Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights, the day you've all been waiting for is rapidly approaching. We're very pleased to announce we'll launch into Early Access October 17th! 🎉 The game will release for $29.99, and we'll have a 10% discount for launch week. Make sure you've wishlisted and followed Cyber Knights on Steam so you don't miss out!



[h2]How We Do Early Access[/h2]

This is our 5th game released on Steam; we have a long track record of EA success, and it's become a core part of our process to make sure we're finishing the game with what our core audience (players who know and love in-depth RPGs & strategy games) wants in mind, before bringing it to a wider audience.



EA gives us space to invest more in the systems players find most fun and create additional storylines based on player ideas and experiences. In a Trese Brothers game’s Early Access, you never have to worry about an update breaking your save games and we guarantee the game will not linger in perpetual EA. We listen to players, add new content regularly, and deliver on our promises.

[h2]What's Waiting for You[/h2]



Start your story as a new Cyber Knight in one of the last surviving cities of North America and build your rep in the world of megacorps, syndicates, and street gangs you've decided to make a name for yourself in.

Build your crew from six classes -- Cyber Knight, Vanguard, Soldier, Hacker, Cybersword, and Sniper, plus your Face, an indispensable cornerstone of your mercenary crew. Multiclassing and recruitment give you many options for expanding or focusing your crew's capabilities. And we plan to double the number of playable classes over the course of EA.

We have 15-20 hours of story content ready for you, plus a variety of heists your contacts can offer that aren't tied to any particular storyline. We have a great pipeline of additional maps and story content already in progress, so by the time the average player has completed everything EA is starting with, it's likely we've already started added more.

And with one exception (base building), all core features of the game -- tactical stealth & combat, hacking, character classes & talent trees, the strategy layer of your underworld network, heist planning, gaining favors and advantages -- are ready to play! We decided we wanted to finish a few more options for base-building before we unlock that feature; you're going to need to pull off a few heists before you start upgrading your safehouse in any case. ;)

[h2]Much More Ahead[/h2]
We'll dive into some feature highlights and the planned roadmap in future posts; stay tuned! Thank you all who have come with us on this journey so far; incredibly exciting to be less than a month away from the big day.

If you'd like to help us get the word out, you can share our posts on twitter, Mastodon, or Facebook, or post in any communities where you know there are tactical RPG fans to be found. 📢

See you soon.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Update #12 is a quick follow-up some of the top feedback and bug reports we received during Strategy Fest. It is great to see so many new Knights minted at the Aug-Clinic and hope that the start of your new underworld career was a promising one.

We'll probably have one more patch this week to wrap up issues before closing down the demo for good on September 12th -- so if you haven't had a chance to check it out in the last 3 months, it is time :D


[h2]Safehouse Tags[/h2]
We've upgraded the display of Safehouse rooms to show off key metadata for reach type, including their current Power Level of their upgrade. In addition, we've displayed the different infrastructure support levels that each room has to support its currently installed upgrade -- these will be key in planning out and setting up your Safehouse once that part of the game is enabled.

Finally -- a most immediately useful -- we've added tags to give immediate visibility into the status of what the room is focused on. The Barracks now displays the headcount of mercs who are ready to go, those who are injured, or off on a Legwork and the number of new recruits waiting around hoping to join up.


[h2]New Missions[/h2]
In the safehouse tagging, you can now see how many missions are waiting for you at the Command HQ including the count of new missions which have been added without you yet having a chance to review their details. Once you drop into the Command HQ, you can easily find the missions by their "New Mission" tag and check them out, at which point they are marked as seen.

[h2]Fixed 2 Big Bugs[/h2]
We had a number of reports of bugs during Strategy Fest so we were glad to be able to squash these two which had a pretty good number of reports.

Due to some gaps in the colliders setup on the stairs at the Hovercraft pad, it was possible if the timing was right for a character to suddenly go *poof* and end up under the stairs, forever stuck running in a circle ... :facepalm: The colliders have been fixed and everyone should stay above the stairs.

The second bug came from a race condition with the end of a Turn and the use of a shock mine. in the case that a shock mine's detonation ended an enemy's action and that enemy was the last to go in the Turn, there was almost always a race condition error that froze the game in the Sec AI red overlay. It could also occur other times when a shock mine simply expired or went off *near* the end of the Turn. A huge thanks to everyone hitting F10 in these scenarios and helping us finally close this one for good.

[h2]Update Size Update[/h2]
It looks like the changes we made may settle us near a 4 GB update size now that we can see how Steam's compare algorithm is working with our updated asset packaging. Better but not good enough!
So, back into the forge to further improve, tweak and reduce.

[h2]v0.6.139 - 9/4/2023[/h2]
- Safehouse Roster and Command HQ get a set of helpful tags to count mercs ready, on legwork, wounded, recruits and missions new or ready
- Missions are now noted as New or not, updated as viewed
- Fixed bug cleaning up Shock mines correctly in some cases that could hang game in Sec AI processing
- Fixed movement lock up on stairs at hoverpad on Rooftop Demo level

Here we go - August has closed up shop and September is now open for business, the final month of Q3 2023! It has never been busier here at Cyber Knights: Flashpoint HQ and we’ve got a ton of good stuff going on. The game’s updated and expanded demo is live in Steam’s Strategy Fest, we’ve got Alpha v2 coming up and then we’re on to the Early Access launch.

