Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Welcome to Sunday evening, mercs and heisters! Let's do Update #215! With this update, we've pushed Stress Limit Breaks into the light so you can't miss them anymore, we've increased the variation of what you can get in a Stress LImit Break including some new temporary negative Traits, added a new negative Trait ability to cause ripples of Stress through your team, fixed a longstanding bug with how Passive Talents could double-activate and waste charges, and improved 2 Talents at the start of a larger Talent polishing project.

If you're enjoying the game or the relentless pace of progress, please take a moment to share Cyber Knights: Flashpoint with a friend or leave a review!

[h2]Merc Stress Limit Breaks Visible[/h2]

With Update #215, we've pushed the previously quiet and easy-to-miss Stress Limit Breaks for your mercs into a pop-up window just like Hype Limit Breaks. You don't have any options here other than to acknowledge the unfortunate change in your merc's status. As always the result is written to the timeline event log as well, but this helps promote these important moments in your merc's career with more visibility.

We've got some nice changes coming to the Limit Break windows in a near-term release, but they are pending testing and merging, so the window is not the cleanest-looking thing right now, but that's where we are right now. Iterate, improve, go fast!
 
[h2]Updated Stress Limit Break Options[/h2]

Along with making the Stress Limit Breaks visible, we've improved the list of options that could apply here. First, we've expanded the conditions under which results like increasing Pay Rate or Reducing Loyalty can occur. But we've also added temporary negative Traits to match those temporary positive Traits you can get in Hype Limit Breaks.

The new Traits - Disgruntled and Checked Out are options at any point you get a Stress Limit Break while Malcontent and Run Empty are much nastier but will only appear at 6 or more Discontent.

Both Disgruntled and Malcontent have a new possible effect on Traits which is to cause Stress ripples within your team. If a merc with these Traits suffers a +10% Stress, they have a % chance to cause another merc in the safehouse to suffer a similar Stress rise.

[h2]Fixed Passive Talent Double Up Bug[/h2]

We've fixed an old bug with how Passive Talents worked. For those Passive Talents with common conditions to activate (Critical Hit, killing a target, etc) they might activate once in a Turn and then later activate again. This lead to the "re-buffing" ruleset which states that if you have a buff and the same buff is used on you again, the duration is extended as if you were just buffed the first time now.

For Passive Talents, this is a bad rule set - so we've enforced a check with all Passive Talents. If you have the buff (if you have the Savagery buff up) and you activate the Passive Talent (you kill an enemy which would usually fire Savagery's charge) then the buff doesn't fire. That's nice.

[h2]Talent Rebalance - More Coming[/h2]
As we sprint like a wild band of jackals toward our release date, we're polishing every aspect of that game. A huge shout and thanks to @Phreak who has provided some very useful analysis today about the 145 Talents that are in the game. It is a great prompt to do a full scrub down of the list, improve where we can, focus where we can, and make sure everything is delivering fully.

So - more Talent changes, rebalance, buffs and nerfs are going to be coming in the next months. Hold onto your favorites!

With Update #215, we've improved the level point costs for Agent EX's Talent, Armor EX. The ending nodes on this Talent were both 2 point cost which was not intentional. And second, we've helped focus the Cyber Knight's Lookahead Talent solely on predicting enemy movement and then slowing down their Move Speed, so the -Initiative debuff that was there has been removed and the Move Speed debuffs have been punched up to -15%.

