Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights and mercs, we're dropping another major map polish update as well as new hit reactions and laying some more groundwork for the upcoming Face class in Update #237. We've made fixes in Retirement results, improved Brain Worm rules to match Stun more cleanly, improved the main menu and adjusted the equipment rules for Face.

If you are enjoying the game and the relentless pace of updates, please take a moment to leave a review and help us keep sharing the game. You can always edit it later!

[h2]Hit Reactions[/h2]

With Update #237, we've revisited the blended animations used whenever a character or enemy takes a hit in combat. The old system gave a limited upper and lower body reaction to a hit followed by a very slow rotation toward the attacker which felt like an afterthought.

We've improved the entire system with Update #237 by using new set of blended animations (multiple animations for getting hit from right, left, behind, front, etc that are then "blended" based on the exact angle of the attack), as well as speeding up the speed and timing of the rotation toward the attacker and cleaned up timing in general.

There is always more room to improve and further polish such fine-grain, repeated animations that have such a big impact on how the game feels, so we won't call this done but it is good step forward from a flatter feeling set of reactions.

[h2]Mountain of Map F10s[/h2]

We went on a crusade against reported map bugs with this release and closed over 100 F10 groups that were submitted by the community. This includes all sorts of things like:

• Open field spawns (no nearby explanation of where they came from)
  
• Bad starting rotation for reinforcements, patrollers or your merc team
  
• Odd or floating props
  
• Movement rules around railings that will let you get closer to the edge of buildings
  
• Frozen reinforcements who refuse to start moving after arriving
  
• Odd areas you could Glitch into that are inside buildings or spaces that are inaccessible
  

[h2]Brain Worm Joins Stun[/h2]
We've pushed Brain Worm to work more like Stun and completely stopping all security events from being reported to the Sec AI, regardless of what point in the turn they were generated (before or after the Brain Worm, etc). This makes Brain Wormed easier to understand and predict - and it is a nice power upgrade as well.

[h2]Retirement Fixes[/h2]

We're already very happy with the decision to make the entire Retirement process "dynamic" meaning that every time you open the Retirement screen it recalculates and populates your Retirement results at that moment. This allows us to make fixes to the retirement results and see them in games immediately.

With this update, we've fixed a number of small retirement issues where the character being referenced was either wrong or missing or was accidentally set to the self ("Jailbreak felt this way about ... Jailbreak"). Also, we fixed an issue where some retirement notes were being added about nights spent together in a club when only one merc was sent to the clubbing relaxation week.

[h2]Face Equipment Rules[/h2]

In preparation for the new Face class tree rolling out, we finalized the rules around the Face's equipment. Face characters do not go on missions - they are the behind the scenes operators. Yes, in some far-flung future expansion they might, but for now, we're focused on what the Face needs to do, and that isn't sell their Revolvers at the start of the game lol. With Update #237, we've barred all Face characters from holding any gear of any kind and all new Faces will come with an empty slate of EQ. If you do happen to be holding something, that is fine but as soon it is removed you won't be able to put it back.

This has also helped remove any "Under Equipped" tag from the Roster for your Face.

[h2]Main Menu - Even More[/h2]

We've smashed performance even more on the main menu, cutting it down to the best level it has been for a long time. This time around we've added more culling rules, hidden more geometry, fixed issues with the post-processing layers and reduced shadow casters by more than 50% by turning them off on geometry that was not in the camera's view.

[h2]v1.10.19 - #237: High Rocks - 4/18/2025 [/h2]
- Improved hit reactions for attacks of all sorts to feel more impact and send targets reeling (will continue to polish)
- Fixed over 100 F10s about maps, rotations, open field reinforcements, frozen reinforcements not moving
- Improved approaching and seeing over some railings to get shots on targets below
- Improved rules for Brain Worm match Stunned more clearly - Sec AI cannot receive their reports
- Further improved main menu screen performance by another order of magnitude
- Gave repeated names to Daedalus Bloc main characters to make meta conversation about it easier
- Fixed mistakes in retirement text or character attribution - reload Retirement screen to see minor fixes
- Fixed issue with class name not correctly appearing in cybernetics screens
- Fixing bug with temporary story VIP joining as recruit after Daedelus Mission 10
- Improved Face rules around carrying and starting with equipment - Face has no combat equipment
- Improved character 3D display for appearance - always starts with nice rotation forward
- Fixed issue in 3D appearance tab for Face where sometimes character would be unarmed and sometimes armed
- Improved sorting routines when capital letters were involved (GX vs. Galvanized)

Knights and mercs, we've got Update #236 coming out fast tonight in order to fix a bug that was preventing players from advancing the SIbling Breakout mission (and sometimes Carnivore), as well as adding 5 new proc-gen combos for Infiltrate and Download, and fixing a huge bundle of map issues and community reported F10s to polish things up nice!

