog. We've taken the time to tune up the lighting stage for the characters while not making any huge changes to the setup.

However, the underlying change of rendering technique resolves a lot of issues that were cropping up with the system. in short, we no longer render the characters with the main, perspective camera which fixes issues like:

• No longer rendered by a perspective camera, so they no longer start to look stretched out on wider screens.
  
• It is impossible for characters to clip into level geometry sometimes.
  
• If the main mission camera takes on odd rotations, the characters in dialog are not negatively effected.
  
• The characters are no longer affected by level lighting, which avoids any scenarios where their lighting was really out of band.
  

[h2]Improved Combat / Matrix Logs[/h2]
With Update #25, we've improved the logging for regular missions and hacking. They now have a bit more space between every line and have stopped truncating log lines so that you aren't losing out on half the valuable data. Thanks to the players who F10'd this, it's a nice incremental improvement with more to come.

[h2]BioScan Field Fix[/h2]
We fixed a bug with the BioScan Field security device where it would still cause a Tally increase and post security events even after you disabled it by hacking. That's a painful kick in the butt for your hacker who worked hard to silence that thing. Now fixed!

[h2]v1.1.19 - 12/1/2023[/h2]
- Improved alerts system matching the "You will be heard" alerted
- "You may be seen" warning when you are crossing into a guard's line of sight
- "Camera will spot you" warning when you cross into a Camera or Radar Array line of sight
- Enemies who will hear this attack number on weapon in bottom left now matched by alert icon in enemy hover
- Updated icon for "enemies who will hear this attack" to separate from "movement will be heard" icon
- Improved injury time calculation based off damage (no injury for 20% or less, less random results, critical hits and high damage yield more injury time)
- Fixed issue with Covering Fire 5th upgrade node having 2 effects, added new upgrade node
- Fixed issue with BioScan Field still reporting to Sec AI even when disabled by hacking
- Improved placement of mercs under their UI element while planning mission deployment
- Improved combat and matrix log readability
- Clarified Hacking CPU / APU Spike rules - Scan Level must be 2/2 and all IC Destroyed to Spike
- Removed last few placeholder icons in character appearance
- Removed confusing mentions of friendly fire in combat log when it really isn't
- Fixed issues with many non-English characters like umlauts
- Fixed issues with some narrator dialogs being oddly aligned to the right
- Fixed issues with dialog characters sometimes clipping into geometry, feeling oddly squished, having odd lighting, being at odd rotations

Update #24 comes alive in just the last days of November with some important balancing changes for Matrix, sweeping improvements to the class tree icons and upgrades for clarity, better timeline calculations for healing wounds and injuries and level fixes as well. We're still gunning to get the first iteration of proc-gen out during November, so stay tuned for more soon!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates, please drop us a review and share the game with a friend!


[h2]Matrix IC HP Drop[/h2]
With Update #24, we've made adjustments to the HP totals for Matrix IC of all kinds to help improve the Attack program meta within the game. You'll find that IC have lost HP across the board and more types can be single hit by an Attack program. As the Matrix Hosts and IC power levels increase, these totals will go up but the starting IC are now better in line with the starting Attack programs, making the entire experience -- and especially spiking the CPU -- less difficult and multi-turn.


[h2]Class Tree Upgrade[/h2]
With Update #24, we've done a major sweep across the class trees to simplify and fix all upgrade icons and Talent quadrants for the upgrades. The icons are a bit larger and simpler and we've also used some automation to ensure that the icon always matches the effect (if its duration, the icon is duration). We've also applied similar automation to then putting the right pip in the right quadrant around the Talent on the main class tree so you can see what you've trained and also easily share your exact class build with a single screenshot through the preview screen.

Part of this process was to fix all of the Talent upgrades that incorrectly had 2 effects. In many cases, we've split these out into a new upgrade node entirely to maintain the same options, such as in Marker Sights, Glasswalker and others. In a few other places, we've just fixed mismatches or incorrect update data.



[h2]Safehouse Medical Treatment Time[/h2]
After the last update where we added medical options to recover from your Wounds, there were a few mismatches in the time offered during the purchase process and the time that appeared on the timeline in the end. We've made the necessary adjustments to be sure the right time is shown and carried all the way through to the timeline.

Healing Wounds is notably still very cheap and very fast - so, get in there and get healed now!


