Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Update #14 is another major polish and quality of life update -- bringing sweeping improvements to the UI for mouse players, improving the playability and zoom in Matrix, making the economic rules more clear in the game, completing a first pass of improvements on the tutorial, adding new lore to the Lore Journal and improving how Leverage is queued up and used so it is more obvious to players.

There is a lot more coming in November, so expect more updates soon!

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements, we hope you'll consider leaving a review and sharing the game with a friend. Cheers!


[h2]Play by Mouse Only[/h2]
We've completed a major UI upgrade in Update #14 to make the entire game playable with only the mouse. If you see it, you can click it.



The design and plan was always to get here and we're glad to be bringing this one home and making the Ui more friendly to mouse only and even mixed mouse and keyboard players. We hope you find it improved!

There are no changes for controllers at this time, but our next big step in UI polishing is to work through specific screens and areas of navigation for controllers that are causing issues.


[h2]Matrix Updates[/h2]
This update fixes a ton of issues with Matrix. First up - we've heard you want to see the whole map, so you can now use your regular map zoom controls to zoom out twice as far as before, which should reveal the entire or nearly entire matrix node map to you, depending on the host and screen settings of course.

We've also fixed a huge pile of Matrix F10s - from spacebar now working on the Blackhole warning to ESC bringing up the menu when looking through cameras you can disable in the SCU.


[h2]Physical Goods Economic Updates[/h2]
We've made on important fix for the market this update which is to get the sell button to correct its estimates for physical items. While Cold Storage was fixed in Update #13, the sell button for physical goods was showing the full price tag to buy the item (for a gun, something like $90K) and then if you attempted to sell the weapon you'd find it goes for $12K. Really, if you're buying it - $90K, if you're selling it - something less. So, the button is now correctly previewing the sell price, which is then modified by the contact's Traits, etc.

Talking about physical goods, we resolved the bad description of higher level Medi-Clouds incorrectly referencing durations.


[h2]Clarified Leverage Usage[/h2]
Those Leverage that you purchased which have a duration (delay Reinforcements for 2 turns) are much more clear about their use now. The action offered now is to "Activate" them ("Equip to Use" was so confusing!) and once activated they will be removed from the list and a log entry added about their use. Previously, we've been getting a lot of F10s that they could not be used because they were staying in the list (a bug, absolutely). From here, we'll be working on more clearly showing in the Objectives list which Leverages you currently have active for those with durations.

[h2]Tutorial Improvements[/h2]
We've made a first pass of improvements on the tutorial. We've added some short exposition about the premise of what you're doing -- your merc leader is going into cyber surgery and you need to secure the rooftop for their exit by hovertruck. We've also fixed places where the sequencing of highlighting areas you needed to move to were not well done versus the dialog that explains the need. We've been more consistent about the language used to reference Talents ("Jamkit" not "Jam"). Finally, we've adjusted the objectives to not incorrectly fail you for killing guards -- killing your way through the tutorial is a valid way to get the rooftop secure too!


[h2]Lore Additions[/h2]
The lore book is continuing to grow within the game with a number of additions this update. The focus is still on documenting and sharing details about New Boston, the Wards, the Leans the famous Charles and Mystic River and more. After we round out, finish, edit and publish this round of lore book updates, we'll move on to details about the Cyber Knight and their special implant.

[h2]Linux Lines[/h2]
If you were on a Linux setup that had no lines in the class tree, matrix tree or the timeline - please check again after Update #14. Your lines should be finally visible! A big thanks to everyone in Discord who helped test with the test app to make this fixable. If you're enjoying the level of support, please take a moment to leave a review!

