Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Tonight we are pushing a hotfix that will resolve a few important issues. First, sorry for the download size - this one fixes the "glowing white square" issue in materials that was appearing on so many levels. Therefore, it's impact in GB downloaded is not small!

[h2]Snitch Snuff: Safehouse Lockup[/h2]
Second, if you had any issue after completing the new heist mission where the Safehouse ends up frozen after your return, one of the optional branches that runs after the mission was bugged. If you reload y our game, you'll be all set to play forward.

[h2]Mac OS Retina Screen Mode[/h2]
Finally, we've fixed some of the text strings in options to be more clear when they are useful. We've updated the Screen Mode drop down to indicate where it might help to change your settings if you have a Retina screen on Mac OS. We're working on some improvements in these areas and Retina-detection will help make this more automatic for new players, but for the moment, if you're playing on a small Mac screen and the text is blurry, switch up to "TV / Retina" screen mode in options.
 
[h2]v1.5.21 - 4/26/2024[/h2]
- Fixed different types of scattered papers that were showing as big white square on the floor
- Fixed possible bug after Snitch Snuff mission that could result in safehouse lock up on load
- Clarified screen mode in Options screen: "PC / Non-Retina" or "TV / Retina" or "Handheld / Mobile"
- Fixed broken option text in Options screen

Welcome to Update #77, where we have a new storyline and heist to pull with exciting new set of objectives. The new storylines focuses on an Obligation Call - a short cycle, high difficulty mission to complete the Obligation you've sworn to a Contact. Keep it in mind, if you're making promises, you'll have to pay the piper eventually.

We've also added a nice improvement to weapon display to show their firing modes, fixed a sneaky bug with Overwatch that had crept in and fixed some inconsistent behavior with timeline events around medical and injury time healing. So - let's take a look!

We're excited to be making continual progress toward the next major roadmap item. If you like our pace or the direction we are heading, be sure to leave a review on Cyber Knights!

[h2]New Heist: Obligation Call[/h2]
Obligations are promises you make to Contacts in the underground. They are the reverse of how a Contact can owe you a Favor and will redeem it later for cash or to help you. So, when a Contact who you owe an Obligation calls it in, you've got a tough choice to make. Jump and do whatever they need without payment or burn the relationship to the ground and suffer the consequences.

This new heist is the first Obligation Call storyline, which gives the Casting Director a lot of free rein to find someone who you owe an Obligation and matches a wide profile of Contact. Then things get interesting. With Obligation Calls, you're almost always on a razor sharp timeline. Will you keep your Obligation? Remember that if you don't, the burning of the relationship will flow outward into the network of relationships, so anyone who liked or disliked the Contact in question will follow suit with their own Stress and Hype.

You'll need a squad about Power Level 2 and a Contact to whom you own an Obligation, but you start with a few of those - so most squads should be ready to rock on this one.


[h2]Weapon Firing Mode Labeled[/h2]
We've added the missing firing mode names to the top of the columns in the weapon display - Single Shot, Semi-Auto, Burst Fire and Full Auto weapon modes. While Single Shot, Semi-Auto and Burst Fire all provide the same ability (attack a single target) they offer different special rules (like Rapid Fire lighter weapons and Precision Fire for most Burst Fire) and some Talents only work with different firing modes like Single Shot weapons.

Hope it is helpful for your Talent and weapon planning!


[h2]Fixed Overwatch Ignored Bug[/h2]
There was a hotly reported Overwatch bug introduced 2 updates ago. It could cause mercs and enemies both to be simply ignored by Overwatch even if they were taking action, moving or attacking in full view of the Overwatching character. Sorry for that - we know in some cases your mercs got a good break and in others, you just got screwed over a bit.

This is now resolved!

[h2]Timeilne / Roster Bugs[/h2]
We hit another one of the most reported F10 issues with the medical timelines for wound or injury treatment being inconsistent or sometimes getting stuck. Sometimes the numbers didn't add up correctly or a treatment could just stay on the timeline without ending and drift farther and farther into negative territory.

In addition, we found and a rare bug that could leave mercs in the special Extracted state even when they returned to the safehouse. This would cause mercs to first be on your roster but as soon as any change was made like training them they would disappear until you reloaded the game. They will not just re-appear.


[h2]Fixed Carnivore Cop Bug[/h2]
If you've played through Carnivore, you may have ended up in a state where the cop in charge of the SWAT is not showing in your contact list, and if he or she was, they were missing a critical story tag about the events that transpired in the Underground Datacenter. All that is fixed in all current and future games now, check your Contact ilst.