Every month is a big one, and we’ve made major progress that we are excited to share. So, first let’s review the current demo, alpha and release details and then we’ll highlight a few major development and content milestones we hit in August.

[h2]Last Chance to Play Expanded Demo for Strategy Fest[/h2]
As the demo has gone live in Steam’s Strategy Fest, we’ve expanded it and doubled the available play time. The Cube Run is now available in the demo, giving you a whole extra heist to try. As one of your first hits in New Boston, this job targets a new Warner-Braun NanoFab that is being setup as the German megacorp prepares its arrival to the New Boston economic zone. There is good money to be made if you can make the right moves and scoop the loot. But it is New Boston and 2231; secrets are hiding under every new NanoFab and megacorporate welcome mat.

After Strategy Fest ends, the demo will be shutting down around the end of next week (roughly, September 12th) so this is the last chance to check it out before the Early Access launch.

[h2]Alpha Version 2 Starting[/h2]
As we wrap up our summer of demos, we’ll be opening the brand-new Alpha V2 to our backers. This will give our Alpha backers the chance to be the first to play the Early Access build and give us critical feedback before our launch on Steam.

You’ll be the first to play the completely unlocked Cyber Knights: Flashpoint experience, and we know you’ll help us improve the game even as we march to the launch date.

We are really excited to get back to regular Alpha updates, get the Early Access build into your hands and we’re proud to show off how much the game has changed since the last Alpha build.

[h2]Closing in on a Release Window![/h2]
We’re continuing to hit the milestones needed to keep on target for our Steam Early Access release window. We are grinding through the final burn-down list of tasks and are closing in on a release window for the start of Q4.

While estimates are always subject to change, we’re seeing the planets align to confirm we're on track for a strong EA launch. Launches are always a big moment in our player community, so join our Discord to be part of the fun from the very beginning and stay in the loop on special opportunities as the game's release approaches.


[h2]UX Project Continues[/h2]
It has been a huge month of upgrades for game systems in the new UX design. The biggest on the list was Hacking which has benefited greatly from the work, including adding critical features like being able to peek back into the real world to preview which exact security device you’ll be disabling while hacking or which door you’re about to open.



The UX project has also upgraded major systems like your Contact Network and we’re wrapping up the market and inventory systems now.

[h2]Class Trees[/h2]
As we approach the Alpha v2 milestone, we are finalizing the redesign of all of the class trees in the game with better tree structures, unlocking and adding more Talent choices for all classes and even more upgrade tree nodes that can change and improve many aspects of your Talents.



Multi-classing is now fully supported which allows you to take up to 2 classes for any character. With 6 classes in the game and each one boasting ~15 Talents, the options are already very wide and very exciting. Endless builds here we come!



In order to preview and share your builds we’ve added a full build preview screen that is capable of showing the specific order of class tree training across one or two classes. This screen will also be the heart of exporting and importing class builds once those features are available.

[h2]Production Prep[/h2]
In prep for the production launch to Steam, we’ve been working on a wide variety of critical tasks.
First, we’ve been doing live testing of updating the saved game format to ensure that we will never have to break saved games due to an update. This is a pledge we make with all of our games and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be no different. So, we’ve updated the saved game format 3 times (quietly, without mentioning it) over the summer to test the system.



To cater to the wide variety of platforms and player preferences, we’ve been hammering away on the needed options for the game. We’ve added a heap of quality preferences like V-Sync, Texture Quality and improved the Screen Scaling option. For camera controls, we’ve added a number of options as well to allow you to lock the cursor, disable the action camera and use edge scrolling to pan with the mouse.

We are preparing to deploy an all new Cyber Knights: Flashpoint wiki. Alongside the Steam guides and our Discord, we’ll be here to get your questions answers!

Calling all shadowy mercenary groups and cyber tacticians -- welcome to our Steam Strategy Fest demo! Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is waiting to see just how well your strategy skills hold up in our squad tactics heist RPG.

We’ve got many new additions for you if you’ve played this demo before since its release in June (see below)!

If this is your first time, we're excited to share this demo that takes you to the very start of your Cyber Knight's career: the night of your surgery that implants the spinal quantum computer, giving you extraordinary powers of calculation and coordination to help you lead your squad. In the underworld of New Boston, nothing goes down easy and everyone has an agenda. Can you keep your head up in these dangerous waters?

Every job you choose to do for an underworld power-player allows you to tackle it with your own style and focus. To pull it off you've got to manage your team, bankroll, injuries and more from your safehouse so that you arrive ready to dominate the tactical battlefield of a heist with stealth (eluding enemy security and agents without a sound), combat (slashing, sniping, going loud at the right moments with full auto) and hacking (plugging the nano-wire from the back of your skull into a matrix host to descend into those glittering data streams -- not available in this demo but soon to come!).

