Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

The New Boston streets are buzzing with rumors of updates, rumors of new bristling weaponry and mods, rumors of new UX improvements, rumors of more! With today's update, we've made some exciting balance changes to Contact Limit Breaks, rolled out 3 new service upgrades for Gun Runners, added 2 new Contact Types that purchase Item Blueprints and completed a series of UX upgrades and Steam Deck improvements to help everyone using floor Talents, inspecting matrix terminals or checking the pause menu for keybindings.

Thank you all for playing, posting and leaving a review! We're a very small studio working hard to polish and improve the game as much as possible in this Early Access - so please consider taking a moment to share our work with other gamers by clicking Review!

[h2]Contact Limit Breaks: Go for Services![/h2]
We've made a big balance chance to how Contact Limit Breaks picks what to upgrade. Too often, the Limit Break would end up with a less exciting upgrade which simply wasn't as fun or exciting. Now we've pushed the weighting to be more in favor of taking Service Upgrades if they are available. If a Gun Runner can upgrade with their Influence to sell you better guns, then they are going to be significantly more eager to pick that choice from the weighted table. They still have their other options - Traits and temporary Traits - and more will be coming online too, but prioritizing service upgrades can really help ensure that you're getting more actionable Limit Breaks for your Contacts early on.

We've also fixed a bug with how the Contacts were drawn for Limit Breaks. They were always being pulled in the same order, basically sorted by their age, and the young ones were always picked first if they had a break. This led to some Contacts who were even created during new game sort of being stuck "at the end of the line" ... looking at you, Potato :eyes:.

[h2]Gun Runner Service Upgrades[/h2]
To pair with the improvement to Limit Breaks focusing on services, we've added 3 new service upgrades with Update #105:

• Gun Runners can upgrade their Street Guns service up to level 4, which adds 8 total new weapons at Power Level 4 across the spectrum of types.
  
• Gun Runners can also upgrade their Weapon Mod service to Power Level 3 which adds 7 new mods, focusing on ARs, Snipers, Blades and with one for Shotguns.
  
• Imported Weaponry from your Warner-Braun connected Gun Runner can upgrade to Level 4, at which time, you'll be offered a new Blade and new Assault Rifle in addition to what was already there.
  

[h2]More Blueprint Buyers[/h2]
We've further expanded the options for selling Blueprints - with Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers joining the pool that is now interested in purchasing Item Blueprints. This should cover a wider range fo groups that have different starting characters or made different story choices so far.


[h2]Floor Talent Clarity[/h2]
Talents that target a specific location on the floor - like Lure, Glitch, Slashslide and Overwatch - have long lacked the standard display for Talents within the game. We've adjusted that with this update to include the AP bar (so you know you're spending 0, 1, or 2 AP, etc) as well as the keybinding hint (click for desktops or (Y) as default for controllers). This is a big help especially for players new to the game to understand how this class of Talent is used compared to others, and even more helpful for controllers.


[h2]Photo Mode Remembers[/h2]
Photo mode now correctly remembers the last location and exact rotation between uses. So, if you hit (P) and setup the perfect shot, you can hit ESC - either by accident or because you want to go back to playing - without losing "your shot." Hit (P) again and the photo mode will resume exactly where you had set it up before.

[h2]Control Scheme & Steam Deck Improvements[/h2]
With Update #105, we've fixed an issue where (A) or (spacebar) was being used to trigger terminal inspection. This didn't cross very well with planning and executing a movement to the terminal as you might trigger inspection by accidentally hovering over it. We've switched this to (H) or (right-stick click) which is usually Toggle Outlines, but in the context of hover over a terminal, triggers inspection.


[h2]Steam Deck Updates[/h2]
For Steam Deck and controllers, we've also improved the transition from one scheme to the other by only showing the controls that are bound in the game's pause menu. We've also tuned up the detection of the switch to be faster and more accurate. We're still working on situations where it can get stuck in one mode or another but this is a marked improvement.

We've also hidden the controller white dots cursor whenever a window comes up and fixed a bug where playing with a mouse and Edge Scrolling on didn't work great when swapping to a controller.


[h2]Simstream Token Display[/h2]
The Simstream Trainer gathers tokens to allow you to respec your crew. If you're using them, then knowing when they are ready or sitting idle is important. The Simstream Trainer had missed having the token display added but now that is fixed. Thanks to the community for the F10s on this!

