Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Update #55 rolls out the Stress and Hype system upgrade we've been working towards, putting agency of your character's Trait mutations (and more) into your hands so you can have an active roll in driving their development from Hype cycles. We've also rebalanced a number of Talents, improved IC spawning in the Matrix and completed some nice UI tweaks for everyone playing from your F10s.

If you're enjoying the pace of new features, updates and content (another mission and mission map are coming) we hope you'll take a minute to post up a review!


[h2]Upgraded Stress/Hype Mutations[/h2]
There are still many systems in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint that are a skeleton of the design, but as we travel the Early Access path, we're bringing them up to full power as fast as we can. With Update #55, we're excited to launch an upgrade of the Stress / Hype system to where it has longed to be.

Mission victories, taking damage, seeing an ally die, completing Legwork, and more in Cyber Knights can cause your squad members to accumulate both Stress and Hype. When either reaches a peak amount (80-100% with an increasing chance of triggering), that squad member gets a new benefit or disadvantage. Until now, these have all been positive or negative random trait mutations. Now we've not only expanded the effect possibilities, but you the player get to choose a specific upgrade you want for your characters when they reach peak Hype!

The possible upgrades include:

• Raising your Loyalty, reducing Discontent or wiping your Stress
  
• Raising positive Traits and lower negative Traits
  
• Gaining permanent bonuses to your Attributes
  
• Gaining 30 day temporary bonuses of different kinds, including XP or AP boosts
  

When an upgrade's available, it will appear on the timeline as an "Excessive Hype" event. You can delay choosing an upgrade as many times as you like while reviewing stats and making the right decision for your merc's advancement. However, while the upgrade decision is waiting, their Hype bar is frozen, unable to gain any more. So it's to your benefit to make a decision without extended delay.

Stress disadvantages will continue to be randomly determined (no delaying a decision indefinitely with this one) but also has an expanded set of options to draw from when Stress peaks - including increasing Wound levels or increasing Discontent.

Discontent and Loyalty are new, higher-level meters that can be raised as a result of reaching peak Stress or Hype. The higher these meters go, the more they open up better / worse trait mutations, new story opportunities, and other effects on Stress & Hype.

With this update we've added Stress and Hype generation at more places throughout the game -- legwork, mission results, secondary objectives, taking Wounds and more. The system will continue to expand with character relationships, ways to reduce Stress through the Safehouse, and other factors coming in to play, but it's ready to contribute to your squad members' stories now. Have fun with the new system!


[h2]Talent Tweaks[/h2]
With this update, we've rebalanced the Scourge's Dissolve Talent to have a 6 Turn recharge rate, up from 4. There is still easy access to additional charges to offset the waiting time, so be sure to upgrade Dissolve more thoroughly if you plan to use it.

Along with this, we've adjusted the Scourge's starting training package so that they have an extra Dissolve charge and their Bio-Mimic Talent right out of the gate and don't have 3 lingering training points when they first arrive in the safehouse. This helps them be more fun and uniquely useful in the starting mission as well.

We've also fixed a bug with Sniper's Weak Spot that was not showing the additional Damage scored by the Talent in the damage preview.

Finally, Soldier's Entrench has had 5% of its Built-In Armor bonus shaved off the top. We've also fixed a bug with the ordering of how Built-In Armor was applied, which caused it to be additive with your Armor's Ballistic or Kinetic Protection, easily allowing 100% Protection. Built In Armor's power is that it applies across the board to Ballistic, Kinetic and *even* Pure Dmg to further reduce Damage after regular armor has been applied. If you take 100 Dmg, Armor reduces it to 50 Dmg, then Entrench's 20% reduces that to 40 Dmg.


[h2]UI and Roster Improvements[/h2]
Clicking on a weapon, weapon mod, armor or item will now take you directly into the equipment screen instead of requiring a second click for confirmation or a keypress. Whew, that's nicer!

We've fixed sorting for high and low gear level to make sure it takes all weapons, weapon mods, armor and items into account by Power Level.

With this update we've increased the fidelity of movement warnings as there were too many edge cases where they were so close to either trigger or not triggering a warning and the wrong fact could be reported. So, the granularity of the checks is now lower, which should get us closer to perfect.


[h2]Matrix Improvements[/h2]
We've completed a pass of improvements the IC spawner rules that place IC into matrix hosts based on their Security and Response Levels, Power Levels, enemy faction and other factors. This has resulted in some positive improvements to the chances of running into high level Traps as well as a better mix of Active and Passive IC through many hosts. Some types of traps like Slapfish specifically have now bee pushed to only appear on hosts of Orange or higher.