[h2]v1.9.121 - #215: Stress Below the Street - 2/16/2025[/h2]
- Merc Stress Limit Breaks now pop a confirmation window to show the timing and result of the LB
- Stress Limit Breaks can now add 30 day negative Traits: Disgruntled and Checked out (or 6+ Discontent), Malcontent and Run Empty
- New negative Traits can "ripple" Stress to other mercs - when a Malcontent Stresses, they make others Stress
- Increased conditions in which a merc can Stress Limit Break for Less Loyalty or Pay Raise
- Added Trait description to all temporary Traits (negative and positive)
- Fixed issue with Passive Buff Talents firing when they are already active on your character (Recoup, Savagery) and wasting charges
- Improved Cyber Knight's Lookahead Talent to focus on -Move Speed (max -30%) and not -Initiative (now removed)
- Reduced level point cost of Agent EX's Armor EX upgrades 3 and 4 (-1 AP, +1 Charge) to 1 pt instead of 2
- Fixed reported map bugs

Knights and mercs, we heard a rumor that you like updates with new stuff! So, here we go - Update #214 adds 5 new cosmetics to a new facial piercings category, adds a powerful new filter to all Cold Storage tabs, makes some key balance improvements to the Eleventh Hour mission and fixes some old Legwork bugs that have been plaguing the F10 streams and fixes other F10s as fast as we can go.

Thanks to everyone sending in feedback, playing the game and especially to the players who left a review since the last update (yesterday)! If you're enjoying the game and the relentless update pace, please take a moment to leave a review to help our small team carry forward.

[h2]New Cosmetics: Facial Piercing[/h2]

WIth Update #214, we've added 5 new cosmetic options and opened up a new style category with Facial Piercings. The first wave of piercings includes an underlip stud, underlip spikes, a center nose ring, and a nose ring on either side. We'll be adding more variations up the nose and to the eyebrows as well, and since you can mix and match within the category you can already start to do some cool things.

A huge thanks to everyone sending in F10s with ideas and improvements we could make - we've got more cosmetics coming your way!

[h2]Buyer's Filter[/h2]

We have added a new and helpful filter for your Cold Storage digital items (Accounts, Blueprints and Files). This filter can only be used from the individual lists (we are still working on the ALL support) but can help you see the list of all Contacts who will buy something and rapidly filter down to the Contact of interest.

This can be really helpful if you're fishing for Favors (filter to Origami Joe, look for high-value things to sell) or Influence (filter to Potato on Accounts and sell off your high Rarities).

The Buyer's Filter was one of our prerequisites for the Bulk Sell feature which will let you get a purchase offer for any item in the list. So now that we've got Buyer's Filter in the wild, we're moving toward the Bulk Sell next to help you rapidly empty your inventory.

[h2]Eleventh Hour Balance[/h2]

In the Eleventh Hour storyline, we had written a branch where the enemy holding the prisoner could be either a Syndicate or Warner-Braun megacorp. For an early game storyline, the difficulty of running into the (RNG selected) Warner-Braun was too stiff and has continually made this mission a tough spot for some players. We've resolved this, ensuring that unless the storyline is added at Team Power Level 5+, the enemy will always be a Syndicate.

[h2]Mouse Wheel in Talent Scroll[/h2]
If you're hitting a point in the Matrix where your Programs, Talents, and Items are rolling off the edge of the screen you'll be either using your mouse wheel or keyboard to scroll the list. The mouse wheel was setup to go in the reverse direction than expected (up should go left). We've fixed this one.

[h2]Fixed Legwork Bugs[/h2]
There were two lingering Legwork bugs that #214 catches up on. There were still some older games suffering from a bug long fixed but the data was still corrupted - in these rare cases, there was a merc who was forever stuck on Legwork. The second bug was on older saved games as well where you might get into a situation where one merc was always stealing credit for another merc's Legwork.

Both are now quietly resolved the next time you load your saved game.