If you are enjoying the game and the relentless pace of updates, please take a moment to leave a review.

[h2]Fixing Sibling Breakout and Other Stuck Missions[/h2]
If you were encountering a mission that would not show the planning and deploy screen correctly (no mercs or Leverages are shown) you are caught in the bug that Update #236 is here to fix! This update will resolve the issue and get that mission running smoothly again for you.

[h2]+5 Proc-Gen Combos[/h2]
With the release coming up soon and sooner, our work on new maps and objectives has slowed so we can focus on polish, bugs and final content the game needs. However, we will be adding more maps before release and will be continuing to push on linking more maps to more objective types.

With Update #236, we added 5 of the older maps to the newer objective type, Infiltrate and Download, where you need to break into a target facility, reach one or more terminal and download 3 or 4 Files. This helps increase the variety over all and brings the total proc-gen combinations to 237 now. Remember when the "dream" was 80? Ha!

[h2]Keys Shown in Objective List[/h2]

With Update #236, we've completed a popular QoL F10 to add any keys that your team is carrying (once picked up, anyone on the team can immediately use the digital key) to the objectives list. This helps make it crystal clear about when you have a key or don't and doesn't rely on other mission objectives to point it out.


This is especially helpful if a key is granted by a Leverage, so it is immediately clear all the time that you do or don't have a key in a level where it might be really important.

[h2]Map Bugs and F10 Fixes![/h2]

In Update #236, we fixed a number of issues with maps. One of the most popular F10s was a broken terminal in the One-Ladder Sewer map, which will now either correctly not appear or will have a real matrix host behind it when it is there.

We also fixed more cases where line of sight was not working as it should, especially around cargo trucks that could possibly allow spotting through the truck sometimes. In addition, we fixed the cover shields on cargo trucks - often they were not appearing, now they do.


We also fixed some issues with the Haven Smokeout map that will prevent throwing grenades or Glitching into the central room, as it is interior walls that would block such things.


We've dived back into the main menu scene again and improved shadow rendering there to look better around the team and further improved performance, again cutting the draw calls by 50% to help that scene run smoothly.

[h2]v1.10.17 - 4/17/2025[/h2]
- Added 5 new proc-gen combos for Infiltrate and Download objective
- Added new key listing to the objective list ("Team has Gold Key") to always make it clear when you have key
- Fixed missing terminal that could appear in One-Ladder Sewers map under some objectives
- Fixed issue where some missions (Sibling Breakout) would not load in mission planning screen
- Improved shadows and performance on main menu scene again
- Fixed props with lack of sight line blocking and cover (more box piles, some versions of cargo truck)
- Improved grenade tossing rules around center room in Haven Smokeout

Update #235 is crash-landing onto the street of New Boston with more enemy improvements, removing the pause node in Daedelus Bloc, retirement screen improvements, the completion of a very expensive forehead reduction surgery project, improved generation of recruit starting levels, improved maps and props and more.

We're hitting the push point here with a big wave of new coming for you - so buckle up. Updates are coming! We hope you are enjoying the game and the relentless pursuit of improvement, please take a moment to leave a review!

[h2]Retirement Improvements + Daedalus Finisher[/h2]

With Update #235, we've made some improvements to the end game screens and the retirement system. This includes adding visual cards and multiple character results based off your story choices, Loyalty, level, class, backstory, tags and more. We're excited to see this system expanded and also to have pushed it to be fully non-destructive but determinant, meaning that every time you open the Retirement screen we're able to recreate (the same) retirement result for you. This is a powerful place to be and took a good deal of work, but it allows us to continuing to upgrade the visuals, text and possible results of your career even after you've retired and to see those changes filter down into any game that checks their retirement. So if we missed a cool retirement riff on some story choice and the community wants to see that honored, we can still make it happen and everyone can still see it appear in their retirement results.

We have removed the pause node before the final mission of the Daedalus Bloc storyline. Good luck, Knights.