[h2]v1.4.13 - 3/2/2024[/h2]
- Major upgrade to Hype/Stress system - more sources of both, choose your own Hype upgrades
- Hype upgrades include Trait mutation (positive or negative), Attribute bonuses, 30 day bonuses, changing Loyalty/Stress/Discontents
- Improved new game training for Scourge, added +1 charge of Dissolve and trained Bio-Mimic
- Fixed Sniper's Weak Spot not previewing Talent damage correctly when targeting enemy
- Click weapon/armor/mod/item in roster immediately takes you to equipment screen, no more second click
- Improved smoke cloud rules with line of sight not working near the boundary edge
- Increased fidelity of movement warnings - more precise checks, less edge case mis-reports
- Added +2 more Turns to Scourge's Dissolve Talent recharge rate - get more upgrades!
- Fixed sort by gear level in roster to correctly sum weapons+armor+items for sorting
- Improved IC balancing in Matrix, including pushing some difficult IC types up to Orange+
- Fixed bug sometimes causing an additional program to be unloadable in matrix
- Fixing hotkey tip for +/- Targets in Full Auto stacking on itself first time it appears
- Improved injury time text formatting in victory screens
- Reduced Soldier's Entrench starting Built-In Armor bonus from 25% to 20%
- Fixed issue with Built-In Armor incorrectly applying
- Added helpful hovers to timeline buttons

Welcome to Update #54, where we've got another expansion to the catalog of proc-gen missions and objectives that your team can get involved in. it's exciting to roll out the first pure combat proc-gen mission and this one has some more meaningful variations in difficulty based on who you are working for (rival gang vs. rival gang or Syndicate vs. mil-sec). We've also made improvements the Hacker's Rampage Talent, improved Stress/Hype/Discontent/Loyalty in prep for a big update that is coming any day for that, and fixed a nice pile of F10s!

If you're liking the pace of development, improvements and the direction we are heading with the game please take a moment to post a review 👍


[h2]New Proc-Gen Battle Striker Missions[/h2]
With Update #54, we've added another type of proc-gen mission and another new proc-gen mission map. This time the new objective is completely combat focused with the Battle Striker. Go in hot and fight to the end against an array of deadly enemies and a few waves of reinforcements coming in hot. Bring your combat squad to this one, as the enemy is dug in to a fortified area and ready for you.

In addition, we've added a new map the Corner Holdout which is a great map for contested area and plays with elevation in new ways. Corner Holdout is currently the only map in the set that supports Battle Striker missions, but we are working on making more bi-directional connections in the set here - both adding more maps that support Battle Striker and Bodyguard and missions and Corner Holdout is perfect for a few of the other objective types like Kill 3 and Scavenge.

As soon as this new mission hits the street we're going straight back to the foundry to prep another new map and another new objective. Let's go proc-gen power!


[h2]Hacker's Rampage[/h2]
We've updated Hacker's Rampage Talent in 2 ways to improve it. First, we've nerfed the %s on the Hacker's class tree that added to Matrix Damage. These were just too powerful and overwhelmed what Rampage could offer. These bonuses have been cut from a 25% total to 12% total through the tree.

In the same stroke, Rampage has gained a 6th upgrade now and now can offer 45% Matrix Damage bonus as well as a +10 AP boost to help you keep slaying in the digital datastreams.


[h2]Stress => Discontent || Loyalty There is a big update just around the corner to improve your player agency and fun around how Hype and Stress translate into evolving mutations for your character. In preparation for that, we've adjusted all the starting values for all characters - everyone now starts with some of each value. There is no randomness, we're never a fan of any reason for you to reroll new games, so these are static set by the character and backstory.

We've also improved and given more teeth to the story impacts to these stats. For example, your characters may directly gain Loyalty or Discontent during important storylines like Sibling Breakout, where the merc was only gaining Stress before which is not powerful enough of an impact if you leave them hanging.

Finally, we've fixed bugs with how Traits that could grant Minimum Loyalty so that they really work now and enforce this minimum.

[h2]Your F10s![/h2]
A huge thanks to everyone sending in F10s, posting here with feedback on the boards or joining us on Discord. We fix a heap of minor bugs with every update, so it makes a huge difference. We fixed issues where far away enemies' sight cones would suddenly appear, with Trait names and levels, and places where Trait Fearsome suddenly became Trait Ferocity, or Extractions could hang in some situations.