[h2]v1.9.119 - #214: Underworld Fences - 2/15/2025[/h2]
- Added new appearance option: Piercings! Pick from below lip stud, spikes or 3 of nose ring positions
- Added new Cold Storage Filter for Buyers when looking at Accounts, Blueprints and Files tab
- Fixed balancing mistake in Eleventh Hour where the enemy faction could be Warner-Braun far too early in the game (way too hard)
- Improved text format for Pure Dmg in Full Auto column to be more clear
- Updated icons and graphics for all combat and matrix drugs
- Reversed mouse wheel scrolling in Talents on Matrix/main HUD - up goes to the top of the list (left) and down goes bottom (right)
- Added more hovers to the Matrix HUD
- Fixed bug where a merc's Legwork might feature success/fail dialog in which another merc pretends they did the work (the nerve!)
- Fixed bug for some old saved games where merc might be stuck in endless Legwork
- Fixed issues with Influence/Exposure display on widescreens

Knights and mercs, the New Boston zone has been too quiet lately. And you know that means heisting. Bob hasn't checked in on the radio? Probably trouble. Joe didn't take his last smoke break? Probably an update. Yep - it is Update #213 with a new and exciting map set in the Boston Harbor, a very powerful new Talent unlocked for Cybersword (Preempt at last!), fixes to how Vanguard's Blend shows movement notifications and some player-requested improvements to overwriting existing entries in your appearance and class bulid libraries.

We're hard at work improving the game from every angle - so please take a moment to leave a review and share the game with a friend.

[h2]New Weekly Map: A12 Sea Platform[/h2]

The Boston Harbor is often referred to as the Black Soup, but there are still megacorporate installations on islands and deep sea platforms dotting the dangerous water's surface. Near the infamous Work Isle A12 that was once owned by now demolished Knight Horizon towers the A12 Sea Platform. This tower of metal and neon rises out of the thick, perpetual fog. It is out into these dangerous waters that your next heist might take you!

The A12 Sea Platform is our 15th weekly map, pushing the total proc-gen maps up to a grand old 28. This multi-level deep sea platform is split by 2 bridges and features roughly an upper and lower deck. While the Sea Platform offers wide open sight lines for an enterprising sniper it has precious little good cover in open fire fights, meaning you may want to stick close to some of the topside buildings and enclosures.

We're hard at work pushing up the variety of mission map content as we march toward release, and the the total proc gen combos (map x objective) now total 159 as this new map adds +8 new combos.

[h2]Unlocking Cybersword's Preempt[/h2]

The Cybersword is getting a major power boost with Update #213 and the unlocking and unleashing of Preempt. This melee Overwatch Talent allows you to cover a solid chunk of territory near yourself an interrupt enemies who might try to move and shoot. This is the deadly one-two punch that a Cybersword can deliver, once they are close enough they can setup to Preempt and because melee attacks are guaranteed to at least land a Glancing Blow, they are sure to stop any enemy in their tracks.

Unlike other variations of Overwatch, Preempt will move your Cybersword up to your target's position (like they Slashslid) and you can only get a single reaction attack regardless of the number of AP you have at the time of using Preempt. This balances out Preempts brute power of always hitting, limiting the number of times you can use this devastating ability to lock down an enemy.

When completely upgraded, Preempt gives significant range! See below -
With the next series of updates, we're going to be wrapping up the remaining unfinished Talents (Vanguard Taunt and Hacker Stemlocker) and making a few final adjustments to the class trees.

[h2]Fixing Blend Movement Alerts[/h2]

For a long time, the Vanguard's Blend Talent was failing to put up any movement alerts. That was pretty sneaky because Blend cancels the second you start moving, which means you're going to be seen, heard, and shot! We've stopped Blend's lying spree and now all of the movement alerts are correctly included when you're Blending and stationary.

Hey, if you get spotted, just Blend again when you get where you're going ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Overwrite Library Entry[/h2]

If you want to overwrite an existing Library entry for a class build or an appearance, you can now easily do so by simply typing the name again into the text field and clicking Save. Previously, if a duplicate name was detected, the UI prevented saving. Now it will pop up a confirmation to overwrite the existing entry. This can make updating appearance, and class builds a much smoother experience.

[h2]Minor Story, Map and Text Issues[/h2]
With #213, we've also continued the constant fight against the incoming F10s. Over 40 F10s reporting little mistakes in our storywriting or dialog, typos, and minor map issues have been cleaned up with this update.