[h2]v1.0.41 - 11/9/2023[/h2]
- Big UI update for mouse-only players - all buttons in action bars are now clickable
- Extended Matrix zoom out by double, removed wiggle on zoom in/out
- Improved dialog, movement pointers and Objectives in Tutorial mission
- Big lore dump into Lore Journal - Wards 4 and 7, the Leans, Charles and Mystic Rivers, Day and Night cycle, more on NanoFabs and Forges
- Completed pass improving first set of tutorial dialog
- Fixed issue with ESC during device inspection bringing up game menu incorrectly in Matrix
- Fixed spacebar not working when teleported by Blackhole IC in Matrix hack
- Fixed oddly labeled "Disable" device buttons in Matrix
- Fixed missing lines in hacking, training, timeline for some Linux configs
- Fixed Sell button over-reporting sell value (showing "Sell ($100K)" when it sells for $12K)
- Fixed incorrect Medi-Cloud descriptions referencing duration and area
- Improved label for using Leverage to "Activate" and once activated, Leverages will be correctly removed from the list
- Fixing incorrect hover for Reaction Attribute, you gain +1 Initiative per 5 Reaction (not 3)
- Hid more tags that should not be visible in raw form, like the tag per missions the merc went on
- Fixed issue with mouse hovers being too transparent
- Fixed double dollar signs in some UIs
- Fixed tons of typos and clarified sentences and lore - thanks for F10ing!

Update #13 drops a big economic patch so you can make some real bank off your looting efforts, adjusts and buffs Sniper class to be more fun and less restrictive, and drops a mountain of fixes on Hacking, the Class tree and polishes up the Salvage Breakout levels a bit more.

Thanks again for everyone submitting F10s! We're excited to keep the pacing burning hot and fixing and improving constant. If you're enjoying the pace of updates to the game, please tell a friend and leave a review!

Next update -- more content and then hitting some of the November roadmap items!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3747617344190975453


[h2]Economic Loot Pricing Fixes[/h2]
The biggest impact for Update #13 is the adjustment and fixes to Cold Storage pricing display and pricing value. We've resolved the issue where the shown price was often nowhere near the price you'd be truly offered by a contact. There are still going to be variations as each Contact has different interest, Traits, etc but the prices are close.

Second, we've fixed the issue where so many things were simply selling for $1K. That wasn't helping your team's economy very much. Now, you should be able to make some good money, especially or Rare, Exotic or Legendary loot.


[h2]Sniper's New Bag[/h2]
We've made a number of improvements and buffs to the Sniper's abilities to help make them more fun to play, less situational and more in line with the power sets of other classes like Cybersword.

First off, we've removed the requirement from Skullshot, Zeroed Sights and Weak Spot to be on a Hit Streak. Hit Streak is a fun mechanic and you can build a Sniper around it but it was too restrictive to force some much of the Alpha Kill part of the class tree to rely on the rarely-move, never-miss ways of the Hit Streaker.


Second, we've improved Skullshot to do just what it always should have - grant 3 AP, enough for another Sniper Rifle shot! Let the headshots rain! Reign? Rain! With this change, the extra +Crit % bonus has been swapped out into Skullshot's upgrade tree.
 
[h2]Hacker's Packet Loss[/h2]
Hacker's Packet Loss was previously refreshing disabled device durations which did not match how everyone was hoping and wanting to use it. Now it will add directly to disabled device durations, allowing you to keep high priority devices offline longer by hammering them with the Talent.


[h2]Matrix AP Fixed[/h2]
If you were hitting issues were you were getting 0 AP after Disconnecting from a Matrix host, these are now fixed. When you connect, or your turn starts already connected, you get your real world AP x 10 + Matrix AP boosted in. Once you've disconnected, you'll get a maximum of your real world (AP - 1) or your (Matrix AP / 10) whichever is lower. So - you're charged for the Matrix at maximum 1 AP or whatever you use while hacking.

[h2]Class Tree Fixes[/h2]
We worked our way through about 20 F10s about broken things in the class tree for this update - here are the fixes. Hacker's Spoof now has its upgrades showing. The Knight Stopgap upgrades have been adjusted and the +/- Evasion issue is fixed. We've removed the nonsensical multi-Turn armor buff for Cybersword's Shielded Rush and instead extended its reach another +1 AP.