[h2]High-End Missions are ... free?[/h2]
For the players who have played their squads out to the max and found that there was a sudden drop off in payment (to $0) and XP (to 0 XP) for jobs ... we've fixed it for you! And we love that you're enjoying the game so much :D

[h2]v1.5.19 - 4/26/2024[/h2]
- New Heist: Snitch Snuff Out is an "Obligation Call" - a contact who you owe an Obligation needs your help *right now*
- Weapon firing mode (Single Shot, Semi Auto, Burst First or Full Auto) now shown above each stat column
- Fixed issues with Overwatch ignoring merc's attacks and certain movement situations
- Fixed issue with enemy Overwatch cone sometimes being 1m offset from the enemy's position incorrectly
- Fixed issue with recovery time from Wound Healing being inconsistent, getting stuck or failing to heal the wound
- Fixed rare extraction-related bug that could cause mercs to temporarily disappear off the Safehouse roster
- Fixing bug where proc-gen missions dropped to $0 and 0 XP at high enough Power Level
- Fixed issue with nonsensical Leverage offered for Battle Striker proc-gen missions
- Fixed issue with objective text sometimes duplicated in rewards list for missions
- Fixed issue where second cop in the Carnivore storyline could end up not being known in Contact List

Update #76 is built completely around a new feature set - importing and export appearances or saving those appearance settings to a shared Library that can be accessed from any of your saved games or whenever you are creating a new game.

This is a great convenience feature, especially if you are replaying a lot and have specific looks for their Knight or mercs that you like to rapidly restore. With a few clicks, you can migrate the look of your Team A to a new game team or to Team B in a different saved game altogether.

But, from here this is very exciting launchpad for other types of content that can be saved and then later be shared or restored across saved games. Even as we release the appearance import/export/library feature set, we are already working on import/export/library features for your favorite class build. Got a spec you always want for you Vanguard? Soon you'll be able to save and restore that without having to manually recreate it each new saved game. Or post your best specs to the guide your writing for others to load directly.

If you like the pace of updates, attention to player-focused features and constant improvements - please do take a moment to leave a review for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint!


[h2]Shared Library[/h2]
You can now save and load your character appearances to your Library. Your shared Library is stored in the Steam Cloud, is not affected if you deleted individual saved games and can be accessed in any saved game to save and load appearances. The library is also directly accessible when setting up a new game team. 


With a few quick clicks you can now name and save any appearance you like, delete old appearances you aren't using any more or load the one you need for this team member. In addition, if you happen to make a mistake while the Import/Export panel is open, you can always hit "Undo Changes" to rollback to the appearance you had before you opened the panel.

[h2]Import / Export with Clipboard[/h2]
Using the new Import/Export option within Appearance tab in new game or in roster, you can quickly get a text version of your character's appearance. You can save it offline or share it with the community to check out and use for their own characters.

The appearance data has a simple little envelope around it so you can be sure you have everything you need if you share it.


For example, here is a modified version of Dade I like to use in New Games. Just copy the entire block including the BEGIN and END lines to your clipboard and click Paste from Clipboard in the game to check it out.

---BEGIN CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE---
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
---END CYBER KNIGHTS APPEARANCE---

It's a great and simple feature set that paves they way for more complicated data structures in the library.


[h2]Starting Warchest[/h2]
New Games will now start with $25K in the bank instead of $15K, opening up the options for early game Leverages you can purchase.


[h2]Common / Rare Equipment[/h2]
With this update we've fixed a few minor issues with equipment of all kinds - weapons, weapon mods, armor, items, programs and cyberdecks - to ensure that nothing but Common and Rare items are being sold (with it mostly being Common items). These are "Common" on the blackmarket, not common in the open market where all of these wares are highly illegal. Rares can appear ... rarely in the market.

And Epic and Legendary items can never be purchased, they can only be stolen, borrowed "for a time", disappeared, snatched or generally heisted. Rare equipment will be the switch hitters, they can show up in either category - bought or stolen.

As we keep moving forward on loot improvements, this will become more critical as (Rare, Epic and Legendary) weapon, weapon mods and armor start to filter into the loot options alongside items.

[h2]v1.5.17 - 4/22/2024[/h2]
- Added new appearance management features: import, export and save to shared library
- Easy import/export through clipboard to share your appearance setup with others
- Easy save to library to re-use the appearance in other games or when starting a new game
- Increased new game starting bankroll to $25K
- Fixed minor data inconsistencies - anything sold by a Contact is always of Rarity Common or Rare, higher values reserved for stolen things
- Improved hotkeys in dialog to always show ESC (default) to skip instead of hiding it sometimes

Welcome to Update #75 in the New Boston Zone, where we smash your F10s and polish the game up some more. Just because we're working around the clock on the next major roadmap update doesn't mean you shouldn't have improvements to the game every other day during Early Access! So here we are - with the most requested F10s fixed.