Some of the highlights from this update:


[h2]New Mission Unlocked[/h2]
The Cube Run is now available in the demo, giving you a whole extra heist to try. As one of your first hits in New Boston, this job targets a new Warner-Braun NanoFab that is being setup as the German megacorp prepares its arrival to the New Boston economic zone. There is good money to be made if you can make the right moves and scoop the loot. But it is New Boston and 2231; secrets are hiding under every new NanoFab and megacorporate welcome mat.

[h2]Heat Balancing[/h2]
As your actions in New Boston draw the wrong kind of attention, your crew builds up Heat. Heat can affect your Contact's services (some may clam up and stop talking or selling to you altogether if you're "too hot") and can also predispose some jobs to be more difficult, as the security teams are on higher alert due to your run of espionage and destruction. Heat will cool down as time passes.

We've added some new important sources of heat, including Cameras and Radar Arrays that have been upgraded to HI-POWERED status by the security system, capable of generating +1 Heat per spotting of a merc (max +1 / Turn). In addition -- based on difficulty -- you'll gain some Heat for every job (default +2) and some Heat per Security Level you trigger during a mission (+2 / Level, max +12).

If you feel the heat just around the corner, it's probably time to let the game timeline run for a bit while you lay low in the Safehouse and work on upgrades, cyber surgeries, and weapon mods.

[h2]Extending the Lore Journal[/h2]
We added 3 new entries to the Places category of the lore Journal and beefed up the section that was there for New Boston. This journal will be a key repository of world knowledge for you and has the capability to expand and change as game events happen, so much of it will not simply be set in stone text. We're very excited to see it starting to bulk up as we move content over from our internal lore docs into the game's format.


[h2]From previous updates: heist advantages, options expansion, security AI display, visual improvements, unit AI upgrades, and much more![/h2]
Since the demo’s release in June, we’ve steadily added in more of the player-ready features from the game’s main development branch, and acted on a ton of the great feedback submitted from players’ initial runs.

Most recently, we added a big pile of options for quality like V-Sync and texture quality as well as tweaking controls like edge scrolling and camera rotation direction. We also revamped the AI's tactical decision tree to help enemy combatants more intelligent once they get in a firefight with you. You can scroll back through the previous updates on our Steam page to see details for these or other additions like heist advantages.

All of the feedback that we've received from players checking out the demo has been helping us prioritize improvements across the entire game. We read every bit of feedback submitted through the game's F10 system -- keep it coming; you can probably spot a change made based on something you shared with us in the full changelog below.


[h2]We are closing in on a release window![/h2]
Exciting news for long-time followers of the game. We have assembled the final burn-down list of tasks to complete for our EA launch! The timeline is just a few weeks longer than our estimates from earlier this year; putting us near the start of Q4 instead of the end of Q3.

While estimates are always subject to change, this shift is a minor one and confirms we're on track for a strong EA launch. Launches are always a big moment in our player community, so join our Discord to be part of the fun from the very beginning and stay in the loop on special opportunities as the game's release approaches.

[h2]0.6.135 - 8/28/2023[/h2]
- Unlocked "Cube Run" job for demo - raid a Warner-Braun NanoFab to make your own payday
- Gain Heat for every job at a rate of 2 + (2 x Sec Level) with a maximum of 12 per job
- HI-POWERED Cameras and Radar Arrays add +1 Heat when spotting mercs (max +1 / Turn per device)
- Switch Play/Fast Forward position in timeline for more natural setup, pressing FF will pause if already running fast
- Added 3 new lore entries to the journal Places group
- Fixed final bugs that could cause character or enemy lock up while moving
- Fixed reported typos, some faction names missing in recruit dialogs
- Improved labeling and titles in all mission planning screens ("Leverage")
- Improved font weights in tags and action bars


[h2]Other Changes Since Stealth Fest[/h2]
0.6.135 - Demo Update #10: Down the Pipes
- Update size will be large which is required to make the next one smaller
- Reduced overall game filesystem size by 1 GB (~10%)
- Improved AI tactical thinking when already engaged with an enemy
- Improved AI movement patterns to avoid getting too close to characters nonsensically
- Improved AI movement patterns to avoid over-grouping with each other
- Improved rules for Glancing Hits under certain distance thresholds for BF, FA and SA weapons
- Fixed bug failing to auto-restoring items (grenades, medkits) correctly from inventory stock between missions
- Fixed F10 feedback form to block keyboard input to game in Safehouse correctly
- Fixed edge cases where a moving character might end up suddenly under the stairs
- Fixed bug causing start of enemy Overwatch to lock game
- Fixed pop-up of "Stationary VIP" appearing over Wireghost's head during Smokeout job
- Fixed bugs that could lock up video player during video tutorials

v0.6.133 - Demo Update #9: Options Parade
- New option for Enabling V-Sync separate from Quality Setting
- New option for controlling texture quality (best/good/lowest) separate from Quality Setting
- New option for locking cursor to the window
- New option to disable Action Camera during combat
- New option for edges scrolling and edge scrolling area thickness
- New option for controlling camera panning speed
- New option for controlling camera rotation speed
- New option for reversing direction of camera rotation when holding key / RMB

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/