[h2]v1.4.9 - 2/29/2024[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen battle striker mission type which is pure combat, attack and overwhelm an enemy force
- Added new proc-gen map, Corner Holdout
- Improved Hacker's Rampage, starts at +15% Dmg, can add +10 AP, and added 6th upgrade to push Damage bonus to 45%
- Reduced Hacker's class tree bonuses adding directly to Matrix Dmg (from 25% across 4 nodes to 12% across 4 nodes)
- Improved starting Stress/Discontent/Loyalty/Hype for all characters
- Improved story choices impacts on Stress/Discontent/Loyalty/Hype
- Fixed bug with Trait Fearsome mutating into Ferocity
- Improved use of Trait name and Trait Level (Grit 1 vs. Grit) where helpful
- Fixed bug that would cause far away / invisible enemy sight cones to appear
- Fixed some issues that could cause Extraction to hang, thanks for the F10s!

Welcome to all the new Knights heisting and rampaging across the New Boston zone! It's update time! With Update #53 we've focused on improving the balance and challenge of the latest mission that was added and hitting on the most highly reported F10s for this big sale and Scourge celebration week.

We're excited to be hammering out updates following up on the big Scourge release, so if you like the progress or think we're heading in the right direction please take a moment to leave a review and help us keep going!

[h2]Improving Bodyguard Mission[/h2]
While we're prepping for the next mission add, we've also circled back to take quick action on player feedback about the bodyguard mission. We've adjusted the layout and types of enemies to raise the challenge a little bit - some enemy captains have appeared, more snipers are showing up correctly in the high ground - and also added a few security devices and long range Radar Arrays to deny your team easy access to the zone.


[h2]Buff and Debuff with Summed Upgrades[/h2]
Thanks to all the players reporting with F10 that the buffs and debuffs shown on character and enemy status screens were missing some stats. These buffs and debuffs were printing out with only the starting stats for the Talents and skipping all upgrades. We've now resolved this and the buffs are printing their full sum of all class tree upgrades.

Thanks for hitting F10!


[h2]Avoiding Enemy Name Duplication[/h2]
Thanks to all the players pointing out that occasionally the enemy naming system could spit out a series of duplicates. We've now resolved this and guaranteed that no enemy will ever have a duplicate name on any level - at the start or while spawning reinforcements.


[h2]Weapon Mod Detaching[/h2]
We've fixed a few issues related to weapon mods not appearing when you attempt to detach them unless you changed the filters. They are now always visible and should be easy to attach and detach.

We've also fixed a larger issue with weapon mods that were left attached to weapons that were sold. These weapon mods kind of floated off into the ether, neither in your inventory or properly gone. In the short term, we've fixed this by gently shoving them all back into your inventory. Sell them or use them, they really are yours.

[h2]Talent Updates and Fixes[/h2]
With Update #53, we've continued to fix and improve the Talent set for Scourge. We fixed an issue where Brain Worm reported that its range was 0m. We've also renamed the buff "Shred-Resistant Armor" to "Shred-Immune Armor" as that is much more clear about what it does (when this buff is on, nothing can shred your armor). It also turns out that the Brain Worm from before Update #53 was giving enemies Shred-Immune Armor, and that's not right! Fixed :D

We fixed the upgrades for Bio-Coat Bullet that just said "Target immediately" and nothing else.


[h2]Scourge on the Wiki[/h2]
You can also now check out all the Scourge's Talents (and a ton of other awesome content) on the on the community wiki. A big thanks to the wiki champions in the community who are improving and expanding this wiki every day. let's hear it for ːsteamhappyː @Ahab and @DrSpendLove ːsteamhappyː !!


[h2]v1.4.7 - 2/27/2024[/h2]
- Improved balance/challenge of new bodyguard mission - better enemy variety, added more security devices
- Fixed enemy / character status not showing buff/debuff with full upgrades from class tree
- Enemies no longer ever appear with duplicate names
- Fixed issues with trying to replace/detach mods and getting empty list
- Renamed buff for "Shred-Resistant Armor" to "Shred-Immune Armor" for clarity (cannot be shredded while buffed)
- Fixed bug with Scourge's Brain Worm Talent causing Shred-Immune Armor buff
- Fixed Brain Worm reporting "0m" range for Scourge
- Fixed empty "Target immediately" upgrade node for Scourge's Bio-Coat Bullet
- Fixed missing icons in cyber surgery screen
- Fixed debuff for Evasion not showing as negative (showed 10% Evasion when it was -10% Evasion)
- Added missing icon for Data Courier / VIP job

Welcome to Update #52 as we continue the march to expand the game in every way throughout Early Access. With the Scourge newly landed, it is time to return to new mission content, new proc-gen missions and new story missions!