Thanks to everyone playing, sharing feedback and especially posting F10s! We hope you'll take a minute to share the game and if you like the direction we're headed or the pace in which we are going, please take a moment to leave a review.

Now, let's look at what we've improved for you in Update #75 - but if you missed Update #74's major face textures improvements, don't sleep on that one either :D




[h2]Secondary Objectives Automated[/h2]
If a mission offers a special reward like extra money or XP or anything if you finish within a certain Turn or Sec Level limit, that is now always shown in the secondary objectives. We previously had a system in place that required the author to put them in, but that wasn't going to be easy or reliable enough for all the mission scenarios and especially for proc-gen. Now we detect them and inject them as needed so they are always present.

Thanks to everyone putting in F10s about this!


[h2]Spike Reasons[/h2]
If you are in a CPU or APU and can't spike it, we now show the exact reason inline with text and a warning icon. The causes are because your Scan is not 2/2 yet or there are surviving IC in the node, but sometimes that can be pretty opaque and was tripping up a lot of hackers. Even after the new matrix tutorial arrives, this will still be very helpful to have the reason always shown.

[h2]Matrix Files and Account Placement[/h2]
We've made a major pass of improvement to the routines that selected Files and Accounts to place within matrix systems. This should both make sure that data and financial nodes never end up empty but also ensure that the Files and Accounts you can find there are correctly linked to the right faction, make a lot more sense and are possibly much more exciting and valuable than what you were finding before.

We're always grinding to improve all these aspects of the game, so thanks to everyone submitting F10s here!

[h2]+2 Matrix Host Templates[/h2]
As we prepare for new types of Hacker-only missions, we've dropped in 2 new matrix host templates to keep the possible list of hosts you can encounter in proc-gen hacking missions ever growing.

[h2]CPU Spiking Improvements[/h2]
We've improved the rules for CPU Spiking which specifically reduce the Q-Sec Tally levels. The new rules are clearer and more valuable to the player in all situations. The Q-Sec Tally level is reduced by 200% whatever Tally is required to raise an Escalation. If its 35 Tally per Escalation then you can see a drop of 70 Tally. Unless you were below 70 Tally to start, this will buy you 2 "free" Escalations where the system passes the Escalation point but takes no action. It doesn't wake IC, or cause lethal damage or anything - it just sleeps on it.

So, reaching the CPU and Spiking it can buy you a big gap of time where you are free to run rampage over the system now. There are even helpful log messages that detail the loss of Q-Sec Tally and the number of free Escalations you'll get. The Sec Tally UI doesn't respond intelligently yet, but that is on our list.

We're going to circle back to APU after this and tune up some of its numbers to make sure it is taking the same kind of approach.

[h2]Overwatch Targeting[/h2]
For those players who were struggling with getting their perfect Overwatch angle and distance but finding that OW only targeted if your cursor was over floor tiles ... we've fixed your F10s! Overwatch will now target in whatever direction and distance you point, regardless of what you're pointing at. This gives you freedom to get the best cone and direction no matter the terrain or a crevasse or a wall or anything.


[h2]Yield and Delay Preview Fixes[/h2]
Both Yield and Delay previews were bugged in that they would lie about the final placement of your merc if a merc and an enemy shared the same resulting Initiative after the action. Your mercs always win ties against enemies, so if you both have 7 then the preview now correctly shows - for Yield and Delay - that your merc will take the first action.


[h2]Headshot Retakes[/h2]
With Update #75, we've adjusted the lighting setup for the camera used to capture your character's 2D headshots. With the new skin detail pass, the lighting there as too bright and we've toned it down for its best look. All default portraits and contacts in the game are immediately updated to update your custom squad members, you'll need to grow through the roster, open the Appearance tab and for each character hover over some options. You don't need to set any, and you'll see the portrait change.

Sorry we couldn't automate this one!

[h2]Roster Tags and Updates[/h2]
We've fixed a number of cases where the tags in the roster were not updating fast enough if you took action related to Wound or Injury Treatment. Now they all update on the spot and also they all use abbreviated timestamps ("12d and 4h" instead of longform "12 days and 4 hours") which fit a lot better in the small space.

Thanks to everyone submitting F10s and helping us improve!