[h2]v1.9.117 - Weekly Map Release: A12 Sea Platform + Cybersword Preempt - 2/14/2025[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen map "A12 Sea Platform": a neon-lit fortress in the perpetual fog of the Boston Harbor, supports +8 new proc-gen combos (Heist a CPU, Steal 3 Files, Scavenger, Kill 3 Captains, Bodyguard, Assassinate VIP, Battle Striker, Siege)
- Unlocked Cybersword Preempt Talent - melee Overwatch is short range, only 1 strike, but clamp down your enemy's ability to move/shoot
- Fixed issues with Vanguard's Blend Talent not showing correct movement alerts (you will be seen!) as it cancels immediately upon moving
- Easy overwrite saved item for Appearance and Training Library by using the same name and clicking Save
- Fixed typos, reported map issues and minor story bugs

Hello, Knights! It's time for another CKF Community Challenge. We did something different in December with the Giving Gifts event, but we are back to our more "regular" challenges that change up gameplay. This time we want to challenge you to run with a limited roster. This will make injuries and wounds more impactful and lead to some tough decisions on what missions to take, when to take them, etc.



After talking with some of our community members about the best way to implement this challenge, we have one specific requirement to ensure that you run with a limited roster:

- Your barracks must be no higher than level 2

Depending on where you are in your current game, having a limited roster may require starting up a new campaign if your barracks is already upgraded to level 3 or above. You are not required to start a fresh game though if your barracks meets the requirement above.



As always, most of the fun of community challenge is what you all share about how your tackle them! Here are some ideas for what you could share:

- Who you prioritize (what jobs, etc) when your roster is limited
- Your strategies for juggling injuries, etc when you have less mercs
- How your playstyle changed from your 'normal' to accommodate this challenge
- Any other creative ways you want to share to tell us about your team: memes, interpretive dance, gifs, etc

No matter what you choose to share, please share screenshots of your barracks showing us that it is level 2 (or unupgraded)!

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 #limited_roster_challenge to join in on the conversation!

Look forward to seeing how you all tackle this challenge! As always at the end of the challenge, we'll be back with a wrap up and a few highlights!

Knights and mercs! We've got an update that is dedicating to batching a bunch of hotkey and options requests from the player base! With Update #212, we've added middle mouse panning, a swap weapons hotkey, fixed the oddity in End Action hotkey behavior, added a Zoom Sensitivity option, fixed Ricksham Drips bugs with the end of the second mission, completed a wave of balance improvements and refocusing of Contact Traits and renamed the Loadout tag to the Under Equipped to be more clear about exactly what it means.

This is a big package of changes all directly linked to community requests - so thanks for playing, posting feedback to help us improve during Early Access and especially a big thanks to everyone leaving a review!

[h2]Middle Mouse Button Click to Pan[/h2]

We've added the often requested feature of click-and-hold for camera panning. We've bound it to middle mouse button as a default as that is most common request. If you've already customized your hotkeys, you'll need to set this manually it in the Options > Controls > Keybindings - Mission screen.

You can bind this to any key or mouse button if you'd like to use it like "hold V to pan" etc.

There is also an option that helps control the speed of panning when using this click-and-hold mode, as your mouse sensitivity can have a big impact on how fast you go flying across the screen ;) We've set the starting value pretty low, which works for the widest set of configurations but you can crank it up or down even more.

[h2]Zoom Sensitivity Slider[/h2]
Under Options > Gameplay, you can now adjust the sensitivity on zoom in and out. Go fast, go slow - up to you!

[h2]Swap Weapons Hotkey[/h2]
We've added a new hotkey for swapping weapons. By default it is bound to J. If you've already customized your hotkeys, you will need to set it manually if you want to use it in the Options > Controls > Keybindings - Mission screen. Thanks to everyone who F10'd this request!