[h2]v1.7.21 - 7/5/2024[/h2]
- Big increase in weighting to pick Service upgrades whenever available for Contact Limit Breaks
- Improved sequencing of Contact Limit Breaks - some Contacts were stuck waiting in line
- Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon Mod service to PL 3, adding 7 new mods across AR, Sniper, Blade, Shotgun
- Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon service to PL 4, adding 8 new weapons across types
- Improved W-B Imported Weaponry service upgrade to include new AR and Blade at PL 4
- Additional Contacts - Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers - are interested in buying Item Blueprints
- Added missing AP bar and keybinding hint for Talents that target floor - Lure, Overwatch, Slashslide, etc
- Added token tag for Simstream Trainer to show its token generation
- Improved keyboard bindings for renaming / text box windows - now correctly ENTER to save
- Improved photo mode - remembers that last position, rotation and restores it when toggling in with (P)
- Correctly refreshed right side of inventory/market if you sold the last item
- Fixed bug with some filters and sorts (highest level gear) if you started removing weapons/armor
- Fixed issues with mouse cursor + edge scroll when using a controller

The New Boston zone truly never sleeps - utterly covered in the protective dome, its day and night cycles are primarily simulated and controlled district-by-district. So, it's always Update Time somewhere! With tonight's update we have a new room in the safehouse (aha, sweet competition for space!), improved value of Contact Trust, another round of polish for the Steam Deck experience, and a rapid fix for suddenly disappearing DisplayLink cybernetics.

Thanks to everyone playing, posting and leaving a review! We're a small studio, so please consider taking a moment to share our work with other gamers by clicking Review!


[h2]New Safehouse Room: Triage Clinic[/h2]
The Triage Clinic is a boon for merc squads that like to go loud, always find the heist ending in a fire fight or just love hunting for those battle striker missions. Whoever comes home shot up and bloody goes straight into the triage clinic, and while it is not medical ward at one of your Street Docs or Corp Splicer's clinic, immediate treatment and stabilization can help both reduce Injury Time and increase the chance of resisting long-lasting Wounds from developing.

The starting Triage Clinic reduces Injury Time by 25% and grants a +10% Wound Res to all rolls to resist wounds at the end of a mission.


[h2]Trusty Favors[/h2]
As we continue to push on the strategy layer and your Contact connections, we've boosted the value that Trust has on your Contacts favors, nearly doubling it. Work with those you Trust and when they do something nice for you, it will be bigger and there will be more cred in it for you.


[h2]Steam Deck Improvements[/h2]
With this update we've improved how the (X) button is handled in the matrix to make a more clear and useful loop between the parts of the HUD. Also, we fixed an issue when using (X) that would cause the currently active element to get stuck if the first Talent in your list was disabled. Now it will skip to the first enabled Talent or just skip Talents altogether and jump to End Turn.


[h2]Disappearing DisplayLink[/h2]
With the last update, we accidentally made all DisplayLink cybernetics disappear. They have returned! Sorry for the short and sudden removal ... I bet that hurt. Here, want them back? That might hurt too!

[h2]Other UI Bugs[/h2]
We've also fixed a number of minor UI issues reported with F10s - places where clicking with a mouse wasn't working in the dialog screens and places where the UI was overlapping in victory screens.

Also, upgrading Agent EX White Noise Talent no longer benefits Marker Sights (what?!)

[h2]v1.7.19 - 7/3/2024[/h2]
- New safehouse room - Triage Clinic can reduce Injury Time and adds Wound Res for all mercs returning from missions
- Doubled the effect of Trust % for Contacts on the value of their Favors
- Fixed bug where all DisplayLink cybernetics suddenly disappeared
- Fixed issue with Agent EX White Noise upgrades increasing Soldier's Marker Sights duration
- Fixed overlapping UI issues in victory screens when merc earns codename
- Fixed issue where clicking on some buttons in dialog, legwork selection would not select (had to use key)

Steam Deck Improvements
- Improved use of (X) key to jump between HUD sections in the matrix
- Fixed issue where using (X) would get stuck if the first Talent in your list was disabled

It's late night on the New Boston streets and things are quiet - until the update hover truck drops in. Roaring engines, new improvements, more level points for you! and you! and you! - plus Blueprints can now be sold widely, more Contacts are buying accounts, service maximums are more clear, better Matrix Escalation balance, you can detach mods again (woops!) and another big round of Steam Deck improvements. You know - just another New Boston day, another big update!