[h2]v1.5.15 - 4/20/2024[/h2]
- Secondary objectives tied to rewards for complete in less than X Turns or less than Y Sec Level always displayed in Objectives list
- Added inline explanation with warning icon explaining why you can't spike APU/CPU (not Scan 2/2, not all IC destroyed)
- Improved routines for placing Files and Accounts are placed in data and financial nodes, improves variety and prevents empty nodes
- Added 2 new matrix host templates for Hack Only proc-gen jobs
- Improved rules for CPU Spiking - reduces Q-Sec Tally by 200% Tally required to Escalation, gaining 2 "free" Escalations
- Improved Overwatch targeting mouse input that prevent targeted it toward impassible areas
- Fixed issues with Delay and Yield preview that could show wrong result (player after enemy)
- Injury and Treatment Tags in roster uses shortened date format (11d 4h)
- Treatment Tag in roster correctly updates when status changes
- Fixed issue with Mission timer sometimes reading "Immediately left"
- Improved performance of Talent list and effect list in character hovers

Welcome to Update #74 where everyone is just suddenly a lot more stylish and good looking! Today, we've got a big visual upgrade to the material and texture stack for faces, fixes for your Stressed out Hacker and an unwinding of a bug that was reading Contact Power Levels as one big upgrade instead of pinning the upgrades to each individual Contact.

Our next major roadmap milestone is chewing up the majority of the team's time and none of that work can be released until base building is ready. But it is coming closer by the day now! Between now and base building, we'll have a series of additional updates with new heists and new recruits as we prep that colossal release for prime time.

If you like the pace of updates, continual improvements and the direction we are heading with Cyber Knights please take a moment to leave a review 👍 and help us continue this frantic and exciting pace of Early Access!


[h2]Upgraded Faces![/h2]
With Update #74, we've completed a major upgrade to the detail and quality of all character face textures in the game. This upgrade has a number of pieces that come together to form the look, including (1) increasing the texture quality of all faces, (2) adding subsurface detail and roughness to the faces to help them act more like real skin (3) adding small shadows to all faces to help highlight areas and prevent the face from feeling flat (4) adding a new Face Details cosmetic choice that will expand with more types of facial detail options.

The results feel great! The results speak for themselves. Without leaving behind the unique style that we set out to hit for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, we've still achieved a big upgrade here.


This one follows on the big lighting engine update as one of the other highest priority and most discussed visual upgrades from the game. We've heard so much about the character look from both players who are playing Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and those who are taking a look from a distance.



This upgrade affects characters in all cases which they appear, making improved headshots as well as making them look cooler in dialog and on missions.

To make changing skin color easier, we've moved it be an option of the Face selection and the new Face Details option has 2 choices within it right now - smooth skin and freckled skin, but this category has a lot of cool potential to include scars, burns and more.



[h2]New Facial Hair Options[/h2]
We also added 2 new facial hair options giving you some variations of a lighter, unshaven look. The classic 5'oclock shadow is looking good!

[h2]Matrix Stress Reduction[/h2]
A few updates ago, we punched up the Stress generation capabilities of the matrix, high damage lethal feedback and also Dumpshock. We've heard a lot of feedback that we went overboard and your Hacker's rapidly skyrocketed to the most Stressed out team members. This was related to (1) issues with how Lethal Damage was calculated an passed to the Stress generator before being blunted by your Deck's defenses and (2) Dumpshock just granting 50% too much Stress.

Both are resolved in this update and should be significantly more inline with the Stress that other team are suffering for their job as part of the heist team.

Sorry for the Stressed out Hackers, they will recover in time! Try to use a Hype Limit Break or two to get them back on track.


[h2]Ballooning Contact Power Levels[/h2]
Thanks to great F10s, we found and fixed a bug where any Power Level increase to one Contact was actually a Power Level increase to all Contacts! This was causing the entire Contact list to end up with 10+ Power Level after a little while.

Notably, this is not a form of data corruption or loss, this was just a bad query to the saved game that would read all Power Level increases to any Contact when asking for those of a specific Contact :sweat: so you'll see your games immediately snap back to the right values as Update #74 lands.

This is fixed just in time for the upcoming Exposure and Influence LImit Breaks.

[h2]Carnivore Fixes[/h2]
We've made a few small fixes to Carnivore, including swapping the objectives for the extraction points which were switched. Thanks to everyone putting in F10s!

Enjoy the new update, mercs! We'll see you in a few days with more :D



[h2]v1.5.13 - 4/18/2024[/h2]
- Improved all face textures, detail and roughness to look less plastic and just better
- Added new appearance option "Skin Detail" - current options for smooth and freckled skin with more coming
- Moved skin color option under face for much easier selection when modifying appearance
- Reduced Stress caused by hard disconnect in the Matrix by 50%
- Fixed issue with previewing short beards just disappearing constantly
- Fixed issues where sometimes character or contact eyes would be a dead gray
- Fixed bug where each Contact's Power Level was calculated by summing all bonuses to all Contact Power Levels (oops!)
- Fixed issue where extraction objectives in second stage of Carnivore were switched
- Fixed bug listing the wrong Trait level after Hype Limit Break mutation (1 instead of 2)
- Improved performance in appearance tab