[h2]End Action Hotkey Behavior Change![/h2]
We've made an important change to how the End Action hotkey works. To put it simply, if you used the hotkey for End Action (not the HUD button, only the hotkey) AND your merc could possibly Delay Action, then the merc would delay. The hotkey would only End Action if you had no AP left. This oddity leads to a steady stream of F10s and can lead to wasted time if you wanted the merc to End Action (and therefore pushed End Action hotkey, not Delay Action hotkey) ... but you delayed anyway and had to therefore finish their action again later.

However, we know this is a pattern that some players really like. In order to support players who like the old pattern, we've added an option to the Options > Gameplay section that allows you to enable this "legacy" behavior for that one specific hotkey. By default, we've upgraded everyone to having End Action and Delay Action hotkeys work exactly like the buttons in the HUD instead of having separate functionality.
 
[h2]Rickshamp Drips Coyote Drop Off[/h2]

There was a bug in Ricksham Drips Power Play's second mission that has been coming in hot on so many F10s. If the VIP extracted at the terminal and the next character in the Initiative Timeline is a merc instead of an enemy, this could cause a screen lock up. This is now fixed!

Our apologies to everyone who was stuck with this last week.

[h2]Better Contact Traits[/h2]

We've made a first big pass at improving Contact Traits with Update #212. We've hit 8 big Traits that needed it the most but we'll be working through the entire Contact Trait list. The goal here is to increase their focus - Contact Traits will have less overall bonuses and penalties but will have bigger values for the ones that they do have. This helps makes Traits cleaner and clearer and have more hefty impact. This also means that Traits that had a mix of positive and negative impacts are going to often be shifted more toward either fully positive or fully negative, and the ability for a Contact to get an interesting "mixed bag" of effects will be driven by multiple Traits and not single (overloaded, spaghetti) Traits.

With this update, we've adjusted Greedy, Impatient, Generous, Calculating, Uninspiring, Easy to Please and Fast-Splice. All are now focused around their key concept. Impatient used to modify sale prices, mission prices, cause the Contact to prefer secondary objectives around speed and shorten mission deadlines ... now the Impatient Contact just prefers speed secondary objectives and shortens all their mission deadlines.

In addition, we've also rebuilt Steady Hand Trait from the ground up as a new Fast-Patch Trait that matches Fast-Splice. Each one now focuses on a single aspect - the speed of medical recovery for Fast-Patch and the speed of cybernetic surgery recover for Fast-Splice. All other confusing counter effects (such as reducing cost while increasing time required) have been removed.

[h2]Under Equipped Tag[/h2]

As the full loadout system is coming quite soon, we've renamed the tag "Loadout" to "Under Equipped" so it is more clear what is going on. This has nothing to do with a loadout (which is a set of equipment that can be easily traded between mercs) but instead is just a warning that you are missing mission critical equipment (like a weapon, armor or cyberdeck).

[h2]v1.9.115 - Update #212: Options and Hotkeys - 2/8/2025[/h2]
- Added click-and-hold to pan camera, defaulting to middle mouse button and sensitivity slider in Options > Gameplay
- Added new Swap Weapons hotkey, defaulting to J
- Changed behavior of hotkey for End Action (ENTER) to simply End Action. If you want End Action hotkey to Delay if allowed, added new Option > Gameplay for this "legacy" behavior
- Added new Camera Zoom Sensitivity Slider in Options > Gameplay
- Fixed bug in Ricksham Drips that could cause the game to lock up if the VIP extracted and another merc was the next to act
- Simplified and focused Contact Traits (less buff/debuffs by count but bigger buff/debuff): Greedy, Impatient, Generous, Calculating, Uninspiring, Easy to Please, Fast-Splice
- Replaced Steady Hand Contact Trait with Fast-Patch which focuses solely on reducing medical recovery time
- Improved "Loadout" tag to now read "Under Equipped" to be more clear and accurate
- Fixed Salvage Job Leverage for CCAC Hover Drop to correctly require a High-Risk Transporter
- Fixed description of "Big 6" megacorporations incorrectly including KEMCO
- Fixed Sniper dialog line being attributed to the Face