If you're enjoying the pace of improvement and how we do things over here at Trese Brothers, please leave a review. We are a small team, working hard for your reviews - if you like it, review it!


[h2]Steam Deck Progress[/h2]
We plan to have continual Steam Deck progress for a while here, angling toward a better control scheme. Update #103 is taking a big step forward with resetting the default controller bindings to be more immediately playable and easy to use.

• Swapped Set Movement Destination to (Y) - it is easier to find and you can hold it down and drag your movement destination around by panning the camera.
  
• Swapped Toggle Highlights to (Right Stick Click) and added Decrease Full Auto Targets to (Left Stick Click) so you can control the Full Auto targets directly
  
• Fixed issue with (RT) being required to open Leverage and Item lists in HUD, use default select (A)
  
• Improved ability to preview terminal's security devices - center cursor plus (RT) to inspect
  

These changes are coming right out of the group chatting on our Discord in the Steam Deck Blitz thread and aren't likely to be the final changes, but please let us know how these changes feel and what else we can do to improve or if you found bugs, let's get them fixed on your Deck!

In order to use the latest default controller bindings - go to Options > Keybindings - Missions > Reset Defaults.




[h2]Better Level Point Progression[/h2]
Bonus! You get extra Level Points today for all your characters who have at least reached level 10! We've improved the curve, smoothing out a minor oddity at level 9 & 10, and then added an extra +1 Level Point for every 5 levels achieved. So, that's extra points at 10, 15, 20 and 25 - adding up to +4 Level Points for max'd out characters.


[h2]Blueprints for Sale![/h2]
Blueprints have not been mature enough for a long time to really go up for sale, but as we are narrowing in on the upcoming crafting release, the time has come. Now a variety of Contacts can purchase Blueprints, limited by Type and Power Level. Contacts like Gun Runners will be interested in buying your Weapon and Weapon Mod Blueprints, while Corporate Researchers others will want to get a hold of your Item Blueprints.

Most Contacts start being able to purchase Blueprints up to Power Level 3 and will need further Limit Breaks to upgrade their services to purchase higher level and even more valuable Blueprints.
 

[h2]Better Service Listing[/h2]
With Update #103, we've improved the display of Contact Service's list to be more clear when a Contact has maxed out a service. With the addition of Influence Limit Breaks being able to raise a service's level and trigger the sale of new weapons, armor, items, implants (etc) this is key to help further identify Contacts you want to focus on helping, selling to and supporting.

Maxed out Services are highlighted in yellow.


[h2]More Account Interest[/h2]
More Contact types are now interested in purchasing Accounts from you, giving you the option to feed more Influence to them. For Contact types like Street Doc, Dopers, Gang Bosses, it is now easier to raise their Influence with high Rarity Account sales, but check their specific services for what they are seeking and keep an eye out for matching missions. For example, your Street Docs can make use of Street Accounts - those from Gangs - so, consider extra time and effort to plunder and hack on missions running up against gangs if you're trying to push your Street Docs up to Cybernetic Implants level 3.


[h2]Matrix Escalation Rebalance[/h2]
As we continue to improve the matrix - and especially tune its balance for high Power Levels - we've made some changes with Update #103 that should help make the late-game matrix play more interesting and offer some more strategies.

First, we've adjusted how the Wake All IC Q-Security Escalation was weighted and drawn. It was used as a backup for a number of other cards that might not apply, causing it to be drawn far more often than it should be. It has now been pushed back to a realistic weighting among all the other options and should occur significantly less frequently, especially on nodes where the are already 3+ IC.

Secondly, we've adjusted the weighting of other Q-Security Escalation options, including to punch up the 3 types of lethal feedback the host can dish out - to your Hacker's HP, your deck and your Connection %. For your Hackers HP, the hits can now also come with a lot more bite, ranging from 10 to 30 Damage on the most deadly hosts - and then reduced by half your Deck Armor directly (8 Deck Armor = 4 HP saved).

[h2]Detach Mods[/h2]
For a minute there, the ability to remove mods from weapons was completely gone. We've fixed this, bringing it back!