We've also rolled out the last 10 icon fixes for the class trees :hype:! That was 111 new icons, quite the grind.

[h2]Salvage Breakout Fixes[/h2]
We've made the description of Stage 1A and 1B more clear in regards to how direct the path is with or without a hacker. We've also fixed some odd navigation along one of the fence lines that was the source of quite a few F10s.
 
[h2]v1.0.39 - 11/6/2023[/h2]
- Fixed economics of Cold Storage - if you see a price listed, that is sell price (+/- Contact specific Traits and relationship)
- Improved Sniper build options and fun of play - Skullshot, Zeroed Sights and Weak Spot no longer require being on Hit Streak
- Upgraded Sniper's Skullshot to +3 AP for killing shot, moved +25% Crit bonus into upgrades
- Upgraded Hacker's Packet Loss to work better and just extend disabled duration for already disabled devices
- Added and updated last 10 Talent icons
- Fixed issue with Stress / Edge meter always showing the same negative/positive value
- Fixed bug with AP being set to 0 on disconnect from Matrix incorrectly
- Improved description of 2 starting stages in Salvage Breakout and how they relate to take a hacker or not
- Improved some navigation issues in Salvage Breakout stage 1 around the barrier near hoverpad
- Fixed missing upgrades for Hacker's Spoof Talent in class tree
- Fixed Knight class tree issues with Stopgap upgrades
- Fixed 5th upgrade node of Cybersword's Shielded Rush

Update #12 is back to smashing the hottest list of F10s from the player base. Thanks to everyone for submitting everything - bugs, feedback, suggestions and awesome ideas. Thanks for the great posts to the forum as well. This is Early Access, and we aim to improve - so let's do it together.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements to the game, please tell a friend and leave a review!

[h2]Forward Op Fixes[/h2]
We've fixed a number of minor issues with the Forward Ops mission. Thanks for all the F10s! The camera that was hiding its range is now resolved as well as the issue with the inability to throw grenades out of the starting zone. We've heard so much good feedback about this mission, it's exciting to see it has hit the right nerve as the first starting mission offered in the safehouse.

[h2]Missions Without Knight[/h2]
During the design and alpha phases, we built for 50% of missions not requiring the Knight. From a story perspective, a benched or Injured Knight can use their powerful quantum countermeasures from nearby the heist and not specifically need to be on the ground.

We're returning to this goal as we build out additional content - and especially proc-gen mission content. We've adjusted the FORWARD OP mission to not require the Knight and the DEAD DROP HIT could already be run without the Knight. In the case that you want to protect your Knight from risk or you're already injured, this design commitment will help you have more options.


[h2]X Marks the Spot[/h2]
For Talents like Lure that target a specific spot on the ground, we now draw an X on the in-world geometry that will be targeted. This can be helpful just to be clear where the target is and also help indicate when the target will be on higher ground or not where you might expect it sometimes.


[h2]Hacker AP Gains[/h2]
In some cases, with plugging into the matrix, the Hacker could gain AP. This bug and minor exploit is now resolved and hacking will cost at least 1 AP on top of any AP spent inside the Matrix.

[h2]Mission Difficulty Tags[/h2]
There has been some incorrect mission difficulty tags showing in mission planning for a while. The difficulty shown (Moderate, Hard, Impossible!) was not actually being calculated by based on (because, this obviously makes sense) the date the mission was created. :facepalm: Until we can make some more realistic calculations, we've hidden these tags and you can look at the mission map to see its stage count and read its details to make your own call.


[h2]Hair Coloring[/h2]
We've resolved all of the issues with hair styles that were ignoring being recolored. In some cases, this has resulted in the ability to apply 2 colors, like for the mohawk. We've also fixed over 40 issues with minor cosmetic overlaps, heads poking through hats, and glasses being oddly positioned on some faces. There is more to do but we've made a huge dent in the set of minor issues and resolved everything directly reported through F10 in this set.