[h2]Improved AI Response Consistency[/h2]
^^ Some dev visualization of the AI state/planning ^^

With Update #235, we've brought in the next wave of enemy agent improvements. This update is focused on consistency of responses and ensuring that the AI agents are following all of the rules of the game.

• Better handling of Stun results to ensure that, regardless of event type, the enemy are not rotating or reporting the event to the Sec AI.
  
• Same for Brain Wormed enemies, which were even worse than Stunned enemies.
  
• Ensuring that Head Hunters only pay attention to things they should - never stopping when they see a body, only caring about your mercs and local security.
  
• Fixing some cases where an enemy might be patrolling and not stop when they encounter something they should be paying attention to, such as half-spotting one of your mercs.
  
• Fixing a few final cases where rotation or movement vectors were wrong after encountering an event.
  

This upgrade really helps the AI behave in a more expected way throughout play. It really helps clean up, but the next big wave will be drive the actual upgrades in enemy intelligence with both local alert (enemy agents talking to and sharing status with other nearby agents), better ability to track security events and hunt around an area, fixing all the issues with and better fast forward turns (making everything skippable).

[h2]Fifth-head reduction surgery[/h2]

It has taken too long to address this, but all the masculine character heads had extremely large foreheads. If you didn't notice, bless your heart. For all the rest of you, we've spared no expense on forehead reduction cranial surgery and the heads are much better sized now!


[h2]Better Recruit Levels[/h2]
The level that a new recruit was starting in at was previously based off your Team Power Level. While this worked okay in the early game, it really started to fall apart in the late game as the squad's average is hitting 24 and your recruits are popping at level 6 or 8, so hopelessly behind they will never catch up.

With Update #235, we've improved the rules for how starting level is calculated, switching over to basing it off your team's average level (including Knight, Face, all active mercs but not other potential recruits). Their starting level is 80% of the team average which gives them a strong starting point but still some work to catch up. This also means that a team that waters down its veteran ranks with a wave of new recruits will see its average dropping and with it the level of its last recruits.

The Face will have something to say about this, but that is an update for just a little bit later.

[h2]High-Stakes Mission Marks[/h2]\

A mistake was made where Power Play missions and the missions of the Daedalus Bloc storyline were not being marked as high-stakes missions. Woops! They are! Very important, those! Now marked!

[h2]Coyote Hot Drop Objective[/h2]
We've improved the highlighting of the objective terminal in the Power Play mission COYOTE HOT DROP. This will puts extra emphasis on the individual nature of the area that your VIP needs to reach and access to exit, before you and the team need to find another exit.

[h2]v1.10.15 - #235: Push Point - 4/15/2025[/h2]
- Removed pause node from late story Daedalus Bloc, final mission now available
- Improved end game and retirement screen with visual slides, more character results, ability to update
- Improved all enemy agent responses to events (Lure, spotting, sound, getting shot, etc) for consistency of response
- Improved consistency of Stunned and Brain Worm effects on enemy agents (they can't report or rotate but do increase in alarm level)
- Rebuilt math for recruit levels - they start at 80% of the team average Level
- Fixed props with lack of sight line blocking and cover (box piles, glass tanks)
- Improved highlight area around VIP terminal in COYOTE HOT DROP mission
- Fixed Power Play missions and Daedalus Bloc missions not being marked as "high-stakes" correctly
- Fixed reloading 9th Daedalus Bloc mission at a mid-mission point, patient might be missing

Knights, a combination of unexpected events have given us an opportunity that could make a major impact on the success of Cyber Knights' launch. But it requires us to hold off on the 1.0 release for just a couple weeks longer, shifting our launch 18 days from May 15th to June 2nd.


We're shifting the launch date so we can take advantage of a window that was not previously possible for us until a recent Steam launch-discount-cooldown rule change, and receive featuring from #TurnBasedThursdayFest, a games festival we've long supported that is about to have its best year yet!

Regardless, we apologize for making you wait a little longer, and to anyone who's made plans around our launch. We just learned about this opportunity a few days ago, weighed the tradeoffs, made the decision, and are sharing this news as soon as we could to give you as much notice as possible.

A game's full release is a once-in-its-lifetime event that for most games forever shapes their trajectory afterwards. We've put everything into Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and need to make sure we're giving its launch every advantage possible; hope you'll understand and share our satisfaction that this change is ultimately good news for the game and its future!