Welcome all the new Knights to New Boston this big Scourge + Sale week. We're excited to have you in the safehouse and ready to get back to a non-stop schedule of updates and improvements. So, if you like where the game is now, see its potential or think we're heading in the right direction with updates-updates-updates, please be sure to leave a review 👍 !

[h2]New Proc-Gen Bodyguard Missions[/h2]
With Update #52, we've expanded the roster of both available proc-gen mission objectives and proc-gen mission maps. The new objective -- playing bodyguard for a data courier - gives you a new set of challenges as you vie to help rapidly move a courier (fully under your control) through a dangerous and contested area. The new map, the Slumroad Junction, is a large and threateningly open area ringed by high-ground, buildings and other vantage points that make it an especially challenging space to navigate.

At the moment, only Slumroad Junction map supports bodyguard missions, but some of the next updates will expand these available combinations in both ways -- more maps will support bodyguard objectives and Slumroad Junction will support other proc-gen objectives like Kill 3 Captains. In this way - by adding maps and objectives - we will continue to gain multiplicative growth in the possible outcomes for proc-gen content. We've got a huge amount more to add, so let's keep it moving!


[h2]On Kill Passive Talents and Full Auto[/h2]
There was a bug with passive Talents that proc'd on killing an enemy target, on getting a critical hit, or any kind of attacking passive Talent that would prevent them from activating when you were attacking in Full Auto mode. For example, if you used Full Auto to shoot 3 targets and one of them died, your Knight's Steamroll Talent would not fire because of the Full Auto nature of the attack. This has now been resolved and all passive Talents will work with Full Auto unless specifically stated in their description.


[h2]Scourge Cleanup Continued[/h2]
The Scourge class has arrived in full-force and we've heard they are a ton of fun to play. This release we haven't made any important changes to their builds but we have cleaned up and number of small text formatting issues in their class tree.

[h2]F10s Fixed![/h2]
We've been working our way through the big pile of F10s (hit "F10" in the game to report a bug or send in feedback at any time!).

• We fixed an issue that could cause game crashes if Talents that Shred Armor were used against targets with 0 Armor.
  
• We've resolved some inconsistency in the naming and presention of Laser Wires - which were sometimes called Laser Mesh or Trip Wires.
  
• Some of the Hacker's Talents were printing confusing damage ranges once they were upgraded, this is now resolved.
  
• In the Sibling Breakout mission, leaving the mission while the main merc or their sibling was in Bleeding Out status could cause an incorrect story event following the mission, this is now resolved - escaping while Bleeding Out is still escaping.
  

[h2]v1.4.5 - 2/25/2024[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen bodyguard mission type, protect a data courier on the move
- Added new proc-gen map, Slumroad Junction
- Fixed bug preventing passive Talents from activating when attacks are made with Full Auto (such as Knight's Steamroll)
- Fixed Knight's Steamroll upgrades to have a single line and the 3rd booster is at the end of the line
- Fixed possible crash caused by using anti-Armor Talents against no armor targets
- Fixed issues with damage range display for Hacker's Null Op once upgraded
- Fixed inconsistency of Laser Wires naming
- Fixing story issues that could occur in Sibling Breakout if sibling or main merc were Bleeding Out at end of mission
- Continued to clean up issues with the Scourge class tree
- Fixed typos and minor class tree issues

Update #51 brings our first new character class to the game, a tanky shotgun specialist that uses their nano-hive implant to manipulate organics, fool biometrics, and create deadly poison effects: the Scourge.

With multiclassing, this increases the number of playable classes to 28 combinations! Tons of opportunities to find new character build combinations and try new tactics with your squad. We've seen some strong possibilities in playtesting and can't wait to see what you all come up with.

UPDATE: the first hotfix is now live for Scourge, see the bottom for the updated change log

[h2]The Talent Tree[/h2]

The Scourge has access to many talents that cause enemies to suffer ongoing poison damage and other toxic debuffs each turn.

• Bio-Coat Bullet makes a special attack with your gun and poisons an enemy on hit.
  
• Tox-Cloud releases a swarm of chemical-producing nanites to create a large zone that will slowly move each turn, poisoning any enemies or teammates that pass into the cloud.
  
• Venom Trap is a throwable trap that will poison the first enemy to trigger it.
  