[h2]v1.0.37 - 11/4/2023[/h2]
- Fixed issue with sight lines and throwing grenades in starting area of "Forward Op" mission
- Fixed potential issue with Hacker's gaining AP from hacking
- Added targeting "x" to the center of Talents like Lure
- Removed incorrect difficulty tag shown with each mission (often stating "Impossible!")
- Removed requirement to take Knight along on the Forward Op
- Fixed all hairstyles that would not allow color adjustment
- Fixed 40+ minor clipping and position issues with cosmetic options
- Fixed confusing dialog about paying loan payments if Forward Op is added later in timeline
- Fixed broken camera in Forward Op over the lootbox on the platforms
- Fixed lighting issues with lootboxes in different levels

Update #11 follows in the footsteps of Update #8 to add another new mission to the game. We've heard a lot and observed from players that the Cube Run was not the best or smoothest "first mission" after the Aug-Clinic Rooftop, and so today we've remedied that by dropping Forward Op mission as its replacement. We've also added an exciting new Vanguard Talent "Refract" which lets the Vanguard help the team with stealth and injected clear rules about Glancing Hits into all of the weapon details in equipment and marketplace.

If you like the pace of new content, updates and more, please consider leaving a review and sharing the game with a friend!


[h2]New Mission: Forward Op[/h2]
We've added the Forward Op mission, a single stage raid with good variation each time it is played as the starting mission suggested as a good way to make a quick profit. It's a great mission with a lot of options about how to get your loot and get out before things get too hot.

We heard from players in Discord, on the forums and through F10s that the previous starting mission, Cube Run, was a big lift in difficulty to throw out as the second mission of the game, and we could also see that a large number of players were landing in the safehouse and immediately jumping right into Cube Run without much further prep. Our analysis matches -- Cube Run is a 2 stage mission with hard difficulty and more pressure on your team to keep it together for an extended heist.

[h2]Will my veteran team be able to play new content?[/h2]
Good question - because we're going to be adding a lot of new content. Our commitment is to, whenever possible, say "yes." In this case, we've swapped in a new mission, "Forward Op" for the first mission you're offered in the safehouse. It would be easy to say this content is new game only, but we are dedicated to making all new content available to veteran teams. So, in this case, they story system will introduce Forward Op to veteran groups as a regular story opportunity later when they are playing forward on the timeline.

So - new team or old team, you get both Cube Run and Forward Op. Good luck!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Vanguard's New Trick: Refract[/h2]
The Vanguard's newly added Talent is Refract which projects an 8 meter long illusion, hiding the Vanguard and their team's movement to anyone on the other side of the wall. The Refract projection prevents sight - and therefore attacks - but does not prevent movement. A patrolling or charging guard will pass right through the illusion and then be able to see to the far side.

Refract gives the Vanguard new options to assist the team with stealthy operations, plugging gaps, letting them slip through enemy patrol lines and more. It's very versatile and we hope you enjoying figuring out how to make fools out of the enemy patrols using it!

This cool new capability will rely on the cybernetic Holo-Pro in the future but for now is available to all Vanguards.


[h2]Glancing Hit Rules[/h2]
Glancing Hits can occur when you fail your main Accuracy roll (you would miss!) but your Accuracy to hit your target is above a certain threshold. For most weapons, this threshold is 80% - so once you reach the 80% to hit mark, you're guaranteed to get a hit and do some damage. So, Glancing Hits ensure you are going to get some damage out of reliable attacks, based on the regular Accuracy and their special rules.

Melee weapons are guaranteed to get a Glancing Hit with every attack. If you get that up-close-and-personal, you never get a full miss. However, the damage is highly dependent on your starting Accuracy, so first you would like to get a real hit, and if you end up with a Glancing Hit you're going to do more damage if your starting Accuracy was 80% versus 50%.