[h2]v1.7.17 - 7/2/2024[/h2]
- Improved level points curve, +2 pts at checkpoints 10, 15, 20, 25 and smoothed out odd bump at level 9/10 and
- New Contacts willing to buy Blueprints by type - Gun Runners buy Weapon Blueprints, Researchers buy Item Blueprints and more
- More Contacts willing to buy Accounts (Street/Syndicate/Corporate): Street Docs, Dopers, Gang Bosses, Detectives, Sector Commander
- Wider range of Contacts can boost Influence with high Rarity Account sales to drive Limit Breaks
- Contact Services are now highlighted in Yellow if they cannot be upgraded further by Limit Breaks
- Matrix balance improvements - adjusted weighting of Matrix Escalations (more Dmg responses, less Global Wake IC)
- Matrix lethal feedback escalation can cause meaningful amounts of HP loss (10-30 HP, less 50% Deck Armor)
- Fixing bug preventing from detaching mods from weapons
- Prevent special effects (+5% Legwork for all mercs) from appearing in buffs and debuffs list
- Fixed Mintable Attack III (FAS) program to have Program Rating 7

Steam Deck Improvements
- Improved Steam Deck default controller config - use Options > Keybindings > Reset Defaults
- Moved Set Movement Destination to (Y) - easier to find and hold down to drag your movement destination
- Moved Toggle Highlights to (Right Stick Click), Decrease Full Auto Targets to (Left Stick Click)
- Fixed issue with (RT) being required to open Leverage and Item lists in HUD, use default select (A)
- Improved ability to preview terminal's security devices - center cursor plus (RT) to inspect

A new update is hitting the streets of New Boston to go with the 34% off Summer Sale event! We've got big improvements to photo mode to help you capture awesome screenshots, better treatment for Glitch and Slashslide to give you info about your movement destination, the ability to unequip weapons and armor (yes, finally), improvements for Steam Deck coming directly from our deck players right now, and a clear lock / placeholder message for the 3 Talents that aren't done - Taunt, Preempt and Stemlocker (yes, finally).

Thanks to everyone posting feedback, playing and leaving a review! We're a small, hard-working team who lives by your feedback and reviews so please help us out and spread the word!


[h2]Enhanced Photo Mode[/h2]
We snuck in another big step toward completing the Enhanced Photo Mode roadmap item with this release. There are a few more slaps of icing to put on this cake and then we'll be done with it.

With the updated photo mode, now whenever you engage photo mode (default P) all the UI will be hidden. In addition, by holding down right click (by default) to rotate your camera with the mouse, you can now rotate vertically and horizontally to get cool new angles of your characters and team. By coming freely pan, full rotation and zooming you can get some new and awesome angles, checking everything out down on the ground floor or from directly overhead.

We're excited this will let us all snag cooler screenshots of the game - but let us know what else you'd like to see.


[h2]Improved Slashslide and Glitch[/h2]
Slashslide and Glitch took a big step forward in this update, being treated more like movement now. As you consider the targeting for either of these Talents, the numbers for your weapons in the bottom left corner - how many could I attack from this new position, how many would hear that attack? - are updated live. This is the first step to getting these Talents respected as movement, the next will be to get all the sightlines added as if you were moving.

Then we'll be fixing the lingering issue with Slashslide and line of sight.


[h2]Unequip Weapons, Armor, Items[/h2]
We've finally added the basic feature to let you unequip weapons, armor and items. You can now remove these in order to give them to another merc without needing to have an extra to facilitate the swap.


If a merc is not carrying 2 weapons and wearing armor, they will refuse to go on a heist.


[h2]Steam Deck & Controller[/h2]
After the big GENESIS update, we're continuing to put pressure on improving Steam Deck as we head back toward a re-verification with Steam. We've got some work to do still but things are running so much better on the deck now. We're also luck to have a good group of players sharing feedback in our Discord and helping us know what our next steps are - join in on the Steam Deck Blitz forum thread on Discord if you have ideas!

With this update, we've improved the organization and exactly what is listed in the game's pause menu for key bindings, providing extra helpful items for controllers. Previously, important items like setting a movement destination were just not shown (:facepalm:)

We also fixed both Leverages and Items to use the standard accept binding (A) to activate the selected item. Players have been helping us hone in on places where the key required for actions are not consistent (especially with (A) and (RT) atm) and we're going to keep hammering these until its smooth.

We also fixed a big bug that prevented the safehouse rooms from rendering properly on smaller screens, including the Steam Deck.


[h2]Placeholder Talents[/h2]
We've finally given clear labeling and locked the 3 placeholder Talents in the game -- Hacker's Stemlocker, Vanguard's Taunt and Cybersword's Preempt. Sorry for all the confusion, we should have done this earlier.