We're as eager as you are, and very ready for the fun of a final countdown to launch even as we keep pushing updates and more content for the game in EA. Please update your calendars -- we'll see you June 2nd with the launch update!

Cheers!

Knights and mercs, we are here tonight with Update #234, a patch full of improvements and fixes to your community F10s as we prepare for the next big push of features and content. We've fixed issues with confusing or missing buff/debuff text in talents, text formatting in Contact Traits, adjusted the exact specifics of Team Power Level gained per level, dropped the concept of cybernetics per class tree quadrant and fixed performance issues with the New Game Team screen (and entire main menu) as well as improved lighting, camera angle and centering.

Thanks for your support as we hurdle headlong toward the end of Early Access! The days are short but the updates are long, so please leave a review today.

[h2]Team Power Gains per Mission[/h2]

We've improved the math behind the curve for your Team Power Level gains per mission with Update #234. Now it is simpler and always consistent - if a story mission grants you 100% Team Power Level, then a proc-gen mission grants your team 50% of that Team Power Level, and a hack-only mission grants 25% of that Team Power Level. This is a nicer curve, simpler math, and easier to describe and balance going forward.

[h2]Talent Fixes[/h2]

We've fixed two Talent issues that came up a lot in player F10s. The first was Disoriented, which simply described its debuff as "Disoriented" ... but that's the name, not what it does! We've adjusted this to now be clearer that the enemy is "Disoriented (immediately hunting around their position)".

The second issue was with the Knight's Lookahead Talent where the debuff to Move Speed upgrades was not being correctly added into the full description for the Talent. Now fixed, and thanks for all the F10s!

[h2]Missing Contact Tag Text[/h2]
There was a whole class of Contact Tags that had their second piece of text replaced with "BlockCondition.X" for the last few updates. This is due to ongoing fixes in the background to accommodate translation and is now fixed.

[h2]Dropped Cybernetic Link to Class Tree Quads[/h2]

Over the years, we can say we are extremely happy with how much of the original design of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint has made it from the design documentation paper straight into the game with minimal or balance-only changes. But we can't aim for 100%, we have to course correct when needed. In the original design, classes had required cybernetics (like Vanguard), and each class quadrant (left/center/right) might have a linked cybernetic that would prevent your character from training some Talents or upgrade nodes if you had not installed it. This was a good plan, and it might have worked too, but if we were going to add it, we needed to have completed the work more than a year ago.

We have dropped this part of the design permanently for all regular classes and removed its traces from the class tree quadrants.

The system and design may resurface for specialist classes or companion classes that come in expansions after launch, but it will never be something for all classes.

Star Traders: Frontiers had the "on station" system and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint had the "linked cybernetics system" -- RIP ❤️

[h2]Main Menu Performance and Improvements[/h2]

With the release of the New Game Team screen, we made a few mistakes that really knocked the main menu performance for a loop. Issues with the baked lighting, a dead camera left hanging in the screen, and other layer issues caused the scene to be rendering upwards of 3 million polygons at any given time when it should have only been rendering a modest 300K with a much smaller batch count.

What I mean to say is - if the main menu was making your fans go brrrrrrrr we fixed it ːsteamhappyː

Also, we improved lighting, centering and some of the post processing effects in the New Game Team scene.

[h2]No More Duplicate Rhino[/h2]
One of our most popular F10s this month was that during High Street mission, it was possible to see 2 copies of the Sniper Rhino on screen at some points. We've adjusted the story scripting around this story event to prevent that from happening and making a smooth set of events.

[h2]v1.10.13 - #234: Pre-Push Point - 4/10/2025[/h2]
- Fixed missing strings that could appear in Contact Traits for relationships ("BlockCondition.X")
- Fixed missing Talent upgrade text for Lookahead for -15% Move Speed
- Fixed self-referencing description of Disoriented Talent/debuff
- Adjusted math for Team Power Level increases (now clean story mission 100%, proc-gen 50%, hack only 25%)
- Removed nascent system for cybernetic requirements on Class tress - that window has closed
- Fixed issue where Knight could get Limit Breaks modifying their pay rate +/-
- Fixed issue in High Street mission where a clone of Rhino could be visible
- Fixed major performance issues with New Game Team screen drawing 3m polygons (down to 300K)
- Fixed off-center issue with New Game Team screen, improved lighting, camera position on Knight's screen