Burst Fire weapons -- AR, UA and SMGs -- all have the Precise Burst Rule lowers their Glancing Hit threshold to 60%. These types of weapons have good insurance if they can lock onto a target and let out rapid burst, they're going to tag the target at least a bit. The Precise Burst rule only applies when using the Burst Fire firing mode, so switching up to Full Auto returns to the 80% threshold.

All of this is now explained in game on the weapon's screens -- enjoy!
 
[h2]Tag and Headshot Fixes[/h2]
We are working retroactively to fix some story bugs. Early games in Early Access were created without the correct Sibling Tag for Emille and her brother. Our commitment is to never lose a saved game, so we're starting a process of "healing" these games now and will continue to add more "heal checks" for other types of issues we find. Now, if you return to the safehouse with one of these teams, Emille will have the correct Sibling tag for Marcus.

We also made some rules that exempted headshots from texture downgrading so that character headshots in all parts of the game are as clean and crisp as possible regardless of your quality and texture settings.

[h2]v1.0.35 - 11/2/2023[/h2]
- Added new mission "Forward Op" to replace "Cube Run" as the post-rooftop mission
- Cube Run joins the regular pool of stories to be selected by proc-gen as you play forward
- New mission "Forward Op" available to veteran groups, it will appear on your timeline if you play forward
- Added Vanguard new Talent Refract can be used to create illusory wall blocking enemy sight for short time (but not movement)
- Added Glancing Hit special rules for every weapon type to the equipment screens
- Fixed Emille not having canonically correct Sibling tag for Marcus in all games upon return to Safehouse
- Improved rendering of character and enemy headshots throughout game on all quality settings

Update #10 rolls out a set of big quality of life improvements, level polishing and more UI hovers after an exciting weekend of new content. We're hard at work on the next mission to drop, but for the moment we've got a bevy of fixes driven by your F10s and requests on the Steam boards.

If you're enjoying the pace of development and improvement in the game, please remember to share the game and leave a review.


[h2]Icon Update[/h2]
We're nearly done with a full icon update across all of the classes and Talent trees, getting all of the Talents up to the new consistent and sharper style. This drop is especially helpful as it wipes out most of the places were a duplicate icon was being used that could leave some confusion. We're one update away from wrapping up this project of re-icon-ifying!

[h2]Level and Mission Fixes[/h2]
We've improved the Blue Door situation in Salvage Breakout so that it is bi-directional in the second levle, giving you even more options on how to proceed through the mission. We've fixed an area of Carnivore that was oddly unpassable and really tripping up some of your enemies as well.

[h2]Hiding Hacker Recruit[/h2]
If you went through the Salvage Breakout mission, there are some paths that could lead to the Hacker being on your team but then disappearing when they went on their first mission. If you finished that mission they would have re-appeared but we've provided a fix for this in Update #10. First - all future games that take these story choices will not have a disappearing hacker and second - if you get your team back to the Safehouse, the hacker's character record will be fixed.


[h2]Hover Drop[/h2]
We've added useful hovers to all stat entries for Weapons, Weapon Mods and Armor. These describe the rules of each stat in detail and should be helpful in helping you make informed decisions about your equipment to carry.

[h2]v1.0.33 - 10/31/2023[/h2]
- Added and updated 30 Talent icons to consistent style
- Fixed issues with story recruit from Salvage Breakout might not appear on next mission - restore to safehouse to fix
- Fixed Marker Sights and other Talent's Crit Vulnerability not being shown in accuracy/crit % breakdown top right
- Improved Salvage Breakout Level 2: Blue Door is now bi-directional
- Improved Weapon, Weapon Mod and Armor equipment/market screens - better labels, value formatting and added rule explanation hovers to all stats
- Fixed issue at end of Carnivore where corrupt cop does not appear in contact list
- Fixed impassible area in Carnivore far balcony
- Restored missing Tag titles in Legwork ("Tag.Name.109" etc)
- Fixed typos, thanks for F10s