[h2]v1.7.15 - 7/1/2024[/h2]
- Upgraded Photo Mode (P) now use right click to rotate vertically and horizontally while panning/zooming
- Improved Talents Glitch and Slashslide - when targeting the bottom left counts for attack/hear update
- Adjusted balance of Ex-Detectives Lasting Injuries Trait, removed +5% Stress Res
- Improved Dockyard Smuggler's Handshaker Trait with +5% Kinetic Pure Dmg Upgrade
- Can now unequip weapons, armor and items from players for easier swapping
- Fixed selection/click handling issue in class training tree with upgrade nodes
- Fixed bug where player might have incorrect red sight lines (enemy will see you!) drawn at start of level
- Correctly locked and updated text for the 3 placeholder Talents - Taunt, Stemlock and Preempt

Steam Deck and Controller Improvements
- Improved keybinding/controller binding list shown in game menu to include everything more clearly
- Section covers movement actions (set (R stick-click) / accept movement destination (RT)) and Select Talent List (X)
- Swapped the accept button in the HUD Backpack to use an item to (A)
- Fixed issues with Safehouse room rendering on smaller screens like Steam Deck

We've got Update #101 tonight landing in the New Boston zone, following up on the GENESIS update. We're soaking up community feedback through the forums, Discord and F10s and excited to keep updating and improving rapidly through Early Access. Please keep sharing with us - you're the engine that drives us to improve and improve again.

As usual, after a big roadmap update, we need a few polish updates, so tonight Update #101 improves the Legwork system, some minor tweaks to Haven Smokeout, fixes New Game V2 bugs and a ton of fixes to issues and feedback posted by the community.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates, the 5 major milestones we hit in June and playing the game, please remember to post up a review.

[h2]Haven Smokeout Adjustments[/h2]
Thanks to all the players posting up feedback on Haven Smokeout mission, we've made adjustments to the map and reinforcement rules. In addition, we've adjusted the secondary objective for the mission to be within 15 Turns instead of 12 Turns, giving everyone a little more breathing room. Let us know how your heists go and how the adjustments play out.


[h2]Legwork Team Visibility[/h2]
With Update #101, we've improved the Legwork system to be much clearer about what mercs are eligible for the legwork based on their backstory, traits, and skills. The upgrade shows all mercs who are eligible for the legwork but then disables them if they are Injured, just a Recruit, in the Simstream Detox or Trainer, getting Medical Treatment, committed to another Legwork or Injured. All of these mercs are now shown but unavailable for selection, which takes a lot of the mystery about why you may have less mercs ready for the Legwork than you expected.


[h2]Better Cold Storage Tabs[/h2]
With Update #101, we've redone the icons for the digital good types in Cold Storage and re-ordered them as well - now Accounts, Blueprints, Files and File Sets. This helps to move sets out to the end, get the icons to be far more visually readable and distinct.

[h2]Cybersword Adaptive Restruct[/h2]
We've fixed a minor issue with Cybersword's Adaptive Restruct Talent not costing 1 AP to use. Now, bringing your Armor back up a Protection Point will cost you 1 AP, unless you further upgrade the Talent.

[h2]New Game Talents Tab[/h2]
We fixed a bug with the new game Talents tab - once you opened the Face's page, all of the other characters had their Talents tab locked. Fixed.


[h2]Fixed Other Bugs[/h2]
Thanks to everyone posting F10s, we've fixed a ton of typos, small issues and other small bugs.

[h2]v1.7.13 - 6/29/2024[/h2]
- Haven Smokeout, secondary objective extended to 15 Turns (from 12)
- Improved Legwork offering to show all eligible characters, even if they can't (cyber surgery, detox, treatment, etc)
- New icons and new order for the tabs in Cold Storage (Accounts, Blueprints, Files, File Sets)
- Fixed Cybersword Talent Adaptive Restruct to cost 1 AP to use by default
- Fixed bug with Ex-Detective Backstory for your Knight causing them to be invisible, speak as "Unknown"
- Fixed bug in new game that made the View Talents tab disabled after viewing the Face
- Fixed issue with Battle Strike missions ending early if you killed all enemies very quickly
- Fixed reported typos in dialog and new game
- Fixed some odd floating objects in safehouse rooms 3D
- Fixed odd bug with non-existent Contact in the list