Scourges can train a passive talent, Purge, to avoid the effects of their own poison and enemy damage-over-turns effects, but other squad members will need to be careful to avoid tox-clouds and other area-of-effect talents like Morass, which slows down units and reduces their armor and evasion.

Shotguns are a specialty for the Scourge. Their attribute and small bonus nodes linking these talents include bonuses to close-quarters accuracy and ballistic damage, and they have two talents that offer special attacks for shotguns. Callous is another talent useful in close range fights, sacrificing movement speed for a significant buff to your or a teammate's armor.


Other buffs in the Scourge's arsenal include:

• Metabolize, increasing the duration of combat chems and chance of multiple uses.
  
• Reknit offers quick healing in a pinch (although the recipient may not like it).
  
• Bio-Mimic engulfs the Scourge in nanites, imitating the biosignature of enemy guards well enough to trick many security devices.
  

Tricking security devices isn't the only manipulation a clever Scourge can pull off. Using the most terrifying capabilities of 23rd-century nanotech, you can target an enemy's brain and neural link, disorienting them or even causing them to temporarily turn against each other.

[h2]Ready to play?[/h2]

With this update, there are two easy ways to get a Scourge into your squad:

• You can multiclass any member of your squad into the Scourge class by installing a Chem-Hive cybernetic implant. For now, you can install the Chem-Hive with Dr. Ashe without any investment needed. Remember that you can't respec out of cyber-classes at this time, so once you dive into this deadly side of nano-hiving, you're in.
  
• A new starting Scourge, August, has joined the character template line up in new game, giving you additional options to swap between Zasha, Liat and August. This is the only way currently to get a pure single-class Scourge into your group, but the Scourge is one of the best multiclass options out there so either single or multiclass option is very viable.
  

In the next couple of days, we'll be adding a new recruit storyline is in the works that will bring another Scourge character into the game as well as a new contact that can provide the specific Chem-Hive implant they use and other exciting cybernetic enhancements.



We may tweak Talents as data comes in, and of course if you spot any bugs our own testing hasn't caught, please F10 to report in-game; we'll fix it quick. Big thanks to all the players in the Steam forums and our Discord who offered feedback and ideas for this new class concept!

[h2]Full Trese Brothers sale to celebrate![/h2]
If Cyber Knights has been waiting on your wishlist, it's a great time to pick up the game, with more big updates right around the corner. For all of you already supporting us in EA, thank you! It makes a big difference to the final quality of the game.

We have the full Trese Brothers catalog on sale right now (including the Android and iOS versions of our previous releases), and just released a new "Best of Trese Brothers" Steam bundle for a bonus discount on any games you don't already own. More squad tactics in Templar Battleforce, turn-based ship and crew combat in our sci-fi captain RPG Star Traders: Frontiers, and old-school fantasy tactics in our party-based RPG Heroes of Steel.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37813/Best_of_Trese_Brothers/

[h2]v1.4.1 - 2/22/2024[/h2]
- Added new class: Scourge uses their chem-hive implant to manipulate organics, fool biometrics, and create deadly poison effects!
- Implant a Chem-Hive from Dr. Ashe's higher level cybernetics to get a Scourge
- Now up to 28 multiclass combinations
- Improved balance of all Shotguns, adding Dmg and up to +2m range, Ironback increased ammo but +1 AP to reload
- Improved default filtering settings for equipping (show what can be equipped now) and all inventory (show all)
- Updated all class descriptions
- Fixed issues with Extraction and Wound healing in the timeline

[h2]First Hotfix is live![/h2]
v1.4.3 - 2/22/2024
- Fixed mistake with Chem-Hive being Deep Brain (conflict with Hacker) instead of Fast-Brain (no class conflicts)
- Fixed Chem-Hive should have -5% Stress and Wound Res instead of +5%
- Swapped Scourge class tree location of Dissolve and Bio-Coat Bullets (may need to respec)
- Swapped Scourge class tree location of Venom Trap and Tox-Cloud (may need to respec)
- Fixed missing upgrades for Callus Talent
- Fixed issues with upgrade display for Metabolize % chance to skip consuming Combat Drug use
- Adjusted the ordering of some Tox-Cloud upgrades in the second row
- Fixed missing debuff improvements in Nervo-Tox Shell upgrades
- Fixed incorrect mention of +25% Pure Dmg in Hacking Talents and Aero-Shrap Shell
- Fixed typos and name issues in new starting Scourge August's backstory
- Fixed issue with Soldier appearing in wrong position of rooftop after tutorial