[h2]Comparing Full Auto Weapons[/h2]
We fixed an issue when comparing the Ballistic Damage of Full Auto weapons, the second weapon's damage was not filled in correctly.

[h2]Salvage Breakout Fixes[/h2]
We've fixed a number of issues with the first level of Salvage Breakout. There was an odd truck you could walk through (now you can walk on it). And there were some ghost security devices that weren't visible but showed up only when you were trying to establish a target with your Talent. All resolved now.

[h2]v1.1.19 - 11/28/2023[/h2]
- Improved calculation of IC Hit Points to buff Attack program strategies
- Improved duration calculations for Wound Healing and Treatment contact services in safehouse
- Improved look, scaling and simplicity of Talent upgrade icons in class trees
- Corrected all icons for all Talent upgrades in all class trees - now fully correct
- Fixed all pips surrounding Talent nodes in the trees to match buff/duration/range/charges upgrades - now fully correct
- Fixed all Talent upgrade nodes that had 2 bonuses (buff + recharge rate)
- Fixed 2 bonus issue for Talents including Centering, Red Dot, Covering Fire, Marker Sights
- Adjusted upgrade balance for Marker Sights, Coordinated Charge, Glasswalker added new upgrade nodes
- Fixed issue in comparing 2 weapons with Full Auto firing mode, second one's damage was blank
- Fixed some cover and sight lines in Forward Op mission
- Added correct descriptions for a number of keybindings like / and + etc
- Fixed issue with truck you could walk through in Salvage Breakout
- Fixed issue with strange invisible cameras in Salvage Breakout you could target with security talents
- Fixed a heaping pile of typos

Today we're rolling out Update #23 which includes the key feature to heal longterm Wounds that your characters accrue, improving the data shown when purchasing medical services of any kind, adding contact filtering, fixing a sneaky memory leak and more.

Because Proc-Gen will let you play forever, Wounds stepped in front of Proc-Gen as a priority. You'd play forever and slowly kill your groups with more and more Wounds. This update is giving you a chance to prep, buy down any Wounds you have and be ready for the next update -- the first wave of Proc-Gen missions.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and constant improvement, please leave a review and share the game with a friend!


[h2]Healing Wounds[/h2]
You can now pay for doctors to help resolve Wounds that have developed due to injuries. These long term Wounds are Traits, which can become worse on their own if untreated, eventually reaching Level 4 with major penalties. At first, they are minor and -- in isolation -- could be ignored for a while with the merc still pulling active duty.

Because these have been sneaking up on a lot of your groups and you've had no way to deal with them, we're running a fire sale on healing them. They are healing in about 2 days for about $6K. This will not be the longterm pricing or timeline but for now, we encourage you to get them healed quickly for cheap.


[h2]Healing Injuries / Wounds Timeline[/h2]
We've also added specifics about the timelines for healing services to the offers in the purchasing pop up. Each contact is not only offering a unique price based on their Traits but also a unique timeline, so some are faster than others and now you can see that data with "$6K + 1d 6hrs". For example, you can now see that Doctor Shaduke's "Hack Saw" Trait makes him a faster, if more expensive, surgeon.


[h2]Contact Filtering[/h2]
You can now filter Contacts by their status and their major faction group, like Street Gang or Syndicate. For status, you can currently filter on Known Contacts, Enemy Contacts and Dead Contacts. As the Contact meta and the importance of using these screens continues to improve, we'll be adding more filters to this now useful UI.


[h2]Memory Leak in Appearance Tab[/h2]
There has been a memory leak in the appearance tab for a while. A huge thank you to the players who pointed it out and logged F10s about it and especially to @Sophismata on our Discord who provided the final clue to getting it fixed.

Also, in the appearance screen, we've fixed the hotkeys (A/D or right stick by default) so that they will continue to work to rotate your character even when focused on the face.

[h2]v1.1.15 - 11/24/2023[/h2]
- Added advanced Wound Treatment from the roster - currently cheap and fast, get it while it is hot
- Improved details in purchase offer for healing injuries to include time / discount %s
- Contact filters by Faction type (milsec, megacorporate, etc) are now working
- Rebalanced Contact Traits Face-Splice 1-4, Steady Hand 1-4 and Hack-Saw 1-4 to have more impact on price
- Fixed memory leak in changing character appearance, sorry for crashes!
- Fixed issue where hotkeys (right stick or A/D by default) were not rotating when face was focused